Chapter 1211 What Lies Below It took several hours of excruciating rounds of hide and seek with various close shaves with death, as the remaining four Ascendants dodged the forests of tentacles until the opportunity for escape came once more. In the months they had stayed in this maze of darkness they had learned to adapt their movements and reaction to this place, throwing out everything they knew about Calamity gods and relearning how to survive. This was a terrifying concept because, after millions of years of endless battle, the capabilities of Calamity were documented and understood, nothing in all of history could explain this number and the weird nature of this darkness that had imprisoned them, plus the clear sign of intelligence that had lured the Ascendants into this place. They needed to escape, this was bigger than them all, and if the Ascendants were not warned of what was coming, they would not understand that the world was already lost. Ascendant Verana took the risk and whispered to the three Ascendants beside him, "We are at the final stretch of this journey, and we shall make it out alive. Everyone needs to understand that this war has changed. Be steadfast and aim for the light, none of us would have made it to this point without each other, and we shall make it out of here together." 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦 The tired bodies of the last three Ascendants straightened, they had sacrificed a lot to reach this point, many of them giving their lives so the Ascendant Verana their leader could survive as long as possible because they believed in his leadership and visions, and in times like this, there was no better option to give them faith. Now that Ascendant Verana was watching for it, he was the first to observe the changes, and without hesitation, he manifested three more arms, drew a rune on the other three Ascendants, and injected it with three percent of his Core Aura, with their frayed nerves the three Ascendants discovered his actions a little too late and their bodies were unwittingly launched to three different directions while burning with intense light and repulsive force. Their cries of rage and despair were swallowed by the excited shrieks of the Calamity gods and Verana used the opportunity to disperse the last of his Aura around himself and launched himself towards where he thought his salvation lay using only his physical abilities. He tried not to consider the fact that if that was the truth, then he was the best candidate to create that diversion, since he was the strongest but not necessarily the fastest, and he could have become the bait and allowed the Ascendants three chances to make it out of here alive. Ascendant Verana knew this was the only way to escape this place, it was a fool's hope to think that the Calamity gods wouldn't be defending the outlet of this crater with everything they had, and the only way anyone was making it out was if there would be a diversion. He tried not to consider the fact that if that was the truth, then he was the best candidate to create that diversion, since he was the strongest but not necessarily the fastest, and he could have become the bait and allowed the Ascendants three chances to make it out of here alive. Ascendant Verana believed that he would survive and the sacrifice of the rest, was a normal part of war. With the majority of the Calamity gods' tentacles reaching for the three bright lights, Verana made great progress flying past the massive bodies of the Calamity gods, until he reached a barrier and his wispy heart shivered in excitement. If he was correct and the Ascendant Sun was currently overhead then even if he drew attention now and went all out in breaking this barrier, the Calamity gods would not be able to follow. He hesitated for a brief moment before stiffening his resolve, if he did not escape this place it was only a matter of time before he was worn to death. As an Ascendant of the Third Dan, he was equal to any number of Calamity gods, and killing them was not the issue, it was leaving this place. The darkness not only warped their sense of direction, but it also sapped them of their Core Aura, its hunger feeding on every scrap of energy that they contained, they could not harvest any Aura from their surroundings to bolster their own, and this would not have troubled an average Ascendant who had great control over their powers, and they should have been able to recycle any energy they gave out for a long time, technically making an Ascendant capable of fighting for an eternity with only a fixed amount of energy, but anything they lost here could not be collected from the greedy darkness. After the second month inside this place, they discovered that the number of Calamity gods erupting from the earth grew, it was as if every energy drained from the Ascendants was feeding the newer waves, and unleashing their Dan, be it Time, Space, or in his case Memory, where he dragged hundreds of Ascendants of the past to aid him in this fight was useless. Although the Calamity gods could not control this energy inside their bodies, they did not need to, it swallowed everything without any ministration from them. Ascendant Verana remembered one of the Ascendants remarking before it perished that it was as if they were being used as a tool to unleash the darkness in the bodies of these Calamity gods. The Darkness inside the bodies of these Calamity gods was a power that devoured all things. Slaughtering the Calamity gods at first was a mistake because they did not give out any Aura to be harvested, instead, they unleashed the darkness inside their bodies that continued growing. Although the Calamity gods could not control this energy inside their bodies, they did not need to, it swallowed everything without any ministration from them. Ascendant Verana remembered one of the Ascendants remarking before it perished that it was as if they were being used as a tool to unleash the darkness in the bodies of these Calamity gods. Ascendant Verana looked back once more and then opened both palms as he summoned the last of his Natal Treasures, a pair of gloves, the darkness made no distinction in what it ate, and Natal Treasures degraded extremely quickly inside this place until it was destroyed, which was one of the major reasons the Ascendants lost their lives so quickly. At the third Dan, even losing his Natal Treasure was not a crippling blow since he could reach across Memory and retrieve them again, but the cost was so high that he could not do that while inside this crater that devoured energy. In the distance, the last of the Ascendants he had betrayed had fallen, their lights vanquished, and not wasting any more time, the green gloves lit up like a star, and ignoring the surprised shrieks from the Calamity gods, he slapped both palms above him into the barrier. The shockwave that resulted nearly pushed him back, but he gathered his resolve, burned his Core Aura, and pushed back, his body blazing with so much energy that it pushed back tens of thousands of tentacles reaching for him, and although the darkness gleefully collected all this power he was giving out, the barrier before him had a crack that slowly grew until it reached a few inches across, for Verana, this was enough. Shrinking his Ascendant body and keeping back his last Natal Treasures that seemed on the edge of collapse as they appeared extremely worn, he slipped into the healing crack, and he saw sunlight… Ascendant Verana almost burst out laughing with glee, but then his eyes widened when the light he saw began to increase, from one to a thousand then ten thousand… "By the light, what is this?" mouth agape, Ascendant Verana realizes that he had not made it out of the crater into the heavens, instead he had gone below the earth, from the place where the Calamity gods were emerging from. There had always been curiosity about what lies underneath the calamity gods, but the backlash from harming any of these creatures by the World's Will was so terrifying that no one could come up with that answer. Ascendant Verana in his final moments wished he had never known this answer as he was covered by the lights.