Chapter 63: Trade (1)
Author: meYongYongie
Title: Rabbit that fell from the sky.
(Roughly a pulverized corpse.jpg)
?where exactly are you saying the rabbit is, Yongyong.
?Even Yongyong has lost his touch now.
?nah that ain’t no rabbit, that’s more like vomit.?Ah, isn''t this that thing? The recent strange rumors about corpses suddenly falling from the sky?
?But isn''t that like winning the lottery? I heard rumors that it''s an extremely good material.
?Seems like it would sell for a lot.
?Even a fist-sized meteorite is expensive, I wonder how much something like this would cost?
?I heard that in some worlds, there were even wars fought over them.
Recently, posts about monster corpses falling or meteor showers have been appearing frequently in themunity.
Of course, there were also many users who reacted negatively to this.
?again with the fuss?
?seems like everything be catching fire these days LOL
?There''s no one who has actually proven that something fell from the sky, right?
?They just upload so-called proof posts saying everything fell from the sky whenever they see something a bit strange.
?Some guy even said a silver aurora filled the entire sky.
?isn''t this simr to the divine possession trend from before?
?fr fr LOL if you look into it, it''s all just delusions and weird dreams LOL all nonsense.
Most people dismissed it as amunity happening where people were jumping on the bandwagon, iming they saw something simr.
This was true for Virdel as well, but she had already organized and reported it separately to the Oradge.
Virdel, who used the somewhat childish alias of Devil King, sighed as she closed themunity.
She felt guilty for not being able to properly manage themunity''s quality recently.
Although she had received permission from the Administrator, she still felt uneasy.
[A message has arrived from the Administrator.]
-Hm? Of course traininges first.
[A message has arrived from the Administrator.]
-You said you''re starting to grasp something? Train. Of course, IRL lifees first, doesn''t it?
Hmm. She almost felt a little disappointed by his overly casual response, but…
[A message has arrived from the Administrator.]
-Do as you wish.
How could she possibly feel disappointed when he was respecting her wishes?
"Hoo..."
Her eyes shone as she looked at the huge stele in the Heavenly Demon Vault.
"What could it be..."
A long, huge stele emitting a faint blue light was enshrined in the center of the Heavenly Demon Vault.
It should have been covered in dust from being buried in the treasure vault for a long time, but no such thing was visible.
However, as no effects had been discovered so far, it had been dismissed as just a giant night-shining pearl.
And that too, in a secret vault that only sessive Heavenly Demon Cult Leaders could enter.
"Hmm."
The front and back of the stele were densely engraved with tiny characters.
These were neither characters used in the Jianghu Murim where she was, nor characters she knew.
Unidentified characters that couldn''t be interpreted at all.
She was about to pass over it without much thought, but…
<em>Twitch-</em>
As she quietly stared at the stele, she had a strange sense of déjà vu, as if she could somewhat understand the meaning contained within.
How should she put it… As she kept reading sentences that couldn''t be interpreted at all, it almost felt as if the true meaning contained within was being conveyed.
It was a strange sensation that couldn''t be described in words.
The same was true for the Sacred me of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
A Sacred me Stand where small blue mes were burning.
Although it felt hot enough to make it difficult to approach closely, when she actually approached and touched the fire, she didn''t feel the heat.
Rather, the Sacred me flickered vigorously as if weing her.
Moreover, other people couldn''t even approach it.
She spent several days examining the stele and Sacred me in the Heavenly Demon Vault like that.
Since the Heavenly Demon Vault and the Sacred me Stand were far apart, she forcibly ordered the Sacred me Stand to be moved to the Heavenly Demon Vault.
She began researching the two things that had bothered her since she first saw them, and it seemed like she was making progress little by little.
She stood up.
She began to move her body, holding the long and crude Heavenly Demon Sword said to have been used by the First Heavenly Demon.
<em>Whoosh-</em>
She moved her bodynguidly, following the inspiration that came to her.
A movement that was neither martial arts nor dance steps, but something in between.
This was a bewildering result even for her.
An awkward dance that was hard to believe came from her, who had originally been obsessed with more efficient movements.
However, it couldn''t be helped.
Every time she looked at the stele, something strongly stimted her inspiration, and eventually, this was the result of her starting to express it through the martiality (武) she knew.
<em>Swish swish swish-</em>
As she began to perform a sword dance while holding the sword, the nearby Sacred me danced with a whoosh.
<em>Swish swish swish-</em>
<em>Whoosh-</em>
It felt like she could clearly understand if she was enlightened just a little bit more.
For now, she was still at the stage of grasping the feeling.
<em>Swish swish swish-</em>
<em>Whoosh-</em>
The Sacred me danced every time she swung her sword.
She swung her sword, losing track of time.
The reason she was putting in so much effort was because…
She had confirmed that there was a subtle resonance with the silver me sleeping inside her body.
Almost understood, but not quite.
How puzzling.
Could it perhaps be rted to dimensional travel?
Although it still felt like being surrounded by a hazy fog, it became clearer the more she swung her sword.
"Just a little more..."
She began to be strongly drawn in, not even knowing what she was training.
***
<em>Boom-</em>
[Ugh!]
As the space in the void split, a woman in half-torn white clothes popped out.
<em>Ahh...</em>
Silver blood was streaming down her entire body.
<em>Damn it!</em>
<em>Why did I have to get involved!</em>
<em>I should have just stayed quietly with the Roots.</em>
She had suffered all sorts of hardships after leaving the Sanctum, intending to find out the whereabouts of the disappeared Rootlets.
[Damn it...]
Checking her wounds, she saw there was no hope for recovery. It must have been a substantially high-grade Kaiju, as the wounded areas were turning purple and rotting away.
Her body trembled. Recalling the fierce battlefield just now, her body shook naturally.
The Dimensional Passage there was like a sea of blood and corpses. A sea formed of Kaiju corpses and the Sacred Blood of the Sephiroth n.
It wasmon for Chaos to covet the Sacred Blood of Sephiroth, and for the n to likewise collect the corpses of the Chaos bastards.
In other words, just sweeping up the spoils remaining on the current battlefield would yield an enormous harvest, but…
However, the current battlefield was moving too urgently for either side to have time to care about spoils. Moreover, as it was a battle in the Dimensional Passage, the casualty rate was absurdly high.
The battlefield was transforming into a scale farrger than she had anticipated.
Support hade in even from the ''Branches'', who were of a much higher status than the ''Roots'', and the same was true for the Chaos bastards.
The battlefield gradually grewrger as both sides called in reinforcements.
She had barely managed to escape from there with just her body intact.
If she had kept fighting there endlessly, she didn''t know when she might die.
Someone might mock her for desertion, but this was unavoidable.
Originally, the 《Roots》 were not in charge ofbat. Perhaps if it was a matter of supply, it might be a different story.
The role of the 《Roots》 was to manage various worlds to procure raw materials for Sacred Blood, and to process those raw materials into Sacred Blood.
Wars with external forces were the responsibility of the 《Trunks》 or 《Branches》, which was far from her jurisdiction.
<em>Grind-</em>
Moreover, fighting in the Dimensional Passage was far too dangerous. She thought she would die just from the fear that ce emanated.
Currently, both the 《Great Sephiroth》 and 《Chaos》 sides seemed to be recklessly pushing troops into the dangerous battlefield.
How did ite to this…
And how much further would it escte?
In the midst of this, she was ambushed, and although she barely managed to escape...
[Cough...!]
It was after receiving fatal wounds that were already beyond recovery.
<em>I knew this would happen...!</em>
<em>I should have escaped earlier!</em>
She bit her lip after looking regretfully at the Sacred Blood streaming down.
She couldn''t face an annihtion as absurd as this.
She raised her head and looked around.
<em>Where is this ce?</em>
asionally, some n members do crashnd while dimensional traveling.
[I can''t feel the connection with Mother.]
In any case, this meant it was a dimension outside of Sephiroth.
[Right... Let’s think positively.]
Dimensional Travel performed in an unstable Dimensional Passage during an urgent situation.
It wouldn''t have been surprising if her body had been torn apart in the cracks between dimensions.
Perhaps it was a stroke of luck that she arrived in such an intact world.
[Still...]
Her physical body began to gradually fade away.
There wasn''t much time left.
[Let''s find something that can substitute for a body.]
If left like this, her entire body would be corrupted and she wouldn''t be able to avoid annihtion.
She closed her eyes and began to resonate with the world.
Fragments of information about the world rushed in.
<em>Hm? What''s this?</em>
Martial artists wearing clothes with wide sleeves were engaged in aerialbat while wearing various machines.
The way they were flying around somehow…
Their attire didn''t match the civilization level of the world at all.
But this was an emergency situation.
There was no time to pay attention to such trivial matters.
Those things could be looked into after finding a new body.
<em>Ah...! Found one.</em>
A human with extremely high resonance was caught in her senses. Moreover, it somehow smelled faintly of the n.
<em>With a body like that, I should be able to recover quickly.</em>
Her body burst into silver mes, then transformed into a small, round ball of light.
[Ugh... This feels awful.]
It couldn''t possibly feel good to be in a state where only the soul was extracted after losing the physical body. However, it was unavoidable in order to preserve as much of the remaining power and essence of the original body as possible.
[Quickly!]
She flew instantly towards the body with the highest resonance in this world.
I can see it.
A woman wearing red armor.
As she got closer, she couldn''t help but marvel. It was nearly impossible to find such a suitable target for possession, after all.
[Come on, hand over your body!]
The silver ball of light instantly approached the girl and attempted to make contact.
And at that moment.
"?"
[Kyaaaaaaak!!]
<em>Beep-</em>
<strong>[Power Absorption System Activated]</strong>
<strong>[Unidentified Energy Source Confirmed]</strong>
<strong>[Target Analysis]</strong>
<strong>[FAIL!]</strong>
<strong>[FAIL!]</strong>
<strong>[Comparing Simr Case Analysis Data]</strong>
<strong>[Sacred me - 34.68% Match]</strong>
<strong>[Grade 2 Ether - 2.82% Match]</strong>
<em>Beep-</em>
<strong>[Proceeding with Absorption]</strong>
<strong>[ERROR!]</strong>
<strong>[ERROR!]</strong>
<strong>[Rapid Absorption System Activated]</strong>
<strong>[ERROR!]</strong>
<strong>[ERROR!]</strong>
<strong>[Unconfirmed System ess Attempt Detected]</strong>
<strong>[ERROR!]</strong>
<strong>[Initiating Subsystem Separation as well as Forced Ether Synthesis]</strong>
<strong>[Progress 0.02%]</strong>
<em>Beep-</em>
Virdel, who was briefly conversing with Namgung Jin who had visited the cult, tilted her head.
It was because she heard a voice from the armor bestowed by the Administrator.
[Kyaaaaaaak!! H-Help me!!]
"..."
"What''s wrong, /genesisforsaken