Chapter 178 - Zero
178 Zero
“You seem different, I take it you’ve achieved your goal.”
Layton said breaking the silence, he could intuitively feel Zero had become different, she wasn’t actively exuding her energy it was more of a passive influence that made everyone ignore her presence to the extent that it had a weak influence on the surrounding space, the only reason Layton was aware of her presence was because she didn’t bother hiding and he had her figure in his memory. If she was absent from his memory even if he gazed at her he wouldn’t be able to make out any distinctive features like her face or stature the only feedback his perception would receive was her faint silhouette. Not only that but immediately he recognized her and spoke Layton could clearly feel that she exuded her mysterious energy covering a small portion of the area around them forming a small hidden and exquisite pocket dimension, the timing rules in the dimension were subtly different resulting in a faster time lapse.
“Yes, although it was a bit out of my expectation the trip was a fruitful one.”
Zero replied softly as she reminisced about her journey in the plane, her original ambition was to try and condense related laws that would be the core of her unique energy and so she had stripped off her spatial laws using her family’s unique method, condensing the laws into a form of natal treasure in the shape of twin daggers. She hadn’t rushed to imprint her domain in the plane because of two reasons one was that she had stripped her spatial laws away making her domain in a peculiar damaged state the second was because she discovered that attempting to the laws of the plane were mostly biased toward the physical nature of the law and not the metaphysical. And so she took her time travelling around the universe visiting various planets trying to gather sentiments, using her action and thoughts to imprint a peculiar meaning upon her ‘mystery’ the meaning she chose and condensed could be encapsulated in one word and that was ‘influence’.
Her state was similar to that of Carl’s in that they both possessed unique energy, just like Carl, Zero’s energy could easily spread and pollute the environment, in fact during her travels she had done experiments in that regard and spread her mystery on certain planets, the difference between Zero and Carl was that she possessed more knowledge than him and had been exposed to a lot more than the aborigine, she had been aware of the possibility of conflict earlier but didn’t deter if anything it helped as it limited her options leading her to instead she condensed the meaning of ‘influence’ using the intensity of her spirit and the strength of those infected by her strength to polish and consolidate this meaning into the core of her ‘mystery’. This allowed her and any user of her ‘mystery’ to drive laws without coming in contact with them, in other words, the energy allowed the laws to easily reflect through to reality and allowed the user to direct and use this influence at will. It was like the relationship between a magnifying glass and the sun, the mystery was the magnifying glass and the law was the sun the user made use of the glass to harness the sun’s power without directly coming into contact with it.
“Is that the path your current body is taking?” Zero said her gaze trained on the Rosetta Layton had just inscribed.
“Oh no, but it’s similar” Layton replied with a smile not explaining any further, it wasn’t that he didn’t trust Lilith but that there was no point in expounding on his path at this time especially when they were about to participate in a war. it was not that they had no trust for each other but that some information better existed only in the minds of the individuals, once spoken or shared there was no telling the numerous ways in which it could be leaked, it wasn’t that it was entirely safe in the individual’s mind but at least it would narrow the chances of the information leaking.
“What are you doing here anyway,” Layton asked curiously, it didn’t seem like she was here to inscribe anything and judging from Lilith’s present aura it didn’t seem she needed to gain insight from any of the inscriptions around.
“The war’s starting, I am here to take you to your commander,” Zero replied coolly
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“Commander?” Layton asked doubtfully before continuing, saying “I thought we would be going together” as he gestured towards carl and Rip not far away.
“Plans change,” Zero replied indifferently as she started to walk away, with her steps the pocket space that previously enveloped them dispersed bringing them back to the outside world, Layton gave a wry smile towards Carl and Rip who didn’t seem to notice him as they were still absorbed in their activities as he trotted after Zero.
While Layton was leaving to participate in the war he had no idea the impact his Rosetta was having on the inhabitants of the plane, numerous world masters with no talent or resources about to reach the deadline of their lifespan had found new hope, the way of coexisting with a planet was the gospel for practitioners like them, the same was true for numerous injured individuals with little to no hope of recovery, by merging with the celestial body their lives could be saved and what’s more they could continue to grow further once again, possess sufficient combat power to partake in the war and guard their homelands. Just a few minutes after Layton’s Rosetta had been imprinted, the price of ownership of life planets had shot through the roof the same for various devices and resources used to terraform celestial bodies. His inscription immediately left its current location as the first batch of viewers had arrived, not only here but also pictures of the inscription that had been duplicated by the virtual universe were in hot demand even though the copy could only display about 30% of the original effectiveness.𝗳re𝐞𝓌e𝚋n૦ѵ𝗲l. co𝐦