Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 375: The Proelium Tower

"..."

"So? Why haven’t you started talking?"

Miranda asked the brown wolf, who was still staring at her in disbelief, not yet finished processing the reality that the person before her was the legendary figure she had only ever heard about in stories.

"Should I bring your attackers here and question them instead?"

"Huh!? No!"

That snapped Mei out of her daze, and Miranda immediately pressed.

"Then start talking already. Why were they trying to kill you?"

Mei went silent again, but this time, it wasn’t from shock, but from not knowing where to even begin. She took a few moments to piece the story together in her mind, but just as she was about to speak, Miranda cut her off again.

"Oh, and take on a humanoid form. This sounds like it will take a while, and I don’t feel like craning my neck the entire time."

At Miranda’s words, Mei’s body shrank in a flash of light, and the massive wolf was replaced by a brown-haired woman, slightly shorter than Miranda, with stern features and dressed in a simple black scoop-neck dress.

A few bloody stains marked the fabric, but with a light touch of magic, they vanished instantly.

Then, Mei finally began her explanation.

"They most likely intended either to cripple my Master’s power, or to frame the Mistress of Lozion for my death, in order to break the alliance between Lollao, Luabos, and Lozion, the only ones who still remain neutral in the Proelium Tower vote."

"And what exactly is this Proelium Tower?"

In response to Miranda’s question, Mei began recounting the history of what had become the most popular construct in all of ZWF4105.

Centuries ago, a group of Universal Masters, led by the Masters of Sonerth and Uetera, presented a proposal at the Cluster’s Millennium Council Meeting, a gathering where the Masters of the 12 universes convened to deliberate on the key events of the past millennium and to plan the direction of the next.

The proposal was to install a construct known as the Proelium Tower within each of the twelve universes.

It was a vast tower of stars that stretched across an entire galaxy cluster, with entrances within every galaxy that allowed beings access to it.

Those brave enough to step into the tower would be transported into specially crafted pocket dimensions, where they were forced to battle like gladiators, in either standard duels or deathmatches, and only by defeating or killing their opponents could they ascend to higher ’floors’ of the tower.

Naturally, the victor also claimed everything their defeated opponent possessed.

Within the Proelium Tower, the ambient concentration of cosmic energy was immense, and the rates of EXP accumulation, Law Comprehension, and Cosmic Energy gathering were amplified many times over, granting those inside the opportunity to rapidly grow stronger.

"The Proelium Tower was ideal for those who had comprehended laws primarily suited for combat, as it allowed them to deepen their understanding through battle, strengthening their soul power and granting deeper insights into these laws, enabling them to perceive more of their echoes and harmonise with them."

Every Existence Realm along the ladder of the Sub-Cosmic Realms served as a preparatory step for the one that followed.

The path began with the Primogenial Realm, the first of these realms, where one’s focus lay solely on gathering the baseline energy necessary to advance further.

This accumulated energy was what one used to reach the Phantasmal Realm, where the boundary between the physical and the metaphysical became blurred.

By this realm, one would have fully comprehended at least a single universal law, progressing through the Basic, Low, Mid, High, and Monarch Ranks, thereby reaching the peak of universal law mastery.

In this realm, one gained a deeper insight into the laws they had comprehended. It was much like reading a text from beginning to end, and upon a second reading, noticing details overlooked the first time or grasping concepts that previously slipped past their understanding.

That was the purpose of the Phantasmal Realm, and this progression most often occurred via the repeated use of a law and its Authority over and over again.

In time, one begins to ’hear’ faint traces of Law Echoes, as their Existential Aspects—Body, Energy Core, and Soul—rose to a higher level.

Since the processes of law comprehension and Authority acquisition inherently raised the level of the soul, it followed that deepening one’s understanding of those laws would naturally cause these Aspects to advance as well.

Following this came the Law Echo Realm, where, after fully attaining and understanding the inner workings of laws, one begins to discern the natural interactions those laws could manifest within the fabric of reality.

By tracing their resonance, the individual develops a heightened sensitivity to how one law might trigger, amplify, suppress, or distort another when applied either simultaneously or in sequence.

Rather than controlling these echoes, the individual interprets them, gaining insight into which combinations of Laws harmonised and which were in conflict, thereby paving the way for the Dictums that would only be created upon reaching the Supreme Realms.

A Dictum was the product of fusing multiple Law Origin Cores, and at the Law Echo Realm, one discerned which Origin Cores were most suitable for fusion to maximise their potential.

Even if two individuals possessed the same level of comprehension in the same laws, differences in affinity, proficiency of manipulation, and similar factors meant their optimal fusions would not be identical.

Thus, the Law Echo Realm was where one determined which Origin Cores were most compatible and which were incompatible for them.

All of these processes required vast amounts of energy, and EXP, at its core, was simply energy.

For that reason, any place that provided accelerated EXP acquisition was a guaranteed boon for any universe.

Furthermore, increases in soul power also influenced how many Origin Cores a soul could contain, as well as the eventual strength of those Cores when they were assimilated in the Law Assimilation/Transmutation Realm that followed, where one assimilated their comprehended laws into their soul and elevated their Authorities to a new level.

"The Proelium Tower is nothing more than a place that amplifies the strength of one’s soul, pushing them to advance through their realms more quickly while moulding them into existences addicted to the slaughter within, driven only by the desire to keep climbing for the ever-greater rewards it provides."

From the tone of Mei’s voice, it was evident she despised the tower’s existence.

"So why didn’t you oppose its installation?"

In response to Miranda’s question, Mei shook her head before explaining.

"We couldn’t, since it was decided by vote. The Millennium Council considers every proposal concerning all twelve universes, and whether or not it goes forward is determined by majority rule.

Setting aside the fact that everyone who uses the tower eventually becomes addicted, as though some force within it interferes with their minds, it’s undeniably filled with ’benefits,’ because it accomplishes one very important thing—it raises the overall strength of our cluster.

That makes defending against the occasional invader easier and cuts down our casualties, especially since, even when support does come from the nearest cluster, it takes ’time’ to reach us due to the immense distances involved.

What’s more, we had just repelled an attack from an independent enemy cluster that wasn’t aligned with any larger group or supercluster when the proposal was made, so you can see why it was taken so seriously."

Mei paused to catch her breath before continuing.

"We asked them where they had discovered it, and they claimed it was ancient technology from the main universe, which they combined with their Unique Authorities and reworked into what became the Proelium Tower.

They had already tested it in their own universes, and the overall strength of their combatants was a level higher than others, so in the end, they won the majority vote 7-5."

"So there were five universes against this? Which ones?" Miranda asked.

"Iccypso, Kotania, Briuwei, Chalrouwei, and Lozion."

At Mei’s answer, Miranda raised an eyebrow.

"So your universe supported it as well?"

"Initially, yes," Mei replied. "We’d suffered heavy losses in the war, and Master Ulfur was eager to raise our universe’s strength again. We couldn’t afford to fall behind the others, because even though we belong to the same cluster, that doesn’t mean we are allies."

In other words, politics and military necessity had forced their hand, compelling them to accept something that was now most likely turning into a problem.

’Most likely’, because Mei’s narration was not yet finished.