Chapter 148: Discovered
Discovered.
'Uh, Master.' Christopher arched a brow as he continued to repair fate. Hearing Aisha's slightly unsure tone, he turned curious.
"What's up?" He asked with a carefree tone as if he wasn't currently battling against the authority of an entire realm to forcefully impose his will.
'There's a situation...' She sounded a bit hesitant to proceed.
'Out with it. What's wrong?' He sighed and asked directly, causing her to stop hesitating.
'It would seem that your actions had some... unforeseen circumstances.' Aisha then went on to explain how the hidden realm was currently being thrown into chaos because of Christopher's actions, and Christopher paused for a moment before asking.
'Is that all?' The question caught her off-guard.
'Y-Yes... that's all.' Christopher nodded and went silent for a moment before saying.
'In that case, I'll stop wasting time.' Indeed. Everything that was happening could have ended sooner, but the reason that wasn't the case was that Christopher was taking his time in dealing with the authority of the realm.
That's because he found something to use and train his imposition of his will properly.
Before, he stated that he would just bulldoze his way through everything at his current stage. But as time passed, he realized that wouldn't work. The main reason was that the harder he tried to impose his will on the world, the fiercer the will of the realm resisted.
He was still gaining some ground, but it was wildly inefficient, which he saw coming. But it was also very time-consuming, and he noticed that after some time, whatever change he implemented would be washed away, rendering his efforts pointless.
That's when he finally noticed the flaws in his method and realized that he was fighting too directly, like trying to punch through a flexible wall.
That's when he decided to use this chance to improve how he went about using his will.
Instead of brute forcing, he started to experiment with small, precise alterations to see how much he could affect before the realm retaliated, and in doing so, he noticed by altering things subtly. By redirecting rather than rewriting, his changes would last longer.
With this, he began to learn how to mask his interference so that the Realm didn't immediately react.
That's when he came to a realization. The hidden realm, or rather, its will, behaved more like a preprogrammed entity that acted on its instincts and past instructions due to the way it responded to his attempts at imposition. They were cold and immediate without any of the typical deviations seen in a sentient lifeform.
Despite that, however, Christopher treated it like a living opponent.
He stopped challenging it directly. Instead, he started to go with its flow, making it harder for the Realm to reject him. He wasn't imposing changes anymore, he was becoming a part of the reality structure itself, as if he were a natural law rather than a foreign invader.
After all, the strongest authority doesn't need to keep enforcing itself. It simply is. So he stopped treating it as a fight and made it so that his will and what he was trying to impose existed as an undeniable fact within the Realm.
His will no longer needs to struggle for dominance. It's accepted as part of the reality he's shaping.
With all of this said, Christopher had pretty much completely imposed his will, and the struggles of the realm were close to none. What he was doing now was just some intentional prodding to get the realm to react and use these reactions to temper himself further.
But now that things had come to this, there was no point in stalling any longer.
'The gains I've made in the past few hours were quite plentiful. I should be happy that I got this much.' He sighed.
He had long since completed the selective overwrite and was just using this time to train himself, but it was time to finish things.
Calmly, he stopped imposing his will, and at the same time, the realm stopped resisting it, and everything became calm.
He exhaled, then asked Aisha.
'So, how's fate looking?' He checked it himself. But he wanted to know if everyone else could sense it properly.
After a moment, Aisha's slightly excited voice came through.
'It's working great! Perfectly in fact! Everything is clear as day, and I'm not experiencing any form of interference whatsoever.' Hearing this, Christopher let out a relieved sigh. Thankfully, everything went smoothly.
If anyone had heard that last part, they'd have jumped him. It may have gone smoothly for him, but everyone else was fighting for their lives, and only now was the chaos subsiding.
***
"Huff Huff..." Jenny panted as her trembling hands that were covered in ice lowered and she fell on her back.
Below her, her giant turtle familiar had retreated into its shell which was mostly covered in ice, and behind it was the rest of her entourage who she had instructed to hide behind the turtle and use it as a shield.
Around the same time when Constella was being assaulted by the elements, Jenny faced a similar situation as her entourage was suddenly hit by a blizzard made of an uncountable number of sharp snowflakes moving several times faster than the speed of light.
They shredded and froze everything in sight, so Jenny had everyone retreat to the ground and took it upon herself to protect her people from the onslaught.
She could have had the other Apex-ranked beings in her party assist her, but she was stubborn and insisted on doing it herself.
As such, she and her turtle bore the full power of the blizzard for several hours before it finally ended.
Ordinarily, people of their level could fight for days, or even weeks on end, depending on the situation. So their stamina was nothing to scoff at.
However, from the get-go, the cold of this place wasn't normal, and it sapped away one's strength, body heat, and mental energy.
As a result, she was severely exhausted and almost immediately passed out the moment her back hit the ground.
***
Vazarhad a deep scowl on his face. He had just been celebrating how well their journey was going when several Apex-ranked beasts attacked their entourage.
The attack was sudden and he wasn't able to react in time before three of the vessels in their group were destroyed.
Considering that there were over 45 ships in the group, the loss wasn't that big. But the fact that it happened under his care pissed him off.
He didn't particularly care for the lives lost, he was just irritated that he'd been caught unawares.
What followed was a large battle between the Corruptionists and the beasts. Which, with all things considered, went quite well since they easily outnumbered the beasts and possessed powerful weaponry.
Still, it was enough to dampen his mood. Which only became worse.
That's because he received some news that put him on edge.
Among the clans, there was a Vassal system, and the Scions had many Vassal Clans.
Not long ago, after the battle, Vazar had been informed that one of their Vassal clans, or some of the forces of that clan, had been wiped out by a single being.
As for the rest, they revealed that they had encountered an unfamiliar force that wasn't a part of any of the clans, and was also not a part of the hidden realm as it had structure.
This irritated Vazar as that meant that somehow, an unregistered force had managed to enter the hidden realm without their knowledge.
'Did they enter before us? But that's impossible, we had Sovereigns making sure such a thing didn't happen. Were their senses eluded?' This was troubling, but what was even more troubling was the timing.
What were the chances that fate would go haywire... well, more haywire than it already was, and this unregistered force would appear at similar times?
'This won't do. This won't do at all.' Vazar grabbed the armrest and his brows knitted.
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If this force was capable of affecting fate on such a wide scale, they could mess up his plans easily, which wasn't acceptable.
'A single one of them managed to take out an organized group with an Apex rank with them, so their strength must be at that level at least. If they could affect fate on such a large scale, then it's possible that they can do much more.' At that moment, Vazar froze as a scary thought hit him.
'Could it be... they are responsible for why fate is like this in the first place?' His hand covered his mouth at the terrifying possibility. But then he quickly shook his head.
'I'm getting ahead of myself. Right now, what we need is information. But until then, it's safe to classify this force as extremely dangerous and we should treat them with utmost caution.' He nodded to himself before saying to his head handler.
"Gather whatever information you can on this new force. Their location would be preferable as well." That was all he said for now.
***
A/N: Ah yes, Misunderstandings.