Chapter 167: An Answer Beyond Expectations

"What is that!?" Wang Yu reacted the instant little Daniel appeared so abruptly. Whatever the thing was, it was undeniably a harbinger of malice.

"Boom!" He snatched the Furnace's Fury from his waist, and after a brief delay, Wang Yu raised the muzzle and fired without hesitation. It was his most powerful weapon; regardless of the intruder's intent, he would strike first.

A crimson beam of light tore through space, hurtling toward the old man emerging from the rift in Daniel's chest. The violent explosion he anticipated never came; the bullet, packed with immense magical energy, seemed to slow down, suddenly stalling in mid-air before the old man.

"Using such a toy against me? Are you looking down on me? Breaking through Samuel's barriers cost me some strength, but to think this trifle could harm me is nothing but a delusion."

The old man expanded the void rift in Daniel's chest at a leisurely pace, crawling out bit by bit. His movements were sluggish, befitting his elderly appearance, yet Wang Yu dared not underestimate him. Was this time sorcery?

A spherical, invisible field manifested around the old man, revealed to Wang Yu only by the dust settling in the library.

The dust particles betrayed the shape of the field, hanging suspended on its surface as if frozen in time. Yet Wang Yu knew they were still moving...

For the high-velocity charged bullet was now struggling to push forward, as if caught in a slow-motion sequence, crawling through the field at a glacial pace.

Perhaps "slow motion" was the wrong term; the bullet's time had been shackled, its flow reduced to a crawl. A sixth-circle spell? Time Dilation.

"Instant-cast sixth-circle sorcery... Who is this guy? A Grand Archmage? No, even they struggle to instant-cast sixth-circle spells. A Legend?"

Wang Yu felt a chill. He recognized the spell: a sixth-circle incantation that slowed the passage of time for everything within its radius—save for the caster—by dozens or even hundreds of times. It was both a formidable defense and a terrifying form of control.

"This toy, I return it to you." The old man climbed out of the rift, ignoring little Daniel—whose body collapsed inward into the void and vanished entirely—and walked to the side of the bullet, which was still creeping toward its original target, before reaching out to grab it.

The moment his palm touched the projectile, the energy-laden bullet vanished without a trace, as if erased from the world entirely.

"Wang Yu, watch out!" Elvia’s urgent warning rang out. She channeled her mana, aiming at a point where she sensed a spatial anomaly.

She intended to collapse the rift before it could manifest, but her speed was too slow, and the old man’s was far too fast.

"Damn it!" Wang Yu’s ripples caught the spatial distortion a heartbeat after the girl, but the bullet, erased by the old man, tore through space without warning and fired from the back of Wang Yu’s head.

Elvia attempted to use her nascent spatial arts to erase the rift, but before her mana could even begin to circulate, the rift opened, and the searing bullet flew out, aimed directly at Wang Yu’s skull.

It was too fast. The old man raised his hand, the bullet vanished; he lowered his hand, and the bullet tore through space toward Wang Yu’s nape. There was not a millisecond of hesitation. The old man wielded the power of the void with more ease than a knight commanded his own limbs.

The charged shot of the Furnace's Fury was Wang Yu's strongest attack; it could severely wound a Great Knight, let alone strike his vulnerable nape without mitigation. No matter how potent his recovery, a shattered skull meant certain death.

At this moment, no one could react to the sudden assault. The girl was too slow to cast, and Wang Yu, though he sensed the bullet through his ripples, lacked the capacity to evade.

In a single exchange, Wang Yu was about to die, dismissed by a mere wave of the old man's hand.

No one could react, but that did not mean a being who had transcended humanity could not. Before the bullet could strike the barrier Wang Yu had desperately forced into existence—a spell far too weak to mitigate such power—Samuel acted.

Wang Yu’s vision blurred, and his position shifted. His spatial coordinates had been swapped. The bullet pierced empty air and slammed into the library floor, exploding with a "boom" that tore a charred, blackened scar into the wooden planks.

"Boy, be careful. I don't want the last guest to visit my library to have his head blown off by his own attack."

Samuel’s calm voice echoed in Wang Yu’s ear. His tone was steady, yet Wang Yu sensed a heavy gravity beneath it; Samuel was not as composed as he appeared.

"My thanks, Librarian."

Wang Yu offered his gratitude, realizing now that this intruder was beyond his ability to fight. A Legendary sorcerer? What a joke; such a being could kill him with a single thought.

"Are you here to destroy my library before I fade away? I welcome guests, but for uninvited ones like you, I shall show no mercy."

Samuel had moved Wang Yu to Elvia’s side, avoiding the lethal shot. Despite the Dark Archive, this library was his domain. Looking at the charred hole in the floor, Samuel’s tone turned cold.

"Old friend, I have no desire to cross you. Just hand over what Roland left behind—the Dark Archive and that key—and I will not disturb your slumber. After all, such a grand choice is something only you could have made among our old circle. I would hate to ruin such a magnificent decision, respected Mr. Samuel."

The old man smiled, watching Samuel—who stood beside the panting Wang Yu and the tense Elvia—with the air of someone chatting with an old friend.

"Yale, if you truly considered me a friend, you would not have come to disturb my slumber at this hour."

Samuel’s voice was laced with anger, his words sharp and unforgiving.

"Ah, if I didn't choose the time of your fading, I wouldn't be confident in taking down the 'Firekeeper.' Also, I don't care for the name Yale anymore. I prefer to be called Mr. Roland. So, if you would, please address me as such."

The old man’s words remained smiling, but the malice and paranoia within were clear to both Wang Yu and Elvia.

"You’ve gone mad, Yale. You want to become Roland? I will not let you harm my guests, nor will the Dark Archive fall into your hands."

Samuel did not change his address, his stance resolute, offering no room for compromise.

"Perhaps I am mad. Who among us who has touched the void for too long isn't? You are still the Samuel I knew. So noble, guarding knowledge, sheltering the innocent... ha, it makes me sick."

The old man watched Samuel, his smile turning cold, his teeth gritting in disgust.

"Fine. I pierced your physical barriers for this very moment. I want to see how much power you have left before you fade."

As the old man’s expression shifted into madness and coldness, he waved his hand again. The surrounding space began to tear. Wang Yu felt it: the library, where the scent of the void had been faint, was now being invaded by its presence.

The wooden floor and ceiling were shredded by void rifts, revealing the star-speckled abyss beyond.

Then, grotesque void creatures poured out—beings more incomprehensible, more contrary to the laws of life, and more lethal than anything from the Source of Life. They surged toward Samuel, radiating a maddening psychic pollution.

"Destroying my library... you have become truly despicable, Yale."

Facing the endless swarm of void creatures—tangled flesh, bone and teeth overgrowing, eyes and tentacles writhing—Samuel cared only for the library space being torn apart, the ruined shelves, and the knowledge vanishing with them.

"Snap!" Samuel raised the arm previously hidden by his robes and flicked his fingers. A sharp crack echoed through the library. With that sound, the entire library shifted; the space itself began to reconfigure.

The floor turned into individual cubes, and the shelves began to assemble and rearrange. In the blink of an eye, the world turned, and the library’s space was rebuilt.

The void rifts that had torn through the floor and ceiling were no longer anchored there; they now hung in empty air. Wang Yu saw the endless, upward-spiraling staircase he had encountered on his first visit.

The void rifts appeared in the air above this infinite staircase, and the emerging creatures began to plummet into the hollow center of the spiral.

The staircase had no top and no bottom. Wang Yu watched as the void creatures, pouring from the rifts, began their eternal descent.

"As expected, you have the advantage on your home turf. Overlapping portals, a pseudo-infinite spatial prison... these void creatures can't touch you. Even near your fading, you are still the strongest soul closest to Roland."

The old man’s voice was icy as he watched his summoned swarm begin their endless fall, easily neutralized.

"If you know it is futile, why disturb my slumber? To foul this place before I fade is truly infuriating. Get out."

Samuel displayed the same attitude he had when he thought Wang Yu was sent by Father Fang to steal the Archive.

With a wave of his hand, every bookshelf in the room began to move, hurtling toward the old man with violent speed.

"Boom, boom, boom!" The shelves collided and compressed, instantly burying the old man beneath a mountain of collapsed wood and paper.

Dust billowed, pages flew, and the mountain of shelves continued to crush inward. As the structure applied force to itself, the wooden cabinets shattered, fragments filling the gaps and pressing tighter.

The very nature of the materials changed under the extreme pressure, their hardness surpassing the limits of wood. Heat began to rise, smoke and sparks erupting from within. It was hard to imagine what kind of assault the old man at the center was enduring.

"Is this... power?"

Awe struck Wang Yu and Elvia. This was beyond their intervention; it was even more hopeless than facing the giant hand from the clouds.

Back then, they were spectators; now, they were at the heart of a storm of power where a single shockwave would grind them to dust.

"His target is you. I will try to send you out; it should be fine. I cannot give you the Dark Archive, I’m afraid. It must fade with me."

Samuel turned to Elvia and Wang Yu. Though the old man was buried beneath the crushing weight of the shelves, Samuel did not relax. His tone was heavy and unadorned.

"Thank you."

"Thank you, Mr. Samuel."

They thanked him sincerely. Without Samuel’s protection, they would have been reduced to nothing in an instant.

They exchanged a glance. Wang Yu took Elvia’s hand. Whatever they faced, he would stand as a shield before her until the very end.

"Using these shelves of knowledge as a blunt weapon—very powerful. If I were a knight, you might have killed me easily. But alas, I am a sorcerer. To use your most precious knowledge for such crude attacks... you are even more withered than I thought, Samuel!"

The old man’s voice emerged from the mountain of shelves—calm, cold, and utterly unharmed. As he spoke, the pressure-cage cracked open, and he stepped out with a leisurely stride.

Purple arcs of electricity flickered around his body. Wang Yu recognized it instantly: gravity magic. The old man had inverted the direction of the force, rendering the hellish pressure useless. This was the sorcerer: playing with rules, endless in his means, leaving every enemy to suffer in torment.

Samuel remained silent, and as the space shifted once more, the floor of the entire library began to migrate. The ground beneath the old man, along with the ceiling and the bookshelves, retreated into the distance with frantic speed.

Samuel, Wang Yu, and the others had not moved an inch from their absolute positions in space, yet their relative distance from the old man widened at an alarming rate.

"What is happening!"

"I haven't finished reading yet!"

"Why is the floor moving!"

"That's the librarian!"

"Avia and that fellow who gained the extra qualification are over there, too—what on earth is going on!?"

...

Panicked inquiries erupted from the students who had entered the library. Wang Yu observed that amidst the chaotic, shifting floor, several sections were following their own trajectories toward Samuel. Standing upon those very platforms were the students, utterly bewildered by the unfolding madness.

Wang Yu grasped Samuel’s intent: to gather the students and cast them out of this place in one fell swoop. A truly magnificent librarian.

"I shall open a gateway to the outside world and send you all away."

Samuel’s voice resonated in everyone’s ears—unusually firm and decisive, his speech rapid, as if he were racing against time, as if something were goading him to hasten his pace.

And indeed, it was so. In a mere heartbeat, the shifting ground had pushed the old man to a distance far beyond Wang Yu’s visual reach. Yet, almost the instant Samuel’s words reached them, the old man’s strike arrived.

A pitch-black spear streaked from the distance like a bolt of lightning, aimed directly at Samuel. Wang Yu recognized it: materialized Void, and of the most absolute, pure variety.

Neither Avia’s blade nor the Void-forged weapon of that Mr. Colin he had heard of could compare to the terrifying aura of this seemingly plain spear.

The floor buckled, bookshelves took flight, and the ceiling collapsed downward; a tsunami of library matter surged forward to intercept the black spear.

"Where is your power, Samuel? Where is it? Are you not the most skilled among us in the arcane arts? Where are those forbidden spells, those era-transcending incantations you learned by scouring the long river of history? Is this all you have left to stop me—these trifles you once despised, these things you called rootless duckweed?"

The old man’s arrogant laughter echoed through the space as the spear pierced through the tsunami of matter, twisting everything in its path into flesh, energy, and other amorphous, chaotic abominations.

The black spear easily distorted and destroyed all that blocked it, but the sheer, endless volume of matter could not be ignored.

Though easily pierced and instantly warped, the destruction of this matter by the Void-forged spear exacted a non-negligible toll on its energy. The spear’s velocity remained constant, but its size began to dwindle.

Just before it dissipated, the spear suddenly morphed, taking the form of the old man. He hovered in the air not far from Samuel, watching him, while behind him, the space itself was ravaged by Void fissures.

"You cannot escape, I..."

"Click!" It was as if a stopwatch had been pressed to pause; the old man’s words were severed instantly, and the world was washed in monochrome.

Everything save for Samuel stood frozen. The faint, rhythmic ticking of a second hand resonated through a world rendered utterly silent by the cessation of time.

"The forbidden spell you wanted... here it is." Samuel’s tone was indifferent. Eighth-tier Forbidden Spell: Time Stop. Everything except the caster was frozen and imprisoned by the flow of time.

"My power is indeed waning. Hmm, space has been sealed—no matter. I still have one spell slot left."

Within the one-minute window of stasis, Samuel was the master, the sovereign; he could do as he pleased without interference.

In five seconds, he completed the chant. His remaining power ignited the second forbidden spell: Eighth-tier Forbidden Spell: Gate of Arbitrariness.

A glowing sigil of a door appeared upon Wang Yu, Avia, and every student—the very pinnacle of spatial manipulation.

To designate any object, to target any location, to shatter all seals, and to command space at will—this was the spell Samuel had prepared to spirit them away. The final two forbidden spells were enough to carry them out.

Once the time stop ended, the Gate of Arbitrariness would whisk the students away without delay, including the girl who held the "key" the old man so desired.

The frozen time trickled away. Finally, the stasis ended, but at that moment, a secondary layer of time-stopping power radiated from the old man: Sorcery—Time Lock.

The surrounding time was frozen once more. This power was neither as potent nor as absolute as the forbidden spell, for it was fueled by the Void—a mere imitation—yet it was enough to temporarily disrupt the process of the Gate.

Samuel remained unaffected; he still held the highest authority within the library and ignored the old man’s Time Lock.

"It is useless. The Gate of Arbitrariness cannot be interrupted. Even if you temporarily freeze time, you cannot affect those marked by the Gate. Once the Time Lock expires, they will vanish."

Samuel’s tone remained calm. His final two spells had already sealed the old man’s path.

"Perhaps. But you have fallen into a trap. Had you used your remaining power to attack me with a forbidden spell, I might not have been able to stop you. But now? You have already lost."

"You are still the same old you. Since you entered this state, your personality has been fixed. You still loathe violence so much. Very well, let me show you the power of Roland..."

The old man’s words were like cold blades piercing Samuel’s heart. A sense of foreboding arose; he knew the old man was right. Since assuming this form, his habits had become rigid. He had truly been outmaneuvered.

Fissures appeared around the old man, and twelve skeletal heads were produced. The soul-fire within them was the essence of the twelve "keys" he had converted into undead.

"Do you know? Keys attract one another. Possessing twelve, I long ago sensed the others in this space. These keys left behind by Roland, when activated by a specific method, will forcibly draw in the remaining few. And that door..."

"And should we not expect as much from Roland? This pulling force is enough to shake even the Gate of Arbitrariness, the pinnacle of spatial magic. Just watch, Samuel."

The old man’s gaze fell upon Avia, who bore the mark of the Gate and remained stagnant within the Time Lock.

The Time Lock ended amidst Samuel’s shock. Driven by the old man, the twelve skulls ignited the power of the keys. An invisible chain stretched toward Samuel, forcibly dragging the Dark Ceremony Codex from within him.

"And you, the final key!" Laughing maniacally, the old man watched as another chain flew out, shattering the Gate’s mark on the holder of the last key.

The chain reached toward the one left behind after the Gate’s process was interrupted—Avia... no, wait. The one left behind was not Avia, but... Wang Yu?

"Hmm?"

"What?"

The old man and Samuel spoke in unison, their voices filled with astonishment.

"A key? Me? Ha! Very well!"

Wang Yu had heard the old man’s reason for forcibly interrupting the transport: it was for the keys. Though he did not know why he had been the one left behind, it mattered little. As long as Avia was gone, it was fine. As for himself—when had Wang Yu ever feared death?

As for why he was considered a key? Who cared!