Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 1251: Stars and Corruption

With Zac creating a safe zone that greatly diminished the purple mist in the immediate surroundings, they got a proper look at the Polaris Vault. It almost looked like they'd been sent to a graveyard rather than a treasury, or a crypt since they were back in a room with proper ceilings and walls.

There were over a dozen pedestals resembling tombstones nearby, with even more hidden by the haze. Around half were protected by barriers identical to the one that appeared around the Yphelion, though these were of significantly greater make. Runes flickering with starlight floated in the shields, incinerating any corruption that came close.

"The nodes differ in size and material, and they're placed seemingly randomly instead of in neat rows," Galau mused. "I think it's a star map."

"Let's go. I can't keep this up forever," Zac grunted with a constipated expression.

"I can't believe you're even alive," Emily said.

Zac wasn't as bad off as he wanted to appear. [Purity of the Void]'s pocket space was cleansing the corruption as quickly as it was provided, showcasing the incredible capacity of his Hidden Nodes after they'd evolved to D-grade. That wasn't to say he wasn't facing some trouble; the significant drain on his Vigor and Void wasn't faked.

Running [Purity of the Void] came with a noticeable drain on the Void Vigor stored in his cells. Either body could provide the energy necessary for his Void Emperor Nodes, but it was a finite resource. Meanwhile, he had to rely on [Immutability of Eoz] and [Adamance of Eoz] to withstand the taint until it entered the purifying space.

His situation would have been much better if [Void Heart] had finished digesting the latest round of tribulation lightning. It could help him replenish the Void Vigor he lost by refining Life- and Death-attuned Natural Treasures, both of which Zac had ample reserves of. Unfortunately, he had to wait another day, at the very least, before it was done.

"Same solution as last time?" Ogras said.

"What's that?" Kator interjected.

"We destabilized the breach we found inside the Void Star with spatial bombs," Zac explained. "Destroying the breach in here would stop the inflow, but it's hard to tell how this subspace would be affected."

"It should be extremely reinforced," Galau offered.

"Well, we're not," Kator said.

"We don't have to do anything right now. There doesn't seem to be any Qriz'Ul here, so let's get the lay of the land," Zac said.

Zac inched toward the closest pillar with the storm of tomahawks following in step. Galau had taken out four Array Disks that floated around him, each scanning for various threats. Ogras was doing the same by sending shadow tendrils beyond the limits of their sight. Only Kator remained unoccupied, looking like he was taking a stroll in the park. Then again, he'd be the main combatant in case something happened.

The closest pillar was made from a sparkling mineral, and while its shielding had failed, the Star-attuned material seemed to inherently rebuff the corruption. It was funneling energy into the box atop it, and Zac didn't need Galau to confirm the tomb-like stone was a treasure-nurturing array.

Ogras gingerly extended a tendril after Galau gave the go-ahead. The box turned into dust at the moment of touch, making the group tense up. No trigger traps were sprung, and the demon picked up the five identical crystals that fell out of the box without issue.

"One each?"

"That's fine," Zac said before infusing his will. "Huh? The [Starfall Scripture]? The thing they handed out during orientation?"

"This one is the same," Emily said. "Wait… just how much is stored on here?"

"Amazing… This is the real deal—a top-tier heritage covering multiple aspects. Everything but the top layers are on here. There are even insights from previous masters," Ogras excitedly said.

"There are damaged sections in mine," Kator said.

"Same here," Zac said.

"We might come close to a full version if we fill in the gaps with the others," Galau said. "I don't have anything that can store this much information, though."

"It won't matter," Kator said. "A Supremacy engraved these crystals, and the words hold remnants of their insights. Any copy we make will miss the essence."

"Look at the adjustment exercises before the first layer," Emily said.

"So that's it," Zac nodded after scanning the mentioned section. "That would be enough for orientation."

The adjustment was a mix between Heart Cultivation and energy molding. Many features of today's cultivation didn't exist back in the day. Pathways weren't as intricate, and skill fractals didn't even exist. Cultivators used various methods to mimic the effect, including the introductory technique of the [Starfall Scripture].

It had you channel energy in a specific way while mentally intoning a particular sutra. The effect was your whole body would act like a tuning fork, remolding one's energies to better suit the other techniques in the scripture. It was a temporary version of the benefits one received by practicing traditional cultivation manuals, which meant anyone could use it without any long-term downsides.

Zac guessed that the method had two effects on the corruption. First, the heritage was evidently good at resisting the influence of the Lost Era's Dead Dao. Meanwhile, chanting the scripture was similar to self-hypnosis, which helped reject the mental influence.

"I can't believe this. We just stepped through the door and got handed a top-tier technique," Ogras whispered as he looked at the hundreds of tombs waiting. "If this is a dream, don't wake me up."

"This doesn't look too complicated. Let me try it out," Emily said before closing her eyes.

It took less than a minute before her aura subtly changed, and Zac could see how half the nearby mist was rebuffed. The others quickly followed suit. Even Kator, who utilized Miasma, successfully adjusted his aura. Only Zac remained, repeatedly trying and failing to replicate the effect with either body.

"I guess not," Zac said when the others looked at him with surprise.

"It's easy to forget you're a Mortal," Emily said with a helpless smile. "Well, you won't have to push yourself as hard with us maintaining the scripture."

"Let's keep looking," Zac said.

Zac wasn't particularly disappointed. Using the scripture would mean cutting his insight accumulation in half. And if he could analyze the technique, he might be able to replicate the effect in a way that worked with his restrictions.

The group avoided the closest pedestal as it was protected by a barrier. It was damaged and could likely be overwhelmed, but why take the risk for an unknown reward? The vault was clearly in decent enough condition that they should expect retaliation from a forced extraction. Furthermore, the shields made it impossible to see what, if anything, waited within.

Their caution proved insufficient to avoid disaster. The whole vault trembled as gleaming lights appeared in the mist. Zac barely had time to blink before the starlight had multiplied by the hundreds, forming a wave of stellar wrath that swept the chamber.

The vault was being purified, and they were standing in the middle of it. A skeletal bulwark sprung up around them, empowered by three Earthly Daos. It groaned and creaked, but it held. It was not thanks to Kator's strength. The wave was clearly designed to counter Dead Dao rather than intruders, and the mist was dispersed at a record pace.

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It was something else that overwhelmed Kator's defenses the moment they thought themselves safe. A punch of corruption tore a hole in the wall, providing a clear line of sight to the breach. Zac glanced over and almost lost himself in its growing light. He felt so small and helpless before it, like when he faced the coffin in the Threaded Hell.

"Don't look!" Zac screamed as he activated [Profane Exponents] and [Fields of Despair]—skills that could block their view of the breach without implicating the vault or its defenses.

The others quickly followed suit, adding layers upon layers of insulation. Their quick reaction saved their lives, though what made it through the blockade was bad enough. Zac felt like he'd been plunged into the purple pillar he'd accidentally released when getting the second piece of his Flamebearer seal. He was a leaf in the wind, unable to even control his bloodlines properly.

The vault's cleansing procedure was still running, and Zac could sense how the Stellar Energy was rapidly pulled toward the breach. Then, there was only silence—no purple light and no stars. Their skills collapsed soon after. The Lost Plane's aura had twisted them beyond their breaking point, and holding on would only have damaged the skill fractals.

The chamber was utterly void of any corruption. The breach remained, already fast at work replacing what the stars removed.

"I officially retract my idea to destabilize the tear," Ogras said with lingering fear. "I'm not sure it's even possible. The vault hit it with far harder than we could, and it didn't even budge."

"Something about it is different," Zac agreed.

"We'll be free from corruption for at least half an hour at least," Emily said, taking in the vault. "So there's 168 treasures."

"More like used to be," Ogras said. "Only 103 remain standing. Damn, not even the best ones survived."

There were three tombstones far grander than the others in the middle, each with more than five times as much space around them as the normal ones. The ground was also covered in dense runes around them, proving they were a notch above the rest. It hadn't protected them from the test of time. In fact, it looked like the breach had sprung from one of the tree items, as the purple gash had split one of the pillars right down the middle.

A second central pillar had also collapsed, leaving only one standing. It exuded a silent yet unyielding aura as the lingering stellar energy was being drawn within. Zac suspected the last grand treasure was the source of the cleansing wave, and it was the only reason the whole vault hadn't succumbed long ago. Even the barriers seemed to have regained some of their spirit after the outburst.

"Over there!" Galau pointed to their left, where the chamber's sole door waited.

"We're not leaving just like this," Kator rejected. "We should have ample time before another wave is released."

"Let's do a quick sweep," Zac agreed.

It didn't take long to inspect the unguarded pillars with the corruption gone. Not a single collapsed tombstone held anything of value. Their luck with the still-standing treasure-nurturing pillars was a little better. They discovered two intact items. One was a Natural Treasure that showed markings of a collapsed domain. In other words, it was once at least a C-grade treasure that had degraded enough to be relegated.

Even then, it could be considered a considered Supreme Quality D-grade treasure of inestimable grade. Its use wasn't evident, but the grand spiritual aura it emitted indicated it was an unattuned Soul Treasure. It was far beyond a normal Soul-Strengthening item, too. Galau theorized it was similar to the top treasures in the Limited Exchange. Eating it would transform your soul, providing a boon similar to gaining a constitution.

It was useless to Zac, who already practiced a Soul Strengthening Manual, but it could potentially provide a significant boost to anyone else. The same was true for the reaver in their group, as their unique bodies made most Soul Treasures worthless.

The other item was an incredibly overbearing Body Tempering Manual called [Stellar Dominion], which allowed you to make rapid progress by swallowing stellar flames and later whole stars. Zac suspected it was based on the predecessor of the Foreign Gods. Like the previous manuals, it was missing some sections, and there were only three copies of it. Kator kept one crystal while the rest went to Zac's camp.

In addition, there were six items of more dubious value. There were two pieces of unique equipment, one sword and one War Cauldron. Rather than Spirit Tools, they appeared to be unique creations holding extreme power. They were the kind of treasures a Clan would take out when facing the threat of annihilation.

Such items generally had unique requirements to be activated, and they either had a limited number of uses or extremely long cooldown times—dozens of millennia at the minimum for items at this level. In addition, they found one scroll, two natural treasures, and a singular Information Crystal.

All six treasures appeared intact, which wasn't enough to hide how they'd been utterly twisted by prolonged exposure to the Lost Plane. The Tool Spirits inside the equipment had been turned into mindless monstrosities similar to Qriz'Ul. There was no telling what would happen if they managed to activate the weapons. Most likely, the user would end up dead rather than their enemy.

The other treasures had similar issues. The words on the scroll had been twisted, and Zac almost lost his mind trying to decipher a few runes. It wasn't even possible to guess the original Dao of the Natural Treasures. They might as well have been born in the Lost Plane. Even Zac doubted he could absorb one without going insane.

Zac still held onto the two Natural Treasures. He couldn't use them today, but he might be able to slowly extract insights from them when he no longer had a free supply of tainted mist. Kator ended up taking the cauldron and Emily the Sword. Galau randomly picked the indecipherable crystal, which he wordlessly handed over to Zac.

The crystal was worthless to him but not to Zac. [Purity of the Void] had cleansed his [Foreign Gods] tome without issue, so he hoped it could do the same with the crystal. That way, he'd get another free top-tier technique. He would have taken the scroll, too, if Ogras hadn't indicated he wanted it.

Zac wasn't planning on using any of the manuals they'd found, but advanced and detailed methods like these were great reference material for upgrading his methods. [Stellar Dominion], especially, seemed very suited to his voracious bloodline.

"Are you really planning to leave the rest?" Kator said when Zac turned toward the door. "The best items are still waiting for us, and they shouldn't be corrupted."

"We need to be alive to enjoy them. Crack one open, and the next star wave will target us instead," Zac said as the door slid open to expose a small room. "You're free to stay behind; we're leaving."

"I'm afraid we're not," Galau grimaced as he rushed toward the only console inside. "I knew it. It's fried."

"How long?"

"To fix it?" Galau said. "A day or two to even get it up and running. And there's no guarantee that'll be enough to take us out of here."

"You can!" Emily exclaimed, holding a tome that had been placed on a desk. "This is a guard room. The console is used to let us back to the lobby and open a gate!"

"I guess you have your job cut out for you," Zac said, turning to Emily. "Anything else?"

"There's not much," Emily said as she browsed the book. "It's just a record of people entering, what item they took, and when they left. Wait! Here's something. 'Perfected Lord Peonsi Urma entered. Chosen by the 74th star after 14 minutes and removed the [Loop of Requital]. Left with 8 hours of accrued Beseechment time.'"

"Beseechment time? Chosen?" Zac said, looking back at the protective bubbles spread through the vault.

"It's worth a try if we're going to be stuck here for a few days," Ogras said.

"How would you even get picked?" Emily said.

"We have the [Starfall Scripture], don't we? I guess we'll just practice it in front of them and see if they're suitably impressed. Maybe release our Dao, too?" Ogras said. "There's 68 of them. Do we split up or move together?"

"Might as well stick together. The corruption will reach dangerous levels in less than an hour or so," Zac said.

"Twenty minutes each? That way, we'll have passed through the chamber in a day," Ogras suggested. "Any longer, and we're probably not fated anyhow."

"Sounds good," Zac said, glancing at Kator. "Half will go to me and Galau."

"You must be joking," the reaver scoffed.

"I'm the one keeping us safe and Galau is the one who's getting us out of here. Half is fair."

The reaver relented after a few seconds of pause. "Fine, but the first pick goes to me. And we'll only divide after we've finished."

"That's okay," Zac nodded.

He didn't hold much hope they'd get chosen by any items after his experience in the Pilgrimage of Faith. The only reason he didn't stop the idea was that he didn't feel any threat coming from the pillars. He simply wanted some safeguards in case the arrays malfunctioned and began spitting out treasures left and right.

Galau set about repairing the damaged Teleportation Array while the others sat down before a guarded pillar. Zac didn't mind that he had no scripture to rotate. He had a belly full of insights and some time to spare. Why not use it? He first turned his attention to the Chaos Library left by Be'Zi and A'Zu.

There'd been no time to properly study the repository since getting it, especially not during their hectic days following their battle with the Black Heart Cultists. Upgrading his Branches of Life and Death to Earthly Daos unlocked a wealth of new knowledge, which was incorporated into Zac's knowledge at incredible speed thanks to [Purity of the Void].

He'd already found the answers to a few major issues with his Late D-grade core blueprint after an hour. Another was enough to reach a minimum working schematic, though he'd exhausted most of his refined inspiration by that point. It was for the best. His mind wrung dry after condensing months' worth of study and insights into two hours.

Not a single treasure had responded while Zac kept himself busy, not so much as a ripple. He was the only one making tangible gains as they moved from one treasure to the next in hopes of acceptance.

A loud crash was followed by a blaring alarm as the ambient energy dropped by a few notches. Zac initially feared Galau had messed up, but he popped out of the guard room with a bewildered expression. "It wasn't me. This is coming from the outside!"

"Another wave on the way?" Emily said with false hope.

"No. This is different. It's almost like…" Ogras didn't want to finish his sentence.

He didn't need to. Zac understood exactly what the demon meant.

"It's like the base is under attack."