Defiance of the Fall

A small ripple can change the world.

Blessed Fate opened his eyes, and his heart moved for the first time in eons. Few things could make the Lord stir in his slumber. Blessed Fate pinched his fingers and turned his gaze to the vast beyond, soon finding the answer. Or half of one. Someone had been touched by the Cosmos, becoming a candidate for investiture.

It was rare, but the occasion shouldn't be enough to cause a reaction from the Lord. Thousands of chosen would emerge every minor cycle. But how many could reach the end, severing mortal Karma and moving the Kalpa forward? Candidacy was just that; potential.

What was different this time? Blessed Fate felt the Heart of all Creation, searching for answers within. But a shroud of darkness obscured filled the firmament.

"I can't deduce it?" Blessed Fate muttered.

Let alone individual, even the contested precept was hidden from his eyes. His gaze turned toward Akaniṣṭha, but the Supreme Seal was unmoved. That didn't mean there was no threat to the Sangha.

Blessed Fate looked at the rippling waters in thought. Normally, he would ignore such an event, even if their own Seal was targeted. If the Supreme Seal could lose their position, it wasn't fated to begin with. The Kalpa would turn in accordance with the laws, and what would be would be.

Besides, most candidates already had links to the Sangha. Whoever had touched upon the Terminus through fate or fortitude would eventually cross paths with one of their Dao Seekers. There was no lack of ordained accumulating merit across the myriad worlds.

But the Lord's warning could not be ignored, and the timing was suspect. Was it one of the ancient existences hiding in the corners of reality? The change in destiny brought forth by the Fifth Pillar was bound to make a few anxious enough to make their move. And the feeling he got was eerily similar to the methods of the people who should be sealed in the past.

The Terminus Council.

Blessed Fate put his hands together, and a world grew around him. Future and past unfurled as the chants of ten million monks filled the air. The temple had stood forever in silent obeisance of the Heavenly Trajectories, and it would forever remain. The depth increased until fate could bear the existence of those he sought.

An Arhat stepped out of the dream, his third eye open and his body annealed by the Dharma. For the monks in the temple, Blessed Fate was but a lifeless diety, but the Dharmic defender could sense his presence. He solemnly walked over, the world already filling him with purpose.

"Your Eminence," the Arhat bowed.

"You are True Destiny. There has been a change in the river of fate that cannot be pierced by conventional means," Blessed Fate said as six identical Dharmic Defenders were born. "Take your brothers and investigate the anomaly."

"What should we do upon finding it?"

Blessed Fate thought for a moment. "The stability of the Dharma is paramount to all beings of the Cosmos. The anomaly presents a threat to the natural order. If their Dao is confirmed and their role is set, then this poor monk can only bear the Mara to uphold the path to salvation. Let them rejoin the Cycle of Reincarnation."

"As Your Eminence commands," the Arhat nodded. "If their heart can still accept Buddha's Love?"

"Bring them to the Fourth Mountain."

The Arhat nodded, and the group wordlessly left the temple through a golden portal, leaving the Ocean for the mundane world. Blessed Fate closed his eyes, and the world was no more. The waters were back, but the world had not regained its calm. A seed of fear caused ripples across billions of miles before Blessed Fate sealed his self with a sutra.

"Laondio..." Blessed Fate muttered. "After all these years, I still cannot erase you."

-----------------

Light replaced darkness as the vision shattered, but the mountain refused to give way. Zac's mind was still processing its immensity, unable to take in anything else. A sharp stab of pain briefly pierced the haze, and Zac distractedly noticed something white had slammed into his left arm. Bones cracked and ichor spattered as Zac was thrown away.

Zac crashed into the ground, yet it took a few seconds for his mind to catch up to the present. He'd heard the System's voice at the end, yet again warning him of the Terminus. The next moment, he'd been back in his body, his axe still moving toward Kator's chest. The vision must have occurred outside of time, and he wasn't sure if Kator had noticed anything.

What was real? What was fake? No one had come to call off the duel, so Zac suspected no one had sensed what he'd seen. They would have investigated if they did, no matter if they detected the infinite blankness, the mountain, or the ancient wills.

The spatial cut was missing upon his return, and Zac doubted he'd actually entered through the curtains. At least not physically. But real or not, the vision had a very tangible effect on him. The feeling of convergence was gone, scattered by the vision. Zac desperately wanted to recapture that moment of clarity where he'd seamlessly fused the Void into his strike, but his mind was still jumbled after being forced to witness something so far beyond his realm and comprehension.

The vision had only lasted for a few seconds, but it felt like he'd lived an eternity. And the encounter wasn't truly behind him—the mountain had barged into his mind, taking up a corner of his psyche. The mountain pierced through a curtain of the unknown, pointing down at his soul like a sword of Damocles. It didn't seem to be actually there, but the phenomenon far surpassed a memory. The situation more resembled the impartments that were locked in his mind.

The profoundly terrifying mountain was far more overbearing, though, exerting immense pressure even in this ethereal state. Just focusing on it made Zac's mind reel, and shifting his focus did not let him ignore its existence. He could tell his soul would have been damaged, possibly crushed, if not for his choice to cultivate the [Nine Reincarnations Manual]. The mountain was overbearing in a way Kator couldn't hope to match, but Zac's instincts told him he'd somehow stumbled onto a huge opportunity.

Of course, the benefits of this kind of encounter couldn't be unearthed in a day or two. In the short run, the vision had utterly derailed his duel.

Zac had been at the cusp of success. Everything had converged in that final strike—his Daos, the Void, and decades of experience. Now the feeling was gone, and he couldn't remember some of the details. He'd also been about to equalize the points only to be derailed by the vision. Kator had pounced the second Zac's strike fizzled out, leaving him with a cracked humerus.

It left him just one point from a clean sweep, wounded and unsure where to go from here. Worse, he realized he only had 10% of his Void Energy left. He vaguely remembered that his way of using [Void Zone] had cost far more than normal, but it was nowhere near this point. Zac believed that forming the illusory scar had utterly drained him, leaving him with almost nothing for the rest of the fight.

Zac pushed away the defeat and confusion, slowly getting back on his feet. He was exhausted, but he still had some left in his tank. And while his bone was damaged, it wasn't that big of a deal. It would still move as he willed it through channeling energy, and he didn't need its full strength to manipulate his chains. The situation wasn't good, but Zac knew he needed to keep going. Both for his path and because his memory of that perfect strike would grow more blurry as time passed. This might be his only chance at recapturing it.

Kator didn't seem as boisterous as before when Zac approached. He didn't speak, and Zac felt his posture had lost some of its domineering air. There was hesitation, confusion, as the reaver gazed in his direction. That alone let Zac regain some of his lost confidence, and he took a steadying breath as he prepared himself to give it his all to the end.

With every step, he replayed the earlier exchanges, trying to understand without being swept away. This time, he needed to hold onto his rationality. Epiphanies could save years of arduous grinding, but they left holes in one's comprehension that needed to be filled in. Besides, Zac didn't want to get sucked into that realm again. Instead, he calmly analyzed the similarities and differences between plan and execution.

The idea born during his use of [Wargod's Sagacity] was to use the Void of Life for his Inexorable Stance, just like his Inexorable Core. It wasn't the first time he'd considered it, but he'd always put it aside since he had absolutely no idea how to accomplish something like that. Zac was still unclear of Void's real nature. He'd simply poured the refined Void Energy from the Void Engine into his core during its formation, but he couldn't exactly do the same thing with a technique.

But the condensed experience let him glimpse a solution based on the [Void Vajra Sublimation]. He could somewhat emulate the truths within, even if he still didn't fully understand them. Combine that with what he'd learned from his blueprints, Core Formation, and Bloodline, and he had a chance of infusing a shadow of the Void into his stances.

The sudden inspiration just now had introduced a new road to explore. Harmonization to the Void through [Void Zone]. If he became the Void, he would naturally move according to its truths. Zac knew that his swing wasn't technically part of his Inexorable Stance.

If anything, it had given a sneak peek of a level far beyond his current level. That attack had contained the full Void of his imperial bloodline, but he only needed the Void of Life at this stage. Still, Zac was anxious to find his way back to that state. As long as he could replicate it, he would be able to move toward true integration.

Kator made no move to attack as Zac came within 50 meters, but his gaze was full of unspoken questions.

"You—"

"It was my carelessness," Zac calmly said. "Let's continue."

There was nothing else to say. Kator had questions, but why should he answer? Zac shot forward while [Void Zone] ensconced him in nothingness. He had limited time left, and Zac wanted to make the most of it.

The hunger for the truth had become overwhelming, to the point the duel became subordinate to his search for the Void. And Kator was the perfect opponent. Where else could he find someone so utterly matched to his stances, forcing him to push beyond his limits?

The reaver was full of misgivings, but he grunted as he swung his shield to throw away three chains before they could latch on. The coliseum became the battleground where Death's inexorable grip fought against the suffocating swamp of temporal decay. The sound of weapons clashing echoed through the stands. Yet both were careful, prodding, trying to understand what had just happened.

The Nullification Zone was initially reluctant to be condensed again, but the pressure helped Zac fully contain it in his body. Where the Abyss waited. Zac was adamant while the two forces were exhausted, yet they refused to merge into one. The Abyss furiously fought back, and it felt like the Void was oil poured into water. A rapidly dwindling source of oil.

Zac wasn't deterred. He kept channeling the Void, observing its battle while Zac fought his own. Every swing, every movement, every breath was made with the Void in mind. He tried recalling the pieces he'd gleaned of the Void of Live over the years, trying to connect them with the unity of before. It didn't spark any further inspiration. But something else did.

The mountain in the back of Zac's mind slowly came alive as it came in contact with [Void Zone]. It was as though it could understand Zac's intent and released a mysterious resonance with his Void Energy. Zac was initially afraid it would do something crazy, but he soon realized it was a good thing. It suddenly felt like the Void in his body had become like the mountain, paradoxically made from everything and nothing at once.

And one of the myriad manifestations was the Void of Life.

Zac tried to grasp hold of the truths when they appeared, but they were fickle and elusive. They appeared without rhyme or reason, a flicker of existence before being consumed by the Abyss or transforming into something else. Eventually, Zac caught onto something and integrated it into his swing. At least Zac thought he did, even if the attack seemed like a normal strike based on the Inexorable Stance. The Void was too obscure, hiding in the shadows of the Dao.

There was nothing special about the attack, but Kator was slightly late in reacting—a noticeable step away from his previous pin-point precision. Zac was flush with success, but he failed to replicate the effect. Meanwhile, the mountain was calming down. Zac refused to let go and pushed more Void Energy into his Soul Aperture. The fading vision stirred again, releasing even stronger pulses.

The Void of Life became even more visible, and the fight rapidly shifted in Zac's favor. Kator sensed the change and launched a furious counterattack. It was as though he wanted to prove himself against this unknown phenomenon. Yet his situation only grew increasingly desperate. At first, Zac only managed to capture the essence of a wisp every couple of seconds. Soon, it was double that, and each time created an opportunity.

The chains were neither quicker nor slower as they moved to restrict Kator's movements, and Zac's swings didn't gain any noticeable power-up. The only change seemed to be that they were becoming harder to predict. A lightning-quick slash narrowly missed Kator's chest, but Zac was already gone before finishing the movement, another hit targeting the reaver's right side. Kator had anticipated him coming from the left, forcing the reaver to block with his mace at an awkward angle, pushing him off-balance.

What was it about the Void that made Kator suddenly misread his moves on such a fundamental level?

Then it struck him. The Integration Stage was the integration of Dao into your movements. It elevated techniques beyond the mundane, but it also restricted them. The whole reason he'd worked so hard to unravel Kator's Daos was to better understand the underpinning rules of his technique and predict his movements.

But how could a normal cultivator predict the alien truths of the Void? The uncertainty it introduced went far beyond the Earthen Peak Kator used to transform his Daos. The attacks Zac managed to infuse with some of the Void simply didn't follow Heaven's Path, turning truths into lies and creating opportunities that shouldn't exist—Kator's extremely high reflexes and affinities had become a weapon used against him.

It had to be said that Kator was a genius. The reaver's instincts must be going haywire, but he was adapting. Unfortunately for him, their starting points were too different. Zac had observed the Void for decades, and he wouldn't give Kator a chance to catch up.

A huge bang echoed through the coliseum as [Death's Duality] crashed into the reaver's chest. Zac looked like a scrawny adolescent in front of Kator's hulking frame, but his smaller body contained the power to destroy mountains. He'd sealed some of his Strength at the last moment, but it still sounded like a bomb had gone off when Kator was launched across the arena. His flight only stopped after being caught by the arena's protective array, mirroring Zac's flight before.

Kator slumped to the ground, and Zac looked down at the axe in his hand with marvel. His insights were borrowed, and it couldn't be considered true integration, but it proved his plan was feasible. And powerful. If he could figure out to use this ability for real, it would become the perfect counter against all these Heaven's Chosen who were one with the Dao.

A pang of visceral danger made Zac look up, and he felt a predatory gaze from Kator in the distance. The reaver wasn't even moving, but Zac's senses screamed at him to get away.

"Good… Good!" Kator roared as red runes appeared all across his Warbones. "How long has it been?!"

Kator's murderous intent soared, and it looked like he'd set half the arena ablaze as a primordial force was awakened within. His power and momentum were growing with every step he took, and it was only further augmented by the halo above his head. The space in the arena was twisting under his pressure like it couldn't withstand what was hiding within that skeletal frame.

"I guess you leave me no choice," Zac sighed as he calmly looked at the approaching juggernaut.

"What, you still have some—"

"I forfeit."

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