Chapter 604
At this moment, Shaer was deep in thought as she switched her potion to "Listener." She gently placed her hand on Salas's forehead, lifting her eyelid to make her gaze meet Shaer's.
A soft lavender glow surged in Shaer's eyes. Although the first-tier "Listener" wasn't particularly effective for healing the mind and spirit, it was more than enough to ease the ramblings of an ordinary person who wasn't an extraordinary being.
Moreover, perhaps due to the corruption from the system, the collapse of the death omen hadn't caused Salas's mental faith to shatter completely, making the healing process much easier.
Just a few minutes passed, and Salas slowly awakened. As she opened her eyes, she found herself staring at Shaer.
"Lady Witch..." Salas recalled what Shaer had said and refrained from uttering the term "Time Binder." She struggled to rise and knelt before Shaer.
But soon, her gaze unconsciously drifted toward the direction of the main city, her eyes filled with despair and loneliness.
"Lady Witch..." Salas turned her head to look at Shaer and spoke, "My family... they..."
"The death omen has gone mad," Shaer said, observing Salas. "There shouldn't be any survivors left in the city."
Salas's body trembled slightly, her pale form shaking like a corpse.
Noticing the shift in Salas's emotions, Shaer spoke slowly, "Your family betrayed you; there's no need to be so sorrowful."
On the surface, Shaer was comforting Salas, but in reality, she wanted to gauge Salas's reaction.
Salas's earlier despair had led Shaer to conclude that she couldn't continue the organization like Heini, so Shaer had retracted the altar rune stone.
Yet, Shaer had to admit that mere obsession and persistence, like Heini's, wouldn't truly sustain the organization.
Power, talent, obsession, or a sense of belief—none could be lacking.
Salas had decent mental strength, and Shaer had no doubt she could bear the powers of the "Fictioner" or "Recorder," even exploring further paths.
"No... I don't resent them," Salas shook her head. After a pause, she continued, "They had no choice... it wasn't their fault..."
"Whose fault is it then?" Shaer activated the "Listener" ability, her voice laced with an almost indescribable allure, coaxing Salas to reveal her true thoughts.
"The fault lies with those high and mighty beings who govern everything, deceiving their followers with beautiful lies..." Salas's voice began to fill with resentment.
But she quickly realized her mistake, lowering her head and saying, "I didn't mean you, Lady Witch..."
At that moment, Sadana, who had been hiding behind the two-headed lion, couldn't help but interject, "You're right, which is why we need to correct the actions of those 'gods'..."
Shaer turned her head slightly to glance at Sadana.
From her words of agreement, it was clear that her thinking leaned toward the dark school, advocating for the establishment of rules to restrain the actions of the gods and interfere with their paths.
But why would Sadana later join the Goddess of Salvation and even become a "Mother Goddess" in the teachings of the Holy Ascendance, striving to guide followers to worship "Ascendance" and wanting to descend into this world as a deity?
Had she stolen the original goddess's power? Or were Salvation and Ascendance merely two sides of the same coin for Sadana?
The dark school and the obliteration school were almost a thought apart... one could say that the obliteration school was an extreme version of the dark school.
"Get up," Shaer said, standing and offering a faint smile to Salas, saying nothing more.
At least, for now, Salas had regained some of Shaer's expectations.
In the distance, the shadow of the Dark Worm had begun to rise amidst the ruins, its power intertwining with that of Leimeides, tearing everything apart in a frenzy, spreading fear without restraint, causing waves of mental disturbance for those far away.
After about half an hour, the shadow of the Dark Worm gradually dissipated, and a shadow gate opened beside Shaer. A somewhat weary figure stepped out from the shadow.
"Let's go," Leimeides said, holding a blood crystal heart that radiated a sense of "uniqueness." She casually tossed it into the shadows below, where it was swallowed up and collected.
Sadana went over to support Leimeides, helping her onto one of the two-headed lions, while Shaer and Salas mounted the other.
They were heading toward the Tower Academy.
The journey to the Tower Academy would take about ten days. Even with their mounts' swift speed, they couldn't significantly shorten the travel time, as they had to navigate around the territories of other religious nations, traversing the desolate lands.
During this time, Leimeides remained mostly in a state of sleep, while Shaer occasionally asked Sadana questions.
After not taking direct action last time and through their conversations over the past few days, Sadana gradually lowered her guard against Shaer, answering many of Shaer's inquiries about the Tower Academy and Leimeides's potions.
Leimeides had indeed become a Transcendent through potions, but her condition was extremely unstable.
Especially after developing the Ascendant potion, Leimeides had consumed it without any live testing, which turned her into an Ascendant but brought about severe side effects.
These side effects manifested as ramblings and instability.
The mental disturbances that had never appeared during her Transcendent phase began to invade her mind frequently after she became an Ascendant.
The potions would tempt Leimeides to merge with the "Seed," creating an urge within her to draw closer to it.
Moreover, due to the immaturity of the potion, Leimeides couldn't maintain her Ascendant form for long. Once she exhausted the potion's effects, she would have to create the potion again and drink it to regain her Ascendant powers.
Drinking the potion again would undoubtedly exacerbate the side effects...
In this situation, it was astonishing that Leimeides had survived long enough to become the Dark Worm, and in the other realm, she hadn't gone mad; instead, it was Sadana who had lost her sanity...
Now, in her sleeping state, Leimeides was at her weakest. Logically, Shaer could do anything she wanted now, and Leimeides wouldn't be able to stop her.
However, the desire to explore the Tower outweighed Shaer's urge to eliminate Sadana. To ensure Leimeides would cooperate with her, she needed to leave Sadana a way out.
On the way to the Tower, Shaer encountered a few individuals cloaked in tattered robes, wandering in the wilderness.
According to Sadana, these people were wanderers.
Some had been exiled by religious nations, while others had escaped from them, becoming drifters in the wild.
These individuals shared a common trait: they had no faith and most harbored significant resentment toward the religious nations—if Salas had escaped the land of death, she might have become one of them.
Finally, when they were half a day's straight distance from the Tower, Shaer spotted the rising sun in the distance.
The sun dispelled the darkness that had lingered for days, and for the first time, Shaer saw light in the sky of this world.
"Is that the 'Cocoon of Light'?" Shaer asked, sensing a familiar aura and looking toward Sadana.
"The 'Cocoon of Light,'" Sadana replied, gazing at the sun. "It was brought back by the professor from the Abyss."
"The professor from the dark school?" Shaer inquired.
"Yes," Sadana nodded.
She seemed to recall something and said to Shaer, "Some of the original inhabitants of the Abyss have come to the vicinity of the Tower because of the 'Cocoon of Light'... but there are too many wanderer camps around the Tower, making it hard to find them."
The dark school...
Not to mention the dark school and the storm school, the entire Tower would vanish in the future, and even the Holy War Era had no records of the Tower, as if this once pivotal neutral entity had been completely erased.
That major event that caused the shift in eras... perhaps it was related to the Tower. Even if it wasn't, it had a significant impact on the Tower.
And the fact that no information was left behind...
Shaer thought of the "Fictioner," which was the pathway ability of the pocket watch...
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