The New World of the Silent Spiral

Boom! "H-Help..." "Intruders..." Sorcerers scorched by black flames wailed in agony, rolling across the ground, yet the sand and dirt they touched only served as kindling for the blaze. With hands shoved into the pockets of his dark-red trench coat, Yaxiu stepped past the ghastly corpses and emerged from the billowing smoke. Igola produced a perfume bottle from inside his skirt-robe and spritzed his waist and the nape of his neck to dispel the pungent stench of tar. Gwen trailed behind him, offering eyedrops and a hot towel. Casting that wide-range psychic blast had not only drained his sorcery mana, but it had also exerted severe strain on his optic nerves; whenever circumstances permitted, his eyes required prompt care. Harvey and Alice stepped out of the black smoke arm-in-arm, as though attending a grand banquet together. Yet Alice was no longer in her normal form; she was a putrefying cadaver, countless flies and maggots coalescing into her new skin while giving off a foul, dark-green rot. This was the necromancer's newly researched miracle, Breath of Death. It required no physical contact. Merely laying eyes upon Alice's true death aspect would plunge the observer into madness, terror, stupefaction, and a host of negative conditions—and make them forget how to breathe. If the onlooker failed to consciously switch to manual breathing in time, they would literally suffocate to death. Bringing up the rear, Chikala reined in his flames. Except for his trousers, the orc's clothes had burned almost entirely away. While his single-target prowess might be up for debate, probably no one would contest that Chikala was peerless at area attacks—his black flames of ruin had ripped through every obstacle along the way. "Surprisingly, no traps." Yaxiu stepped into the ancient stone-brick tunnel. His Heart Sword sorcery spirit swept through the fifty meters ahead, unleashing an intensely bright, penetrating warm-white radiance. The attack dealt negligible damage, but possessed a potent disruption effect sufficient to trigger almost any miracle trap. This was no miracle; it was simply a special application of the Heart Sword sorcery spirit. Yaxiu had toyed with the Heart Sword for so long that affection had bloomed from sheer familiarity, unlocking a few new tricks along the way. "Unless they're Sanctuary sorcerers, who else could break through here?" Igola said. "And if they are Sanctuary sorcerers, what good would traps do anyway?" Behind them lay the hexagonal bunker erected by the Four Pillar Cult at the entrance to the Silent Spiral. Though Yaxiu and the others had desperately preferred an infiltration route, a group of six made far too conspicuous a target, and the Four Pillar Cult possessed reconnaissance miracles tailored specifically to detect Sanctuary sorcerers. They had been spotted shortly after breaching the colossal vine fortress. Yet luck had finally chosen to favor them. At the very moment Yaxiu made up his mind to storm the vine fortress, the army of the Harp Sun Alliance finally reached the Silent Spiral and launched a probing assault. Seizing the opportunity while the Four Pillar Cult's attention was diverted to the alliance—and most of their forces concentrated on the battlements—Yaxiu and the others cut through the knot in record time. Relying on their composition of four Sanctuary sorcerers, they carved straight through half the camp. Up against four sorcerers who ignored all damage, the Four Pillar Cultists were like butter before a red-hot knife, melting away in an instant. Before the Four Pillar bishops could arrive, they had already overrun the hexagonal bunker guarding the Silent Spiral. In this race against death straight into the heart of the cult's stronghold, no one dared pull their punches; they cleaved a path forward in dazzling death and blasted through doorways with brutal miracles. Yaxiu gestured behind him. His Heart Sword carved over a hundred razor-sharp ink-marks across space at the tunnel entrance, slicing through even the rolling black smoke. "Even for a Sanctuary sorcerer, undoing this trap will take quite some time," he said. "For now, we don't have to worry about pursuit from behind." Using the Colorless Dream secret poison to convert his mana into sword-tinted sorcery mana, and wielding both a Four-Wing Heart Sword and Four-Wing Sword Mark, Four-Wing mana combined with Four-Wing sorcery spirits was enough to elevate this Heart Pen miracle to the legendary tier! Battle cries and curses echoed from behind, but no one dared cross those ink-marks. As Yaxiu and his companions rounded a bend in the spiral passageway, the clamor on the surface gradually faded into a distant illusion. True to its name, the Silent Spiral was a bizarre passageway that coiled relentlessly downward. Built of square stone bricks, the seams between the stones sprouted mushrooms and green grass laden with bioluminescent substances, ensuring visibility remained unaffected as they walked. The crisp clatter of boots against stone flagstones echoed down the tunnel. Combined with the dim lighting, it evoked the hazy ambiance of a dream. Yet none let their guard down. Everyone knew that what lay on the surface was merely the appetizer; down below was the Four Pillar Cult's main course. Moreover, since they had fought their way in, any hope of ambushing the Mercury Trojan was gone—they would be lucky not to get ambushed themselves. "We're still in the Silent Spiral's 'vestibule.' The vestibule spans about eighteen spiral tiers, and anyone can enter it without restrictions," Chikala reminded them once more. "However, if you want to leave the vestibule and step onto the first floor of the Silent Spiral, a grand law must be used to open a 'New World'—also known as a 'trial.'" "Each trial layer requires a grand law to open. In its heyday, the Calamitous Fire Temple had five grand laws, allowing them to open up to the fifth floor of the Silent Spiral. Of course, the temple wouldn't dispatch all of its grand laws to open Calamitous Fire Trials—there was no point, as the trials on the first floor and the fifth floor are identical." "If the Four Pillar Cult has already forged numerous trial layers here..." Chikala's expression turned odd. "I suspect that before we even encounter the Mercury Trojan, we'll be halted by the trials." "What exactly are the Silent Spiral's trials?" Igola asked. "Trials opened by different grand laws are completely different. I only know about the Calamitous Fire Trial. Rather than serving as a reference, my experience might even skew your judgment," Chikala said helplessly. The other knowledgeable member of the group, Gwen, nodded as well, confirming Chikala was right. The orc feigned a lighthearted tone. "Though there's an upside to this—maybe Mr. Tamashi was stopped by a trial, and we'll find him without breaking a sweat—" "We're here." A massive gate of mist spanned across the end of the spiral passageway. Within the mist, a faint blood-red flame pattern flickered in and out of sight. Evidently, they had reached the end of the vestibule. At the sight, Chikala's composure crumbled instantly. "How is that possible..." The group looked at the orc in surprise. Chikala took a deep breath and spoke slowly, "This is the mark of the Calamitous Fire Sanctuary. The blood-red flame signifies that this trial was opened by the Grand Law of Killing Calamitous Fire." Igola suddenly asked, "What's your full name?" "Chikala Killing Calamitous Fire," Chikala replied expressionlessly. At that moment, Yaxiu walked over to the side wall. The others looked over and discovered an arrow mark carved into the stone flagstone: "—>". Yet it didn't point toward the gate of mist ahead; it pointed back the way Yaxiu and the others had come. Yaxiu extended a finger and traced the groove of the marking, finding it a perfect fit. As his fingertip slid along, stone debris flaked away. "Being able to carve stone with bare fingers, and recently carved at that..." Yaxiu said with certainty. "Tamashi left this." "Credit to him for having a brain and a conscience," Igola remarked, eyeing the arrow pointing backward. "He actually guessed you'd come after him and specifically left a warning." "Guessed that *we'd* come after him," Yaxiu corrected, pointing to the faint impressions on the stone. "There are five faint warning scratches next to it that you can only see up close—looks like he even counted Alice." "Aha," Harvey said. "One more reason to save him." "Fair enough," Igola sneered. "Since he guessed you'd come, he naturally assumed we wouldn't miss out either." "Couldn't it be that he genuinely believed his confidant and therapist Igola would come save him?" Yaxiu teased with a chuckle. "All right, Chikala, you're up." Chikala fell silent for a moment before saying earnestly, "I still remember the general process. Follow behind me in a moment, do whatever I do, and don't make any reckless moves under any circumstances." After slightly adjusting their formation, Chikala took the lead and stepped through the mist gate, with the rest following closely behind. The very next second, gentle sunlight crept between their eyelids. Warm sunlight poured past a blue sky and white clouds, streaming through a massive glass dome to spill tenderly over everyone. They were walking along a bustling thoroughfare lined with blooming flowers. Tall buildings stood in the distance, children frolicked on distant lawns, couples whispered sweet nothings on benches, and a mother pushing a stroller strolled past them. Yaxiu almost thought he had crossed back into the Gospel Country. Yet upon closer inspection, startling differences revealed themselves. Above the flowerbeds, bee-like sorcery spirits tended to the blossoms. Children were playing with sorcery spirits, some even reading picture books together. While couples flirted, two sorcery spirits squared off behind them as if itching for a brawl. The one pushing the stroller was not a mother, but a sorcery spirit, and the infant nestled inside was asleep alongside a tiny sorcery spirit. Almost every person was accompanied by a sorcery spirit—humanoid, bestial, or insectoid; One-Wing, Two-Wing, or even Three-Wing; some even had multiple sorcery spirits. People chatted and interacted with their sorcery spirits with complete ease. When they were happy, their spirits rejoiced; when they grew dejected, their spirits slumped in tandem. On this street, sorcerers like Yaxiu and his companions looked like backwater country bumpkins who possessed no sorcery spirits at all. "Welcome to the Calamitous Fire Trial," Chikala said, a touch of nostalgia tingeing his voice. "Fascinating place, isn't it?" "So these trials are actually illusions constructed by grand laws?" Igola realized. "This isn't an illusion," Chikala said, shaking his head. "This is the world where our ideals have been realized—the future that the grand law envisioned to the utmost limits of imagination." Understanding dawned upon the group. No wonder every layer of the Silent Spiral had to be constructed by a grand law! No wonder every layer was called a 'New World'! Because every New World was the future of a grand law's dreams! It was the utopia they wished to establish! It was their hope and yearning for the Senluo Wasteland! "What our Calamitous Fire Sanctuary yearned for was the glory of the Fire Cat Divine Era. And the defining trait of that era was the ideal of the Grand Law of Fire Cat: allowing ordinary people to command sorcery spirits as well. We never knew the truth of that era; we could only piece together our longed-for past—or future—from fragmented words in the ruins." Chikala explained as he walked, "Thus, the Calamitous Fire Sanctuary believed that everyone should possess a companion sorcery spirit, bound until death, never to part." At that moment, a sorcery spirit suddenly materialized beside Yaxiu and each of his companions. Each spirit bore an uncanny resemblance to its partner, as though it were an alternate version of themselves. "A companion sorcery spirit accompanies us as we grow up." After walking a short distance, the scenery abruptly shifted, and they found themselves atop a playground slide. The orc slid down with utter naturalness, and the others followed suit. "They accompany us in our studies." They suddenly appeared inside a classroom with five desks. Test papers lay atop each desk, and the orc was the first to take a seat and answer the questions. Yaxiu and the others couldn't even make out what was written on the exam, but their companion sorcery spirits guided their hands to write the answers. "They accompany us as we make friends, travel, attend events, navigate romance, and gain admission to higher academies..." With each shifting scene and Chikala's guidance, Yaxiu and the others seemed to live through the life of a 'Calamitous Fire citizen.' Growing up alongside their spirits from childhood, Calamitous Fire citizens might squabble with them on occasion, but for the most part, they weathered life's storms together. They were never lonely, always spirited, and filled with hope for tomorrow. The companion sorcery spirit was their friend in daily life, an aide in their studies, and a weapon in battle. "And when we grow up, our companion sorcery spirits continue to accompany us..." Chikala said, "...in pursuit of the supreme truth." Abruptly, the scene shifted into a gloomy subterranean research institute. A scholar in a white lab coat addressed them: "Research into 'stealing sorcery mana from the Void Realm' has hit a bottleneck. Should we continue experimenting on fish-slaying dragons, or switch to human subjects?" Simultaneously, several massive culture vats appeared on either side of the facility—fish-slaying dragons on the left, humans on the right. Without the slightest hesitation, Chikala directed his companion sorcery spirit to select the vat containing humans, plunging the people inside into hysterical agony until they perished in torment! "Hurry, do as he does!" Igola barked. "It's all an illusion!" Yet that was only the beginning. The subsequent experiments steadily surpassed the outer limits of Yaxiu and the others' imaginations: keeping a subject from dying while forcing them to watch their own body rot to see if it could summon a new sorcery spirit; transferring a person's consciousness into food the moment it was consumed and transferring it back afterward to test if it activated the Gluttony faction; subjecting people to... In every experiment, they were presented with a choice, but prior to each one, they were informed that animal testing had exhausted its potential. Consequently, without exception, Chikala chose human experimentation. At last, they seemed to arrive at the final experiment. The white-coated scholar said, "Research into whether 'suicide can break through the limits of sorcery' has reached a bottleneck. Should we continue experimenting on fish-slaying dragons, or switch to human subjects?" Despite the prompt, there were no other living humans present to select. Only when Chikala directed his companion sorcery spirit toward his own neck did everyone realize that the experimental subject was none other than oneself. *Squelch!* Weeping and wailing, the companion sorcery spirit slashed Chikala's throat. The orc slowly collapsed to the ground. Igola watched with cold detachment, then unhesitatingly commanded his own companion spirit to slice his throat as well! "Follow suit," Igola gasped, clutching his bleeding throat as he looked at them. "You must use... the companion spirit..." With that, he collapsed as well. Yaxiu, Harvey, and Gwen showed little hesitation, slitting their own throats one by one as their consciousness plunged into darkness. When they came to, they found themselves standing before a gate of mist once more. Within the mist, a faint flame pattern still flickered. "Are we back at the start?" Yaxiu asked in surprise as he scrambled to his feet. "No, we've already cleared the first floor of the Silent Spiral," Igola said. "Look closely—this is the gate to the second floor." Taking a closer look, Yaxiu noticed that the flame pattern was blue rather than blood-red. Turning around, he saw that the passageway behind them was also thick with mist; they seemed wedged in a narrow seam between two walls of fog. "Normally, a candidate must complete the Calamitous Fire Trial ten times to qualify, and with each repetition, the difficulty spikes sharply," Chikala said. "However, the more times you pass, the higher your resonance with the grand law of Calamitous Fire. If one aspires to become a god-hoster, undertaking repeated trials is an absolute prerequisite." "Why did the latter half of the trial force us through so many inhumane experiments?" Yaxiu asked, baffled. "Is this really the kind of future a grand law of Calamitous Fire longed for?" "To be precise, this is the future desired by the Grand Law of Killing Calamitous Fire." Chikala explained, "Besides, you seem to have misunderstood something. The Calamitous Fire Sanctuary didn't yearn for the prosperity and technological advancement of the Fire Cat Divine Era; they yearned for its 'atmosphere.'" "Atmosphere?" "Yes—that spirit of daring to defy all impossibilities." Chikala said, "Forever young, forever passionate, forever chasing impossible dreams, and probing the greatest truths. The Calamitous Fire Sanctuary simply wanted to return to an era like that—even if it was almost certainly an imagined past. "However, the five grand laws of Calamitous Fire held slight disagreements over 'how to pursue' it. The Grand Law of Killing Calamitous Fire believed in pursuing it by any means necessary. If human experimentation was the most cost-effective choice, then human experimentation it would be. "In fact, the Killing Calamitous Fire Parish was also the place that conducted the most human experiments." The orc shrugged. "Yet human experimentation was merely a surface manifestation. In any trial constructed by Calamitous Fire, you only need to adhere to one principle to emerge unscathed." "What principle?" Yaxiu asked. "Truth is supreme," Chikala answered. "No matter how it tests you, as long as you choose the path closest to the truth, you will inevitably be correct." Harvey suddenly asked, "What happens if we make the wrong choice?" "I don't know about other New Worlds, but in the Calamitous Fire Trial, a wrong choice inflicts you with the Calamitous Fire Curse until you burn to death." Harvey asked, "Can the calamitous fire burn through a Sanctuary?" Everyone froze. Chikala blinked, saying hesitantly, "Generally speaking, only Two-Wing sorcerers participate in the Calamitous Fire Trial..." Harvey turned straight around and stepped back into the mist. Before long, he returned, his clothes singed in a few places. "While the calamitous fire is a bit bothersome, a Sanctuary can fend it off." Chikala nearly coughed up a mouthful of blood. In truth, he had hoped to scare them off using the Calamitous Fire Trial. After all, the trial had only been so easy because he knew the way; the subsequent trials wouldn't be nearly as forgiving. Yet he had forgotten that among the five living people present, four were Sanctuary sorcerers akin to tactical weapons! To hell with all this trial nonsense—they could just hold up their Sanctuaries and brute-force their way through! Though exasperated, Chikala still cautioned them: "Every trial has a central theme. For instance, the Calamitous Fire Trial's theme is 'Truth is Supreme.' As long as you follow the theme, you won't trigger the curse. To conserve sorcery mana, we should still try to abide by it if possible." The others nodded, though Yaxiu found himself puzzled. "How did Tamashi get through the Calamitous Fire Trial...?" To be frank, the Calamitous Fire Trial posed little genuine threat to them. They were all death-row convicts with exceedingly flexible moral bottom lines; at worst, they could just play along, and if that failed, flip the table. But how had someone like Black Crow—whose worldview was rigid as bedrock, and who lacked a Sanctuary to protect him—ever made it across? "Did you forget he's abhorred by the Void Realm? It's questionable whether these trials even affect him," Igola said. "Now then..." "Blue flames signify a trial constructed by the Grand Law of Dust Calamitous Fire," Chikala noted, looking puzzled. "Wait... the Grand Law of Killing Calamitous Fire, the Grand Law of Dust Calamitous Fire... weren't those grand laws supposed to be in..." Though the orc snapped his mouth shut, those who needed to catch on had already done so. "Let's move," Yaxiu said calmly. "We're here to save Tamashi."