The reason the Ti Manipulators did not participate during the Chaos Immortal’s attempt to invade Vale’s Shadow Domain was due to the task given to them.
Apparently, they were bound to a mission that could not be disturbed. Any interference might have cost them their lives.
This mission was not one of battle, but of discovery.
Vale had entrusted them with a task that required patience and secrecy. They were to search for a lower realm, one that could be exploited, and hopefully, this would eventually elevate their current realm into a higher plane under Vale’s influence.
Vale had not learned this from the Shadow Realm itself, but from the Ti Manipulators.
They alone understood the delicate requirents for a realm to ascend. Among those requirents was the Will of the Realm itself.
The Will had to be strong enough to accommodate Immortals, to pressure them, and even curse them if they violated the unwritten laws, such as the prohibition against slaughtering mortals. Without such strength, a realm could never rise.
This condition had already been resolved.
The Will of the Realm was indeed strong enough to pressure even High Immortals. But it was not enough. They also had to be connected to another realm, and they must have the upper position.
Furthermore, Vale’s vision extended further. He also wanted his people to expand, to conquer, and to prepare for the inevitable wars of realms. So he wasn’t just looking for a connection but a place they could farm for resources.
For that, a new lower realm had to be found... It was just a perfect scenario for him...
After all, if they advanced this realm, it ans that they could finally start obtaining Divinity!
Indeed, the main reason why the Immortals were ascending in the first place was because of the lack of Divinity in this place.
"Soon..." Vale muttered as he imagined the realm finally obtaining divinity soday in the future.
***
A year earlier, three figures worked tirelessly in the depths of the Shadow Realm.
They had hidden themselves from the eyes of the public as Vale instructed them to do so...
They had established a secret base where not even an Immortal could casually intrude.
Liora, small and sharp-eyed, adjusted the Formation Array etched into the floor.
Cyper, broad-shouldered and muscular man, stood nearby. His cropped dark hair andgreen eyes gave him the look of a warrior rather than a manipulator of ti. Yet his hands were steady as he adjusted the heavy Divine Crystals that powered their search.
Elysia, tall and graceful, with her long black hair that seed damp, traced her fingers across the air as she controlled the temporal threads into the arrays.
She was the most attuned to the flow of ti, and her role was to anchor their searches so they did not drift into chaos.
Together, they ford Vale’s team of Ti Manipulators.
Their task was to use the coordinates of the hidden realms that only the Ti Faction knew of, and to determine which could be conquered.
The process was long and tedious.
Each attempt required aligning dozens of arrays, channeling temporal energy, and stabilizing the fragile pathways that connected one realm to another.
Needless to say, a single mistake could an annihilation.
Their first attempt led them to a higher realm.
The mont the coordinates locked, the pressure of the Will slamd into them like a tidal wave. Cyper staggered, his body trembling under the weight of Immortal laws. His aura cracked, and for a mont, he thought he would be crushed.
"Pull him out!" Liora shouted, her rapier flashing as she cut through the temporal threads that bound them.
Elysia’s hands moved swiftly, crashing the coordinates before the Will could curse them. The arrays sputtered, then collapsed, leaving the three gasping in the underground chamber.
Cyper dropped to one knee, sweat pouring down his face.
"Thank you... both of you. If you hadn’t pulled out, I’d have been cursed beyond repair."
Liora frowned. "That was too close. We can’t afford mistakes like that again."
Elysia’s voice was calm as she nodded.
"The coordinates we have are just too unreliable... We have to be careful."
***
Their second attempt happened a few weeks later, after everyone recovered...
This ti, it was led by Elysia herself. She wove the coordinates carefully and soon, the array opened up a path...
This consud a lot of Divine cystals but that didn’t matter at this point...
Unfortunately, as the path opened, danger surged again. The realm they touched was chaotic, its Will was already fractured and unstable. Dark figures clawed at them, trying to drag their souls into the void.
"Cut it!" Cyper roared, slamming his fist into the ground to disrupt the array.
The chamber shook, and the coordinates started collapsing.
"That’s..."
Elysia staggered back, her hair whipping around her face. "That one was worse. If we had lingered, we would have been lost."
Liora exhaled sharply. "We need better coordinates. These old ones are unreliable."
Cyper nodded grimly. "We have at least a hundred coordinates... We can slowly try them, no matter how many years we have to take. Vale trusted us with this mission. We can’t return empty-handed."
Just like that, weeks turned into months.
The three manipulators worked tirelessly, testing coordinates, stabilizing arrays, and mapping the fragile pathways between realms. Each failure taught them sothing new. Each close call hardened their resolve to find sothing usable...
Finally, after nearly a year of effort, they succeeded.
The coordinates aligned, the arrays remained steady, and the path opened into a realm unlike any they had seen before...
The pressure of the Will was present, but not overwhelming. It was strong enough to enforce laws, yet not so oppressive that it crushed them.
More importantly, the realm was unclaid. No Divinity or Immortal presence lingered, no higher realm had invaded!
"We’ve done it!" Cyper muttered.
"Wait! Don’t celebrate yet!" Liora said, as it might even be a trap!
Soon, she decided to descend with her Temporal Body...
Thanks to that, they glimpsed forests, mountains, and most importantly, human cities!
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