Chapter 1159 – Beneath the Dark Heavens

The black clouds rumbled as the sound of thunder roared. Bolts of black lightning jumped between the clouds, with the occasional strike hitting the ground. No matter in which direction one looked, dark clouds were all one could see as they made up the entire sky.

Below, the ground was perfectly bare, not a single thing there besides black sand. Whenever a lightning strike hit the sand, it was kicked up, and occasionally, a natural sculpture formed as the sand was transformed into glass.

Besides the sand and clouds, only one other thing existed in this barren world. Standing beneath the dark heavens, a single human stared up into the eternal blackness. Despite looking so small, this solitary man was the center of this world and the victim of the dark heavens’ full attention as it bore down on him with ever-increasing pressure.

Yet the man remained unfazed.

Raising his hand, the man clenched a fist as dozens of bolts struck him at once, the lightning burning through his body and into the ground below, forming a platform of glass all around him.

Energy lingered in his body for several seconds before he sighed.

“It’s indeed getting stronger every day,” the man muttered. “Tenlucis truly was a complete and utter lunatic to have devised a Path like this. Then again, aren’t I equally insane for having accepted it?”

The man in question was naturally Caleb, and he found himself deep in meditation where he’d entered his Soulspace. Unlike Jake, who had control and influence over his own Soulspace, Caleb’s was quite different. While his Soulspace was indeed a representation of his Path and powers, it was also a timer counting down to the day when the dark heavens would overwhelm him.

Tenlucis truly had been a maniac, something Caleb had only begun to realize more and more the further he progressed. What Tenlucis had done was create a special affinity and concept he called the Dark Heavens, which had led to him becoming one of the most powerful gods during his time and someone considered only second to Umbra herself. If he’d managed to survive, perhaps he would even have been able to truly be her equal, but he had sadly fallen before he could fully realize his Path.

What the Dark Heavens did was to constantly temper one’s magic as it was in an eternal phase of growth. Relying on the concepts of the dark affinity, the Dark Heavens would constantly consume Caleb’s Records and forcefully make them part of itself. This made his dark lighting stronger and all Legacy skills affected by Tenlucis were constantly improved, but it also put pressure on Caleb.

The Dark Heavens couldn’t be stopped, only fed. He needed to accumulate more and more Records, or the Dark Heavens would starve, and as it was designed, would begin to consume whatever else it could find. With no Records coming in, it would eat the ones Caleb already had, resulting in only bad things, from the loss of skills and even stats, all the way to consuming his very existence, forcing his entire being to become one with the Dark Heavens.

One could wonder why anyone would make something like this, but Caleb understood, and even if he didn’t, Umbra had gladly enlightened him. The number one killer of potential wasn’t getting killed in battle… it was complacency. Loss of momentum.

The Dark Heavens forced Caleb to keep moving forward. Forced him to keep progressing. While internal motivation was best when getting stronger, external ones were also great to have. That’s why factions bothered with having wars all the time and why it was even considered relatively commonplace for factions to hire assassins to kill their own young talents. The threat of death or having one’s country destroyed was a great motivator.

However, these external motivators could be dealt with. One could defeat the enemy country invading, have the assassination contract expire, or finally get revenge on a hated enemy. At that point, many geniuses lost their purpose and began to become complacent, eventually resulting in their Path falling apart and time claiming their lives.

The Dark Heavens fixed that. It was a constant reminder that Caleb couldn’t just decide to do nothing for a few hundred years. He needed to always do something to at least get a few Records.

It was a reckless and dangerous Path, but Caleb had chosen it for a reason, and he’d walked into it with both eyes wide open.

Caleb was fully aware that he wasn’t a genius. Not compared to those around him. Eron, the Sword Saint, Casper, Arnold, Carmen, and, of course, his dear brother Jake, also surpassed him several times over when it came to sheer talent. This wasn’t even mentioning the monsters Jake had been behind creating.

Granted, he had originally accepted the Legacy of Tenlucis without knowing he was surrounded by monsters, and back then, he’d done it as a way to ensure he could be powerful enough to defend his family. He’d also instantly understood that he was particularly suited to the Path.

Besides the obvious weakness of having a Path that would one day consume his very existence, the Dark Heavens did have another major downside. In fact, it had been this downside that ended up dooming Tenlucis in the end.

Lack of Records for the Dark Heavens truthfully wasn’t a problem, and Caleb doubted it ever would be. As long as he got enough to still be able to evolve when the time came, it was all fine. No, the real problem came from just how overbearing the Dark Heavens were.

It was a concept designed to constantly pressure its user, pushing them forward. And it did just that… perhaps a bit too well. The pressure it put on people was akin to that of a powerful presence, seeing as the Dark Heavens were effectively its own living entity within Caleb’s Soulspace.

This entity would continue growing in his Soulspace, and unless he could withstand the pressure it put on him, it would eventually make everything around it crumble. The only way to address this was to continue growing stronger, as the stronger one got, the more one could resist the presences of others.

Except… Caleb had a level of aura resistance that couldn’t quite be measured. While Caleb did feel some pressure when standing in front of a god like Umbra, he wasn’t sure how much of that pressure was from him feeling like he should be pressured. If he actively resisted being suppressed, even Umbra’s aura wasn’t enough to make him bend a knee.

That’s why Caleb didn’t fear the Dark Heavens. He didn’t fear finding himself crushed by his own Path, which meant the only downside was the need to constantly keep growing, something he planned on doing, anyway.

This Path of a mad god had been the thing that allowed him to stand beside the other top performers of Earth, and he was confident that he could continue to do so. Especially now that he’d finally reached level 320 in his class and gained a skill he’d been waiting for.

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Opening his eyes in the real world, Caleb found himself sitting in a small cave. Four members from the Court of Shadows were with him, one of whom saw he had exited meditation.

“Judge,” the woman said with a nod. “The target has been located. Jim and Dwight are currently tracking it.”

“Thanks, Pam,” Caleb nodded as he stood up and exited the cave. “I’ll move to their position.”

Taking a single step forward, Caleb faded into the shadows and remained within them as he closed in on his allies. The two men had been tracking the target they’d been contracted to kill, keeping a safe distance, which was perfectly understandable.

They didn’t stand a chance against a B-grade, after all.

For Caleb, this would also be his first solo hunt, but compared to last time, he had a lot more confidence.