Sovereign of the Karmic System

After several years of failed searches for information, Der and Roley found themselves, once again, rummaging through tons of mostly burnt paperwork.

They were currently standing on opposite sides of a quite large medieval style office, with walls, floor and roof made of clean cut large stones, and large wooden furniture. In the middle of the room, a pile of documents had been left unattended, yet growing larger by the minute at the rhythm of annoyed grunts.

Outside the four large wooden windows that occupied the majority of the eastern wall lay an abandoned city, painted red by the glowing rays of the planet's primary red sun, as well as a secondary smaller setting white star.

Falling from the skies like a meteor shower, thousands of cultivators dutifully landed onto the city's ground, then barged into what only minutes ago was private property to conduct their thorough investigation. Eventually, these cultivators would inevitably emerge with empty hands and disappointed faces.

This disappointment was, of course, shared by their two leaders, who had taken it upon themselves to investigate what they believed to be the workplace of the highest office within the planet.

Alongside them, a spatial elemental, tasked with discovering hidden pockets of space or recently closed rifts, and a distinct man with a hooked nose, who gave a second look at anything either Der or Roley would discard, before throwing what he confirmed to be useless into the pile.

"Nothing.. Nothing, nothing, nothing NOTHING!! AGAIN!" Der bellowed in an unsurprising feat of exasperation. The papers he was holding, now angrily scattered in the air, were quietly gathered by the cultivator with the hooked nose.

Roley too, in a calmer way, handed a folder of documents to the man with the cultivator before turning to look at the spatial elemental. "Nothing?" A question to which the elemental, a humanoid child with skin of pure diamonds, responded to with what he had learned to be a negative sign for humans-A shook of his head.

"What about survivors, are there any?"

This time, a voice emerged from the mouthless glowing figure. "No, my lord. Only billions of corpses, all piled at the feet of the temple. As always."

"Damn it!" Roley groaned in a quiet yell. "This wasn't even an invasion, we tried to infiltrate a few low elementals. How did they notice us?" The question was a rhetorical one, as none of those present had an answer for it, despite having been faced with it dozens of times, each time whilst standing on the ghastly shell of a city in a different planet.

Having managed to regain his calm, Der stopped rummaging through the piles of papers. Instead, he reached for the floor, on which stood the chest piece of his armor which he had removed for comfort. He was ready to call it, to give up on finding information from this planet, when suddenly, the head of the spatial elemental snapped to the side. "My lord, we found something."

Following the elemental's few words, a young man barged into the room and made a b-line towards the man with the hooked nose. In his hands, a sealed envelope whose origin was clearly not native to the Immortal Armada, but of the civilization whose territory they had just occupied. After searching through thousands of similar documents, the connection, to the four of them, was just natural.

The man with the hooked nose did not take the letter. Instead, he focused on the face of the cultivator. With a finger, he picked the bridge of his glasses, fixing their position on his nose. The moment he recognized the man, he gave a simple nod, implying to the young cultivator that he was allowed to approach the two leaders.

"Report." Der immediately ordered as he and Roley walked closer, both eager to inspect the content of the letter he was carrying.

Slightly nervous by the oppressive presence of the Overlord, as well as the entity the cultivator army had come to consider somewhat of a deity, the young man swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

"Sir, during the installation of the shrouding formation, one of the dark elementals noticed a distortion in the surrounding space. Upon investigation, he.. It? Well, the elemental discovered it to be a small formation embedded with the concepts of clouding and absorption of dark essence.. Meant to hide the delivery of this letter, we believe."

As he concluded his report, the cultivator outstretched his right arm to deliver the letter, only to find that the letter was already not in his possession anymore, but in Roley's hands.

In front of Der's and Roley's eyes, lay a simple envelope. A folded yellowed-out paper, sealed at the front with a stamp red-blood in color, bulging lightly to the touch. Even without opening it, both could tell that this was no official document, but a private letter.. No longer than one page.

Wonder why this letter deserved to be delivered with such secrecy, Roley hastily ripped the seal, unfolded the sheet it contained, and began to read.

"T.

My attempts at questioning the origin of the temples have been left unanswered, once again. I fear that any additional inquiries will only lead to an increase in suspicion, and given our plans, that is something I would rather avoid. I only pray that neither my, nor your planet is next in line for our invaders.

Evacuation also seems out of the question. My family, your nieces and grandnieces, whom I tried to send away, all came back. I could see confusion in their eyes, and a longing for a home that shouldn't be present in someone who has left their planet for mere hours.

It is these temples, I tell you! They draw you in. Nevertheless, I cannot feel a speck of Lord Sacrifice's power from them. We must be cautious of these blasted objects, brother, and until we know more about them, it is better you do not visit. Stay at the archive, and keep looking into it.

Be safe, your brother A."

"The archives!" Roley exclaimed in surprise.

Der, on the other hand, had already turned towards the young cultivator, to whom he asked, "Do you have the trajectory of this letter?"

The latter, expecting such a question, shook his head. "Negative Sir, the dark elemental mentioned that the path of the letter was erratic, likely to avoid revealing its destination."

Once again, Der shook his head in dejection. "Had the formation that carried the letter stayed untouched, we would have not known about its relevance to our investigation, and had we simply followed it, it could have led us across and around the universe forever."

As he came to this conclusion, Der could feel the last bit of hope drown into a sea of doubt, and exasperation. Years had passed since they had locked this universe, and yet, after conquering tens of worlds, they were left with nothing but seas of blood and lifeless corpses. Had the sects and families of such worlds been able to put up some sort of resistance, he could have at least taken some of his frustration on them, but that was not the case.

The moment the two armies would approach a planet, the population would mysteriously head to the temples, and sacrifice their own lives in the name of the aspect of Sacrifice, giving the two armies no time to question, or even capture a single child, let alone someone with useful information.

While Der delved into negative thoughts, Roley seemed to be on slightly higher spirits, for he had a few more cards left to play.

Holding the envelope in his hands, he closed his eyes and requested for a path to the letter's original recipient. No answer was given. The following request was for the system to create a path to the planet the recipient lived in, but once again, the system did not react. A third request for the system, and a fourth to reveal in which galaxy the recipient lived in, were also denied.

This came to no surprise to Roley, as he had already guessed such an outcome. After all, had he been able to use the system to find the archive, he would have done so long ago. The archive was being protected by a superior being.. The aspect of Sacrifice himself, or much more likely, another champion of Destiny.

On a positive note, he thought, this letter had confirmed that these temples were not created by the aspect of Sacrifice, but more likely, were part of the champion's powers. The same temples that, the moment they would approach an inhabited planet, would activate, and compel all inhabitants to destroy all useful information and commit mass suicide.

Unfortunately, while this bit of information answered one of their questions, it did not bring them any closer to finding the archives of Sacrifice's domain. Or so they thought.

"Lord Roley, may I see the envelope?" asked the hooked nosed cultivator right before the lord of the elementals could take his frustration onto the letter, and burn it to bits.

Unbothered, Roley handed the opened envelope to him, wondering what he could need it for. Yet, the moment the piece of folded paper changed hands, he came to a realization.

"The sigil does not match that of this planet." the cultivator mentioned before, once again, fixing his glasses. He raised the envelope, high up in the air, while facing the wall that towered before the office's broken desk. On the wall was a silver bronze shield on which was depicted a small altar placed on top of a steep hill.

The stamp on the sigil, on the other hand, depicted the same small altar and hill, but with the addition of a large sun, which shone beautifully onto the altar.

After pointing out this difference, a natural conclusion formed in Roley's head, a request to find the organization represented by that stamp. As this thought formed, a window immediately appeared.

____________________________

*Primary Quest started: Merry Reunion*

-Description: Obtain the location of the Archive of Blood and Bones. Find where the former followers of *?%§^|*, or their descendants, are being held.

First objective set: Infiltrate the Gold Peak Mountain Sect located in: (details). Obtain the location of the sect's 84th young master, Thoren.

Reward: Absolute devotion of the Elemental kin; Improved mental coordination for elemental attacks.

Time limit: ???

____________________________

A faint smile appeared on Roley's face. One that would have been much more evident, had the text of the mission been less odd. After all, the people he was looking for were Daniel's followers, yet the system had refused to mention his name.

Nevertheless, after years of pointless research, such a small detail was placed to the back of his mind. "I finally have one," he said.

"You do? What did you ask?" Der inquired in a somewhat doubtful manner. His hands almost mechanically reached for the straps located by the sides.

"The two people mentioned in this letter are not patriarchs of two different powers, but young masters of the same sect." he explained to both Der and the cultivator with the hooked nose. "After he pointed out the sigils, I realized this must have been a cadet branch of the main sect.. A sect that might have a way to locate each of their young masters."

Der was elated, to the point of giving up on fastening his cuirass and approaching his old friend instead. Yet, he was still slightly confused. Locating a specific sect or group was not something they had yet to try. Yet Roley's system had always denied such requests. "Why would your system be so useful all of a sudden? What changed?"

Roley once again closed his eyes, and after inspecting the window for a few moments, he opened them, revealing a bright moon and a black hole respectively laying onto a sea of darkness, and a milky white space. His lips were curved into a bright smile as he mentioned, "It's not in this universe."