Chapter 25- The Oath

Chapter 25- The Oath

Then, Malice was transported back to the real world. It was instantaneous as usual. In just the blink of an eye, he found himself sprawled on his bed in a very awkward position. Sighing, he rose up and looked around him.

The dark room was shimmering with neon lights coming from the windows and from the small lamp next to his bed. Sitting there for a while, thinking about things, he finally stood up and walked to the window. The view of Neo Nexus was as majestic as ever. Even late into the night, the city looked like a massive bulb of light, shimmering under the moon's ancient gaze.

It looked so beautiful, even with everything hiding in its streets, it was still a gorgeous city.

'I wonder if the outside world looked more beautiful than this.' Malice thought as he rested his hand on the rail. His gaze shifted to stare into the distance. At the very edge of the city, there was a gigantic wall, built out of enhanced metal, and fortified with layers of hard rock and cement beneath. This wall was at least 90 meters tall, surrounding the entire city. Even more than that, right on top of that wall, beams of light could be seen rising into the air and vanishing somewhere.

Those beams were the 'Enhancers'. Gigantic, multi-layered beacons that emit a very special light. That light, for some scientific reason, manifests into the corporal world the moment it rises in the sky and makes contact with the air around it. Then, those pillars of light connect to one another in a very complicated net of light webs right in the center of the city. That creates what the inhabitants of Neo Nexus liked to call 'The Divine Dome'.

Essentially, the Divine Dome is an energy barrier that covers the entire city to protect it from outside attacks. Monsters ran rampant across the lands and these massive, metropolitan cities were the last standings of humanity. The massive wall and all the weaponry stationed across its surface were somewhat enough to defend from monsters that walked on land, but those who flew were a whole other problem on their own.

That was where the barrier came in clutch. It repelled most weak monsters and, like a bug net. Except, this bug net was capable of frying these abominations to death. But, naturally, it wasn't perfect. Apart from its occasional problems that required 24/7 maintenance, and its inability to repel stronger monsters, the Divine Dome carried another problem.

The light that it used as a barrier was strong and dangerous, so naturally, it didn't affect the monsters only. It also had its effects on the people below it. The radiations emitting from the barrier were strong enough to affect humans through mutations in their bodies across years and years of living there. The Divine Dome was singlehandedly responsible for discovering at least 50 new types of cancer in the past 60 years alone.

That also meant that other illnesses, disabilities, and even death were quite common due to it. Of course, Marked Nobles didn't face that problem since their bodies were far stronger than normal humans and even if it did affect them, paying for medical care was like another Tuesday to them. Cancer isn't a problem these days for those who can pay money. Hell, Malice even heard that people could get their heads transplanted into another body if they wished.

Those who can't, however, were left to die, live their lives with fewer limbs, or fewer brain cells than most others. Luckily, Malice had been able to survive long enough to get his hands on a Mark and avoid getting radiated to death for the rest of his life.

Yet, surprisingly, nobody hated the Divine Dome for that. They knew it killed them, but what other choice did they have? If that thing disappeared, this entire city was bound to get wiped out in days if not hours. Even as he was standing there, Malice could hear occasional buzzing sounds.

Those sounds were emitted from the barrier burning some kind of creature somewhere.

'I guess being radiated to death is far more agonizing than being eaten alive.' He shook his head as he turned around and walked back to the bed. There, he lied down and closed his eyes.

Eventually, he fell asleep again, unbothered by the matters of the past.

***

As usual, Malice woke up around dawn. Even on days when he was exhausted, he would always wake up around the same time. Habits are far stronger than one would expect.

Like yesterday, Malice washed his face, and then headed straight to the lab where he found Cipher… For the third day in a row.

At this point, Malice believed the man didn't sleep at all. He hadn't seen him sleep once since he met him and that was three days ago.

'Could he be a monster or something?'

Suddenly, that idea sounded far more logical than it should be. But, Malice quickly shook it off his head and decided to focus on what was important.

Naturally, Cipher then led him to the gym and started the second day of training. Somehow, this one was even more brutal than the one from yesterday. Not only did the intensity of the training go up a notch, Cipher also integrated new exercises for Malice to focus on.

By the end of it, the boy was brutally tired. But, his gains were still surprising. The training had pushed his stamina and strength up another degree. He could feel the hard work already piling up and showing results after mere two days.

'If I continue at this rate, what would I turn into in the future?' He mused as he drank the concoction Cipher gave him.

"After you recover, follow me back to the lab." The man said and left.

"Hm?" Malice noticed the serious tone in his voice which sounded oddly different from usual. 'What is he planning?'

Many ideas popped into the boy's head that made him somewhat nervous. But, he quickly shook them off, finished the drink, and made his way to the lab. He found Cipher looking at the computer, as usual.

"Sit down, we are going to begin the lesson." He said.

"Uh, ok…" Malice replied confusedly.

A few moments later, the blonde man turned around and said. "Although you still didn't fully learn how to read and write, it shouldn't be a problem to start teaching you other things at the same time."

"Other things? Like what?"

"Things like biology, physics, monster anatomy, herbalism, and survival procedures in most cases." He said.

"..." Malice raised an eyebrow. "All of that?"

"Yes, although as you might have guessed, I won't be able to teach you everything you need in one year. However, if you can get the basics down, you can learn everything else in the Academy."

'Figured… Though, from what he said, I will very much need all that information even before leaving. The Dungeons Of Madness are already hard as they are.' He thought to himself.

Unbeknownst to Cipher, the boy was going to make use of these lessons almost immediately.

"But, before all of that, what you need to know first is… History." Saying that, Cipher clicked on a keyboard button and the image changed.

"History?"

"Mhm, precisely, The World Beyond's history. Now, listen carefully, because I won't repeat my words. If you have a question, raise your hand before asking it." Cipher said.

"Understood."

Adjusting his position, Cipher began.

"So, briefly, millions of years ago, way before time even existed as a concept, there was nothing in the world. Neither this world nor the world beyond. Not even matter existed. Everything was nothing and vice versa. It's something that we can't wrap our heads around yet." He said with a serious tone. "However, in that emptiness, an entity existed… 'The Oath' as it called itself."

"The Oath…"

'I never heard of that name before. But, why does it sound familiar?' Feeling an odd sensation inside him at that moment, Malice was taken aback.

"The Oath, as far as we know isn't a creature, nor a god… It is a Will. Think of it like fate, except, The Oath was far stronger than fate. In fact, as we discovered, fate is but a strand plucked from The Oath."

Malice listened carefully to everything Cipher was saying. For some reason, he didn't want to miss a single detail about the story.

"We do not know where it came from, or how it even looked. But, we do know it existed, and perhaps still exists. In any case, The Oath was the beginning of everything, from it was born the world as we know it today, and before it, the World Beyond. We do not know the reason why the Oath created these worlds yet."

As he was speaking the images on the computer changed suddenly. "When that world was created, The Oath also created along with it 7 beings… These beings are what we call today 'The Seven Primordial Gods'. They were put into the World Beyond to rule it and shape it however they wanted. From them, beings were born, and those beings gave birth to more beings. Just like that, in a matter of a few thousand years, the World Beyond flourished, expanded, and was dominated by these Seven Gods."

The image on the screen showed seven different spheres that shone with different light. From green, to red, to blue, and some others.

"These gods were naturally worshipped by their descendants and were hailed as the true monarchs. Life was peaceful, for as far as we know. Nothing happened, and the gods didn't seem to have any sort of conflicts with each other for a very long time. Until one day…" As the man spoke, his tone grew heavier for some reason.

"Those gods were no more."