Chương 104: Chapter 90 – The Eight Pillars

The Law Sprout shifted. The void-black roots of Cade's Law Sprout tightened around the swirling currents of impossible color while the tiny singularity embedded within its stalk spun faster and faster. Endless streams of multicolored brilliance spiraled inward toward the newborn plant before being drawn through the black core at its center. Most of the colors passed through and out the leaf unchanged. But one did not. A thin strand of violet kept cycling through the sprout over and over again.

Cade watched intently. The strand entered through the roots and vanished into the void-black stalk where the singularity embedded within it began to spin faster. Moments later, the leaf exhaled the strand back into the surrounding chaos. But this time a thin ribbon of violet peeled away from the thread as it emerged.

The stripped essence dispersed harmlessly into the swirling colors around the sprout while the remaining thread, now slightly dimmer than before, curled back downward toward the roots to begin the process again. Every cycle stripped away more of the violet corruption saturating the thread. Thin fragments of tainted essence peeled free after passing through the singularity before dissolving harmlessly into the chaos surrounding Cade's soul.

The violet dimmed steadily with each rotation until the corruption faded completely and the strand became perfectly colorless. As the last traces vanished, Cade felt an overwhelming pressure lift from the thread—as though something watching through it had been stripped away. Then the sprout drew the purified thread back through its roots one final time as the singularity spun faster and Cade's vision lurched violently. The chaos of his soul collapsed around him.

The colors stretched into blinding streaks as his consciousness was dragged elsewhere. Then his vision slammed back into focus. Cade found himself as a disembodied speck adrift beneath an endless sea of space so vast it defied scale entirely. Galaxies drifted around him like scattered grains of glowing dust while impossible rivers of essence carved luminous paths through the cosmos in every direction. Surrounding him were eight colossal pillars that extended into the heavens.

Each stretched so far into the cosmos that Cade could barely comprehend their scale. They were laid out in an octagonal formation around something even larger seated at the center. A dragon. No— A tree shaped like a dragon. Or perhaps a dragon shaped like a tree. Cade genuinely could not tell where one ended and the other began. The entity existed on a scale so immense that worlds seemed no larger than flecks of dust caught between the grooves of its bark.

Even before Cade understood what he was looking at, he felt a strange familiarity from it. Its body resembled an endless fusion of bark, roots, branches, leaves, and living wood woven together into draconic form. Continent-sized forests clung to the ridges of its scales while glowing rivers flowed through translucent channels beneath. Vast antler-like branches spread outward from its skull and vanished into the endless cosmos.

Despite the impossible scale, Cade could see every detail wherever he focused his limited comprehension. Slowly, he turned his attention toward the entities occupying the eight pillars surrounding the tree dragon. The first pillar held a man clad in flowing white robes trimmed with molten gold. His skin shone with warm bronze radiance while muscles like sculpted marble shifted beneath the cloth with impossible perfection.

A luminous halo hovered behind his head, casting endless rays of soft golden light across the cosmos. The moment Cade looked at him, warmth flooded his chest. The man radiated safety and belonging. The sensation felt so comforting that part of him immediately wanted to kneel but the Law Sprout stirred inside his soul. The warmth shattered. It wasn't real, the man had some sort of passive influence. The realization sent a chill down his spine.

Even now, inside some insane vision, merely looking upon the man distorted emotions around him. Opposite the radiant man sat a woman so beautiful Cade struggled to look directly at her. Every feature, every angle of her face possessed impossible perfection, as though beauty itself had been distilled into her form. And that was despite her pale blue skin resembling that of a corpse. Flowing black robes drifted weightlessly around her body while long silver hair spilled endlessly down the pillar behind her.

At the center of her forehead lay a pure black third eye. The void surrounding that eye swallowed reality itself. Cade glanced at it for less than a second before terror slammed through him hard enough to nearly collapse his nonexistent knees. Every instinct screamed that if the eye fully opened upon him, his soul would simply cease to exist. The third pillar looked ridiculous.

A vaguely humanoid figure sat atop polished metal scaffolding wearing a stiff silver suit made from segmented rectangular plates that looked suspiciously like spray-painted cardboard. Its cylindrical arms connected awkwardly at visible hinges while a cloudy fishbowl dome rested over its featureless metallic head. Red lights blinked where eyes should have been. It looked like something assembled for a low-budget science fiction film from the 1960s. The fourth pillar possessed no stable form at all.

The entity atop it constantly collapsed and reformed in a maelstrom of raging elements. Oceans spiraled through burning skies while mountains of crystal erupted from its shoulders only to shatter apart into hurricanes of molten sand. Lightning crawled endlessly through the storm surrounding it, flashing between frozen oceans, volcanic stone, and clouds made entirely of screaming vapor.

At times Cade glimpsed fragments of humanoid anatomy buried within the chaos—a hand formed from flowing magma, an eye opening briefly inside a thunderhead, a skeletal face emerging from a tidal wave before dissolving again moments later. The thing radiated pure instability. Primordial chaos given form. The fifth pillar held a massive figure seated cross-legged upon an enormous lotus throne.

Golden skin shimmered softly beneath flowing saffron robes while dozens upon dozens of serene arms extended outward behind the figure in perfect symmetry. Some hands formed intricate mudras while others held prayer beads, scrolls, candles, blades, or blooming flowers. Its face remained tranquil despite its surroundings. The moment Cade looked upon it, the tension inside him eased. His thoughts quieted. The endless pressure weighing down his mind softened beneath an overwhelming sense of unity and understanding.

The sensation deepened rapidly, urging him to let go. To stop resisting. To simply accept harmony and become part of something greater than himself. Then the Law Sprout stirred again within his soul. Cade felt the influence being drawn away through the black roots of the sprout as the tiny singularity at its center processed the foreign pressure flooding his thoughts. He forced himself to look away immediately afterward. The sixth pillar made his mind recoil immediately after he glanced in its direction.

The thing crouched atop its tower in a tangled mass of crimson flesh, horns, claws, mouths, and writhing anatomy. Limbs branched endlessly from its body in asymmetrical clusters while dozens of mismatched eyes rolled independently across its skin. And the genitalia— The creature possessed far too many of them in different shapes, sizes, and species. Some fused into the flesh while others dangled freely between writhing limbs or protruded grotesquely from places they absolutely should not have been.

Cade was no prude but this was excessive. Worse still, simply looking at the thing made intrusive thoughts crawl through his mind. Hunger. Violence. Lust. Wrath. Horrifying compulsions bubbled upward all at once beneath the creature's maddening aura. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. The Law Sprout immediately began pulling at the invasive influence, but this time the process felt slower and heavier.

The singularity embedded within the sprout churned harder as though the thing's influence resisted being filtered away. The seventh pillar barely looked real. At first Cade thought he was staring into a hole in reality itself. Then the thing atop it moved. An impossibly massive skeletal thing crouched within layers of writhing darkness and drifting stars. Entire galaxies spiraled slowly through its exposed ribcage before collapsing into the endless maw splitting its skull apart.

The eighth pillar appeared almost ordinary by comparison. A lone traveler sat wrapped in countless weathered cloaks layered one atop another. The figure looked simultaneously young and ancient, healthy and dying, masculine and feminine all at once. Entire civilizations flickered faintly across the folds of its cloaks like reflections upon water. Forests bloomed and withered between breaths. Stars died within one eye while newborn galaxies ignited within the other.

Then Cade's formless consciousness plunged downward toward the colossal tree dragon at the center of the formation. His vision was cut off but now he could feel. The body he now occupied interpreted vibration itself through bark, roots, sap, leaves, and wood. The entire body functioned as one massive sensory organ. Far above, one of the Eight began to speak.

"Now that the dimension hopper has been secured," a deep male voice rumbled, "we should begin powering the array immediately." The voice sounded calm and measured yet Cade still felt overwhelming force behind every word. Like the speaker could shatter worlds simply by raising his voice. Another answered immediately afterward. This one was undoubtedly feminine. Low and husky with a faint rasp beneath every syllable.

"Yes, obviously. That is why we are all here." Annoyance dripped from her words.

"Thank you for clarifying the purpose of the gathering, you overexplaining idiot." A pulse of irritation rippled through the surrounding vibrations.

"Oh shut the fuck up," the male voice snapped back instantly.

"Interrupt me again bitch and you're going to catch these holy hands."

"Please," the woman replied mockingly.

"It would hardly be the first time I've had to put down a rabid dog." The surrounding vibrations shifted violently as power stirred before a third voice interrupted them. The sound barely resembled speech at all. A collision of grinding stones, howling winds and crashing waves. Every word emerged layered beneath countless elemental noises.

"Perhaps conflict would improve alignment," it mused.

"You may destroy one another now if desired." A new voice answered immediately afterward. The sound was nauseating. Wet, slurping breaths slid between the words while every syllable dripped with obscene intimacy.

"Or just fuck already and get it over with," the entity crooned. The next voice sounded synthetic and emotionless.

"Focus on the array. We must remain aligned in purpose to ensure stability during expansion into the new universe. You may continue petty squabbling after the System is formed." Silence followed immediately, but Cade's thoughts raced. That thing had clearly said the word System. What the fuck was happening? Confusion twisted through him but before Cade could process the implications further, agony exploded through his body. Or rather, the body he was inhabiting. Something began tearing it apart.

Cade felt roots splitting. Sap boiling. Bark scales being stripped layer by agonizing layer as immense forces ripped through every part of the colossal tree dragon simultaneously. And beneath the destruction he could feel its soul torn with every physical chunk ripped out. Rage, agony, defiance, and hatred bled through the process strongly enough that Cade almost mistook the emotions for his own. The pain transcended anything Cade had ever experienced.

Even the corruption burning through his eyes moments earlier felt insignificant compared to this. He could not scream. Could not move. Could not resist. The Eight were using the colossal creature he inhabited. Using every part of it to fuel their ritual. Cade's thoughts raced desperately through the agony. Why? Why use something alive for this? How powerful did this tree dragon have to be for these entities to use it as fuel? How powerful were they? Time lost all meaning as the process continued.

The array surrounding them hummed louder and louder while incomprehensible quantities of essence poured through the dragon's body. Reality seemed to bend around the formation as the Eight above fed the ritual. Cade genuinely could not tell how long the ripping and tearing continued before the cold mechanical voice echoed across the formation.

"Dimensional barrier breached. Prepare expansion of the System into adjacent universe." The pressure intensified. Cade felt the dragon weakening before a sudden surge of defiance raced through what little remained. A thought crashed through Cade's mind so forcefully it barely felt like language. The next moment he felt himself shattering with the dragon as it ruptured apart from within.

He felt its body and soul explode into countless fragments all at once as impossible quantities of essence spewed outward across existence itself. The Laws bent around its will as layers of reality rushed past faster than he could comprehend. Tiny strands of violet scattered alongside the fragments, carrying splinters of the dragon's fury and desperate need to survive.

Rather than remain trapped as fuel for the Eight's creation, the tree dragon tore itself apart and hurled the fragments outward in every direction and dimension imaginable. Cade's perspective shattered apart alongside the dragon's fragments and suddenly he existed everywhere and nowhere at once. His vision surged back as he saw massive swaths of the escaping fragments slam against invisible barriers surrounding the formation and were dragged violently back inward toward the ritual.

The Eight had obviously anticipated this possibility but not all of the fragments were caught. Some escaped as tiny pieces of soul and essence slipped through cracks in the containment before the barriers fully stabilized. Countless fragments scattered across impossible distances simultaneously. He glimpsed stars dying. Worlds forming. Entire civilizations rising and collapsing in moments as the fragments hurtled through multiple realities. Then his awareness followed one fragment in particular.

It was small and weak. A seed that had once grown within one of the continent-sized forests clinging between the dragon's scales. Unlike the larger fragments of soul and essence, this one felt separate. Not entirely the dragon itself, but still undeniably born from it. Deep within the seed, Cade glimpsed a tiny thread of violet buried beneath layers of dormant life essence. The thread pulsed faintly, carrying traces of emotion and instinct so ancient and fragmented that they no longer felt entirely alive.

The seed slipped beyond the expanding reach of the System and vanished into somewhere untouched. There, it drifted silently through darkness. The tiny violet thread within the seed remained dormant at first. But as time accelerated and eons passed, the violet slowly spread through the seed, a festering will refusing to die. Reality slammed back into Cade as heat roared around him.

His vision returned in a blur of smeared colors and indistinct shapes while white fire continued pouring from his mouth in an endless torrent. The [Flames of Desolation] raged outward through the chamber as his [Mantle of Dissolution] spread through the inferno in spiraling currents of ash. All around him the Great Tree was burning. Cade blinked rapidly through ruined eyes that were only barely beginning to regenerate.

Everything looked distorted and hazy, but he could still make out enormous sections of the chamber collapsing into flame around him. And through it all— His body kept moving his essence automatically. Pure essence flooded into him with every breath. His channels cycled the incoming power instinctively while the [Flames of Desolation] and the [Mantle of Dissolution] consumed corruption, bark, roots, and essence alike before feeding the liberated power back into his circulation.

The process had become self-sustaining thanks to the vast amount of life essence being consumed and converted to pure essence. Some detached part of Cade's mind realized that probably should have terrified him. Instead, he focused on surviving. A storm of notifications exploded in his mind. Ding! Congratulations! Your Law Seed has sprouted— Title updated— Quest Updated— Cade flicked the notifications away almost violently while white flames continued flooding out of his open mouth. Now was not the time.

Sildraxa was too dangerous. Every fragment of that ancient will needed to be erased before it could spread any farther. He still did not know how much corruption remained hidden inside the Great Tree and after witnessing that vision, Cade no longer trusted anything. Was that dragon her? Or did she come from it? The Eight had torn it apart. Used its body, its essence, its very soul to expand the System at the cost of its suffering.

Cade honestly did not know how much of the ancient dragon still remained after being shattered across existence for eons. Maybe the violet corruption was the fragmented will of the shattered dragon itself. A wound that had festered across endless ages until Sildraxa emerged from it. Maybe that need for control had not originally belonged to the seed at all. Endless suffering. Endless fragmentation. Endless isolation. Cade could almost understand how something like that became obsessed with control.

But the result remained the same. Sildraxa chose to try and dominate him instead of working together. To shape him and force him down a Path she and she alone chose. And if she escaped this realm— How many others would she try to control? How many people would willingly surrender themselves to someone offering certainty, power, and guidance? Cade understood the temptation better than he wanted to admit. Before the System— Hell, before Cynthia's Legacy— He probably would have accepted too. It was not fair.

None of what happened had been fair. The Eight had treated the dragon like fuel for their creation. A living sacrifice to create and expand the System into another universe. No one deserved that, but pity for where she came from did not erase what she had become. And Cade could not risk letting even a sliver of her remain behind. Not after feeling her influence pushing against his mind. Not after watching Rowana's corrupted corpse act like her puppet. Maybe if Cade were stronger, things could have gone differently.

Maybe someone powerful enough could have restrained her, showed her the error of her ways. But Cade was not that person, so he would do the only thing he could. He would end this.