City of Sin

Book 9, 15

Astral Marker

After taking care of a few more minor annoyances along the way, Richard and Apeiron finally arrived at the next teleportation point. It was another portal of order, one where Apeiron had previously sustained injuries severe enough to halt her attempt.

Looking at the energy radiating from that passage, Richard turned towards Apeiron, “Hold on.”

Apeiron hesitated, but she walked up to him and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. However, he reached out behind and slapped her butt hard, prompting her to lift her legs and wrap them around his waist despite gritted teeth. Holding onto her tightly, he curled himself up a little as three faces surfaced around them.

““GUARD!”” they all chanted at once, securely protecting the two within a barrier of laws. Following that, he rose up and flew into the passage.

...

Two figures came crashing out of a portal, but both of them were in an extremely sorry state. The barrier was shattered into pieces, their underlying clothes ripped apart. A beam of energy shot out from the passage behind them, snaking right for Apeiron who was in Richard’s arms.

Richard’s expression darkened as he realised the threat to her fragile body, and despite his own misgivings he timed a flip so the beam shot into his back. He groaned loudly as a huge part of his flesh simply disintegrated under the effects of the heat, even his bones burnt halfway through, but as they shot down he managed to resummon his faces with difficulty. The angel started healing and the demon provided flame immunity, while the neutral face formed a barrier that encased them. The beam seemed to have a mind of its own, circling around the barrier for a while, but it eventually returned to the passage.

With all three spells active, Richard and Apeiron fell into a screen of light that quickly folded upon itself, giving them some basic defence. Laying motionless on the floor of this barrier without any strength to move, he struggled to catch his breath but failed to get up.

Apeiron was the first to be able to move, separating from him and flipping him over so his back was facing up. The back had been cauterized, so the best thing to do was to reduce the pressure on it so it could start to regenerate. He wasn’t bleeding at all, but looking at that rough burn she trembled as she realised she had no way to help him. As someone who lived by the laws of chaos, healing was completely foreign territory to her.

Gasping on the ground, Richard moaned, “You passed through that tunnel before? How did you survive?”

“Perhaps... Fate doesn’t want me dead yet.”

Hearing her desolate tone, Richard’s heart shook, “Don’t you die, I need you to keep leading the way.”

“This is as far as I can bring you. I’ve never walked the paths beyond here myself.”

“That’s... fine too. When I hea— OW! FUCK!” his wounds stretched as he made a slight movement, the pain so intense that he almost fainted. The air was actually stinging his back as well, even if that meant his body could heal a little bit quicker.

He mustered all of his strength to hold out a finger, a tiny sliver of mana detaching a ring from it, “There’s... medicine... inside.”

His injuries were by far the most severe of the two, to the point that he didn’t even have the ability to activate his spatial ring anymore. Apeiron gently pulled the ring off his finger, retrieving a few vials of concentrated potions from within and starting to pour them on top of Richard’s wounds. A hiss rang out the moment they made contact, white smoke starting to fly up as though a strong acid had been used instead.

Richard immediately groaned out loud, causing her hands to shake until she ended up spilling half the bottle on his back. He let out an even more pitiful scream. The Empress clenched her teeth, slapping his still-intact rear, “It’s just a little wound, what’s there to scream about?”

“IT FUCKING HURTS! I’M NOT ON A BATTLEFIELD, THERE AREN’T ANY OUTSIDERS, WHY THE FUCK WOULDN’T I? OW!”

Hearing his tirade, her hands shook again and she continued pouring the medicine on his back.

...

By the time the barrier was about to lose power, Richard had already recovered to his optimal condition. He picked Apeiron up and flew towards the heart of the vortex, passing through a number of chaotic whirlpools before a majestic new world appeared before his eyes.

In front of them was a boundless space that seemed to have no end, countless whirlpools of chaos and crystal rivers of order slowly spinning into the centre. It was impossible to see the other end; it was perhaps hundreds of millions of kilometres deep, maybe even billions. The scene was so grand that it threatened to steal his soul away.

This was the first time Apeiron had seen such a scene as well, and she was equally dazed. As two epic humans, they were already tyrannical figures standing at the peaks of their own eras. It was only faced with the wonders of the wider world that they could feel just how insignificant they were. No empress, no divine runemaster, not even an abyssal lord or other archlord was worth being called even an ant in this context.

“So this is the heart of the Vortex?” Richard eventually spoke up.

“Should be,” Apeiron nodded.

He sighed, “Well, it makes sense that you could travel to the alter world from here.”

“Is the alter world even real?”

“Perhaps, perhaps not. There are some clues as to its existence, but it might not be what we think it is either.”

As the two started discussing the nature of the world itself, a strong sense of danger suddenly erupted in their hearts. Apeiron screamed and jumped into Richard’s arms, curling herself up as tightly as he could even as he summoned all three faces to add barriers. Layer after layer of defence was formed with every instant, the three different styles melding into a diamond-like wall that guarded the two of them within.

As they looked on, a tiny hint of purple flashed in the depths of the vortex that even light couldn’t escape. The colour spread rapidly, gushing out like a raging wave that filled the central abyss instantly before spilling into the sky like a volcanic eruption. Richard had no way to describe what he was seeing, his senses overwhelmed by the surging tides of chaos.

However, those tides retracted as quickly as they appeared, slowly disappearing into the depths of the vortex. Letting go of each other, Richard and Apeiron stared speechlessly at the heart of the Eternal Vortex. That surge was almost like a breath!

The chaotic tides also caused an immediate reaction in the vacant sky, countless specks of order materialising in thin air. They quickly coagulated into enormous crystal pillars that fell into the vortex, looking like a sea of stars descending from the sky.

The crystal barrier finally lost shape, being smashed loudly into pieces. Richard quickly realised that even Sharon wouldn’t be able to hold up against such raging tides of chaos, and the only thing he could do was pray that she hadn’t been that rash.

“Let’s head down,” Apeiron interrupted his thoughts, “the stonelord shouldn’t be too far from the edge. If we can find the actual plane, we’re on the right track.”

He nodded, but this time he let go of her and allowed her to walk alongside him. Sticking closely to the edge of the core, they slowly looked all around. After a short search, they managed to find small blocks of real earth floating around in the void. This meant real planes could appear soon as well.

As they continued on their journey, Richard suddenly shook mid-flight, his entire body radiating dark blue energy. All of his magic trembled as though resonating with something, his mind lurching as he realised what it was.

Sharon had left a mark behind!

The astral energy in that mark was extremely weak, but as it sensed the magic originating from the Deepblue Aria it leapt through space to find him. That teleportation used up more than half of the mark’s power, so it could only point him in a direction.

Richard picked Apeiron up once more, shooting in the direction that mark indicated. Not long after, more marks leapt through space to reach him, tiny bits of starlight relaying information and leading him deeper within.

Although their destination was bound to be close, Richard’s expression grew pained as he understood the use of these marks. They were effectively road markers that Sharon had prepared, only meant to be used in case she got lost in the void. They possessed tiny conscients and could record down their coordinates, sensing their owner to lead them in the right direction. This was an art of the primal celestials used to scout unknown regions, and the only reason he could interface with it was because he now had astral energy himself.

But what did it mean for these markers to find their way to him? He couldn’t bear to think further.

With the guidance of the signs, Richard and Apeiron advanced much quicker than before to arrive at a rather peaceful section of the vortex. What was once a plane had been broken into hundreds of floating islands, the crystal walls wiped out to the point that Richard barely identified the ruins.

Apeiron flew to one of the islands and picked up some soil, studying it carefully, “This soil can only exist when there is balance in chaos and order. The stonelord should be here; looks like she found it.”

“Yes,” Richard replied disheartenedly. His gaze was fixed on the seemingly inanimate space before him, where there hovered a strand of hair.

A strand of golden hair.