Chapter 12: Book of Doom

“Arrgh!!!” Vasha’s agony-filled scream resounded within the room but no one could hear him because of soundproofing talismans.

‘YOU ARE KNOCKING ON THE DOOR!!’

‘YOU ARE KNOCKING ON THE DOOR!!!’

‘YOU ARE KNOCKING ON THE DOOR!!!!’

Over and over, a voice as loud as thunder kept on repeating this in his ears. With each word, an unbelievable amount of pain assaulted Vasha’s head. The pain was so much that he felt like digging his hands into his brain.

Just when he thought his head was going to explode, his consciousness was pulled into a blank space. Within this space, he could not think or feel. It was like he had no sense of self and was just simply one with the space.

He spent what felt like hours within this blank space before his consciousness was pulled into another space.

Within this space, he saw several scenes, he saw several civilizations rise and fall. He saw great and terrifying creatures with weapons that would make the most powerful humans seem like ants in comparison. All these civilizations had one thing in common, and that was ‘Doom’. Or at least that was what the ‘Book’ told him.

These powerful civilizations had all touched something, something inviolable. They had ‘knocked on the door’ and because of that, ‘Doom’ came to visit them.

 ‘Doom’ came to visit upon them a great judgment. Great civilizations capable of conquering entire worlds were nothing but ants in front of the ‘Doom’.

One such scene that particularly stuck with him was of a civilization of great mythic and divine beasts. Among these divine beasts was an Azure Dragon the length of two kilometers and a Fire Phoenix as bright as the sun. They stood in front of an unknown enemy in the sky. The Azure Dragon commanded spells capable of submerging entire continents and the Fire Phoenix used attacks capable of turning an entire continent to molten rock. But in front of this entity from the sky, they were insignificant. The unknown entity from the sky needed but one attack to wipe out the majestic Azure Dragon and Fire Phoenix.

Vasha’s mind was already at the breaking point when he witnessed this scene. He floated in the air as he watched the remains of the majestic beings turn to ash. There he could see something in the void and he knew that the entity in the void could see him.

He felt a gaze on him that almost caused his mind to collapse.

‘YOU ARE KNOCKING ON THE DOOR.’ He heard this voice from the entity in the voice, as clear as day. Immediately he heard the voice, the scene shattered and he was drawn away from that space.

Within this space, he could finally feel himself again. In the void of this space, stood a door as far as the eye could see. The doors were covered in strange runes that were unknown to Vasha.

 He heard a booming voice, as he stood in front of the doors, contemplating his next move.

“Choose your Doom!”

The voice was a bit different from the one he had heard earlier. He had a feeling that he had to obey the voice quickly, but he was apprehensive of obeying the strange voice, especially when the voice said something ominous like ‘choose your doom’.

“Choose your Doom!!” The voice got louder and the whole space began to rumble, with cracks appearing on some doors.

“Okay, okay I get.” Vasha quickly said as he tried to think of which door to choose. From what he could see, this door all looked the same, and he was unable to decipher the runes on them. Plus he had no idea what would happen to him when he chose a door.

‘Screw it, let’s just go with our instincts.’ When he said this, he felt a feeling deep within him, as if something was calling out to him.

“Choose your Doom!!!” The voice said again, even louder.

Vasha floated to a door not far away from him by following the call from within him.

“This is the one.” He said to himself.

He turn the doorknob and pushed the door. A blinding light leaked out of the door and overwhelmed his senses.

“Hmm, that's not much.”

Back at the mountain pot, Longtian Xucheng stood over the dead body of the intruder, with his decapitated head in his hands.

“Commander, have you discovered who he is?” Elder Shi landed beside Longtian Xucheng.

“Yes, but it is sort of complicated.” He responded.

“Complicated how?” Elder Shi pressed.

“Well, this guy is just a mercenary. He was hired to look for something alongside another person. Seems like he was a decoy.” Longtian Xucheng explained.

“A mercenary? So that is why he had such life-saving methods? But what about the second person, where are they?”

“I have no idea, probably long gone. I’ve stretched my spirit senses within the radius of a kilometer to discover this person to no avail. So it’s either this person has some unique technique to hide from me or they have long since escaped the radius of my senses.” Longtian Xucheng explained.

“This is getting messy, do we know what was stolen from the outpost and what this other individual looks like? I mean, all the other valuable stuff is in our space bag, so there’s nothing really valuable left in the outpost. Maybe we could put out a bounty.” Elder Shi asked.

“I have no idea what was stolen. This guy wasn’t a preview to it either. Although there is a high probability that someone with higher cultivation than mind blocks those parts of his memory. As for his partner, all memories of her are blurry, likely indicating the influence of a higher power, probably of the Ultra demonic tier.” Longtian Xucheng said as he began walking towards the outpost.

“Her?” Elder Shi questioned.

“Hmm? Yes Her? It was a female.” Longtian Xucheng said as a matter of fact as he tossed the man’s head into his space bag.

“Interesting, so what do we do now?” Elder Shi asked.

“We go back to the sect tomorrow Elder Shi, I copy that guy’s memory unto a memory talisman. It will be thoroughly examined by the Elders of the Mission and Formation Hall. We will also take an inventory of the items missing from the outpost, let’s go.” Longtian Xucheng did not give the old man a chance to respond before leaping into the air and flying to the outpost.

‘Cocky brat.’ Elder Shi spat as he followed Longtian Xucheng closely behind like a good subordinate.

Huff Huff

A silhouette running through the woods came to a stop at a big tree while panting with huge breaths.

“That was so close. That was freaking close. That Longtian Xucheng dude is freaking scary.” The person was dressed in all black with a hoodie to cover their face.

“I would have been caught if I had not used the cloak of Ahanim to hide my presence.”

The person slowly slumped down and sat at the foot of the tree. They took off their hood even as they panted like a beaten dogs. It was a girl on the cloak. Her blonde hair shone under the moonlight, and although her face wasn’t visible, it could still be seen that she was a beautiful woman. She had a small jewel on her head that also shone in the night sky.

“Well, I’ve got to keep going. God knows when that freak will decide to start chasing me. I’ve got to put some distance between the two of us. Yikes, an entire kilometer, what a freak.” The lady said to no one in particular as she got up from the foot of the tree.

She dusted her cloak and dashed out from beneath the tree, commencing her marathon in the forest. She eventually reached a clearing with three different paths.

“Hmm, which way was it to the sect from her again? Oh yeah, it was right.” She snapped her fingers and dashed toward one of the three paths.

Longtian Xucheng and Elder Shi at no idea at this moment but this would not be their last encounter with this individual.