Chapter 267: Spatial Disarray, Super Springboard

"What I have done is even more meaningless than I had just imagined; even this final week of stalling for time was a falsehood..."

"Lord Wang Yu, please, I beg you to ignite me with your spell-fire. Although its awakening is now entirely inevitable, if there is a sufficient amount of active life force, it should be possible to suppress it for a while longer."

The bitterness in Holo's words was heavy to the extreme at this moment. To be told that all the sacrifices made and all the efforts expended were suddenly rendered meaningless—the impact and sense of frustration were overwhelming.

Yet, Holo quickly steeled himself; he would use his final moments of life to do the only thing he could.

"Understood..."

Wang Yu did not hesitate, nodding immediately in agreement. This was Holo’s own choice, and he would respect his wishes.

The tremors in the surrounding environment grew increasingly violent. One could constantly hear the deafening roar of rocks shattering and cliffs collapsing outside the cavern. The World Eater, gestating beneath the Sorenson Mountains, had begun its unconscious writhing before its total awakening.

"Boom!"

A ghostly green flame ignited in Wang Yu’s palm. He pressed the fire onto Holo’s shoulder, and Holo was instantly engulfed in flames.

Spell-fire cannot directly ignite others if the intensity of the combustion is insufficient, but Holo had already released all of his life force to the surface of his body, surrendering it to be consumed by the flames.

The ghostly green fire shrouded Holo’s entire form, spreading along the vines that had proliferated from his body and into the mountain itself, reaching directly toward every plant under Holo’s control.

He intended to ignite the life force of all these plants. The essence of life, sublimated by the spell-fire, would be enough to lull the still-drowsy World Eater back into a brief, fitful slumber.

"Goodbye, Lord Archbishop. I have caused you trouble."

Surrounded by the spell-fire, Holo waved at Wang Yu in farewell.

"Goodbye."

Wang Yu responded to the burning figure, then turned to tap Avia on the shoulder, signaling her to activate the Phase Gate teleportation array to take them away from the Sorenson Mountains.

Holo was a warrior beyond reproach. Wang Yu would not let the efforts and sacrifice of this Dark Elf druid be in vain; they had to convey the news to the Elves of Liaheim as quickly as possible, so they would know the World Eater had awakened.

"Understood."

The girl immediately gathered her magic. The pre-inscribed magic array on the three of them was activated, radiating spatial fluctuations that resonated with the Phase Gate array she had left at the foot of the mountain.

Their coordinates were pulled by the array, and they vanished within the spatial distortion, leaving behind the cavern now filling with ghostly green flames.

The green fire burned the vines filling the cave to ash. Suddenly, the cavern, having lost its support, collapsed entirely under the external tremors, burying Holo and the plants he controlled together.

The flames, covered by mountain rock and earth, did not extinguish. They burned the life force, transforming it into free-roaming energy that dispersed throughout the entire Sorenson range.

Beneath the earth, the World Eater, surrounded by this energy, slowly closed its thousands of eyes—which had not yet fully opened—and fell back into a deep sleep. However, this time, the interval until its true awakening would be very short.

...

"Something is wrong. We’ve been teleporting for too long. How can this be? Is there a problem with the Phase Gate spell?!"

Within the spatial rift, Avia felt the time consumed by the array’s pull and began to sense that something was amiss.

A straight-line distance of only ten kilometers—how could it possibly take more than five or six seconds? They had been in the spatial rift for far too long.

Using the Phase Gate spell, the girl sensed the changes in the surrounding spatial coordinates. She discovered that they were still being pulled forward; the teleportation had not stalled, but was continuing incessantly.

However, the spatial coordinate that Avia had originally set as their destination was changing—and it was changing constantly, without pause.

The wildly shifting spatial coordinates meant the direction of their travel was also constantly altering. They were being dragged in different directions within the spatial rift, and no matter how long they traveled, they could not reach their destination.

"It’s the devil’s ability. The spatial coordinates I set in advance have been distorted by the devil, just like the perceptions of Holo and Sif."

"The constantly changing coordinates will keep us trapped in this rift, unable to return. If the magic in the crystals I left in the array runs out, we will be trapped in the spatial rift forever."

The girl’s brows were tightly knit. With her keen mind, she realized almost immediately what had happened and understood the dire situation they were in.

"When did the devil’s power affect my array? It’s impossible without a medium. If the devils could act out of thin air, this world would have collapsed long ago."

"It’s Sif! Sif’s cognition was influenced by the devil, and because Wang Yu and I have mental defenses, we cannot be distorted by the devil’s power directly. That means the devil’s power can spread through those it has already twisted. This is terrible."

The girl murmured, her thoughts racing, calculating against time. Spatial teleportation is extremely mana-intensive; every moment the magic crystals drained was a countdown to their deaths.

"Phew, thankfully, it’s not hard to crack. As long as I have Sif use the Perfect Fractal spell to fix a single coordinate, the distortion won't be able to take effect through her. But... can I do more? Can I use this power of distortion, just like Wang Yu used to do, and pull off something reckless?"

The girl’s thinking speed was incredibly fast. She soon found a way to break the deadlock. After ensuring their safety, perhaps influenced by that reckless man Wang Yu, a bold—if not entirely insane—plan began to form in her mind.

"It’s feasible, completely feasible. The only thing limiting the distance of the Phase Gate is the anchoring of the spatial coordinates. Unlike other teleportation spells, the mana consumption of the Phase Gate grows linearly. That means, as long as there is a suitable coordinate, the remaining mana in the array is enough to support us traveling directly to Liaheim."

Calculating the data in her mind, the girl did not let herself be blinded by luck. Instead, she completed enough calculations within the limited time to ensure the plan’s viability.

Finally, Avia confirmed it: the plan to use the devil’s randomized spatial coordinates as a super-springboard was feasible!

"Zzzzz..."

With a sound like phantom fabric being torn, the girl gathered her magic and used the Phase Gate spell to pierce the already fragile space within the rift.

She pulled Wang Yu and Sif—whose coordinates she knew—from the kaleidoscopic rift to her side, changing their state from being unable to see one another to being able to communicate.

"Click."

A magic lens created by the Perfect Fractal spell was placed over the eyes of Wang Yu and Sif by Avia. Densely packed text appeared upon it, informing them within five seconds of what had happened and the plan the girl intended to execute.

Without any hesitation, Wang Yu and Sif chose to trust Avia’s decision and began to perform their respective roles.

All Avia had to do was constantly observe the wildly jumping destination coordinates and transmit them to Wang Yu via the Perfect Fractal spell.

Wang Yu, relying on his Great Knight-level reaction speed, would wait for a suitable coordinate to appear, and before it could change again, use the authority the girl gave him to display that coordinate before Sif’s eyes.

And all Sif had to do was the simplest observation: to acknowledge this fixed coordinate, causing the devil’s distorting power to clash with the established fact, collapse, and lock that coordinate into place.

The three of them, working in perfect sync, began to wait for the right coordinate to appear. The coordinates changed extremely fast, and only beings with "monster-like" traits like the girl and Wang Yu could carry out such a plan.

Facing the data pouring like a waterfall across the Perfect Fractal lens, Wang Yu could only lament that, fortunately, the spell translated these coordinates into map locations based on Avia’s knowledge.

Otherwise, facing these coordinates that only the girl could read, he wouldn't have known which one to choose.

At a certain moment, a familiar name flashed at the very bottom of Wang Yu’s field of vision: Origin Forest. His consciousness split into two parts; his analytical mind was a beat slower, but his subconscious had already moved. With almost zero delay, Wang Yu’s subconscious triggered the power of the Perfect Fractal spell, displaying that coordinate before Sif’s eyes.

The moment the coordinate appeared before Sif, the established fact clashed with the devil’s distorting power. The distortion collapsed and dissipated, and the ever-changing spatial coordinates stopped shifting, locking onto the one Sif was looking at: the outskirts of the Origin Forest.

With the spatial coordinates fixed, the force pulling them forward stopped changing direction, dragging the three of them through the rift toward the Origin Forest.

The journey from the Sorenson Mountains to the Elven capital of Liaheim, which would normally take nearly twenty days or ten days at full speed, was resolved in under a minute by the "super-springboard" the girl had created by turning the devil’s trap against itself.

On the outskirts of the Origin Forest, a door-like spatial rift appeared, and Wang Yu, Avia, and Sif leaped out from within.

"We must inform the Elders about the World Eater immediately!"

As soon as Sif arrived at the Origin Forest, she began to run into the woods. She knew clearly that the devil and the World Eater posed a massive threat to Liaheim.

"Wait!"

Wang Yu and Avia spoke at the same time, stopping Sif from moving further. The girl’s Perfect Fractal spell and Wang Yu’s Chariot power both sensed that something was wrong with this Origin Forest...

Underground, there was something.

(Traveling home today, so the update is slightly shorter. Starting tomorrow, I will add more, continuing throughout the May Day holiday, with a minimum of five thousand words daily.)