BOOK 4: CHAPTER 21: SEVERED TETHER

Once David’s grasp of the Law of Unbinding grew firm enough to apply it properly to Rend, the fight with the Sworn and Champions lost its meaning. It transformed from a bloody battle to an ordeal—an experiment at best.

The Champions and Sworn were already writhing on the ground, struggling to do anything. It took little to eliminate them. However, David didn’t let them escape with an easy death. He unleashed the Law of Unbinding with Rend to sever the connection with their Ascendants once, then tried to establish a bond of Conflict with them thereafter.

When that didn’t work, he killed them brutally, attracting the ire of the Goblins surrounding him.

As for the Goblins all around him, David was done killing them. Instead of losing precious bonds of Conflict, David severed the bonds of those cretins that had resisted him earlier. He cut through the tethers that connected them to other Ascendants and watched the birth of strong bonds of Conflict.

It was a little frustrating that his Source was not powerful enough to use the Law of Unbinding continuously with Rend, but it was not like he needed every single Goblin to survive. A few Words of Power were enough to lower the strain weighing on the Source, modifying it ever so slightly.

The blades of Rend David released after the modification killed thousands of Goblins, tearing through their bodies and souls, yet even more Goblins survived, with their bodies broken and their souls crippled. Their condition mattered little to David as long as their other bonds tore apart, creating more than enough space to form firm bonds of Conflict with him.

All in all, it was a difficult ordeal and a full-blown mess, which had to be fixed by Vitae devouring the gore all around him, but it worked—more or less. David wreaked havoc, and he did not stop until several powerful life signals appeared in his vision.

Using Origin Essence to amplify Bloodthrone Dominion and [True Sight] was more than worth it, as he learned enough about the life signals to know that they were too powerful for him to deal with.

“That was fun. See you later,” David called out, casting [Phantom Rush] to disappear from the Goblins’ sight. He returned to the Rift and disappeared from the unknown world.

However, instead of returning to the Earthen Union once he was back, David joined Electra in the Rift that led to the colossal, mountainous plateau.

“Come back. I need your help for a minute,” he called out after slashing twice at the crowded mass of Goblins. He released Rend, severed hundreds of tethers, and established new bonds of Conflict en masse.

Electra worked hard as his Champion and had wreaked enough havoc to push the newly forming bonds straight to Dissenter.

“We’re done here, Electra!” David shouted when Electra resisted his command to release more dark-violet lightning bolts.

“Don’t waste your energy on them. You did more than enough to anger them. Save your power for the other Goblin tribes!”

They had three more Rifts to go through, and their time was running out. If the Ascendants from the other Rift entered the interconnected Rift, it would be troublesome to return home. The Ascendants from outside couldn’t enter the Earthen Union, but that meant he had to be back before they arrived.

Electra caved in and followed David out of the Rift. There was no sight of an Ascendant in the interconnected Rift, but that didn’t mean anything. They had to hurry.

***

David grunted as he looked at the gaping hole in his chest. He should have expected the Goblin Ascendants to be angry, but he did not expect them to come for his head this fast.

“At least, they didn’t fry my brain,” he chuckled, casting [Lifeweaver’s Bond] on himself to check on his health.

It was bad. Really bad. David couldn’t see it, but the backside of his head was no more, and most of his back had been burned. It was charred and barely recognizable, and if not for the highly potent mixture of poison and venom coursing through his veins, he wouldn’t be able to see them either. Not that he liked the pain and paralysis the deadly liquid inflicted.

The worst, however, was that his Source was on the verge of breaking—again. After angering half a dozen Ascendants and severing tens of thousands of their well-nourished bonds, David was forced to go above and beyond to close the Rift connecting to the Earthen Union. Relying on the Law of Unbinding, thus nearly crushing the Source for the umpteenth time, David removed the Rift’s anchor.

Nobody from the interconnected Rift or the worlds beyond would return to the Earthen Union to threaten his territory, his people, or Orhain himself. They wouldn’t make it to the Earthen Union through this Rift. He had considered leaving the Rift open before, wondering what it would feel like to roam other worlds, kill millions, and establish bonds of Conflict with billions.

Too focused on the thought of gaining millions of bonds to strengthen himself, David failed to realize what he was thinking right away. He licked his lips in anticipation, only for pain and looming death to pull him back to earth.

He was a killer, but he did not plan to start a genocide. In the first place, jumping worlds as a 1-Star Ascendant would deprive him of the safety he currently received from the Earthen Union. As a native, he could return to the Earthen Union at any point, enjoying its protection as long as the Weave restrained the descent of other Ascendants. However, it was uncertain how much longer the Weave would do that, and how much more time the Earthen Union would need to digest the last remnants of the World Awakening.

Leaving the Earthen Union would take away his protection. Severing the bonds other Ascendants had established with their people using the Law of Binding, in order to form as many bonds of Conflict as possible, would attract the ire of even more Ascendants. For the time being, that was not something David wanted. The Goblin Ascendants had already been troublesome enough.

“W-what happened to you?!” Lilia’s shriek echoed in his ears. He grimaced and turned back to see hundreds of Classers stare at him in horror.

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The Rift behind him dispersed, but it did not look like that offered the Classers any reassurance.

“I had to find a few Goblins.” He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head, only to touch something slippery and squirm in pain.

Right, the back of his head was missing, David mused, casting [True Restoration], while upping [Unyielding Vitality], [Vital Weaving], and casting a condensed network of [Weave of Life]. Dozens of brilliantly glowing spheres spawned around David and connected to him, offering him the energy he needed to recuperate quickly. ŕἈ𝐍Ò₿Ё𝒮

“There’s no reason to worry about me. I am a Healer, you know?” He winked at Lilia, who could only sigh in resignation. She looked at the gaping hole in his chest in worry but didn’t say anything. She knew better than to question him in front of everyone.

David understood her. He really did. While they no longer relied on him to survive, there were countless terrors in the world. Even stronger beings were waiting to descend upon the Earthen Union once the restrictions were lifted. And right now, he was the only one who could protect them.

He knew that was not the case since there were countless beings with the strength to protect them, but Orhain’s townspeople had never seen anyone else. To them, David was a savior. He appeared all of a sudden, protected them, and helped them not only to survive but to thrive.

The tension among the Classers dispersed slowly as David’s wounds closed. If he had been any other Class, he would have died. Maybe he would have survived for a few hours, maybe even days with the right abilities, but healing the wounds inflicted by an Arcana wasn’t something anyone could do. Even [True Restoration] struggled to restore his old body.

Since [True Restoration] was still only a Tier-3 Skill Rune, it couldn’t heal everything. In fact, David doubted that any ability — other than a Law or Arcana — could easily heal wounds like that.

“I will probably be down for a few days. The situation on the other side of the Rift was a little…unexpected, and I’ll have to focus on recuperating.”

His Source would be fixed in days, and David hoped his body would be back in its prime as well by then.

If not… so be it. David was more than satisfied with his achievements. The Law of Unbinding was finally engraved on his Source, albeit only fragmented, and he’d formed a few new bonds with Electra’s ample support.

[Divine Seed]

Rank – 1-Star (3.31%)

Affliction – Unique (Twin Paths)

Champions – 1 (Electra)

Idols – 4x Guardians (Orhain – Firm Connection)

Sworn – 0

Bonds – 298,375 (25 Neutral)

Path of Favor – 4224 (895x Favorable, 1736x Trusting, 1487x Loyal/Follower, 104x Believer, 2x Devotee)

Path of Conflict – 294,126 (492x Negative, 289x Critic, 263,963x Dissenter, 29,382x Opponent)

Territory

Small Town – Orhain

Land – 51 km²

Close to 300,000 bonds were an achievement, to put it lightly. It was an amazing feat, and unfortunately, not something he could repeat easily. He wouldn’t jump to random worlds to terrorize them just to form bonds of Conflict, even if it would elevate his Divine Seed’s progress to new heights. He could probably push to 2-Star Ascendant with a few weeks of hard work if he were to become a genocidal psychopath, but that was not acceptable. He would lose himself on the way to ascend godhood.

Fighting the Goblins had been different. They struck first and invaded his territory. They deserved retaliation. A message to ensure the Goblins and their Ascendants understood what he would do to the rest of their kin if they dared to attack him or his people again.

Maybe the Goblin Ascendants were angry at him. He would be angry too if someone did the same to him. However, they had a lot more problems to take care of, especially now that they could no longer use the interconnected Rift to attack the Earthen Union with the combined attack force of the five-Rift alliance.

“They’d better focus on their Voidling issue,” David muttered, licking his lip as he recalled the edges of a wasteland near the oceanside of the fourth Rift he’d entered.

“Are they back?” he wondered. “Maybe I should check up on Zachariah and Maja.”

***

Seeing the first wasteland since he returned from the Naughtrealm bothered him greatly. Sure, the wastelands had not been on the Earthen Union, and his Echoes hadn’t found any signs of Voidlings in the countries surrounding Kamia, but in a way, that was even worse. It showed David once again that the End was a serious threat that did not only affect the Earthen Union but also the other worlds.

And it did not disappear with the destruction of the Naughtrealm. Maybe it eliminated the Voidlings on the Earthen Union, since the Earthen Union’s Voidlings vanished after the connection to the Naughtrealm popped up the second time.

David was a lot stronger than before, but was he also strong enough to fight a Voidre? Maybe he could fight the Void Wolf they encountered before if he used his Arcana, accessed the Weave, and unleashed Vitae Nihilum. But what about several Voidre or stronger ones?

“Can the Law of Unbinding be used against the Voidlings?” he pondered quietly, trying to squash the frustration building up in his heart.

Forced to rest for close to ten days to ensure his body and Source were back at full health, David had more than enough time to think about the things he wanted to do. Creating more methods to eliminate Voidlings was one thing. It was something he promised to focus on, but it was only one of many things on his seemingly endless priority list.

It was on par with the growth of his Divine Seed and enjoyed as much attention.

David went as far as to focus on researching both the Law of Unbinding and the growth of the Divine Seed. He tested the Ancient Law on Vitae, tearing through it, temporarily severing David’s control of the End’s power.

Naturally, he used the Law of Unbinding against the undead as well. There were hundreds of thousands of targets, possibly millions spread across the remains of the land of the dead, and David made it a mission to use all of them as his guinea pigs.

His power increased as he removed the land of the dead, and his understanding of the Ancient Law increased, though the process was slower than he would have liked. But he could not complain, as the river of Might flowing into the Divine Seed provided him with more and more power.

Somehow, David doubted 1-Star Ascendants were supposed to have close to 300,000 bonds or that the vast majority were at the third and fourth level. Otherwise, the System’s information package for Ascendants wouldn’t have mentioned that most of them spend years, possibly even decades, to jumpstart their ascension.

But did the growth of an average Ascendant really matter to him? He did not have years to advance to 2-Star, forget about centuries to ascend to godhood.

Several Ascendants were angry at him. They probably wanted to see him dead, but they would have to queue up behind Zephyr and the gods he would inevitably enrage sooner rather than later. And, of course, the End.

David did not think for a moment that the End was oblivious to his actions in the Naughtrealm. He was certain the End knew everything, and that only made the silence worse. It weighed harder than a Beast God’s wrath. And that for one was something David had already experienced.