Sovereign of the Karmic System-Chapter 693: The Ones Interrupting

The view that unfolded before Daniel and the others couldn’t be any more different than the sunny forest path they had just left. There was no chirping of birds and insects, animals swinging on vines or crawling in the under bush, or rustle of leaves. No rocks poking at their soles, nor sunshine warming their skin.

They were now standing on the level metallic floor of a long corridor, with two rows of white marble columns lining the sides. Banners hung in between opposite pillars, each portraying a golden lion’s head on a gray canvas. Three rows of ceiling-mounted light bulbs flooded the corridor in soft downlighting. By each end of the corridor was a large double door, one metallic with no visible handles, and one made of dark ebony wood, with refined handles of pure gold.

Instinctively the members of Daniel’s group attempted to find a connection to this location and the one they had visited prior, but they soon realized the two locations had absolutely no point in common. The system to which the two planets belonged, the atmospheric composition, the specific race of humans it inhabited, or even the stage of their civilization. No two things matched.

Before any of them could point out this discovery, however, the metallic door opened, and a middle aged man in fully chitinous armor walked out, speeding through the corridor with hurried steps.

The room the man had just walked out of was quite small, with four metallic walls and a low ceiling. On the side was a pad covered in numbered buttons, and a large mirror opposite to the mechanic doors. A utility room only Der, who had embraced modern technology within his armada, and Daniel, who had experienced all levels of human evolution while spending centuries on a planet called Terra, were able to recognize it as an elevator.

Ignorant of their presence, the man in helmet-less bluish armor walked in their direction, soon stepping into the corridor’s now flickering lights and revealing his appearance. He was a man in his late fifties, with a salt and pepper military cut and worried brows. His square jaw trembled with each step of his march as his heartbeat reached inhuman levels.

Daniel and the others made way for him to pass, and before long, his balled up fists pressed against the large ebony door at the far end of the corridor, opening it, and revealing a massive observatory room located at what appeared to be the penthouse of an extremely tall building. What was more noteworthy, however, were the events that were playing out vividly on the other side of the thick glass.

As if to explain the inquietude present on the man’s face, Daniel and the others saw the ground crack and split, with large segments sinking or rising ominously. In a second a dozen buildings were brought down, each turning into rubble and wiping out several blocks. Between cracks came the dim glow of lava, which bubbled and swayed as it devoured whatever was unlucky enough to be fed to it.

In the distance, hundreds of rockets were taking off, abandoning what appeared to be a doomed planet, while the man observed in silence. His nerves gradually relaxed as his state of mind went from being marred by anxiousness to crippled with hopeless resignation.

Before long, the man’s knees buckled, and he fell onto the steel floor. "Kro ka Dom taror.. Tun-haiye." He muttered under his breath.

"My empire.. is doomed." Aeron translated.

Daniel ignored Aeron’s words, and instead allowed for his eyes to wander further beyond the glass wall, finding what he was looking for right after. A small car filled with a family of four rushing past the cracked ground and collapsing buildings. Their escape had been going on since the man in chitinous armor had opened the door, or perhaps before that – Far more than most other cars or fleeting civilians had been able to survive.

But their luck was clearly running out.

With Daniel’s enhanced perception and mental abilities, it did not take long for him to realize the moment their desperate escape would ultimately fail, and that moment was not too far into the future, but a few seconds away. The vehicle drove in between flipped cars and houses engulfed in flames, until their only way of escape revealed itself as a narrow path through a gas station.

"Pay attention here." Daniel said loud enough for his companions to hear, then he continued observing.

The car’s driver glanced desperately from left to right, asphalt collapsing on itself just a few dozen feet behind him, when he suddenly spotted the narrow path. He steered the wheel and pressed the pedal, leaving behind tire marks on the ground.. Before he and his family could pass through, however, an electric pole, previously charred by flames, succumbed under its weight, falling directly onto a crack on the ground from which fuel oozed slowly.

On its way down, both Daniel and the others could imagine the chaos a combination of loose electric cables and a pool of gas located just above the underground storage tanks could create. Just before the two make contact, Daniel’s spirit expanded outwards and headed towards the car.

When the cable and the puddle of fuel finally came in contact, a white shield formed around the car, protecting it from the devastating blow that was fated to follow.

Soon enough the spilled gas was ignited, and within moments, the flames reached the fuel tanks. *BOOM* The roar of the explosion was heard all the way to the top of the building, where Daniel and the others were standing, but when the blast hit the shield, a second far more powerful roar shook the world.

A flash of light blinded Daniel’s group as the obliterating strike hit once more, pulverizing his body.

Heeding Daniel’s previous warning, Aeron immediately started chanting, activating the chains of metal power he had used to bind his friend’s spiritual and mental essences to what little was left of his body. Yet, he soon found that something was wrong.

Whatever kind of power Daniel had used to protect himself from the previous obliterating attack, was now severely diminished. In fact, had it not been for Aeron’s support in keeping his spirit and consciousness from drifting away, Daniel would have likely died from this attack – A very real possibility, albeit one Aeron had no intention to see fulfilled.

Soon, Daniel’s body started to recover with a speed far superior than Joan’s, and before long, he was whole again, standing back in the dimly lit corridor, waiting for the armored man to once more burst out of the elevator and head for the observatory.

"As I thought." Daniel muttered calmly as the others turned to him in confusion. "I wished to see whether interacting with this new world would send us back to the start of the first scenario, or whether this alone would restart."

Roley nodded, acknowledging the research value, albeit small, of Daniel’s actions. "I had been wondering about that too. But now that I have seen more of it, considering that we have not been sent back to the very beginning, it’s likely that the place we are stuck in isn’t a time loop after all, but a temporal trap of sorts, wouldn’t you agree?"

Daniel smiled, but shook his head in disagreement. "Traps are engineered to achieve a calculated result. We are in a trap alright, but there is no purpose in this trap. It prevents us from interacting with our surroundings, forcing us to witness events with seemingly no connection to one another."

"If the objective was to ensnare us, then it succeeded, most effectively." Der’s voice spoke casually as the elevator’s door quietly opened once more.

Daniel hummed softly, then moved aside, letting the middle aged man pass. He had seen enough to formulate a theory, one he could have wasted hours trying to explain to creatures he did not deem capable of understanding it, so he tried to dumb his process down. "If we look at the normal progression of time as the process of reading a book, then what we are is a public book reading. The book is being read regardless of our presence, and if we interrupt the reader, they are going to go back so that the point isn’t lost on those who are listening."

"Very well.." Roley nodded in understanding, then joined in. "Assuming the reader symbolizes the passage of time, the listeners represent those whom we observe in these scenarios, and the read and unread sections of the book correspond to the past and the future, then what, precisely, is our role in this?"

Daniel smiled. "We are the ones interrupting." He said before turning quiet, deeming what had been understood by his companions to be sufficient for now – So he went back to observe the scenery instead.

Just like before, the man entered the observatory to witness the end of his world with dismay. The planet’s crust fragmented, lava bubbled from the cracks, and rockets were knocked off the sky by debris and falling buildings even before the passengers could finish boarding.

"Yet, if we have not fallen into a trap, then where precisely are we?" Roley asked.

Amused by the question, Daniel grinned faintly. "I will tell you in a minute." He said casually when, as if on cue, the scenery once again blurred.

The gray of metal and the faraway glimmer of fire turned into smoke, gradually darkening until into complete obscurity. Soon, however, countless little sparks of light were ignited around them.

It only took a few moments for Daniel and the others to regain their bearings, finding themselves in a particularly familiar scenery – After all, space is where they, creatures who had lived thousands of years, had spent most of their lives. Yet, the patch of space they were currently in was not peaceful and calm, as most of it usually was. Instead, countless entities floated not too far from them, split into two major groups.

The first group formed by a mere tens of thousands of cultivators who had barely reached the stage of immortality, positioned to form a roughly made protective net around the planet they hailed from. While on the other side, a large spaceship was shedding fighting jets by the hundreds of thousands.

How many times had Daniel and the others seen such a sight. Aliens finding a livable planet, and invading it for research, conquest or resources. What other destiny could a planet possibly have? The most unfortunate planets would have their primitive fauna wiped out of existence, then occupied, terraformed or stripped of its resources.. while the luckier planets would have defenders by their side – This was one such occasion.

Immediately, Daniel and the others covered themselves in a layer of protective power, guarding themselves against incoming rubble or floating rock, ice and dust. They knew quite well what contact with objects would entail, so they chose to prepare themselves to avoid any contact, hoping for the scenery to pass quickly.

Daniel, on the other hand, appeared excited. He stared at the two armies roaring war chants, ships flashing with lights as their cannons charged at full power. He observed and waited patiently, lulling a small spark of golden power within the flesh of his fingertip.

"CHARGE!!" One of the cultivators, a middle aged woman in a baggy robe, bellowed from the heart. Her staff pointed viciously as the incoming storm of small and agile ships.

Following her command the army began their advance, signaling the start of the conflict.

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