Rivers of the Night - Chapter 360

Chapter 360: Nine
Theron’s eyes narrowed. What was this man going on about? What was going on here, exactly?

The man’s sneer only deepened. But the moment he began to speak, Theron could hear the pain in his voice. This wasn’t a pain of betrayal, but true pain.

He looked down at the man’s hands and saw veins crawling around them. His body had tensed so much he was practically like a leaf trembling in cold wind, moments away from breaking free of its branch and being crushed beneath a boot on snowy ground.

‘Speaking is hurting him…’

“There are only nine True Branches of the Daggers of the Night. The rest are red herrings. It’s quite easy to tell which is which. If they have a Dagger Call Arena and a layout exactly like this one, it is one of them.

“The nine True Branches of the Daggers of the Night only exist for one reason: to protect their piece of the moon. However, over time, they’ve each lost theirs. As of now, I believe that only two branches still have their own, the rest having been stripped away by various families across the continent, most of which have been concentrated in the hands of the Seijin…

“It’s said that on a night when the nine moons align, there’ll be an opportunity to break the shackles of the Divine Realm, and these nine pieces of the moon will be pivotal in allowing such a chance.

“However, just the moon alone isn’t enough. It’s said that a True Chosen is needed, a descendant of great talent capable of triggering a powerful enough Tribulation when the time comes. Only when the Mandate of the Heavens is strong enough, and the moons are aligned, can one come together to break this shackle.

“After the first of the moon rocks were lost to other powers, the Daggers of the Night realized that it would be impossible to hide themselves entirely, so they began to forge dummy hideouts to obscure the real ones. In the end, it was effective in dragging out the time, but it was nowhere near perfect—thus why only two remain now.

“There is another reason why others are after these moon rocks, though. It is said that having one guarantees reaching the Divine Realm so long as you can cross your Gold Mancy Tribulation. Given enough time, anyone with one of them will make it.

“It’s truly something… everyone on the continent wants to get their hands on one… everyone…”

The man suddenly hacked up a mouthful of blood.

Theron stood in silence, thinking of the moon rock in his possession and how the moment he touched it, it tried to progress his Resonance to Runebound. Had he not stopped it and chosen to take his own path, how much stronger would it have made him?

Was this why it made you so powerful?

Somehow, Theron doubted it. It was something different.

The feeling of holding the moon was like… a suppression that had perpetually been on his chest was suddenly lifted, stripped away. Then something inside of him boiled, as though it could finally exhibit its greatest power all of a sudden.

Then a Resonance he didn’t know he had bloomed, and that was what caused the surge.

It wasn’t the moon itself, necessarily, giving him power. It was almost like if he held the moon… whatever was suppressing him no longer hated him.

And it seemed that that was the same for everyone else as well.

But it was odd… Theron had always felt a oneness with the moon. His dance in the Secret Realm of the Luminescent Moon Sect had been quite in tune with the moon.

He still remembered feeling the best attunement with the bluer moons, and less so for the more violet ones.

He couldn’t help but wonder if that was still the case now or not.

“You still haven’t explained this platform,” Theron said calmly.

The man chuckled darkly.

“The nine branches correspond to the nine moons. It’s said that attuning yourself to the moon requires the utmost truthfulness of the heart. Without it, you won’t be able to use the moon rock when she gives it to you anyway.”

Theron raised an internal eyebrow. You needed this platform to do that? Why did he not? And didn’t that mean that the other moon rocks that were stolen were useless?

Unless… they had taken the platforms too?

That seemed to be the most likely answer.

But that left even more questions for Theron. How does one even get their hands on a piece of the moon to begin with? Who could possibly fly that high? Go that far?

He had never seen anyone with that level of power to begin with. And if such a person had such power, wouldn’t it mean that they had already broken free of the shackles? So why would they care about the people left behind?

Presumably, a person with such power would already be capable of taking away whomever they wanted to take with them. Theron couldn’t fathom why anyone would care enough to leave something like this behind.

He had seen too much of the world to feel that anyone was capable of doing this purely out of the kindness of their heart. The world was far too cruel.

There had to be another reason for it, a shadow lurking in the light somewhere that he wasn’t seeing.

But that answered his question nonetheless. This should be the real reason the old assassin wanted him to stabilize this place.

Unless this place was stabilized, it would be fragile to attack. And if that happened, the Daggers of the Night would lose yet another moon rock… seemingly one of their last two.

There were still more questions that Theron had, but this was clearly the extent of the man’s knowledge. He had stopped talking, huffing for breath as he clutched at his chest. He was very nearly at the end of his rope completely.

Chi.

The Alpha suddenly moved, beheading him when he was none the wiser.