Aurora Scroll

Chapter 522

Pushed by the urgency of the situation, Tanael swiftly made his way to the second floor.

For his Pathseeker build, he put much importance on speed and agility. Speed meant a faster dead enemy and a greater likelihood of escaping when encountering a dangerous situation.

Of course, his offence was no less important. Bigger attack stat meant faster dead enemies, greater efficiency for EXP farming. Everyone who had ever played video games knew it.

No longer shepherding the seventeen prisoners, he reached the second floor soon enough. During the ascent, he saw that the prison was in extreme upheaval and the situation was uncontrollable. The prisoners from all other floors were already out of their cells. The Aurora Scroll caused too much damage for the Tower of Remorse to function. The second floor’s increased gravity effect, for example, was gone.

Along the way, he also saw too many of them as corpses.

Perhaps due to the splash damage from Pathseeker fights hit them, or the falling ceiling, or the cultists, or other prisoners; many ended up dead after they escaped their cells.

While he and the other cultists didn't free the prisoners as they made their way down, the initial plan was always to let them out as they made their way back up. The more chaos, the more it helped the cultists escape. Of course, the situation was totally fucked up because of the Aurora Scroll.

Tanael pitied them a little bit for their fate as expendables either way but he relished the soul feast he would enjoy after the raid. The weak died, such was the truth in the cultivation world stories. The strong died too, but they were less likely so he always strived to get stronger and stronger.

Something was happening as the guys struggled for the Aurora Scroll but he was still too far to observe.

“Hm?”

He found something unusual on the second floor.

“Well, well, well,” he approached the body in a pool of blood. “Warden Myers, fancy meeting you here.”

“...Monkey D. Luffy,” said the dying warden with difficulty.

It confused Tanael for a bit, until he remembered he had introduced himself to the warden as Luffy through a phone on the third floor, before his conversation with a fellow otherworder. Perhaps Warden Myers recognized the voice.

“Uh huh. There’s a big fight here, hm?” Tanael looked around. “Don't know if you survived because of your resilience or the other party’s incompetence.”

The Warden didn't have much longer to live. He was too far gone. That said, Tanael would never leave the enemy he fought like this. Leaving his enemies alive was a gross misstep for Tanael.

The sight of the broken warden made a question form in his head. Something he mulled about for a long time. Namely, why did these people put people in prison in the first place?

It always gets messy in Fables.

One Piece, for starters, then there’s My Hero Academia, Harry Potter, and so on. Put the hero in prison and he will get out. Put a sufficiently significant villain in prison and he will get out too! Truly, Tanael failed to see the significance of holding heroes and villains in captivity.

If it were up to him, there would be no high-risk prisoners, just death and executions for them.

Then again, their stupidity was his gain. Didn't he just harvest the most dangerous prisoners in the whole place?

“Look what your sin has wrought,” the warden’s voice put a stop to his train of thought.

Is he blaming me for all of this? Wait, perhaps there is some truth in that.

Tanael’s infiltration of the Tower of Remorse was certainly one factor that caused the chain reaction that became the present.

“So what are you gonna do about it?” Tanael asked. Even against the dying Level 5, he was vigilant from the start.

“Your death... will not be an easy one. May your afterlife... be everything that you deserve. Repent, O sinner... rep...ent.”

With that last act of defiance, Warden Myers breathed his last. The man who dedicated 250 years of his life as the keeper of society’s undesirables met his end in his own prison, doing his duty to the very end.

Tanael cared little for such things. He retorted with no less conviction.

“Hmph. Death can have me, when it earns me.”

Death did not get Tanael that day, but it certainly got a certain warden with the initial M... and a whole lot more.

The hate-filled dying words of an old man weren't going to shake Tanael’s belief. If he one day died, then he died. It simply meant he was lacking. Which was why, everyday, even this very moment, he strived to grow and improve.

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Tanael put the Level 5’s body with the other corpses in his inventory item. The body of a Level 5 had a lot of usefulness. Although, this one was pretty broken and tainted with potent demonic energy. When Tanael examined Myers’ soul, it was in an even worse state than his body.

As if someone hunted a rabbit by using a rocket launcher. The ‘meat’ was in a state so horrible that Tanael didn't take the soul and left it alone.

There was no other event of import as he exited the Tower of Remorse. However, the villain knew that he might meet the greatest challenge of his whole endeavor yet.

Like a mole coming up from a burrow, he, as expected, arrived on quite a battlefield.

The survivors of the prison guards and their helpers were close by. They were fighting the cult forces that wanted them dead. It seemed they were protecting the medical ward and the civilian families that were still alive behind their defense line.

He spotted Freya and her Silver Legion friends, too. Their efforts were crucial in holding the enemies back.

The prisoners that managed to reach this far were coming out in droves and escaping but the prison guards had no manpower to deal with them. If the prisoners did not have their Victa emptied, most would not balk at kicking the prison guard right now, but since they were running on empty, escaping was the best choice for them.

The MacGuffin, the oh-so-great Aurora Scroll, was making a magnificent light show above his head. He saw the Level 5s of cults' side trying to come close to the scroll to no avail. The scroll was also doing something but Tanael couldn't discern it.

And then, there was the threat of a three-headed giant skeleton coming down from further above, courtesy of the Death Society. It was already so powerful before but it kept getting stronger as it rose up from the fifth floor, absorbing the dead in its wake. When it reached here, the situation would change again considerably.

Wreathed in the Vanish in Abyss Arte, a signature Arte from the stealthy assassins, Tanael tried to slip through the hot zone without attracting attention.

He did it quietly and carefully, not wanting to attract the attention of the dangerous Pathseekers all around him. It was like crawling through a warzone in a ghillie suit, nothing he hadn't done before.

I’m Snake, I’m Snake, in my cardboard box. I’m invisible. Oooh yeah.

Vanish in Abyss Arte did not make Tanael completely invisible; he lacked the affinity for that. However, it was still the best stealth Arte he possessed. With careful maneuvering, he was close to getting out of this mess without losing a single health bar.

Hmm, that Blade Demon Vaan guy hurt my hand earlier but that doesn't count.

After he reached far enough that no stray Arte landed within a meter of him, Tanael had to make a decision.

Should I stay or should I go?

He could bail out and return with all his loot and gains, which was considerable. The six Level 5s, the Inheritances, the intellectual properties, the material wealth, and last but not least, the experience that would boost the Horizon Aspect if he successfully merged back with his true body.

Or, he could stay here and try to obtain an even greater benefit in the muddy waters. The numero uno prize was the Aurora Scroll itself.

The thing that can show you the past, present and future of everything and everyone, if the legends were true. What can he do with such a thing in his hand?

It was tempting. In xianxia or litrpg system Fables, the MC was going to risk it all for the mega uber power-up option, of course.

On an intellectual level, Tanael understood that only by taking such risks, escaping death traps, and overcoming nigh-impossible adversaries could they become as formidable as they were. Tanael got that but wasn't that also immensely reckless?

They had plot armor so they would succeed but what about him? He never thought he had one of those. He never relied on it. Not now, not ever.

He wanted to survive, but a cowardly villain that always made the safe choices would ultimately be slain, as they ended up in a situation where they could not wiggle out and did not have the power to open a path of survival in a hopeless situation. Especially against the hero who always picked the suicidal option.

How would one obtain the Aurora Scroll anyway? The Level 5s are trying but haven't made any progress. In the Fables, it is most likely going to create some sort of trial for auditioning the worthy. Not unlike Aletro and the Book World in the past. The swirling energy the scroll tells it might still be waiting for the right moment to begin.

Ideally, the Aurora Scroll will create a trial where the participants are all equal in power, or where cultivation levels don't matter. Some of the opponents are too scary for a Level 4 like me... But how can there be such a convenient thing?

Tanael sighed.

He was a greedy person. He could gamble it all here. Should he die, he was just Viers’ clone. The main body was not going to die, only suffer setbacks and losses.

While his brain was working, he did not stop moving to safety. At this point, the Aurora Scroll seemed to have finished its preparations and set a wave of rainbow light that engulfed all.

FUUUUUCK!

Tanael wanted to scream, but he was in stealth, so he held it in. While he was in a decision limbo, the choice had been made for him. A part of him was glad and a part of him hated it.

When he opened his eyes, he was no longer in the Tower of Remorse battlefield but floating in deep space. Despite the starry background, the vicinity was quite dark. It looked like space but he could breathe just fine. He saw many other people in similar situations, from civilians to Level 5s.

There were hundreds of people, perhaps thousands.

Gah! That bigass undead monster that the Death Society created is here too! Tsk! That silver-haired guy, is that the Demon King I heard about? Hm, Izabella? She looks strange.

Prison guards, Silver Legion, cultists, prisoners, they were all here.

As he was floating around, far a distance away, the Aurora Scroll manifested itself like emulating a big bang. The wave passed him and caused no injury but there was now a sun in the center. It was bright but not blinding to the eyes. Shining like a rainbow-colored sun was the scroll.

The people were at the edge of the circle, all at equal distance from the scroll in the middle.

This setting... Wait, don't tell me...

The universal number 10 showed up above the sun.

9...

8...

7...

It’s a fricking race!!?

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Chapter 522 - The True Grand Prix