Chương 1182: 1212 - The Umbral Plane I

Splitting the blackness of space with the darker blackness of a spatial portal, Leon's smaller task force of ancient Thunderbird arks emerged into a world in ruins. Much like the expeditionary force's approach to the Yun Cluster, they had appeared a good distance away from the plane that had become a Souleater's nest, allowing them to approach in a manner of their own choosing. They began preparing emergency jumps just in case and began accelerating toward the plane in a wide formation.

The debris choking the skies over this plane was even more impressive now that Leon could see it with his own eyes, even if only barely. Hundreds of arks had been wrecked in the skies above the plane, and hundreds more had plummeted to the earth. Some of these arks were still large enough to retain some of their shape, but most of the others were fragments smaller than individual compartments.

Leon could occupy the plane and spend a thousand years salvaging this mess, and to get started, his arks were to target some of these larger wrecks. Leon doubted there were any survivors, but if there were any useful salvageable materials or useful tidbits of information about this plane within the debris field, it would be up in those arks. Aside from those arks, the remains of the moon, or so Leon guessed, were just as eye-catching, forming a long ring of asteroids that slowly orbited the plane.

This ring was slowly dissipating as the black sun, shining with its bright gray corona, orbited close by. A quick scan told Leon that thirteen large chunks of the moon were pouring darkness seemingly endlessly upon the plane below.

He was tempted to visit those large moon chunks first to see what he could see, but after some thought and counsel with his followers, including Xaphan, he decided to start with the other most obvious place: the shining iridescent tower behind the shield of light in the center of the plane's only continent. Leon couldn't see any signs of survivors behind the translucent shield, but it was clear from the sheer number of blackened skeletons at the shield's edge that getting inside was worth it to those people.

Other possibilities for those people ending up there occurred to Leon, but he put them out of mind for the moment. The final approach to the debris field came quickly, and his people split into assigned teams. He made his way down to Storm Herald's primary hangar where two dozen Ulta suit pilots and half as many giants had already assembled. Those assembled forces were going to join additional forces from the other three arks to begin salvage operations under Anshu's direction.

Joining them would be Red, giving them some post-Apotheosis confidence. Red hadn't been particularly happy about that, but Leon promised that once the Souleater revealed itself, she could come and join them. While he was looking forward to this hunt, finding out who these people were, how they'd met their end, and not making their mistakes took priority, and that meant his people needed protection. He would lead the smaller team down to the plane's surface.

Joining him would be Clear, Anzu, Marcus, Daryun, and Zhang. Daryun was ninth-tier, Clear was eleventh, and the rest were tenth. If they encountered the Souleater, they could put up quite the vicious fight, and if the others did before them, they would be able to move quickly enough to join them in the Void.

"Prepare for Void exposure," an officer on the deck shouted, his voice magically carrying to every ear in the hangar. All those who were vulnerable to such things immediately went to their Ulta suits or left the hangar. In Leon's team, only Leon himself and Clear were immune to the ravages of the Void. Leon readied his Ulta suit, and so did Marcus, while Anzu, Daryun, and Zhang stood close to Clear, who conjured a powerful shield of light to keep them safe.

Minutes later, the hangar doors opened, a thin light barrier keeping the atmosphere within. The salvage team immediately departed, led by Red in her wyvern form flying through the Void as easily as she did through the air, Leon's team following moments later. As their tail feathers cleared the light barrier, the hangar doors quickly closed, and Storm Herald took a defensive posture, her eyes bright and wary for any sign of a dangerous shadowy monster appearing from anywhere around her.

Confident that his people were safe and cautious, Leon led his team in a steep dive, passing the shattered hulks of dozens of arks. Panels and small sections of hull sparkled in the gray light of the black sun, hinting at what the arks looked like before their ruin—sleek machines of gleaming silver with a focus on aesthetics that Leon's arksmiths generally avoided in favor of purer practicality.

[Leon,] Xaphan whispered from his soul realm as Leon, encased within his enormous Ulta suit, fell through the debris field, [look at these arks. This is the enemy you face in the Souleater.] Leon gave the arks a more appraising look, but he failed to see what Xaphan was pointing out. [What am I looking for, demon? If you'll be so kind as to enlighten me…] After a long, dramatic sigh, Xaphan stated, [The arks look like they've been destroyed from within, don't they?] Another inspection revealed some supporting information—panels blasted outward on the larger pieces of debris, mostly—but the vast majority of the arks in the plane's Voidspace had been so thoroughly destroyed that even that much was hard to tell. [I… suppose I can see it,] Leon responded. [How can you be so certain?] [Doubting me, boy?] [Asking for clarification, demon. The two are not the same.] [Very well, I'll teach you what to look for, then. The first principle is simple: examine the battle damage where it can be seen. Notice how all of the damage seems to come from within?] [I noticed that, yes.] [Good, you're not completely hopeless; I can yet make you worthy of standing alongside a Lord of Flame! Anyway… consider the problem of facing down an enemy that threatens to take control of your arks. How might you respond?] Seeing where Xaphan was leading, Leon answered, [By destroying my ark, assuming I couldn't fight, or if I was outmatched and losing badly.] Left unsaid was that most of his arks destroyed during his reign hadn't been scuttled like that; all had instead been destroyed or disabled in battle. [This isn't always—or even often —feasible, I know,] Xaphan acknowledged, [but the capacity for purposeful denial of assets is always there, isn't it? I get that your human mind is slower and more burdensome than a demon's, but you have the capacity to destroy your own arks, should the need arise, don't you?] [I could, yes,] Leon answered through notionally gritted teeth. [Exactly. Arks are such powerful and complex machines that their crews can destroy them with ease. Completely destroy them. Blast them into dust. Incinerate them to ash. Other metaphors that explain what you're seeing that I'm sure your woeful human brain can come up with. Now bear with me, boy: wouldn't a massive formation of arks look much like this debris field if they did that?] Leon frowned and turned slightly, his group having now plummeted far enough through the debris field that they were approaching the thin edges of the plane's atmosphere—meaning he now had to look more up than down to see most of the debris. And… he had to admit that it was strange that these arks hadn't exactly screamed 'destroyed in battle' given what he could see of the more intact examples.

And scuttling arks for asset denial would render them into the kind of tiny pieces that now floated around him in the Void… [Souleaters are instinctive users of darkness magic,] Xaphan reminded him. [They get into our heads, make us see things that aren't there, make us believe things that we wouldn't otherwise. This creature likely forced the entire fleet to commit mass suicide.] [That… seems extreme,] Leon responded. [If it's strong enough to do that…] The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. [Take it for a lesson, boy: relying on your warriors' individual abilities to resist darkness magic will lead to defeat against such a cockless threat as a Souleater. Reinforce your arks' resistance to darkness magic to prevent such attacks. Or don't and die bitching and screaming. As my loyal affiliate, however, I'd rather you do the first.] The truth of Xaphan's assessment of the debris field aside, his recommendation wasn't wrong, and Leon filed it away for later. The last thing he wanted was to come into contact with some powerful darkness mage and have his fleets turned against him. [That kind of power…] he whispered, [are you still sure we can fight against it?] [Again you doubt me? I'm hurt, boy, I really am. But fine, if you need your fears assuaged by your best demon friend; yes, you can successfully fight against this Souleater. Assuming it's young, which all evidence so far supports.] [A beacon of confidence you are in these trying times, demon. You lift all around you…] [I know.] With that unceremonious statement, their conversation ended, which happened to coincide with Leon's team finally hitting the air as they fell. Clear, however, kept his light shield up, as the air had been heavily polluted with darkness magic—once again reminding Leon unpleasantly of Arkhnavi, even if the degree wasn't nearly so extreme.

Leon's team streaked through the darkness-choked sky above the enormous city in the center of the continent. As they drew closer, Leon could see the skeletons filling the streets with greater clarity. Nearly all of the skeletons in all the cities, their bones black as obsidian, appeared ritually placed, almost as if the citizens had lined up, lain down, and died in place. The few exceptions were here in this city, those piles of bones at the base of the iridescent tower.

While the piles of bones were indistinct—the sheer number of bones preventing Leon from reading too much into the peoples' last moments as their remains mixed and settled amongst each other—there were skeletons in the squares behind the piles, and as far as Leon could tell, all of them had fallen as they ran for the iridescent tower—and it was that tower and not any of the tall spires that surrounded it like trees in a well-ordered forest.

His eyes ran over each spire below him, noting that while the iridescent tower, shining like it had gained all of the light the sun had lost, was fairly intricately decorated—featuring intricate reliefs, stylistic waves in the tower's gleaming colors, and a statue of some heroic figure at the statue's summit with what looked like a large dog at his side—the rest of the blackened towers had been scoured clean of decoration.

There was even grass, trees, and bushes in the small amount of space between the tower and the shield protecting it—this thin scrap of land was the last green place on the plane that Leon could see. Nowhere else in the city could Leon see decorations aside from architectural flourishes. Fountains were worn away, plinths where statues may have once stood were empty, columns that may have once been elaborately carved were now smooth and dull black…

In every sense, life in this city had been exterminated, and that same power now pushed against the last bastion of light remaining—the streams of darkness that flowed and billowed throughout the plane pressed against the shield like misty curtains but had yet to gain access.

"Sir Marcus requests a channel," Leon's assistant giant stated.

"Put him through," Leon replied as he leaned back in his suit's seat, his head resting lightly against the cloud glass that allowed him to control his suit with only his mind. It wasn't lost on him that he was using the same element that destroyed this plane to now control his Ulta suit. A moment later, the comm lotus within his suit connected with Marcus' counterpart, and the man's voice was projected into Leon's cockpit.

"Leon," the man said in greeting.

"Marcus," Leon responded, confirming their connection was clear.

"Think there's anyone down there, really?' Marcus quietly asked. A frown deeper than a canyon carved its way across Leon's face. His gold eyes scanned the iridescent tower again. There were no windows in any of the spires throughout the city, and the iridescent tower was no exception; his magic senses weren't penetrating the barrier, so he couldn't see within.

"That thing's footprint is huge," Leon analyzed aloud.

"And it's… what? Almost two hundred stories tall? Thousands of people could be alive in there."" Could be," Marcus repeated.

"What do you really think?" Leon's frown grew almost imperceptibly.

"… The chances are low." Marcus hummed, reading all that Leon wanted to say in his terse reply.

"Agreed. Still prudent to check."

"Indeed." Thin clouds of darkness parted before Leon's team like water before a ship, and they finally began to slow as they drew more and more level with the top of the iridescent tower.

"Keep your defenses up," Leon said, this time letting his voice carry not just to Marcus but to the rest of his team, too.

"Clear, what do you think of the air?"

"Breathable," the tau replied, though the look on his face spoke volumes of his disgust for his surroundings.

"I wouldn't recommend prolonged exposure."

"Then let's do what we can to avoid exposure," Leon replied.

"Any ideas how to get inside that shield without destroying it, and likely everything inside of it?"

"I have a few," Zhang stated.

"As do I," Clear added. Leon nodded, his own 'open' spells at the ready. How they'd work with the darkness around them, however, he wasn't sure, but he had options around that. Leon's Ulta suit slowly came to a halt about three stories above the largest of the enormous piles of bones. The remains of thousands of people were down there, entangled with each other, the bones of individuals lost amidst the chaos.

"So…" Anzu said grimly as he and the rest of the team came to a halt beside Leon and surveyed the horror around them, "what do we think? Were they trying to get in, or were they stacked here?"

"A warning to those inside, perhaps?" Daryun wondered aloud.

"Dying here, at a place of possible refuge, seems likely," Marcus responded, his voice resonating from his suit.

"Tried to get in, got caught in the Souleater's power."

"Makes sense," Anzu stated.

"The tower is the one thing left untouched by the darkness, and this is the one place where the bones aren't creepy …" Leon nodded in agreement despite being out of sight. His eyes drifted upward, scanning the exterior of the tower again. If someone was alive inside, then it was likely they could see his team.

He drifted closer to the shield, imagining the remnants of this plane's civilization within, staring out in wonder through unseen windows or light projections—if they could build so many arks, then they could certainly set up projection enchantments within their towers so they could avoid having structural weaknesses like windows.

"Let's get through this shield," Leon growled.

"If we want answers, then inside's the best place to find them." His team acknowledged his order and spread out a bit over the surface of the shield. Clear, Zhang, and Marcus were all experienced light mages, and after Clear expanded his barrier to ensure the cloudy darkness was kept at bay, all three began working to try and gain access. Of their attempts, the most promising was Zhang attempting to cut through the shield with a concentrated strike from Mountain Cleaver.

Unfortunately, despite Mountain Cleaver's grandiose name, it failed to penetrate the shield, showing that for all that the shield seemed weak and low on power, it was still strong in an absolute sense. Clear's attempt to get the attention of anyone inside was another good try, but the shield remained stubbornly in place.

Marcus' best shot, meanwhile, involved sticking a bunch of antimagic spells of Raven make to the shield, but the spells burned away on contact with the shield, preventing their effects from so much as scratching the magical barrier. Frowning again, Leon drifted into Clear's barrier.

"Reinforce your shield, just in case," Leon ordered the tau, and Clear nodded and fell back a bit to concentrate fully on keeping the darkness away. Leon then retrieved one of his strongest 'open' spells, the ancient open rune written in large, bold lines upon the spell paper, and used a specially designed hatch on the side of his Ulta suit to pass the spell outside.

He telekinetically held it in place, then closed his eyes and pictured a hole opening in the shield large enough for his Ulta suit to pass through, and staying open until his people made it to the other side. He filled his mind with that image, forcing out all other thoughts. Then, he called upon his origin power.

There was more magical energy in a single spark of origin power than there was in an ocean of magic power, and as soon as his origin power met the spell paper, the rune written on it flashed with light bright enough to blind a mortal. The spell bloomed like a new star to his magic senses, and the power he'd channeled into it washed over the shield.

The shield wavered in protest, but in the face of Leon's power, it gave way, an oval-shaped section disappearing while Leon's spell continued to brightly shine in front of it.

"Get through!" Leon ordered as he darted past his spell and through the open shield. His team followed swiftly, with Clear taking up the rear and using his power to prevent darkness from rushing in—which the rivers of darkness outside his barrier attempted, suddenly bashing against his shield as if consciously sensing the weakened shield around the tower. Clear maintained his barrier, however, and once everyone was through, Leon cut off his power to his spell.

The paper immediately burned to ash, and with the cessation of power, the shield righted itself, the hole Leon had made sealing in an instant. His team was through, and when Clear tentatively lowered his barrier, the darkness remained firmly on the other side of the translucent white film, roiling against the surface like oil on glass. Leon breathed a sigh of relief, then cast his eyes downward.

The tower had a set of massive doors at its foot, separated from the skulls of the dead by a mere two hundred feet of shining white tiles. With his magic senses now able to pass over the tower, Leon could sense that its defenses were weak, its fortifications now low on power. He couldn't see inside the windowless tower, but he could certainly gauge the weakness of the tower's doors and knew that they weren't going to keep him out.

'Let's see what's inside…' he thought as he led his team downward, ready to find some answers from anyone still alive within…