Chapter 997: Act 169 – A First Glimpse at the Door of Law
Brendel felt as if he had experienced a long dream, a dream composed of countless fragments of images, with scenes flashing by in front of his eyes like the silent flow of a river, drifting forward with time, as if he had traversed one world after another. In the first world, he felt himself in a small room in a half-awake daze, surrounded by many tall and handsome humans with black hair and golden eyes, dressed in robes that were red on the left and black on the right, with dark gold standing collars. The robes were entwined with an Ouroboros serpent, and among them were eleven people. One of them stepped forward to lift his eyelid, a ring shaped like a serpent gleaming on the index finger.
What came into view were dark walls and a floor covered with a lattice network used to transmit magic power, like the upper levels of a tower. Outside the circular hall stood twelve black stone pillars, and beyond them, golden clouds rose and fell, with tall buildings piercing the heavens scattered among them, while in the distance, the Perking sun shed its eternal afterglow on the horizon.
These beautiful humans conversed with each other but made no sound, like a silent film. Occasionally, they would draw a bright symbol in the air, and then the others nodded in apparent agreement. From the shapes of their mouths, Brendel finally deciphered a word from modern Cruz that he could understand:
The Truth Society—
The image quickly fragmented and faded. In the second world, Brendel felt himself transformed into a refugee, the magnificent buildings around him no longer existing. In a dazed state, he followed a nameless clan forward, as great beasts dragged wooden carts across the vast plains. Looking back, he saw the golden clouds on the horizon, and above them, a shadow of a high tower could be faintly discerned. Meanwhile, countless meteors fell from the sky, trailing long tails, striking the ground and leaving behind gleaming marks on the horizon.
But one image left a deep impression on him.
A giant dragon loomed over half the sky, its outspread wings extending from the southern edge of the vast plain all the way to the north, spanning across the sky. Its curved neck resembled a colossal tower at the peak of the clouds, and its massive head gazed down at the ground, golden eyes shining like a giant shadow in the clouds, dominating the heavens and the earth. Yet a greenish blue light like emerald was rising slowly behind the cloud layers, resembling a morning star, shining brilliantly in the high sky, pointing toward the heart of the dragon.
Then the second scene vanished like sand in the wind. Next came the third world, which was made up of a series of fragmented images. Sometimes he felt himself being carried forward by a group of black-robed figures through the heavily clouded mountains, and at other times, he worshiped at an altar towering in the golden sunlight alongside countless knights. Atop that altar stood a giant, surrounded by thunder, and then he saw a human dressed in a crimson robe inject a fire-wreathed gem into the body of a monster, whose anguished cries echoed across the land.
He saw countless such monsters being created. Most were immediately killed, but a few managed to escape into the forest and turned into magical beasts, among those who survived were a group resembling humans with black hair and golden eyes.
The images then faded once more—
At that moment, Brendel suddenly understood that this was the process of the Minren’s birth—some were attempting to recreate divine beings using the blood of gods, and they were the products of this experiment.
After realizing this, his mind fell into a dreamy slumber again, this time for what seemed like a century. When Brendel awoke again, he had not even opened his eyes before he could scent the faint fragrance of flowers in the wind. Upon opening his eyes, he found himself in an exquisite yard, eternally spring-like, with nightingales singing softly and ivory-white carved pillars hidden among the greenery.
Elven Sentinels wielding silver glimmering halberds stood guard to his left and right. Amidst the crowd, a silver-haired elven girl approached him, holding up her dress as she curtsied and said, “Good afternoon, Your Highness—”
Brendel blinked slightly, and the images dissipated like dust in the wind.
Then he heard a furious voice: “How dare you peek into my memories!”
This sentence tore open the dream, shattering the world within it and causing Brendel to wake suddenly. He opened his eyes wide, the first thing he saw was the verdant green, flecks of golden light flickering in the gently swaying fields. When he could see more clearly, he discovered that it was the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees in the afternoon.
Then his gaze fell upon a short-haired woman with a cold expression, her hand resting on his forehead, frowning slightly, her short platinum hair shimmering in the sunlight. Upon seeing Brendel awake, her tightly furrowed brows relaxed instantly, raising the tips slightly, a subtle movement that made Brendel realize—she recognized him.
“You saved me… uh?” Brendel groaned, just as he tried to move, an overwhelming pain shot through his limbs and body. Only then did he remember everything that had happened before, the fierce battle with Bai, realizing he had suffered severe injuries in an unyielding state, and that the blood of the dark god had wreaked further havoc in his body. It was a miracle that he hadn’t died, but miracles do not exist in this world; the only possible explanation lay with the woman in front of him.
After a brief moment of confusion, he had already recognized her identity—as the Saintess of the Lion’s Holy Palace, Sidney.
But why was she here?
Sidney silently pressed down on Brendel, saying, “You’re too badly hurt, the holy water can only barely pull you back from the grasp of death, it cannot heal your wounds.”
Brendel understood his condition now; he lay quietly for a moment, his head filled with confusion, and after a long time, he managed to clear his thoughts. With some difficulty, he sat up from the ground, retrieving holy water from the dimensional portal and swallowing it. As he felt the sacred energy gradually restoring his injuries, he took the time to weakly open his character status panel, only to be stunned by his current state:
Under the character status section, the line for Absolute Power clearly read: Side of Truth (Pinnacle). He immediately sensed his strength; the elemental power lay steady yet contained a raging tide within, the lines of the laws constituting the elements were even more solid and unbreakable than before. The manifestations of the two laws relating to time and space around him were crystal clear now, no longer shrouded in the obscure feelings of the past, which was a significant characteristic of reaching the Pinnacle of the Side of Truth. Moving from the realm of elements to the Side of Truth was a process of mastering power and understanding it. The higher the stage approached Pinnacle of Truth, the better one understood the elements they possessed. Upon reaching the Pinnacle of the Side of Truth, the elements possessed by the master of the elements would no longer merely display passive laws.
At this stage, the elements no longer possessed just a few active and passive skill effects; players could truly manipulate and comprehend the elements through their will, and the power of the elements would depend solely on the player’s understanding and mastery of them.
In fact, this had already crossed the threshold of the Pinnacle of Laws and formed the foundation of extreme power. After experiencing this stage, players could truly master the strength of the realm of elements.
Brendel looked down and indeed saw that the time-space element section had not only the original active and passive skills but also added an active description effect: “The player will be able to freely manipulate the powers of time and space.”
Of course, this method of displaying elemental power, like the elemental active skills, also required continuous consumption of the power of order—namely, the degree to which the player could control the elements—yet the consumption was tremendously high. However, the incredible cost brought equally powerful effects. Previously, the main and passive effects of the time-space element he could use were limited to only teleportation, limited manipulation of time flow, and increasing his own defense, among a few others. So when Bai attacked, all he could do was rely on teleportation to escape, and he was easily suppressed by her.
But now it was different; Brendel could easily become immune to all damage—he only needed to isolate either space or time. As long as the Essence Element or Twilight Power could not negate this condition, limited invulnerability could be established. And this was precisely where the time-space element, akin to existence power, was mighty. Vaunte was a world of elements; the strength of the elements you mastered determined how high you could reach—this was no idle talk.
Of course, with Brendel’s current level of power, achieving this would likely only be sustainable for a thousandth of a second because theory and reality do not always align.
Brendel clenched his fist, as if feeling his own strength, and he began to realize the reason behind his rapid leap from the mid-level of the Side of Truth to its Pinnacle. In fact, after witnessing Bai’s extraordinary scythe, he had an inkling he had touched the threshold of something profound—something that even the last version of himself could not comprehend, the deepest secrets of this world. The aura of existence power contained in Bai’s ultimate strike had suddenly resolved the confusion in his heart.
Existence power was scarce in this world, but chaos was undoubtedly one of them. Brendel felt immense gratitude in his heart because in Vaunte, mastering powerful elements was not without a price. The stronger the element, the harder it was for mortals to master and understand the truths and secrets that lay behind it. Elements like time and space were exceedingly intricate, and a mortal may spend their entire life without grasping its true meaning, let alone mastering it.
Those who possess the highest elements may not ultimately be able to enlighten the elements, and those who can enlighten the elements might not fully understand their true meaning and enter the plains of extremes. Hence, those with lower-level elements often had an advantage in this regard. For example, a remarkable individual like Gray Saint Mephistopheles needed a stroke of fortune to illuminate the plains of extremes, and he was merely mastering the Gray Element, which, although an illusory element, was not of high rank.
It must be said that Brendel himself was extremely fortunate. Both enlightening the elements and reaching the Pinnacle of the Side of Truth relied on rather coincidental circumstances. If enlightening the elements was something he had some grasp of, he truly had no confidence in entering the plains of extremes with the time-space element; after all, it very likely represented existence power itself. Yet, little did he expect Bai to demonstrate it right before him—that form of existence power in Vaunte.
Naturally, had he died under that strike, this whole series of results would not have existed. However, he had escaped a disaster, and thus everything he had seen back then began to bloom and bear fruit.
Looking beyond the elements, Brendel sensed that the changes within him were not limited to that; what he first needed to find was the blood of the dark god. The woman Bai was so obsessed with that thing indicated that it was anything but simple. Moreover, although he understood the existence of the time-space element, his accumulation of absolute power still had to follow a gradual process. It was impossible to gain power out of thin air, and he suspected that a portion of the increase in power came from the blood of the dark god.
His gaze sharpened, and he realized he had found the root of the problem—
Although he had not found traces of the blood of the dark god in his character panel, he discovered something else; his elite template had directly upgraded to a boss template, and it was the highest level world boss template. This template increased his attributes by 150%. With these attributes, his absolute power indeed placed him solidly at the Pinnacle of the Side of Truth.
It dawned on Brendel just what the previously marked absolute power status referred to; if it was merely an improvement in understanding element laws, it would only enhance his control strength over the elements themselves, while the increase in absolute power was evidently reliant on the enhancement of attributes.
But an elite template would never upgrade for no reason, and the most likely suspect was the dubious blood of the dark god.
For some reason, when Brendel thought of this, images from the dream suddenly floated back into his mind.
In the third world, the people he saw must have been the first generation Arborists—the Druids of the World’s Ring.
They were creating gods.
Using the power of divine blood.
Brendel couldn’t help but subconsciously touch the wound on his chest; though it had completely healed, leaving only a faint scar, he felt as if he could still feel the pulsating power within it.
