Chapter 256: Bizarre and Unpredictable
As they watched the enemy army flee in desperation, the Arcane Astrapids erupted into roars and cries of ecstasy.
"Priam, this victory is truly thanks to you," Arvid declared, his eyes shining with pure gratitude. "Without your intervention, we would have paid an incredibly high price in blood just to survive today."
"It was just a little effort, nothing much. I was lucky enough to notice the ’weak point’ of those enemies," Priam replied, giving a modest smile.
Despite his humble words, Priam’s chest swelled with pure pride. After all, the knowledge from Earth had really come in handy!
All around him, everyone looked at him with renewed admiration. The young man seemed to have laughably low combat power, but his luck and cunning were simply off the charts. In a brutal world, someone capable of turning an entire battle around through intelligence deserved absolute respect.
---
Several peaceful days passed at the valley refuge.
The Arcane Astrapids spent that time healing the wounded, recovering their strength, and preparing for the event that could determine the fate of their race: the arrival of the Heavenly Vessel.
If they failed to obtain resources, the Calamity Beasts could keep pressuring them over the next few years until they completely collapsed.
Every other time, there had been an almost perfect stalemate, with neither side able to win and both eventually splitting the resources. This time, however, the other side seemed much stronger, all because of that sword.
Priam was given an exclusive, private tent. Inside, with complete privacy, he was able to release Mirra for a few hours so the girl could stretch her legs and relax a little.
He didn’t stay secluded. Over the following days, he walked around the camp, talked with Arvid, exchanged ideas with the elders, and built a genuine relationship of friendship and trust with everyone.
By this point, Priam had already reached one disappointing conclusion:
The system wasn’t going to give him points for earning these people’s trust.
Apparently, it didn’t work that way in other worlds. He would only gain morality or loyalty points from people from his own world.
...
Six days later.
Priam left his tent and looked up at the sky. Multicolored lightning intertwined among thick, dark clouds that spread like a plague over a distant region.
"Priam, it’s time. Let’s go!" Arvid called, approaching with anticipation burning in his eyes. "The Heavenly Vessel will appear soon."
The entire Arcane Astrapid army set out. The atmosphere was solemn: everyone knew this expedition would culminate in a bloody confrontation.
The Calamity Beasts would certainly be there to fight over every inch of land and every Great Mist Stone.
Priam joined the vanguard alongside Arvid. By this point, the old Leader trusted Priam’s wisdom blindly and unconditionally, explicitly ordering Arvid to keep him by his side and follow all his tactical instructions.
The great horde left the natural fortress and advanced steadily northward.
...
The journey dragged on for almost two full days. By then, the dark clouds Priam had seen in the sky had completely dissipated.
Arvid explained that the initial phenomenon had only been a warning of a distortion in the outer space of the Realm, not the exact docking point.
If the storm revealed the exact location beforehand, invading Mages from other worlds would notice the pattern and march toward the area. When the ship finally tore through the fabric of reality, the phenomenon would appear out of nowhere at a specific location, then disappear before the outsiders had time to arrive.
The horde finally stopped on a vast plain surrounded by an imposing mountain range.
However...
Several kilometers away, on the opposite side of the plain, Priam spotted the dark and terrifying mass of the Calamity Beasts’ army.
But neither side made any move to attack.
There was a silent pact in the air: the real battle would only erupt after the Heavenly Vessel appeared and departed, leaving the ground overflowing with treasures.
Whoever survived the final massacre would claim the spoils.
...
Hours of agonizing waiting passed.
*RUMBLE!*
Suddenly, a deep rumble made the air vibrate. Without any warning, the colossal mountains surrounding the plain began to collapse, as if an invisible, gigantic hand were crushing them.
Strangely, the ground beneath the armies’ feet didn’t tremble even an inch.
That was because the rocks and boulders falling from the peaks made no sound when they fell. Instead of crashing into the ground, the pieces of the mountains disintegrated in midair, turning into fine dust before they even touched the earth.
Priam was stunned. What kind of absurd power was this? The mountains were simply turning to ash and being carried away by the wind as if they had never existed!
The next second, grotesque dark patches began sprouting from the ground right in the center of the plain, spreading like a biological plague. The vegetation around them dried, withered, and rotted away within milliseconds.
’This is the manifestation of pure temporal energy...’ the voice of the shield echoed through Priam’s mind, filled with caution.
It wasn’t poison, a curse, or magic. The flow of time at that specific point on the plain was being accelerated at such an astronomical rate that nothing could maintain its atomic structure.
If any living being stepped into that affected area, its lifespan would be drained within seconds, reducing it to a mummified corpse before it could even take a second step.
Priam swallowed hard. It was no wonder that two bloodthirsty armies preferred to stare each other down in silence rather than take a single step toward the center. One miscalculation there meant instant death.
The atmosphere preceding the arrival of that entity was suffocating.
A heavy, macabre oppression descended upon everyone.
It was as if all the resentment, pain, and terror of the billions who had died in the great ancient war were embedded in the aura of the approaching ship.
No one dared utter a single whisper. Many from both armies covered their ears, sweating cold, as if they were trapped in a nightmare.
**BUZZZZZZ!**
A deep and terrifying hum reverberated through the very fabric of space.
The next second, all the light in the world seemed to be swallowed. The entire region was consumed by an absolute, supernatural darkness.
Priam narrowed his eyes, focusing his attention on the horizon.
A black, distorted rift tore open across the sky, and a colossal structure emerged from within. It was a gigantic, completely grotesque black vessel, surrounded by a thick mist of pure Yin Death energy.
Priam took a deep breath. He glanced toward the other side of the plain: the Calamity Beasts’ army remained completely still, merely watching from a distance.
The phenomenon lasted exactly one hour.
The Heavenly Ship always emerged from the rift, crossed the skies at a snail’s pace while bathing the ground in its energy, and, at the end of sixty minutes, pierced through the void once again and disappeared until the next cycle.
It was at this exact moment...
...that Priam took a step forward.
"!"
Arvid’s eyes widened, his heart leaping into his throat.
"What the hell do you think you’re doing?!" the young man asked, overcome by a terrible premonition.
Priam calmly pointed toward the giant black vessel in the sky. "I’m going to climb onto that ship and see what’s inside. Wanna come with me?"
"HAVE YOU GONE CRAZY?!" Arvid exclaimed. Around them, the Arcane Astrapids nearly suffered a collective breakdown upon hearing such insanity.
"Alright, then you can wait here. I’ll go alone," Priam replied with extreme naturalness, shrugging his shoulders as he continued walking toward the danger zone.
Arvid froze. The expression on his face was one of pure panic, but... seeing Priam’s back moving away with such confidence ignited an uncontrollable spark in his chest. He looked back and saw the old Leader standing frozen, completely helpless.
Swallowing hard and clenching his fists until his joints cracked, Arvid’s feet moved on their own.
Priam glanced sideways and smiled when he saw the young man catching up with him.
Behind them, the crowd fell into a trance. Seeing Priam and Arvid marching toward the legendary Ship of Death seemed like the absolute pinnacle of stupidity and suicide.
However, the old Leader gave no order to stop them.
He simply watched the pair walk away, a mysterious shiver running down his spine.
After all, since time immemorial, shortly after the collapse of the ancient world, there had been a secret ancient teaching passed down orally only among the leaders of the great races:
To revive this fractured world one day, it was necessary to nurture prodigies with the Immortal Mark... so that one day they could reach the supreme inheritance hidden within the Heavenly Vessel.
The original purpose of the Immortal Mark had never been merely to grant access to the Central Realm, but rather to allow the chosen one to survive the energy of the vessel.
However, throughout the ages, every expedition sent to the ship had failed miserably. No young person had ever returned. As the millennia passed, the leaders gave up on the legend and shifted their focus, merely creating the Mark to send their young prodigies to the Central Region.
There, they would encounter the Will of Heaven. Then, perhaps, they could receive that entity’s help, and after returning, actually attempt to fulfill the first part.
Of course, throughout the generations, countless figures bearing the Mark had gone to the Central Region, but none of them had gained anything particularly significant that could help them. Besides, no one had any memories of what had happened there.
So the races simply assumed they lacked enough talent, and that one day they would succeed.
It was better to believe that than to send their young ones to die for nothing.
Now, seeing Priam advance without a hint of hesitation — and take Arvid with him — the old Leader didn’t have the courage to stop them. Instinctively, he felt that this bizarre and unpredictable young man might be the missing key.
Priam and Arvid quickened their pace, making a wide strategic curve to bypass the temporal acceleration zone at the center of the plain.
Until...
Priam suddenly stopped and turned around.
Coming from the opposite side of the plain, a lone figure was tearing across the terrain at high speed, running in the same direction as them.
Arvid narrowed his eyes and drew his thunderous spear with a sharp motion.
"Mo Lan!"