Sovereign of the Karmic System-Chapter 680: Next Move

Silence filled the room. Ligart and the others had noticed Der and Roley’s reaction to the mention of that name. The way their noses had scrunched up, lips pressed together and brows narrowed into deep frowns.

"What? What’s the problem?" Ligart asked. "I thought you guys fought these ’aspects of existence’ before, and even killed some of them."

"Not like this one." Der muttered with a shake of his head. "There are levels to their kind. You don’t understand."

Filled with exasperation, Ligart threw his hands in the air. "How about you stop being so damn cryptic and try to make us understand? You told us Dan had become an aspect of existence, that Roley was on his way to becoming one, and that your cultivation evolved to a point where you were able to best a member of their kind. So what is different with this one?"

Der sighed deeply as his rough hands began to tap nervously against the table. In his mind appeared memories of their encounter with the aspect of Sound. A meeting he had yet to wrap his head around, and which had opened his mind to the reality of the universe far more than his encounter with any other aspect of existence. After all, for as powerful as War and the others were, to him they felt no different than odd, and particularly powerful cultivators.

Sound, on the other hand, felt like a natural calamity. She was a tsunami where the others had been the gentle ripples on a puddle’s surface. She was an eruption of molten stone and ashes where the others were the sparks occasionally spit out by the fire. The difference between aspects of the low, mid and high levels was moot, as all aspects of those levels combined could be wiped out by any of the primordial aspects of existence.

Such thoughts had yet to settle in Der’s mind, hidden behind a silence through which only Aeron was able to see. He didn’t know how to explain it, and he had no intention of trying.

To pick Der’s slack was Roley. "Conflict is a primordial aspect of existence. A consciousness capable of controlling the powers produced by any event where two parties clash. And that counts for the physical and abstract." He said while shifting in his seat. The treasures of primordial essence carved into his back weren’t a good match with non-cushioned chairs.

He continued after a few moans of discomfort. "All around the universe conflicting things, objects and living beings create a power of existence of which he is in full control of. Gravity, for example, creates conflict between our bodies and the ground, our veins conflict with our blood’s liquid nature to move freely.. even me explaining this to you is conflicting with the very idea of someone interrupting me, or speaking in my stead. Their powers are everywhere because everything generates them."

"Wow. That is all kinds of confusing." Ligart said as his fingers pressed onto his temple.

Next to him Xargy had turned pensive. He had always been a scholar in his own rights, so Roley’s explanation did not confuse, as much as it intrigued him. First among his thoughts was how little he knew of the multiverse despite being by far the oldest among those present.

"So, if this Conflict is invincible, what can we do about him?" Ligart asked.

"No one said they are invincible." Daniel said right before Roley could make clear he had no idea. "There are at least three ways I can see to harm primordial aspects of existence."

"Those being?" Xargy interjected, unable to control his curiosity any longer.

Daniel’s arms folded around his chest. "The first method would be to have them fight one another. Sure, the universe that would host such a clash would likely be wiped out within seconds, but the consumption of power would far outweigh its production, meaning that they would eventually run out of juice."

"Splendid." Ligart said, "Hopefully neither option number two and three will require us to either evacuate a whole universe, or leave uncountable people to die in it."

A smile crept on Daniel’s face. "The second method would be to weaken the validity of their nature, but that doesn’t seem feasible. I know of only one other instance of that happening, and that was when I became an aspect of existence, thus disproving the concept of fate that everything that will happen has already been written. To engineer something similar for the other primordial aspects of existence would require an unrealistic amount of power and time. It either already happened, or it won’t ever happen again."

"What makes you so sure about that?" Xargy asked.

"You heard an explanation of Conflict’s nature. For as simplistic as it was, it was quite accurate." Daniel explained. "To undermine the nature of Conflict we would need to eradicate at least one aspect of it.. like erasing gravity from existence. Similarly, if we needed to weaken the nature of Sound, we would need not only to close our ears and stop listening, but make it so that nobody within the multiverse possesses a sense of hearing, which would make the existence of Sound purely.."

"Theoretical.. I get it." Xargy muttered.

"Alright, number two is out two. What about number three?" Ligart blurted out as a killer headache made his brain throb in between his temples. With great effort he turned to look back at Daniel, "I assume you kept the best for last." He said.

Daniel smiled once again, then nodded. His head remained still, eyes narrowed into thin slits that did little to cover the golden shine of his eyes, especially as they slowly sifted in Roley’s direction. "Third method. You bring out someone more powerful than they are."

____________

The next day.

"Yesterday was a little much." Said Roley. He was sitting on the ground, a small platform of dirt and rock he had made for himself, Daniel and Der to sit on.

Der was resting against a boulder, fully armored in white-gold plate armor. His sheathed sword halfway buried into the ground at arm’s reach. A clunking sound could be heard as the old warrior pensively tapped the cuisse that protected his left leg with his gauntlet. "Are we sure Conflict has them? He has never interfered to this extent before." He asked.

Daniel stood quietly by the edge of the platform, his eyes fixated on the depths of space and towards an increasingly brighter blue light-The inter dimensional portal they were heading towards. He gave no indication of paying attention to the conversation.

"Well, there are only two primordial aspects of existence with a vested interest in Daniel, though I would expect me and you to be on their radar as well by now." Roley pointed out. "Conflict, who wants us to start a war between natural aspects of existence and artificial ones, and Fate, who simply wants to kill us, and restore the nature of his existence to its former absolute state."

"Hostages work better as a weapon for hostile people. Conflict has helped Daniel more than once." Der responded pensively. Two pearly white eyes flickering in the t-shaped opening of his white-gold helmet.

Roley’s head shook in disagreement. "Fate would have used them to attract us into a trap. Why waste time organizing a tribunal if he already had hostages? Not every aspect who took part in the trial was his direct subject, so it must have cost him a lot to rig, face included."

"But why would Conflict take them away? Horror, Sacrifice and War were all part of his faction. Why move them?" Der asked.

"He didn’t." Daniel said, catching the attention of the two. "Conflict never took them."

"What in the hells are you on about?" Roley asked. "You said he had them."

Daniel’s head shook. "For as powerful Conflict is, he doesn’t understand human connection. He might rationalize that to mortals blood has a deeper connection than friendship, and that long lasting companionship is more valuable than acquaintances, so why take Heimart, Alis and Sewah?"

"Ligart said that one of Alis and Heimart’s descendants was marrying one of yours. The two families were together.. So maybe he took all those present exactly because he didn’t understand which one would be worth more to you. Makes sense to me." Roley retorted.

Daniel twirled in place. He shrugged as he asked, "Then why not take them all? Why limit himself to a few hundred people at a wedding venue, when he already had them all under control? War could not have stopped him, nor would Horror or Sacrifice’s domains. Just take the whole ring, no?"

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"Are you saying that Conflict doesn’t have them?" Der asked.

"I am saying that he lost them." Daniel said before turning to look back at the now basketball sized blue sphere in the distance. "If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that our people never gave up on the idea of escaping Sacrifice’s ring.. until they succeeded. Only that they didn’t succeed completely, or they would have all left together."

"How do you reckon they managed to leave a ring sealed by Sacrifice’s own existential power without even alerting him?" Roley asked.

"Edmund’s power."

Roley’s lips twitched in confusion. It took him a few moments to notice Der’s eyes, wide open in realization. "What power?" He asked.

Daniel explained.

"That’s not possible!!" Roley yelled whilst springing up on his feet. A bead of clear glass had appeared in his hand. "This is a treasure of primordial spatial essence. It contains the deepest understanding on the nature of space, and yet I could never use it to travel between universes! No one can, that is literally why we are heading towards the trigate."

Daniel’s lips curved into an amused smile. "Yeah, I suppose Conflict did not expect that either."

"Okay then, let’s assume that that is possible. Why not take everyone else with him? Why leave behind so many?" Roley asked.

"He probably still can’t control it." Der interjected. "The last time he used it, he entered a loop of dimensional jumps that led to us being noticed by one of Sacrifice’s favored champions. The leader of the Blood Sect. It’s the event that caused our universe to be invaded, and for our portal to be open to external influences."

"It’s a power whose concept cannot be explained through laws of nature. Not much different than his.." Daniel said while briefly tilting his head in Der’s direction. The word concept was the only way he had to describe the odd power in Der’s possession. One that didn’t need to be fed through the production of existential power, and was instead born from a living creature. Developed, and cultivated. A third brand new seat of power alongside natural aspects of existence, and ascended ones like himself.

Roley took a deep breath. He had always been a scholar of mana, and his possession of primordial powers of all types but time essence had made him believe that no one had as much knowledge about natural mana as him. A conviction shattered by the idea that new heights of space existed. For a moment he felt small, but then, "Hold on. You knew all along that Conflict didn’t have them, so why didn’t you say so yesterday?"

Daniel’s eyes narrowed. "Because he was listening."

"What?!" Roley asked. "I didn’t feel any presence.."

"Neither did I." Der added. The two had gotten quite used to perceiving powers of existence by now, as well as to the oppressive presence of a primordial aspect of existence. Sound’s figure would still occasionally haunt their hours of meditation.

Daniel’s head shook. "He was not there personally, he just.. left a little champion behind." He said matter-of-factly as the scene of a youth swinging a wooden sword against a straw dummy replayed in his mind. *Tak tak tak* Each clash between the two inanimate objects created a wisp of gray sand-like power, as most events when two things conflicted would, but never before had he seen small, near invisible specks of it stick to a person’s body.

Roley sucked air through his teeth, breathing sharply. "Why did you mention him directly then?"

"It didn’t matter who I blamed for our friends’ disappearance, he wins either way.. I simply didn’t want him to know what our true next move is."

"Find Edmund and the others before he can?" Roley asked.

Daniel chuckled in response. "No. I couldn’t care less whether he finds them or not. He won’t hurt them either way."

A shrill noise resounded across the platform as Der bent the metal plate of his gauntlet out of shape with his fists. He growled angrily through clenched teeth. "Then what is our move?"

"Treasure hunt."