City of Sin (Yanyu Jiangnan)

The End Of An Era

Mordred knelt down before the suit of armour in Richard’s hands, giving it a knight’s salute, “The abyss is the source of all demonkind. The Archeron Family hasn’t even been considered close to a strong bloodline in the abyss for ten thousand years, but after he died this was the only place that could revive him. Arbidis is the beginning of both hell and the abyss. Its master is the highest existence across both.”

Richard pursed his lips and listened.

“When Master died, I brought him here and offered him to the Eternal Battlefield for resurrection. We then came over and removed the previous abyssal king, giving him the position.” Mordred’s tone was casual, but behind each word was clearly a heavy story, “The fact that he became the abyssal king have Master’s bloodline the favour of the abyss. The Family was destined for an archlord in the future, and his bloodline in the human world would grow even more powerful.”

“Then why did he block me?!” Richard clenched his fist, having to take a moment to open it back up, “Wouldn’t letting me go or explaining be better?”

Mordred shrugged, “That is the will of Arbidis. Guarding the portal to the alter world and maintaining stability in the Eternal Battlefield are the two primary responsibilities of the abyssal king, and they suppress all other thoughts. Master had to stop you because you tried to cross over; he couldn’t recognise you until he was released from the will of this plane.”

“But the will of this plane doesn’t affect you. Why didn’t you tell me?” a cold light flashed across Richard’s eyes.

Mordred laughed, looking up at Richard and locking gazes with his deep black eyes, “So Master could kill you? He didn’t remember his own identity, and was simply the embodiment of the abyss. But if you knew, would you still fight with all your strength? A moment of hesitation and you would die. How could I let him kill his own son?”

Richard took a long time to response, “If that was the case… then why did he have to take that position?”

“I already said it was for the Archerons. You should know what kind of man he is…”

Richard nodded, recalling the terrifying will that had occasionally touched his soul. Even from the depths of the world, his father had watched over and protected him in the worst of times. He sighed and looked at the enormous vortex in the sky; the barrier protecting it had weakened greatly, and he could see countless strange objects beyond that seemed desperate to escape.

He suddenly understood why the will of Arbidis protected this passage. Not only was it preventing creatures from the domain of order from going to the other side, but it was also preventing the creatures in the darkness beyond from wreaking havoc here. He frowned, “You said you killed the previous king to take over the position. Does that mean I’m the abyssal king now?”

Gazing at the barrier between the two worlds, he felt exceptionally calm but also a little regretful. Once he assumed this role, he would be changed by the will of the abyss and sit on that icy throne forever. Perhaps another devil or demon would defeat him in a few millennia. Guarding this place was the natural responsibility of a creature of the light, but he felt like he still had too many unfinished things to take care of.

Mordred smiled, “I’m sorry, kid, but not yet. The position of abyssal king is rotated between the devils and demons. So I’m the next king, not you. The Mordred name in the hells is similar to the Archerons’ position in the abyss; I need to look out for my own family as well.”

“I… Thank you,” Richard turned back to Mordred, matching his deep gaze.

The Devil King laughed in a low voice, “No need to thank me. Master fulfilled his responsibilities and deserved to be freed. You can go take care of your own things; I’ll stay here and reminisce. Not a bad result, don’t you think?”

He pointed towards the vortex, “Go and come back quickly, you won’t have much time. I can still hold on for a while before I’m assimilated, but if you take too long you’ll have to fight me when you return. Whether I kill you or you kill me, it can’t be a good thing.”

Richard nodded, stowing the armour away and blinking back to Faust. A look of determination flooded his face as he looked at the warped creatures on the other end, “We’re charging through.”

The flying fortress picked up speed, the Rainbow of the Moons lighting up Arbidis as it barrelled through the barrier and arrived at the other side. Mordred watched on in shock as Faust turned into a burning meteor, crushing all the creatures in its path. Only once it had gone through did he actually respond with an incredulous cry, “That’s actually possible?!”

……

The moment they shifted between worlds, everyone felt their vision dim into complete darkness. All the crushed creatures vanished, but suddenly there was no light nor sound in the surroundings. The Rainbow of the Moons was still shining brightly to protect Faust, but the city seemed to be a bubble in a pitch-black sea.

This was the dark side of the world.

Richard felt the fear within many of his followers, their minds rocked by the experience. He knew from experience that this wasn’t true emptiness— one simply needed a different perception to actually see it for what it was— but one could only understand that once they had successfully switched their perceptions at least once.

The alter world was considered the dark side of the world, where the laws were inverted entirely. Controlling the laws here was much easier than in the Darkness, as Richard could already see the flows of energy with his truesight. It wouldn’t be long before he could perceive and control the laws here, so he transmitted that information to calm everyone down.

However, Nasia’s voice rang out in his mind, “The city is losing energy, and there’s no way to replenish it. If we can’t think of something quick, we’ll be stuck here forever.”

“We’ll analyse the laws of this place and adjust the city to work with them. Won’t that work?” Richard asked.

“Sure, all we have to do is figure out the laws of another world! You get to it then, I’ll take care of adjustments once you’re done.”

“It really isn’t hard,” he chuckled, quickly working on establishing a model. However, he wasn’t relying solely on himself this time, instead passing a majority of the information he had to Mountainsea. She herself was sitting on the roof of one of the city’s shrines, staring into the pitch-black void, but in one corner of the city was a large lake filled with green water that started to boil. Within was an enormous creature that was an amalgamation of ten giant brains, a combined thought centre that had been established over the past few years precisely as an emergency scenario.

Richard continued building model after model, sending them to Mountainsea for validation until the thought centre was completely occupied. He then began analysing things himself, sitting at the research desk of the primal celestials that he had whisked away from Sharon’s library. He was many times faster than even the enormous thought centre down below, and as the days passed the darkness gradually faded into indistinct images and noises. The shapes were strange and the sounds felt like the creepy chatter of insects, but it was still progress. He passed things to his followers as he went, with the one exception of Nasia who seemed perfectly fine even here.

Fortunately, the Book of Eternity and Richard’s presence ensured that they could never lose track of time. That was something extremely important in a land of such isolation, and allowed everyone to keep track of progress as things steadily got better. The radiance from the Rainbow of the Moons was also something that kept them from going insane.