Chapter 606: Traces Of The Chaos Prince
Chaos core.
Of course, it was something Northern had never heard about or thought existed. He didn't think he would ever come across a rift whose core was crafted using explicit properties of Chaos instead of soul.
Northern stood there with gleaming blue eyes as he pondered a few things before proceeding with what he was supposed to do.
'But if it's a Chaos rift, why were they enemies that function only on the principles of soul essence? Or in this case, should it be Soul force?'
Northern paused, his arms folded while thoughts seemed to pound his own head.
'No, things that I have no idea of are popping up. All the more reason to go to the academy and find out whatever I can about all of these...'
The academy was an atheneum with all kinds of books, and most especially, detailed records of the history of both the world and the rifts that several Nations and clans may have missed or do not have.
Northern felt his resolve to go to the academy solidify again and sighed.
He looked at the sphere, carefulness etched in his darkly radiating eyes.
The void tendrils slowly but progressively continued to absorb the sphere. At first, there wasn't any strange or out-of-place feeling.
However, Northern suddenly began to feel a shift in his state. He felt like his entire soul was being squeezed and wriggled like a wet cloth.
The feeling made him instantly crumble to his knees, supporting himself from total collapse with his hands.
The void tendrils, however, continued to do what they were doing.
Northern felt the pain intensify. Whenever something was affecting his soul, he experienced a lot of pain. Why did it have to be so-an experience such as this one had him wondering. Time passed, and the pain began to become more bearable, or perhaps less painful? Northern did not know which and couldn't tell because he had been in such a painful state that he almost lost consciousness.
He slowly pushed himself back to his feet as the pain faded away. At the same time, the system came.
[Congratulations, you have found a trace of Chaos]
[Chaos has been absorbed]
[The power of Chaos in you is rising]
Northern felt a faint screeching sensation in his head, causing him to close his eyes. As he opened them, the system displayed a new panel before his eyes, with strange runes.
The thing was, the runes were familiar to Northern. They were exactly the same as those he had seen in the Tower, and he had no difficulty reading them.
[...The Lost Civilization was heralded by the Chaos Prince, even though he never sought the responsibility of a leader, his destiny clutched tight to him like a terminal disease... his decisions... influenced the beginning of the plagues]
[Congratulations, you have found a trace of the Chaos Prince in the Blood rift, one of the ten plagues]
[Start a conquest for the rest of the plagues and discover more trace of the Chaos Prince] Northern stared at the panel wordlessly. Even in the crumbling reality of the rift, he was detached and unbothered about what was going on around him.
'I received a quest from the system? That's a bit weird... is it helping me? I thought the system has been something that operates on certain laws and principles to meet expected ends based on what my capabilities are...'
Northern folded his hand, his brows furrowed in confusion.
He had always thought of the system as an automation system that had one job: to inform.
Of course, that automation system also had its unique ability that allowed Northern to copy Talents. But aside from that unique ability, Northern had never noticed the system act sentient; he never thought it would.
Sentient in this case meant doing more than what it usually would do.
Giving Northern a conquest to find the other plagues and discover more traces of the Chaos Prince was something it would never do.
'Could this have been caused by that DIY?' Northern raised a brow as he thought.
He stayed still, thinking deeply for the next few seconds before eventually moving.
Northern felt the ground beneath him begin to crack and tremble, as if everything was being unearthed.
Immediately, he jumped away from the place, landing afar and atop several debris of the collapsed ceiling.
"NORTHERN!!!"
Widening his eyes a bit, Northern shifted his head to the direction where the chorused shout had sounded from.
His eyes widened even more as he saw them.
Shin, Ryan, and Dante were pushing through the fierce and violent storm that was unearthing everything. They forced themselves through the turbulent veil of destruction and shouted his name several times until it finally reached him.
Northern's widened eyes creased back with a puzzled frown rising on his brows.
"Are they dumb? Why would they come back?" His visage reflected sincerely that he had no idea.
Because any sane person who had seen what he had been doing from the start of the rift would know that he was more than enough to take care of himself.
'They should have just prioritized their safety and gone back. What the hell are they doing
here?'
Thinking about it was going to achieve nothing. It was time for him to leave anyway, so Northern turned towards the violent gale and leaped in its direction.
While he made his first long jump, disappearing into the storm, a quick thought crossed his
mind.
'Why is Limitless Void not absorbing the rift? I have not gotten a message that the rift is being absorbed. Is something wrong?'
Northern furrowed his brows slightly as he landed next to his father, Ryan, and the
Lieutenant.
He shot a stern gaze at them.
"What do you guys think you're doing?" he turned his eyes especially to Lieutenant Dante.
"Your father insisted that he was not going to go back unless it's with you. Coming with him seemed like the least proper thing to do. And this guy Ryan, I had him tag along. I need to talk to him after this rift is over, so I didn't let him leave first."
"Besides, he didn't seem opposed at all."
Northern glared at him, but the Lieutenant's gaze was straight and indifferent, regardless of Northern's look at that moment.
"Anyways, the rift is closing, so let's go."
Northern along with the rest of them ran through the storm, nimbly leaping from here to there to skillfully maneuver and avoid the trajectory of dangerous debris.
At last, they passed the violent gale and reached where the rift portal had torn open. Ryan and the Paragon passed through, Shin also passed through, and then Northern... Before going through, Northern glanced back at the rift as a pitch-black space corroded it.
Something was definitely strange about this rift. The Limitless Void till the end did not absorb the rift; that alone was unusual.
But another unusual thing was the fact that this was a rift-a place that the Chaos Prince had
an influence in, manifested as a rift.
Not to forget, the source of this rift was incredibly strange too.
'Could this really be a coincidence? But how many times does a random dude throw a sudden
rift escalation, and that rift suddenly appears to be tied to the Chaos Prince that I am related to by powers... really, how many times does that happen?'
Northern wanted to be unbelieving that this could have been a coincidence, but he also felt like it could have indeed been a coincidence.
Alas, he decided not to decide for now and instead focus on what was next in front of him.
Then he walked out of the rift.
The familiarscape of the underground spread out before his vision, only that now, there was a
lot of noise...
'...and a lot of people.'
Northern paused for a couple of seconds before fully realizing that the underground might
still be the same, but it wasn't at the same time.
Temporary camp tents with the military sigil were raised here and there, and people were
being treated by military medics who wore a brown military uniform with the sigil of a large cross and snake curling its base on the back.
Several of them ran from here to there, helter-skelter, answering calls and moving with
compact, portable boxes.
He stared around blankly. One of the medics immediately approached him.
"Hello, Sir. Do you need any medical attention?"
The medic tried to touch Northern's shoulder to start his examination, but the white-haired
boy instinctively shifted his shoulder away slightly, giving the medic a dark and soul-
crushing glare.
"I'm sorry, I—I—- just wanted to check..." the medic stuttered. Before he could say anymore,
Lieutenant Dante touched him.
"Excuse yourself."
At the intimidating tone of the Lieutenant, the medic dashed away as fast as he could, sweat
pouring all over his face.
Dante looked at Northern with a little smile.
"I guess this is your first time coming out of a rift that is not in the dark continent. You look
lost."
'...ah, that's right.'
It was until then that Northern remembered again that he wasn't in the dark continent and
rifts were in the Central Plains.
All these attentions and care, and crowd of soldiers and servers in order to help the drifters rest and recover their strength was very strange to him.