Chapter 321 — Emerging into Prominence
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
The long-missed city of Illusory Pivot—its long-missed gilded splendor, its long-missed towers and halls.
The mage Daniel stood in the streets of that grand and magnificent city, gazing at the splendid buildings spread out before him and the passersby drifting to and fro along the roads, and could not help but be moved to a thousand sighs.
He had returned to this place. After a whole series of trials and a "legacy," he had finally won the recognition of that terrifying Outlander Wanderer, and obtained permission to reconnect to the Mind Network and move about within Illusory Pivot.
But he knew he was not free—and from this day forward, every day of his activity upon the Mind Network would be without freedom.
The Outlander Wanderer had already left His spiritual mark within his mind, and left it in the deepest place of all; he could never be rid of that mark. From now on he must act as the Outlander Wanderer's servant; he could not speak his master's secrets, could not do what his master forbade, could not attempt to escape his master's control, and could never, in any form, cry for help upon the Mind Network or warn the other Sleepers.
He need not trouble himself with thoughts of covert action and self-suggestion to circumvent the restrictions, for he knew that no matter how secretly he acted, he could not evade the Outlander Wanderer's surveillance. That surveillance lay in the depths of his subconscious; a man cannot deceive his own subconscious. Whether within this Mind Network or out in the waking world, so long as a "keyword" left by the Outlander Wanderer was triggered in his subconscious, that terrible punishment would surely come.
But Daniel no longer cared.
He had witnessed the Outlander Wanderer's mighty power, and had received those incredible legacies of knowledge. To the man he now was, his more important identity was servant of the Outlander Wanderer—not some cultist of the Long Slumber, and certainly not a mage of Typhon.
The old mage reshaped his own image into the form he commonly used upon the Mind Network: a refined, scholarly middle-aged mage. Then he made his way toward the places where the city's low- and mid-ranking cultists gathered.
He watched coldly as those Sleepers came and went along the city streets, watched those who knew nothing of the Outlander Wanderer's mighty power go on with their humdrum lives, and all at once a strange smugness welled up in his heart:
I am one who serves that indescribable great existence—I am one of my master's first envoys for the remaking of this world! When the new age arrives, a place at the pinnacle of the order will be mine. And then what will this Illusory Pivot—seemingly flourishing, in truth illusory—amount to?
The old mage found this sudden feeling of his rather strange, but in the end he chose to savor it.
Ahead appeared a great building with a tall, sharp spire and pale-gold outer walls. It was an assembly hall, and flanking its entrance stood two rows of giant statues blowing horns. Many cultists in gorgeous robes were passing in and out through its ornate gates. Daniel straightened his clothes, then calmly and firmly followed the crowd toward the doors.
This was where the low- and mid-ranking cultists gathered to exchange knowledge and intelligence—and the first step in his execution of his master's will.
The words his master had spoken before going offline echoed in Daniel's heart:
You are already a mature Sleeper; it is time you learned to make a name for yourself, to astonish the company with your words, to outshine all rivals, and then ascend to the summit of life.