Chapter 103: One Path to the Peak - Multiverse Interdependency! (I)

Chapter 103: One Path to the Peak - Multiverse Interdependency! (I) AN: Please keep this writing structure in mind for dialogues. Parseltongue: -xyz- Telepathy: -/xyz/- Thoughts: xyz [You will be able to easily tell if its a thought or just an emphasized sentence] Memories: ~xyz~ Dialogues: "xyz" *********************** Chapter Begins: Afternoon, June 17 Wavebreaker The ship would drop them at the port of the New Bark Town on the morning of June 20. Golduck-Kai was sitting on a chair opposite Meg, his blue tail flailing non-stop left and right. Their eyes were bloodshot, and dark shades under their eyes marked their lack of sleep. For 3 days, none of them had left the room and none of them had had a dream. 3 days. The time was too much to just talk. They could cover a lot of things in three days, but not an entire life. Meg indeed had a lot to talk about. Over 80 years of her life as an active Contestant, and around 30 years of ideal life on the 1st Set. The first thing Kai did after booking a luxurious room on the ship was to make her tell everything about all the worlds she had been to. That alone had taken the first two days to cover. Then Kai had made her tell about all the Primordial Tower and all the floors she had been to. That lasted for the better part of the third day. At last, Kai had asked her to tell him everything about the Temples. There, he had met his first roadblock. All the Priests and the Priestess have a seal placed in their mind that forbids them to talk about the Temple’s secrets, Meg had told him. Only the High Priest had the authority to break it. Without it gone, the moment I think of telling even a trifle thing, I forget about them. As the High Priest was a 5th-Set Contestant, Kai had to give up on the plan of breaking the seal on Meg’s memories for the foreseeable future. He had instead pointed out the ritual to her then. The words she had spoken, and the names she had uttered before talking to the High Priest, Kai wanted to know the significance of all of them. That is not a secret, Meg had explained. Almost everyone on the upper floors knows about these sacrificing rituals. Only on the lower floors, generally below the 3rd Set, the knowledge about them is controlled and monitored. That’s why the moment you had spoken Hastur in the Primordial Tower, the Temple had gotten to know about it. In the Random Worlds, taking the name doesn’t stir any old powers, though. So, they sent me to spy on you. Everything is possible with Mission Credits and a suitable sacrifice. Selena’s face had flashed by Kai’s memories, hearing these words. She had warned him about speaking or discussing anything about the Temples. However, her warnings had seemed more of a panic, than something with substance behind them. That’s why, Kai had ignored those warnings. He didn’t regret it, but if he had known that the High Priest would just outright decide to kill him, then he would have been a touch more prudent about it. Kai had then asked about what were the original orders from the High Priest. They follow the Protocol in these cases, Morning Mist had told him. If you were worthy to join the Temple, then once you had reached the Primordial Tower, a priest of Hastur would have contacted you, asking you to become a part of the Temple. In case you had refused to join, or I had declared you unworthy, then the same Priest would have changed your memory using Magic. Now that I have betrayed the Temple, I am afraid that fate will be worse for me. The High Priest will stop at nothing but destroying us. -/Can the Higher floor’s Contestants come down to the lower floors and kill just anyone?/- Kai had asked naturally, remembering Ser Morgan’s presence on the 1st floor when he was a 2nd-floor Contestant. No. That was the word Meg had said with iron certainty. For example, the System would place too many restrictions on a Contestant of the 4th-floor if they wanted to descend to the 3rd-floor, she had explained. The bigger the gap between one’s current floor and the descent-floor, the more unrealistic and absurd the restrictions would be. No higher floor Contestant would descend over 2 or 3 floors below him, as it makes them vulnerable to assassinations, leaving them powerless. To that, she had added more. However, the Priests of Byagoona are notoriously known to descend to the lowest floors. Some of them even restrict their Stats and enter low-graded missions in search of worthy future Priests. Quite foolish, I agree. But that’s how they are, a bunch of weird Contestants of the weirdest cult known in the Primordial Tower, the Temple of Byagoona, or the Many-faced God. Kai had fallen into silence then. Simon had kept appearing in his mind like ghostly thoughts. It seems Simon, or Simons, is trying to recruit me as Many-faced God’s priest, Kai had reasoned. Maybe the Simon I met in my Initiation Mission was a higher-floor Contestant, too. Forget about us, with his Perception, he could have fooled even the 4th or 5th floor’s Contestants. But this is something I will never know now. Meg’s right, I guess. These priests of Byagoona are weird... and I like it. Haha! It would have been pointless to ask her more about the other Temples when she couldn’t even tell him the secrets of her own. Then came Kai’s turn. Kai had told her everything. Not because of trust, but because she was his servant, bound to him with Soul-blood Oath. If he wanted her to suggest something, then she needed to know his strengths and weaknesses. Slowly and steadily, using Telepathy, Kai had told her about his Glitch in-depth, his Worth, the missions he had completed, and the things he had done during those missions. His Items, his encounters, both in and out of the Random Worlds, and his Titles. Then he had told her about his Main Mission and the plan he and Petyr had come up with. If the words "reverential fear" had a face, then it must have looked like that of Meg’s. With every next word, Morning Mist had gasped, frowned, blushed, and paled. This was the tale of a Contestant with a Glitch and a shocking Worth. These were the deeds of Kai Stormborn. This tale and his deeds hid the ambitions of the Blood Demon. Not just anyone could hear them and still hold on to their sanity. That brought them to the current time. ... Presently, Meg closed her tired eyes and mind for a moment and then snapped open as if she had resolved herself to say something that she didn’t want to. "It’s a little late now," Meg began, "but I must tell you about this." Kai’s reptilian eyes narrowed. He was seated leisurely on the chair, his feet stretched out on the table. A single marble levitated over his right palm as he practiced his Telekinesis. This was the major point of making her his servant, wasn’t it? To learn all he had learned and hear her Counsel based on her experiences. Why wouldn’t he listen to her? He would even let his enemy blather if there was a benefit in it. Kai nodded to Meg. "I know you want Power, master," the red-haired beauty said, reverentially. "There is only one known way to become one of the most-feared Contestants in the Primordial Tower." A chill ran down Kai’s spine. It was one thing to have an idea of a path leading to the Peak of Absolute Power. It was another thing entirely for it to be known by all. It must mean that this path Meg was speaking of wasn’t some twisted myth, but a tested reality. -/What is it?/- Kai asked, taking his feet off the table. Meg collected herself and said, "Multiverse Interdependency!" Multiverse Interdependency?! The words repeated themselves in his mind several times. Kai knew these words meant something extraordinary the moment he heard them. Why does it feel like I have heard of them before? The odd familiarity with an unknown concept bewildered him. Now, more than ever, Kai wanted to these words meant and signified. Meg’s next words ended his restlessness and opened a whole, new path for him.