Chapter 131: A Discovery, Interstice Invaded

"Bang!" Wang Yu, his arms locked firmly around the neck of the massive winter wolf, used his raw strength to slam the pack leader into the frozen earth. The sheer force of the impact left the beast with bloodshot eyes and gore spilling from its ears and maw, yet it seemed entirely unaffected, scrambling to regain its footing and launch a counterattack.

"Hmph!" Wang Yu had planned for the wolf’s trajectory, and Edward was already waiting, his blade drawn, intercepting the beast’s sliding path.

Aura surged into the sword, the blade vibrating violently as it reached the threshold of what a standard hunter’s steel could withstand. With a sharp flick, the iron sword shattered into a spray of fragments in Edward’s grip, but a crescent of condensed aura had already been unleashed—a Rising Slash!

Much like the secret knight techniques of the Inner-Dive, once a warrior’s aura reserves and control reach a certain zenith, they can manifest their energy physically—a feat usually reserved for Grand Knights. Edward, as a formal knight with exceptionally potent aura, was exactly such a man.

The blade of aura sliced through the air. Though it appeared deceptively dull, its destructive power was staggering. Having anticipated the wolf’s roll, the arc sheared through its hind legs without a moment’s hesitation, vanishing into the woods after cleaving two unfortunate pine trees in half.

The wolf leader’s hind legs were severed at the root, steaming, crimson blood gushing from the stumps.

These winter wolves were not inherently enhanced; they were simply driven mad, devoid of fear or pain, and consumed by a primal bloodlust. This made them lethally dangerous to hunters who were unprepared. Yet, the pack leader—a beast roughly equivalent to a mid-tier formal knight—had lost its reason, and without the tactical cunning of a true predator, it became far easier to manage. Having already slaughtered the pack, Wang Yu and Edward faced no real trouble from this crippled beast.

Even with its legs shorn away, the wolf leader showed no sign of agony or retreat. It threw its head back, jaws wide to reveal jagged fangs, and let out a piercing, guttural roar.

"Awooo... gurgle!" A blue-white light flickered deep within its throat, and the temperature around its maw plummeted, plunging well below zero. The magic crystal within its body was channeling its innate spell-like ability: Winter’s Howl.

But the long, shrill howl was abruptly cut short, as if someone had stuffed a sock into the throat of a screaming man.

And that was essentially what happened. Wang Yu, sprinting at full speed, slid across the snow and jammed his right hand directly into the wolf’s gaping maw. The superior quality of his Void-Blade gauntlet protected his hand from the razor-sharp fangs.

The Weaver’s Tome had been activated long ago. He cast a simple Fireball—not for the negligible damage it would deal to a formal knight-level beast, but for the elemental reaction it would trigger.

The fire element reacted violently with the ice magic deep in the wolf’s throat. Wang Yu’s gauntleted hands sealed the destructive force within the beast’s body. A muffled explosion echoed, and the wolf leader’s abdomen visibly swelled before collapsing inward.

The massive carcass slumped. Wang Yu pulled his smoking right hand from the wolf’s mouth, a ripple of energy sweeping over the area to confirm the kill.

"What is going on with these packs? We’ve had beast tides for years without issues, but this time... it’s hard not to think of those people in Seuvintan."

Wang Yu frowned. Around them, the sounds of screaming and explosions continued, though more roars and howls joined the fray; it seemed the hunters who had been caught off guard were realizing the wolves’ strength hadn't fundamentally changed and were launching their own counterattacks.

"Unclear. Let’s see if we can find anything on these carcasses. If these wolves are abnormal, something must have changed them."

Edward stepped forward, eyeing the giant corpse.

"Right." Wang Yu nodded, thinking the same. He crouched and pressed his hand against the wolf’s body. Ripples of energy surged from his palm into the lifeless husk, searching for traces of the Void or magical anomalies.

After a long moment, Wang Yu shook his head, his expression clouded with confusion and frustration.

"What is it? Nothing?" Edward knew Wang Yu possessed a highly effective detection ability, but his current demeanor suggested a problem.

"I found nothing. Aside from the shredded organs and the magic crystal—which holds a fair amount of mana—there are no other supernatural factors. It’s nothing like the devices I found in the brains of those goblins outside the city..."

"That’s... impossible."

"I agree. These wolves couldn't have gone mad for no reason. Something must have altered them, but I can’t sense a trace of the Void or any magical residue... Damn it!"

As Wang Yu explained the failure of his ripple-scan to Edward, he felt a strange, unsettling sense of familiarity. Just then, a spray of blood erupted from the wolf’s skull. A fleshy, tentacle-like mass shot out with impossible speed, hurtling toward Wang Yu’s forehead.

The attack was sudden, devoid of any magical, Void, or aura signature. It launched from the skull just inches away, moving at a speed nearly invisible to the naked eye, its tentacles writhing with clear, malicious intent toward Wang Yu’s brain.

The strike was so swift that Wang Yu’s consciousness hadn't even registered it. By the time he snapped back to reality, his body had already caught the thing in its grip. He looked at the creature—a mass of writhing, worm-like appendages—and cursed.

"What the hell is this? Why is there no signature? Did it shield my ripples?"

Wang Yu felt a flicker of relief. One of the requirements for his physical training was that his body should be able to react even if his consciousness was delayed—a goal that was clearly paying off.

"Is this thing shielding my ripples?" Wang Yu stared at the mass of tangled, slimy tentacles. It hadn't been detected by his scan. Once he was certain he had it restrained, he fell into a deeper, more pressing line of thought.

His ripples had failed to detect it. In all his previous encounters, his ability could be blocked, but never bypassed without notice. If this thing could truly hide from his scan, his ability’s effectiveness would be severely compromised.

"Wait..." As he observed the writhing mass, he realized the flaw in his grim conclusion. The tangled cluster of tentacles seemed to possess no supernatural power at all.

Refusing to give the creature a chance, Wang Yu crushed it into a pulp. He returned to the wolf’s side, found the blood-slicked hole in the skull, and probed it with his ripples.

"So that’s it..." Probing the cranial cavity, Wang Yu found a void in the wolf’s brain that perfectly matched the shape of the tentacle mass. It had been latched onto the brain, and for some reason, it had leaped out to attack him.

Refining his scan, he saw more details: dense, microscopic pipes connected to the wolf’s brain. It was clear—the tentacles had used these filaments to manipulate the wolf’s mind, driving the leader into its frenzy.

"Is this thing purely biological? That’s why my anti-supernatural scan found nothing?" The reason for his failure became clear.

His ripples hadn't failed; the creature was simply a product of biological engineering. All its power stemmed from its own anatomy. Because it wasn't "supernatural," his scan had treated it as normal biological tissue, just like a goblin, an orc, or an elf.

Wang Yu’s brow furrowed. While he was glad his ability hadn't failed, the implications of this discovery left him with an uneasy feeling. Had he overlooked something?

"!" A sharp whistling sound from behind jolted him from his thoughts. He rolled sideways, narrowly dodging a spinning disc of ice that had been launched from the forest, cleaving trees and boulders in two as it flew.

He turned to see a blizzard spreading through the woods. Something was emerging.

"Awooo...!" A discordant howl echoed. A white wolf, even larger than the pack leader, stepped out of the forest. Strangely, its eyes were bloodshot but not entirely red. It shook its massive head, and two more ice discs formed out of thin air, hurtling toward Wang Yu and Edward.

At such close range, the attack was nearly impossible to evade. Wang Yu, still mid-roll, was clipped by the disc.

His leather armor and chainmail offered only slight protection, and his sorcerous barrier shattered instantly. A deep gash opened across his back, but the blood that should have sprayed was instantly frozen. A biting, extreme cold began to invade his body.

The frost collided with the sudden, searing heat of his blood as he triggered the Blood-Burn Drive. His own boiling blood, fueled by his body’s relentless energy, purged the cold.

Wang Yu stood, white steam rising from his skin, looking fierce and formidable. But as he stared at the wolf king, his words lacked any bravado.

"Edward, run!"

A Grand Knight-level beast, no matter how strange its state, was not something they could handle—not when Edward had already been wounded by a single strike.

Waiting for reinforcements was their only option.

……

"Understood, I’m on my way..." Shuguin set down his communication device, picked up the pipe from the corner of his desk, took a deep drag, and pushed open his office door, stepping into the passage within the "Interstice."

"Squelch!" A thick, sharp tentacle made of flesh and bone pierced his body the moment he entered. The force was so great that the blade at the tip of the tentacle punched clean through the office door behind him.

"Shuguin, Captain of the Night’s Edge. If not for your Inner-Dive, you’d be dead. Never let your guard down. Have you been sitting in that office handling paperwork so long that you’ve gone soft?"

A strange voice echoed in the corridor, emanating from a mass of rotting flesh clinging to the wall.

The "Shuguin" who had been pierced dissolved into mist, reforming intact on the other side of the hallway. He appeared unharmed, but the gravity in his eyes was unprecedented.

"How did you enter the Interstice?" Shuguin asked coldly, though he expected no answer.

"Don't recognize me? I suppose you wouldn't, not in this state. My old nemesis... you’re so confident in this space? It’s nothing more than a crack between reality and the Void."

"You don't really think it’s secure, do you? Look at me—I’m in a state between Void and matter. That’s how I got in. Alastair really is like a sieve, isn't it?"

The raspy, discordant voice emanated from the rotting mass, which then writhed into a humanoid shape. "Shuguin Smoke, now, you aren't going anywhere."

As the mass took on a human form, Shuguin’s pupils trembled uncontrollably.

"Captain of the Abyss Gate Expedition Team... Odit..." The identity of the intruder was revealed in Shuguin’s whispered words.