The news of Rio's return was known by top guilds and thus it was already safe to assume every noble or elite families had gotten this information with all its details too by now.
Due to the presence of several reporters who were waiting outside the dungeon, to see which guild won and would own the dungeon now -some photos and videos of Rio being carried out were circulating all over Arcadia now.
Even though Myra had done her best to shield him, some pesky ones with weird blessings and skills had managed to capture his images.
Rumors of his return were spreading faster than a wildfire, as several magazines and information guilds started selling this news everywhere.
No one would believe that someone could survive a dungeon crash and then live inside a failed world for 2 years on his own without any support, while being in only the mortal ranks of awakening.
And so this became the hot topic of debates all over Schilla.
The squads of Alphas were called back instantly, and those who were staying in Damascus, were given the orders to suppress the incident and false rumors as best as they could.
The flock of people from various churches and believers have been surveying outside the mansion nonstop, and Artemis could hear all their nonsensical rambles once she spread her mana sense.
Some were naming him the chosen one, calling him a miracle child or the gift of God. While some stupid ones took the controversial route and called it the plot of strays. Naming him the spawn of evil or some new monster impersonating as human.
Theories of how he would've been able to survive were spreading nonstop too. Some believed it to be the influence of some new God, who could directly interfere and freely act inside dungeons too.
Cause otherwise a human body could never handle the pressure of a dungeon crash. The people before who survived this, were much higher ranked and at that time, due to less number of dungeons and towers, the mana disturbances were considered lesser too.
Like 300 years ago, when the last person survived the dungeon crash, he was a SS rank awakener, the one before him were S rank and Limit rank awakeners. Meaning Rio was the first person to survive a dungeon crash while being in the mortal ranks of his awakenings.
The pull of space and rejection of the world's laws would simply rip a body apart in the gravitational pull. It was similar to what would happen if a human on earth jumped directly into a wormhole.
Death is a definite answer, and yet the world heard that actually someone survived that fate. Other than God's interference no one else could be sure of anything.
And if Rio was really saved by a God, then that just paved the way for a hundred different theories and questions.
<Since every God is tied to the world of Arcadia, and their powers come from the belief system of residents in Arcadia - Gods can't interact or watch anyone they wish inside the dungeon. Because every dungeon is basically a separate world, normal Gods can't influence it on their own accord.
The only exception to this is the avatars and their chosen Gods -since in this case, both the god and awakener are bound together by the world system. This way chosen gods can freely watch, interact and interfere with their avatars even in the dungeon.
This is why killing a normal awakener in a dungeon is a perfect blinding spot, as no gods are watching him. While killing an avatar is tough, cause their chosen god is always with them. And they can help their avatar by giving him some skills/blessings if they wish for it.>
So Rio surviving meant he was definitely chosen by some God to be their avatar, that's the only way gods can act in a dungeon.
That, or the other theory which said that some gods have grown strong enough to bend the rules to their wishes, due to all the power of belief they received with Arcadia's increasing population and people's faith in Gods.
The guild members of Shade were mobilized within the Damascus city to maintain order and peace, as well as keeping everyone away from the mansion.
No one was given permission to even come close to the Blake mansion, and those who were found trying to sneak in or being smart, were regretting their decisions - cause innocent or not, they all got pushed back and knocked out.
The incident from 2 years ago was a lesson learned by everyone. So neither Artemis nor anyone else wanted some repeat telecast of it happening again.
After giving some more orders to her subordinates, Artemis braced herself as she stepped in the room.
Agnus and everyone else from the family had been away from Damascus, so currently aside from her no one else was present in the mansion.
She had sent Esme to bring back Amelia home first, instead of informing her everything through some message or a call.
After slowly closing the door behind her, Artemis kept her own mana and presence suppressed as best as she could, to not interfere or trigger the formation in any way.
Looking at him sleeping soundly, she closed her eyes too, as she breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't a dream.
He was finally back. After 2 long years, she couldn't wait, when he'd wake up and she could hear his voice or see his smile again. Only she knows how much she missed him.
His body, which was unblemished till 2 years ago, was now riddled with scars of different kinds. The wounds of fangs and claws were apparent on his chest and stomach. While a large chunk of his right shoulder had the bite marks of some animal.
His hands, which always used to be free of any callouses no matter how much he trained, were wrapped in bandages now, so the broken bones could properly align themselves back in place.
From the back of his heart black lines were spreading towards his neck. The skin around the black veins was dried and dead, falling down with the slight touch.
The veins looked like a parasite growing off of him after sucking his life force.
This was the effect of EMMSY - Essence Mismatch Syndrome.
Similar to its name, it was a disease which one suffers after spending too much time inside a dungeon or tower.
Simply meaning, after staying away from your own world for too long and living off of the energy of some other world, one's body wouldn't accommodate 2 different kinds of source energy.
Thus both energies battling each other, creating a reaction similar to radiation, which your body fights on its own.
In the beginning when people didn't know much about towers and dungeons, some greedy people started living in the emerging dungeons, marking them as their territory. To get the most benefits of the cleared dungeons, people started living inside them.
Or when an outbreak from towers happened or
something terrible happened outside, some cowards would hide inside other dungeons, waiting for the situation to calm down.
This was a smart solution for a while, but the more time people spent in the dungeons, the harder it became for them to leave it. Their bodies had simply grown accustomed to the energies of that dungeon world, and they couldn't handle the mana of Arcadia.
If one even left the dungeon after noticing some changes, they would suffer from the reaction of different energies colliding in their bodies constantly, until one of them won and consumed the other.
This disease had taken quite a many lives in Arcadia, as some dungeons and towers were extra dangerous cause they meddled with the law of time. Meaning altering the flow of time within the dungeon world and Arcadia, thus it became even harder to keep track of EMMSY.
Essence Mismatch can be associated with 3 reasons - (1) the time one spends in some other world. (2) the strength of that world (3) the strength of the awakener.
Low ranking ones can only spend around a week into a dungeon and after that their bodies would start to show signs of Essence Mismatch. While high ranking awakeners have high defense and high chance of survival against the imbalance of essence energy. Like S rankers could spend years in the normal weaker dungeons and they'd be fine. But a day in high ranking tower floors might give them the reactions too.
The effects of EMMSY can cause a person's rank to wither and their foundation to collapse. EMMSY makes one's body suitable for the new world's origin, so Long term exposure can even cause permanent changes to your brain and body functions. Damage related or originated by EMMSY is hard to heal, as it affects the soul of the awakener directly.
For example - Rio spent 2 years in the dungeon of the dead, so his body had the essence energy of mana from his awakening and corrosion essence of the red sun. These 2 energies fought against each other, trying to consume and suppress the other.
This is why, once his body lost its mana reserves, the effects of corrosion increased. Had he stayed there for more time, he would've lost all his strength, and mana which flows in his blood would've been suppressed and turned into death energy.
In the end he himself would've been turned into the creature of undeath like all the residents of that world.
And after that, even if someone brought him back to Arcadia, his body would simply be too far consumed by the parasite to be cured again. Or go through another round of EMMSY.
###
I know this chapter was high on the info parts. But it was necessary to explain this, as EMMSY plays a big role in Arcadia. Since Arcadia is a junction where different worlds joined, then every dungeon nd it's essence is different, so explaining the consequences of it was necessary.
***** Now u know why people from dungeons can't pop up and overtake Arcadia. And why Arcadians can't just leave their own dangerous world and settle in a dungeon belonging to a peaceful world. - because EMMSY doesn't allow it. EMMSY says stay where u r.
--
A/N - other terms for EMMSY
EID - essence imbalance disorder
EQFEVER - essence quake fever
EMS - essence mismatch syndrome
Th𝓮 most uptodate nov𝑒ls are published on freew(e)bnove(l).𝓬𝓸𝓶