Chapter 1660 — Wrongness

Lex only just finished reading when the projection changed, taking on the shape of a large, worn time. On the cover, in the same ancient language, were written the words 'Book of Changes'.

Lex had to close and rub his eyes. The sight of the Book of Changes alone caused a huge weight to fall upon Lex, about 1% of his total capacity to bear, if his guess was correct. That was, by far, the greatest weight he had accumulated so far.

As if that alone was not enough, Lex's eyes felt a great strain on them, as if the sight was too much for him to see. Both the sensation of weight and the strain quickly vanished, yet the urge to rub his eyes did not fade.

Fortunately, when he opened his eyes again, more weight did not fall on his soul. He opened the book carefully, ready to close his eyes at the slightest hint of more weight, but nothing happened. Instead, he only saw a large, weathered page with a single character on it, as well as a simple description of the characters use underneath.

He turned the page and saw more characters in the following pages, with nothing else in the entire book. The whole book was merely sixty four pages, which made the characters easy to remember.

The issue was that each character was complex and abstract, their uses not so simple or straightforward. He had no idea how to use them, but that would likely become clear as he proceeded through the city. Hopefully.

Once he was sure that he had memorized the characters, Lex left the stage, following the path outside the theater. At least the city looked beautiful. He just had to be extremely careful about what he saw and did - he didn't want to accumulate unnecessary weight. He finally understood why Kaemon was so cautious about it.

As soon as he exited the theater, the path led through a large neighborhood of large, well decorated buildings. Since the path did not lead into them, Lex did not try entering and exploring either. He had thoroughly understood how the weight of knowledge could be a curse or a blessing, and pushing things was a great way of leaning towards being cursed. After all, he did not know how much weight he would accumulate as he walked through the ruins.

As he passed one marble arch after another, admiring immaculate marble sculptures of things such as trees, flowers, animals and even geographical features, such as volcanoes, he silently observed the entire ruin, and more importantly, the space of the ruin.

His main reason for coming to the ruins was to verify how Abaddon treats this place. The ever changing, ever fluid state of Abaddon made it all but impossible to find something within. The ruins, however, seemed to be significant points around which the space of Abaddon was fixed - at least according to what he was told by Kaemon - just as the jungle was a fixed point.

If he learned enough about these fixed points in Abaddon to recognize their signatures and find them, then their chances of finding the Chalice would increase drastically. At least it would be far more likely than their current plan of hoping they stumble onto the chalice.

So, he employed his mind to the utmost, absorbing everything about the ruins and the space around it as he could, while remaining careful not to stray from the path.

It was as a result of such extreme concentration that Lex noticed the first anomaly. It was not an anomaly with space, or Abaddon. Rather, it was a wrongness about the ruins, about the city, that could neither be explained nor clearly identified. Yet its influence, while subtle, was undeniable.

Upon examining the city for a while longer, Lex realized that one source of the wrongness was the stage he had just come from, while another was his destination along the path. It seemed like a massive public well.

Lex was reminded of the words of the challenge. He had to see through what was real and what was fantasy, identify heaven and hell, and bring balance between order and chaos.

Could it be that the wrongness was the imbalance? That would make sense. He had never felt something like this before. In fact, if he hadn't been paying attention, he might not have even noticed.

Lex paused for a moment, considering whether to turn back and return to the theater to correct the imbalance there, if he could. He decided it would be for the best and turned around, yet the path had disappeared.

Lex had been walking on a paved road from the moment he entered this city, and though there was no obstruction preventing him from stepping off of it, out of caution he decided against it. Now learning that the path disappeared behind him finally added a bit of pressure in this otherwise peaceful environment.

If there were no threats of unusual occurrences, it just wouldn't feel like Abaddon.

Despite his desire to go back and fix the first imbalance, Lex decided to go against it. Just this once, his performance would have to be less than perfect.

He resumed his journey, entering the rectangular building that also served as a public well. Once inside, he noticed that the well was rectangular, like the building, and there were steps on each of the four sides descending ever deeper into the water.

There were also paved paths, as if for large animals to enter into the water, or more likely, to approach the water and drink from it.

As it happened, there was another mural, painted right on the surface of the water. While the concept was beautiful, Lex's inner gamer told him there was probably some secret hidden in the water. Yet for once, Lex behaved. There was no going after universe grade secrets that could cause envy in the masses.

Instead, he simply studied the mural.

This time the veiled lady seemed to be missing. Instead, the serpent man sat languidly on a throne, holding a scepter with the taiji acting as the head of the scepter.