Defiance of the Fall Chapter 1404: Burden

Zac had grown weary of the endless surprises that had unfolded in the last minute, but he had no option except to go with the flow. The custom spikes lodged in his back proved far more resilient than he'd anticipated. Removing them quickly enough to counter August's takeover seemed doubtful. He required Xiphos's aid, so Zac couldn't let the Enkindling Sage suffer a collapse of the mind.

“You…” Zac attempted in a tone he wished sounded calming. “You know what?”

“Everything, starting from when you summoned the Empyrean Chalice. It felt as though a shroud over my vision was torn away, and memories flooded back of what you shared with me by the seaside,” Xiphos replied, his features twisting into a sorrowful grin. “It’s so fragile, so isolated. I grasped the reason for my grandfather's deeds. I now see why an Enkindling Sage was essential.”

Zac inwardly damned his earlier loose tongue. He recalled exactly what Xiphos meant. In their confrontation, frustration had led him to reveal the full reality. Ages had elapsed since the Limitless Empire's downfall, and the realm they perceived was merely an illusion. At that time, the trial's constraints had blocked Xiphos from absorbing Zac’s words.

“It’s still not…” Zac paused, unwilling to complete the thought, with Marai’s final caution echoing in his thoughts.

Figures like Xiphos and Astora were deliberately shielded from the truth for a purpose. Probably, excess knowledge could disrupt their revival once the illusion concluded. It might even trigger a divine retribution. Given how the Grand Elders treaded so carefully to evade deeper ties, a simple Hegemon would struggle to endure.

Safeguards in the trial blocked those within the Memories from uncovering the facts, yet those barriers seemed frail right now. Without an issue, Marai wouldn't have issued that alert. Something was amiss in the Outer Courts or Sevona’s domain, and the Empyrean Chalice had evidently lifted the veil for its select bearer.

Zac's bond with Xiphos was tangled, yet the sage had shown up as a savior this round. Repaying that by robbing Xiphos of rebirth prospects would be heartless. Zac had to find a different method to pull him back from despair.

Xiphos let out a sigh, as if he fully read the turmoil in Zac’s face. “I know. There’s a faint hope our kin might gain another shot at existence. And I believe you outsiders serve as key catalysts to unlock that route.”

“Then—"

“Even so, I won’t aid you.”

“What? Why not?” Zac demanded, panic rising. “This isn’t the moment for games. I must halt the chaos deeper within! I sense you’re not aligned with the tainted forces. Just pull these spikes from my back.”

Xiphos pondered Zac’s plea briefly before agreeing with a nod. The chalice hovering by the roof burst apart, unleashing its leftover blaze. The fire surged across the lobby's top before spreading into halls and rooms. The entire inn transformed into sacred territory, the blaze's grace empowering Sevona’s sacred power to resist more effectively.

Still, the gathered blaze fell short of reversing the tide. August’s presence leaking from the Hall of Abundance had dipped slightly, but it was rebounding fast. The offering granted them mere moments at best. That sufficed for Zac. Even without more from Xiphos, he trusted he could eject the spikes with the extra breathing room.

Xiphos showed no intent to contribute beyond that. Instead, he faced the fire orb that hadn't pursued Kaltosa Lu in his flight. Zac had glanced at it casually earlier, but now his gaze sharpened at the sight within. It held one of the Elemental’s ancient runes, pierced at its core. The remnants were dissolving in the heat, their ancient power absorbed and woven into Imperial Fate.

Lompo had nailed it. Kaltosa Lu might have snagged Descartes’ emblem and a portion of Zac’s Imperial Merit, but the cost was immense. Zac questioned if the exchange was worth it. Each ruined Primordial Rune inflicted an enduring blow to the Centigrade Elementals, diminishing their ancestral legacy a bit more.

“What happens here pales against my duty. I’ve revealed my identity. I am the Enkindling Sage of the Order of the Empyrean Chalice,” Xiphos declared while seizing the mass of sacred fire. He faced Zac again, his gaze sharpening. “I’ve also realized your true nature, why I sensed such connection from our first encounter. You were selected as our Holy Son, possibly the final one.

“Yet the fire doesn’t ignite in you. You’ve erected barriers around your heart, rejecting our sacred charge.” Xiphos offered the blaze to Zac. “The moment has arrived to choose. Embrace the duties of your role, and I’ll grant you strength to shift the balance. Decline, and the Empyrean Chalice will cut its ties to you and all you’ve influenced.”

The implied warning rang loud and clear. Zac would forfeit his position, and Xiphos would withdraw the support sustaining the upper level. It’d be as if a steadfast comrade vanished from your flank without notice. Idiche would suffer a rebound, letting August devour the Divine Core entirely.

“This is coercing me into your fold,” Zac growled through clenched jaws.

“You give me no alternative. You grasp better than most how burdened our heritage has grown. Moreover, what value do your beliefs hold if you won’t perish for them? If so, why not assist our cause,” Xiphos retorted.

“Accept the responsibility? I don’t even grasp what that entails,” Zac muttered in frustration.

“Nor do I. Your origins must be completely alien to me. Still, the blaze will light your way, guaranteeing you fulfill what must be,” the sage affirmed with total assurance.

The vague reply offered scant reassurance, but the phrasing stirred familiarity in Zac. It echoed descriptions of the Remnants he’d encountered. Scattered throughout the multiverse, they’d appeared repeatedly after he claimed the initial batch. In under ten years, he’d gathered every one.

Some stemmed from the System’s designs, aiming to reclaim Chaos motes for the Havens. But that wasn’t all. The remnants could steer their bearer’s fate, gently guiding toward Atavism. Agreeing might bind his path to the Empyrean Chalice. Perhaps his Void Road had already prevented that.

Zac hesitated to claim the Empyrean Chalice’s legacy, yet time slipped away. Anyway, he’d long suspected this outcome. Invoking the Limitless Emperor’s aid carried inevitable repercussions.

“Alright, I’ll shoulder your task or whatever it is. But know this: I cultivate my own Destiny. I can’t bear Imperial Fate,” Zac stated openly.

“I understand. The chalice chose you regardless, so who am I to question?” Xiphos chuckled, relief shining in his eyes. “Thank you for sustaining the blaze.”

“Now what do I—” Zac’s words cut off as Xiphos burst into flames.

This wasn’t like Kaltosa Lu’s inferno. The sage seemed to morph into a living flame beacon, holding his might and shape. He channeled his core into the swelling fire mass while kneeling beside Zac. As his right arm merged with the fierce blaze, Xiphos laid his left palm on Zac’s brow.

A soothing heat, vastly intensified from earlier, coursed through Zac’s frame. It was as if he’d retreated to a primordial cradle, one forged from a godly vessel cradling an entire people’s dreams. Injuries sealed, flaws erased, and the back spikes burned away cleanly.

Zac underwent rebirth, forged sturdy enough to bear fate’s burden. Initially, dread gripped him, his mind flashing to the snare in [Boundless Vajra Sublimation]. He feared Xiphos aimed to mold him into a mindless defender of their realm, a genuine Eternal Guardian. Fortunately, the shift was a wide-reaching refinement from exalted grace.

He remained immobile, but that was just a brief hold while embracing the fire. His cognition stayed untouched, with no trace of Faith invading his way. Rather, it converted to raw, fundamental forces that bolstered any body and spirit. Though subtler than the Tribulation Throne, Zac knew the thrill of nearing flawlessness.

“Your journey defies the Heavenly Order. The Imperial Flame will soften some wrath, but its aid will fade as you progress further,” Xiphos murmured, by then the fire and his figure dimmed by half.

Yet he pressed on without pause.

“What are you doing?!” Zac exclaimed in worry. “You still have a shot at—"

“I don’t, nor do my kin. We’re bound to the Empire’s Karma beyond escape. Altering fate demands sacrifice. Rescuing us would rob salvation from myriad souls. Better we serve as the barriers that sheltered lost spirits for ages,” Xiphos replied with a soft smile. “Rejoice for me. My sacred duty is complete. The light is handed over, and the fire reignited.”

As Xiphos withdrew his hand from Zac, he appeared spectral and translucent. Facing the barred entrance felt laborious. He reached out his left limb, and part of him vanished. The blaze from his being had scripted the Empyrean Chalice’s emblem on the blue barrier. The powers collided, forcing the lunar glow to yield.

A secure passage emerged, and Zac itched to charge ahead. But could he abandon Xiphos in this state? The sage hadn’t compelled a stark choice.

“The mountain,” he uttered in a distant whisper.

Zac signaled via [Purity of the Void], summoning the [Fuxi Mountain Gate] to his grasp. He quickly checked its contents, verifying no trace of the brush remained. Zac prayed it had been retrieved rather than ruined by the foes in the pocket realm, though now wasn’t the hour for details.

Zac presented the Void Treasure, wincing as Xiphos infused his final essence and the blaze into its golden inscriptions. It wasn’t fortifying the formation but granting a fleeting surge. Zac sensed the pull on ambient forces when the treasure tugged at its environs, and Xiphos’s final utterance sealed the notion.

“Press this to the rift.”

“Thank you,” Zac responded as the final sparks dimmed. “I’ll strive to keep the fire alive.”

“A simple fix exists if the bestowed fate weighs too heavily,” Xiphos’s echo drifted from afar. “Reestablish the Order of the Empyrean Chalice, and shift the burden to them.”

“How the hell am I supposed to—” Zac shook his head, then blurred into a shadow of demise.

Turmoil best captured Zac’s emotions over Xiphos’s self-offering to temper him in sacred fire. Beyond salvaging the inn’s crisis, Zac sensed the gains without deeper probe. The change had attuned him more to the Four Laws, a minor boon if Xiphos’s vow on easing Tribulation Lightning held. Zac dreaded the retribution awaiting his inner world’s birth.

Yet it was an unbidden boon, laced with obligations. His burdens already overflowed. He’d vowed aid to the Abyssal Shores and had to reach Sanctuary ere the Heavens located Kenzie. Now he bore the Empyrean Flame’s aim, surely no trivial matter. It likely tied straight to the Limitless Emperor’s grand design.

Zac recalled the heavenly revolt demanding his focus first. He dashed through the portal and faced a flood of blue upon entering the Hall of Abundance. The blue moon loomed above, glimpsed via a vast round skylight. It resembled a colossal gaze peering in, fixated on the hovering core at the chamber’s heart.

The moon’s craving was so vivid it shaped a beam of light aimed at the Divine Core. This shaft bathed the space in lunar radiance. Crucially, it sustained a steady rift mere paces over the Divine Core. It harbored a potent blend nearing the Peak of Continuum, but Zac caught a hint of Void essence too. No surprise Xiphos recommended the [Fuxi Mountain Gate].

A twisted limb’s image protruded from it, stopping short of the treasure. Idiche neared the Divine Core from the far flank. She hovered below it, using its shade as defense against mortal avarice. Rather than claiming it, she fed it power. Her work maintained a fragile divine layer blocking August’s grasp.

Esmeralda was absent, but her role shone evident. Six statues of varied Grand Traversal Toads encircled the rift. They projected intense spatial force while eyeing the breach. Esmeralda’s doing likely restrained its growth.

Zac surged forward once adjusted. He sped beyond the statue ring, mountain gate ready to assault. Then, the toads’ jewel eyes flared, loosing a unified surge of odd space. It was like August’s limb got banished to another plane, and Zac seized the breach.

He drove the [Fuxi Mountain Gate]’s edge into the rift like a primitive warrior, unleashing a deluge of volatile forces. Fresh gashes tore across Zac’s limbs, and several statues shattered. Such trifling cuts barely registered, particularly with the Empyrean Chalice’s fire still kindling inside.

The injuries had sealed by the time Zac aligned the [Fuxi Mountain Gate]’s mouth to the rift. A fierce quake nearly wrenched the Void Treasure free, but August’s aura waned swiftly. The scheme succeeded; Zac only had to endure without his form crumbling from the fierce oscillations.

Resistance from beyond intensified as the rift contracted. The mountain gate thrummed in delight. The fiercer August resisted, the more power funneled into its inner realm. Its quakes had already fractured Zac’s arm bones myriad times, and his innards ripped. Zac’s mind brimmed with gripes and mild shame. Was this the strain his allies endured in his wild ascensions?

“Piss off!” Zac bellowed, his cry laced with pain and irritation.

Didn’t August realize defeat? As if sensing Zac’s mind, the rift exploded shut with a crack. Zac’s grip was ruined by then, and the [Fuxi Mountain Gate] slipped away. The Void Treasure crashed into Zac’s brow before he could dodge, plunging him into blackness.

Zac sprawled on the floor upon waking. His skull throbbed like after a freight impact, and it took seconds to grasp he’d been unconscious for half a day. He winced at a swollen lump on his forehead. With his stats and fused constitutions, such a trifle should’ve vanished ages ago.

Was the [Fuxi Mountain Gate] at fault? Its density exceeded all Zac’s possessions. He’d pondered wielding it as a shield against lethal strikes, and clearly, it excelled at bashing foes too.

His stirring drew a chuckle from nearby, where Esmeralda lounged on cushions with a relaxed air. Her back vats were nearly drained, but she seemed unscathed. Zac had fretted that extended contact with dense sin might warp her psyche, yet it took more to unsettle an ex-Supremacy.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” she teased with a smile. “You’re turning into a true dragon of a man, complete with that horn.”