A Thousand-Year Old Prophecy

129: Discussion 1

The next day...

Nyssa met with few people in the meeting room of Central Cloud.

Technically, it was her group (including of Maru and Leon), Brock's group, Wayne, Alexandra and Zaki.

"Little girl, how much have your powers grown this time?" Wayne asked her.

"A lot. I've leveled up to Mythic like our goal. Have also learned about the uses of Void elements. And of course, I gain a new comrade.

"This is Leon, everyone. As you might have possibly guess already, he is an Ancient Beast. An Aguila to be exact."

"The Bird King of the Condemned Forest. Just how exactly you have tamed him, little girl?"

"Er... It is quite a long story." Alanganin niyang sagot kay Wayne. Then she looked at all of them. "Anyway, Alexandra, why don't you fill me in about what had happened in Eastern Island a year ago?"

Alexandra told her the story.

The others knew about it already so they just listened quietly. Meanwhile, it was Nyssa, Jin, Maru and Leon who listened intently to her.

"So it was Astra. I have been wondering how  they could possibly infiltrate the residence, eh. I didn't expect that Astra would betray the clan, especially... Papa like that."

Alexandra nodded, ignoring the hesitation of Nyssa earlier.

"We also haven't expected it too. Then Moira was looking for you at that time. When she realized that you were not in the residence, she commanded Anastasia to annihilate us."

"And... did she?"

Once again, the older lady nodded. "She revealed about your soul swap and then murdered some of our people."

Nyssa was silent for a moment.

Although she had seen Anastasia's cruelness before and even experienced it first hand, she still hadn't expected that she could massacre her own clan.

Was her anger that much?

Or was it just how much the influence of Moira to her?

But even her twin would not murder her clansmen that easily.

She knew Moira. She always looked at the bigger picture.

"She even murdered Ariana and Alyanna."

Nyssa slowly released her breath.

"Anastasia hasn't appeared yesterday." Brock said.

"I'd be surprised if she would." Jin said.

Nangunot naman ang noo nila towards him.

"A year ago, she and that Yuan kidnapped and tortured Nyssa, Adam and Khalil. During our rescue, that Anastasia happened to be leveling up to Mythic level but I attacked her using Eruption.

"It seemed not to kill her dahil nag-appear pa siya sa Meng residence but I am sure, she wasn't able to successfully level up into Mythic because of that."

Natahimik silang lahat dahil doon.

"Nyssa, go to Infirmary with me after this meeting." Sabing bigla ni Andy sa kanya.

She awkwardly smiled at him. "I am in better condition now."

"Let's make sure of that, okay?"

Hindi na sumagot pa si Nyssa.

Anyway, they continued their talk.

"Do you have an idea where Anastasia might be?" Alexandra asked.

"She could be in Eastern Island or in one of the bases of the Dark Guild. It has been a year so malamang she already recovered from Jin's attack." Nyssa answered. "We need to find her. Since my goal is to get us back to our respective bodies, we need to find a way to have her on our side."

"But Nyssa... I am not sure if it will be easy for you to convince her to exchange your souls. Remember when we were in the island, she seemed to be very content with your body. As what she had said, your exchange might have been 'meant to be'." Khalil reminded her.

Of course, Nyssa never forgot that.

That's why she was more anxious than ever to get back on her body.

"Well, maybe she won't be that adamant to keep Nyssa's body anymore this time, right? That attack from Jin wasn't that good for her at all. If it could collapse the whole island, the possiblity of her having Qi Deviation too is huge." Toby thought.

At that moment, natahimik silang lahat.

Qi Deviation...

That was the second most cruel thing to happen to a cultivator.

The first one?

It was when your cultivation towards Mythic level failed.

Because it was also meant that your cultivation would stop there already. A bottleneck, in common word.

If Toby was right, Anastasia might have been really unlucky this time. She reached a bottleneck and then her cultivation rolled back a few stars or levels.

That was really terrible.

"Do you still want your body even if that is already the case?" Raqie asked her.

"Of course. That is my body. Why would I didn't want it back?" She answered with a frown.

Raqie simply smirked at her.

Napailing lang naman ang iba.

"But then again, if Anastasia has experienced bottleneck and Qi Deviation, would your twin still keep her like this?" Maru asked Nyssa.

She kinda understand Nyssa's by now. She was very good in manipulating and using people according to her benefit. She was also good in getting rid of them once they were already useless.

If she was still keeping Anastasia despite what had happened to her, Maru could only think of one reason.

"Unless..." Hindi pa niya natatapos ang sinasabi niya ng umiling si Nyssa.

She was suprised. Could Nyssa possibly know about that forbidden technique?

"Impossible. Moira and Anastasia might be anything but they would not lean towards that evilness."

"What is it?" Curious na tanong ni Alexandra.

Alanganing na nagkatinginan sila Maru at Nyssa.

"Every human cultivators know, once you failed the leveling up of Mythic level, it is also the end of advancing forward. But... actually, there is this forbidden technique which allows human to get out from that circumstance. That is to cultivate in Nine Circles of Netherworld." It was Leon who said that.

"What?" Halos sabay sabay na tanong nila.

"N-netherworld... But that is fiction, isn't it?" Tanong ni Khalil.

"Well, soul swap is also supposed to be fiction but here I am." Nyssa said with a sigh. "The thing is, that technique is really forbidden. Bukod sa napakadelikado ng Netherworld, it is supposed to be really hard to cultivate in that place.

"It also includes dedicating one's soul to the King of Netherworld so anyone who would cultivate there end up never the same again."

A grim quietness covered them all.

Of course, they knew. Kapag dinedicate ng sinoman ang kanilang kaluluwa sa Hari ng Netherworld, their chance of afterlife would be gone too.

And when they finally died, their souls would stay there in Netherworld eternally, serving as source of Qi to the Nine Circles.

***