NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 83: Eavesdropping
The chamber fell silent.
Even the swirling rot in the air seemed to hesitate at that name.
Yxthar.
Adam's breath caught.
The Tower bore that name... Tower of Yxthar.
But no one had ever truly confirmed what "Yxthar" referred to.
Was it a creator? A god? A system?
The theories were endless...
"Who exactly is Yxthar?"
Adam questioned, voice calm, but his curiosity sharpened.
If he could just figure these things out more...
If he could learn what lay at the top...
Maybe he could find a way to avoid the catastrophe that had ended everything in his last life!
Xel'Shaar's grotesque chest rose, then fell.
A deep, rasping breath that sounded more like the grinding of stone than anything organic.
"Yxthar is the one who remembers."
Adam's brow furrowed. He didn't quite understand what Xel'Shaar meant...
He stayed quiet, waiting.
"He remembers every fall. Every war. Every scream in every world swallowed by the climb. He is the witness of ends... and the architect of beginnings."
The grotesque creature slowly lifted its head. For the first time, Adam noticed something strange.
A brand.
Not a symbol of corruption or blood or pain...
But a mark glowing faintly in violet and silver burned into Xel'Shaar's neck.
"Yxthar does not speak. He does not interfere. But he waits. At the summit. Always waiting for the one who can remember as he does."
Adam's heart began to race.
"Remember what?"
The chains around Xel'Shaar rattled. Its voice quieted to a near-whisper.
"What came before the Tower."
The rot in the air thickened again.
The chains hissed softly, as if agitated by truths too deep to be spoken freely.
Adam took a step back, his thoughts racing.
'Before the Tower? But… that's impossible. The Tower exists outside time. It pulls in worlds, collapsing entire civilizations into floors... How can there be a 'before'?'
Across from him, Xel'Shaar stay quiet.
The ancient creature had remained still for so long that Adam had mistaken almost mistaken it for dead.
It moved slowly, as though the weight of ages resisted even that.
Adam's brows furrowed.
"I heard about a hidden floor in the Tower of Yxthar. Does it actually exist?"
For a moment, the silence returned.
Then Xel'Shaar's many eyelids blinked in slow succession.
Its voice emerged from its body in pulses, low and distorted like echoes from deep underwater.
"The prophet woman who climbed with you… she shall know soon enough..."
It said.
"She bears the mark of fate on her…"
Adam stiffened.
'The prophet woman…? that is definitely Leila.'
[5th Style Sword Master] : That doesn't quite align with the oldest legends I have heard from my master... He said Yxthar isn't a being but a force of nature! Reality's final arbiter!
[WinterBored188 has sent an F-tier gift]
[You have received] +1 Soul Core
[WinterBored188] : Arbiter... like a judge? Then what happens to those who pass its judgment?
[5th Style Sword Master] : My master did not tell me.
Adam opened his mouth to press further...
When Xel'Shaar suddenly stiffened, his massive head snapping toward an empty section of wall.
"Someone... is listening..."
That wall, just seconds ago completely solid, trembled.
From its center, a bulging crack formed, oozing out rot and purple mist.
A moment later, the stone split apart, revealing a corpse.
Its chest was torn wide open, gaping like something had reached in and pulled its heart from the inside out.
Its mouth was agape in a perpetual scream, its fingers curled into claws.
Adam recognized it instantly.
'Another one of Celestia's puppets…'
The corpse trembled, then twitched.
Its limbs spasming unnaturally, like a puppet whose strings were suddenly yanked.
It turned, trying to flee... not from Adam, but from Xel'Shaar's presence.
The corpse scrambled backward, but Xel'Shaar's gaze was already upon it.
[Floor 3 Boss Authority has activated.]
[Authority : Prisoner]
The moment the message appeared, Adam's body tensed.
A cold weight dropped into his chest, spreading like lead through his veins. His thoughts slowed, his limbs dulled.
It wasn't just restraining him physically, instead it felt like something worse!
It was bounding his emotions! Wrapped around his will! And clenched down on the core of his being!
And yet, as he looked toward the escaping puppet, he saw something strange.
It wasn't affected at all.
And Adam knew why!
After a few more conversations with his older siblings, Miya and Raiden, he had found out that Celestia possesses one of the S-tier authorities in his universe!
The Authority of Omnipresence!
The ability to be anywhere at any given moment.
As someone who held that authority, of course it was impossible to restrain her!
He also finally understood the context behind the similar features between Celestia's puppets!
The wide opened mouth, the clawed fingers, and the gaping chest hole!
These were not random deformities.
They were designs that seemed to be intentional...
Each one a reflection of the Authority she wielded.
The mouth, stretched unnaturally wide, wasn't frozen in a scream.
It represented something deeper... permission!
It was a permanent invitation, carved into flesh to make it seem like the vessel was saying :
"I give you permission to come in."
The fingers, curled and elongated into jagged claws, weren't made for slashing.
They resembled antennae... like fractured spires reaching outward.
Always grasping, always sensing.
They scraped at reality itself, pulling on invisible threads that tied her to every corner of space.
They were receivers, tuned to the frequency of her will!
And then there was the chest.
A gaping hole where a heart should have been. Not an injury nor was it a wound.
It was a vacancy!
A deliberately hollowed space... designed to be filled!
It wasn't just the absence of humanity.
It was the erasure of identity, the erasure of self.
The void acted as a placeholder, allowing Celestia's essence to descend instantly and take control, like slipping into a prepared shell!
It was how she inhabited her puppets!
Not by sending commands across distance.
But by being there. Fully and instantly!
Her omnipresence wasn't just a normal ability as it represented an authority... it was more like a state of being.
The puppets weren't drones, they were extensions of her consciousness!
No wonder the Authority of Prisoner hadn't worked.
How do you restrain something that's already everywhere?
'Also, she heard everything...'
Adam thought, eyes widening.
The implication struck him like a spear.
'She knows about Leila. She heard what Xel'Shaar said...'
His pulse raced.
That couldn't happen!
If Celestia figured out the truth, if she traced the hidden floor from Leila...
Then it might possibly lead to the catastrophe in his last life!
He couldn't let Celestia reach her!
A rush of warmth surged from his chest, spreading down his arms.
Blood spiked from his wrists like blooming thorns, shooting forward in jagged streaks of crimson.
The room trembled as dozens of blood spikes launched at the puppet in an instant.