Heavenly Zenith - Chapter 48 Ethereal Nightmare 3

Going over what he had just witnessed, Seran attempted to put together a decent image of what happened, together with William’s aid. “So, if we assume that there are invisible, incorporeal beings here in these ruins, more things fit together. A blade that can’t be touched by physical means but can pierce through flesh with ease. Polypheme Sect once attempted to create such an item but gave up due to the process being too costly, at least that’s what you said, William. With what we just saw, its safe to say that there are indeed ghostly blades that were successfully created.”

William was concentrating deeply on the time magic’s events, having recorded it in its entirety. [There’s several inconsistencies, though. The blade went through physical objects and only cut flesh, but the arrows didn’t pass through the doors or through stone. The blood from the bodies dried up like water instead of how it should have. When water dries up, it leaves no evidence behind… mostly. Blood is supposed to leave a modicum of evidence.] The recording zoomed in on whatever he was talking about, making it easier for the duo to see the things that didn’t make sense.

Seran made a thoughtful sound as he said, “Those inconsistencies aside, there is one thing I’m certain of, as are you. There are definitely beings living in these ruins, but we can’t see them, even after going over the footage with magic sensors. Even with magic meant to find spirits, we can’t find anything…”

[It’s possible that these beings are existing between realities, in a way that we can’t touch them but they can touch us… in which case, you’ll need to make a spell to cross between those realities…]

With William’s guidance on the matter, Seran created [Parallel Connection], a Space-Time spell that pushed the dimensional borders open, so that he could cross through. Casting it immediately, Seran pushed out with his hand, stepping forward as he did. A strange sensation crossed his body with his movement, his vision warping and blurring briefly before returning to normal. He couldn’t see what had changed, but William assured him that he had crossed realities. Then, attempting to use his magic to sense anything in the area, Seran… found nothing. “So, that’s not it…” He reversed the spell and returned to his original reality, “Not between realities…”

William grumbled as he tried to calculate any possible ideas, before sudden shouting, [I got it! I forgot about this! There are beings up in space that nobody understands, space beasts. Some of them have been discovered and categorized, as have their unique magics that our deities can’t comprehend. It’s very possible that this was caused by one of the space beasts’ magics. All of these space beasts are deity-grade, so they have more than enough power to flatten a land mass, which could also explain the destruction.]

“Bit of a problem there, William. How am I supposed to know which space beast magic it is? You said there are numerous unknown space beasts, let alone how many kinds there are.” Seran immediately noticed a problem with William’s idea, a large hole in the theory.

[Well… I don’t know… but I have an idea on how to find out… sort of…] The system personality sounded very worried, like it was a very bad idea. [You’d… need to get in contact with Thoth, the god of wisdom and knowledge…]

“And how am I supposed to do that, William? We could cheat and get his bloodline, but that wouldn’t give us unlimited access to all of his stores of knowledge…” The demigod cocked an eyebrow in query.

[Umm… funnily enough, there’s a way to do that… See, you can’t physically enter the realm of deities yet, but you can indirectly view it through a spell I was thinking up out of curiosity… I never actually completed it, but it’d be named [Yata no Kagami], the Mirror of the Gods. You’d be able to view anything you wanted though it…]

“Hold up, anything? Wouldn’t I just be able to see what we’re looking for here with it?”

William was silent for a long time before muttering irritably, [Why didn’t I think of that… fuck. Just… I’ll make the spell, then a variation of it so that you can use [Yata no Kagami]’s power to see…] Perhaps out of embarrassment at not thinking of such an idea earlier, William quickly did as he said, with the original spell and a secondary version coming into existence. As Seran clicked the new spell in his Skill tab, he read through the details:

—

Spell Name: Yata no Kagami

Spell Type: Unique (Support)

Spell Grade: Deity

Description: The Mirror of the Gods, a divine relic created by the Goddess of Fire and Flame, Amaterasu. With its wondrous powers, one can project a thought into the mirror and channel a connection to view anything at all. By the divine power of Amaterasu herself, all things can be seen and seen through, all secrets laid bare under its burning gaze.

—

Spell Name: Yata no Kagami: Enchantment

Spell Type: Unique (Buff?)

Spell Grade: Deity

Description: A variation of the original spell, this spell enchants the eyes of the user or those they designate with the all-seeing power of the Mirror of the Gods.

—

“Sweet. Let’s get right to it.” Channeling the purest fire he could from his bloodline, Seran cast [Yata no Kagami: Enchantment] on himself. Feeling his eyes begin to change, the demigod looked at his reflection in part of a broken window, since he was outside after following Eric to his death spot. His purple irises had begun to burn with black flame, the purple shimmering with the flickering fires of Amaterasu. “I like this already.” Chuckling to himself, Seran then hopped up atop the broken archway and looked over the town. “Holy fuck…”

Beneath Seran’s gaze, and his feet, was a perfectly realistic town, completely whole and solid without even a tiny crack of damage. If Seran didn’t look closely, he wouldn’t be able to tell that the town wasn’t actually repaired, and the fixed parts had a slight haze to them, as did the destroyed parts that truly existed. Even the stone streets were back to perfect condition. Such a drastic change in vision stunned Seran, but that wasn’t what got him the most. What did get his undivided attention was that the hazy town had people living in it, as hazy as the town itself. Everyone behaved as if nothing was different, and every day was just another day. It was if it was locked in time, back before the disappearance. Seran could even hear some of them talking about things that happened, most of which happened 300 years ago, but nothing after then.

“This town’s people are locked in a time loop of death… William, use Yata no Kagami’s power on the recording.” Seran was astounded, but immediately had a suspicion he relayed to his partner.

When William ran the recording through Yata no Kagami, instead of the hazy town before them, it was the destroyed town of reality, but with ghostly, twisted versions of the hazy townsfolk, with long sharp claws and mouths full of sharp, bloody fangs, each one holding a different, dangerous weapon. Depraved, maniacal shrieks and laughter echoed through the town as the twisted beings stood in place or wandered around.

Above all of this stood Seran, who hissed to himself in amazed fear, “What the fuck happened here?”