Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 869: Landing

Having cleansed the compartment of any hints of his outburst, Zac made his way toward the cargo hold. By this point, more than half the cultivators had already arrived, and they wore a mix of somber and excited expressions. Vai was already there, and she scurried over to his side when she saw Zac emerge from one of the hallways. “I heard something happened, are you alright?” Vai asked with worry in her eyes.

“Nothing to worry about,” Zac smiled. “Just a little mishap, but I’m all better now.”

“Just stay close to me after we disembark,” she said with a low volume. “I can somewhat stabilize space around us until you’re recovered.”

“Thank you,” Zac nodded. “I’ll rely on you then.”

It wasn’t really necessary, but why turn down a kind gesture?

The minutes passed until the cargo hold was almost filled to capacity. Between support staff, re

A despairing scream echoed out within the clouds the next moment, proving it was easier said than done to get through this second gauntlet. Zac sighed. With his track record, he should have figured out that things wouldn't go smoothly, but this was beyond what even he could have expected.

A convergence was when two Mystic Realms became superimposed. Normally, things like this didn’t happen inside Mystic Realms as they were spatially protected bubbles hidden in the void. But with thousands of Mystic Realms stacked on top of each other, things apparently got messy, especially at the edges of the realms.

This time around, it looked they were unlucky, where their destination realm had superimposed with another one – one filled with aggressive birds, by the looks of it. Honestly, the loss of the Cosmic Vessel and the convergence were most likely related. Too much Spatial Energy had built up in this area, resulting in both the spatially infused solar flare and the convergence.

Thankfully, Zac could tell the beast that had attacked him was one of the weaker Beast Kings, and it shouldn’t be a problem to keep it at bay. However, just as a huge beak ripped the clouds apart on its way to peck Zac to death, the whole beast suddenly rippled and disappeared.

Zac breathed out in relief as he turned to Vai who had once more entered her turtle stance with a small barrier protecting her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m ok- AAH TO THE LEFT,” she shrieked, but Zac was already on the move.

Just as one beast disappeared in a puff of spatial confusion, another one had taken its place. Now, a weird-looking and almost completely translucent floating eel were swimming toward them, leaving ripples in its wake. Zac growled as a shimmering axe appeared inside a halo behind him.

Zac swung his axe, and a ruthless wave infused with his Branch of the War Axe parted the clouds, almost cutting the eel in two. It didn’t die, but it was grievously wounded, and immediately turned tail and disappeared among the clouds.

It was [Conformation of Supremacy], a skill that Zac had somewhat phased out of his repertoire as of late since it wasn't a great fit with his stances. But now that he couldn't use his Branch of the Kalpataru, it had found some use again, and he was thankful he had the foresight to push the skill to Late Proficiency during his stay in the Orom World.

The upgrade hadn’t added any new abilities to the skill, but it had increased its power and reach noticeably. And with a Dao Branch fueling the image of the Heavenfall Autarch’s unadorned axe, its strikes weren’t anything to scoff at. It wasn’t nearly as good at dealing with crowds as the explosion of blades [Nature’s Edge] could release, but its lethality was close to half of [Rapturous Divide]’s while still being a repeatable attack.

The bird and the eel were dealt with, but Zac didn’t release the avatar of the axe behind him as he looked around for new targets. Screams and roars filled the air, and with visibility being almost zero, the mental pressure was extreme. He even sensed auras that were well into Hegemony for a few short moments, but it looked like the more terrifying the beast, the shorter their visit to this layer was.

Even then, it felt like a terrifying Beast King could appear and strike at them at any moment, and Zac’s Danger Sense could only predict so much. It could warn him when a beast was close or trying to attack, but it didn’t warn him when a beast was about to phase into their dimension.

Over a minute passed as Zac fought off one beast after another while Vai tried to help by spotting spatial fluctuations around them. Finally, the shimmering haze around them was replaced by a burst of light as they pushed through the clouds. Below, they saw the first-string cultivators descending toward a seemingly endless field thousands of meters below.

They looked like little meteors, surrounded by those blue scripts that kept them locked to this current dimension until they reached the surface. Teo was still maintaining the lead, but the other captains were nowhere to be seen. Judging by the outbursts he had sensed within the clouds, he guessed they were trying to save as many people as possible within the convergence.

There were thousands of beasts gliding through the air, but Zac could sense that almost all of them were just E-grade. With the bloody aura of almost a hundred Half-Step cultivators and above, the flying beasts native to this dimension kept a wide berth around them.

Another three minutes passed as the ground grew ever closer, and Zac felt like his sense of perception had been all wrong. What had looked like fields of spiritual herbs was actually a jungle of massive proportions where each plant was either hundreds of meters tall or commanded an area of a whole village.

“So big,” Zac muttered.

“It’s the arrays,” Vai explained from the side with a hoarse voice, finally having unfurled from her ball. “This whole realm has been modified for hundreds of thousands of years, and there are growth and gathering arrays installed deep into the ground. But without Array Masters, Arborists, and harvesters to maintain the realm, it has grown out of control.”

“They are big, but they’re worthless,” Vai sighed. “They are the equivalent of a cultivator whose levels are completely propped up by pills – full of toxicity and bereft of potential.”

“That’s a shame,” Zac muttered before he looked at the researcher. "Some start, huh?"

"Thank you for saving my life," Vai said as she looked crestfallen. "I can't believe we ran into trouble so quickly. The Void Star must be more unstable than we expected for it to suddenly release spatial flares like that. What about the rest of the journey?"

"Well, this realm looks like we expected at least, right? We might be safe now that we're properly inside the Mystic Realms," Zac said, but he honestly shared Vai's worries.

From the looks of it, the problems with the Void Star had suddenly ramped up beyond what the Void Gate had expected, and he couldn't help but wonder if it was related to him and the vision he saw. And if that was the case, would he keep attracting trouble for himself and those around him?

But Zac perked up as he saw energy gathering around Teo, and he pushed those troublesome questions to the back of his mind. “Ready yourself. We’re about to land. I'm sure the captain knows what to do.”