After a while, the voice of the Hollow Avatar filled my mind,
"Elf. Male. Captured 6,342 years ago. Origin: Silverwood Enclave. Status: 12 Earth Law Fragments extracted. Core is dormant. Expected time for Earth Law renewal... 980 years."
I sucked in my breath as the skeleton of a terrifying realization dawned on me, but I moved on to the next stele to see if this suspicion was correct.
"Gnome. Female. Captured 5,871 years ago. Origin: Deepstone Warrens. Status: 5 Earth Law Fragments extracted. Core is Dormant. Expected time for Earth Law renewal... 1,788 years."
I saw the head of another massive dragon, and I was numb as I walked up to the stele in front of the vat.
"Dragon. Species: Azure Sky-King. Captured 9,112 years ago. Origin: Unrecorded. Status: 26 Wind Law Fragments extracted. Core is in Stasis. Expected time for Wind Law renewal... 3 months."
I looked at the vats, at the hundreds of souls trapped in the pale fluid, and I felt a cold anger settle in my chest.
I thought I was in a prison, but this was far worse; I was on a farm.
Looking at the hundreds of vats that disappeared into the distance, a thought occurred to me, and I returned back to my vat, heading towards the stele in front of it, and the amount of etches runes I saw were smaller and more numerous, as if I was a subject of particular concern.
-Elric Voss.
-Species: Homo Magus (Adept).
-Origin: Aldenmere Academy, Continent Aelmar.
-Captured: 0 cycles (current).
-Status: Awakened — BREACH DETECTED.
-Notable Traits (Priority) :
-The subject has been marked by an unknown temporal phenomenon. Each death is followed by a reversion to a fixed anchor point.
-The subject carries multiple Law Shards and an unknown Celestial entity. These components are incompatible with standard Abyssal integration protocols.
- The subject’s soul has been altered. This alteration appears to be permanent and has granted the subject resistance to standard Abyssal manipulation.
-The subject’s body has been extensively modified. Standard nutrient extraction protocols are only 3% effective.
Threat Level: Extreme — Subject is a significant containment risk. Extreme caution advised. Do not engage without Abyssal suppression.
Notes:
- Subject’s temporal phenomenon is the primary target for Soul Flayer extraction and must be given priority. With successful extraction, a Sovereign must be alerted.
-Subject’s unknown fusion is the secondary extraction target. If severed, the subject will lose significant resistance to Abyssal manipulation.
-Subject has been dormant for 97 days. Extraction is currently at 68% completion.
Warning: Subject is not to be killed. Death triggers the loop. The subject must be kept in a state of perpetual dormancy until extraction is complete.
Extraction Status: CRITICAL — Subject has broken containment. Immediate action required.
∞
I stared at the days when I had been trapped inside this vat... Ninety-seven days, three months of my life, stolen.
"Immediate action required," I muttered. "They’re not wrong."
The fox pressed its nose against my leg. "What do we do now?"
I looked at the stele. At the list of my own traits, the notes, and the warnings, I realized that although the Sovereign may have brought me here, this place must be run by someone else. I did not know how strong they were, and if the Sovereign was not far from this place, but this gave me a chance.
There was no alarm that I could detect, but I had already killed someone who must have been watching me, and there was no doubt that my escape had been detected.
"We are leaving and killing anyone who tries to stop us."
"Finally," the fox grinned, "I was getting bored."
The Moon Fox jumped on my shoulder, and I switched Death Touched to Storm Bearer. My moment of weakness had passed, and now I had to be in my strongest state.
I took a step forward and cast Stormstep, and I vanished, appearing thirty meters ahead. I could barely sense any drop in my Anima, and so I took a second step, appearing forty meters ahead.
In this manner, I began to move, while observing the different creatures I could see in the vats that I was zooming across.
On and on, down the nave, a vat for every step I took, and in each one, someone or something. Species I knew from stories and species I had never imagined, a woman with bark for skin and leaves drifting from her scalp; a thing all eyes and no face; a pair of small winged figures jarred together, hands still reaching for each other across the fluid; and the dates the Avatar read off them climbing back and back, two thousand years, four thousand, eight thousand, numbers that showed me the grim history of this place.
My senses bloomed from the center of my chest, borrowing the loom that I weaved across my body as clothes, and hundreds of meters ahead, I began to hear noise.
It was heavy, sounding like dozens of armored boots hitting the metallic floor. I paused before taking another step forward. Anyone else would slow down and understand the danger coming for them, but for me, I understood danger by going towards it.
Of course, I had a hand ready on a suicide button, as I was moving, I was already compressing a ball of lightning in the back of my throat, and the center of my chest. If I had any note of a power at the level of a Sovereign, I would be killing myself.
However, I had a peculiar problem that I was a bit too hard to kill. At the beginning, I had been chasing this sort of thing, but I never thought I would encounter a situation where being unable to die quickly enough was going to be a problem.
Stormstep carried me through the archway at the end of the nave, and I emerged into a hall. A long, wide corridor lined with statues of a hooded figure. Some of the statues held books, others held various weapons, and I could not help but be reminded of the shadow of the Sovereign inside Caelith Mourne.
I could see dozens of armored figures. Knights in full plate armor, their visors down, and when they saw the hallway light up as I appeared, they all drew their weapons.
Despite their precise movements and tight formation, I could not help but cock my head to the side. Why was I fighting basic warriors, even if they were armored?
I expected mages and demons... not this.