Chapter 383: The Broken Warden Returns

A single resonance was normal; to have ten was clearly abnormal, and my body was making it known to me, as I did not move for almost fifteen seconds.

After the feeling passed, I gasped in astonishment... my soul still felt free, and my channels almost felt hungry. The subtle pressure that usually signified that I could not grow my resonances any further could not even be felt. It would seem that the Soul Flayer had given me more benefits than I previously thought.

I may not have its memories, nor did it aid in any way in the purification of my soul, but it seemed that something of the plasticity of my channels had been enhanced.

My Auxillary skills and celestial tier skills were also enhanced, but the changes were not as drastic as what had taken place when my attunements moved forward. I just felt more solid and ready to face whatever the world had to throw at me.

I looked at the distance where the battle was ongoing, and I asked myself, where was the Sovereign of the Stars? The Caelith Mourne Pyramid had not been broken, since I did not see the Pale Matron, just the shadow of another Demon God deep inside the ocean.

There were many things that I did not know of Celestials, Archons, Makers, and Demons, and if there was any way to find an answer, it would be at Caelith Mourne.

The chance that the Jade Oracle may be alive was almost slim to none, and even if she were not, I could not access the part of my status screen that concerned matters relating to the Warden position or what it truly meant.

I looked one more time at the battle ongoing and sighed... the war would find me, but what I needed more than battle was answers. I have talked to the Sovereigns, albeit quite briefly, and I know that they were mostly level headed... mostly.

What would happen to me if I returned. Sure, I was now more durable, and would be able to withstand attacks, but none of my spells had reached the Sovereign Tier, I had no Grimoire, and my domain was fractured.

None of them would listen to me, and I would not be able to make any changes here, and except for a painful death, there was no good reason to return.

At this point, I was too ignorant about the state of affairs, and I should go to Caelith Mourne and begin looking for my answers.

Laying a line of lightning, I stepped upon it and vanished, my position now facing Caelith Mourne.

Sigh... this broken warden is coming to his office, I hope my reception does not kill me.

The line of lightning carried me across the continent in minutes, the landscape blurring beneath me. Burned forests, shattered cities, rivers of fire and ash. The war had touched everything. It had touched everyone.

Even now, there was this desire to descend and find my sister while cleansing the continent with lightning and fury. I closed my eyes, the scars may be fading, but the memories remained.

This line was a slippery slope, and the weight of the innocents I had killed was not something to be thrown away. War was cruel, yes, and those that fought within it were faceless... I had resolved myself to always kill if the moment called for it, but I will never chase slaughter.

In what seemed like no time at all, the Caelith Mourne pyramid rose in the distance, black and silent, I paused a mile away and looked around, trying to see if there was any changes, but I could not see anything out of the ordinary.

The broken remnants of the camp sat some distance away, it was exactly the way I remembered leaving it when I had entered the Caeliths all that loops ago, and met the shadow of a Sovereign for the first time.

Not far from the tents were three bodies; the weather had not been good to them and there were barely any bones left on their bodies, but I could recognize them: Rex, Rel and Orath.

Before I gained my second Temporal Anchor, I needed all the time I could get to prepare myself for the demons that would be rising from the earth, and so I killed these three to delay the Ascension Ceremony as much as possible.

I stared at their bones, I had killed them quickly, and I did not think they were even aware when they died, before I chased the rest of the camp away, and from the state of this place, they never returned.

I sighed before looking at Caelith Mourne, and I felt the subtle connection inside my soul snapped into place as I came this close to it. When I was taken from the Caelith by the Sovereign, the Jade Oracle had been on the verge of death, but after I burned away the corrupting blood that was poisoning her blood, she had promised that she would hold for one year, and stop the Pale Matron from being free.

I don’t know if she had been able to hold on to that promise, or if the Sovereign had dealt with her in my absence, but the Caelith was here, the Pale Matron was still missing, so I could only hope that somehow, she was able to survive.

My body flashed with lightning, and I vanished, reappearing over the Caelith before I descended. As my body neared its black surface, the faint runes at the apex of the pyramid began to glow with an eerie blue glow that reminded me of my lightning, and the connection between me and the Caelith grew subtly deeper.

I was a few hundred feet away, when the black stone directly below me, shifted and opened a space for me to pass through, allowing me to descend, and the stone rippled and covered me, sealing me inside darkness for a moment before my surrounding lit up with the same blue glow.

There was a fainting pulsing beat in my soul that was directing me to the part of the Caelith where I know the headless body of the Jade Oracle waited... that should be the control center from which I could activate my status as a Warden.