Chương 86: The Great Tussle

Except it didn't work. The blue tendrils of [Equivalent Exchange] had gotten to the party first, whereupon they stuck to each of the men's chests like a giant wad of gum. And even as Jordan tried to pull himself and his party into the Heavenly Cauldron, he found himself—or at least his soul —being pulled forward, away from one cauldron and toward the other. PEWTER SAPLING cast: Greater Tethers. Pewter showed his astute understanding of the assignment. By tying down himself and the party to the cauldron!

But it wasn't quite enough to negate a Lv. 30 Necromancer's spell. And even as the three men's bodies remained affixed, their souls tried to leave them anyway, to be slowly yet surely sucked in through the ghostly-blue tendrils. HANZA PADMA cast: Ancestral Communion. The Lv. 5 Tetherer might have only bought some time, but the Lv. 20 Shaman brought a somewhat viable countermeasure. As Hanza Padma sent himself once more into the distant past, a tug-of-war for his soul ensued.

The blue tendrils went taut, momentarily arrested by two forces pulling in opposite directions. And that was the window a Lv. 30 Mountain M—uh, Gatekeeper—needed to try again. Jordan held his partymates tight and bore down, all but shoving himself into his own cauldron." Hrrgh!" That did it! Contact with the glowing, swirling mana. Which, based on several prior examples now, should kickstart the [Voidcross] session proper.

But this was no ordinary [Voidcross] (as if there's ever such a thing as an ordinary [Voidcross]!). For three spellcasters, one Jordan, and their willful magic had interlocked and blended into a chaotic wormhole. A fact that was soon reflected by the Heavenly Cauldron itself. Its mana burst out of the basin and filled the whole room, swallowing everyone, including even the silent wisp representing the soul of Tiena of Blacksnake Hollow. Then this flood of mana split into three separate streams.

Or three separate portals. One for each of the three distinct tussles happening at the same time. One portal opened directly in front of Jordan. Another next to Pewter. And a third sucked in Hanza and Shaza together, with the two Padmas still locked in a contest of opposing spells. The pull of the portals was strong, undeniably so. Jordan's arms were pulled in two different directions, so forcefully as to almost tear themselves off at the shoulders.

As such, he had no choice but to let go, leaving Pewter and Hanza to contend with their own [Cross]-ings. No sooner had he done so than his own personal portal swallowed him up with a final surge of mana. A chittering susurrus. Like a bunch of small animals whispering among themselves. And this time too, there was more to the transition. Jordan's consciousness filled with a busy string of text boxes as Vesselia the system tried to make sense of just what the hell was happening! Investigating anomaly …

Gathering data … Processing data … Loading new game mode … Recalibrating … [Time Loop] detected. [Looping Mode] activated. [Looping Mode]: From this point forward and until the [Time Loops] are resolved, every new [Loop] will count as one in-game day for JORDAN YU. In other words, each [Loop] will advance JORDAN YU's in-game clock by one single day while returning the world state to the beginning of the [Loop].

Addendum: In order to resolve a [Time Loop], find and undo the central knot that caused it in the first place. Remember: thy past shall set thee free. [Between Two Lives]: Time remaining: 93 days, 4 hours, 15 minutes Jordan found himself… on horseback. This is just like my last [Cross]-ing … the time I calmed Garuda Akula's storm, he almost thought, but it wasn't quite like that, was it? For one thing, the horse was going quite slow: a leisurely trot rather than a lung-bursting gallop.

For another, this ride took place amidst dense trees, not too dissimilar to the woods outside the Padma estate. And last but not least, Jordan was alone. No party, no NPCs, nothing for him to chase, whether in the sky or underground or anywhere else in between. Athletics DC 10: success This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Acrobatics DC 10: success Nature DC 10: success Animal Handling DC 10: success Performance DC 10: success The same gamut of passive checks as his last foray into horseback riding. But Jordan didn't fail to note that the difficulty classes had decreased by 2 across the board. Previous experience had to count for something, even if it that experience had also been part of a [Voidcross]-mediated liminal adventure.

Imagine this is how I learn to ride a horse, Jordan mused, through repeated'simulations' inside Void space! Well, who was to say? At this point, Jordan certainly was no stranger to strange events. Though perhaps this latest event just might take the cake as the strangest of them all. Which was why he needed to breathe a moment and organize his thoughts. So much had happened in the last several minutes (Was it really several minutes though? What even is time?) that to take on any more new stimuli would quite literally fry his brain. Luckily, Jordan's horse soon led him to a beautiful little clearing, complete with a small lotus-laden pond and a gazebo for enjoying the view. It was a scene straight out of those Wuxia shows Mom liked to watch. Jordan took it as the universe telling him in no uncertain terms: stop here and chill for a bit, my dude.

So he did, tying his horse to one of the gazebo's vermilion pillars while he himself sat on a stone seat that looked out into the pond. There, he took a moment to simply think about his place in the world. Of course, the first priority for untangling was this newfangled [Time Loop] business. Try as he might, Jordan couldn't recall a single instance from Vesselia's base game that asked the player to 'resolve a time loop'.

Must be something new to the expansion, and judging by the frantic system messages from earlier, this might have been something not even the devs had prepared for. Guess we're just making up the rules as we go. One such rule pertained to Jordan's 'in-game clock'. A topic of great interest to him, considering he was quite literally 'on the clock' when it came to determining the future and well-being of his soul. Not just me, but also Little Bean and all the deathtouched waiting at the estate.

But if I understood the system correctly, I'm on a separate clock now, one that keeps ticking [Loop] by [Loop], while the world'outside' resets to what it was the moment the [Voidcross] happened. Which meant that the deathtouched would be safe for as long as Jordan was stuck in his [Time Loop]. The only soul in danger, therefore, was his own. 93 days—93 chances to resolve the [Loops]—before he died inside this elaborate liminal world. Is that even possible? Can I die in the middle of [Crossing the Void]?

So many assumptions and unanswered questions. Jordan half-expected know-it-all Fuxi to pop in and offer their two coppers… before remembering that he was cut off from [Heavenly Gossip] while inside Void space. No annoying peanut gallery. But also no gods to bounce ideas off either. Jordan would just have to figure things out for himself, like some kind of… regular person. And having come to terms with how time 'worked', the next thing to decide was what to do with it.

Well, the system told me to'undo the central knot', whatever that means. But while I'm here, I wonder if I could get up to some Gatekeeper business. Like, Shaza Padma is part of this situation too, right? As scary as it'll be to confront him, maybe there's a way for me to open the second Gate of Ascension before the [Loops] are done? Ambitious but sensible. For the ambition to come to fruition, however, Jordan first needed to fulfill a prerequisite. Namely that of filling his current VR to capacity.

Current VR: 64, 540/100, 000 cc (64. 5% partial, 0. 006454% total) Still 35, 460 cc short. Where would he find all that mana? Not to mention, was it even 'mechanically' possible to earn mana inside the Void space? Jordan stared at the sunlight rippling upon the lotus leaves, brow furrowed in deep concern. He just had so little information to go on. If only someone could come along and guide him through this… or maybe the world itself had left some clues for him to follow?

As he soon found out, both possibilities were firmly in play. First, he was struck by an idea. A strange idea in most contexts, but only rational in this one. In fact, it was a small wonder that he hadn't thought to check this in his previous [Cross]-ings. Casting his mind back to the Vesselia system, Jordan scanned himself. <Character Sheet> Name: ZAUL WREATHWORN Race: Human Age: 32 Class: Gatekeeper, Lv. 30 (MAX) Vessel: The Heavenly Cauldron Jordan—or Zaul, rather—nearly fell out of his seat.

He then rushed over to the edge of the pond to peer into the water. The reflection wasn't the clearest, but it still showed his— Jordan's —face. Clean-shaven and absent almost all the Mountain Man ruggedness he'd carefully cultivated over months, but it was undoubtedly, undeniably him. For some reason or another, the words of a Lv. 20 Shaman floated back into his reeling mind.

The spell's target is not necessarily blood forebears but rather souls with whom the caster shares a certain level of resonance—souls to whom my soul is naturally drawn to once it's projected into the Original Void and seeking anchor. Does that make sense?" No, it doesn't!" Jordan-Zaul shouted at his own reflection.

"It doesn't make any sense at all!" Oh, but the nonsense was his reality now. At least until he undid the central knot and got himself the hell out of this bad acid trip. And the trip was about to get even trippier, starting with the arrival of an intruder upon Zaul-Jordan's private tantrum. Hoofbeats. Someone was approaching on horseback. And Zaul had been too distracted to react. He merely stood back from the edge of the pond, to stare anxiously at the figure emerging from the woods.

And his stare quickly turned into one of dumbfounded shock. For the newcomer was someone very familiar to him, both in appearance and identity. <Character Sheet> Name: CANYON of AMBER LAKE Race: Human Age: 26 Class: Chronicler, Lv. 8 Vessel: Gourd of Foresight