654
Chapter 654
Zeke wielded Gram and headed for the door leading outside the Cradle.
The Cradle existed within the ‘Dragon’s Nest,’ the main house of the Draker family.
During Arthur Draker’s time as head, the Draker family was a transcendent family that controlled the continent, but they had many enemies both internal and external.
These enemies primarily targeted young Drakers who hadn’t yet awakened.
Therefore, young Draker bloodline members qualified for the awakening ceremony had to live communally in the main house’s Cradle.
No one, no matter how bold, dared to touch the Draker family’s main house.
Drakers who grew up together in the Cradle would receive the blessing ceremony at age twelve in the central building called the ‘Lair.’
Zeke had undergone the class determination called the blessing ceremony before the God of statue twice, once in his previous life and once in his current life after regression.
In his previous life, he was classified as a healer class and wasn’t properly recognized, but in his current life, he awakened as the unique class Immortal.
The God of Sword statue in the Lair had both determined his misfortune in his previous life and given him a new starting point in his current life.
Recalling the past, Zeke tried to leave the Cradle to find the central Lair building, but soon faced a problem.
There was no door leading outside the Cradle.
‘So it’s different from the real Cradle.’
With the Distorted Constellation’s identity still unclear, understanding this domain was difficult.
Zeke examined the massive wall surrounding the Cradle.
There was no door, and walls much higher than the real Cradle blocked the way out.
‘System, analyze the domain’s overall structure.’
He asked the system just in case, but unlike usual, no message appeared.
Checking revealed only inventory and some shop functions were available.
After brief contemplation, Zeke recalled one item.
He took out the Absolute Compass from his inventory and carefully activated the artifact.
WOOOONG!
Fortunately, the compass responded to Zeke’s mana.
“Find the path to the Distorted Constellation’s temple.”
He hoped the compass could locate the Distorted Constellation’s temple, but surprisingly, though the needle responded to mana, it didn’t move.
‘Even the Absolute Compass can’t recognize it?’
Zeke decided to stick to his original plan of finding the central Lair building outside the Cradle.
When he instructed the compass to find the Lair, the needle finally turned.
WOOOOOONG!
Zeke moved in the direction the compass pointed.
Surprisingly, the compass pointed to a wall rather than outside the Cradle.
‘The path to the Lair is inside the wall?’
With various questions in mind, Zeke followed the compass’s guidance.
Walking down the long corridor inside the Cradle, he found another difference from reality.
‘There should be dragon killing tablets here. Instead, there are mirrors.’
He realized this distorted Cradle had many mirrors attached to the walls.
Something occurred to Zeke.
‘Mirrors become passages connecting spaces.’
Nabu, the hermit of stories , also used mirrors to communicate with Zeke.
Additionally, in ancient sorcery, curses and mysteries using mirrors played a significant role.
Ancient people believed they could communicate with beings from other dimensions through mirrors, and mirrors did indeed become passages to dimensions beyond the material world.
Realizing this, Zeke understood where the Absolute Compass was pointing.
He ran to the Cradle’s central hall.
He recalled the massive dragon killing tablet that had always been there during his childhood in the Cradle.
Arriving at the central hall, he looked up at the wall where the dragon killing tablet should have been.
As expected, a huge mirror was attached to the wall instead of the tablet.
When he held up the Absolute Compass, the needle pointed to the mirror.
Zeke realized this mirror was a passage to another space.
‘But how do I use it?’
He would have asked the system if it were available, but now he had to figure it out himself.
He carefully approached the huge mirror on the wall.
The spotless, clear mirror reflected Zeke.
Zeke slowly reached out toward his reflection on the other side.
Soon he felt the cold surface of the mirror.
‘It seems like a normal mirror.’
But at that moment…
The reflection of Zeke's hand suddenly broke through the mirror and grabbed his wrist.
"KUK!"
Startled, Zeke thrust his sword at his reflection on the other side that had grabbed his wrist.
SHOOK!
Surprisingly, the sword went straight into the mirror.
Then, as if it were a swamp, it began to pull Zeke in.
Following his trapped hand and sword, his entire body was sucked into the mirror.
After a momentary flash before his eyes, the scenery had changed.
'Where is this?'
Just moments ago he was in the Cradle's central hall, but when he opened his eyes again, he was standing in the corridor of the central Lair building.
He had moved from the Cradle to the Lair through the mirror.
Like the Cradle, the Lair was completely white and left-right reversed.
'Though reversed, the overall structure is the same.'
Zeke carefully moved toward the Lair's center where the God of sword statue was located.
Walking through the empty corridors with no trace of people, Zeke felt increasing tension in the abnormal silence.
It felt as if he were the only moving person in this world. Being in a familiar space made the sense of unfamiliarity even more unsettling.
Most unique domains created by Constellations were based on fragments of past existing cities.
Constellations collected eternal moments of frozen cities without living beings.
This was possible because it was one of the Constellations' great entertainments.
'Past cities could generate such karma because they all had brilliant civilizations. But the Dragon's Nest shouldn't be such a place.'
The Distorted Constellation seemed different from regular Constellations in many aspects.
In the corridor leading to the great hall with the God of sword statue, Zeke suddenly sensed something strange.
A tingling sensation on the back of his neck.
It felt similar to when he used the ‘Sense Focus’ skill as a healer class long ago.
The moment he felt this sensation, Zeke raised Gram and swung toward the ceiling.
KKAKANG!
Something fell from the ceiling toward Zeke, striking his sword.
The intense force of the strike made Zeke step back.
'What was that?'
Zeke looked around to identify what had attacked him.
But he could only see the empty corridor; the attacker was nowhere in sight.
Zeke adjusted his grip on his sword and steadied his breathing.
Unable to use his existing authorities and skills, Zeke was essentially in the same state as when he was a healer class in his previous life.
Though not greatly panicked due to his experience dealing with losing all authorities in the Inverted Tower, he couldn't deny the disadvantageous situation.
Heightening his sense focus, Zeke concentrated the mana from his middle diantan into Gram.
TSUTSUTSUTU!
A clear aura blade rose from Gram.
Fortunately, compared to his previous life, his middle dantian was stabilized and he could fully use sword technique , making the situation much more favorable.
Zeke gradually widened his sensory range, trying to catch the attacker's movements.
Then something sprang from a blind spot.
CHWAAAAK!
Zeke quickly swung his sword at the mysterious attacker targeting his back.
CHWAAAAK!
Using northern swordsmanship instead of dragon slaying techniques, he countered the attacker's strike with precise sword moves.
PACHING!
Once again, the attacker vanished before he could properly see it.
But through these two collisions, Zeke realized one thing.
'Whatever it is, it's not a living being.'
He couldn't feel the vitality characteristic of living beings in the attacks against him.
Zeke shouted into the corridor.
"Distorted Constellation! Are you trying to test me? Then appear properly and test me directly!"
Though he hadn't particularly expected an answer, surprisingly, something changed when Zeke shouted.
TSUTSUTSUTU!
Ripples occurred throughout the space.
Zeke furrowed his brow at the strange energy felt there.
Distorted causality.'
Suddenly, something sprang from the rippling space.
CHWAAAAK!
White humanoid figures like mannequins wielding swords charged at Zeke.
Zeke glared at these beings devoid of life force and charged back, swinging his sword.
KWAKWAKWAKWA!
The mana-transformed aura blade soared up and instantly sliced through the dolls' bodies in one swift motion.
TSTSTSTS!
When the dolls were cut in half by Zeke's sword, they scattered into white dust.
Zeke frowned as he watched the dolls scatter.
'I don't know what these things are.'
They weren't living things, nor spirit bodies, and they weren't undead or magical beasts either.
The closest thing would be a golem, but the feeling was different from that too.
Literally distorted beings.
At that moment, three more pure white dolls appeared in front of Zeke.
WHOOSH!
One crawled along the ceiling, while the other two rushed towards Zeke along the corridor.
Zeke unleashed his soul technique without hesitation towards the rushing creatures.
First, he strengthened his defense with his soul technique and raised his will of severance, completely slicing through the body of the doll at the front along with his sword.
TSTSTSTS!
As soon as he eliminated one, Zeke blocked the sword of the following doll and naturally turned his blade to pierce the neck of the other one.
TSTSTSTS!
As the doll with the pierced neck also disappeared into dust, the remaining one rushed in to attack Zeke.
Zeke immediately swung his sword horizontally and cut down the last doll in one stroke.
"Phew."
Zeke took a deep breath and regulated his breathing.
Since power was restricted here, stamina wouldn't recover immediately either, so he needed to distribute his strength through breathing.
'It's not easy to adapt.'
The situation wasn't completely hopeless since he could always use recovery potions from his inventory if things got desperate.
Zeke readjusted his grip on Gram and continued walking down the corridor.
The banquet hall located at the very center of the lair.
This was the very place that had given the past Zeke great trauma.
Zeke opened the doors to the banquet hall and went inside.
Unlike reality, it was made up of pure white colors, and while it was a mirror image of the real room, the structure was the same.
Zeke's gaze turned to the center of the banquet hall.
What was placed there was none other than a white God of sword statue.
It was the God of sword statue used in the blessing ceremony of the Draker bloodline, meant to help awaken the aura.
However, Zeke, who had gained the Kabbalah system due to the Elder Dragon's legacy, knew that this God of sword statue's actual purpose was as a class identifier.
Zeke slowly approached the God of sword.
Except for being white in color, it looked identical to the God of swordstatue in reality.
Zeke also knew what this God of sword statue really was.
'Avatar Adam.'
The ancestor of the Draker bloodline, the first humanoid Nephilim, and the avatar body created in the physical world by the sun god Apollion.
Arthur Draker died and was resurrected, then obtained Adam's power and transformed into a completely different being.
'Perhaps Arthur Draker became the new Adam.'
It was then, as he was continuing these thoughts.
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
The sound of applause came from somewhere.
Zeke belatedly realized that someone was sitting on top of the God of sword statue.
Raising Gram and staying alert, Zeke looked up at the God of sword statue and couldn't help but be surprised at the being sitting there.
A man wearing a pure white suit, sitting with his legs crossed while clapping.
Surprisingly, his face was like a mirage, making it impossible to discern his exact features.
The strange-looking man smiled at Zeke and opened his mouth.
"Welcome, Zeke. I've been waiting for you."
At that moment, a message appeared before Zeke's eyes with broken text.
[You encounter the tr%$@#! of the Distort#&* Throne.]