Chương 195: Chapter 192 - Plan A

Ryan fell from high above, the shattersword rattling in the air. He focused on [Conceptual Meditation], trying to remember the way his class had resonated with him. He took a small breath, aware of the pollen and spores he was taking into his body. It didn't matter, resonating with your Trial class was an opportunity that could never be thrown away. The perspective took over him whole. The Veilpiercer Assassin was someone that targeted the heart of falsehoods and illusions. Even ignoring others in the way.

It needed to be able to see things that nobody else could gleam. Spellweave Perception leveled up! Spellweave Perception level 1 -> 3! The levels were… a bit of a disappointment. There was a chance that he could have outright upgraded the skill from Rare to an Epic like with what had happened with [Arcane Saboteur] and the [Aura Tyrant]. It seemed as if something was missing to be able to push beyond a few levels. Though being able to simply meditate and increase in skill levels was insane on its own.

Unlike before, he could feel the way the Trial System was supporting his levels by changing his body. [Spellweave Perception] was mostly an internal change. Now at the fifth realm, Ryan could feel his eyes being adjusted in real time to the levels. The Trial System tweaking his body so that it would fit in better. The brain was different. [Spellweave Perception] didn't just let him see magic better but it gave him an innate understanding.

As far as Ryan could tell, the Trial System wasn't touching his brain but rather, adjusted the concepts around him. They were so slight that you couldn't even call them concepts. Was understanding the arcane a concept? It was something like that. He could barely detect them even with [Conceptual Meditation]. With the new levels and the resonance with his class, something tugged at the corner of his mind. A warping shape in the distance, meticulously crafted and shaped and that was all his skill was telling him.

A shimmering veil watching from a distance. Ryan grinned at the peeping Gamielle as he landed onto the ground. Then a juvenile Cerulean Crow squawked far above him in victory, taking his attention. Cerul was circling high above. Honestly, that bird was less like a crow and more like a vulture. Even from here, Ryan could see the greedy eyes of Cerul as it stared down at the crippled Noxweed plant. It spread its wings wide. Then threw a hail of magical blue feathers from above.

The plant had absolutely no chance at raising a defense now. To someone watching from the outside it might look like an arrogant ruler of the skies causing ecological destruction from above. Ryan couldn't help but see Cerul as an absolute coward that waited until it was certain that it would be safe before attacking. He decided to let Cerul have his fun and jogged away from the field of Noxweed.

He held his breath until he'd cleared the field and climbed up the hill where he'd seen the shimmer of Gamielle's [Invisibility]. More than a little bit of the soporific particles had gotten into his body and he was eager for a chill chat more than anything else. What Ryan wasn't expecting was to see Gamielle's mother there with her. He tried to put on the biggest fake smile he could and waved.

"And here I thought you were avoiding me. How's it going, Witch Tyrant?" A small twitch of the corner of her lips indicated that she wasn't going to try to smite him in a leveled zone. He had a feeling it'd be a closer fight than the Witch Tyrant would want to display. It was probably why she'd been avoiding him since the Cataclysm Abyss.

"Arrogance can immediately lead to one's downfall. Or do you believe that your recent encounter with a mere plant was a truly victorious one?" Well, she had a point there. Even if you excluded the fact that he'd let his guard down the first time, it hadn't been a well-executed fight. Ryan sniffed.

"Ah, here we go. Would you like to give me an after-action report?" Gamielle raised an eyebrow. There was a slight tilt in the Witch Tyrant's head. As if trying to understand what Ryan was getting at. He grinned.

"Oh come on, I know that you're dying to criticize my every move and tell me what I could've done better. I'm happy to listen to an expert." She could tell he was taunting her of course. Ryan was using the information the Manager had shown him with Dumb-Ryan and knew just how much the Witch Tyrant loved to criticize when given the chance. Not that it was necessarily bad critique, just that she loved to hear herself speak a little more than he had realized.

To her credit, the Witch Tyrant did not deny wanting to do so. She could read his emotions better than Mirelda and knew that he knew the truth. What she wanted to know was just how he was so confident in this assessment of her.

"Interesting. You do have me intrigued, but I will figure that one out at a later time. For now, there is something more important we need to discuss." She was shelving the topic—which was fine with him. The whole point of him bringing that one up was to reveal that he knew things from the Manager's abode. Hopefully it would add another layer on top of the fact that he was hiding two other massive secrets from her.

"What is it?"

"I'm certain you're aware of my actions in Sector Thirteen."

"You mean the one where you're killing guardian deities and replacing the new peoples' icon of worship with your daughter?" She didn't even deny it, after all, her daughter was covered in a golden mist right next to them.

"It's good that my daughter has kept you apprised of my actions. That will save me some time." Gamielle glared at her mother and popped another gathering golden orb of faith but didn't say anything. Ryan was too curious.

"You really think that'll work? Will making Gamielle here ascend into a deity bring her… uh back to life?"

"That is only one part of the plan, and the reason why I am here. I have a request for both of you." Gamielle was less than enthused about the request, likely knowing what she was going to ask. Ryan however did not know what her plan was.

"I'm listening."

"I require you to obtain an offensive Legend from the [Veilpiercer Assassin]. You should be offered an Epic relating to piercing veils in your next realm upgrade. Take it and develop it into a Legends. Now that you are resonating with your class, all you will need is the right amount of achievements."

"And that plus making Gamielle into a deity is going to help us complete the Trial System?" This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"No. That will help me assault the Trial System itself.""... What?"

"There have been over seven hundred recorded iterations of the Trial System. Some estimates by one of the Great Civilizations place the number of iterations at over eight hundred attempts. With no success as of yet. I am no fool that gambles on one outcome. I have always been looking for other paths to resurrect my daughter that does not involve completing the Trial System."

"Hold on, why do we need to attack the Trial System itself?" Ryan trailed off as he tried to understand what she was saying. The Witch Tyrant elaborated before he could connect the dots.

"If this were some other universe, I would have already attempted to resurrect my daughter long ago. Sacrificing both of my Legends in a ritual would have a high chance of success of resurrection. Unfortunately, this is a world governed by the Trial System, and with it the laws of reality follow its rules."

"You're saying that for every single person that dies, their soul gets taken by the Trial System?"

"Yes. Did you not wonder why in Realmer folklore they talked about real wandering ghosts and yet not a single wandered The Realm?"

"I always thought that was just superstition." Ryan blinked, trying to remember some conspiracies on the Realmnet about things like this. Everyone knew the Trial System wasn't some benevolent construction created to guide future civilizations. Or at least, there were far too few benevolent Trials for that to be the case. There was one conspiracy theory that stuck out to him.

"Are our souls fueling the Trial System?"

"No. While that's an interesting theory, the fact that the Trial System does not kill every Trialist when it leaves means that it is unnecessary to its function." Apparently she thought that was all the answer he needed. Ryan disagreed.

"So what's it doing with the souls?" The Witch Tyrant paused.

"If I am right, then it depends on the realm level of the Trialist. Those that are more powerful are kept in stasis to be used in later Trials. The weaker ones are likely used as newborns in the Trial simulations. I cannot say with absolute certainty as I have only entered the Highest Trial, and the rules are different there." Ryan just blinked trying to take all of that in, coming to terms with what she'd just said. Despite having more than a few brushes with death, he never really thought about dying that much.

He'd always thought of his one shot as the one shot and it would end. Now that he knew that his soul might be kept in stasis by the Trial System only to be reused like King Theskar… he wasn't sure what to make of that.

"Hmm, then again, continuously reincarnating to teach the next generation of adventurers doesn't sound like a bad thing." Gamielle rolled her eyes." Of course you would think like that."

"What can I say, I'm an adventurer." He got a glare from both the mother and daughter. It was indeed the wrong crowd and maybe the wrong time to make jokes. He thought about it for a bit, then remembered something else.

"But you had a tortured soul, didn't you? Didn't you say that the Trial System takes away souls?"

"Yes, it was part of my experimentation with living souls bearing fruit. I am fully capable of wresting a soul away from the Trial System before it gets taken. Not afterwards." Ryan whistled.

"And you think you can attack the Trial System and make it give up Gamielle's—the other Gamielle's soul?"

"I believe the odds will be greater than attempting to complete the Trial System." Which wasn't really a good bar if you thought about it. Ryan shook his head and turned to Gamielle, he wasn't quite willing to believe in the words of a desperate mother alone.

"What do you think about all of this? Is your mother, uhh—" Ryan glanced towards the Witch Tyrant, he refrained from gesturing crazy with his finger.

"Out of her mind?" Gamielle was staring at the ground, she kicked at the dirt, launching more than a far clump of dirt high into the sky.

"I don't know. The magical parts are doable, and her freeform ritualism is unmatched but… it's possible. At least with what she's planning." She didn't even call the Witch Tyrant her mom anymore. The Tyrant looked down at her daughter with a more gentle expression than Ryan had ever seen from her before.

"It will work best if you do your part, daughter. I understand your misgivings, but I do not believe anyone else is capable of ascending into divinity and mastering faith faster than you. Help me daughter, and I promise that everything will go the way it once was." Ryan had a front row seat to the most blatant manipulation he'd ever seen from the Witch Tyrant. The problem was, it was working on Gamielle. She wanted more than anything for her mother to go back to the way she used to be.

He wondered if he even needed to raise his objections when the Witch Tyrant could just read his emotions. As if answering his own thoughts, she rose to stare at him.

"It will be a multi-pronged attack. The power of an ascended divinity was that last thing I needed to make a true attempt at this before the Fifteenth Trial. Further, I believe a proper offensive Legend from the [Veilpiercer Assassin] will greatly increase the duration of time we will have to pull my daughter's soul out from the Trial System's clutches. I am asking you both to aid me in this." It was a lot she was throwing at him.

He had no idea why a [Veilpiercer Assassin] would even be useful here, but the Witch Tyrant did seem confident enough to practically beg them. At the very least, it wasn't attempting the completion of an impossible task that nobody else had completed before… only a task that nobody might have even dreamed of trying before. Only…

"Do you really think the Manager will just let this happen?" The Witch Tyrant seemed unconcerned at the chance of sabotage.

"Not to worry, it will not interfere." Now that sounded like some delusional talk.

"There's no way it's just going to let it happen. Remember it killed your dau—""I do not need to be reminded of whose fault it is that my daughter is dead. When the time comes, there will be a reckoning. But for now, securing my daughter's soul comes first." The blast of cold fury smashed into him and the land around. It made Cerul squawk from its bombardment of the Noxweed plant and flee in a panic. Ryan didn't even flinch. Shoving an aura in his face never really worked well when he was in the second realm.

Much less so now." That monster is as driven as you are. It won't stop." The Witch Tyrant rolled her eyes.

"Do not claim to understand the Manager's nature better than I. The entity understands that if I detect a hint of interference, that I will wipe the board." It took a moment for Ryan to register what she meant. The Witch Tyrant smiled "You are not the only one that is willing to threaten everything for the sake of a few. You would do well to remember that." If the Manager looked like it interfered then the Witch Tyrant would destroy the entire board, likely him included.

The idea of mutual destruction was something that Ryan had threatened both of them with… and now she was using it against the only thing that might be above her in the ability to scheme. But if it was so likely to be possible, the Manager would not have been so desperate to force Ryan into taking the [Conceptual Reaver] class. Surely that class would have been better at fighting against the Trial System than the [Veilpiercer Assassin].

Ryan came to the simple conclusion that the Manager did not believe she could wrest away her daughter's soul. The Witch Tyrant snapped him out of his contemplation.

"I do not need your doubts, just your cooperation. Do this and we will not need to complete the Trial System. I will retire as neither of my daughters will want to have anything to do with me. Then you will be truly be free to do as you wish." It sounded like a fancy delusional dream, with only the Manager's words echoing in his head. You are of course, free to wait on Earth and see just how far the Witch is willing to go to bring her daughter back from the dead.

The Witch Tyrant disappeared, leaving just Gamielle and Ryan behind, overlooking a dying apex creature of Sector Five.

"What about you Gamielle?"

"What about me?"

"What will happen to you if she manages to bring back your soul out of the Trial System?" Gamielle sighed.

"I'm just a skill, Ryan. Her real daughter and I are completely different people at this point. She says she considers both of us as her daughters, but you and I both know that's all just a ruse." Ryan nodded along, glad that Gamielle understood what her mother was doing.

"You're still going to help, aren't you?" Gamielle glared at a gathering orb of faith, then closed her eyes. She reached out letting it gently fall into her palm.

"Yes, of course I will. She's still my mom in the end." Her hands glowed as the warm light melted into her hand. Not unlike the class orbs that melded with you. As if sensing the change, the golden mist that surrounded her started to flow towards her hand. As more of it started to consolidate, Ryan felt an alien energy wash over him and the lands beyond. A bright light of gold. To him it felt harsh. Like… energy with actual will and feelings underlying within.

Like how mana in Sector Four seemed to have malevolent intent. At least this wasn't malevolent, just a little oppressive. Gamielle sat down with her legs crossed in a meditative pose, cradling that newfound source of power in her hands. She condensed it down… and down again, becoming brighter as it decreased in size. By the time it got to the size of her fist the golden light basked the land, almost bright enough to drown out the red tinted sun of Sector Five. It was both wrong and so beautiful at the same time.

[Return to Earth] —— Earth… When Ryan returned to Earth in a somber mood, he was expecting some form of ambush by Pinkie. What he wasn't expecting was to see Clara dangling from the ceiling, a rope tied to her body. With her screaming out of her lungs.

"PINKIE! YOU ARE TO LET ME DOWN RIGHT NOW. YOU BAD, BAD DRAGON!" Pinkie was in the corner with her arms crossed. She was staring up at the girl, looking a little perplexed herself. As if she had no idea how to deal with a shouting girl that was clearly afraid of her but still willing to do crazy nonsensical things. Possibly also because she couldn't simply eat or threaten her. Ryan decided to turn to Milock for clarity.

"What the fuck is going on?"

"This is completely on Clara. I think she's lost her marbles."