Chapter 481: Like a Joke
Chapter 481: Like a Joke
Night fell with lightning tearing through the sky.
The Floating City, having maintained automated weather control for over a millennium, was suddenly drenched by torrential rain. Both council and academic institutions stopped functioning as everyone detected an overwhelming Magic surge.
A black-robed silhouette emerged from the asylum, ascending step by step into the stormy heavens.
His aura intensified with each stride. By the time he stood directly above the Floating City, he’d reached the peak Grand Arcane Master level.
“Aks…”
Elder Odolan of the academic institutions gazed upward with conflicted eyes.
The solitary figure seemed both forsaken by the world and defiantly confronting it alone. The sight mirrored that mad, stubborn Arcane Master from six centuries past – the one who’d raved about this world being false, though none believed him…
“Still clinging to this?”
Speaker Baigu approached his window, lightning flashes etching his stony face. His expression remained unreadable as he watched the ascending figure, silent as a statue.
Beyond these two, countless seasoned Arcane Masters across the Floating City sensed Aks’s overwhelming presence. Peak Grand Arcane Master – the mightiest force their realm could produce.
Aks kept rising, power swelling with every step.
Six centuries of silence.
Six centuries of waiting.
All for this moment.
On his 1,001st step, Aks breached a new plane of existence. His aura transformed completely.
Sir Sage!!
Every witnessing Arcane Master’s mind reeled. After a thousand years since the Catastrophe, someone had reached this mythic realm again. The bitter irony? Their sole Sir Sage had been imprisoned in an asylum.
A single question burned in every mind:
Why?
How could a madman achieve this? What crucial truth had they all missed?
Aks ignored the shock below. Nothing in this world could surprise him now. Leading by one step makes a genius; by a hundred steps, a madman. He’d marched centuries ahead.
He climbed until his 10,000th step met resistance.
The Floating City now resembled ant colonies far below.
Here, biting cold and void replaced air. Reality itself grew faint, like paint thinning at a canvas’ edge.
“Show yourself!” Aks shouted upward from this ultimate height.
Even as Sir Sage, he couldn’t escape the world – this was the boundary. But it sufficed. From this vantage, he finally grasped the despair ancient Sages must’ve felt during the Catastrophe.
The Catastrophe had always been a legend in the Floating City.
But only Aks and two others knew the truth – nobody truly understood what the Catastrophe was or why it occurred. Though the mighty Arcane civilization had conquered countless realms and Arcane Masters reigned supreme, they remained insignificant insects before this overwhelming force.
How could these self-proclaimed masters of truth surrender? They exhausted every method until their combined wisdom finally glimpsed a clue.
Aks was the genius Arcane Master who participated in that research.
His mad declaration – “The world is fake!” – became the ultimate conclusion reached by the greatest minds of the Arcane world. Many couldn’t endure this “truth” and took their own lives. Surviving Arcane Masters seemed cursed, perishing one after another until only Aks remained.
He never understood why he survived.
“Aks?”
Below the Floating City, Zuo Meng emerged from an inn. Like other Arcane Masters, he stared at the distant speck that was Aks. Perched on his shoulder, Owl Jones gaped in disbelief.
“That lunatic? He’s actually a Sir Sage!!”
He’d once stepped on Aks’ head in the asylum!
A Sir Sage’s head!!
The owl shuddered, imagining even his Owl Clan ancestors never daring such audacity. This descendant had surpassed them all!
“Am I doomed? He’s the last Sir Sage after the Catastrophe. If he wants me dead…” Owl Jones trembled, already mentally selecting his grave. Though a Sir Sage might leave no corpse to bury.
“He probably doesn’t remember you.”
Zuo Meng watched Aks, somehow understanding the man’s turmoil.
The realization felt peculiar.
“Doesn’t remember? Perfect!” Owl Jones brightened, then recalled Zuo Meng’s connection to Aks. Deciding to stay, he mimicked Zuo Meng’s upward gaze.
His interest soon waned.
“What’s he doing?”
“Maybe defying the heavens.”
Zuo Meng chose the dramatic phrase.
Defy the heavens?
Question marks swirled above Owl Jones’ head. The sky just existed – how does one oppose it?
Exactly!
Zuo Meng remembered stories about heaven-defying heroes. Tales where persecuted protagonists overcame divine oppression through epic struggles. But reality offered no visible enemy. Even if “heaven” existed in higher dimensions, how could grounded beings perceive it, let alone fight?
True despair.
Aks now embodied that despair, roaring at the sky’s emptiness.
Sir Sage power erupted from him, yet he had no target. No enemy to confront. Not even certainty that an enemy existed.
“Impossible! Where’s the enemy?!”
“Break, you false world!!”
Aks raised his hands, Arcane energy coalescing into a massive sphere. The magic detonated with sun-bright fury, shaking the dark skies.
Then… nothing.
Clouds reformed.
Rain kept falling.
The anticipated “heavens” never appeared. Might never have existed.
“Why?!”
“WHERE ARE YOU?!!”
Madness finally claimed Aks. Repeated explosions of Sage power lit the sky, but only empty air received his fury.
This futility shattered six centuries of conviction. Belief crumbled like ancient stone.
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