The words left his lips like a sacred decree, and the world shifted.
Norlan felt it before he saw it. A subtle dislocation of energy, as though reality itself had drawn a sharp breath and held it. The crimson aura around Titus blazed, then condensed, collapsing inward upon the formation with the force of a collapsing star.
The beast cores flared, each one a miniature sun drowning in expression energy, their light bleeding through the old man's aura in pulsing veins of emerald and scarlet.
The formation lines stretched.
Norlan's enhanced perception caught every detail: the way the triangles within circles began to rotate, slowly at first, then with increasing speed; the way the blood patterns,meticulously arranged from the fallen behemoths —liquefied and flowed along the grooves Titus had carved, tracing geometry that hurt to look at; the way the ten beast cores at the formation eyes synchronized their pulses until they beat as one.
voom!
A column of colorless light erupted from the center of the formation, piercing the clouds above and lancing into the sky. It carried no heat, nor force only sheer powerful presence.
A miniature tower took form in the sky. Then from it descended blinding light.
The light of the Celestial Tower of Providence extended down, acknowledging the offering, preparing to receive the price.
Titus floated above the formation, his expression serene despite the obvious strain. Sweat beaded on his brow, evaporating before it could fall. His hands moved, conducting gestures guided by the flow of energy, balancing the sacrifice against the request, ensuring the scales tipped neither too far nor too little.
"So this is equivalent exchange," Norlan thought, his breathing shallow despite himself. "This is what it means to deal with a god's dominion.Even though it's just mimicking. With a mediator at that!"
He watched the beast cores dim one by one, their essence drawn upward into the column of light. The mantis core in his hand;the one he had forgotten he still held;grew warm, then hot.
He nearly dropped it before realizing it, too, was being called.
"Let it go," Titus said, his voice distant, echoing as though coming from the other end of a long tunnel. " It seems the 999 beast cores were not enough."
Norlan opened his palm. The core rose on its own, drifting toward the formation like a leaf caught in an invisible current. It joined its brethren, pulsed once in defiance, then dissolved into streamers of green energy that spiraled up into the light.
Titus also clenched his fists,his expression energy drained at a faster rate.The exchange was too demanding.
The column brightened.
And then, where the light had been, something began to descend.
It was not light. It was not shadow. It was information. Knowledge given form. A cascade of symbols, diagrams, and textual fragments rained down from the sky, each one flickering with the cold, impartial authority of the Celestial Tower.
They swirled around Titus like a cyclone of parchment caught in a storm, too fast for any normal eye to track. And with every second that they revolved,more expression energy was being drained out of Titus. His hair deepening it's grey luster each passing second.
The equivalent exchange was consuming his lifespan.
Norlan's eyes were not normal.Having activated the Skill energy contradiction to it's fullest,he understood what was happening.
Too scary!
He activated his Energy Contradiction skill further,,pushing past what he thought was maximum, straining against the limits of his perception.
The symbols slowed. The diagrams resolved. He saw mountain ranges rendered in impossible detail, ley lines traced through unknown territories, the locations of spirit springs, dungeons tiered portals and much more that marked the precision that spoke of celestial observation rather than mortal exploration.
Geographical information, he realized. All of it. Every inch of this world that the Tower deems relevant.
He saw something else too,a price. Listed in the cascade, buried among the data like fine print in a contract: the exchange was accepted.
A receipt, Norlan thought with dark amusement. "Even gods keep ledgers."
How right he was!
Titus began to descend, the cyclone of information following him, compressing, condensing. The symbols folded into each other, layers of knowledge stacking like sheets of paper until they formed a single, solid sphere of crystalline light that settled into the old man's waiting palm.
He landed heavily, his knees buckling for just a moment before he caught himself. His expression energy retracted, the crimson aura fading like dying embers.
The formation beneath him cracked, the lines losing their glow, the blood patterns turning to ash.
Titus held up the sphere. It was no larger than a fist, but Norlan could feel the weight of what it contained,the density of knowledge compressed into that small space.
"Done," Titus said, his voice rough. He wiped sweat from his forehead, his hand trembling slightly. "That… took more out of me than I expected. I am not as young as I once was."
He joked. Extended this sphere towards Norlan.
****
William Hexwill had been running for the better part of an hour.
His legs burned. His lungs ached. And somewhere behind him—or above him, or everywhere—the mountain continued to roar. Blinding light eminated from all directions, further making him affirm his resolve to run.
He had not stopped to look back. He was not going to stop to look back. Whatever was happening at that peak, whatever had sent flesh raining from the sky and beasts into a frenzy, he wanted no part of it.
His newly expanded divine aperture pulsed with stored spirituality, ready to be used, but he had no illusions about his capabilities. Seventh level of the Awakened Realm or not, he had seen those beasts.
Just the few he had face almost killed him. Leaving him only with his naked bum.
And so he ran and ran. His stamina and speed now multiple times than before. Subconsciously,he was also using the energy differentiation skill of his. He concentrated energy at the soles of his feet and joints for faster movement. When he ran through thorny bushes,his spirituality would spread to all points of contact automatically to shield him. Even he was dumbfounded by what was happening.
But even that would not slow him down.
And he slowed only when the sounds of conflict faded to a distant rumble, when the trees around him grew denser, when the path beneath his feet became less traveled.
His naked soles pressed into soft earth, then onto stone, then onto something that felt suspiciously like crushed bone.
Looking up,he was almost forced to pick another direction and and bolt.
Crushed skeletons were everywhere. Some disfigured, some whole. Some he even didn't know what kind of animal they belonged to.
Step.
He strides forward. Crunching another bone.
Step.
He stepped backwards. Crunching yet another bone.
He looked left and right. Behind and forward. All he could see were bones. The forest had vanished in thin air. The thick tall trees nowhere to be found.
Williams was scared. Even more scared that when he awoke into this world for the first time. More scared than when he saw two collosi beasts fighting it out from the tree trunk back then.
Then he heard it. A voice thrilled by his presence. A voice happy for his fear.
"Welcome to the bone sage's dungeon.I am cheering for you. Hope you make it."