CHAPTER 778: FAILED ASCENSION

"What the hell is that?" Ria muttered in disbelief.

They had travelled towards Verona, expecting the northern cities and landscapes of ice.

Even the sprawling verdant forests that were scattered near the borders and giant mountains.

Instead, what they were greeted with was the complete opposite.

Where there should have been the azure frozen plains flanking their sides were instead replaced by cracked and bloodied soil. Broken weapons stabbed into the ground like gravestones, corpses littered as marks of battle.

There was no grass or vegetation, only scorched and withered debris.

The forests of Verona were turned into skeletal husks, each tree melding with bone, transforming into a malformed ribcage as though a giant beast was merged with the ground.

Bark that peeled away, revealing pulsing lungs.

It was still ’alive’.

The sun, or rather what should’ve been the sun was replaced by a crimson moon that hung ominously in the sky. Its light bleeding out an oppressive crimson into the world, turning the sky into a brutal shade of scarlet.

In the distance, within the heart of the city, blossomed a jagged spire mimicking the flourishing of a twisted flower. Each petal soaked with blood and coated with barbs, tendrils of flesh stretching along each spike and the waterfall of blood pouring from the blood moon that hung above.

Clouds hung like flayed flesh hanging off the bone. Beneath the bloodied sky, blood poured towards the land, covering broken buildings and the frozen walls of the city.

The northern wind should’ve been sharp and clean, the kind that carried the coldness from the ice into your lungs.

Instead, all they found was the stench of iron clinging to the back of their throats with each breath that they took.

Rosalyn didn’t have an answer for Ria.

They left for the nation mere days ago. And their information from during that period suggested that nothing was wrong. Yet in the span of a short few days, a hellscape had appeared over Verona.

For Jin and Ria, they could recognise that this wasn’t the work of the Eclipse.

There was no purpose in this. No glorious ritual, no altar for Enris.

This was done by something far more twisted. Violence and murder for the sake of violence and murder.

Isolde had a deep frown on her face.

There were traces. Markings of things she found all too familiar.

After all, she partook in something similar when giving offerings to Zal-Ka’Rith.

The way she transformed the sinners into art.

She could see the ’flow’ of this piece. The intent and desire.

A paradox of order without order. Purpose without purpose.

Though perhaps that wasn’t the right thing to say. Instead, Isolde believed that the carnage was the intent.

"My my, I sincerely hope the Queen of this nation and her retainers are doing fine. Though. . . her soldiers not so much." Astrelya mused, looking down at a withered hand poking through the ground and gave it a kick, breaking the arm.

Ria felt a surge of anger.

She remembered Nyzel and her garden of graves. To desecrate and mock the dead in such a way was a complete insult.

"Are you angry? More reason for you to become strong is it not? So that you can impose your own justice onto others." Astrelya laughed, turning towards the heart of the city and the twisted flower that was blooming.

"Last I recall, the Queen should be trying to achieve divinity. A man made divine throne like the one present centuries ago." Astrelya spoke, shocking Rosalyn.

While this information wasn’t exactly uncommon for them due to their connections, having someone unrelated like Astrelya know this was very shocking to say the least.

After all, the three churches worked hard to hide information about Ayr and eventually succeeded in erasing it from the minds of the people. To them, there was never a city called Ayr and the Abyss was always a hostile land.

Expeditions further into the depths were always a struggle with most Lords or powerful beings opting for safety instead of exploration.

Which is to be expected considering the deeper you go, the stronger and more abnormal the beasts are.

"But such pursuits are folly don’t you agree? Exceptions are exceptions for a reason. It’s not something that anyone can just achieve on a whim. And if everyone was to become the exception, then it simply becomes the new norm.

"So I ask you." Astrelya smiled with her hands behind her back.

"Why do you think that even as the centuries have passed, there still only remains three divine thrones? The fourth may be empty but a fifth or sixth never appeared." She chuckled.

Rosalyn couldn’t respond. She couldn’t even make a guess towards the potential answer as this was a field of study that she didn’t focus on. She was too preoccupied with how to break her ’curse’ of looking like Allura and reaching Lordship instead of the process of becoming a divine.

"No answer? As Caelan’s sister, I half expected you to be as knowledgeable as he is. But then again, I suppose knowledge is discovered and learned rather than inherited through the blood." Astrelya shrugged.

"Since you have no answer or even a guess, I’ll refrain from asking questions. Instead I ask you to turn your eyes towards the heart of the flower. You might discover something rather. . . interesting?" Astrelya chuckled.

Ria followed Astrelya’s gaze reluctantly, turning her attention to the heart of the twisted flower that blossomed in the centre of the capital.

Then she noticed as did the rest of the group.

Something, someone was in the centre of the flower.

Waiting.

Suspended by the countless tendrils that hung off the flower’s petals, its elongated body fused with the pulsing vein-like stems that protruded from the depths.

The silhouette was vaguely humanoid.

But the mere thought that ’THAT THING’ was a human sent shivers down their spine.

Its spine arched in unnatural turns, limbs bending with too many joints. Strips of skin, torn and hanging off the jagged spikes that protruded from the body.

The torso, split open from the middle, revealed a mass of shimmering wet flesh tissue. And through the layers that throbbed to the rhythm of a heartbeat, countless fine wormlike tendrils wriggled and writhed, parting to reveal a face fused with what seemed to be an eye.

Where its face should’ve been, layers of metal and flesh fused to one. Serrated edges that cut the skin with each movement, each twitch. Each cut causing a wave of pain, thus repeating the cycle.

Rosalyn couldn’t turn her eyes away and neither could the rest.

It wasn’t curiosity. Even in the morbid sense.

But rather, an innate fear, a primal fear. That the moment they turn, the beast might break out.

If that ’Thing’ was to be allowed out. . .

"An ascension sabotaged at the last moments. A shame really since this might’ve become the next exception." Astrelya chuckled without fear.

She stepped towards the heart.

Countless tendrils lashed out, blood spikes that erupted from the ground. All to stop the approach of Astrelya.

But the barrier of stars held firm, unyielding. Nothing the false herald tried to do even slowed down Astrelya and soon, she reached the suspended being.

"Hm?" Noticing something strange, Astrelya leaned forward, getting a better look.

"Ohya? My my maybe they will become an exception after all!" She laughed, snapping her fingers.

Motes of light converged towards her finger, turning into a blade. Using this, Astrelya made a diagonal cut, exposing the internal structure of the false herald.

With the insides exposed, Astrelya made her way back to the group.

"I had thought that the queen perished in the sabotaged ascension, becoming this twisted mound of flesh. But it seems like that is not the case. She is what I would call a smart cookie." Astrelya narrowed her eyes.

Ria turned to the false herald.

The ’head’ of Verona was actually not a head at all. A mimicry born from a corrupted right arm housed between the ribs of the false herald.

Astrelya found her amusement at an all time high. She closed her eyes, imagining the moment of her ascension.

There’s no doubt that there was foul play. Thus whatever divinity that Verona was trying to reach must’ve been isolated into her arm and severed from her core. To permanently modify her spiritual heart, her soul and her physical form so that all connections were detached.

All for the sake of survival so that she does not become the catalyst to bring forth the birth of a twisted monstrosity mimicking the might of the divine thrones.

But this ascension. . . it didn’t feel quite complete. A trial perhaps.

But for what? The birth of a new god? Why go through such lengths? There were many cases where such experiments were done in the past so surely there are plenty of references to choose from.

Unless. . .

’A new direction of research?’ Astrelya covered her mouth with her hand.

If that was the case, Astrelya had to shift her thought process as well.

Something was off, something that’s been nagging in the corner of her mind.

She turned around, observing the broken cocoon of the false herald.

That arm. . .

It was ’fresh’.

The experiment ended right before they arrived!

No, saying that it ended wasn’t right. It’s still ongoing!

She saw a shadow in the sky. A silhouette of a man holding a woman with one arm.

A familiar face.

In that moment, Astrelya had one thought. She had to preserve the entertainment that she’s discovered.

"Grab someone near you!" She called out, grabbing Ria by the shoulder.

The others were confused but did as they were told. Isolde grabbed onto Luke, Rosalyn grabbed onto Jin.

A blinding flash of light.

The sudden pressure of miasma. The bloodthirst that dominated the air around them.

Ria collapsed on her knees.

She recalled feeling something similar.

When she was still training with Alice and Allura.

But this was far far worse. A suffocating aura that almost made her forget to breathe.

Astrelya glanced around them. The others had been transported away and they were now isolated.

As for where they were sent. . .

Terminus.