The Primordial Record

1006  Awakening Of Madness (8)

It was difficult to tell the differences between the seven Ascendant Explorers, but a clear voice commanded the rest of them,

"Upgrade this entity to a Third Star Ascendant Class Event. Whatever effects it might have is irrelevant before its ability to purify Chaotic Aura. Its ability to hold both Malefic and Ascended meant it was a Hybrid Variant entity. Contact the rest of the Nine, we might have a new Nephilim Entity. The path forward is containment,"

The seven Ascendant Explorers did not descend into the crater, instead, the entire fleet of ships rose into the air, and from deep within the core of the Left Hand of God, in a hall that was deeply concealed and defended by all manners of terrible Runic Treasures, spells and an unknown eighth Ascendant Explorer was a series of large metal jars about fifteen feet tall, and sealed with no visible indentations.

The Ascendant Explorer that resembled a shapeless mass of yellow fog shook as if awakened from slumber, and a formless appendage rose and made thousands of mystical movements with dozens of shapeless fingers, and something inside the hall shifted.

One of the many jars shook before a mystical force lifted it into the air, and then the jar began to vibrate, letting out a loud and grating sound before exploding into nothingness. From the explosion, thousands of tiny strands of Aura that were wrapped inside a tight cocoon of Purified Aura of both Ascendant and Malefic surged out and vanished into thin air.

On the seventy ships that were now a picture of ghost vessels that were filled with nothing but ash—the remnants of more than two million Explorers, the tiny strands of Aura that had vanished in the hidden hall below appeared and scattered all over the ship, they individually hovered in the specific position of some of the deceased and then something miraculous began to happen.

The strands of Aura seemed to locate a scent in the space where some of the previously deceased had once stayed and then it began to rebuild them using that past echo.

The single strand of Aura exploded into a magnificent tapestry, unfurling itself like an umbrella, and began to rebuild bodies, as bones, blood, muscles, and other inner organs appeared out of nothingness. In the bodies that were being rebuilt, it was possible to hear faint screams.

This was the case when three hours after he died, Noah Rithmast opened his eyes on top of the ashes that had previously been his flesh and he screamed and clawed at his face and body, the trauma of having your body transform into snakes had burned its way into his psyche, and even after he was reborn, the mental scar followed him.

It took a few seconds to regain his balance, and he turned and dry heaved on top of the ashes of his previous corpse.

This was not the first time he had been resurrected but it was among the quickest. He had died twice before, and both times he had spent more than a century before he was reborn.

At the Deific Rank, it was possible for pieces of your Core Aura to be split off without destroying your existence or turning you into a vegetable. For the process to be safe and viable, it had to be done slowly, making it a long and painful affair, taking decades for a single strand to be sliced off your Core Aura, but every Explorer was encouraged to split off enough pieces of their Core Aura and deposit them at the Citadels, the only places where resurrection was possible.

In the Citadel, the piece of the Core Aura is stored and nourished from vast banks of Purified Aura that charge them with energy so they can be awakened when the conditions are right.

Usually, the process of resurrection was not always as smooth as this one, and many Deific Ranked Explorers had to wait centuries and sometimes many millennia before their resurrection was processed. Sometimes they are never resurrected and left to remain inside the Citadels forever.

The Citadels were few and far between and they were the prime targets for Calamities, so every resurrection had to be properly documented and researched for an extended period of time to ascertain how the Explorer had died and the situation around the death of the Explorer before the green light was given.

Many Citadels had been destroyed or infected when the wrong Explorer was resurrected.

A Deific Ranked Explorer could be considered truly immortal as long as they could endure slicing off pieces of their Core Aura and storing it at the Citadels. It was the reason that reaching this Rank as an Explorer was seen as the great divide, and would ensure a relatively stable existence in this world.

However, keeping a piece of your Core Aura inside a Citadel was not an assurance that you would be able to survive the unending wars as a Deific Rank Explorer, because Citadels were constantly being targeted and destroyed, and if the Citadel you placed your Core Aura was destroyed you had to quickly find another one, else your next death was final.

More Citadels were being built every time but it was difficult to do so, the core components for Citadels could only be sourced from extremely powerful calamities, vastly delaying the process for the creation of new ones.

On the journey to New Hope, every Deific Ranked Explorer had been encouraged to split off part of their Core Aura, and Noah, understanding the dangers in this place, had been one of the most enthusiastic. Despite the hellish pain.

08:39

Among the many facilities inside the Left Hand of God, one of them was a working Citadel. It was one of the reasons that made this warship so valuable. With enough time on its hand, the Left Hand of God could make every Deific Rank Explorer unkillable on any battlefield.

On the journey to New Hope, every Deific Ranked Explorer had been encouraged to split off part of their Core Aura, and Noah, understanding the dangers in this place, had been one of the most enthusiastic. Despite the hellish pain.

Noah had split off ten stands of his Core Aura, the closest after him had only done it six times. They had other split Core Auras outside this place and it was madness to subject their mind to more torture that would nearly break them anytime they split their Core Aura.

If there had been more time, Noah would have not stopped splitting more Core Auras.

He had been seen as a madman, but with the memory of how he had just perished surged to the surface of his thoughts, Noah had a feeling that the ten lives he had painfully accumulated were not enough to survive this place.

He shivered as plumes of steam escaped from his nostrils, the warship must have gone high up in the sky for it to have become this cold, any more and the chill would begin to kill off his extremities.

There had been more than two million Explorers on this fleet, but only a mere fifteen hundred were Deific Ranked Explorers. Along with the Ascendants, they were all that was left.

Noah felt space vibrate behind him and he turned and saw all the survivors had been brought on top of the Left Hand of God.

With their age and experience, none of them appeared shocked at their unexpected demise, like Noah, they must have easily brushed it off, but unlike him, they had not seen that eye.

The Deific Explorers bowed towards the Ascended and waited for the instructions going forward, it was clear that whatever was happening in New Hope had reached a level where Deific Explorers were nothing but fodder.

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