Chapter 777 - The Unease

Chapter 777: Chapter 777 - The Unease

A few more months passed in the Big World.

Inside Lucien, far more time accumulated.

As the divine energy flowing into Lucien increased, the burden of maintaining the isolated temporal zones gradually became easier to bear.

That improvement gave him room to expand.

New training grounds appeared across his inner universe, each separated carefully enough that one temporal region could not interfere with another.

Lucien’s growing control over Time had become noticeably more refined.

If he devoted himself entirely to one isolated region, he could now push its temporal flow close to twenty times that of the Big World without threatening its stability.

The discovery tempted him more than he wanted to admit.

Twenty years inside for every year outside was absurd even by Lootwell’s standards.

But Lucien eventually chose not to concentrate that advantage on a single group.

Creating one terrifyingly advanced division would certainly be useful, but giving more people access to additional years would strengthen Lootwell much more broadly.

So instead of forcing one region to its highest possible rate, he distributed the strain across multiple training grounds and expanded the number of people who could benefit from them.

The result was less spectacular when viewed individually.

Taken as a whole, however, Lootwell was accumulating years of preparation that the outside world never saw.

Lucien preferred it that way.

He had long since stopped looking for one weapon powerful enough to solve every problem.

He wanted the entire structure to become difficult to break.

•••

Five months passed outside.

Inside some of Lucien’s accelerated regions, years had already gone by.

People changed.

Projects that had once existed only as unfinished concepts matured into functioning devices.

Commanders accumulated enough simulated experience that their younger selves would have struggled to understand how calmly they now handled disasters. The Monster Small World continued producing stronger beasts, while the Liberators grew into their strange advantages with increasingly frightening efficiency.

The Tree of Creation ripened more Fruits whenever Lucien could supply enough divine energy, and those Fruits created another generation of people whose bodies, Laws, and potential began changing in directions even Lucien could not always predict.

Lootwell became stronger quietly.

That part pleased Lucien.

The five continents noticed that new facilities continued appearing and that certain people occasionally returned from Lootwell changed far more than the time outside seemed to justify, but few understood the scale of what was happening.

There was no reason they needed to.

Outside Lucien’s inner universe, life had settled into a strange rhythm.

Preparation had become so ordinary that many people barely thought of it as preparation anymore.

That was exactly what Lucien had wanted.

Then Vorren came looking for him.

•••

Lucien noticed immediately that something was wrong.

Vorren normally looked uncomfortable whenever he had bad news, but there were degrees to that discomfort, and Lucien had become surprisingly familiar with all of them.

This was different.

Vorren did not enter the room complaining about administrators dragging him through another dangerous inspection. He did not ask whether Lucien had somewhere safer to stand while they talked. He did not even glance toward the nearest exit before approaching.

That alone made Lucien put aside what he had been reading.

Vorren stopped several steps away.

His expression had gone pale.

Lucien studied him.

"How bad?"

Vorren did not answer immediately.

That worried Lucien more.

Over the past months, they had developed enough familiarity with Vorren’s instincts that Lucien could usually understand the general severity of a warning from the man’s behavior before he ever spoke.

But this was not quite any of those.

Vorren pressed a hand against his chest.

"I don’t know."

Lucien’s expression hardened.

Vorren hated saying that.

"What does it feel like?"

"Different."

Lucien waited.

Vorren looked toward the distant horizon, though nothing unusual was visible from inside the room.

"The danger we’ve been feeling for months was always... far away. Like something was there, but I couldn’t tell what direction it would come from."

His brow tightened.

"This isn’t like that."

Lucien rose slowly.

Vorren continued, choosing his words with visible difficulty.

"It feels like something that was being held back stopped being held as tightly."

Lucien went still.

He did not like that description.

Not at all.

"Do you want to leave?"

The question came naturally.

Months ago, Lucien would not even have needed to ask.

Vorren would already have been halfway toward whatever place his instincts considered safest.

This time, Vorren hesitated.

Then he shook his head.

"Not yet."

Lucien stared at him.

Vorren seemed to realize what he had said a moment later and looked faintly disturbed by himself.

But he did not change the answer.

"I came here first."

For some reason, that simple statement pleased Lucien almost as much as it concerned him.

Vorren had sensed something frightening enough to make him pale, and instead of running, he had come to warn Lootwell.

Lucien opened his mouth.

That’s when it occurred.

The world shook.

•••

The first tremor passed through Lootwell so deeply that neither of them understood what had happened for a heartbeat.

It was not an ordinary earthquake.

The ground moved, but that was almost incidental.

Lucien felt the disturbance passing through Space itself.

Formation arrays across Lootwell flickered.

Nearby teleportation structures hummed violently as their stabilizing systems reacted.

Vorren’s face lost what little color remained.

Then came the sound.

A tremendous boom rolled through the Big World.

It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, carrying through distances that should have swallowed any ordinary noise long before it reached the five continents.

Windows rattled.

Protective formations activated.

Across cities, mountains, sects, kingdoms, and hidden territories, countless people stopped what they were doing.

Lucien was already outside before the echoes finished.

Vorren followed.

Every powerful perception across the five continents turned toward the same distant region of the world.

Toward the supercontinent occupied by the Black Mass.

Lucien’s heart tightened.

Vorren stared in the same direction.

"So that’s what it was."

Lucien did not answer.

He was already seeing it.

•••

Nobody needed an investigator to explain what was happening.

The change was visible.

For years, the immense dark boundary surrounding the corrupted supercontinent had remained one of the defining features of the Big World. It separated the corrupted monsters beneath it from the rest of the world’s civilizations.

Now that boundary was moving.

At first, Lucien thought it had ruptured.

Then his senses spread farther, and the truth became obvious.

The Black Mass was receding.

Slowly.

So slowly that someone watching casually might have missed the movement entirely.

But it was retreating inward.

The enormous darkness that had blanketed the corrupted territory began drawing back toward its center.

The Tidewatch Network reacted almost immediately.

Warnings spread through observation stations across the five continents, and long-range formations shifted toward the corrupted supercontinent. Reports began appearing before most factions had finished understanding what the first tremor meant.

Lucien ignored the flood of messages.

His eyes remained fixed on the retreating darkness.

Aurelia’s warning returned to him with uncomfortable clarity.

At least three years.

The Black Mass would transform.

The predicted period had been approaching.

Lucien had known that.

He had built armies, trained commanders, expanded Grace, strengthened the ancient beasts, recovered the Liberators, created Voidwatch, eliminated hidden weaknesses, and even bent time itself to buy more preparation.

He had known this moment was coming.

Watching it actually begin still made his chest feel tight.

"It started."

Vorren stood nearby.

For once, he did not joke.