Chapter 1256: Taking Control
The octagon's aura of stars and enduring faith was poison to the corruption. Dense plumes of Dead Dao were pulled out of their bodies to be incinerated as they entered. Streaks were even dragged out of Zac's pores, much to his surprise. He thought he'd absorbed everything into [Purity of the Void], but some had clearly managed to embed itself without his notice. It was nothing compared to the large amounts of purple mist pouring out of the still-unconscious trio wrapped in his chains.
The intense pull of fate from the sun called on Zac's attention, and a voice of caution in the back of Zac's mind stopped him from rushing headlong toward it. Trying to take the Flamebearer seal now would be no different than a moth flying into the fire, literally. The sun perfectly positioned inside the octagon's center was the real deal, even if it only spanned ten meters across.
Zac was almost certain it was a linked copy of the sun powering the Centurion base. The energies it contained were blinding, far eclipsing the suns New Earth orbited. Entering would instantly turn him to ash. Furthermore, hundreds of solar flares covered almost the whole chamber. Tough, oddly enough, they sprung from arrays on the ground and entered the sun rather than the other way around. It made time appear to be moving in reverse, except there were no hints of Temporal Energy.
Their group would have been dead already if not for the installed arrays. The octagon was transforming the flares, removing the scorching heat they ought to have radiated. Faith transformed them, enlisting their intense power for its own purpose. However, approaching the spire could potentially trigger hidden defenses, turning the benign streaks into fingers of death.
The seal being out of reach didn't bother Zac. It'd be his after finishing the Flamebearer quest that tasked him with lighting the Centurion Beacon, which had to be done anyhow. He took in the chamber in search of clues. There was no big red button to light the beacon nor any consoles inside the large array.
"It's a copy of the base," Zac muttered.
The spire was a miniature version of the central tower they presumably stood inside. A magic circle far beyond Zac's comprehension was engraved on the ground around it, vaguely resembling the outer band. Seven subsidiary arrays were placed on the band at equidistant locations, finishing the replica by representing the outer towers. The base was a grand array powering or controlled by this small chamber.
Even the solar flares being born every second weren't random, except for a few that were malfunctioning. Their shape and direction held truths just outside Zac's reach, adding a third dimension to the array. Most flares sprung from the spire, forming an almost permanent shell that empowered it with intense faith.
Most of the remaining arcs originated from the seven subsidiary arrays, which briefly lit up wherever the sunlight emerged. Only a few stemmed from the outer band. Zac suspected the array was the main interface connecting the Centurion Base with the sun. Why that was necessary for the beacon remained a mystery, though.