SkyFall : Eulogy of The Void

Deceit 3

With full attention, Rizzya listened to her grandfather.

"And I found it. The attack originated from the south, so I searched every place starting from here and moving outward towards the south. Eventually, I reached the the Southern Gantz district outside the walls. On a dilapidated apartment floor, I sensed the corrupt energy of the scourges, but when I looked inside, it wasn't scourges that I found, but a young woman with her two children. At first, I thought the woman had been infected with corruption. But when I focused again, I realized that the scourge energy was actually emanating from the pendant and ring she was wearing. Both emitted a very faint but wide-spreading corrupt energy. In my opinion, somehow, that energy felt like a summoning. A call to the scourges around Zephyria."

Rizzya was curious about who that woman was. And if it was true that the initial incursion in the Great Attack incident originated from the south of the Gantz district, then it was the same place that was destroyed by the scourges a month ago. The place where Xin came from.

A thought formed in her mind.

"Wait..."

But Rizzya didn't dare to jump to any conclusions. She didn't want to make any wrong assumptions.

The sovereign continued his story.

"I tried to kill that young woman and her children, considering them dangerous. But I refrained. Because I realized how futile and how low our perspective has been all this time. Viewing every life outside the seven families as worthless... Losing my eldest son and daughter-in-law, and almost losing you as well, made me reconsider, and thus, I abandoned my intention."

The sovereign took a deep breath. Then he continued.

"So I tried to steal those two objects. With my telekinetic control ability, I used my energy to levitate the ring and pendant while they were asleep. Do you know what happened next?"

The sovereign chuckled. He felt embarrassed and amused.

"The scourge energy fought against my energy, of course. But what impressed me the most was that the faint energy actually overpowered me and drew my consciousness into it."

Suddenly, Rizzya turned to her grandfather, shocked and wide-eyed, her mouth agape in disbelief at what she had just heard.

She pondered, "Did it successfully overpower Grandfather's energy? A sovereign? A Draven who has reached the level of ascended? Doesn't that mean the energy must have originated from at least a Class B core?" Her disbelief lingered in her thoughts.

Seeing Rizzya's expression, the sovereign became even more amused.

"Isn't it insane? I didn't see any scourge cores anywhere, and yet that energy completely overpowered mine. But the madness doesn't stop there. After my consciousness entered it..."

Suddenly, the sovereign's wrinkled face contorted intensely, as if he were being choked by something. After a few moments, the sovereign returned to normal. Though he seemed a bit breathless this time, it was the first time Rizzya had seen the city's protector in such a state. And she was certain that no one else would believe that this scene had happened.

"Like this. Look, I can't even fully explain it. She bound me. And I'm powerless to tell anyone about the conversation I had with her."

He paused for a moment, then continued with a grimace on his face.

"After she extracted my consciousness from... ugh."

The sovereign experienced the same thing once again, his body convulsing as his throat felt constricted, as if being force-fed liquid iron.