novelraw Chapter 694 - 693 - Out of Time
Chapter 694 - 693 - Out of Time
Lind had been revising his schematics when his vision went dim. He felt like something vital had been lost and only when he realized he had been punished a bit by Heaven and Earth that he realized what happened.
His final safeguard in his family had been activated all at once!
He had shared his karmic restitution enough in his life that he figured out what it felt like and found he could pass it on slowly to others. If he focused it on one person it might cause issues but across his friends and family did not seem too bad.
After centuries of accumulation, he had hoped it would help them in a pinch as it had him, but not all at once!
Only a few things, very bad things, could have triggered it. He quickly left his quarters and went to the teleportation array from the Two Rivers to the Core Hall.
The special communication jade was already lit up and he saw Shi and Kin listening with pale faces. The moment they saw him, they flinched.
"What has happened?" Neither wanted to speak but a voice from the jade spoke up.
"Lind? Oh thank the spirits. I was worried when that golden glow lit up so many people at once. We were all connected for a moment and I just felt like you were in trouble." Lysanna was trying to make it seem like she was checking on him but he knew far better than that.
"Lysanna, do not lie to me right now and tell me what happened." His voice was flat and emotionless. No one had ever recalled him speaking like that to anyone, ever. The long pause was followed by a general update of events.
The sudden devastating attacks of the Fiends left Lind cold but when she got to how the healing camp they were in charge of was blitzed by Fiends, his heart thundered trying to escape his ribcage.
It took several calming breaths to focus as she spoke of how they did resupply and inspection as a matter of course but they just so happened to all be needed at that time when he knew it was a trap. The Fiends had engineered the stress on resources and personnel to gather his family in one place as much as they could outside the sect but in a place they felt safe.
"We are all ok, Lind, I promise." Lysanna was raspy by the end but he heard the sincerity in her voice. Still, he knew it had to have been a knife edge to invoke his last resort placed on them.
"Please, I know you all can fight and want to, but please stay safe in the sect. I–I don't know what I would do–" Lind could not even voice it. He knew it was a possibility but he just couldn't accept it even in words.
"We know but they won't stop. We are going to be fighting. If you really want to stop us, then get yourself over here faster." The connection broke as he knew he had made her angry and upset at his selfish request.
She was right but she was also likely just as terrified of what almost happened.
He was out of time.
He had to get out of the Law Binding. All the wars, responsibilities, and lost friends had distracted him from achieving that goal. He could not be an emperor anymore.
"Don't be hasty, Lord Frey." Lanbao had come, as he knew she would, and she knew what he was thinking. "It is not unusual for Emperor's to have goals beyond their throne. There are many that can help—"
Lind's aura spiked dangerously and made her wince. Shi and Kin looked damned nervous to be in the same room yet had to get past the couple to leave!
"An Emperor, a good emperor, does not put his needs above his people. He does not abandon them at a whim, and neither does he simply ignore his duty when it is inconvenient." Lanbao wanted to speak but another voice spoke up instead.
"A good man also knows when he has given enough and focuses on his own needs. A good man leans on others to help him in his time of need after his has sacrificed all his time for them." Gravis slowly came up the corridor with Gail in tow. She smiled at him before she stepped past her husband and continued her words.
"A good man, who did not have to free us all from the nightmare of the Soulmancers, does not have to keep carrying the burden for so long. You are our Emperor not because of sitting through meetings and listening to every issue diligently, but because you gave everything for us every time." She then stood between him and Lanbao. "It is long past time we let you be you again. Lind Frey."
Shock filled the room as very few people called him by his name alone anymore, yet Lind seemed to lose all steam in front of her before his shoulders began to shake.
Deep throated laughter filled the room as tears fell down his face and she gently took him into an embrace. He clung to Gail as Benny suddenly came sprinting followed by Lua. Shi looked embarrassed as her message clearly altered many more than expected.
Melody suddenly came storming in and saw the scene before she looked gently at it and joined in. Many people, some without prior authorization, came up to the Core Hall to answer Shi's summons about Lind.
They found him being comforted and simply joined in. The man had changed their world for the better and then tried to keep it going as long as he could with all he could but he just wanted to go home!
Now, his home was threatened and they would be poor friends if they did not help him in his greatest time of need.
"Lord Lin–" Linghu came into the room and all looked at him as he was very confused. Shi looked annoyed that he ignored her call and came on his own at the worst time!
"Um, what is going on?" Lind laughed some more and then stood up before bowing to them all.
"Thank you all. I have some new ideas to try and I am about to test–" Linghu suddenly raised his hand to stop Lind from continuing.
"About that, I was wondering something. Why have you not tried using your Law?" Linghu's question threw Lind for a curve but it was like his brain had lightning strike it!
Why hadn't he thought of that?! His harmony seemed very flexible and was able to change a Law Binding after it was already set! Why had he never considered trying that approach?
"No matter what, the Law Binding had no Law Gates built into it so there is no way to leave that way." Lanbao reminded them but Linghu finally looked back with a bit of smugness.
"Usually, that would be correct, but I have observed the Law Core and I am here to tell you that the Law Binding is changing. It is not the same as it was nearly 1200 years ago. You also said I would not be able to do more than control it or collapse it, but it is changing." Shock filled her face and Lind filled with hope.
"Have you tried to make a Law Gate?" At that question from her, Linghu nodded and frowned.
"I can touch the other Laws, but not that one. Only one person ever gets a reaction out of it." All heads turned back to Lind and he looked a little chagrined but it also presented a problem. He was only a mid Sun Tier.
While it was obvious why Lind could affect that Law, control was not the word anyone would ever use.
"It is not impossible if it is only that Law. You have since become a grade 7 Master in all 3 of your professions. As it is an integral part of you, it may lower the criteria to manipulate it." Lind disagreed with Lanbao's words.
His experience told him that, if anything, a harmony would raise the bar of difficulty not lower it!
Still, he had to try. Before he thought too much, he seemed to blur in front of everyone and vanish! It did not take long for them to realize what he was doing!
Linghu and Lanbao rushed to try and stop him as they had to prepare but suddenly the Core Room sealed itself from them!
Lind had already touched the Law Core and the world fell away. He had never felt anything like that sensation but he also felt like he was being crushed! The Laws were trying to rip him apart!
He focused only on his harmony, the swirling mass of emerald Qi he had had with him since the first day he formed his dantian.
He thought of all the effects and miracles he had pulled off because of it. Ever so slowly, the feeling of being crushed vanished before he felt a breeze on his cheek.
He slowly opened his eyes and found himself at a beach. Instead of blue water, however, it was emerald. The sand was black and the sky was a deep orange. It was a very alien landscape compared to what it should be.
"Took you long enough!" A voice made Lind jump but when he turned around, there was no one there! He spread out his senses but they could barely reach half a meter around his body!
Lind was trying to use his Talents but the moment he did, his head nearly burst.
"Unless you like pain, I would stop doing that and just accept you can't see me. Or rather, you are seeing me…us…metaphysics makes my head hurt!" Lind slowly came to a realization as he looked around the beach before he made a crazy jump in logic.
"Can't be–" He was about to deny the thought when the voice boomed once more.
"BINGO! You take your sweet time but you get there in the end. Normally your head would explode if I told you this, but I am a Living Law! You hit the jackpot!" Lind felt a little giddy as he grasped what he was being told.
The emerald Law woven into the Law Core, clearly from his harmony, was not just any old Law, but a kind living Law. A Law that was a world unto itself?!
"Ah yeah! You are getting it now! Woo, I was worried I would have to explain for days. I have been cooped up in here for 1200 years and you only ever bothered with me once! Do you know the headaches you have caused me?" Why did his Law sound like such a jerk?
"A jerk…oooooh, right, you don't remember. Ah, well, that is understandable." Lind felt confused. Still, he shook his head and pushed aside the myriad questions as he had to focus on if his hope was feasible.
"If you had tried it 1200 years ago, not a chance, but now, I am totally ready to break some rules, ouch!" Lind saw a flash of blue lightning that felt very familiar. "Sticks in the mud! I was only joking!"
Lind suddenly felt something shift as a figure appeared over the emerald ocean. He felt his skin crawl looking at it but it was chained up firmly.
"Basically, smash that with all you've got and bingo, bango, bongo, you are good to go!" Lind suddenly had a grasp of what he was talking to. Yet, he again pushed it aside as he felt out the figure that seemed damned familiar to him before he realized what was going on.
"You want me to break the Law Binding, itself?" Lind felt that was wrong. He felt like he was being tricked.
"Well duh, afterall, I am already breaking it down, just as you wanted." That cemented it. He was talking to a child! "Hey! No need to be rude! So I am a child, I was born with you. Compared to all of reality, we are just specks of dust!"
The words were a revelation that normally would make Lind really want to study it but he knew it was beyond the current him. The rest of it however, made him shocked. He knew exactly what the voice was saying.
Ever since he arrived, he had but one thought. He wanted to go home. When he imbued that thought into the Law Binding, it used his Law of Harmony to make it so! What had he done?!