Ascension of Chaos - Book 3 - Chapter 35 (Patreon)

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Table of Contents

Click the following link for the 1339 word chapter 35:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1032NCAtQPqB08YvDMyU4F8PH7FQiZZ7QEObKAz4s9yc/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

Ashley

The pain continues with both core fragments I find across the next two Void Rifts. Rapidly crashing any motivation I had for this Unique Domain far below any point in time I can remember.

On top of the pain, I feel some remaining memories that hadn’t been restored – which shouldn’t number many – coming back to me. Almost as if knocked back into place by the sheer pain alone. Most of which are memories about my siblings.

Like the brief memory of spending time reading with my older sister once when I was really young. With her reading to me.

I also remember playing with my younger brother after he was born.

And yet, I can also remember that these are some of only a few good memories I had with them.

I grit my teeth as I find the memories of them both leaving flashing before my eyes, with me hearing shouting in another room one night before sticking my head out around a corner to see Elizabeth walking out the door holding Seth’s hand. Never to be seen again.

The memories stop playing in my head soon after that, but the fact that they showed up in the first place isn’t really a good sign. It makes me wonder if the core fragments might actually be causing damage to my mind or something.

Or maybe the attacks are just shaking my mind and knocking things back into place after being reflected away?

Regardless of what’s happening, I feel genuinely exhausted. Enough that little Leo is rubbing up against my leg while looking incredibly worried.

I pick him up and hold him in my arms before going to take a short few-hour-long break. During which time I look over the System Forums to see if any developments have occurred outside of the Unique Domain.

And there are developments. Specifically in the Official System War Event currently ongoing.

Apparently it’s a fortress defense event. One where the different planets each have ten thousand users participating to defend their planet’s fortress.

It’s a pretty simple event, and yet lasts for quite a while and has a lot of people in it.

Users can also die and revive outside of events for three of the Official System War Events. Which makes me feel a bit better about Blake’s chances of survival.

That said, the other seven planets are surprisingly not ganging up on Val. No doubt because I’m not participating.

Although they do seem to focus more on Val than the other planets. And if they run into more than one planet’s forces, they always target Val’s users and try to kill them first before the others.

They just aren’t going out of their way to target only Val like a lot of people on the forums assumed they would.

I let out a sigh at that.

At least there is some good news, no matter how minor.

Unfortunately, though, Val still isn’t doing the greatest in the event thanks to their targeting. So I really need to finish up here as quickly as possible.

Not only to save Val and – more importantly – Blake, but to make sure Chaos doesn’t get in trouble. Since I can imagine him going on a rampage if I’m stuck in here for too long.

It’s best to keep that from happening. And the longer I’m in here, the most likely it is to happen.

If he goes on a rampage, then things won’t look good for him. The other Primordials might band together to stop him, and everything will become messy.

I take a deep breath at that thought before letting it out again. Feeling my motivation for pushing through this hellscape returning again.

Then I move to look for the next Void Rift, forgoing the rest I was going to take after all. And after searching for a bit, I find the fifth Void Rift and enter it. Then I deal with the monsters inside just like I did for the previous Void Rifts.

But unlike the previous Void Rifts, I can’t find the core fragment at all. And the moment I finish off the last monster in the Void Rift, something changes inside of it. The pressure around me increases, I begin to hear whispers echoing in my mind from all over the place, and a strange wave of confusion begins to fill me.

It’s not incredibly intense or anything, but I can tell right away that they’re mental attacks.

Although, I’m pretty sure they’re only not intense because of my resistance skill. Steadfast Heart.

Normally this wouldn’t be an issue, since I’ve already dealt with a lot of mental attacking monsters. Just the regular monsters in this Void Rift alone gave nearly as much damage until now.

The thing that is very much a problem is that I only sense one being left within the Void Rift. Meaning this is a single monster doing this.

And I can’t sense where that monster is.

I continue to search around the Void Rift, both for the remaining monster and for the core fragment, only to eventually find my eyes crossing over something honestly terrifying to look at. Something that looks like a horrific abomination of flesh, fish and lizard scales, claws, fur, hairs, and all sorts of other parts in humanoid form. Except with blood leaking from its skin in multiple colors including red, black, green, and yellow.

Yet, I can’t actually sense its presence.

I can only see it.

After a brief pause, I go ahead and identify the creature. Which shows me a result I was half expecting to show up at some point.

♢ Level 750 Void Demi-God – 250 Potential Skills – X ♢

It’s one of the five void demi-gods in the Unique Domain. And, for some reason, it only has two hundred and fifty potential skills.

I finally found it.

The thing I’ve been worried about for a while now.

If the regular monsters have all been this strong up until now, just how powerful is a mini-boss?

Of course, just looking at the thing is disgusting and difficult to do. What with how the thing looks.

I’m also guessing it might have some sort of guess that it has a skill that attacks the minds of those who look at it. Considering how the pain in my mind has grown significantly after I started meeting its gaze.

The thing twists for a moment before I suddenly lose track of it. Despite the monster having just been directly in my line of sight.

Wait, what? Where did it go?

I blink for a moment, wondering if the thing is just moving too fast for me to see or something. But when my gaze moves just several meters over as I look around at everything, I find the thing again. And, just like the previous time, it appears completely out of nowhere.

It also has some sort of perception blocking skill.

These skills might be pretty useful to Assimilate. Maybe I should try.

It doesn’t hurt – that much – to try assimilating this thing’s Skill Tree when I kill the first one to appear. It might even give me some very useful mental attack or defense skills that I can try out against the Unique Monster later on.

Putting that aside, the reason I can see the monster with my eyes is most likely thanks to Gaze of Destruction. The skill is probably penetrating whatever protective layer the monster is using to block my senses.

Which also means that I can only keep track of the monster through looking directly at it.

And that isn’t going to bode well for me.

I take another deep breath before releasing snow and ice all around me, rapidly beginning to freeze everything around me.

Right. If I can’t find it without looking at it through Gaze of Destruction, then maybe I can force it into specific locations to make it easier to keep track of.

And that’s where Eternal Snow comes into play.