Chapter 172: Hall Of Destiny
There was a bright light shining in the distance from where he stood. Rows of shelves lined up on either side of him. The more he walked towards the light, the further the light got.
These shelves stretched out into oblivion. Endless books on each shelf.
Jacob had conversed with several ancient cultivators and sages after Yue, but none of these conversations were satisfactory enough, all they had were memories of their world and lives to convey to him.
Jacob patrolled the aisle endlessly. He was already bored if this floor and decided to go to the next. The Library felt like ascension, everytime he crossed over to a new floor, it felt like he had ascended to another plane.
Luckily, his brain did not operate on the same level as the feeble mind of humans, infinite comprehension allowed him to process data limitlessly. He replayed everything he had learned on the last three floors in his head over and over.
Every sword art, every cultivation technique, every language. It was all engraved permanently into his perfect memory.
"Stairs." Jacob called out as the entire space warped and he found himself standing before the long spirally staircase.
He took one step and climbed up onto another level.
The moment he placed one foot on the final floor. His perspective changed. This hall was nothing like the rest, it wasn’t finite, but the shelves were designed in a much different manner.
The counter was still placed in the same way, with a piece of paper sitting effortlessly on it.
The lights in this hall did not shine the same, some were brighter than others.
The shelves were anything but traditional. They were circle shaped and coated in silver. Each circle shaped bookshelf held no more than ten books, which were glowing from the inside.
These circle shaped bookshelves stretched on into oblivion, thousands of them disappearing into the distance.
Each one had a unique illumination above it, some had dim lights, some had bright lights.
Jacob walked on the marble floor, straight to the counter. He picked up the piece of paper that read:
"Welcome to the final floor of the Library of Life. You have left the Hall of Souls and Ascended to the Hall of Destiny. Every bookshelf contains Fate, Future Opportunities, Karmic Ties, Hidden Bloodlines, and weaknesses."
Jacob put the paper down and glanced towards the shelves. "So these can tell me the future, there is only one future I want to know." He muttered silently to himself.
"System."
"Is there a shelf here that can show me what happens when the demon king decides to attack the world tree?"
He was immediately whisked to a particular shelf, it was not the first, nor the second or third, but he did not particularly care.
On this shelf, there was only one glowing book. Jacob stepped into the circle and looked at the book. He took a deep breath and raised his hand toward it slowly.
"Yes." He said out loud as he grabbed the book and opened it without hesitation. A light shone through the pages, not enough to blind him, but enough to pull him in.
He immediately felt as though he was being pulled into another world.
His breathing was ragged, he found himself on his knees, surrounded by green grass.
Blood dripped on one of the blades of grass.
One drop. Two drops.
Before long, it was raining blood, Jacob found that his clothes were completely drained in crimson. He could hear screams of agony coming from all ends.
Managing to stand to his feet, he glanced to his right, only to see an Elf woman being stabbed continuously by a horde of demons, her dark crimson blood cascaded endlessly down her chin and completely soaked her clothes.
On the left, he could see a Dwarf and what resembled a Phoenix, struck down mercilessly by several blades.
A Dragonborn fought desperately for his life on one end, and a giant was being suffocated by an endless horse of demons, multiple injuries on his body.
It was all he could do to jump out of the way when a man flew past him, crashing hard into the tree.
When Jacob turned around, he could see his grandfather’s face, completely bloodied from battle. The man grunted and stood up, attacking once again with tears in his eyes.
Jacob turned to see what the old man was fighting. Lo and behold, it was a monster he had never seen in his life, grotesque and large, with multiple tubes poking out of its flesh. The creature’s face was skewed but still it roared and fought aggressively against Alaric.
Jacob noticed a woman laying off to the side, a familiar looking woman.
"No!" He screamed as he ran to her side. "Grandmother! No!"
He crouched and tried to pick her up, but his hands passed right through. "Fuck!!" He exclaimed.
That gave him enough confirmation that what he was seeing was not real. Yet.
"Lucien! You betrayer! Why have you done this!" He heard his grandfather scream in the midst of battle. Jacob stood up and looked in the distance. There were two men walking across the battlefield as though they were not aware of the conflict. They were completely untouched.
One of them was a familiar face, that was the degenerate demon that had stalked Jacob in the Wutherhorn estate, he had a disgusting smirk on his grotesque face and held a pouch in his hands. The other was a separate entity, he looked like an Angel.
"Lucien! This goes against everything you stand for!" The Dragonborn shouted.
"Shut up Banqui, you of all people know not what I stand for!" The Angel retorted.
The rest of the people fighting on the side of justice were already dead.
"Please stop them!" A voice rang from inside the tree. "They’re getting closer!"
Yggros’ voice rang through the battlefield, causing Morbius’ grin to extend.
The two men moved closer and closer to the tree while the rest were completely helpless.
Jacob watched on, as he had already established that he could not interact with this scenario since it was only one foreseeable future.
The two men inched closer and closer to the tree, the two remaining elders fought hard and long. But their foes were unyielding.
After a while of walking. Morbius and Lucien had finally reached the tree.
"Please Morbius, if you ever loved me, please don’t do this." Yggros cried out, she could be heard sobbing from within the tree.
Morbius hesitated with the sack in his hand. But then he sighed. "Yggros, there was a time when your words would have swayed me. There was a time when I would do all it took to make you happy. Unfortunately, that time was a very—very long time ago."
Just as Morbius held the sack over the root of the tree, Lucien held his hand.
"I hope your master will keep to his words, Morbius, do not underestimate my ability to work against him." Lucien asked.
"My master is not one to go back on his word." Morbius shrugged Lucien’s hand off, and the blue sap, now turned completely red after being infused with ther essence of the demon king slowly poured out of the sack.
"Nooooooooooo!!"