Read Novel Full Chapter 417: Blanking Out [1]
Chapter 417: Chapter 417: Blanking Out [1]
Chapter 417 – Blanking Out [1]
Inara found herself drowning in a bottomless pit, her barely mended mind wandering, thinking of everything that just happened.
Yet even that was impossible.
Her mind was unable to focus on one single thought, disturbed by the things that woke up as she continued to delve deeper into Echidna’s mind.
Eyes, teeth, and monstrous hideous nails appeared around her. They were numerous, like sand on a beach. Each one of them having a mind of its own, and they all wished the same thing:
Touch and enter the mind of the Heiress.
Inara felt the deep madness of Echidna in every one of them, trying her best to shield her mind.
The conversation she had just had with Echidna slowly began to come back through her consciousness.
She remembered what her master wanted her to do, and what she needed to achieve.
’S-Sublimation...?’ Inara brokenly thought, her mind wondering how she should achieve such a state.
The Mother of Monsters had told her about the Voice of Sublimation that could only be heard when the abyss became your center.
But that was too vague of a description to even be considered a guide. Inara was unable to comprehend anything out of it. Truth to be told, she was not the brightest mind.
’You need to listen, my princess.’
Inara’s mind awoke at the maternal but stern voice of Echidna flooding her mind.
’It’s time for you to learn how to open your ears to hear metaphorically and not concretely.’
’But you have no such time, my princess. You have only 2 days before everything I — we — have worked so hard since that day becomes nothing but dust that History would not care to record.’
Inara bit her lips, her mind sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss of Echidna, listening to her words.
She became aware of the difficulty of her task. But at the same time, Inara became afraid of being unable to go through this.
Her shoulders suddenly became heavy, and her consciousness was unable to keep up with the increasing madness that was hammering her skull.
Yet she knew she had no choice. Choice was lost the day she had accepted to be the Heiress of Echidna.
The day she had chosen to be strong, and shed away the label of weakness, proving herself she was worthy of strength.
It was since that day... that Inara should have known that a time would come when she had to pay the price.
The time had come.
Power always has a price, after all.
Her price was not only death. Her price was the risk of madness and then of consciousness death.
At that realization, Inara finally reached the very bottom of the abyss.
Her body fell on a pile of bones. Instead of them breaking, her back cracked, her spine twisted like spiraling stairs.
Inara choked a sharp cry.
She bounced off the strange rusty-colored bones like a ball, finding herself rolling upon ground filled with blinking eyeballs.
Finally she stopped, lying on her back, her eyes staring at the... sky?
It was no sky.
Instead it was thousands — or even billions — of yellow tentacles, twisting, coiling, and weaving in the air like a living thing in eerie harmony.
Instinctively, Inara knew she had seen something she shouldn’t. Her left eye, Oeil — the only monster that came with her — instinctively activated, using one of her skills.
The skill to enter the dream of monsters.
Inara’s consciousness completely shut down, entering the dream of the cluster of yellow tentacles above.
In the process, Oeil bellowed in warning. She had tried to deactivate her own skill, for she could sense her mother would not survive seeing IT.
Yet it looked like the authority of her own power was snatched away from her, making her utterly helpless.
There was only one thing she could do...
"MOTHER! DON’T LOOK AT IT! DON’T LOOK!!!"
...and it was to shout with all her might, hoping her mother heard her.
But she couldn’t tell if her last action was of any use, as soon Oeil shut down too.
Inara entered then the dream of a being forgotten by most. The root source of Echidna’s abyss.
And so... it began.
...
Simultaneously, in the Royal Mansion of the Celestial Empire, Sora Asterion just stirred up from her bed. She looked like a corpse summoned from the dead despite the holy aura around her.
"Arghh..." Sora moaned, holding her head, feeling a terrible headache on the left side of her skull.
She pushed herself up gingerly, sitting on the bed, her back leaning tiredly against the bark of her golden-colored, gold-adorned bed.
She lifted her head, her eyes sunken with something deeper than lack of sleep.
Golden Voice was wearing the same clothes as the last time she met Aster, The First Celestial.
"It was not a dream." Sora muttered, golden eyes dimmed.
She laughed humorlessly.
"They had said if I become the Empress I will be free. That once that happens, no one would dare to go against me."
It was a fucking lie.
Sora slammed her hand on the bed with searing force, causing the bed to turn into golden ashes instantly.
She fell, her ass bouncing sharply off the ground. Sora didn’t care.
But what she didn’t quite notice in her anger was that her sun power had become stronger. Way stronger.
"It has become worse." Sora continued, curling upon herself, "this is no longer my parents stopping me from my dream. This is no longer my brother being an obstacle. No..."
She huffed, eyes blazing,
"...this is a god wanting to make me his puppet."
Now she was tasked to kill Prometheus, to kill the same man who did so much for her but owed her nothing.
The man who was her muse... her song.
And all of that when everything was going smoothly. When finally she got a glimpse of Kaden after years of drought news, and even got a gift from him.
"I cannot do it." Sora whispered, burying her head into her hands, "I can’t do it. I betrayed him two times already. He forgave me the two. I cannot do it the third time."
But the problem was how would she achieve that?
Aster was a literal god, and the very origin of her bloodline no less. She was completely powerless against him.
And even now, Sora experienced the surge of power her bloodline was giving her. Yet that surge was accompanied by a deeper connection with the First Celestial.
Sora could feel it. If she ever dared to betray Him, she would live a fate worse than death.
At that, Golden Voice whimpered, face flushed red as tears of anger streamed down her cheeks.
She tore open her empress robe, suddenly feeling disdainful and loathful towards her new station.
What was the use of being an Empress, if she was not free to do as she pleased?
At that moment, if she could, Sora would have shredded away the very bloodline of the Celestial binding her.
She cursed again and again and again.
Her hair transmuted into living fire, as she grasped the necklace given by Kaden by instinct, seeking solace.
The effect was immediate. Her heartbeat began to slow down, feeling the presence and comforting warmth of Kaden’s power through the item.
Sora’s closed-tear eyes opened back, looking more deeply at the necklace.
Unconsciously, her lips pulled apart in a tender smile, remembering the day they had killed the moon.
It was a magnificent day. A day that had changed her completely. It was that day she knew that... they were not so invincible.
And even the moon could die. And so could the sun and even the stars and the sky itself.
Sora’s eyes began to harden, focusing more on the necklace. And strangely, the more she focused on it, trying to siphon the warmth of Kaden, the more Sora began to feel something else within.
Something that made the bloodline within her subtly churn, as if recognizing a fellow kin.
Sora paused, her soaked tear-streaked face frowning subtly. Following her instinct, her palm holding the necklace began to brighten lightly, lighting up the necklace with the power of her bloodline.
Her feeling of bizarre connection immediately grew stronger. At that point, Sora seemed to be able to hear something out of the necklace.
A voice. A whisper.
The voice was saying something. But Sora was unable to make sense of it. It sounded like a newborn baby talking.
Now curious, she repeated her action, this time using a higher dose of her bloodline source on the necklace.
The room around was scalding hot, filled with sharp tension.
At her action, it was like her ears had been freed for a moment, allowing her to hear not words...
But intents.
And then Sora Asterion finally heard clearly the word. It was simply...
’Sister?’
Sora’s very existence shook.
—End of Chapter 417—