Chapter 374: Sea of Sinking, Ashen Wasteland

"Where the hell is this?"

Wang Yu held Elvia close to his chest, shielding her. His Chariot Force spread outward with great difficulty, driving his blood in an attempt to forge a solid suit of armor, but the immense suction pulling from the bottomless abyss below was simply too overwhelming.

With the Chariot Force, he could forcibly command his blood, but once that power was diverted, controlling the hardened blood through mere Material Sword-Shaping or the Bloody Gale Knight technique was impossible.

In an instant, the blood was captured by the massive gravitational force, violently torn from its cohesive structure. The entire suit of armor disintegrated, and even the battle aura radiating from his body was savagely ripped away, plummeting into the depths.

"Elvia, our speed is increasing. If we hit a solid surface—even water—at this rate, we will be smashed to pieces."

Wang Yu sensed the razor-sharp, violent air currents swirling around them and spoke gravely to the girl he protected. Because their entire momentum was downward, the air moved with them; their speed was being boosted infinitely by the downward acceleration, with no air resistance to slow their descent.

They were falling at an unstoppable, accelerating pace. Wang Yu had no idea how deep the pit was, but if they hit the bottom at a speed even greater than this, not only would Elvia—whose constitution was weaker—perish, but even he, a High Grand Knight, would be pulverized. Such a death would be a rarity among the annals of Grand Knights.

"I am trying, but the suction below is draining the mana from my magic vortex. Any mana I release to construct spell circuits is immediately dragged downward. Casting here is nearly impossible."

"The Void is even stranger. I can sense its presence, but when I attempt to draw upon Void energy, the Void here rejects me outright. It refuses to let me use any of its power."

The girl spoke rapidly, her tone and expression remaining calm. Panic would offer no help in their current predicament; she was focused on how to keep them from becoming a puddle of gore.

Mana was released from within, and she tried to use her mental strength and magic vortex to guide it into the necessary spell circuits, but she could not. The terrifying suction of this bottomless abyss far exceeded a mage's ability to guide mana; ownership of the energy was instantly usurped by the pull below.

Even when she tried to cast within her own body, the suction forcibly tore the mana structure apart as it was activated, causing the spell to collapse.

As for the Void, her unprecedented affinity for it had inexplicably failed. The Void existed, yet it rejected her without hesitation. Here, Elvia was completely stripped of her wizardly powers.

"Wang Yu, it is up to you. Use your Chariot Force to draw the mana and form the spell structure; I will be the trigger to activate it. This unstoppable suction can only be countered by your Chariot Force, which borders on the laws of reality."

Having exhausted her own efforts, the girl realized her power was useless. A thought flashed through her mind, and she arrived at the only viable solution: leveraging Wang Yu’s unreasonable Chariot Force to construct the spell.

"Fine. Which spell do you need?"

Wang Yu reacted instantly. He unleashed his Chariot Force, dragging all the mana he could sense in the surrounding space toward them, ready to build the spell structure according to Elvia’s will.

"Our current speed matches the surrounding air, but if we slow down, the high-speed currents will tear us apart. Existing spells cannot achieve the effect we need."

"Wang Yu, follow my instructions to combine the basic circuits. We are going to improvise a spell on the fly."

In her mind, Elvia rapidly assembled basic spell circuits based on the desired effect. The new casting method she had learned from the Weaver’s Tome became the key to allowing Wang Yu, who was not a professional mage, to complete the casting.

"Circuit Four, rows one, four, and six; row three, positions two and five... Circuit Seven, rows one, one and three; row five, four and six... Circuit Seventy-nine, row forty-eight, positions five and nine..."

Elvia dictated the combinations quickly. With her superior intellect and extreme composure, she made no errors, her speech devoid of even a stutter.

"Understood!"

Wang Yu was the same, executing her instructions with the precision of a machine. The Chariot Force was an extension of his consciousness; as soon as she described a circuit arrangement, he manifested it.

With their incomparable synergy, within a dozen seconds, a new spell composed of over a thousand basic mana circuits was forged by Wang Yu’s Chariot Force. Elvia did not hesitate to use the power of her magic vortex to shift the mana from an inert state to an active one. Ignite!

The spell forged by Wang Yu was cast by Elvia. Once the mana entered its sublimated state, it was nearly impossible to influence; even the terrifying suction of the abyss could not defy this rule. The spell succeeded.

An elliptical air bubble, designed to split the currents, formed around Elvia and Wang Yu. This bubble created a special friction against the surrounding air, providing an "unscientific" resistance that grew as their relative speed increased.

There was no time to name this improvised spell. Elvia taught Wang Yu how to manipulate the bubble, gradually reducing their speed relative to the ground until it reached a level Wang Yu’s body could withstand.

Their speed dropped, though it remained absurdly fast. The friction between the bubble and the external air generated terrifying heat, forcing Elvia to divert her attention to have Wang Yu construct another spell to vent the heat.

The high-speed descent continued indefinitely. Neither Wang Yu nor Elvia could confirm the distance—ten thousand meters? More?

In any case, the depth of this bottomless pit exceeded their wildest imaginations.

Neither of them knew that such a deep chasm existed beneath the Tide Barrier, nor why the Dragon God would know of such a thing. What lay at the bottom? Everything was unknown.

After a long descent, light abruptly appeared below. The darkness was no longer constant; it was replaced by a faint, pale yellow glow. As they fell further, the scenery below began to enlarge in their vision. Was that... a desert?

"Pop!"

A sound that did not truly exist echoed as they passed through a barrier. The infinite, massive suction vanished, and they began to fall toward the vast sea of sand below.

The surrounding air, driven by inertia, still moved at an exaggerated speed, blowing violently downward and blasting a massive crater into the desert. Endless yellow sand was swept up by the rebounding currents, filling the sky—a spectacular, blinding sight.

With the suction gone, Elvia regained her ability to cast. She utilized the swirling sand to form a simple glider made of soil and grit behind them. Wang Yu held Elvia with one arm and gripped the glider with the other, soaring through the air.

"Crunch..."

As their feet touched the desert floor beneath the endless ocean, Wang Yu looked around. It was a desert with no end in sight. A light source of unknown origin illuminated this subterranean world. Within his line of sight stood a city, but it was too distant to discern any details.

"Where on earth is this? A sea of sand beneath the Endless Sea? The Sunken Sea? Is it inverted? Oh, wait, I need to confirm the Professor's location."

The girl tapped Wang Yu’s chest, signaling him to put her down. She needed to observe the environment and find Noelle and Zig, who had been separated from them at the start. Without Wang Yu’s unreasonable Chariot Force, their situation might be dire.

Accustomed to the routine, Wang Yu placed Elvia on his shoulder. He began walking toward the city. The problem now was that this place was so obscure it appeared in no records; counting on others to save them was impossible. They would have to rely on themselves. He did not want to be trapped here forever.

"My methods cannot locate the Professor and the others. Even the mark given by Erielian is unresponsive. We cannot reunite with them for now."

After a while, Elvia shook her head, telling Wang Yu that she could not track Zig. They would not be finding each other anytime soon.

"One step at a time, then. Let’s head toward that city and assess the situation. By the way, do you hear anything?"

Undeterred, Wang Yu pointed toward the conspicuous city in the desolate desert and continued walking. He had thought of something and asked Elvia, who sat on his shoulder. He could faintly hear a soft, ethereal, yet undeniably real singing coming from all directions.

"No."

The girl shook her head, looking puzzled. Under normal circumstances, shouldn't she be the one to hear it if he couldn't? What was going on?

...

"Boom!"

A spark of crimson fire ignited in the endless darkness. A fireball descended at a terrifying speed, crashing into the wasteland of the abyss.

The ground was blasted into a massive crater. The earth, resembling the cold embers of burnt-out matter, was blown skyward by the impact, then drifted down in a slow, floating descent.

As the flames died out, a massive red dragon appeared in the crater. The sheer force of the impact had left Zig—despite his formidable draconic physique—with multiple fractures and torn muscles. Internal injuries, invisible from the outside, plagued his body, and the Living Dragon Armor on his exterior was shattered to pieces.

"Cough!"

The dragon’s throat trembled, spewing a mouthful of scalding blood. Flames burned upon it; Zig was indeed severely wounded.

"Brother, are you okay?"

From beneath the red dragon, a smaller red dragon crawled out. Its horns had not yet fully grown, indicating it was still in its youth. It was Noelle, whom Zig had protected with his own body. In her human form, she could not have survived such an impact; she had to be a dragon.

"I'll live. I need a moment to recover. The Living Dragon Armor took most of the damage, but the Nameless Magic Armor needs more healing."

Zig replied, his body gradually shrinking into his bruised and battered human form. He sat on the ground, gasping for air, and retrieved a large quantity of potions Wang Yu had prepared for him. He drank a small portion and poured the rest onto the Nameless Magic Armor, which had fallen into a semi-dormant state after absorbing the impact.

"Brother, this place is so strange. There is nothing here. No light, no mana, no Void. It’s as if... everything is dead."

Noelle’s words caused Zig to lift his head and look around. Endless darkness shrouded everything, with only the residual firelight illuminating a tiny patch of the ash-covered ground.

Zig released his senses, his pupils constricting. She was right. The wasteland was empty. There was no mana, no trace of the Void. Beneath his feet, there was only this strange, dead dust.

It was a world of silent death, a wasteland where everything had been burned away, leaving only ash.