Chapter 752 Echoes of Reality: The Deeper Layers
"It's probably responding to the fragments of Lieara's soul," Aethion said, to which Reign agreed.
'The main question is why, and why the hell would it create an environment from Earth, after all, it's Lieara's soul, not mine that the artifact should be responding to.'
'Not even that, but the artifact should be responding to Liara's soul first, after all, I can't sense the artifact like Liara can, maybe if we released Lieara's soul fragments and somehow took control of them I would be able to sense it, but it still doesn't explain why it made this jungle and animals.'
"This is getting more and more mysterious, what do you think, after seeing all of this, how much information has the soul inside Liara hidden from you?" Aethion asked Reign who scoffed.
'I previously thought that he was giving me only half of the truth, but now, I doubt even a fifth of what he said was true.'
"Me too."
"Alright, we won't learn anything by staying here, the faster we get down, the sooner we will arrive at the artifact and find out just what it is, and why it decided to create this jungle." Reign said as the others nodded in agreement.
"Should we destroy this place and see what would happen?" Basred asked as he smirked, ready to use his waves to annihilate the entire jungle in an instant.
"No need to use up mana for something like that, I doubt we would learn anything." Reign said with a sigh before they all moved on and exited the jungle.
Contrary to how the upper layers of the underground space were, there were no walls dividing this area and the other layer.
Right after coming out of the jungle, Reign and the others were able to see that they were higher up and that about 10 meters below them was a village.
There was a steep slope that led down, and the village was populated.
Liara suddenly stepped forward and her eyes widened. Her lips trembled as she stared at the village below.
"Liara, what is it?"
"This … this is where I grew up in," Liara said in a low voice as she gulped.
"What?" Everybody present stared at her and the village in shock as she nodded her head.
"Yes, the houses, the windmill, the training grounds, even the roads … it's all just how I remember it," Liara said before suddenly stepping forward and sliding down the slope.
Reign and the others quickly followed her and arrived at the entrance to the village before entering it.
The people inside all glanced at them, some ignoring them, some even spoke to them, welcoming them into the village, asking if they were soldiers who were fighting for the region, and more.
It was an incredibly weird sight.
People were walking around, and Liara knew every single one of them.
"This is when I was little, about 8 years old, the village is just how I remember it, the people as well, like old man Argen there, he died when I was 9, he was the head of the village and everybody liked him, I still remember the funeral as I watched it from the window," Liara said as she looked around and suddenly saw a couple of kids running around.
"That's Aldon, he died two years ago in battle against the demons."
"Lisa, she fought valiantly during that battle and tried to save him together with me and the others, she lost her right arm and left eye and is no longer able to fight thanks to the internal injuries she had received, she went back to the village and lives there now."
"Oral, he died in the first battle he participated as his entire group was hit by a spell from a peak Tier III demon mage."
"That's Lona, Nigel, Arkam, and that one there … is me," Liara said as she stared at the kids who were running around without a care in the world.
"That's me … when I was 8 years old."
Liara's lips trembled as she suddenly started running somewhere. Reign and the others followed her, and arrived right outside the village, where a couple of houses were located at.
Liara was standing about 10 meters away from the houses and was staring at a lady who was putting the clothes outside to dry. She stared at her as her eyes started watering before she turned around.
"Your mother?" Reign asked, to which Liara merely nodded her head.
"Let's go, please, let's get out of here," Liara said, to which Reign and the others responded by walking away from the village.
She walked about 3 meters in front of them, and Basred got next to Reign and whispered, "Her mother died when she was young, for her to suddenly be able to see her, I don't know if this should be considered a blessing or a curse for Liara."
Reign nodded his head as he understood how she felt.
Back when the dark copy had created an illusion of Reign being in his room and being woken up by his mother, Reign had felt the same way.
He had spoken to both his mother and father, and even while knowing they were not real, that they were both dead, Reign still cherished that moment and wanted to make it last as long as possible before he decided to end it.
For Liara, this moment was similar, yet different.
Reign knew that something was wrong back then, that he was hallucinating or that he was in some sort of illusion, but this place, it was no illusion.
The entire village was real, as were the people, even the little Liara who was running around with her friends.
For Liara to be able to decide to run away from this place as quickly as possible just showed how strong she was mentally, as well as how much willpower she needed to use to make that decision.
The next area they slid down to was a city.
It was New York, but a miniature version of it.
"Seems like it is responding to both me and you." Reign told Liara who nodded her head as she stared around in wonder, as did Basred and the two Tier IVs who were with them.
"But it seems the artifact is unable to perfectly copy everything, the buildings, they're simply far too small compared to how they looked like back home." Reign said while chuckling as he looked at the skyscrapers that only went to a maximum of 40 meters, which was much shorter compared to their real sizes.
"Incredible, I can't sense any mana being used by any of these machines," Basred said as he looked at the cars passing next to them.
"That's because they aren't using mana, my world didn't use mana at all in the past, we had managed to develop our technology and create incredible machines that ran on electricity and fossil fuels."
"The buildings were created with the help of such machines and hundreds of people that would tirelessly work for months and years to finish one of them."
"What you are seeing here is nothing compared to the real thing, some of these buildings are hundreds of meters tall, taller than even those great walls of yours." Reign said with a smile as his face froze for an instant before he continued walking.
"Who were they?" Laura asked Reign as she glanced at a husband and wife who walked past them.
"My parents." Reign said as he continued walking, not turning around for even an instant, which made Liara and the others all glance at him before sighing. None of them asked him anything else, and after a couple of seconds, they all went down another slope, this one leading to what looked like another village.
Nobody knew the village, it was completely unfamiliar to any of them.
Reign and the others walked through it. The buildings were dilapidated and in ruins, the road couldn't even be seen as the ground was black, completely scorched.
"I think this is my village," Liara said as she looked around her.
"But my village in the future, not how it is now." Reign and the others nodded at Liara before they continued further, once again arriving in New York, which was now in ruins as well and infested by monsters that attacked them the moment they saw them.
"Is it showing the future of New York or the present?" Reign asked as they slaughtered their way through the city, killing hundreds of orcs, demons, giant insects, and more.
As they went further and further in, they suddenly came across a building that had tall walls surrounding it and a dome.
Right through the dome, on the roof of the building, Reign was able to see a familiar person.
'Uncle Hwang.' Reign gulped as he saw Shadow's father who was looking at them with a smile.
He jumped down and made his way over to Reign.
"Reign, I can't believe it's you, come in, come in all of you, it's dangerous here." Shadow's father said as he placed his hands on Reign's shoulder.
"It's good to see you again kid, it's really goo-" He stopped talking as Reign's cold eyes stared at him while his arm had suddenly penetrated through his chest as lightning flickered around it.
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦