Elysium's Multiverse-Chapter 340

Chapter 340

[Calculated Score: 2,498,665 points

Your Current Cycle Ranking: 9

The final points distributed will be based on your ascension into E-grade. Please ascend to E-grade and complete your soul lattice in order to get your final score and ranking. You may leave the abyssal descent at any time once you have a rank that you deem acceptable to claim your end prize, and will be distributed the points that are associated with said rank even if it falls or increases in ranking after your departure.

Current Top 10 Scoreboard for Abyssal Descent:

Rank 1- 3,721,184 points, Lumis Breathtfallen, Priestess of the Flaming Lagoon Cult

Rank 2- 3,458,818 points, Cragstan Razorbeak, The One Who Walks Unseen, Reincarnation of Sloth

Rank 3- 3,444,001 points, Nix’El’Tok, Basilisk Butcher of Integration Planet Tophrus in Universe 78

Rank 4- 3,096,660 points, Brotukek, Azag Hive Champion of the Horned Wing Clusters

Rank 5- 2,934,224 points, Hatchmire Felwing, Son of Overlord Felwing of the First Draconic Fist, 137th Heir of Universe 9

Rank 6- 2,899,911 points, Zulu Partinsans, Prodigy Student of the Night Witch Covens of Universe 20

Rank 7- 2,708,803 points, Drakscar Red-Tooth, Warrior of the 5th Devil’s Hellspire

Rank 8- 2,689,999 points, Ozompic Brathi, Sion of the Skullbreaker Hordes

Rank 9- 2,498,665 points, Riven Thane, 36th Prince of the Blood Moon Requiem, Reincarnation of Gluttony

Rank 10- 2,633,456 points, Atidi Pox, The One Who Has Lost His Mind, Grandson of the Chaos Pillar]

The platform was many miles wide, and studded with towering spires of crystal infused with black magics of all varieties. It was like a forest of solidified power hovering in a sea of nothingness, and the silence when not speaking was nearly overwhelming.

“I was honestly unsure that all of you would make it out alive.” Lillith said, sitting cross-legged next to Riven at the edge of the crystal-laden platform as the two of them stared into the abyss. Glancing sideways as Riven closed the notification screen, she patted his knee in approval. “You did well to get this far relatively unscathed. I am sorry I did not anticipate Elysium’s move to trap me here, and I would go as far as to say that I owe you my life now. I would have been imprisoned here forever if you hadn’t come.”

Riven snorted absentmindedly, feeling the absolute black around him trying to seep into his very soul. The potency of the ambient energies was incredible, and being here on the lip of the drop into nothingness made him feel like he could reach enlightenment just by sitting still.

“You’ve done me solids before, you saved Allie. You owe me nothing.” Riven said matter of factly, red eyes shifting to meet the black ones staring back.. “And Gluttony would have never let you remain here. Even if I’d have failed, he would have sent someone else to get you eventually.”

Lillith grinned slightly, and pushed a small bit of crystal off the platform - watching it fall endlessly into the darkness below until it disappeared from sight. “Perhaps. But don’t you think it’s time to meditate?”

“It is time.” Gluttony said from beside them, ripping out of space itself to appear before them with a hungry and excited growl to his voice. “I have been preparing the 2nd class we discussed for close quarters combat… and I have a new body for us to share as well. It will be nothing less than a masterpiece.”

Riven had no doubt that Gluttony was right. The original sin had been working on this class since the beginning of their descent, and from what he could tell - Gluttony was fixated on getting some remnant of self-governance through this second body without imposing on Riven’s own path and power. They’d still be bound but would be able to act independently from one another if Gluttony’s attempt went according to plan, but it would also need a very large amount of input from Riven as well. Riven was the keystone to even allowing it to happen because he was the one that would be required by Elysium to ascend, so only letting Gluttony go ahead with the E-grade soul lattice construction would not only fail - but would likely result in a tribulation that could kill Riven to make Gluttony start over from scratch.

Meanwhile, Riven would also need to strengthen the foundations of his current class or even upgrade it depending on how far he could push it. He’d need to push it far enough that he could claim the top ranking spot on the current ladder, otherwise - if what his mother had said in that vision many floors ago was correct - he’d likely lose out the Chalgathi inheritance and would need to flee Panu altogether. That was solely based on trusting the same mother who’d abandoned him at an early age in childhood, but he saw no reason why she’d lie about this - and she too had the gift of Malignant Prophecy to see such things.

Which in turn had given him the idea to force Malignant Prophecy into action during this attempt at creating the soul lattice, boosting it to a perfect version that would fit not one - but two classes. And doing so would - again - likely lead to some form of tribulation, as he would probably accumulate a lot of malignancy points from doing something so tremendously influential towards his future. And if that weren’t enough, tribulations usually happened between grade advancement anyways…

Long story short, he probably had at least one, and possibly three, tribulations headed his way. Or perhaps just a very hard and compounded tribulation with the strength of multiple tribulations other people would experience.

Not a good thing, but he wasn’t balking now.

“Give me some time. Azmoth only just respawned and the Narg situation still hasn’t been corrected either.” Riven told Gluttony and Lillith, still thinking about how he was going to go about doing this. “I’ve given a lot of thought about how I want to proceed, but now that it’s finally here - I want to review everything thoroughly again before I take the plunge. You won’t die if this fails, Gluttony - but I will. I am not scared to proceed, but I wish to collect myself and be mentally ready for what is to come.”

Gluttony, for all his excitement, gave a grim mental nod of acceptance and disappeared - while Lillith remained silently staring into the dark expanse before them while all the others prepared in their own ways behind them between crystal spires on the platform.

Picking up the box that he’d set aside after getting here, Riven opened the chest to reveal a glimmering orb radiating multi-colored mist. To his incredible amount of disappointment, this system ‘Wish’ had not been able to bring back the dead. In part this was why Riven was so solemn at the moment. Jose was never coming back… but then again he should have known better if Elysium couldn’t have brought back the real version of Ethel in the trials on prior floors. Instead it’d given him an option to bring back a copycat of Ethel… so a D-grade treasure - even if it was a ‘Wish’ from the system - likely couldn’t do so either.

Or perhaps that was just hindsight thinking.

[D-Grade Wish (System Event Gift): This wish will be within the realms of D-grade only. Ask Elysium, and it may provide.]

Totally nondescript and originally a let down, he’d now come to think it was a godsend with limits.

Riven wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Despite his disappointment in not getting Jose back, he could think of a couple different ways this wish might be used. And he’d even experimented with it to see just how far the wish could extend by asking Elysium itself.

This wish could not kill someone, but it could displace them. The wish could upgrade skills or traits to a better version of themselves, or could even create a new skill based on something he came up with - but it could not create an all-powerful skill. It could not stop tribulations from occurring and couldn’t create his soul lattice to perfection for him, but it could give him additional insights into how to do it himself. The wish couldn’t stop the integration quests on Earth, but it could give him avenues to a far easier time completing them. Then, he’d even discovered that the wish could take a part of Panu entirely and move it into another world. In particular he’d asked Elysium if it could move the continent of Umbra to another planet, and Elysium had answered yes - as long as the continent was at an average of D-grade entities or below, it could transfer Umbra to a world of similar strength and danger.

Imagination really was the key with this Wish and he was treating it now as a lifeline in case they failed to conquer Panu before the integration ended. Moving his budding civilization off world if need be was truly something that gave him some peace of mind, but it certainly wouldn’t fix all his problems and he didn’t intend to lose Panu to others either. The Wish would only be used in extreme situations and only when in absolute need, because he may need it for another dire situation in the future - only to be found lacking if he used the Wish too early.

“I will again attempt to figure out what is wrong with Narg, as I have insights into his family’s curse.” Lillith eventually said as the silence dragged on. “I will also make sure that the others who are not undergoing their own attempts to seclude themselves yet will leave you alone. Good luck Riven, I’m sure you’ll do very well.”

***

It was finally time.

E-grade was on the horizon, close enough that he could almost touch it.

Wandering the miles-wide platform until he found a large cave buried in the crystal formations, Riven secluded himself and began to set up a cultivation formation.

Bringing out numerous dao treasures he’d acquired over the course of his descent and on Panu alike, the ones that hadn’t been more oriented towards his minions that he’d handed out earlier, Riven laid them out in a circle. Plants, metals, even weapons and armor with auras infused into them that he’d taken off other delvers, and various trinkets he’d collected were arranged to cycle between the different types of affinities he used.

Sin and Blood affinity treasures were most prevalent, but treasures oriented towards the Infernal, Death, Unholy, and Shadow pillars were all present as well. Using Blood magic to create a large pentagram on the floor, he then created different runes in the air similar to how Gragle the nome had created Graphics in the past.

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The runes in the air twisted and turned, forming complex codes as Riven did his best to emulate the system skill Gragle used to make such complex concepts while holding them steady. Riven had to redraw the three-dimensional formations multiple times over the course of five hours as they kept collapsing, but eventually he got it down to where a very crude version of a graphic had remained stable in the air around the pentagram - before building layers upon it with strings of mana. He could also tell that the environment here was key in helping prop up his desires, allowing him to press on with the ritual with far less resistance than what would have been possible outside of the deeper Abyss.

For his graphic wannabe: The concepts of Re, Vo, and Tin were utilized like the conceptualized X, Y, and Z axis in describing a three-dimensional space. The concepts of Nun and Zika were utilized to represent orientation and affinity of a power source, and in this case it wasn’t a singular power source - but all of the affinities he meshed with and their associated pillars. Zika in particular, being the intent behind it, was hard to keep in check as his intent was to ascend into the next grade while drawing in power from his surroundings for fuel - which was the purpose of this crude pseudo-graphic he’d constructed in the first place.

Gluttony helped him keep the formation stable as he added the second and third layers of the graphic onto the top. The pentagram hummed with power as droplets of blood began to float up from the ground. The air around Riven shimmered in the darkness of the cave’s surroundings, slowly swirling with different runic sigils sa they interacted with one another and merged - only to split again and random before merging with different parts of the graphic and the individual enchantments making up each part.

It wasn’t until he took out his prized blood pearl, literally ripping it out of his chest and soul aperture, that he realized something was strange.

[Trishard Blood Pearl (C-Grade Blasphemous Blood Artifact): This relic has condensed the affinities from 3 of 5 paths the Sub-Pillar of Blood may take, and has non-permanently bound to you: Riven Thane, as its new wielder. This item is shielded from the Blood God’s farsight, detection, and scrying abilities - and will be viewed as a normal Blood artifact by all but the most powerful of his Blood Clergy, Blood Precursors, and the bearer of this item. This item holds long lost and buried secrets of the Blood Sub-Pillar, and is marked as an extremely taboo artifact by the current Blood God. Study and meditate on this item for further insights into powers now lost to all but the dead. +200% bonus to Dao insights regarding the Blood Sub-Pillar while meditating with this item in hand. Large amounts of Blood mana of any type may be stored inside this Trishard Blood Pearl, and it creates ambient Blood mana at a steady rate to either be used as stored mana or to be used to change environments. This item may be stored within your soul space at will. Must naturally be of 99% Blood Affinity or more to properly wield this item.

Setting the pearl down in the center of the pentagram, it easily began influencing the surrounding graphic and fused its will with the path Riven wanted to undertake. However, it also began pulling at the bondings in Riven’s soul core that connected him to his minions.

Furrowing his brows and mentally tracing the lines of power that the pearl had wrapped its tendrils around, he found them: Genua, Azmoth, Fay, and Athela were being incorporated into the ritual of ascension.

But they were only the first layer.

Narg was incorporated into the second layer of the formation as the pearl shifted the bond a layer higher than the others. Iris, who wasn’t even a minion, was also found before the pearl crawled up a similar link - one of birthright. The red vines of the pearl quickly reinforced the karmic link and then continued reaching out further to incorporate other people too.

One by one, they came.

Fish came next. Then Lizard, and then Brute - linking rather quickly due to Riven’s blood circulating through them while they were still undergoing the thrall transformation.

Surprisingly the pearl began bypassing some of the others on his team, ignoring them completely. Sanguine the drake and General Caltan were left out of the ritual, examined and bypassed by the pearl as it perfused the connections of the others. Retesh was much the same, being seen and bypassed by the pearl’s influence like he wasn’t even there. It tried to travel along ‘The Siblings Pact’ that connected him to Allie, meeting resistance and ferociously tried to get out - but couldn’t penetrate the veil of the abyss and resolved itself to settling for what and who was present here on the platform.

Most surprisingly of all, when it found Kara - the pearl added her to the first layer.

From what Riven could tell, the pearl was utilizing blood ties - though he couldn’t figure out why some went into the first layer while others went into the outer second layer. The demonic contracts he had were bound to him inherently with blood magic through the system itself, forcing them to obey his commands like they were his own limbs. Iris was his daughter so his blood ran through her. Genua was a thrall made from his blood, and the three soon-to-be thralls had his blood running through them too. While Kara had been injected with his blood a single time, back when he’d been going at it with her during that foursome involving Fay and Athela.

He almost wanted to stop the process right then and there in order to somehow share his blood with others in the group. Namely Retesh, Caltan, and Sanguine, but the process was already underway for whatever it was that the pearl was doing; and he felt like if he stopped the process now it’d irrevocably harm whatever it was that the pearl had started. The room was beginning to shake as a rumbling thunder echoed and cracked through the abyss somewhere overhead above the cave he now sat in, and Riven’s eyes began to glaze over as the red light from his pupils began etching itself along the black sin sigils tattooed along his body.

The tattoos then began to peel off his skin, floating into the air around him as an echo of Gluttony radiated throughout the cave.

“You must take the first steps.” Gluttony called out as Riven’s glowing red gaze went ballistic with rapid flitting motion to trace the patterns he wanted to imprint on his soul. “I will then manifest the pieces I need as you form the base layer, just like we discussed. Do not falter.”

Riven gritted his teeth as he felt a pulse of white-hot pain course along his spine, and with a mental command he began to force the ambient magics of the abyss into his soul like a shot of pure adrenaline. His back went rigid and he let out a hiss as the world around him blurred into a myriad of colors. The graphics in the air vibrated and hummed, and his soul was laid bare as the constellation of his inner realm took flight to hover in the air above him and inbetween the ritual sigils all about.

The pillars of his soul core surged, each radiating their collective light around the brilliant white soul core in the middle. Fractals representing his skills were highlighted along these pillars and the inner core in turn, becoming more condensed as the high grade ambient energies of the abyss around him fed their growth.

The pentagram and ritual formations drew in power from the abyss even faster, helped along by the dao treasures laid out about him, and one by one many of the treasures began to shrivel and fade away into ash as their potency was decimated to fuel his ascension.

Riven considered brute-forcing a malignant prophecy to take place right then, but decided he could go a little bit longer. The less time he used it the better considering just how influential it would be on his future and the amount of points he’d no doubt rack up, so he pushed back the edges of gray permeating his peripheral vision and maintained a clear head while grasping at nearby soul connections.

And the connections each snapped into place like jigsaw puzzles within mere seconds.

Athela’s connection came first, along with a depiction of the demoness, and the ritual’s domain flashed brightly before tethering to Athela’s projection with a thin but firm cord of light.

Another tether lashed out, smashing into the forming projection of Azmoth’s figure and sinking into his chest.

Fay’s image came next. Then Kara, Genua, Narg, Iris, Fish, Lizard, and Brute.

Ten soul tethers chaining images to Riven’s core. They came together, wrapping around one another like a twizzler twist to form an intertwined rope that led upwards like a spire. At the same time, his soul pillars began to sprout threads and bridges between one another. First it was dozens, then hundreds, and then tens of thousands of threads that interwove together as his soul lattice began to grow at an astronomical rate.

BOOM

The entire cave and all the crystal formations around Riven rumbled as energy gathered far above. Almost immediately after that, Riven felt ten additional tribulations roar to life as the dark skies overhead split with blinding light that illuminated even the dark cave he was in by the sheer scope of the reflection through the cave mouth.

[WARNING: You are undertaking an ascension into the next grade. Prepare for a tribulation to test your resolve. Should you fail, you will have your cultivation ripped from you - and you will possibly die.]

Riven’s eyes widened as he realized that he was involving the others that the pearl had touched, bringing them both power and danger without their consent. Even he hadn’t known this would happen, and he felt Gluttony become agitated with similar worries as something foreign and almighty set its gaze upon the platform Riven’s friends and family now sat on.

“No. This tribulation is mine, not theirs.”

Riven reached up a hand, and his soul screamed as he tore away the cave’s ceiling in an explosion of force that sent high-grade crystals teaming with power spiraling out into the abyss. He continued to reach, pulling on the ten swirling vortexes over the miles-wide platform and yanking their attention to him - showing Elysium that it was he and not they that had called down the system’s judgement.

Immediately the vortexes of multicolored light rumble towards him, merging and condensing over his position to create a far greater tribulation than the one that’d been there before.

But Riven had expected no less. And now was only the gathering stage… he wasn’t even done with his lattice yet. Elysium would not test him until it was complete…

At least, that would have been the case under normal circumstances. But he needed his soul lattice to be perfect, as his entire future would be built upon the foundations he laid down right now. And he had Gluttony’s plan to complete, creating a second class in direct contestation with Elysium’s rules.

Gluttony’s maw split his soul aperture with a resounding CRACK - tearing off pieces of each of his soul pillars to create a sister core made of black sin instead of his original brilliant white.

[WARNING: You are undertaking a Taboo form of ascension. Stop immediately, or face punishment in the form of a tribulation.]

The surroundings around him slowed and faded to gray. It was now or never.

[Malignant Prophecy has activated. WARNING: HIGH LEVELS OF MALIGNANCY POINTS WILL BE DELIVERED DUE TO ACTIVATION AT A KEY CROSSROADS SUCH AS THIS. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Desired Action: Extremely High Tier Manipulation. Current Willpower stat: 1054. Sufficient Willpower to perform desired action. Performing this act will put your malignant prophecy on cooldown for significant amounts of time. Do you wish to proceed?]

“Yes.”

[Desired action: Create a perfect soul lattice and ascend to E-grade. Malignant Prophecy’s two options are as follows:

Riven felt the pulse of shock radiate through Gluttony as soon as the prompt appeared.

[Desired action has been selected: Option 2.]