Valarie's words aside, Damon looked around with an awed expression.
They were in a library—a library so vast he couldn't even see the bottom floors. There were only books stretching in all directions, vanishing into the distance as far as the eye could see.
They were standing on one of the upper levels, and yet sohow, despite having just been underground re seconds ago, they'd arrived here. It didn't make sense. It was as if the very rules of space had been distorted, warped, and perverted. Even his perception felt... wrong sohow.
A faint mist lingered in the corners, just beneath the edges of towering bookshelves.
He stepped closer to the arched windows, gazing out at the moonlight.
Outside was the vast, ruined city of Lysithara in all its broken majesty. In the sky flew monstrous shapes—unspeakable horrors drifting like shadows across the stars. And on the ground, twisted forms of nightmare wandered through the ruins, their outlines visible under the pale luminescence.
The massive crystal tower in the city center glowed with bright, silver light, reflecting the moonlight that bathed the land.
Damon froze mid-thought.
'Moonlight… how is there moonlight…?'
If there was light of any kind, wouldn't that attract the creatures from the rift? Wouldn't it provoke a nightmarish battle that wouldn't end until sunrise?
"How is that possible…" he muttered aloud.
Valarie's lips curved into a smile.
"Impressive, isn't it? This is where we gathered all knowledge since the Zero Epoch… the jewel of Lysithara… the Forbidden Library…"
Damon's eyes flicked toward the disembodied pair of lips on Evangeline's shoulder.
"Ahh… right, that too. But it's an…"
"The city…" Evangeline finished for him, her gaze joining the others', all fixed on the moonlit ruins below.
"How is the light not summoning the monsters in the rift…?" Damon asked, voice low.
All eyes turned to Valarie.
The pair of lips smiled, though they betrayed sothing heavier behind them. Perhaps they didn't truly understand what had happened in the past either.
"Isn't having the moon in the sky normal…?"
Damon shook his head. The longer he stared at the sky, the more things seed off. Only one moon… that was strange. Aetherus had two moons.
'Why is there only one…?' He shook the thought from his mind.
Leona clenched her fists, ears twitching sharply atop her head.
"No, that's not it. I thought light made the rift monsters co out…"
Valarie sighed, despite being only a pair of lips.
Xander gripped his spear tightly, as if expecting sothing awful to erge from the sky at any mont.
"I don't understand the rules of this strange city…"
Valarie smiled again.
"You don't have to…"
She pressed her lips together as though pondering deeply.
"You rember how I told you we were seeking Akasha, right? And that we opened the door to the taverse at Mugu's behest?"
Sylvia nodded with an unimpressed expression—more irritated than anything else.
"You didn't explain anything about Akasha…"
Valarie giggled lightly, a teasing lilt in her voice.
"Right, my bad… but suppose I should explain. I've ntioned so of the nas of the Outsiders to you, haven't I?"
Damon nodded. He could recall her ntioning only two nas.
Leona's hand shot up, her beastkin ears perking eagerly.
"Yes! You said Ittorath and Yam Head—"
Damon facepald. She got the first na right… and completely butchered the second.
Sylvia exhaled loudly and gave her a glance.
"Ythar. Not Yam Head, Leona…"
"Pfttt… hahaha! That's quite a fitting na! Ythar was quite the Yam Head…" Valarie laughed.
Xander glanced up at the sky once more.
"You still haven't explained why the moonlight isn't attracting the rift creatures."
Valarie, still just a pair of lips, turned her unseen gaze toward the broken city.
"Ittorath and Ythar are the only two visitors you've t… right?"
Matia's eyes narrowed behind her visor, suspicion flickering.
"If we t them, we'd be dead. They're supposedly beyond the Class Advancent system."
Valarie sighed again.
"They are. At least, their true bodies are. But in this world, they only have false forms, bound to the limitations here—the Seventh Class Advancent. Even so, they were stronger than us… they understood the systems and power far better."
Damon frowned.
"Wait. Are you saying even when suppressed to the sa level… they were still stronger than you guys?"
Valarie, now perched on Evangeline's shoulder, twitched slightly.
She hated to admit it, but…
"More or less. They are beyond the Nine Mortal Ranks…" she paused, then added, "It's like a master spellcaster who returns to the past with all his mories. Even if he's in the sa body as everyone else, he'll destroy them on an even field."
Evangeline bit her lip.
"So basically… they had more experience. Then… how did you defeat them?"
Valarie's smile turned somber.
"With the help of other outsider beings… like the forr Old God Unseen Singularity, the Blind Old Daoist… and a few others…"
"So you had a chance," Damon muttered, though more to himself.
He still had questions—like the "Nine Mortal Ranks." He guessed that referred to the First through Seventh Class Advancents. As for why they called it "nine," maybe it was because the Sixth Class was split into three stages, adding two more?
"That still doesn't explain the moonlight," Xander interjected, sticking to the core mystery.
Valarie scoffed softly.
"Actually, it does…"
She turned slightly, her voice lowering.
"You told you passed through the forest to reach this city. That forest wasn't like that originally. It only beca that way after Vathren killed Ythar. The entire Whispering Forest is Ythar's corpse. The mist? That's the lingering remnant of Vathren's power, suppressing Ythar's resentful soul…"
She smiled—malice glinting in her tone.
"Vathren obtained the power to kill an Outsider all by himself… and the secrets of the Ascendant Armor from the Unknown God. That was his secret… heheh… I rember now. That was his lie…"
Damon's eyes widened. Didn't the knowledge of the armor co from the visitors? No… no, this made more sense. The Unknown God… he was also an Outsider.
Knowledge of the armor ca from the crystal palace, but the unknown god was also born there, the progeny of the vile thief.
Damon recalled that much from the system.
Valarie giggled, voice trembling slightly.
"As for that rift in the sky… that's just Ittorath. Trapped in a rift after Valcara and I defeated him. She imprisoned him with the second moon… and I bound him to my attribute—the Sun. He's always searching for the mont when both attributes align… when there is light in the night."
Her voice turned wild, filled with a madness born of rage and grief.
"We also cursed the sky to never have an eclipse…"
Her lips quivered, the sound caught between laughter and weeping.
"Ahhahh… Vathren gave everything—beca a monster—for this. And we still lost."
Her voice cracked.
"Damn you, Mugu… Damn you. Was all this worth it? You could have just accepted it… Damn you… damn you…"
Damon watched in silence, lips pressed tightly together, as Valarie—a disembodied mouth—cursed the na of Mugu, trembling with old, bitter sorrow.
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