Chapter 1006: The Missing Piece
Chapter 1006: The Missing Piece
“…Mngh.”
Having realized he’d fallen unconscious on the body of a Tidemother again, Valyr inwardly let out a low sigh as he admonished himself for not being more vigilant.
Taking in a few deep breaths as he gave his consciousness the time it needed to awaken, the young man soon opened his eyes, only to be greeted by a familiar sight.
Complete darkness.
‘… Where am I?’ Just as he’d sat upright, Valyr thought to himself that he was still on top of the Greater Tidemother’s body. After all, the feeling of the surface he was sitting on felt as cold as it after having its vitality siphoned away by Sana.
Confused as to why he’d appeared in complete darkness, the young man slowly stood up before glancing at the item he was holding.
Seeing that Sana had come along with him, Valyr faintly let out a sigh of relief as he affixed him to his back, deciding to take a look at the notifications regarding its successful transformation at a later time.
“Sana, do you remember what happened before we arrived here?” Deciding to walk through the darkness to find clues, the young man went ahead and shot a question to his spear, hoping that it had an answer to give him.
Fortunately, Sana replied as it gave off a feeling of affirmation in his mind. ‘I do.’
However, what he heard from his spear was more vague than he initially hoped.
‘After I became stronger thanks to the blood of the Greater Tidemother, Master grabbed me as wind began to blow all over its body.’
“Yeah.” Valyr nodded at its words. “I can also remember being struck in the back of the head by something before I fell unconscious.”
‘A strong wave of energy struck you at the back, Master,’ said Sana as clarification, prompting Valyr to faintly nod once more.
“What happened after that?” asked the young man. “How did we get here?”
‘Er… I’m not too sure either, Master,’ replied Sana after a bit of silence. ‘After you fell unconscious, I tried to wake you up, recalling what happened the last time we did the same thing.’
“But then…?”
‘But then… all of a sudden, both of us were transported to this place,’ continued Sana where it left off. ‘I was confused as to why we were transported here, but I decided to focus on waking you up first, Master.’
“…Thank you.” Though Sana’s perspective of what happened did give him a bit more insight, a frown still adorned Valyr’s face as it wasn’t enough for him to understand why the two of them were in this situation.
Walking around the darkness for a bit more, the young man soon went through all of the things that happened during Sana’s transformation process in his mind, becoming silent as the gears in his mind turned.
“Well, that doesn’t make sense,” murmured Valyr to himself, remembering how all of the words he’d heard from the voice before he fell unconscious talked about how he showed exemplary strength and intelligence.
“It doesn’t match up,” continued the young man in his murmurs. “Why would the voice say something like that if I was afflicted with a curse the previous time it happened.”
At that point, he’d brought up his memories from the time he killed the Prodigious Lesser Tidemother.
Combining it with the various hypotheses he’d formed, as well as the clues he’d gained during Sana’s transformation process, Valyr had a feeling that there was only one thing missing left for his confusion to be completely resolved.
Coincidentally, it was at that moment that the Mark of the Alltide on his back began to throb, causing him to stop in his tracks as he gritted his teeth.
‘Why did it begin to flare up all of a sudden?’ Enduring the pain that was radiating from his back, Valyr allowed it to briefly subside before taking in a deep breath to compose his
thoughts.
After that, he connected the curse’s sudden flare-up to the greater narrative that was forming in his mind, feeling like he’d taken yet another step closer to solving the entire thing.
Surprisingly, as if the heavens were rewarding him for connecting what seemed to be two unrelated things into one thought, the curse behind his back began to throb in a certain pattern, prompting Valyr to close his eyes as he focused all of his attention on it.
‘…I think it’s giving me directions,’ concluded the young man to himself, noticing that the mark on his back was continuously pulsating towards a certain direction.
Turning around to face the direction the curse was pointing at, a faint smile soon erupted on Valyr’s face as the curse began to pulsate in a different manner.
Sparing some time to figure out the various directions the curse was pointing him at, the young man soon began to walk through the darkness with confidence, relying on the directions the curse was giving him.
Unexpectedly, following the curse’s directions caused the darkness surrounding them to gradually disappear, causing Valyr to slightly hasten his pace in the process.
By the time the darkness was reduced to roughly half of its previous intensity, Valyr began to notice that there were walls to his sides, seemingly made up of gray brick.
Eventually, the entire darkness disappeared, allowing the young man to realize that he’d been walking through various corridors all this time.
Following the directions the curse was continuing to give him, Valyr soon arrived in front of a double door spanning five meters tall.
Sensing a faint imposing aura emanating on the other side, the young man took in a deep breath before pushing on the door. “I suppose I’ll get the answers to my questions once I
enter, huh.”
Creak…
“Hngh…”
Using all of the strength in his body, Valyr was barely able to open the door, pushing his body to the edge of exhaustion before being able to make an opening large enough to go through. Taking some time to catch his breath, it was only after he felt he’d returned to peak condition did he go through the opening, only to come face to face with a being that was hundreds, if not thousands of times stronger than him.
“You’ve finally arrived, Successor.”
“I knew I made the right choice when I first took notice of you.”
Though he was caught off guard by the being’s words at first, Valyr soon understood… that the being in front of him was the missing piece he needed to resolve the confusion in his mind.
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