Power of Runes Chapter 525: The First Chain
Previously on Power of Runes...
The moment his fingers touched the golden chain, a deep tremor passed through the entire Web of Fate, yet the restriction remained firmly in place, barely reacting to the force pressing against it as though Arthur’s effort was nothing more than a faint disturbance against something that had existed for eons.
Arthur’s expression slowly tightened as he increased the strength behind his hand, allowing his Fate Power to gather around his consciousness before forcing it into the chain, and for a moment, nothing happened except the faint trembling of the golden structure beneath his fingers.
He pushed harder.
The golden light surrounding his consciousness grew brighter as more of his power poured into the chain, while the countless threads of Fate around him began shifting under the pressure, some bending away while others vibrated as though the entire Web could feel the struggle taking place at its center.
Still, the chain refused to move.
Arthur’s breathing had no meaning within this space, yet his consciousness itself began to feel strained, as though every part of his existence was being pressed against an immovable wall, and even after everything he had prepared during the past ten years, the restriction remained far stronger than he had hoped.
He increased the pressure again.
This time, he didn’t simply push his Fate Power toward the chain, but gathered it completely around his consciousness before driving it forward in one concentrated force, causing the golden chain to shake violently for the first time.
A faint crack appeared.
Arthur’s eyes immediately focused upon it.
It was barely visible, running only a short distance across the surface of the chain, but that single crack was enough to prove that what he had believed was possible wasn’t merely an illusion.
He didn’t give the restriction any chance to recover.
His Fate Power surged into the crack, forcing itself deeper into the golden structure as the fracture slowly extended across its surface, and with every inch it moved, the resistance coming from the chain became heavier, as though the restriction itself was fighting against him.
Arthur’s consciousness began trembling.
The strain was spreading through every part of him now, and the longer he maintained the pressure, the more difficult it became to keep his thoughts clear, but he continued because he knew that stopping now would allow the crack to disappear.
He had waited ten years for this.
He had spent thousands of years wishing for an opportunity like this.
He couldn’t stop because it was difficult.
The crack extended farther.
Arthur pushed again.
The golden chain shook violently beneath his hand, and for a brief moment, the crack stopped spreading as the restriction managed to resist his power.
Arthur’s expression became even more strained.
He gathered more.
Then more.
Until there was almost nothing left within his consciousness that wasn’t being used against that single chain.
His Fate Power poured forward like a flood, surrounding the golden restriction from every side as he tried to force the crack deeper, but the chain continued holding together despite everything.
His consciousness began to feel as though it was tearing apart.
Yet Arthur still didn’t retreat.
The thought barely formed before another surge of power followed it.
Outside in real world, his body started to feel the strain too. His now young physique once again started to grow old slowly and strength was leaving his body.
Blood tears came out of his eyes as he was lost fighting against even a single chain.
The crack suddenly widened.
A second fracture appeared beside it.
Then another.
The golden chain began producing faint sounds as its surface continued breaking apart, and Arthur could feel the resistance weakening beneath his hand, but he also understood that the restriction was still holding together by an extremely thin margin.
That was enough.
Arthur gathered everything that remained.
He didn’t try to control the force anymore.
He simply poured it all into the chain.
His Fate Power.
His consciousness.
His will.
His Body.
Everything he had accumulated throughout the past decade was pushed forward at once, and for a single moment, even the countless threads of the Web of Fate around him seemed to fall still.
Arthur’s entire consciousness shook violently.
His vision blurred.
His thoughts became almost impossible to hold together.
But his hand remained against the chain.
The crack spread.
Another section of the chain began to separate.
Arthur gave one final push, forcing every remaining bit of strength into the restriction with such desperation that even his consciousness seemed to tremble beneath the force.
CRACK!!!
The golden chain shattered.
The sound echoed throughout the endless Fate Space as countless fragments of golden light scattered into the Web of Fate, and the moment the restriction disappeared, a powerful shockwave erupted from the broken point and rushed outward through the countless interconnected threads.
Arthur barely had time to notice it.
The shockwave travelled through the Web and reached the other restrictions surrounding his Fate, causing five of the remaining chains to suddenly tremble as if they had been struck by an invisible force.
Thin cracks appeared across their surfaces.
One.
Then another.
Then several more.
The cracks rapidly spread through the five chains, and before the shockwave could completely disappear, the restrictions began collapsing one after another.
CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!
Five more chains shattered.
Six of the original 25 chains had now been destroyed.
Yet the remaining nineteen chains remained perfectly intact, their golden surfaces continuing to shine with the same overwhelming stability as before, without even the slightest crack appearing upon them.
But Arthur didn’t notice any of it.
The moment the first chain broke, something far more violent than the shockwave had entered his consciousness.
Memories.
Countless memories that had been buried beneath the restrictions of his fate spanning millions of years, perhaps even longer, suddenly erupted at once, flooding into his mind with such force that Arthur couldn’t even begin to understand what he was seeing.
A face appeared.
Then another.
A place he had never seen suddenly stood before him, only to disappear beneath another memory before he could even recognize it, while fragments of countless different lives he had once lived began appearing one after another without giving him even the slightest chance to process them.
Voices he hadn’t heard for countless ages echoed through his mind, followed by scenes from lives he had long since forgotten, moments from countless births and deaths, people he had met in lives that no longer existed, and experiences from an existence that stretched far beyond the lifespan of his current life.
Everything came back.
Not one memory of a single life.
But the memories of all the lives he had lived before.
The memories of countless lives collided within his consciousness, each one dragging another behind it until millions upon millions of years of experiences overlapped together, leaving no separation between one life and another, between one past and the next, or even between the memories themselves.
Arthur’s eyes slowly turned completely white.
His consciousness could no longer process what was happening, and his entire body remained frozen in the same strange position, one hand still raised toward the place where the golden chain had once existed while his expression remained completely empty.
He couldn’t move.
He couldn’t think.
He couldn’t even tell which memories belonged to which life anymore.
The memories continued pouring through him, becoming more and more overwhelming as his consciousness struggled beneath the unimaginable weight of countless lives he had lived across millions of years and perhaps far beyond.
And while Arthur remained trapped within that strange state, something else quietly changed.
The blurry manifestation that had been bound beneath the golden chains began to clear.
The countless strands of golden light that had previously made its form impossible to see slowly gathered into a more stable shape, and with 6 of the 25 chains now gone, the strange distortion surrounding its body gradually faded.
Its outline became clearer.
Its presence became stronger.
What had once been nothing more than a vague figure hidden beneath countless restrictions was slowly becoming something that could finally be seen.
The six broken chains had revealed a portion of its true form.
And for the first time since Arthur had entered the Web of Fate, the manifestation of his Fate was no longer completely hidden beneath the restrictions that had bound it for who knows how many years.
Though the person in question was no longer in a state where he could see those changes, at least for now.
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A/N:
