Threads of the Soul

Chapter 486 - 486: Ancient Artifact

As soon as the wall crumbled, the magic power it had been containing and feeding off erupted outwards. The wave of mana was so strong that it physically forced Seth to take a step back as he took the brunt of it face on.The wave exited the tunnel, shot out of the mines and rapidly enveloped the entire world in its embrace. Spread across the entire planet, it thinned out enough to be perfectly tolerable for most people.

In fact, the majority of the population didn't even notice the change in the air, and those who did simply felt a little more vibrant and energetic today. Plants seemed a tiny bit greener, the sky a crisper blue and their punches landed just that touch harder.

It was so mild and inconsequential, at least for the time being, that most just chalked it up to a good nights sleep or a hearty meal. Innocent explanations like that were all they could imagine it would be, before they put it completely out of their mind and continued on with their lives.

But for the group within those tunnels, and facing the full brunt of the magical wave, it was a whole other story. Woe immediately puked once again, spewing his guts with the same blue bile, and he was not the only one.

Ava and even the Hunter followed in his stead, although not letting out as much. Their veins stood out across their skin, creating a spider-web of deep blue lines that bulged underneath their skin and crept across their bloodshot eyes.

It was only Seth and Omelette that could handle the torrent without any immediate ill-effects. He quickly pilled them all onto his board or weapons, and sent them shooting up the tunnel where the mana was less dense.

Hopefully, it would give their bodies enough time to process the mana flooding their systems, or enough room to expel it without more rushing in to fill the gap.

"Go with them, Make sure nothing hurts them." Seth shouted to Omelette, who paused for a moment. He hesitated, glanced between the retreating group and Seth, who was starting to approach the stone pathway.

"I'll be fine. Go! They need you more!"

With Seth's insistence, Omelette let out a small whimper before transforming his arms back to wings and taking off back up the tunnel. Letting out a soft sigh, Seth slowly stepped onto the pathway and followed it through the clouds of black dust that drifted through the air.

They were all that remained of the Void Crystal, but thankfully they had lost their devouring properties.

Sweeping the dust cloud from his eyes, Seth tentatively walked down the path for a few more metres, until the stone blocks raised from the ground, turning from a simple path to a pedestal. Atop this pedestal sat a box. It was a strange little box, cast from deep purple metal and, from what he could see, perfectly carved on each side. Lines glowed along its side, which upon closer inspection revealed to Seth that they were lines of countless, impossibly small runes.

Just the thought of carving runes this small was inconceivable to him, even if he used the tip of a single thread, he would struggle to make something this amazingly detailed and perfect. To do so this many times in a row, was even more mind boggling.

The waves of mana radiated around him centred exactly on this box. It was the source of it all, and from it Seth could sense countless souls. He did try to count them, but when they got into the trillions and that was barely a single percent of the total, he simply gave up trying.

He observed all of this from over a metre away from the box and the pedestal it sat upon, because it was at this distance that the effects of the overwhelming mana even started to effect Seth. Blue veins started to squirm underneath his skin, slowly manifesting along his arm.

The obvious thing was to simply walk away, to leave it be. But it was doubtful that anyone existed in the entire world, and beyond, that could resist the allure of power. If such a person did exist, then what a miserable life they must lead.

Beyond just the basic allure of mystery and curiosity, Seth could literally hear the box whispering to him. The language was indecipherable, projected into his mind in a trillion different voices at once. It was painful in his mind, causing him to wince, but their endless whispers drew him ever closer.

Each step was like a mile, bringing with it new pain, sickness and discomfort coursing throughout his body. Blue veins bulged, snaking up more of his body and creeping over his eyes. He wretched with the next step, spewing up a mouthful of thick blue blood, but even still he didn't stop his steps.

His threads refused to leave his body, pressed into his soul by the overwhelming ambient energy while his right arm twitched and malfunctioned as the worldly energy interfered with his possession of the arm.

Step after step, he finally reached the pedestal and rested his trembling hand upon its perfectly carved surface, and in that moment all of the ambient energy was sucked into the cube.

Seth collapsed to the ground, hacking up lungfuls of the thick, mana infested blood, before taking deep, labouring breathes.

The voices in his head had grown silent, at least for a moment, before another voice spoke up. With a tone that Seth could almost assume was pride, Angel whispered to him

[Admin Privilege's Detected. Commencing transference of ownership, please stand-by....]

A stream of information, billions of years of information, streamed into Seth's mind all at once. It was more than the human mind was designed to contain. But it wasn't just information, for all of this information was intertwined with the souls that had once owned them.

Each soul containing the information of its life time, and trillions of life times over billions of years, was what was being forced into Seth's mind.

He experienced the life of a cockroach, feeling what it was like to scuttle about within the delicious trash living his simple life before the dreaded exterminator came and ended his life.

He remembered being a Triceratops, defending his family and hard from countless predators. He could remember the weight of the horns on his head, the way the predators teeth sunk into his thick, leathery skin and what it felt like to bat them away with his tail.

He remembered being the predator, sinking its teeth into the flesh of the Triceratops, before it was smacked into a tree.

He knew for certain that he was a shark, then a tadpole, then a bird. A man, a woman, a child, a fly, a boar. Everything that had ever existed, and all of their lives were crammed into Seth's head in a manner of seconds.

Under all of those lives and experiences, the one that was supposed to be his, was quickly lost within the depths of the ocean of identities.