Chapter 24: Cutting Through Illusion

The boy’s expression shed its previous ferocity, turning strangely calm and somber after Wang Yu’s forceful breakthrough nearly ended him in a single strike.

His gaze, cold and venomous, remained locked onto Wang Yu, his lips moving in a low, unintelligible mutter.

Wang Yu had no interest in idle chatter; he focused on steadying his breathing while rapidly replenishing his Void energy.

The advantage of a small mana pool is how quickly it refills, and in less than a minute, Wang Yu’s reserves were fully restored.

A bizarre stalemate settled between them, with Wang Yu standing as a bulwark between the boy and Avia.

The boy’s expression remained dark, his thoughts unreadable, his eyes never leaving Wang Yu.

Wang Yu was content with this; his Inner Eye remained active, yet he detected no fluctuations in Void energy, and Avia, ever in sync with him, sensed no surge of magic.

This meant the boy was truly doing nothing but staring.

Let him stare, then; there was no loss in it, and every moment spent recovering energy was a gain for Wang Yu.

"Wang Yu, the teddy bear." Avia’s voice came from behind, her keen observation once again catching a detail before he could.

"The teddy bear?" Prompted by her, Wang Yu finally noticed the glaring anomaly.

The boy had been clutching the toy the entire time, which was strange enough, but under the scrutiny of his Inner Eye, the bear had shown no signs of special properties.

Wait, was the bear torn?

Wang Yu compared it to his memory of the creature when it first appeared; it was significantly more tattered now.

The eyes, once relatively bright, were now dull and grey, hanging by a few pathetic threads and swaying precariously in their sockets.

"Wang Yu, I don't sense any magical flow. He isn't drawing power from the outside!" Avia added.

In an instant, a bolt of realization struck Wang Yu’s sharp tactical mind.

Yes, the thing hadn't drawn external power since the fight began, yet the countless black arms it manifested required an immense amount of energy.

Whether Void energy or magic, the principle was the same; while the quality of those arms was poor, the sheer quantity was staggering.

If the boy’s internal reserves were vast enough to manifest a sea of black hands without external replenishment, this mission would never have been classified as a low-level task.

"So..." Wang Yu locked eyes with the boy’s somber gaze for a second before shifting his focus down to the bear’s remaining intact eye.

In that moment, he caught a flicker of light—the unmistakable spark of a sentient being.

"Found you." A grim smile touched Wang Yu’s lips as he gripped his longsword, settling into a starting stance; he had finally found the true target.

It wasn't the boy, but the teddy bear in his arms. The energy consumption was manifesting through that object, so regardless of anything else, destroying it was the only path to victory.

"Blades of Night! It is always you, always you interfering with my plans..."

A hoarse voice emerged from the boy, though it was no longer the same child who had once pleaded to trade lives for his sister’s.

Words were useless against Wang Yu; the boy could speak all he liked, but Wang Yu would continue his work regardless.

Ignoring the unknown entity’s ramblings, Wang Yu took aim.

He channeled his battle aura, letting it circulate through his body, carried by the ripples of his internal energy, accelerating with every rotation.

Faster and faster, he integrated more of the aura generated by his own body into the flow.

When he felt his internal ripples reaching their limit, the critical point arrived.

As the accelerated aura surged toward his feet, Wang Yu released the ripples outward.

The aura, pushed to its breaking point, was unleashed with them—a pseudo-manifestation of battle aura.

A dull thud, like a muffled thunderclap, erupted as the ground beneath him shattered, and his coiled muscles exploded into motion.

His formidable physique, combined with the sheer force of the aura-assisted burst, propelled him forward at a terrifying speed.

Wang Yu launched himself into the air, a blurred streak of motion, moving faster than any jump he had performed before.

"Useless. It is difficult to deal with formal knights, but for you, this is enough. Perhaps this was meant to be a training mission for a novice, but you are unlucky to have encountered me..."

The entity inhabiting the boy spoke through his lips.

Wang Yu didn't know how it had identified him as a Blade of Night, nor did he care; he had no habit of listening to enemies during a fight. Any talking could wait until one of them was dead.

Without hesitation, Wang Yu adjusted his grip on his sword in mid-air, keeping his strength coiled and ready. He didn't believe the teddy bear was without defenses.

As expected, while Wang Yu was fast, the black arms appearing out of thin air were faster.

Like ghosts, they materialized directly in his path.

If he maintained his trajectory, he would collide head-on with the massive, grasping hands.

Dark shadows lunged from multiple directions, while the snake-like arms on the ground rose up to snatch at him.

It was a net cast from all sides; as the entity had said, under normal circumstances, one would indeed be unlucky to face this.

Yet Wang Yu showed no sign of panic. Faced with the wall of black hands, he didn't attempt a second jump or try to hack through them.

His eyes were calm, his focus absolute. In the air, he took a deep breath, entering the zone. Dancing on the edge of a blade was what a close-quarters knight was meant to do.

He blurred through the air, heading straight for the hands, unswerving, as if courting death.

A mocking smile curled the boy’s lips. Though he hadn't gathered much power, killing a novice Blade of Night who dared to ruin his plans would be a fine consolation.

And the mage, too, would follow.

Timing his move, the lake of Void energy in his mental space trembled—the precursor to a spell.

His concentration peaked as the black hands loomed inches away.

Now. The moment before his skin touched the darkness, he shifted his Void energy with near-teleporting speed.

The Void energy twisted reality—this time, it twisted space. Spell: Blink!

Wang Yu’s form blurred for a heartbeat, and in the next, he passed through the black hand, his back scraping against its surface.

His leather armor was instantly devoured, revealing the chainmail beneath; the consequences of human flesh touching that darkness were obvious.

The Void energy was spent in an instant; it was less a true Blink and more of a glitch in reality.

Spatial spells were prohibitively expensive. Had he used a true Blink, he might have moved a millimeter, but Wang Yu had cheated.

He hadn't distorted his own spatial coordinates; he had exploited a loophole, swapping his position with the black hand at the exact moment of impact.

It was a trade, like swapping a left hand for a right.

The flesh missing from his nose and the shredded armor on his back were testament to how dangerous this "Blink" had been.

But no matter the danger, success was success.

The sudden shift left the teddy bear stunned.

But the dark expression vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and the entity took action, the black tide behind him surging.

The arms converged, not to strike Wang Yu, but to pull the boy away from his path.

Even in mid-air, with the arms acting as anchors, the boy was moving faster than Wang Yu could follow.

Still, Wang Yu showed no sign of panic, maintaining his trajectory as if he had already planned his next move upon landing.

The boy’s lips curled again. "Is that all? Oh? A sneak attack? Did you think I wouldn't notice?"

Following the boy as he was dragged away came a searing fireball.

Though not a product of twin-casting, the sphere was immense from prolonged charging, its light blinding and its velocity heightened.

Avia had been preparing for this very moment while Wang Yu held the boy’s attention!

"That is the limitation of a low-tier mage; a fireball cannot detonate without contact. The energy is decent, but you must actually hit your target."

The boy’s voice remained laced with mockery; his personality seemed wretched, finding perverse pleasure in his taunts.

Repeating his previous trick, the black appendages dragging the boy detached, slowing his retreat while guiding the fireball away as before.

Like a clown juggling knives, he even slowed his pace to be nearly caught, only to deflect the projectile at the final millisecond.

Just as a clown on stage craves the laughter of the audience, the teddy bear hungered to see faces twisted in shock and helplessness.

He glanced at the girl, whose eyes held worry and fear, but no terror or cowardice. "Boring," the teddy bear thought.

But those who play the clown will eventually become the clown!

The moment he focused entirely on the fireball, he had sealed his own doom.

Fireballs only explode upon contact, a fact revealed by the previous failed attempts.

Would Avia and Wang Yu repeat the same mistake?

The answer was self-evident.

The sharp shriek of air being torn apart and the flying object arrived almost simultaneously; the boy’s pupils contracted—something was coming!

The black arms yanked downward, pulling the boy low to dodge the shield flying toward his head.

It was thrown by Wang Yu, aimed precisely at the spot where the shield had fallen earlier.

The projectile whistled past the boy’s face, but before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he realized the truth.

No, even if it had flown straight, it would have missed him; he was not the target!

"Boom!" A searing explosion answered his doubt. The shield’s target was not him, but the scorching fireball hovering above, charged by Avia.

The moment they collided, a violent detonation erupted, heat and shockwaves blasting outward right beside the boy!

Wang Yu remained in his throwing stance, eyes narrowed, staring into the blinding light; he would not lower his guard until he was certain the enemy was dead.

As if responding to Wang Yu’s gaze, the flames dissipated, but the law of "no smoke, no injury" did not apply here.

The boy lay on the ground, strangely unmarked, still the same filthy, malnourished figure covered in old scars.

All the destruction was concentrated on the teddy bear.

Much of its fur was charred, half its body torn open, spilling burnt, tattered cotton, while its glass-bead eyes had been shattered to dust.

The teddy bear was so mangled it was barely recognizable.

The black arms had vanished, leaving only the ruins of the house, the dust of the explosion, and the shattered earth.

Wang Yu raised an eyebrow; through his Inner Eye, all the Void energy within the teddy bear had completely dissipated.

To him, it was now a dead object—unlike its previous state, it was now utterly ruined.

The entity inhabiting it seemed to have been obliterated by the blast.

The boy’s true nature was now exposed: he was a construct of Void energy twisting reality.

The question remained: if there was a Void creation, who was the wizard?

The boy’s state was dire, his entire body flickering like a corrupted image.

He shimmered like the static on an old television, unstable and fading. Wang Yu had seen this before: a fragment of the God of Fear.

It was the sign of a lost anchor; the fragment had run out of fear to feed upon. The one who created him must be nearing their end.

Wang Yu shook his head, admitting his ignorance in such matters, and turned to Avia, whose expression was complex.

"Wang Yu, the hunter’s family only had one daughter, Rose. This boy claimed to be her brother..." Avia said heavily.

Wang Yu was stunned. The boy had mentioned saving his sister—saving Rose? Why?

With lingering questions, he entered the room from which the boy had emerged and found a small girl huddled in the corner.

The room was miraculous, seemingly shielded from the battle’s aftermath, even though the rest of the house had nearly collapsed.

The girl’s face was deathly pale, drained of all blood, her skin coarse and rigid, looking for all the world like... a corpse.

Noticing Wang Yu, her lively eyes turned toward him.

Wang Yu noted the only two things about her that seemed alive: those vibrant eyes and the wound on her forehead, still oozing fresh, crimson blood.

It was so vivid; the dead could not bleed like that.

Wang Yu was speechless. She was beyond saving. He knew it the moment he saw her.

It wasn't that her wounds were too severe; it was that she was already dead, kept tethered by some unknown force.

She was meant to have passed, and no matter how she was held here, the cause of her death—that wound—would never heal.

Wang Yu didn't know what to say. Footsteps behind him drew his attention; the dissipating Void construct was walking toward them.

Though he should have vanished, he seemed to solidify for a final moment of clarity. Wang Yu noticed Avia’s conflicted expression behind the boy and stayed his hand.

Since Avia gave no warning, he trusted her judgment.

Rose’s "brother" entered the room, slumped down beside the girl, and let her lean against him.

Stroking her matted, withered hair, his eyes held a human tenderness; it was hard to imagine such a real expression on a Void construct.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't protect you, and I hurt so many people... I am such a failure of a brother," he whispered, his tone filled with regret and helplessness.

"It's okay. Thank... you," the girl’s voice sounded abruptly, weak but peaceful.

A flicker of shock crossed the boy’s eyes, followed by relief.

The girl’s eyes slowly closed. The breath that had tethered her to life dissipated the moment the teddy bear was destroyed.

Life faded from the girl who should have been dead, and as she passed, the boy—her Void-born construct—lost his anchor and vanished from reality.

Wang Yu sighed, finally understanding.

Combining the townspeople’s descriptions of the hunter, he realized: a deeply wounded girl, imagining a hero of her own, a brother who could hold up the sky for her—it was only natural.

And if the brother had tried his best but failed to protect her, and even caused harm in his misguided efforts, how could the sister ever bring herself to blame him?

Wang Yu shook his head; the source of this tragedy had been reduced to dust, and there was nothing left to say.

But the one who had exploited this beautiful longing, who had desecrated this wish—Wang Yu would never forget them.

"Let's go." Wang Yu took Avia’s hand. He did not look back at her reddened eyes, striding out of the tragic wooden house.