Chapter 73: Undercurrents
[Volume 3 - Awakening from the Dream]
Sara’s POV
After Night entered the Inheritance Ground, Sara let her soul projection meditate to conserve her mana.
During this period, students who had already managed to claim a legacy would return from time to time. Not even a day had passed before she felt Night return.
She quickly teleported to him. Unlike the others, Night was not conscious; when she checked on him, he seemed to be fast asleep.
Zora looked over from beside the white gate and said telepathically, "He is in a Dream...".
Sara looked at her, knowing she possessed the Dream Aspect and asked, "Did someone put him in a dream?". As she then picked Night up and teleported them to an empty room.
Zora shook her head. "No, it’s the normal kind that people experience from time to time, a cluster of past memories coming together to form a dream".
"It is nothing serious," she added; with her strength, it was easy for Zora to keep her telepathic link active over such a short distance.
Hearing this, Sara replied, "I see. Thanks," as she placed him on a bed and tucked him in to sleep.
"No problem," Zora replied. "Who is he?".
Previously, she had been too occupied to pay attention, but now her curiosity was piqued.
Sara sat down on a chair beside Night. "He is an orphan I encountered who hasn’t had a pleasant past. I am currently taking care of him in my free time. He is quite a talented Summoner, so I managed to enroll him in our academy".
Zora sighed. "Even after all the effort we put into this world, cases like this keep happening...".
Not wanting to sour the mood, she quickly changed the subject. "A talented Summoner? It’s rare to hear that. Is he like Jeffy?".
Sara shook her head and chuckled. "No, no, he doesn’t have a human summon".
It was always funny to see Jeffy and his summon annoy each other; it was how they passed their time guarding the city at the entrance without getting bored.
Zora then guessed for fun. "Don’t tell me he has one of those Mythical Beasts as his summon... is it a dragon?" she asked excitedly.
She had always wanted to ride a dragon. Her brother used to tell her ancient stories about them when they were small, somehow knowing the lore.
Even after all the incredible things she had seen, she still hadn’t encountered a single Mythical Beast from his stories.
Amused, Sara replied, "No, he just has more than one summon".
Zora raised her eyebrows, her excitement draining away. "I see. No wonder. From what I know, it’s super hard to level up a skill like that. We still haven’t figured out the conditions to evolve it".
"Yes," Sara agreed.
After a bit more small talk, Zora cut the telepathic link while Sara returned to meditating.
As for why she hadn’t teleported Night back to the Desert City.
At the Desert City, the situation had turned complicated.
....
A while ago, when Night had just entered the Inheritance Ground, an uninvited guest had visited the Desert City. It was Diana, "The Witch" and the official ruler of the Desert City.
In the office, Sara sat in her chair and opposite her sat Diana. Sara was dressed in her typical black witch outfit; her black hair and grey eyes gave her a distinct look despite her young, teenage appearance.
While Diana wore a witch’s outfit as well, but she had a mature appearance with dark black hair and piercing black eyes.
Sara asked with a blank face, "Leader, I wasn’t expecting you".
Diana covered her lips with her hand as she chuckled. "Yes, I wasn’t expecting to be here either, but something exciting is happening here, making me drop all my other plans to visit".
Sara grew wary inwardly. "So, you plan to stay?".
"No, dear, I don’t just plan to stay. I plan to do what I should have done from the very start... Rule it," Diana said.
From behind, a translucent tentacle could be seen shifting within Diana’s hair.
....
Arthur’s POV
Arthur opened his eyes and tried to get up, only to fail as he felt every part of his body ache with pain.
After struggling for some time, he finally managed to sit up straight.
[The Sleepless Sword] echoed in his mind:
["That Void God is very scheming. I doubt it would let you escape and rest, especially after losing its control over you."].
Arthur closed his eyes, opened his communicator, and connected with the one person in the city he thought would not be under this Void God’s control.
....
As Sara watched Diana teleport out after taking back control of the city array from her, she fell into deep thought.
She felt her communicator buzzing.
She saw it was Arthur. She wondered why he would call; from what she knew, he was publicly recognized as the strongest member of the World Council.
Answering, she heard his voice, which sounded slightly strained. "Headmaster, I know it’s sudden, but I want you to take charge of this city from now on. At least for this week. Whatever happens, we need to ensure this city is safe".
Sara was stunned. What?.
She quickly replied, "I wish I could follow that order, but....".
Arthur’s slightly puzzled voice interrupted, "But?".
Sara said nervously, "Diana just arrived and took back the controls of the city".
Arthur’s voice stressed, "Diana? And just now?".
"Yes, right before your call, she came in and demanded to resume her responsibilities as the City Ruler for an undefined amount of time," Sara explained.
Arthur chuckled in bitter annoyance when he heard that. Undefined time? My foot. She is [Zethe-thoth]’s puppet, isn’t she....
She was acting so suspicious too all this time, and we never even noticed.
How many more of them are already its puppets...?.
What about my sister?
Is she one too?.
What about my son...?.
As Arthur’s thoughts kept growing darker, tears formed and fell to the ground, but he refused to cry.
As [The Sleepless Sword] had told him: I must right my wrongs.
Then he heard Sara’s worried voice. "Is something wrong?".
Arthur, unable to bear it, murmured:
"Is something wrong?...".
"Everything is wrong...".
"At least we managed to get the academy students out. As for the others... only good luck can save them now...".
He immediately cut the connection.
Now that he guessed Diana was a puppet and that she had just met with Sara, he couldn’t trust Sara either.
Knowing how terrifying [Zethe-thoth] was, even if Sara was a god, she wouldn’t be able to escape its influence.
After planning for a day with [The Sleepless Sword], he connected with Zora. Despite his reservations, he didn’t know who else to contact at this point.
"Yes, Brother? Are you okay?" Zora asked.
Arthur replied to her calmly, "Yes. For now, I want you to keep the students in the city for the rest of the month. If possible, extend their stay for an entire year".
"What? Are you sure?" Zora asked.
"Yes, tell the other academies to shut down for now. We will not be needing them for some time," Arthur.
"But... but what about their parents?" Zora protested.
"It can’t be helped. Allow those who want to move to the Dream City to do so. As for those who ask for their children to return, tell them to move to the Dream City and if they insist on taking them back, ignore them".
"Are you sure? Rik and Kwame’s kids are among them as well," Zora warned.
Arthur took a deep breath and said, "Yes. I’ll deal with them personally after I am done with the Desert City".
Zora was silent for a long time, making him fear the worst possible scenario had happened. He heaved a sigh of relief when he finally heard her say, "Okay, Brother..." giving him a glimmer of hope.
"How are the Dream Space preparations going?" Arthur asked.
"It’s ready. I just have to become a Demigod now to launch it," Zora replied.
After some thought, Arthur instructed, "Wait for my instructions before launching the Dream Space. Also, disable the streaming features in the city and tell everyone in the Dream City that live streaming is banned until we say otherwise".
Zora already guessed something serious was going on. "Brother....".
"Trust me...." Arthur said softly.
"Okay...." she said, still choosing to trust him.
"Also, Zora..." Arthur added.
"Yes...".
"Take care....".
"....".
Beep..
Just after he cut the call, he heard his door unlock.
Before the door could swing open, Arthur immediately teleported away using an artifact.
Entering the room, Diana looked around the empty space. Then, the transparent tentacle hiding in her hair rose and sniffed the air a couple of times.
Looking in a particular direction, Diana smiled and teleported away as well.
Outside the City
Alze-beus was lurking in some ruins outside the Desert City.
He had been summoning a new, weaker incarnation of himself from Hell, since he couldn’t physically enter the city even if he wished to.
Looking at the new incarnation, which looked human, he cursed.
"Just you wait, you *******, I will come for you soon".
He shivered, when he heard [Zethe-thoth]’s distorted voice:
"hEHe, dOn’t wE noW hAvE tOo mAny oF yoU?".
Alze-beus gulped. He knew this was coming, but he still summoned another incarnation when [Zethe-thoth] asked him to do so..
Before he could even beg the entity to spare him, he shrieked, "Ple.... Aaaaaahhhhhh!".
He felt an unbearable, tearing pain as he felt himself being eaten from the inside out. He felt his very existence being devoured with each agonizing bite.
The pain was so unbearable that even his newly summoned human incarnation fell to the ground, thrashing and struggling in the dirt.