Chương 102: Chapter 88 – My Dinner with [Redacted]

Cade remained silent for several long seconds after Rowana finished speaking. The chamber groaned around them. Violet light spread deeper through the walls while corruption crawled through the Great Tree in slow branching veins. Beyond the portal, pale silver and blue light rippled softly through distorted reality. Then Cade exhaled slowly. The System had dragged billions of people into a death game and called it a Tutorial. There was no way it relied on a single exit alone. There had to be another way out.

And even if there wasn't… His gaze drifted downward toward the creatures waiting below and he knew he had made up his mind. White fire flickered deep within his chest. The moment the [Flames of Desolation] began gathering into a sphere inside of his channels, Rowana's expression shifted.

"No," she rasped suddenly. The desperation in her voice caught Cade off guard.

"Please," she said quickly.

"I just need to reach the Core before this vessel dies." Cade's eyes narrowed immediately.

"You aren't Rowana," he said flatly. For a moment the chamber fell completely silent. Then the First Elder's voice gurgled. The sound came out wet and broken before turning into a violent coughing fit that sprayed dark blood across the wood in front of her.

"No," the thing wearing Rowana whispered.

"I am not Rowana." Her glowing violet eyes fixed directly onto Cade.

"Rowana died when the tortoise filled her Core with desolation."

"So you're the thing corrupting this dungeon." The entity tilted Rowana's head slightly.

"Corruption?" it repeated softly.

"A dungeon?" A faint smile spread across Rowana's ruined face.

"Those are strange words to use for me and the realm I created."

"You didn't create this place," Cade said.

"This is a dungeon inside the System's Tutorial." The entity suddenly barked out another coughing laugh. Blood dripped from the corner of Rowana's mouth while violet growths twitched beneath her skin. Cade studied her carefully through [Essence Sight]. Rowana's ruined body still blazed with dense life essence flowing through her channels and twisted flesh, but her Core no longer shone like the sun the way it had before Vorduun's attack. It was dark now. Hollowed out and nearly empty.

"This world," she whispered, "is one I created using the resources available to me." He sensed no deception in her words but something still felt wrong about the way the entity answered. Like it was circling around parts of the truth without ever fully touching them. His grip tightened slightly. The System had labeled this thing corruption. It had given him a quest specifically to cleanse it. And yet… It could speak, think, and reason. Part of Cade screamed that this was obviously a trap.

The entity inside of Rowana was stalling while the corruption spread deeper through the Great Tree toward whatever "Core" it wanted to reach. But another part of him wanted answers. The ash tortoises and Pearl waited below. If the corruption spread down too far, they would burn the roots before it could escape the Great Tree. If Cade trusted his allies, then maybe he could afford to take a risk in order to obtain more information. The white fire inside his chest dimmed slightly.

"Then why does the System call you corruption?" Cade asked. The entity coughed again and more dark blood splattered across the wood.

"I do not know of this 'System'," she admitted.

"I was simply trying to live my life when I was swept away in a torrent of essence. Caught in a wave I could not escape." Her glowing eyes unfocused and drifted around the chamber, never lingering on one spot for too long.

"The next thing I knew, I was here," she continued weakly.

"I used the resources available to me to shape this realm so I could eventually escape whatever trapped me. The thing outside keeps trying to break through the barrier surrounding my realm, but I've held it back every time." Cade's eyes narrowed at her words. Was the System trying to break into this realm? What else could possibly force its way into a dungeon? Was that why he had received a message saying System access would be limited while inside?

But if the System could not fully enter this place, then how had he and Aquelion been allowed in? A cold feeling settled into his stomach. If this thing was telling the truth… then what exactly was he dealing with here? Because the System was more powerful than he could possibly imagine and this thing was claiming it had kept the System itself out.

"What's your real name?" Cade asked suddenly. The entity's eyes shifted and focused on him for several seconds before answering.

"I was once called Sildraxa."

"My name's Cade," he said.

"Nice to meet you, Sildraxa." The entity blinked faintly at that.

"Now if you actually want to have a rational conversation instead of all this fighting," Cade continued, "then stop spreading through the Great Tree and we can talk about why the System labeled you as corruption… and whether coexistence is even possible." For the first time, something resembling genuine frustration crossed Rowana's ruined face.

"I cannot." The surrounding bark pulsed faintly with violet light.

"If I do not reach the Core before this vessel dies," she whispered, "then I die with it. I stretched myself too thin. Poured too much into this one vessel." Cade frowned.

"Then why not leave only part of yourself inside the Tree?" he asked.

"Not all of it. Just enough to survive." Even as he said it, his thoughts raced. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. If he could get her to stop spreading. Stop infecting everything around her. Then maybe the System would no longer classify her as corruption and he could gain an ally that could hold back the System itself. Sildraxa's burning stare unfocused again and shifted toward the surrounding chamber walls.

"The Great Tree resists me," she whispered.

"I left part of myself within but that fragment is now gone. Burned away somehow." Bitterness slipped into her voice.

"The Tree now fights my influence constantly. Spreading through it is… difficult." Cade's eyes narrowed as the memory surfaced. An endless storm overhead. A massive dragon made out of violet lightning descending from the clouds in a torrent of crackling essence while unbearable pressure crushed against his mind and soul. The thing that had tried to force itself into him. Tried to overwrite him.

Cade still vividly remembered the feeling of that ancient will slamming against his consciousness while he fought to keep himself whole. Understanding settled slowly into place. This thing… Sildraxa… this was the same entity that had corrupted the Stormsap Crucible. The corruption he had burned away using its own lightning against it. Cade remained careful not to let that realization show on his face. Instead, he asked another question.

"You said you created this realm using the resources available to you." His gaze swept across the chamber.

"What resources?" Sildraxa answered immediately.

"A couple of chained souls, a great deal of essence, and time." Cade froze. Chained souls? What did she mean by that?

"Could you elaborate?" As the words left his mouth Cade quietly diverted more essence toward the growing mass of white fire deep within his chest. Heat gathered behind his ribs as compressed desolation slowly condensed tighter and tighter inside him. Regardless of how calmly Sildraxa spoke, Cade deeply disliked how casually she mentioned using souls as resources. Anything capable of manipulating souls so freely was almost certainly ancient, powerful, and dangerous beyond his understanding.

Sildraxa coughed wetly before continuing.

"There were two souls with me when I arrived here," she whispered.

"Reasonably powerful ones but nothing compared to what I once was." Her glowing eyes lolled upward into her head before refocusing on Cade.

"But they were bound. Restricted by chains placed upon them by something far beyond my understanding." The wood connected to her arm pulsed faintly.

"So I helped them. I broke their souls apart," Sildraxa continued matter-of-factly.

"Once fragmented, freeing them from the chains became simple." Every instinct in Cade screamed that there was something horribly wrong with that sentence. Sildraxa either failed to notice the shift or simply did not care.

"Reconstructing souls afterward is more difficult," she admitted.

"So I made adjustments." Cade's stomach tightened.

"One possessed affinity toward creation and growth. Their path was one of endless possibilities." A faint smile crossed her ruined face.

"That one adapted beautifully." Then her expression shifted.

"The other soul was… more constrained. Bound too tightly by what it had once been. So I broke him further and aligned him to a more suitable Path. One more fitting for his soul." A sharp pulse of offense flared through Cade immediately. The idea of forcing someone onto a Path they never chose twisted something deep inside of him. Even if Sildraxa genuinely believed she had been helping, choice mattered. Free will mattered. Sildraxa continued speaking through another coughing fit.

"This realm helped stabilize them afterward. Cycle after Cycle of growth and desolation strengthened both souls while repairing the damage I caused by freeing them." Cade stayed silent, but his thoughts raced. Some parts of what she said lined up disturbingly well. The frogs and tortoises. Life and desolation. The constant cycles throughout Cynthia's Legacy. But still, that same feeling lingered beneath her words. That feeling like she still was not telling him the full truth. Then another realization surfaced.

Had the System put her here intentionally? Was the "corruption" inside this dungeon on purpose or had something gone catastrophically wrong? How much of this was the System pulling invisible strings? Cade pushed the thought aside for now. He could worry about that later. For now he still wanted answers.

"Then why infect Aquelion?" he asked. Sildraxa's glowing gaze shifted back toward him.

"When you and the Viscount first entered this realm," she whispered, "I examined both of you. The alligator possessed strong affinities toward transformation, creation, and growth. He was well suited to learning those Paths." Then her eyes fixed intently onto Cade.

"But you…" A strange pressure settled over the chamber.

"You were far more attuned to destruction." Cade's expression remained neutral even though his mind was reeling. The pieces finally locked together inside his head.

"The giant violet eye I saw when I entered this realm." A faint pulse of violet lightning crawled through the wood around Rowana's living corpse.

"You were there from the very beginning," Cade realized. The entity within Rowana smiled.

"Yes. And if that old turtle didn't resist my influence, I could have guided you just like I guided Aquelion. Just imagine how powerful you could have become if you had followed the Path I laid out before you instead of stumbling around blindly. If you had remained beneath the Ashen Emperor's guidance, you would not stand before me now as this fractured mess of opposing forces. You would already possess a stable Core and strength far beyond what you currently wield." Cade's stomach tightened.

Sildraxa had been watching them from the moment they entered Cynthia's Legacy. She had sent him and Aquelion down opposing Paths from the very beginning. How much more was she responsible for? He studied Sildraxa silently for several long seconds.

"Okay," he said slowly.

"Let's say I believe you. That still doesn't exactly explain why you infected Aquelion." Sildraxa tilted Rowana's head at an unnatural angle.

"Infected?" she repeated softly.

"I was helping him." Cade's eyes narrowed.

"Aquelion possessed immense potential," Sildraxa continued.

"I merely accelerated his growth. Guided him toward decisions that would make him stronger." The surrounding bark pulsed faintly with violet light.

"I would have done the same for you. I can still do the same for you." Cade felt his muscles tighten as Sildraxa's glowing eyes fixed directly onto him again.

"If you just let me in, then I could guide you and you would truly understand." A cold shiver shot down his spine. Accept her guidance and follow her will. The entire conversation shifted in Cade's mind and he quietly began drawing even more essence into the growing sphere of white fire deep within his chest. He did not like where this was going. Sildraxa noticed immediately and her expression softened.

"I could help you."

"How?" Rowana's ruined body twitched weakly against the wall.

"You still do not possess a Core. I can feel it. I can see it," she whispered.

"Your channels are incomplete and unstable." Then her smile widened into a horrifying grin that spread unnaturally across her face.

"But I can fix that. The Core of this realm still exists," Sildraxa continued softly.

"I could integrate it into you directly. Give you a powerful Core." For just a moment, Cade's thoughts blurred strangely. A Core. A real Core. All he had to do was accept her. Work with her. Let her in. The idea settled into his mind with unnatural weight. She could stabilize my channels. Give me greater power. Maybe even a complete Path forward. She could tell me exactly what to do and when to do it to grow more powerful. Sildraxa's voice softened further.

"I could make the process seamless. All you need to do is let me inside for just a moment. Then I will give control right back." A sharp jolt tore through his mind hard enough that Cade physically recoiled as the Law Seed of Inviolable Self pulsed violently within Cade's soul. The strange haze clouding his thoughts shattered instantly. Realization hit him a heartbeat later. Sildraxa had just tried to influence his mind. A subtle push against his thoughts.

A gentle nudge designed to make the offer seem more than reasonable. But every instinct Cade now possessed immediately rejected the offer. Absolutely not. There was no chance in hell he would ever allow some ancient entity to take control of him. Not even for a second. Cade's expression hardened immediately. Any lingering trust he might have developed during the conversation evaporated the moment he realized Sildraxa had tried to tamper with his thoughts.

At the same time, he quietly siphoned more essence from his circulating channels into the growing sphere of Desolation deep within his chest. The condensed mass of white fire tightened further beneath his control, growing hotter, denser, and more violent with every passing second. Sildraxa continued speaking anyway.

"A Core acts as a bridge," she explained.

"It connects the physical and metaphysical." Her glowing eyes drifted toward Cade's abdomen.

"When most beings form a Core, they condense essence until a stable connection forms between body and soul. Both the physical and metaphysical channels integrate around the Core. It stabilizes the relationship between soul, essence, and flesh. It allows power to flow properly into the world." Then her eyes narrowed as they focused.

"But you…" Cade felt uncomfortably exposed beneath her gaze.

"Your choices have caused you to develop differently." Sildraxa coughed again, blood running down Rowana's chin.

"Not incorrectly," she admitted.

"Merely… unusual. Your channels already reach beyond the physical. Your soul and body are already partially intertwined. Without a proper bridge stabilizing the connection, you likely won't advance any further." Cade frowned slightly despite himself. That actually sounded disturbingly plausible. Especially considering everything that had happened since the Ashen Baptism. How he had screwed up the rite by finishing the baptism with lightning instead of pure essence.

"Forming a Core naturally will be much harder for you," Sildraxa whispered.

"Condensing essence alone will not solve the problem. You require a Core aligned to the Path you walk as well as precise integration to connect your fused channels." Her gaze remained fixed on him.

"Without it, your growth will halt and eventually your channels may destabilize entirely." The chamber pulsed with soft violet light around them.

"But I can solve that for you, Cade. No failed attempts. No risk of collapse. No years wasted trying to force together something your body was never designed to handle." Her ruined smile widened.

"All you need to do… is trust me."