Chapter 210: Arrival, Solitary Avenger

"Boom!" The flail held by the member of the Abyss Gate, currently entangled with a werewolf, erupted in searing flames. As the thick-skinned beast lunged forward with ferocious intent, the man swung the weapon with sudden, violent force.

Inner Potential: Wrathful Flame Flail. The scorching energy clung to the flail’s spiked head, striking the werewolf directly in the chest as it charged in a straight line, relying on its formidable physique rather than dodging.

The explosion and the wave of fire released simultaneously, sending the werewolf hurtling backward through the air.

"The Church of Night? How is this possible? Why can they still wield the power of the Lady of Night? Could that be Her, Lady Eunice? But the God of Fear has already descended—how could the Lady of Night still exist?"

Glancing briefly up at the projection of the Lady of Night hovering in the sky, the official knight of the Abyss Gate felt his thoughts unravel.

Though intelligence reports had mentioned this church that worshipped the Lady of Night, the descent of the God of Fear should have rendered her existence impossible.

He pulled a restoration scroll from his belt, tore it open, and pressed it against his wound. A healing shimmer slowly knit together the bloody gash torn by the werewolf, but he had no intention of lingering. He turned and fled.

"Awoo..." The werewolf, blasted away, let out a pained howl. Even with its powerful constitution, taking a direct hit from an official knight’s offensive Inner Potential had left the Night-kin severely injured.

The fur on its chest was charred and sloughing off, revealing raw, mangled flesh where the underlying muscles lay exposed—cooked. Blood seeped from the massive wound, though not much, as the high heat had cauterized most of the vessels.

"Thanks for the help. Let me heal you." Wang Yu leaped down from nearby, blood flowing from his palms to coat the werewolf’s wound. He scraped away the charred flesh and used the inherent regenerative properties of his own blood to seal the smaller lacerations.

Then, the blood seeped deep into the werewolf’s unresisting body, clinging to the internal organs damaged by the shockwave of the explosion, consuming itself to mend the myriad tiny ruptures.

"There. Most of it was external. This next part will sting—bear with it."

Wang Yu opened a vial containing a gelatinous substance and poured it over the wound.

Acid-Fusion Regenerative Agent—an old friend. Wang Yu favored it for its exceptional efficacy in repairing open wounds, though the pain it induced was legendary.

Ignoring the werewolf, which began to howl toward the heavens to vent its agony as the medicine took effect, Wang Yu looked up at Avia in the sky.

The girl nodded, signaling that she was ready.

With a sprint, Wang Yu stepped into the portal that had appeared abruptly before him: Fourth-Tier Spatial Spell, Phase Gate.

Spatial coordinates were rapidly reconstructed, and Wang Yu’s position was reset by magic—directly onto the back of the Abyss Gate knight whom Avia had marked.

The knight’s reflexes were swift; sensing the disturbance behind him, he reacted instantly, spinning around to swing his flail with all his might.

But Wang Yu’s reaction was faster, and he had planned for this. He caught the chain of the swinging flail and pulled hard, closing the distance between himself and the knight to zero.

Pressed against the man, Wang Yu did not hesitate to latch onto him with both hands.

The guy’s battle aura was impressive—likely a high-tier official knight. While Wang Yu’s physique was on par with a high-tier knight, his aura was only at the initial stage; he might not win a raw test of strength.

He had to rely on technique. Leveraging his split-second advantage, Wang Yu executed his plan in a heartbeat.

He gripped one of the man’s arms and pivoted his waist, throwing the running knight off balance and crashing him to the ground.

He then pinned his legs across the man’s chest and face, tightening his hold. Joint Lock: Cross Armbar. It was devastating when physical strength was equal; the leverage advantage could send an opponent straight to hell.

"Crack, crack, snap!" The bones of the arm held by Wang Yu gave a sickening sound of failure, shattering under his immense force.

The trapped knight could no longer exert power effectively. Though his aura-enhanced strength was slightly greater than Wang Yu’s, once the joint lock was secured, he had no chance of escape.

It wasn't just the lock; the Smoke Demon and Wang Yu’s blood were attacking the man’s orifices. His nasal cavity was blocked by materialized smoke, and blood poured into his mouth; any attempt to breathe would draw the lethal fluid into his lungs.

Between the violent struggle and the inability to breathe, the knight quickly lost his strength.

Seizing the moment of collapse, Wang Yu shifted his posture, locking both hands around the man’s throat.

The knight’s near-unconscious brain sensed the mortal peril, driving his failing body to mount a final resistance. He tensed his neck and clawed at Wang Yu’s hands, but he could not budge the iron-like grip.

"Snap!" Wang Yu exerted his muscular force, his arms exploding with power as he twisted the man’s head three hundred and sixty degrees. A high-tier official knight died just like that, felled by Wang Yu’s ambush.

"Not bad..." Wang Yu shook his hands, gaining a measure of his own strength, then turned his gaze toward the distant battle between the Abyss Gate members and the reinforcements from the Church of Night.

A trail of light shot into the sky from below. Wang Yu recognized it; the Blades of Night had similar ones. It was a signal to summon reinforcements. The Abyss Gate member must have fired it to alert others in the underground city.

Wang Yu ignored it and turned to run toward the Abyss. If anyone thought that signal would actually succeed, they severely underestimated the Lady of Night.

The Lady of Night possessed no offensive divine arts, and in Wang Yu’s eyes, she was a remarkably weak deity. But in the realm of secrecy, she was absolutely peerless.

The bright trail of light shot upward, but below, the Abyss Gate member—wrapped tightly in vampire wings and with fangs buried in his throat—watched the flare with a look of relief.

He didn't know what that Alastair was planning, but he had to be stopped. If the Lady of Night was compromised, the God of Fear might be as well. This plan, for which Seoventan had paid so much, could not fail.

That flare was a highest-level alert. Once released, the Great Knight-level combatants of the Abyss Gate would spare nothing to arrive.

These Night-kin, protected by the Lady’s arts, might deal with official knights, but they were no match for a Great Knight.

Yet, the trail of the signal flare vanished into thin air halfway up.

No explosion, no flash, no peculiar sound. This one-time alchemical item, worth over a hundred gold coins, disappeared without a trace.

Swallowed by the darkness that permeated the underground world, the power of the Lady of Night had already blanketed the area.

In the knight’s widening eyes, the light faded along with his desperate shock. His body grew cold and withered as the vampire drained his blood dry.

"Cough, cough!" The vampire released the throat and pushed the shriveled corpse away, stumbling aside to dry-heave.

This exceptionally young and handsome vampire was the unlucky lad who had been turned because of his appearance. This was his first time killing, despite his inherently kind nature.

"Still not used to it?" The werewolf, his wounds mostly healed, came over and patted the lad’s back.

"Cough, it’s still not easy. I’ve fed before, but that was always voluntary. This... consuming a life, the instinctive pleasure that surges from deep within my body... it makes me sick."

The vampire wiped his blood-stained fangs with a pale arm, speaking weakly.

"But it’s good to help Archbishop Wang Yu. He’s been a benefactor to all of us in the Church of Night." Standing up, the vampire looked toward Wang Yu’s retreating back as he ran toward the edge of the Abyss.

"Yeah. The Church of Night is a second home to me." The werewolf nodded, touching the wound on his chest that had healed remarkably well in such a short time.

"Let’s go. The base still needs defending. Those gangs from the Royal City Shadows are taking advantage of the chaos; we can’t let those bastards enter our church’s territory."

"Right." The vampire stood up, grabbed the werewolf’s shoulder, and spread his bat wings, flapping them to lift both Night-kin into the sky.

It was hard to imagine these two naturally hostile Night-kin cooperating so seamlessly, but that was the Church of Night—a group of outcasts huddling together for warmth. Why would there be any conflict?

Wang Yu reached the edge of the city. Below lay the Abyss. Using the lighthouse built by the royal family to manage the pollution overflowing from the Abyss, Wang Yu could descend. Avia and the projection of the Lady of Night were waiting there.

"I’ll go the rest of the way alone. You and Lady Darkness head back to the Church of Night base. I’ll find you once I finish this mission."

Wang Yu ran to Avia’s side and spoke.

"Alright. Stay safe." Avia hugged him, not asking to follow. Deep within the Abyss, filled with mental corruption, Wang Yu was indeed the only one suited for the task.

"No problem." Taking the metal sphere Avia held aloft with wind magic, Wang Yu patted her head and walked toward the lighthouse.

Inside, he stepped into the lift and paused.

"You should go." Wang Yu said, arms crossed.

He was alone, so the target of his words was clear: the Smoke Demon, which had manifested as armor covering his body.

"I am a demon, and my mental resistance is just as strong. There is no reason I cannot descend with you. I could provide protection if something goes wrong. Are you looking down on me?"

The Smoke Demon’s noisy chatter betrayed its immense dissatisfaction at being underestimated.

"You know what I mean. You have your own task to attend to, not here with me. Someone needs you more than I do." Wang Yu’s words carried a smile.

"..." The space in the lift fell silent for a moment. The Smoke Demon said nothing.

"I’ve encountered that thing in the Abyss before; it can’t do anything to me. Don't you always say you’re his partner? Go on, then." Wang Yu didn't linger, pressing the descent button and speaking casually.

"I see why Zig and Shug think so highly of you. I have to admit, you’re quite likable in that regard. You’re right—my useless partner can’t do without me. Without me, his Inner Potential loses a third of its power."

The Smoke Demon spoke as the lift began its descent. The smoke armor covering Wang Yu transformed into a fluid, intangible mist, squeezing through the gaps in the lift and heading toward where its "useless" partner was located.

"Directly above this Abyss is the plaza where the divine descent occurred, isn't it?"

Wang Yu glanced through the elevator’s observation port toward the pitch-black dome above; though he could see nothing, his sense of orientation told him that directly above this abyss lay the very plaza where the divine descent had occurred in the royal capital.

"A re-elected council, a sudden celebration for a divine descent, and this abyss—hiding something right beneath the plaza? It all feels a bit too coincidental..."

Wang Yu rubbed his chin, his expression thoughtful. He was unsure exactly what Alastair was plotting, but he knew something was amiss.

"Still, the general direction is correct. A relic that reverses all things? I am indeed curious to see what form the things beneath this abyss will take once they are inverted."

The metal sphere in his hand detected that it had reached the designated position and slowly opened, revealing its contents: something that seemed not to belong to the realm of reality.

A miniature starry sky lay before Wang Yu, brilliant and multicolored, with pinpricks of starlight dotting a night sky that floated in mid-air, as if embedded into the backdrop of reality itself.

Within the dark, descending elevator shaft, the opening of the metal sphere and the revelation of the relic—a reflection of the stars—bathed the surrounding walls and ceiling in a magnificent, psychedelic glow.

...

Above, in the royal capital, the battle between the city’s forces and the suddenly emerged members of the Gate of the Abyss had reached a fever pitch.

The arrival of the Royal Guard relieved the pressure on the city watch and the Blades of Night, who had been struggling to contain the ever-expanding "Divine Kingdom" of the God of Fear while battling the Gate of the Abyss.

Vistin Stevenson, Dean of the Stevenson Academy of Magic, hovered in the air, his staff flashing with elemental light as he rained down low-level spells—fireballs, ice shards, and thunder spears—like a torrential downpour.

He acted as the world’s own bomber, providing magical support to the knights below; his immense power ensured that any member of the Gate of the Abyss below the rank of formal knight could not even step within his reach.

"Whoosh!" A blinding, crescent-shaped blade of battle aura tore through the narrow streets, slicing a cluster of buildings diagonally in half, causing them to slide and collapse.

Ulle, the Grand Commander of the Royal Guard, clad in heavy armor and wielding a gargantuan greatsword, lowered his weapon—chipped from channeling his inner potential and clashing with an enemy Great Knight—and drew a refined longsword engraved with ornate glyphs from his waist.

As he channeled his aura into it, the blade began to shift; through a combination of mechanical artifice and aura, the edge segmented, transforming into a whip-blade.

"Whoosh!" The whip-blade flickered through the air with treacherous agility, the aura coating it manifesting into razor-sharp edges, turning the seemingly less imposing weapon into a lethal instrument. With a dash and a lash, the duel between the two Great Knights ignited.

Fierce fighting raged throughout the capital, and the city’s forces gradually began to suppress the sudden insurgence.

This was, after all, Alastair’s home turf; even with much of the military deployed in the lands of Sevintan, there remained sufficient defensive strength.

The annihilation of the Gate of the Abyss was only a matter of time; only the ever-expanding "Divine Kingdom" of the God of Fear, impervious to magic, remained the capital’s greatest threat.

The domain’s expansion accelerated with every passing moment, leaving the city with dwindling time.

With everyone’s attention fixed upon the Gate of the Abyss and the God of Fear’s "Divine Kingdom," certain actions that would normally be impossible to overlook now became difficult to detect.

At a marquis’s mansion in the northern part of the city, servants scrambled to move valuables; carriages lined the streets, preparing to evacuate precious items before the encroaching Divine Kingdom could consume them.

This area was still a long distance from the plaza, and it would be some time before the Divine Kingdom reached it.

Yet, unnoticed by the servants and common guards, a figure slipped into the mansion’s blind spots, moving through the shadows and seizing the chance to infiltrate the estate.

Shadows writhed and crawled over his body, rendering him nearly invisible in the dark—a phenomenon distinct from the power of the Lady of Night, appearing more like a living entity.

"I haven't fully mastered the power of the Shadow Demon, but it is enough."

Walking through the now-vacant mansion, Shugin whispered to himself, his aura circulating to drive his inner potential, known as "Wraith Possession," to its limit.

The powers of several demons churned within Shugin; they were both the source of his strength and the enemies he would have to fight forever.

A smoldering rage flickered in his eyes. The culprit behind the tragedy of his past and his current state as a vessel for demons was in the room just ahead. Today, the time for vengeance had arrived.