Chapter 934 - Echo Plane

“Please sit down while we wait,” Victoria offers. At her invitation, I pull one of the chairs from a nearby table on this terrace and sit right next to her.

Fiona introduces herself and her bond, and Brich introduces himself as well. As Brichant, naturally.

After that, Victoria introduces her teammates. The velnar as Flint and the feylith woman as Genevieve.

Though I do not recognize them, they both seem to recognize me. Flint does so once again without saying a single word, just fixing his glasses. On someone so wide and muscular, the spectacles seem a bit funny, but who am I to judge his style? This is especially true since the glasses seem to be an item.

Genevieve, meanwhile, reacts with a much more obvious interest, and I catch her glancing my way several times during the conversation.

From Victoria, I learn they had been informed about the upcoming event by Genevieve's Handler, after which the feylith woman recruited both Vic and Flint. It also means that her handler is either a Ruler or someone who got that information passed to them by a Ruler.

We spend the one hour countdown in a conversation that is mostly led by Brich, who, without any worry or shame, bothers and questions everyone. Meanwhile, the people in the city, be it the locals or the attendees, seem to panic. Well, at least most of them do.

There is even an official evacuation effort, even though the city is a designated safe zone. That either means its function as a safe zone is interrupted during these kinds of special events, or the local king simply wants to be entirely sure of everyone's safety.

Before all the staff leaves, Fiona catches up to the person who seems to be the owner. With a polite smile, she transfers some shards to her so that we can continue to use their goods.

Brich is still trying to get Flint to talk as I watch Fiona excitedly walk behind the bar. She examines the place from a point of view she has likely never seen before. She even takes a hanging fabric apron, puts it on herself, and pours herself a glass of some unknown drink.

After that, she heads into the kitchen to examine the equipment there. A few minutes later, she returns with desserts she found in the fridge, of which I accept a few, just as everyone else does.

By this point, the streets are nearly empty. The passing people hurrying into their hideouts give us weird gazes, and the local guards do the exact same thing. Several of the stronger attendees staying outside seem to recognize at least a few of us. In some cases, seeing us causes them to completely change their decision and quickly rush into a bunker as well.

I quietly observe it all while slowly devouring my piece of cake.

From Victoria, I learn that they also do not have any further instructions. It seems that both Ruby and the other Ruler were only allowed to tell us about the event itself and absolutely nothing else.

It all makes me a bit more curious as I continue to watch the countdown. At the start, I expected it to be just some large scale event where many attendees and locals might participate. However, now with at least two Rulers showing an interest, it feels like they are actively trying to abuse the rules to get something valuable out of it.

When ten or so minutes remain, the streets are mostly cleared up, leaving just scattered groups of attendees and locals going around, waiting in the exact same way as us. The local king continues to trigger several defensive arrays, deciding not to rely solely on the official status of the safe zone.

Something clinks onto the table in front of me, and when I look that way, it is Vic passing me one of her desserts.

Without a single word, I take the offered plate and the fork, and I begin to eat it as well.

“The next time you meet Gloria, can you tell her to save me some Earth clothes?” I ask her.

“I will do so. I can also recommend a tailor in Megacity. He does not normally take new clients, but lately he has been working with Gloria to replicate Earth clothing, so she can introduce you.”

“Sounds good. Did you get some clothes for yourself?”

“I did, for special occasions. But what you see me wearing right now is what I prefer when combat is a possibility.”

“I guess that makes sense. Is your arm okay?”

“Yes, nothing has changed since the last time you asked me about it. I have heard of the mess you and young Tess have caused, and about the five demons you killed.”

“You know what it was all about.”

“I do, Nathaniel. But if you meant to send a signal to the other attendees, I recommend being far more cruel. Simply killing them will not sow the kind of fear you want.”

“I know.”

“If you know, then all is well.” She stands up. “We will take our leave now. After the event ends, I will meet you here if you wish to trade rewards.”

“Thanks, Vic.”

She takes a short step towards me to quickly ruffle the top of my hair before gesturing at her teammates and walking away. Even though it seems to be Genevieve who put this team together, they both follow Victoria. Flint gives a short, silent nod, and the feylith woman narrows her eyes as she looks at my sister's back with whatever intent she has.

There are exactly five minutes remaining when Fiona also stands up, doing some way too elegant looking warmups and stretches. Other than her physical movement, it is also her skills firing up and dying off throughout her body. Brich seems to be quite bored, so he partially tries to mimic her, much to the duchess's amusement.

Meanwhile, Dame Vesta does not seem to be a part of any of that activity and firmly remains on the chair that Fiona had been sitting in.

The axolotl and I look at each other for a few seconds. Her gills move like a fan, shaking threateningly as the forbidden salamander silently stares me down. Out of sheer boredom, I support the bottom of my chin with the palm of my right hand and stare back at her, not breaking eye contact at all.

In the end, it is the Dame who looks away first in a way that, even on an axolotl, seems deeply offended.

Only now that one minute remains do I begin to gather and hold more mana inside of my body, ready to redistribute it into kinetic or thermal energy. I also reach outward with my senses and pull on the ambient mana, causing it to rush towards me like water spinning in a whirlpool. Still, I do it somewhat carefully, mindful of the defenses of the city and making sure not to directly steal mana from some of the attendees with weaker natural barriers.

Both Fiona and Brich notice that, stopping their warmups and standing ready at the exact same time as I stand up.

My senses, which have been somewhat lazily scanning the area, suddenly sharpen, and my skills get ready on the brink of activation. I lift my hand, close it into a fist, and slam it against my chest three times. Each strike sends out such a massive pulse of kinetic energy that it would entirely blow up a skyscraper.

Each of these impacts activates my passives and further tempers the defensive layer of mana I constantly keep around my body, doing so without affecting the area around me beyond a slight tremble.

Lastly, there is a new submind that I created as of late. As specialized as the others, this one is made to endure long term high focus and is built in a way that heavily supports the analytical part of me.

Similarly to my defensive layers, it runs twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, but this one continuously calibrates my very self. It adapts my senses and my body to my environment and my immediate needs. It only does that much so far, though I have further plans for it.

[Calibration - lvl 14 > Calibration - lvl 15]

A few moments later, a new system notification appears, and I read it just like likely everyone else present on this floor does.

Due to your presence on this floor, you may now select one of two available roles:

Pacifist - Selecting this role renders you ineligible for rewards, but exempts you from being targeted. This option is strongly advised for any individual below level 250.

Participant - Selecting this role designates you as a valid target and transfers you to the Echo Plane, granting full participation in the event.

The duration of this event is variable, it may conclude quickly or extend for days, weeks, or longer, persisting until the competition requirements are met or all participants are eliminated.

Three entities will be echoed from the Beyond's database to test System mechanisms, while allowing participants the opportunity to test their abilities and earn rare rewards.

Extreme caution is advised, as each entity constitutes a large-scale threat. Participants are strongly encouraged to form larger groups and cooperate to defeat them.

The three summoned beings are as follows:

Empyrean Heir

Mirror

Ghastly Parade

Rewards will be awarded to the participants with the highest overall contribution. These rewards are predetermined and directly aligned with the nature of each entity.

You have ten seconds to select your role. Failure to make a selection within this timeframe will result in the automatic assignment of the Pacifist role.

Good luck!

I almost think it is all over, but around us, the red light that the sky turned into intensifies even further, particularly around Brich.

That familiar ding we heard at the start sounds again, though this time it is deeper and longer, shaking the very air as a new set of notifications appears.

The selection of a role has been put on hold. The presence of an item of interest has been detected on the second floor.

Further changes have been made.

The entity known as Ghastly Parade has been removed from the lineup of the large-scale Beyond event and has been replaced by an entirely different record.

The summoned beings are now as follows:

Empyrean Heir

Mirror

The Wraith

The countdown has been reset and extended to thirty seconds. Unassigned participants will automatically receive the Pacifist role.

Warning! Increased threat level. The Pacifist role is now recommended for all participants below level 350.

Good luck!

And then, while I am staring at Brich and especially at Calvorn resting in the scabbard on his back, I select myself the role of a participant. It quickly begins to be obvious which record Ruby might want me to defeat and which reward she is truly after. Brich being here does not seem to be a mere coincidence anymore either.

The last seconds slowly tick down, and once they are fully counted down, the system sends one more notification about the event officially starting, and that is the last message from it.

The entirety of the second floor wobbles and shakes. It feels like a ghostly afterimage of the second floor overlaps over the true thing, and that afterimage is pulled somewhere else, not far away, yet completely unreachable by normal means.

There is a sort of power to it that has always fascinated me. Not that long before the tutorial, I would have had trouble calling it anything other than godlike. Or maybe alien. A level of technology I completely fail to even grasp or understand.

But that is not the case anymore. There is a path right in front of me that will allow me to reach that place as well, and I am many things, but I am certainly not a quitter.

Now I look around what I guess to be the Echo Plane, whatever it might actually be. Everyone else who decided to stay on it is here as well, and so far, nothing changes. Everything is exactly the same as it was just a few minutes ago, making it almost unbelievable that the system actually did something and that there are these three summoned records lurking somewhere.

Like waves crashing against each other, I observe the detection pulses of many people continuously wash over the entirety of the city.

I also watch Brich pull Calvorn off his back. I know I should probably stop him and that it is not a good idea, but I do not and simply watch it all happen.

The exact moment the ego sword is pulled out of the scabbard, its blade splits vertically along the entirety of the length of the blade. I can clearly see its teeth and tongue, and I hear the sword let out a single horrible noise.

It screeches like a banshee, and my eardrums do not burst, only because I block some of that deafening sound since I have been expecting it.

It is a long, piercing, and in a way terrifying sound. It is exactly the sort of noise you imagine hearing when you listen to scary bedtime stories as a child, right when your mother tells you about the monsters screeching deep within the dark forest.

The sound stretches out for a few seconds before Calvorn snaps shut. He doesn't say a word, just lets out a quiet laugh that feels deeply unnerving.