Chapter 131
131 Alaya fragments
“I want you no 1080,” he said in a particularly disgusting and ambiguous tone.
Nicholas was stunned with the man’s words, not because of the ambiguous tone but the set of numbers he said after, it had been a long time since he heard those sequence of numbers, he knew what they meant and represented.
It was the number he was assigned when he was a child and the only name he had for a long time. Nicholas was an orphan since he could remember he had been at the orphanage with a bunch of his peers, it wasn’t a regular orphanage but one funded and operated by the Nameless an assassin organization and a religious cult, indoctrination started at the tender age of 3 drugs and various techniques were applied to simulate and accelerate development, the next few years would be spent undergoing cruel inhuman training and brainwashing and poisoning in order to enable the participants to become ‘nameless’ a profession unique to the sect.
The intensity of the training naturally meant few were successful, the unsuccessful products naturally died or were disabled Nicholas was one of the unsuccessful ones but he managed to survive thanks to his unusual talents.
“From the looks of it you don’t seem to be missing money to hire a professional killer, what’s more, I am still a student professional there isn’t much I can help you with” Nicholas stated having calmed himself down.
“Oh, you underestimate your value,
Why do you think you still can’t advance after all this time, it’s because you’re a marvel an unprecedented and unexpected miracle a living Alaya fragment.” He said feverishly with unconcealed zeal and excitement in his tone.
“Alaya fragment?” Nicholas asked curiously it was the first time he had heard this term.
“Why are you wasting time Jorah.” a dark chilly voice suddenly sounded, it was coming from the cloaked dark figure that had been silent all this while.
.....
The smiling man who Nicholas now identified as Jorah frowned at the interruption but said nothing and walked out of the room, the black robed figure remained silent just motioned towards the slab where Nicholas was imprisoned and the heavy platform easily levitated following the cloaked figure who was also leaving the room.
Nicholas perception was unaffected by his restraints the restraints only reduced the bonuses he got from the student profession which was negligible for Nicholas at this point as most of his combat power came from his talent and wisdom but now judging from Jorah’s words it seemed his talent was more mysterious and important.
Although the restraints did not pose too much of a hindrance to him but the injuries on his body were paramount in limiting his means and movement, simply being awake was already putting a strain on his severely injured body and his talent was heavily dependent on his body, the external manifestation of the talent was the perception of various magnetic fields and his body was like a lever a conduit through which various subtle movement could be made to influence and shake the surrounding magnetic field to produce miraculous effects, the student profession only helped to increase his spirit and healing speed allowing him to learn and develop faster than usual.
The long empty hallway seemed to finally end as they walked into a room filled with various red crystals and candles, the smell of blood lingered in the air and a ritual circle was outlined with fresh blood and in the centre of the circle stood an altar made with human flesh that seemed to have been combined strengthened and merged to form the structure that was the sacrificial altar. Nicholas couldn’t help but cough up blood as he hastily tried to curb his perception, the room was filled with a chaotic and weird atmosphere that seemed to distort the various magnetic field of all objects around, the smiling man was glowing a reddish colour to isolate himself from the harmful and vile environment while the black-robed figure remained the same unaffected, the slab Nicholas was tied to floated onto the altar and rested there in a vertical posture.
Being on the altar naturally made Nicholas worse his brain was overloaded and affected by his increased stay in such an environment, the last sight he saw was the smiling man’s eyes that lit up in unbound excitement and anticipation.
Jorah couldn’t help but be in high spirits he was about to complete a feat that would put him in the hallmarks of history, he was about to sacrifice the first and possibly the only living Alaya fragment in existence, although he wasn’t exactly sure what the sacrifice signified but judging from the importance his lord attached to it and the huge price his paid to his collaborators, the successful achievement of the plan could be comparable to the star fall event.
It was well known that the Alaya fragments were fragments of knowledge that emerged from the star fall event, the astral that housed most knowledge disintegrated and fell to the main plane, the reason for the emergence of geniuses was from the fragments of the astral plane, the knowledge and power contained in these fragments disintegrated as it descended to the material plane and fused with the world upgrading everyone’s qualifications, increasing the worlds energy allowing inspiration to easily flow and reducing the barriers to professional creation, just like when glass breaks the fragments are never uniform, and so bigger fragments were slower to dissipate and merge with the world, the biggest size of those un dissipated fragments of knowledge are what is known as Alaya fragments, the fragments not only contained knowledge of the world but also of deities, there were numerous Alaya fragments filled with divinity being scattered around, it was these fragments that enabled several churches and cults to exist despite the deities themselves being unconnected from the material plane.
Alaya fragments were both special and useless, some fragments were basically useless containing knowledge too simple to be of any use and some were special powerful enough to create a new profession and group through the knowledge contained in it, the psionic knights one of the strongest forces in the world today is a good example of this scenario, the group emerged only a few days after star fall and quickly grew at alarming speeds to become one of the strongest forces in the world today.