Chapter 123

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Chapter 123: Truth of the World

When Tasha found this letter, her teammates in the background were celebrating the carnival.

It all started with a big party for the wizards. They were eagerly reading notes from the shelves, trying to decipher ancient magical writings. The apprentices were helping the teachers or wandering between rooms, free to touch anything. Later, one apprentice found a portal in the depths of the vault.

A portal leading outside.

The wizards, who were ready to embrace knowledge in their final moments, gathered around the portal. They checked it many times, did numerous experiments, and confirmed that the portal was still functional, ready to be activated. It seemed undamaged and might explain where the Pathfinder had gone – there were no bones or other exits in the warehouse. Even if the portal took them to a dangerous place, it was filled with hope compared to being trapped there.

"I have never been so happy about the failure of ancient magic," whispered Miranda.

The curse of "cannot leave" left by the archmage centuries ago was finally broken by the White Tower Wizards who arrived here hundreds of years later. The magic array opened a passage, providing a chance for the less powerful wizards to escape.

However, the successful escape of the Pathfinder also brought some trouble.

The vault had clearly been searched before.

Several bookshelves were empty, similar to the shelves where Tasha first met Victor and found the Book of Dungeons. Those areas bore extensive damage, as if they had been violently raided. Even though the remaining runes were damaged, Tasha could sense their high level. Many spell materials were taken outside, protective spells inside were breached by the Pathfinder, and most treasures in the inner area were looted, just like a big sale during the holiday season.

The missing items were more valuable than anything seen downstairs, so valuable that they caught the eye of the Pathfinder at last.

At this moment, the lively wizards next to Tasha were frantically stuffing books and materials into any container they could find, their eyes sparkling with magic. This group of wizards filled with magical tools started using the apprentices and guards as carriers, their small frames also loaded with bags, busier than travelers during a holiday rush. It seems that the profession of wizardry has remained unchanged in some aspects for hundreds of years.

As Tasha walked quickly towards the deep abyss, she had a bad feeling.

If Pathfinder was a wizard, with the advanced materials along the way almost completely destroyed, is there a possibility that the deep abyss materials hidden in the vault will survive?

The last bit of hope extinguished completely upon seeing the shattered hood on the huge platform.

This is the place with the thickest deep abyss energy, and even in the empty area, the presence of the abyss can still be felt. The things left here originally are definitely not inferior little creatures. There are a lot of magic traces around, some places still inaccessible, so Tasha can only fly over with her wings spread out. From these traces, it seems that the Pathfinder must have spent a lot of effort on this treasure.

Regardless, he had already succeeded.

Tasha couldn’t help feeling bad, her greatest expectation for this adventure shattered. Finding a complete guide on demon repairs in the bookcase was good, but obviously not comparable to directly providing materials. She didn’t know how long it would be until awakening Victor, various thoughts swirling in her mind as she reached for the letter.

The contents of the letter were brief, with sloppy handwriting, clearly a hastily written note.

Removing the elegant decorations of the olden days, the gist is as follows:

Thanks to the dark meteor Rasheil, who has extraordinary robbery ability and a fondness for ancient wizards, the great archmage gathered this Mage Tower rich in resources. I am taking it without hesitation, thank you for the gift; thanks to the colleagues of the White Tower, they managed to get the tower and selflessly dismantled half of it placed here, may magic bless their restless souls. I have taken what I need, found the way I sought, whether my final attempt is success or failure, that path will be closed. It is regrettable that if any later visitors with the same intention come here, you will not achieve your expectations. As compensation, I have dismantled most of the traps, left most of the safe treasures in the Mage Tower, and opened the door to leave.

Signed by "wizard Liandrin".

Tasha’s nails brushed across the letter, her expression changing from gloomy to surprised.

This is a very simple letter, with the information provided, the pieces of information gathered along the way can be put together to piece together the truth of the past.

During the era when the White Tower Wizards formed the Wizard Alliance to eliminate human threats, they obtained the ancient wizard Rasheil’s Mage Tower from certain forces. The development of this Mage Tower was only halfway completed, and the senior wizards of the Wizard Alliance became immersed in busy battles and research, putting the tower aside for the time being. The rebellious Liandrin, who refused to join the Wizard Alliance back then, left the White Tower, but received news and returned in his later years to take advantage of the situation. With his own power and the convenience provided by the White Tower, he managed to delve deep all the way, ultimately transforming the Mage Tower into its current state.

Judging from Liandrin’s tone, he did not leave through that teleportation array. The archmage went through great effort to break the curse that prevented leaving, seemingly considering any potential future arrivals.

He said he would make one final attempt and head toward the sought-after path.

Why did Liandrin come? Where does the path he found lead? The letter briefly mentions these, but too many things are left unclear.

However, whether it’s the speculated identity of the Pathfinder or the answers and mysteries brought by the letter, none of these are the reason for Tasha’s surprise.

What surprised Tasha was not the letter’s words, but the paper it was written on.

It was just a simple piece of parchment, with jagged edges, likely torn from a notebook by the archmage. The ink was ordinary, different from modern ink, but not magically special. The uniqueness of this thin sheet lay in its writer.

This was the final message left by the white robe wizard Liandrin before leaving Aryan.

This was the "token" from the Pathfinder.

And then Tasha understood where the wizard had gone.

The title of "Astral Traveler" shone brightly in her mind, indicating that the conditions were met once again, and the journey could begin. "With the token of the Astral Plane, ready to face it courageously, you can embark on the journey once more" – Tasha’s courage was now abundant, previously lacking only the vague "Astral Plane Token."

Liandrin had gone to the Astral Plane, and he or his remains were there. Therefore, the letter he left in Aryan could serve as the Astral Plane Token Tasha needed.

Tasha smiled as she held tight to her ticket to the Astral Plane.

Everything around her faded away, her busy and noisy teammates becoming a blur. The Mage Tower and the vault were covered by "starlight," the endless radiance of the Astral Plane replacing the light of the black candles. Tasha felt herself ascending, her being suddenly lifted upwards, soaring past the entire Mage Tower.

This time, crossing over was smoother than before. At first, Tasha thought it was her own adaptability improving, but soon she realized that the long-abandoned Mage Tower was supporting her, like a track for a speeding car. In just a few seconds of ascending, Tasha’s consciousness covered the entire Mage Tower.

Even if this experience were given to Legendary Wizards, they wouldn’t adapt as well as Tasha, who had years of experience working on buildings. Almost immediately upon covering the Mage Tower, Tasha adapted to this sensation and quickly gathered information she could see. The familiar, enchanting all-knowing perspective scanned over this ancient and ownerless Mage Tower, showing every place they had and hadn’t walked through in Tasha’s mind.

She saw various magic arrays slowly operating in unseen places, keeping this struggling building alive in harsh conditions until today. In areas untouched by Liandrin, some were heavily guarded, while others contained modified magic creatures (many with abyssal features, diverse and thankfully not needing to fight them all) lying quietly on tables before being triggered, every corner appearing calm and safe. The massive web of magic seemed like a kaleidoscope, tracing back to where they were.

The drawbridge was not at the top of this treasure vault, but rather at the tower’s base, on the foundation of the Mage Tower. In the abyss below the drawbridge, Tasha saw many magic servants and a large group of dormant slimes. Many pipes led to the lower levels, where garbage, leftover life remnants, and useless experiments could be thrown to the slimes, resembling a swamp. It was intriguing that the magic source of this Mage Tower was similar to a dungeon; in those ancient times, was raising slimes as magic batteries a common choice for wizards?

Most interestingly, the slimes did not have the aura of the abyss.

Tasha had believed that she was disconnected from the abyss outside this dungeon, so the dungeon’s creations did not have the abyss aura. Before, she thought slimes were one of the Abyssal monsters, a specialty of the dungeon, which is why the present Aryan could not see traces of other slimes. But from what she had just discovered, things seemed different.

In this nearly thousand-year-old Mage Tower, primal slimes were hibernating, undoubtedly from the Primary Material Plane. Slimes were not the standard configuration of the Abyss Outpost; they were likely scouted by the dungeon during the Decaying Disaster a long time ago, devoured, and became the stable source of the dungeon’s magic. After a long time, the people of the Primary Material Plane had forgotten that these creatures were local monsters. In their battle to banish the abyss, they worked hard to exterminate the slimes as well.

The decline of the magic environment was like a chain reaction of fallen dominoes, where each piece was both a result and a cause. The disappearance of the slimes, creatures that were once everywhere, became a heavy piece in this domino chain.

Tasha blinked, feeling like this layer of the Mage Tower was like a classic hero fighting the demon boss sub-instance: the owner of the Mage Tower could throw challengers here, and those who failed would be thrown below the drawbridge to become slime’s food, converting into the magic needed for the tower. Those who succeeded, those who braved through obstacles only to defeat an illusion of a hero, might possibly find a way out and even fetch some treasures in the vault – there were indeed rumors that Rasheil would show favor to clever individuals she found interesting.

The lowest creature, a slime, various adventurers with different strengths, and the powerful Great Devil in the tower, were all part of a cycle like a self-sustaining ecosystem. Tasha suddenly had some thoughts that came and went like fleeting fish.

Tasha’s mind left the Mage Tower.

She walked through the same passage as the white robe wizard before her, on the path sought by Liandrin. In the secure passage, Tasha looked around carefully for the first time alone.

In the endless Astral Plane, there was a vast "tree" hanging countless worlds – that’s how she could describe her previous shallow understanding. Now, Tasha saw that all the "branches" were made up of countless "lines," similar to what she saw in the Hall of True Knowledge, known as cause and effect lines.

Countless cause and effect connections in the Astral Plane, more than branches in a forest. Tasha could only see one cause and effect line connected to her "Astral Plane Token," like a line attached to an astronaut during a spacewalk, guiding her and keeping her safe.

Suddenly, Tasha appeared at the other end of the line.

If the world is a fruit, the quarter of Aryan guarded by the Elf King was like a large piece, but where Tasha arrived was like a small portion. Despite this, Tasha felt her heart pounding.

The last time she felt this shock was when she saw those magical creations underground in the capital city of Aryan.

If a world is compared to a planet, where she stood now was like a satellite, a space station, in every aspect. The silver Mage Tower floated in the Astral Plane, protected by numerous intricate magic circles and runes, with wizards and apprentices coming and going. Neither observing the White Tower Ruins nor walking through the Ancient Mage Tower’s ruins gave Tasha such a clear understanding of what the "Mage Tower" really was. This Mage Tower seemed "alive."

Not only that, this Mage Tower is obviously much more advanced than all of Aryan’s Mage Tower ruins combined.

At the other end of the cause and effect line, a Mage Tower sailing in the Astral Plane is like a spaceship traversing the cosmos, giving a remarkable sense of the future that almost feels absurd. The advanced and powerful magic crystals surprisingly resemble the future envisioned by technology.

Tasha had not been visiting for long when a figure appeared in front of her.

The shadow was not translucent, but clearly not touching the ground, making no effort to hide its lack of substance. He was dressed in a quaint and very wizardly traditional white robe, complete with a hood, leaning on a magic wand, a white bowtie adorning his white beard, as if stepping out of a fantasy movie set telling ancient tales, with many years of chronological gap between him and the Mage Tower he was in. The wizard’s smile was friendly, but he had a pair of drooping white eyebrows, giving his smiling face a slightly strange melancholy.

If Bruno were over fifty years old, he would probably look like this.

"A master of the prophecy department said you would come today, earlier than I expected," he said cheerfully, "I am Liandrin – is this outfit a bit outdated? Don’t mind, after all, I am an old man who has been dead for many years."

"Hello." Tasha paused for a moment, her mind spinning quickly, "What else did the master of prophecy predict?"

"The time you spend, the answers you seek, and so on and so forth." As if guessing what Tasha was thinking, Liandrin said, "You don’t need to repeat Aryan’s situation, we may be outside, but we are not oblivious to Aryan’s circumstances."

"We"? "Not oblivious"? The information in these two sentences was already very significant, astonishing Tasha no less than finding someone waiting for her. She had many questions, and for a moment didn’t know how to begin, so she closed her mouth, waiting for the wizard in front of her, who seemed to know a lot, to give her answers.

"If we had more time, I really wish I could make you a cup of tea, and then we could slowly talk about everything from the beginning. That would be easier to accept, but unfortunately, time is running out, so we can’t take it step by step," said the white robe wizard, shaking his head. "Let’s keep it brief."

Liandrin looked up, her brown eyes fixed on Tasha, and said, "The start of every story is— when the boat you’re sitting on is about to sink, would you choose to stay and try to lift it up, or abandon ship and escape to find another boat?"

The archmage is right, this is really too abrupt.

Tasha thought she would hear about the departure of the Heavenly Realm, the "disappearance" of the Astral Plane, or the conspiracy of the Abyss, but she never expected the biggest mystery to unfold before her so suddenly.

The universe and everything in it form a plane, where a plane or a few closely neighboring planes make up a world, and beyond the world is the vast Astral Plane. Countless worlds are connected by countless lines within it, a part of knowledge that even wizards cannot fully explain. Let’s just consider it as a World Tree for now. Everything within the Astral Plane is vast and profound, but just like every long-lived planet will eventually perish, those worlds that seem immortal to ordinary beings are not immune to decline.

However, the death of a world is not predetermined.

In each cycle, a branch of the World Tree faces a period of "withering and blooming." However, withering is not inevitable, just as revival after withering is not predetermined. The time of calamity is perhaps left to fate, but the outcome of "withering and blooming" lies in the hands of the creatures of that world. If the beings of this world develop a high civilization and work together, they may survive the ordeal, avoid destruction, just like a group of penguins survive a particularly tough winter by huddling together.

Sounds generous, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, the creatures of each world are so numerous, and the time to face and survive the calamity is so long.

Even the highest achievement of the creatures united on the Primary Material Plane, the Aryan Declaration, fell apart after several hundred years, leading to the current situation. So, what happens when a "world" includes enemies like the Abyss and the Heavenly Realm?

It’s unclear whether it was the Abyssal Demon or the deities of the Heavenly Realm who first noticed the world’s decline and decided to react. Most beings on the Primary Material Plane have short lifespans (by the standards of Demon Lords and deities), while the mortal inhabitants with brief lives won’t survive, the immortal residents of the two realms can. On the day they discovered the secret of the world’s prosperity decline, both sides decisively ruled out the option of cooperation.

Who can expect water and fire to live in harmony and cooperate?

The remaining option became very clear.

You can’t protect a sinking ship together with your enemies, so the only choice is to abandon it and escape. Abandoning the entire ship would be a waste of resources. The high-ranking members of the Heavenly Realm and the Abyss both decided independently: to divide the Primary Material Plane, take the resources and energy they could use, allow the relatively independent Heavenly Realm/Abyss planes to break away, and escape to nearby worlds.

Just like the scene Tasha had witnessed, the mortal realm is the core fruit in the middle, enjoying more resources, a stable environment, and looser rules, hence known as the "Primary Material Plane" by the three realms. But because of this, the Primary Material Plane is also the target of disasters and can’t escape its intertwined fate with that "branch."

Next comes what Tasha knew.

Although the Heavenly Realm and the Abyss temporarily shared a common goal, aiming for the same mortal realm inevitably led to conflicts. The creatures of the Primary Material Plane were unaware of what was happening and surprisingly benefited from this struggle. With the unity of the Aryan Declaration, they managed to take the upper hand and drive out the Heavenly Realm and the Abyss. Amid the chaotic three-way battle, the Abyss seemed to withdraw first, while the Heavenly Realm suffered the most losses and was completely expelled. Realizing they couldn’t gain anything from the Primary Material Plane, the Celestial Beings promptly left this slowly sinking ship.

"Did the Heavenly Realm manage to escape like this?" Tasha asked.

"No one knows," Liandrin shook her head, "Leaving the ‘World Tree’ dimension and wandering in the Astral Plane comes with great risks. It’s just that the Celestial Beings believe that leaving Aryan would offer more opportunities than staying there."

The Heavenly Realm departed, and the people of the world mistakenly thought they had banished the Heavenly Realm with the help of demons, only to be deceived themselves, leading to the pollution of the Primary Material Plane. The Abyssal Demons planned to devour the Primary Material Plane, but the elves and Great Druid decisively separated Aryan and went to the Astral Plane to purify it. Although the purification was not successful, their sacrifices were not in vain, as the Abyssal demons’ scheme was thwarted, and in the end, the two remaining dimensions reached a stalemate.