My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Chapter 1127: Chapter 1128: Beneath The Sky

Godric lied. What lie could a newborn tell? Those were the last words uttered by one of the skulls of her ancestors.

Even these long-dead old monsters who lingered in the world could not resist being destroyed.

Her grandfather let out a weary sigh as he looked down at his son, who lay skinless and bleeding upon the ground, his chest rising and falling with shallow, painful breaths.

"You are still too soft. Still as reckless as in your youth."

His cloudy eyes drifted toward the shattered skulls scattered across the chamber. At least half of them had been destroyed while the others bore deep cracks that spread across their ancient surfaces.

"Ghosts of our ancestors, I beseech you. Guide us."

As he spoke, he reached into the folds of his robe and brought out a staff tied with red rags, or rather, white rags stained crimson by fresh blood. Leaning on it, he tapped the ground several times and muttered in a language Emilia had never heard before. Then, with the ease of long practice, he spat onto the stone floor and tossed out a handful of cowries and seeds, watching as they landed in a strange formation.

Slowly, he raised his hand and sand began to pour between his fingers.

"Hmm."

"This person you seek cannot be sought out by anyone. They have a ward that guards their fate and beyond that they have touched upon a great and terrible name. Any attempt to push through will mean our deaths."

However, the old man had not done this for nothing.

"Magic is an act of subverting the world. It bridges unfair gaps, or as the demons would say, there are no absolutes in this world."

"That is a philosophy related to the Snake Temple," Emilia said, lifting her head slightly, merely confirming that her grandfather was indeed speaking of the temple on the Demon Continent.

The old man stroked his beard thoughtfully before uncorking a small container and pouring a foul-smelling liquid over her father. Emilia watched as flesh painfully crawled back across exposed muscle, forcing him to grit his teeth in silence.

"While we cannot divine this person or place, we can divine the places he has been and the way he affects the world. From there we can determine truths around him. The dirt he walks upon is not protected. The water he drinks. The enemies he kills. It will be dangerous, however we are the Hightowers."

Then his gaze settled upon her.

"Emilia Hightower, how far are you willing to go for your wish?"

She fell silent.

When her grandfather called her Hightower, this was her acknowledgment.

How far was she willing to go?

She had already gone far enough to make a deal with whatever that entity was that had spoken to her.

Her fingers curled tightly at her sides before she finally answered.

"I just want to know the name of the one who did this to my son."

There were many people in this world and most of them could be divined.

Those who could not were not many.

"If we can name them all, then I am that much closer to finding my son."

"You wish to find those who cannot be found," her father spoke softly, his ruined skin still knitting itself back together.

Emilia straightened her back and met her grandfather’s gaze.

"I will go as far as the heavens and as low as the abyss."

Her resolve did not waver.

The old man smiled faintly and his eyes glowed green.

"Then we shall start by finding out what Godric lied about. As the young Godric cannot speak, I can only assume it concerns his uncle, the late Godric, the first Ravenscroft."

"Whatever it is, House Ravenscroft must know, or at least have a clue. Whatever secret it is might very well shake the realm."

His expression slowly darkened as a cold wind drifted through the chamber.

"I see darkness in the future."

"The winds of dusk are upon us."

The wind that drifted into the chamber eventually escaped into the night sky, carrying with it the dust and fragrance of Emilia.

Standing there amidst skulls and blood, she closed her eyes for a brief moment and silently hoped that somehow it would reach her child wherever he was.

---

The winds were fierce here and, more than that, there was a deep and deathly feeling. Blood constantly rushed to her head while fresh gashes spread from the cracks in her armor.

Seras had traveled through many dangerous places, but this was by far the worst.

It was silent and yet there was a deafening roar in the wind that made it impossible to hear even a single word. Her cloak whipped wildly behind her as she pressed one hand against the rough stone beneath her feet to steady herself.

Standing here, she could no longer feel the world.

It was as though the rules of reality had begun to unravel. Here it felt as if the goddess held no dominion, only madness.

Yet there was a strange order to it all.

Every second spent here made her feel watched, as though unseen eyes lingered upon her back no matter which direction she faced.

She had imagined this place to be dark, devoid of all light, but it was bright.

Not because it gave off light.

No.

It was bright because this was where light came to die.

An endless stream of radiance fell into the dark spiral below, and because of that the abyss shone with a terrible brilliance, bright enough to blind.

Worse still, Seras could not gaze directly at it.

Fortunately, the dying light itself protected her. Whenever she tried to look deeper, the collapsing rays obscured her vision, forcing her eyes away before she could truly see what lurked below.

After all, when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back.

Yes.

This was the abyss.

Seras had been here for quite some time now, directly beneath the Sky Continent. Most mistook it for the continent’s shadow, but it was not.

Someone with immense power seemed to have forced the continent itself above the abyss to obscure it from the world.

Beneath the Sky Continent, it felt like another world entirely.

There were forests, rivers, strange plants, monsters and worse things she dared not name.

Gravity itself did not behave normally.

She stood upon the underside of the continent with both feet firmly planted. She could run. She could jump.

The only thing reminding her that she was upside down was the blood rushing toward her head.

She had come here with a large force.

Most of them were dead.

The abyss was monstrous not merely because of the creatures that lived within it, but because it corrupted those who gazed into it for too long.

It created monsters from people’s imaginations.

Things that should have been impossible became possible here.

A man who had been torn apart by horrors yesterday had returned to life.

Some of these miracles were good.

Others were evil.

It had reached the point where Seras no longer knew whether this place was hell or paradise.

Its duality was difficult to understand.

Even then, she tightened her grip around the thick roots that hung from the continent above and slowly lifted her gaze.

There, amidst vast fields of dying light, she saw it.

A colossal structure floating above the center of the abyss.

For a moment, her breath caught in her throat.

Then she exhaled slowly and turned toward the exhausted soldiers behind her.

"Send word back."

"We have found the Tomb of Lesser Gods."