Eternal Emerald Dragon

Lind had several wards put up and even then they moved inside his current home. He summoned Violet Cloud and her daughter as well.

Star's revelation was not easy. It also explained a mystery Lind could not figure out. Everyone seemed to know there was another step but no one, not one, had any knowledge of those that advanced.

His hold had held out between cycles and he had confirmed that was a natural thing. The Crumbling would take billions if not trillions of years to occur depending on the hold's structure.

So why did no one have any true knowledge of the Eternal Realm? Why was everyone fumbling after untold time trying to figure it out?

If anyone ascended, it should have been a spectacle that drew all eyes and would inform them of what they needed to do. Yet, there was nothing.

The scroll, which clearly existed but felt like it did not, was a dense transcript from a now missing Elemental Eternal Realm. He used the word missing because of the title.

"You all knew about this and kept it to yourselves?!" Violet Cloud was incensed but Star seemed to find some backbone.

"Look me in the eye and tell me that you all would not have raided our holds even if we told you there was nothing else." She had no comeback to that.

She, personally, would have negotiated but the vast majority would have ripped the Elemental holds apart for any hope of progress. Lind, however, was not kind.

"Yes, we wouldn't want anyone stealing everything from under you. That would be rude." His dry voice made Star wilt but his emerald eyes swept the room. He was the only one that could say that from the high ground.

The scroll then became the focus. He sunk his aura into it briefly before he arched an eyebrow. A quick flare of his pure harmony appeared and touched it. Star looked shocked as it lit up the whole scroll.

A gorgeous woman appeared looking very tired but resolute. The words then came forth.

{Harmonic Core confirmed. If you are here, a new generation of Eternal Realm cultivators have arisen. I do not know how long they have existed but they will be ignorant like we were. I am breaking the rules by making this record but I do not care. The truth of what is coming needs to be given.}

She was not like a Divine Memory or aware of them at all. Just a recording? Lind found that odd.

{I cannot explain when we first grasped the truth but the default of every Eternal Realm is the Demi Tier. For a time, no matter how many appear, you have a chance to ascend to the Full Tier, or Complete Tier if preferred. I do not know what happens to them but I know what will happen once enough Eternal Realm cultivators exist.}

She seemed to be having trouble at that moment. It was like something was actively draining her.

{Eventually, the golden shield around the Sea of Realms will be the end of the holds. When that happens, the scale tips and it starts to contract. It changes its nature as well.}

Her words made the group murmur but Lind's eyes sharpened. He recalled the core of Heaven and Earth he had seen long ago. A question had always been at the back of his mind. Where did such a powerful and unbiased power come from?

Could he have been right? Her words snapped him back to the present.

{At first, we did not care but then the maelstrom appeared beneath all of us. We were being pushed into it! It did not matter how powerful or how benevolent, we were all being consumed!}

The horror of the moment was not lost on any of them. They had already faced a smaller scale version in the Fiend. Lind realized the Bastard had actually just done everyone a favor.

From what he could recall, the golden barrier was not that far from being filled from what he had detected until several holds were consumed.

{The Sea of Realms also changed. Many of the older realms were suddenly consumed quickly. It was only as new ones appeared that we understood. We were being turned into fodder for new realms!}

Lind felt it was not so simple. While cultivation broke many scientific conventions, the most basic ones still held true. Matter and energy could not be destroyed, only converted. The vast energy of a single Eternal Realm could create many worlds.

Even he, as a Divine Realm cultivator, had been able to affect the world enough to birth an Immortal World all the way down its myriad mortal realms.

Yet, that had been his power shaping what was already present. If the power had been taken from him directly, how many Immortal Worlds could he have created?

He also suspected the record was guessing by correlation. It did not make it true.

{At some point, we began to try to sacrifice others in the hopes we would survive. I did too. There was no way any of us could remain innocent but I began to notice a pattern. If I acted in defense, I seemed to have an advantage while if I attacked it was much harder. It was not just me, but others saw it too.}

That made Lind raise an eyebrow. A trial indeed. That raised a new question, what was imposing that rule?

{I did my best and by chance, I survived, heh, survived!} She looked forlorn out at them before Lind realized what was wrong. She was not happy to live and she was not full of life as she should be either.

{There were others that were not pulled in but we all felt it. Our foundation was falling apart. Only 1 escaped. She ascended. The pity in her eyes before she vanished made it clear she knew we were doomed too. I am the last one. I am watching my hold crumble but the gate is still open.}

She then smiled a sad smile.

{Nothing is forever. Eternal is only Eternal until it is not. I know the Harmonic Core is key but I can't teach you. If you have achieved it, please teach others. Save as many as you can. I pray to the spirits this message helps.}

The projection flickered and then stopped.

Dead silence filled the room. Dread fell over the heads of most but Lind held his chin in his hand. Pieces made sense yet there were several key points he disagreed with.

The sudden acceleration of the consumption of old realms and the Eternal Realm cultivators were related without doubt but the why of it seemed too clean. Why would the Sea of Realms need a sudden cleaning to make room for new realms made by killing Eternal Realm cultivators?

She did not explain how the holds were pulled down either. They were not pool balls or even the same size from what he could tell. If they were being fed into something that could rip them apart, where did that power come from?

There was no longer a Heaven and Earth, yet those that reached the next tier vanished? Where were they going? Just completing whatever was needed to ascend magically sent them out of the whole setup?

A thought then occurred to him. He left the others to consider what they had just been told while Star was grilled most likely on what else was in the scroll.

He carefully made his way to the massive plateau in his hold. The silvery light of the ascension pool was clear as day as he landed next to it. The traffic back and forth was mostly Immortals but he was not there for them.

[Did you hear?] He no longer had Authority but he knew how to reach them. The long pause told him they had heard. [How much can you tell me? Is the Bastard a part of it?]

That was the sticking point. Lind knew the Bastard wanted to live but reaching the Eternal Realm should have been the solution. He should have stopped caring at that point and simply enjoyed it.

So why didn't he? Why was he so obsessed with reaching the peak? Only one answer made sense.

{He knows the truth. The Harvest is a part of the cycle of all living things. Each Eternal Realm takes a large chunk of Qi, vitality, and more from their worlds.} Lind believed that. He had been incorporating and retaining more and more into his existence but so long as he expelled it via Arts or other creations, that energy would return.

Fading, obviously, was the most direct return of energy as well. Thus, despite Divine Realm cultivators reaching the billions in their head count, it was not a real problem.

The Eternal Realm, however, ripped it away. The more that happened, the less there was left.

[So, that barrier is created by the balance of the Sea of Realms to the existence of the Eternal Realm cultivators. Once a tipping point is reached, it tips and violently reclaims the energy while the exhausted realms tied to them are also destroyed?] He felt the affirmation.

Still, that begged the next question.

[The new realms?] The silence stretched and then Lind felt pressure on him briefly. His harmony in his mind reacted and flung it away.

{You are on the right path. Once you ascend, you will understand. You must stop the Fiend or all will fall forever. There will be no more.} Lind then understood.

The weight of what he was carrying was more than he had imagined. The Bastard was not just going to live forever but cut off any threat ever again to him. He was taking it all. There would be no cycle nor any chance for new life.

[How did he find out?] Lind's mental voice was a whisper but the answer was swift.

{When he broke us, he saw what was briefly. It only took reaching the Eternal Realm to reveal what he had seen.}

It was indirect but it was confirmation that Heaven and Earth were related to the fallen Eternal Realm cultivators.

He did not ask anymore as he knew no more answers could be given. Lind would know if he lived. If he died, nothing would matter anymore.

He went back and began to draw up a training regimen to master his harmony from scratch. He had to master it all or they were all doomed.

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