Chapter 214: Saturated Bones

Facing a new murderous quest, alone in a space that had neither wind nor light, only gravity and the feeling of falling endlessly, Moon found the ghost of the first trial clutching at his heart.

He cursed, screamed...

Fortunately—

Whoooosh~

Or unfortunately...

It was still unclear.

The rift opened again, promising Moon an exit at long last.

Yet, a new problem introduced itself as soon as the exit came to exist.

"DAMMIT!" Moon was falling too fast; his mind raced for a way to reduce the impact.

He could picture himself falling, dying, only to start falling again. The maddening image assaulting his mind was something he couldn’t afford to go through again.

Desperate, Moon gathered his Spark Echo at his feet, while his own lump of Echo came out. He hugged it, trying to keep himself levitated, to reduce the speed.

Moon gritted his teeth, trying his hardest to control the lump of Echo to fight his fall, yet—

His falling speed reduced on its own. "The hell?" Moon exclaimed as the descent slowed down; the feeling of falling turned into floating.

Gentle, more gentle than his beloved bed in Hall 1.

Moon knew it wasn’t his Echo doing the heavy lifting of reducing his inertia by any means; he had tried to fly with it many times but always failed.

He knew at this point that what killed these 229 wasn’t the fall, but something else beyond the rift.

He looked at the rift, at what was there beyond the tear in space. Moon squinted deeply, for there wasn’t anything to look at.

It was like a room full of smoke at first glance, or so he could see through the small opening of the rift still closing in.

There weren’t any glaring goblin eyes, salivating wolves with horns waiting for him to fall.

Moon let go of his Echo and dismissed Spark Echo, not wanting to waste consuming it before whatever was waiting for him presented itself.

Or themselves.

He slowly unsheathed Liquid Mountain. He even opened his bag and took out Colten’s helmet, putting it on; Moon wasn’t taking any chances.

He patiently waited for his feet to finally touch the ground, while his eyes darted constantly between Fate Alert and the rift.

Before long, Moon finally landed.

"W-what is this?"

Meanwhile, while Moon was trying to comprehend the sight before his eyes, Ed and Uon landed together, making their way to the Control Center.

Uon had his usual attire, while Ed had the white clothes he used to wear when sparring with Moon.

Ed pushed open the door.

"Hmm?" Ed exclaimed as soon as he took a look inside. "Where’re the other brats?" he asked.

"Too many are coming; I excluded some from being here," Lucen said, looking at a mass of screens at every corner of the room; each presented a scene from the ongoing movements within the trial range.

They looked like a huge cylinder made of squares that were by no means small.

Uon had his jaw drop at the sight.

Lucen finally averted his gaze and looked at him. "You brought a young one with you, too."

"Exclude another uninvited guest and have him watch," Ed said, taking a seat and scanning the screens. "Where’s the brat?" he said with a frown.

Lucen shook his head. He pointed at an empty spot, and a screen appeared.

00 Days, 00 Hours, 00 Minutes, 00 Seconds

Ed’s frown deepened. "That’s from four hours ago," he said.

"It’s been frozen since then. Moon is nowhere to be found," Lucen explained. "I’ve never heard of someone getting lost in a transporter rift before."

Ed didn’t say anything. He was suspecting something that Samuel was also suspecting. Death Echo was in one way or another hindering the transportation.

Still, four hours was a very long time for a rift that usually took a few seconds at the longest.

"I’ve had everyone stay out until this situation is resolved," Lucen added. "Only the three of you know of this."

Ed stared at the screens, nodding while searching for a trace of Moon. "Could it be that he was transported elsewhere?"

Lucen paused for a second. "I’ll start searching." He waved his hand, and more cylinders of screens came into existence.

The three of them started scanning the screens for Moon, while Uon was still looking with a wide-open mouth, unable to catch a glimpse of any of the rapidly moving screens. "What am I even doing here?" he whispered.

At the exit of the rift, Moon looked around. His eyes behind the helmet radiated confusion more than anything else.

In a round, white room...

He was standing in thick black fog that he recognized easily.

"Death... Echo," Moon whispered softly, leaning low, ready to strike.

It wasn’t that the place was empty; it was even crowded. Shapes of humans that had been long dead; no flesh remained on their bodies.

Their bones were fully saturated with Death Echo, to the point that they had turned black and gained a dangerous metallic sheen.

Their clothes were completely preserved as well.

Two hundred twenty-nine exactly littered all over the place; some held their faces, some held their chests.

Some were curling unnaturally, some hugging their knees.

Moon took a cautious step; it was clear they had all died thanks to the invasive nature of Death Echo.

Moon squatted slowly near one; he touched the bones to inspect them.

One second later, "This is insane." He retracted his hand. "How much Death Echo do these have?" he exclaimed.

He took a round of inspection, making sure it wasn’t a wild assumption. But every time he touched a new set of bones, it was always the same.

Each of them had an unfathomable amount of Death Echo that he couldn’t even comprehend.

"This isn’t an amount a second-floor ascender should have," Moon concluded.

All of a sudden, Moon started feeling the thickness of Death Echo in the round white room increase.

It was attempting to rush, corrupt his body and Echo.

Moon subconsciously moved his lump of Echo to where it usually stayed near his heart. He was afraid it would get corrupted like the rest of his Echo.

Still, it survived the first time when his Echo was mixed; the main problem was Spark Echo.

Moon gritted his teeth.

He brought out his lump and had it go intangible over the crystal tattoo.

He didn’t know if what he was doing was right or wrong, if he was fixing or ruining it further. Moon knew that what killed everyone here wouldn’t kill him, but it could also give him a life worse than death.

Moon was afraid, as someone who was cursed and suffered to have Death Echo while alive, forced to give up most of his Echo and the integrity it held to be safe and have a normal life.

Now, he was facing the notorious Death Echo, the invasive, naturally occurring. The Death Echo that left 229 skeletons as a proof of his deadly it was.

He didn’t know how long this would take, or if he would live through this at all, but it didn’t seem to end very soon.

The black fog was getting thicker and thicker rapidly, till his vision was completely obscured. Yet, through the entire process, the thick fog never once tried to invade his Echo.

Moon could feel it slip within his lungs, but it didn’t invade his body or his Echo.

Before long, it seemed to have given up on him and started returning to normal again, allowing Moon to see.

He proceeded with his inspection. He wanted to find what triggered the quest to bring in these dead ascenders.

It was then...

"Year 4788, 4th month, the 25th day"

"This is the day I, Lyncarter of Arbiter’s Circle of Nine, died."

"Greetings, young ascender from the future."