Death… And Me

Chapter 4551: True Colors

The pillar at the center of the Sect still retained its ability to extract souls, just like any of the smaller pillars scattered around the city. Tany and Azerion investigated the base of the pillar underground, asking whether there were any records concerning this place and its original purpose.

The Rosvelt Sect allowed them to access records that couldn’t implicate the Sect in any way, pretty much similar to how the Thousand-Script Sect had allowed Thery’s group to examine certain information. As long as the records didn’t contain anything that could threaten Rosvelt’s interests, there was little reason for them to hide them.

That’s how they found out that the place where the pillar’s base was located was called the Woster Guarding Grounds.

At that moment, the first truth came out of Azerion’s explanation. This place was called the City Prison of Woster for a reason. It was indeed a prison. The many, many vaults spread throughout Woster, whether they were inside or outside the city, weren’t simply vaults. They were incarceration cells. Cultivators had been locked inside them back when the Prison was still operating as it had originally been intended.

As for the Teleport Arrays always found inside them, they were literally how the prisoners were moved into their cells. There were very few vaults that had been used for other purposes, like the one the twins’ group had teleported into. Still, even those could play the role of cells.

The vast majority, however, were truly just that.

Cells.

Rean couldn’t help but nod in understanding. ’I heard there are tens of thousands of these vaults here, and that there are definitely many more, especially outside the city, that haven’t even been found yet.’

’Exactly,’ Azerion confirmed. ’Anyway, keep listening.’

The Woster Guarding Grounds and the few ancient ruins on the surface, which were now part of the Rosvelt Sect, were actually where the wardens of Woster had stayed most of the time. The people stationed there were responsible for overseeing the Prison and, naturally, making sure the prisoners remained where they were supposed to be.

Even more impressive, Azerion told Rean that what initially fed the isolation arrays of Woster were the prisoners themselves.

Rean and Roan only needed to hear that once to understand how things had worked.

When they arrived in Woster, three cultivators had attacked the vault where they appeared. If they attacked again, the vault would collapse.

That’s why the idea that the vaults were the jails had never crossed the twins’ group’s minds. The structures were simply too fragile. A proper prison capable of containing cultivators should have been much more durable.

Now, however, it made sense. It wasn’t that the cells were too weak. The prisoners simply wouldn’t have the strength to break them to begin with.

Since the incarceration cells drained the energy of their prisoners, the prisoners themselves were helpless to do anything against the cells. It didn’t matter if the structures weren’t particularly strong. Those inside had strength not much higher than that of simple mortals because of the continuous drainage.

In other words, the cells didn’t need to overpower their prisoners. The cells simply needed to prevent those prisoners from recovering enough energy to fight back.

Yet, things didn’t continue like that forever. The pillars were already being used to control that energy, which kept Woster isolated from the outside world. However, at some point, the records mentioned a new source of energy that no longer relied on the prisoners.

What else could it be if not the Goslau Great Void’s Echo? The very same thing Azerion called the Power of the World. Above all, the Womb was what created that connection to the Great Void, and it was still doing so to this day.

’I see...’ Rean nodded. To be honest, the twins had long since noticed that Woster’s isolation happened because of the Great Void Echo. Still, it was good to finally understand how things had developed to this point and why the Prison’s isolation had originally been maintained through such a strange method.

Rean noticed something else, though. Could it be that the Womb was also from the Goslau Great Void? If that were the case, then Luxa might also be from there, right?

Well, Thery had already said he didn’t know what kind of Race Luxa belonged to, and he was from Goslau, so there was still no way to confirm it. Even so, the possibility was certainly worth keeping in mind.

With that part revealed, Azerion proceeded to the point in the story when the Prison became what it was today. ’From the looks of it, some huge event happened in the outside world, so all the guards and relevant personnel left Woster.’

That was something the twins’ group had heard about as well, although they had learned about it from the outside. The various regions didn’t know exactly what had happened, but those ancient ruins existed in many different places.

Besgol and the other regions had even sent expeditions to find such Ruins for the sake of harvesting the ancient runes and inscriptions that were still functional.

Everyone knew that something enormous had happened in the distant past, something that led to the demise of the various populations that had once inhabited those ruins. The main theory among the outside regions was that some kind of war had taken place. After all, many of those ruins showed clear signs that enormous battles had occurred there.

’Does that mean the prisoners were abandoned?’ Rean couldn’t help but ask.

’That they did,’ Azerion confirmed. ’These same prisoners are literally the ancestors of all the living beings in Woster at the moment. Well, they had countless years to reproduce anyway... and I’m one of these offspring.’

’Now, about how it led to my actual situation...’

These were all events that Tany and Azerion had discovered through the old records in the Rosvelt Sect. They were indeed enlightening, but they didn’t really cause any trouble for the Sect, even if the two of them read about them.

That’s why Azerion and Tany could examine those records without any issues.

The problem happened in the second year after their investigation started. Everything they discovered led them to believe that the pillar was behind Woster’s isolation. Rosvelt knew about the Womb in that sealed space, yet they had never been able to access it.

One of their hopes was that Azerion and Tany would somehow figure out how to reach it, even though neither of them knew anything about the ancient runes and inscriptions well enough to understand their true purpose.

There was only one way they could think of to try to reach that sealed space, and that was through the pillar. At least, that’s what Azerion and Tany believed. So they came up with a plan.

Azerion would leave his soul unprotected, in a way that allowed Tany to cause great harm to him and even kill him if she wished. However, that also meant she could intervene when the pillar attempted to extract his soul.

They trained extensively for it.

Tany’s part was to pull Azerion’s soul while Azerion touched the pillar.

With the pillar pulling from one side and Tany pulling from the other, they intended to keep Azerion’s soul in a stalemate. While that happened, Azerion would be able to ascertain whether there was a way to use that pull to open the sealed space where the Womb was found.

Rean could already see where Azerion was going with this. Protect the soul, use the pillar’s pull to find a way into the sealed space, and somehow cut its connection with Woster. If they succeeded, that would ultimately disable the ancient array surrounding Woster and could potentially set everyone free.

It was an extremely dangerous plan, of course.

’And she let you do such a dangerous thing?’ Rean couldn’t help but ask.

’She complained,’ Azerion said. ’But I insisted. If I didn’t do it, she would definitely do it herself. I couldn’t let her do it.’

’You sure trusted each other a lot...’ Rean said.

’Hmph!’ Azerion snorted in response. ’That was the greatest mistake of my life. Everything we had together... was nothing but a farce.’

Rean’s expression became more serious.

Azerion’s tone had changed.

Until now, he had spoken about Tany with a mixture of caution, nostalgia, and occasional annoyance. But there was something completely different in his voice now. ’It was at the time when we tried this method in the Goodbye World Pillar that I found out her true colors.’