Zac's Flamebearer seal activated on its own when he entered Anima Court's memory domain. Usually, Zac could use this moment to pick which identity to use. This time, the seal made the choice for him. Or perhaps his human half did. His human counterpart had naturally picked Jikasi In'Vela upon entering to avoid being marked an interloper. Now, Zac's Draugr side was forced to adopt the same persona.
It was a new rule that could only be discovered when his bodies traveled together. During his travels, he'd already confirmed that both bodies couldn't use the same identity when entering memory domains. It made sense, seeing as how someone normally couldn't be in two places at once. That rule had evidently been inverted when they entered the same place.
Both his bodies being registered as Jikasi suited Zac fine. It was even his first choice. If it hadn't worked, Zac planned on having his second body enter as himself. After all, his identity as a Flamebearer would grant access to all the outer courts. Nevertheless, Zac felt it better to avoid that option. It could lead to him getting embroiled in the conflict between the ancient Flamebearers, like Astora and Descartes. Zac's strength had seen a massive increase over the past months, but that didn't mean he wanted to square off against one of the Theomore siblings.
A new type of angst slammed into Zac's mind the second he stepped onto a desolate mountain peak, throwing all other considerations out of the window. A vast starry sky appeared in his mind's eye, a primal sky full of unfulfilled promise. Zac was drawn to it, filled with an intense longing. And at that moment, who 'he' was seemed unclear.
The stars didn't answer, yet Zac refused to give up. Desire and despair entwined, threatening to spiral out of control. A hand placed against his chest settled the storm, and the vision faded. He was standing on a mountain peak, surrounded by an expansive vista. There were no stars in the sun, only the warmth of three unfamiliar suns. Zac nodded in thanks to Vilari, who'd dragged him out of his state.
"This is the lingering obsession of the Daynight Dreamer," Vilari said before briefly explaining the general situation of Anima Court.
Zac wasn't too surprised to learn that the Limitless Empire had erected one of their courts inside a supermassive Soul Aperture. It was right up their alley and no more fantastical than the locations of the Mercurial or Hollow Courts.
"The environment grows even worse during the night?" Zac grimaced, his desire to swiftly move on to the Left Imperial Palace growing stronger.
"We're currently in a danger zone called a Memory Root. The Daynight Dreamer's obsession is much stronger here. It mostly overwrites the effect of the night-and-day cycles," Vilari said as she inspected Zac's condition. "Your Dao Heart is much stronger than mine. I believe you will acclimatize quickly."
"Then should we stay here for a—" both he and Vilari suddenly swiveled as a shimmer of radiance appeared nearby.
As fast as their reactions were, someone else was faster still. A small hand reached through space, nabbing a fist-sized diamond the moment it appeared.
"What's that?" Zac curiously said as he lifted Esmeralda down from his head to inspect the tightly gripped gem.
"It's changed," Vilari said with interest, and Zac saw the longing in her eyes.
"You've seen it before?" Zac asked.
Vilari nodded. "It was created when I opened the path to the hidden temple, but I couldn't find it inside. Its spirituality seems to have undergone a transformation. There's hope inside the extremity of despair. Very interesting."
"Hope," Zac muttered, his thoughts briefly shifting to his encounter with Mei'Er in the Joyful Gardens. He shook Esmeralda a bit, and she gave him a baleful stare in return. "You heard Vilari. It's hers."
"I see how it is! You want to rob me blind now that my real body is gone," Esmeralda said as she snuck out of his grasp.
"You know it's not like that. How about you let me trade for it?" Zac said with a helpless smile.
"Whatever, the Great Esmeralda doesn't lack these kinds of baubles. Since you call this little one your daughter, just consider this a greeting gift from her senior," Esmeralda huffed as she threw the crystal.
"Thank you, uh, esteemed elder?" Vilari said.
"Hm," Esmeralda said with a satisfied nod.
Vilari turned to Zac after carefully storing the diamond. "Did something happen inside after I exited?"
"Surprisingly well, all things considered," Zac said.
"I almost can't believe it didn't explode," Esmeralda echoed. "You're losing your touch."
"Then, the bell?" Vilari asked.
"I got it," Zac said before catching Vilari up to speed.
"Letting go... Hope from despair..." Vilari mused. "There might be aspects of the Beseechment Pavilion that we've misunderstood."
"Do you think they intentionally called down Jalach?" Zac said.
"Perhaps..." Vilari said. "You said Jalach lived in the filth of humanity before he was grievously wounded. Law and order would have crumbled when the System awoke. Perhaps the Beseechment Pavilion wanted to nip a threat in the bud and give more people a better chance to survive the upheavals."
"Perhaps," Zac nodded, his thoughts going to Antuka, the ancient crocodile.
It had been attracted to the Left Imperial Expanse by the gathering winds of fate. It had hoped to devour some of the Empire's providence in the chaos, and it wasn't the only profiteer. Mox had done the same and likely succeeded in the original timeline. Considering how much Jalach seemed to know about the situation in the Left Imperial Expanse, it was most likely no different.
"I need to settle my soul," Vilari said.
"Go ahead, I need to test something myself," Zac said before sitting down nearby.
While Vilari worked at refining the soul essence from her evil twin, Zac turned his attention to his heart. He'd just overcome a life-and-death battle, which was the perfect time to practice the [Warbringer Dharma]. The three idols were flush with victory, veritably humming with excitement. As Zac chanted the sutra's mnemonics in his mind, they began releasing ripples inside his Heart Realm.
The ripples fused with each other, gaining strength before they reached the realm's edge. When they did, they were directly absorbed by the lingering haze. Soon, slivers of mist grew translucent one after another. Like waves whittling down a rock, the ripples slowly expanded the newly formed space.
The effect was just as Esmeralda advertised. Just making his Heart Cultivation tangible had drastically increased the effect of his Soul Nurturing Method. Of course, part of the extraordinary effect was likely thanks to his opponent. Jalach was a high-grade existence whose attacks mainly targeted one's Dao Heart. Defeating someone like that was more valuable than dozens of random encounters.
Unwilling to waste the moment, Zac switched to cultivating [Void Emperor Apotheosis] instead. Soul and Body joined the Heart, forming a perfect cycle of nourishment. The ripples immediately saw an increase in strength of over 30%, and the expansion of his Heart Realm accelerated accordingly. The effect gradually tapered off after a few hours, yet Zac continued his cultivation.
His focus had already shifted from his Heart Realm to Quantum Space, where he watched the intense clashes between Life and Death around his Soul Cores. His cultivation speed was actually much faster than in his previous tests. Part of it could be explained by his Heart Realm. Since his heart nurturing speed had improved, the synergistic effect of [Void Emperor Apotheosis] had increased.
However, that could account for at most a few percent of the bump in cultivation efficiency. The rest of the nearly 25% boost was harder to explain. There was something about the environment that invigorated his Soul Cores, causing the rotation of their nebulas to speed up. The novel experience made him question if directly continuing to the Left Imperial Palace was the right thing to do.
Because if the effect was so pronounced on a random mountain peak, what about a specialized cultivation chamber better suited to his soul? The reason he set off for the Anima Court was to help Vilari. Now that that was dealt with, why not also see if he could address his ancient Soul-nurturing pill?
When Zac finally finished his circuit, he found Vilari gazing at the sky. Or rather, at Anima Court's pillar. A new halo, a mix of hope and despair, had appeared without warning.
"Was that you?" Zac asked.
"Us, yes," Vilari nodded. "I gained 24,000 points of merit."
Zac couldn't help licking his lips. He hadn't felt any sudden boost of merit himself, but he undeniably had a hand in erecting the halo. However, he didn't feel the gain when he racked up Longanimity in the Hells and Gardens either. 24,000 points of Imperial Merit was a decent chunk, more than enough to access some unique resources that could push his soul even further.
"Your soul?" Zac asked.
"Fully absorbing Whydah's soul will take months," Vilari said.
"Do you plan on staying here?"
"No. The Daynight Dreamer's obsession is ultimately too different from my Dao. It's a hindrance more than anything now that the mark of the Beseechment Pavilion is gone," Vilari said.
"Then let's head down the mountain."
"Wait. Before we set out, there's one more thing you need to know," Vilari said as an uncharacteristic nervousness appeared on her face.
"What is it?"
"Thea Marshall is alive, and she's here in the trial."
"Thea is..." Zac drawled as both his bodies froze. Vilari's words were so unexpected that he dropped his guard. If not for her presence, the ambient despair would have dragged him under once more. "That's impossible. I saw her die. You must have encountered an illusion that borrowed your memories."
"I thought so at first, too. But I'm nearly certain that it was real," Vilari said.
Zac slowly exhaled, suppressing the instinct to stubbornly reject what Vilari was saying. "Explain everything."
Vilari nodded, and Zac solemnly listened to the narration. He didn't know what to think. His mind was a mess. Part of him wanted to find a glaring flaw in Vilari's narration that would save him from revisiting those painful memories, protecting him from opening up old wounds again. Some of his thoughts couldn't help but turn to Catheya and what the news meant for their future.
But more than anything, Zac desperately hoped it was true. His mind went over that fateful day when Leandra descended, over and over. He had to admit, the situation Vilari described was very possible. The Kayar-Elu were experts at hiding from the Heavens. Leandra could have used a method similar to [The Coward's Escape] while moving Thea into her Inner World.
Not to mention, Zac wasn't even a Peak E-grade cultivator back then. How hard would it be for an Autarch to trick his senses? Leandra was ever the pragmatist. Killing Thea to shield Kenzie from Heaven's Judgment might have levied a karmic debt onto her. If Kenzie were to become her perfect soldier, Leandra wouldn't want to have her saddled with Fell Karma like a Heretical Cultivator.
Truthfully, it wasn't the first time Zac had fantasized about this exact situation. Especially in those first days, he often tried to comfort himself with the thought that Thea might be alive. That she was keeping Kenzie company and preventing her from being alone. He eventually quashed those fantasies to properly mourn the loss. Since then, he hadn't revisited the subject.
"Wait, you're saying she's been traveling with the Sangha?" Zac suddenly interjected when Vilari reached the point of Thea's return to the Zecia sector.
"Never a good idea to get mixed up with the baldies," Esmeralda muttered.
Learning that she had been working with the monks, unwittingly helping them orchestrate Zecia's downfall, made him frown. The fact that she seemed to be hunting them down made him frown even harder. Even Esmeralda shook her head to the side, showing what she thought of Thea's odds of succeeding.
"She wanted me to hand you this. She said you'd know the password." Vilari finished by handing over an Information Jade. "I paid to have an elder scan it for hidden dangers. It's safe."
Zac accepted the jade, but he didn't infuse his will. He wasn't ready to face whatever was within.
"Anything else?" Zac sighed.
Vilari hesitated a moment before nodding. "I believe... she's decided to walk the path of severance."
"Perhaps she had no choice," Zac said. "Having the Sangha as an enemy is dangerous, especially if you have Karmic bonds weighing you down. She might have cut her connection to Earth to protect us."
"So you believe it's her?"
"I believe you wouldn't be easily fooled," Zac said. "Though I'd like to meet her and see for myself."
"She might be here," Vilari offered, explaining upon seeing Zac's raised brows. "Frankly, she's not strong enough to go against the Sangha. Completing threads of fate is the quickest way to gain strength inside the trial. While she rejected my offer to travel together, she was a Soultaker of Ultom. I haven't seen her since, but Anima Court is quite large. She might be somewhere inside looking for opportunities."
Zac slowly nodded in agreement. He believed he knew Thea quite well. A single setback wasn't enough to give up on revenge, but she wasn't stubborn to a fault. Instead of banging her head against the problem, she would figure out a plan with the highest odds of success. To seize opportunities inside Anima Court was one of the two paths Zac could see her pursuing.
The second was to set her sights even higher when the tenth pillar appeared in the continent's center. The Sangha was obviously playing a big game inside the trial, one not limited to the Mercurial Court. If she could find her way to the Left Imperial Palace and perhaps even the Ultom Court, she had a chance of truly ruining their plans.
Zac actually felt this route had the highest chance of success. Thea should understand that going against the Sangha on the outside was a doomed endeavor. If she wanted to hurt them, it would have to be during the trial. And the Left Imperial Palace was the place to strike. She didn't need to become strong enough to kill the Sangha's Flambearer. Being a distraction at the right moment could be enough to make everything fall through when the margins were razor thin.
Of course, getting to the Left Imperial Palace was easier said than done. From what Zac had seen in Hollow Court, only a handful had managed to activate the teleporter among over ten thousand attempts. If Thea was still outside the courts when his breakthrough ignited the pillar, she wouldn't even know teleporters had been set up in the outer courts.
If she tried reaching the Left Imperial Palace on foot, she'd still be trekking across the Left Imperial Expanse when the trial ended. Zac almost hoped that was the case. He knew firsthand how troublesome it was to make the Sangha one's enemy, and Thea didn't have his innate protection against Karmic meddling.
Zac's line of thought gave him a start. Had he accepted the situation so easily? Fine, he would allow himself to believe one last time. He settled his mental state before stowing the information jade untouched. He was quickly discovering that the Anima Court wasn't the place to let one's thoughts stray.
"Men," Esmeralda muttered. "No guts."
"I just prefer to hear the rest from her personally. That way, I can directly cut her down if she's a fraud," Zac said. "Let's go, I've had enough of this gloomy mountain."