Chess Mage of Faerûn

The other party's identity was astonishing, yet also expected. There were only a handful of beings in the entire Kaguya world who could project their thoughts from an infinite distance across the other side of the world.

The most likely candidate is Aghanim, who escaped the clutches of the Mad Moon by hiding in the Demon Vault.

"Greetings, Your Majesty Aghanim, it is my honor to communicate with you."

"Don't be so sour-mouthed like that old bastard Karl at such a young age. Get ready, I'm coming to pick you up."

"Huh?! Wait, take me there? How do I get there?"

"I'm still in a spiritual state, what about my body?"

"I…"

"Questions, doubts, everything will have an answer, and I think we have enough trust between us, it's time."

"We've never even met."

"Faith is the fact of what we hope for, the evidence of what we do not see."

The mage, who was still asking questions, received no response from Aghanim. Only a rustling sound came from the silk thread, like the vibrations caused by insects crawling.

creak~

It sounded as if a mirror had been scraped open, or something had been torn apart.

A ripple spread out from the origin of the crystal wall through the silk thread, and then spread out into a vortex on the surface of the wall. Two long tendrils emerged from the inside, followed by a large insect that used its hands and feet to pull itself out.

"Beep beep beep beep, the Weaver Express has arrived at the station. Passengers, please board the train as soon as possible."

It really was you!
The weaver, Schitzger, is said to be able to weave dimensional lines and travel through time and space.

The large insect in front of me looks like an ant or a cricket, and its mandibles and antennae make it look somewhat like a distant relative of a burrowing insect.

The original color of the other party could not be discerned. The weaver's body was completely shrouded in a hazy layer, and even from the perspective of a spirit, it was like looking at flowers through a fog.

"Hello, Skitz..."

"Four!"

? ?
"three!"

艹

Before he could take a closer look, the ant, eager to get going, urged the monk to come up.

When the time comes, one must be bold. The other party, who has placed so many bets on him, will not go to great lengths to harm him.

"Give me a ride."

"Beep beep beep beep, hold on tight, loom—start!"

He let the giant ant's antennae entangle his spirit body, and with a pull, he was dragged into a dimensional vortex. Then the vortex shrank into a singularity, the storm subsided, and everything returned to normal.

Shifting the perspective to the person involved, Zhang Yuan felt as if he were being compressed and sucked into a strange passage, like a drop of water flowing through a tap.

Inside the dimensional pipe, the Weaver revealed its true form, its entire body a yellow-black hue resembling a wasp, looking less like a large ant and more like a large wasp.

The giant wasp huffed and puffed as it made its way, while the mage sat comfortably on its back, its two antennae fastened around his waist like a seatbelt.

"My physical body is still in that world. If I go to your place like this, will it have any impact?"

He still remembered this matter.

"What are you worrying about, kid? It took a lot of effort to weave this dimensional line using several strands of Creation Silk. It's thanks to it that we were able to get those old guys behind that wall. When has it ever held you back?"

As soon as the Weaver finished speaking, Ahalim's message arrived. "Fear stems from the unknown. Your spirituality is not yet sufficient to support the projection of cross-dimensional consciousness while maintaining the clarity of your physical body. Shedding your physical body is like traveling naked, so it is normal to worry."

"Don't worry, just come."

With a mix of trepidation and curiosity, the monk struck up a conversation with the weaver who was on his way:

"I've heard that most of the powerful beings in the Kaguya world were devoured and imprisoned by the Mad Moon. Is the Veil of Creation really that powerful? Even the Mad Moon couldn't do anything about it."

"Dududu, it is great! The great veil of creation has existed since the beginning of the world. The spacetime dimensions of the universe are all woven and created by it. The power of the Mad Moon is not worthy of distorting the existence of this position."

But I didn't see you get anyone else out either.
However, it was not easy to say this directly, so the monk subtly inquired and learned that the matter was complicated.

"To traverse the world and connect the universe is indeed a great miracle. Perhaps, like guiding me, it can lead their spirits out of the Mad Moon. As for their physical bodies, we can make other plans later?"

"Beep! Easier said than done. They've been receiving the Mad Moon's 'blessing' for so many years, their very spiritual essence is tainted by the Mad Moon's crystalline brilliance. They might want to run away, but would the Mad Moon let them go?"

"But the Veil of Creation sheltered you."

"Beep beep beep beep, of course, I am Skitzger, the master weaver who travels through the dimensions of time and space."

"Well, actually, the rest of us who were drifting outside the plane and the main dimension were spared. Only the big black bird that was the Foreshadower was caught up in the process of trying to warn everyone in the main plane, but the Mad Moon came down so quickly that it was wiped out in one fell swoop."

"Beep beep beep, we've arrived. If you have any questions, go ask the old man. He's been studying the power of Mad Moon for many years, and no one knows it better than him."

The ripples of spacetime resurfaced, accompanied by another feeling of extreme compression and stretching. In an instant, we were separated from the colorful dimensional passage that seemed to be woven from the aurora borealis, and arrived at a place that was both unfamiliar and somewhat familiar.

The weaver urged Master Zhang to climb down his back, and the sorcerer's spirit floated up into the void, looking up.

Under the dim light of the dome, a series of sky-blue secret chambers and courtyards are scattered like stars, closely connected, and arranged in a staggered manner to form a honeycomb structure like an hourglass.

Each courtyard rises and falls suspended in mid-air, sometimes coupled with each other, sometimes staggered, and is arranged in a continuous pattern to construct a huge dimensional maze.

The Secret Court of Demons—Ahalim's Labyrinth of Heaven and Earth!

The entire maze was like a giant hourglass, constantly rotating, inverting, and reorganizing itself in the void, shrouded in azure bubbles. Only the connecting point at the center remained fixed in the void, like a beacon anchor.

"Come with me, don't be scared."

The weaver, with six legs, paddled through the void, leisurely approaching the hourglass space, shrinking the space to an inch, seemingly slow but actually fast.

The mage travels through the void in a spiritual form, which, although not comparable to traveling in the ethereal realm, is still incredibly fast.

The closer one gets to Blue Bubble Space, the more magnificent and ever-changing its atmosphere becomes, and the process of rapidly flying over it gives one the feeling of rushing towards a strange celestial body.

In an instant, they arrived in front of the blue tent. The weaver plunged inside, followed closely by the mage, like two meteors piercing the sky and crashing down.

Upon entering the blue bubble, instead of experiencing freefall in the atmosphere, it felt like stepping into the edge of a black hole's event horizon and being captured by gravity. The intangible spirit was bent and stretched like light.

The world spun around Zhang Yuan, who felt like a rubber band being thrown into a washing machine, as if he had been separated from his physical body. The whole world was spinning and twisting in his perception.

Once everything had calmed down, the monk, who felt no hindrance, relaxed slightly and began to examine his surroundings.

The sky and earth are the same color, all a deep blue.

The view from within the maze is different from what I saw before. The overall shape of the maze is clearly an hourglass, but what do I see now?

The monk stood in mid-air, looking down upon this world. The courtyards of various realms were arranged like stacked stones on a ladder, resembling a cone or a pyramid.

Or rather, half an hourglass.

Thank you to kanshume, book friend 20180830050409808, Tianyuan Kugou, Yuqin Guzong Zongran Mancheng Sao, and Shuji Wuming 2 for your monthly ticket support. I also wish all book friends a happy new year!