Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 1463: Perception Decides Reality

Zac appeared on a grassy hill on the outskirts of a farming village, or at least in a faded memory of one. All the colors were washed out and hollow, lacking the depth a physical object should have. It looked like a failing illusion, yet the details were exquisitely precise. Every single blade of grass was perfectly replicated, as was the rest of the world.

There was a decent-sized lake to his left, with a dozen boats bobbing on its surface. On the other side of the hill was farmland growing unfamiliar crops. The plants barely qualified as spiritual plants, at most reaching the level of Low F-grade. Further in the distance stood the village. At most, it housed two thousand citizens, and that was if you included the farms nestled among the fields.

The town had a small wooden wall but no defensive arrays, as far as Zac could tell. The subpar crops and the lacking defenses were surprising, considering that the spirituality of the area was actually quite decent. It was almost at the level of Earth before Zac left for the Imperial Graveyard.

The spirituality indicated he hadn't appeared near Greenworth Trade Street and the Whitfall Forest, where he spent eight decades. That place was so bereft of Cosmic Energy that Late F-grade cultivators could act as local tyrants, and E-grade cultivators were provincial overlords.

While disappointed that he wouldn't get the chance to see his old haunt one last time, Zac had bigger fish to fry. He couldn't feel any forces of repulsion on him yet, but the shimmering film of spatial starlight was the only thing that kept him anchored in this reality. Every second, a few motes faded. The moment it failed entirely, Zac would be ejected from the timeline.

"What happened to you?" Zac sighed after turning his focus to Janos.

The mentalist was floating a meter in the air at the top of the hill, and his condition was anything but normal. He was in obvious agony, wrapped in streaks of ethereal lightning and surrounded by swirls of frigid winds. He was also trapped in an illusory state just like the rural landscape around them. That suddenly changed just when Zac made the connection.

Janos grew tangible. Colors filled in, and his near-translucent state became properly corporeal. The transformation continued outward with the mentalist at its center. The world became real, and a gamut of sounds filled Zac's ears. People appeared among the fields, and fishermen manning nets appeared on the previously unmanned ships on the lake.

The state only lasted a few seconds before it all faded again, like a balloon leaking air. Zac frowned at the scene, knowing that his plan to snatch Janos and get the hell out had hit a snag. For one, the mentalist had become fused with his surroundings. Zac didn't need any karmic sight to see that man and land had become one.

There was no telling what would happen if Janos was forcibly removed while in this state. It could very well damage or destroy his soul. Furthermore, there was a problem with his aura. Only when Janos was in an intangible state did he emit the frequency of their true timeline. When he was real, his frequency shifted to match the false timeline they occupied. It was like his poles had been inverted.

If he were brought out like this, would Janos face the same rejection as Zac when he entered this realm?

"Can you hear me? I'm here to bring you out," Zac said. "How can I help you?"

"No... leave... I stay with Um'ha," Janos groaned as he arduously opened his eyes.

"Stay? That's impossible. You need to remember. You're in a false timeline of the Peregrine Ocean," Zac urged.

"I know. I've stepped into the dream, become one with it," Janos said.

"Why would you do that?" Zac said with exasperation, feeling Janos was causing trouble for no good reason.

"It's the only way... Bringing her out of the dream on my own was too difficult. I need to borrow the Omnipresence Chamber's power," Janos said in a hoarse voice. "I made a deal with Grand Dream... But I need your help."

"I am trying to help you. This isn't your world!" Zac reiterated with mounting urgency.

"It will be, if you accept me," Janos said. His gaze turned to the hamlet in the distance, and he immediately resolidified as his expression gained an unbreakable determination. "If you accept us."

Zac frowned at the manic gleam in the demon's eyes, and a theory started to take shape. Janos had stepped onto a gondola and presumably entered another world. He should have experienced a similar trial as himself, where he'd spent a lifetime in the small town behind him.

Inside, he'd found love with this Um'ha. Ultimately, he was unable to sever those bonds, leaving him in this pitiful state. This was part of the reason Zac had staunchly rejected Helisent's attempts at matchmaking all those years. It was hard enough to let go of familiar bonds; to do so with a lover would be even harder.

The reason he ended up here could only be through the intervention of Grand Dream. The Supremacy only existed through Janos' intervention in that academy, so he must have manipulated events to give Janos a lifeline. If he hadn't been moved to Zac's personal timeline, then Janos would have been lost forever in the Peregrine Ocean.

The world went through another revolution of real and false, and Zac suddenly realized a problem with his theory. There was something more to it. Why did this world perfectly match the timeline frequencies of Janos? If this region was the location where Janos went through the Peregrine Ocean's trial, it should emit the frequency of whatever timeline Janos entered. Instead, the hamlet only oscillated between the true timeline and Zac's alternate timeline.

Then it hit him. The demon had spent years trapped inside an illusion within the Ensolus Ruins, eventually emerging with a Realmsinger of Ultom Seal. Since then, the already reticent mentalist had further retreated into his mind, to the point where he appeared more invested in his illusions than in reality.

He'd also showcased some troubling idiosyncrasies inside the Transformation Docks. He'd called himself Anson, briefly taking on another personality. Could this little patch of paradise be the illusion where he spent those years? If so, Janos' situation wasn't the result of a failure but rather a mad plan. Grand Dream would still have to be involved for the illusion to appear here, but his objectives had become murkier.

If Janos' goal was to make this city and its inhabitants real, how would transmigrating to Zac's timeline achieve that? Wouldn't he have a better chance of success if he placed it inside the Mercurial Court rather than in a hypothetical timeline?

Zac had a feeling that figuring out the details would shed light on the unexpected ramifications that Esmeralda warned of. Considering Janos' condition, messing with causality this way also came at a very steep price. Zac could feel Heaven's presence in the ethereal lightning bolts.

"What do you need me to do?" Zac asked.

"Perception... you... decide reality," Janos groaned before losing control again. The Tribulation Lightning crackled, and he returned to an illusory state. As he did, Zac could tell that Janos lost something essential, possibly forever.

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"Perception decides reality?" Zac repeated with a thoughtful expression.

This world, in a sense, was his. He was the only person from the real timeline to have lived inside. He'd left his mark, so to speak, and he was the one who carried its essence in his heart. Could the essence work like a Supremacy's authority when it came to this timeline? He might not be able to rewrite its natural laws, but authorizing Janos and a small parcel of land might be within the realm of possibility.

Zac floated up to face Janos, who had closed his eyes in agony after squeezing out his message. Zac gingerly reached out his hand, stopping just short of touching the mentalist. His Danger Sense had come online, warning him that assisting Janos wasn't simply a matter of making a wish. Ethereal lightning flashed, and Zac's mind was thrown into disarray.

If he could do it was one thing; whether he should was another. Should he really be going along with Janos' mad plan?

If Zac helped Janos adapt to this timeline's frequency, then Janos would be no different from the natives of this false reality. He would become a citizen trapped in the terrifying machine that the Limitless Empire had wrought, and not even in the main part of it. There was no guarantee that Janos would be able to live out his life in this pastoral dreamscape. He could just as easily end up lost in an unstable loop until the false timeline disintegrated.

Not to mention, doing this would not just implicate Janos. Few things in this world were free. Realigning Janos would likely exhaust the timeline essence Zac safeguarded in the depths of his heart. Beyond its sentimental significance, the past weeks had shown him just how effective it was at nurturing his Dao Heart.

With his current plan for Monarchy centered around [Void Emperor Apotheosis] and nurturing his three pillars, wasting exceedingly rare Heart-strengthening essence was something he could ill afford. Maybe the right thing to do, for both of them, was to drag Janos out of this delusion. Even if the Mentalist resented him for it, he would at least be alive.

Just as the storm in Zac's mind was about to reach a crescendo, the voices suddenly calmed. Janos was looking right into his eyes, and the ethereal light from the unusual lightning faded. As the storm calmed, so did his heart.

"If I do this, there's no turning back. If the empire's plan fails, you'll probably die," Zac said.

"A small price to pay to see her again," Janos said while squeezing out a smile. While there was pain and utter, bone-tearing exhaustion, there was no regret and no hesitation in his eyes. No matter the outcome, even if he died here today, Janos wouldn't regret taking this gamble.

Zac exhaled and placed his hand against Janos's chest. No matter what, Janos was one of his earliest followers, and he'd tirelessly worked for the betterment of Port Atwood since its founding. He'd also saved Zac a whole lot of trouble at the Transformation Docks. In some sense, he was even the reason that Zac had all those precious memories of Beene Peck and his daughter.

The heart wants what the heart wants, and Janos's wish was clear. How could Zac not extend a helping hand? Who was he to say what was real and what was delusion? The essence was precious, but it would become useless if it was tarnished by turning his back on a companion. Who knew? With the timeline directly connected to Mercurial Court, he might be able to pull both Janos and his wife out of this place.

A mysterious force poured out of Zac's chest without prompting, and Janos immediately grew tangible. His aura began fluctuating as the frequencies of two timelines merged into one. It didn't stop with Janos. A pulse of anointment swept outward, covering fields and lakes in the blink of an eye. Soon enough, the whole parcel of illusory land was fully grafted onto the world, and it no longer showed any sign of fading away.

Zac suppressed the pang of regret upon sensing that he'd just spent half his timeline essence. Not only that, but Zac could tell that the checks had yet to be balanced. A familiar rumble accompanied Zac's skyrocketing Danger Sense as the sky grew overcast. Heaven's vast presence had locked onto this location in earnest, and Zac was right in its crosshairs. By putting his finger on the scale and cementing the outcome, he'd been dragged into the mess.

For better or worse, this tribulation differed from those Zac had come to accept as the price of his unorthodox cultivation path. The clouds lacked the utter darkness that could suffocate all light, and the barely discernible arcs of lightning didn't show a hint of angry red or terrifying black. They remained ethereal, just like the ones binding Janos' body.

As far as Zac could tell, this was a Heart Tribulation, something he had only faced once before. It was back during his breakthrough to E-grade, where he had to confront a suppressed trauma from childhood and the truth of his existence. It was a basic test to confirm that he had the mental fortitude to pursue the Dao.

The mental tribulation contained inside the clouds was obviously orders of magnitude more dangerous. If he failed to withstand it, he wouldn't suffer from having his flesh torn and viscera incinerated. He would find himself saddled with Heart Demons, which were significantly more troublesome to deal with.

There was no time to prepare. A chill licked his neck, and then he no longer stood atop the hill. Zac looked down, finding an electronic pen in unfamiliar hands. There were no scars, no calluses from countless battles. These were soft hands that had been spared the harsh realities of the world, free from suffering and bloodshed.

No, they were his. Why would he think otherwise?

Zac shook his head to clear his thoughts, the memories of a fantastical dream fading as he turned his attention to the pad on the table. His body must have reached its limits after weeks of overtime. To think that he, for a moment, believed himself a space barbarian swinging an axe around. Zac got to his feet, heading for the kitchen to grab a glass of water.

He stopped in the hallway, a frown adorning his face as he faced a picture hung on the wall. It depicted... something. A musician? An actor? Zac couldn't recall, and the subject's face had been blurred into unrecognizability. Even the text at the bottom of the artwork had twisted into an illegible script. The confusion was gone, and clarity returned to his eyes.

"It's already faded to this point," Zac sighed as the world shattered.

It was too sad. He couldn't properly remember what his apartment looked like before the integration, to the point that the comforting scene felt utterly foreign to him. Breaking free had almost been effortless, and Zac felt his heart had cleared up a bit after dispersing the chill. Thankfully, the tribulation hadn't destroyed Esmeralda's camouflage either, so he wouldn't get thrown out just yet.

Still, the Heavens were far from done, and Zac wasn't the only target. While Janos was spared punishment beyond what he'd already endured, the land itself had become the target of Heaven's wrath. A blade of translucent lightning extended from the clouds above all the way to the fields. The land was fading around the point of impact, as if the tribulation lightning was robbing Janos' world of its future.

Zac gritted his teeth and shot forth, his axe already in hand. He'd come this far, so he may as well go the distance. A jagged blade filled with [Fatehew]'s Soul-severing power appeared at its tip, and his two Warbringer Idols appeared for good measure. Zac unleashed a wide swing that went straight through the lightning, yet it hit nothing.

Not giving up, Zac tried again while urging his Heart. A slight ripple emerged from his chest, and the second strike severed the lightning bolt. Zac groaned and took two shaky steps back as his thoughts spiraled out of control. Clamors of regret and warning filled his mind. Why was he doing this? Why was he being so impulsive? Esmeralda had already warned him.

Was this impulsivity part of the empire's plot? Was Grand Dream manipulating his actions from the shadows? He had to be. If Zac didn't stop now, he would finally find himself trapped in Laondio Evrodok's web. He had so many goals left unfulfilled! He couldn't die here. He needed to—Zac took a steadying breath, quelling the voices through sheer force of will.

By that point, his back was slick with sweat. Suppressing a nascent Heart Demon proved significantly more challenging than overcoming the illusion. Even now, Zac felt it gnawing at his mind. It was only through maintaining his Void State that he could remain focused and detached when a second gust of cold came to whisk his consciousness away.

He was back on Earth with Thea. Decades had passed since they overcame the Integration. Things had long since stabilized on Earth, and they already had two children. Kenzie was there too, and she'd somehow managed to put a leash on Ogras and make him go steady. The Atwood Empire was steadily progressing, readying itself for the upcoming Assimilation. There were no wars, no struggle, only a harmonious pursuit of the Dao with his friends and family.

It was with great reluctance that Zac wrested himself free from the illusion, at which point another bolt appeared nearby. Zac still hadn't fully digested the backlash of the previous swing, and neither [Purity of the Void] nor [Void Heart] were capable of dealing with this kind of threat. Nevertheless, Zac rushed forth, freeing the land from the punishing chain.

A third round came and went, and it was with both anticipation and horror that Zac saw the Heavens gather strength for a fourth bolt. While the pressure was immense, and the Heart Demons were doing their best to tear down the walls of his Void State, his Dao Heart was approaching some form of sublimation.

There was a light waiting at the end of this tunnel.