Free Web NovelChapter 390: Chapter 387: Finally Learned the Water Creation Skill
If the Divine Kingdom had a master, it certainly wouldn’t allow a Mage (or his Stand-In) to invade the Domain through a sacrificial ritual. However, the original master was gone. It was as if Rorschach had broken into a desolate, empty room—and a drafty one at that!
One side was scorching hot, the other bone-chillingly cold. Rorschach felt as if this sliver of his separated soul was about to be torn apart by the two extremes.
The hot side was the remnant Divine Fire, burning fiercely in the furnace hearth. A cursory interpretation of the symbolic clusters it radiated included concepts like "Phase Change," "Motion," "Forging," and "Purification."
The other side, however, wasn’t an environment altered by Divinity, but simply the fact that this god’s Divine Kingdom was in a dilapidated, open state. Rorschach’s splintered soul carefully moved to the edge. This Divine Kingdom floated slightly above the typical Transmuting Dust, like a Lonely Boat adrift on a brilliant, crystalline sea—and a leaky one at that.
Perhaps the symbolism of the "Forging Furnace" was the strongest, which allowed it to maintain its stable existence, while the surrounding landmasses had already been corroded and dissociated. The open Domain faced the boundless, cold, and silent void.
Rorschach first observed the area around the giant Forging Furnace. There was twisted, abandoned machinery and scattered silver cans, which Rorschach recognized as Dwarven drinking vessels. When he picked one up, he was shocked by its density; it was most likely Mithril. He studied it for a moment, but he didn’t have a Storage Ring on him. He tried casting [Ethereal Membrane Compression] but found it had no effect.
’Worthless junk.’ After confirming there were no special patterns or Divine Arts on it, Rorschach tossed it aside and turned to face the Star Realm.
Looking out from the fractured Divine Kingdom, he could still see the shifting river of stars, with points of light slowly flowing around two invisible centers. Rorschach knew that if he ascended to the Supreme Heaven, those two invisible "Cores of the Stars" would reveal an entirely different spectacle.
As the Divine Kingdom drifted, a tide of raw, unprocessed Transmuting Dust suddenly surged toward them with a roar. ’Shit!’ Rorschach cursed inwardly and hastily retreated.
He canceled the soul ascension. His body began to dull and descend, plunging back into the Material Realm wrapped in the wild flames of the furnace.
Andre waited on the spot, every moment an agony as he watched the flames Rorschach had thrown himself into. The pyre suddenly erupted. Just as Andre was about to activate the Order Holy Emblem, the soaring flames took on a human form. The licks of fire subsided and ashes crumbled away as a struggling Rorschach climbed to his feet.
"Teacher, are you alright?" Andre noticed that Rorschach’s skin had become a bit smoother, with what seemed to be... a texture like glass or ceramic?
’It’s probably just a trick of the firelight!’ Andre decided there was no need to further inspect his teacher’s skin condition.
"I’m fine, just a bit stiff all over..." The Stand-In forced its limbs to move, regaining its normal flexibility after a series of grating, cringe-worthy sounds.
The Master’s God’s Divine Kingdom was too shattered and drafty, so naturally, Rorschach wouldn’t choose it. He wasn’t some great expert in the Space System, nor was he a paperhanger who could just patch things up and place the Tower Spirit’s main body there. Given the extent of the damage, it would have to be scrapped. Even the Master’s God himself wouldn’t be able to fix it if he were here.
That left the Elf God, who was suspected to be of the water element.
’First fire, now ice...’ Rorschach had learned his lesson this time. Even though it was just his Stand-In, he cast [Elemental Resistance] on himself. He could still feel the cold water mist and snow hitting him, but it could no longer cause any harm.
Once again, he traced the connection backward. This time, the link was also unguarded by any Divine Spirit, but the resistance grew stronger the deeper he went.
SPLASH! Rorschach felt as if he had plunged headfirst into water. In the dim depths, exquisite reliefs and megalithic structures lay silent, overtaken by vast, colorful coral reefs. Strange, unidentifiable aquatic creatures from another world drifted leisurely among them.
’Am I at the bottom of the sea?’ Rorschach saw no stable spatial structure, no starry sky, and no flow of Transmuting Dust. He felt immense, all-encompassing pressure from every direction. Compared to real human tissue, the cracks and flaws of his earth-based Stand-In repaired slowly and its tissues had poorer elasticity. Compounded by the vitrification and glazing from the earlier scorching, Rorschach was now struggling to withstand the water pressure.
Mimicking the principle of compressed air, he compressed the water beneath him and used the recoil to shoot forward like a torpedo, moving at high speed.
But even after moving for a long time, there was still no sign of the surface, and the pressure remained immense. Rorschach didn’t know how long he had been shooting upward like a cannonball. It grew colder the higher he went, until there was no more life, only huge blocks of ice appearing all around him.
’This is...’ He looked up at the sky, but there was no sky—only a thick sheet of ice pressing down on the water. Rorschach’s Stand-In cast [Molten Beam], but the melted ice revealed no end to the thickness.
’Just how thick is this ice sheet!’ A thought suddenly struck Rorschach, and he used the [Water Creation Skill]. It wasn’t his own invented version that converted elements, but the most common "Summon Water" type. To his surprise, he effortlessly conjured a huge water bubble within the Endless Sea, meeting no resistance at all. It wasn’t that his skill with this Magic had improved; it was because Rorschach was, without a doubt, in the Water Elemental Plane!
’Not good. The beam that just melted the ice cap is causing a collapse...’
The next time Andre saw Rorschach, he was sopping wet and looking utterly wretched as he stumbled out of the altar.
’Neither of them will work...?’ Just as Rorschach was about to give up, someone suddenly appeared, bringing a plain, unremarkable glass pearl.
"Teacher! Ah... which one is the original, and which is the Stand-In?" Andre asked upon seeing a second Rorschach appear.
...
Original Xia had rushed over at top speed. After Rorschach had sent out his Stand-In, matters in Lansite still required his attention. Since both of them had tasks to perform, Original Xia decided to temporarily suspend their synesthesia to avoid interference, letting his other self act freely.
Only when the business related to Lansite and the Tower Spirit was settled did Original Xia find the time to reconnect his synesthesia with the Stand-In and see how it was doing. And that’s when he saw that his Stand-In was courting death in the most spectacular way.
’Then... Huh? Intercepting the faith of the Lord of Order’s believers? Running a magical phishing scam, praying and sacrificing to more than ten Divine Spirits (and their sock puppets) at the same time?’
’Not sure, let me look again...’
’Holy shit, did I split off the soul of a mechanical materialist or the soul of a reckless idiot? It wouldn’t be a big deal if it just got itself killed, but this is shaping up to be a total party wipe, taking me and Andre down with it!’
So he dropped everything and rushed over in a panic. But when he tried to contact the Stand-In on the way, it had just started its journey and was already wandering around in other planes!
In short, Original Xia nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood. "You’re just a Stand-In! Your functions don’t let you cast High Ring Magic; at best, you’re at the level of a Middle Level Mage. And you still dare to go gallivanting in a god’s home!"
Still, he agreed with his own line of thinking. So after the Stand-In’s failure, Rorschach took out "Balan’s Pearl," which had been gathering dust for some time. Sealed inside was a remnant of the God of Deceit’s Soul.
"One last try." The original Rorschach waved his hand, using nothing but the spiritual... waste material from the ritual to pile up a messy altar. ’Balan enjoys Transformation, anyway,’ he thought. ’This chaotic altar should be fine.’
Sure enough, when the pearl was placed on the altar’s peak and infused with Magic Power, it quickly began to shine with... flashy, multicolored lights, and explosive music began to play. The activated Balan’s Pearl started to form a twisting vortex that constantly changed in size, its divine light pulsing in sync, like a gaping maw waiting for someone overly curious to risk their life. freewebnovel.cσ๓
’When did you turn into an RGB lightbulb?’ Rorschach glanced at the vortex, then decisively took the pearl and pressed it against the Order Holy Emblem. "Behave, or I’ll sacrifice you to the God of Order!"
The vortex changed in an instant. It was no longer a bottomless abyssal maw, but a stable passageway.
"After you," the original gestured for the Stand-In to charge bravely inside.
Stand-In Xia looked troubled. "Shouldn’t we be more cautious? After all, this is a passage opened by the God of Deceit."
"That’s why *you’re* going, not me." Rorschach shoved the Stand-In forcefully inside. "You should have been cautious a long time ago. It’s too late for that now!" Of course, now that his original body was here, he could prepare and cast the [Divine Exile Technique] as a safeguard in case of any accidents.
