Chapter 1,366 – Impersonator

Esmeralda looked about ready to blow her top over having her appearance appropriated and profaned. Zac was more worried about reinforcements since the remnants of the Scripture Tower were situated right against a corrupted zone. If the environment could birth one Peak D-grade Qriz’Ul, then it could birth more. Considering their location, there might even be C-grade Qriz’Ul lurking about.

There was also the question of the doppelganger’s intent. It didn’t seem like it was simply trying to ambush him, but silencing the threat took precedence over getting answers. He feared the Qriz’Ul would be targeted by Citadel’s arrays and that he would be deemed guilty by association. Zac activated [Arbiter of the Abyss] and [Fields of Despair], enveloping the surroundings in an isolating miasma. He became death incarnate as he shot forth, the rattle of chains echoing the promise of deliverance. Not even the Qriz’Ul would escape judgment.

Using his arbiter-form’s taunting domain proved superfluous when the doppelganger faced Zac’s approach head-on. Its head expanded until it was almost double Zac’s height, and its maw thrummed with twisted forces of space. The Qriz’Ul had become a conduit, and the Lost Plane waited on the other side in all its distorted splendor. The madness that came pouring out was no less than what Zac had to endure when escaping the Polaris Vault.

A year later, the Lost Plane’s undiluted corruption still wasn’t something Zac could endure for long. Nevertheless, he pressed on, inexorably advancing toward a shimmering nucleus hidden within a spatial fold. Chains severed escape routes while [Death Duality]’s edge gleamed with [Fatehew]’s spiritual annihilation.

Countless purple tears attempted to keep him at bay, and the whispers flooding his mind grew more urgent by the second. Zac vanished before the Qriz’Ul’s efforts could yield any results. He stepped onto the Void’s hidden paths, which existed even in the Lost Plane. Following this path, Zac traversed a hundred meters in the blink of an eye. He stood right before the nucleus, and death was about to deliver.

“Wait!”

Zac had already halted when Esmeralda’s warning reached him. The surroundings shuddered, and one of the scriptorium’s pillars appeared just before him. Had he continued his swing for just a moment longer, he would have struck the pillar and likely triggered the array within. Reality expanded with the pillar as its center, and the Lost Plane was no more.

The Qriz’Ul’s spatial gate was an illusion holding a seed of truth. If his Heart hadn’t seen through the deception, he might even have been transported for real, considering the ample amount of Spatial Energies infused into the illusion. The illusion had doubled as a mental attack. Any hesitation allowed to take root would become a backdoor for the Lost Plane’s madness. Zac looked around, finding the Qriz’Ul sitting at its original location.

“You’re strong, outsider,” it said as it split into hundreds of copies. One voice became a chorus that held a “Join us.”

Zac would have to be mad to entertain the thought. He rushed forth, using his intuition to target the copies that seemed the most real in search of the real spirit. Throughout, he kept constant vigil over his perception, ensuring the Qriz’Ul didn’t trick him into attacking the building again.

“Our goals align,” one copy said before a chain punched through its forehead. The Qriz’Ul wasn’t deterred. It kept talking, its voice continuously changing origin. “The Limitless Empire is gone, and its wealth is unclaimed. There’s more than enough for us to split the haul.”

“Or we kill you and take everything for ourselves,” Esmeralda sneered.

“The flame lingers, containing terrifying Karma. Our kin can corrupt it, but it’s not enough,” a palpable desire appeared in its voice. “You can resist it. You can consume it. You can open the path, and we’ll help you destroy the defenses. Together, we—”

“Enough.”

A spectral chain suddenly detached from [Love’s Bond]’s rampaging links, targeting a surprised copy nearby. Its Spatial Energies simply disappeared when it tried to teleport away, allowing [Arbiter of the Abyss]’s spectral chain to reach its mark. Zac was already upon it, his axe roaring with doom as [Fatehew] descended on the creature’s incorporeal body.

The Qriz’Ul’s attempts to confuse him had been doomed from the start, but that wasn’t to say it was helpless. His mind screaming of danger, a protective coffin appeared before Zac as he finished his swing. The Qriz’Ul exploded when his axe passed through, but there was no joy in his gaze. His barrier was pelted with chaotic energies, while the remaining projectiles turned into a new set of doppelgangers.

The creature had self-detonated to escape [Arbiter of the Abyss]’s binding. Doing so clearly left it weakened, but its aura was quickly recovering. Zac guessed it could actually draw on the Lost Plane for sustenance, or at least draw on the nearby dead zone. Even so, it didn’t get far. Zac’s taunting domain was still in full effect, and Esmeralda began.

With its illusions not working, the doppelganger could tell its situation wasn’t looking good. Instead of trying to trick Zac into damaging the array, it began showing inclinations of escape. Seeing the signs didn’t help Zac in keeping the doppelganger contained. Zac tried every trick in the book to keep the target inside his inexorable web of death, but the freed Qriz’Ul was as slippery as an eel.

Anytime he managed to narrow down his target, it split into another brood of tainted toads. With each split, fewer of Esmeralda’s original features remained, with the rest replaced with the stuff of nightmares. A few times, the Qriz’Ul almost managed to trick Zac into attacking the Scripture Tower again. For the same reason, unleashing large-scale destruction to clean out the illusions in one go was out of the question.

“I’ve had it with you!” an infuriated Esmeralda eventually shouted as massive amounts of Spatial Energy coursed through her small frame.

The Qriz’Ul had accomplished something the Left Imperial Expanse hadn’t over the past months. It had made the thief angry enough to activate an ability similar to a proper skill. A road of starlight running through an ancient sky replaced the Scripture Tower’s first floor. Zac could tell that stepping off the road meant falling through the cracks of reality.

Not only that, Zac saw countless projections of himself appear further ahead as Esmeralda turned the stretch into an endless loop. The infuriated Grand Traversal Toad had erected a spatial cage no weaker than the prison of [Eye of Desolation], and even the Qriz’Ul seemed taken aback at the sudden change. Being a creature of corrupted space, it probably understood better than Zac the profound knowledge necessary to create this space.

With space completely in Esmeralda’s control, the battle was all but over. Zac moved like the wind, cleansing the road of impostors until only one remained. Just as it was about to split again, Zac activated [Void Zone]. Its ability was interrupted, and [Fatehew] bit into the Qriz’Ul—this time for real.

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The Qriz’Ul was unusually clever, but Zac didn’t bother trying to question it. It was corruption incarnate, and listening to its words would do more harm than good. Qriz’Ul didn’t have true souls, but the skill still worked wonders against incorporeal beings. A few swings were all that was needed to finish the job, and they were back in the scripture hall the next second.

The fight wasn’t very clean, and he’d relied on Esmeralda’s help. Zac was still quite happy with the outcome. The fight had allowed him to confirm some theories he’d formed during his walk through the illusory city. Within his immediate vicinity, Zac could see through certain illusions that tricked his eyes and even Soul Sense. Not only that, he could exert some control within this domain. That was what actually destroyed the illusion hiding the Qriz’Ul at the beginning, not the burst of Miasma.

This was the benefit of his breakthrough in Heart Cultivation, and it made Zac recall the descriptions in the [Boundless Vajra Sublimation]. The first major threshold at the third layer would impart a Boundless State, which became his Void State after reforming the manual. The second major breakthrough at the sixth layer would also bolster his Dao Heart.

After shattering the Heavenly Chains, one would create a Heart Domain. Zac hadn’t even derived the cultivation method of the sixth layer, but it looked like he’d gained some of its benefits ahead of schedule. Part of it might be that he also practiced the [Warbringer Dharma], which felt about ready to form a second idol. However, his constant effort to keep real and fake separate in the Peregrine Ocean was the main reason.

Zac saw no downside to cultivating a Heart Domain early. It meant his Domain would become even stronger than normal after practicing the [Void Vajra Sublimation]’s sixth layer. More importantly, it had already proven itself a critical tool inside the Mercurial Court, where the lines between truths and falsehoods were blurred and ever-changing. Zac suspected that was part of the reason the Limitless Empire insisted on Sealbearers crossing the Peregrine Ocean.

“I didn’t expect you to have a death cage skill,” Zac commented, seeing that Esmeralda had calmed down.

“What death cage? Why would I stay and fight when I can just run away? If I’m lucky, my pursuer will get unlucky and fall right into the Lower Planes,” the toad huffed. “By the way, don’t expect me to keep trapping your enemies. I could barely use the ability after having some of the excess Temporal Energy extracted, but it damages the balance between Space and Time.”

Zac smiled and shook his head. That Qriz’Ul was really too unlucky. Its idea to mimic Esmeralda had completely backfired, only serving to anger her to the point she used a self-harming technique to trap it. If the doppelganger had taken another form, it would’ve had a chance to escape. Its survival methods were quite impressive, and Zac wasn’t able to activate [Eye of Desolation] at the moment. He needed another week or so to collect enough Oblivion Energy.