Chapter 39: Song of the Void, the Dust Settles

Wang Yu, carrying the girl and projecting a portion of his consciousness into his own mental realm, successfully nudged his own spiritual sanctuary—that dilapidated wooden door.

It felt weightless; pushing such a thing within the confines of the mental space proved to be no difficult task.

Confirming that he could indeed move the door, Wang Yu withdrew his consciousness, never looking back.

"Avia, I have a way to strip the aspects of the Evil God from the Void energy, but it requires me to commit my consciousness entirely to the mental realm, leaving my body immobile. By the same token, you will have to face that monster alone. Can you do it?"

"Hmm?" The girl continued to maintain the spell in her hands. She had already resigned herself to death, yet Wang Yu’s words offered her a different choice.

She offered a faint smile and patted Wang Yu on the head. "Trust me, it will be fine."

"Good. Get ready. As soon as we shake it off a little more, I’ll begin!" Wang Yu reminded her with a steady voice, then began to accelerate.

His pace quickened, powerful muscles driving his body forward as the circulation of his battle aura accelerated. It was do or die now; there was no need to worry about bodily damage, so he pushed for the maximum possible burst.

His sprinting form tore through the corridor, the wounds on his body that had begun to knit together tearing open once more under the strain of his final exertion.

Threads of blood seeped from beneath his skin, the gashes that had shown signs of healing splitting apart again due to his violent movements.

All of this had its reward; the renewed damage bought him greater speed. With a calm expression, Wang Yu, bearing Avia on his back, had a clear objective: a grand hall he had seen earlier in the mansion. Only an open space could provide the girl the room she needed to perform.

Avia stared fixedly at the orb of light in her hands. Magic flowed, and her mental power enveloped the spell model, which was being used for the first time. Could she succeed? She wasn't sure, but she had to!

"Bang!" Wang Yu slammed his foot into the ground, his figure carrying the girl bursting from the corner of the corridor. Before them lay the mansion's expansive hall. They had arrived.

"Get ready!" Wang Yu shouted a warning. In the midst of his sprint, he pulled Avia into his arms, turned his back to the wall, and ground his soles against the floor to shed as much momentum as possible before crashing—not too violently—into the hall's wall.

As his body slid down the wall, his consciousness sank into his mental realm. The girl crawled out from Wang Yu’s protection, gripping that special dagger, her eyes resolute as she looked toward the opening of the corridor.

"Boom." Twisted muscle tissue crushed the narrow exit of the corridor, and the monster, trailing a mass of shattered bricks and wooden debris, squeezed out from within.

As time passed, the monster grew increasingly indescribable. It was entirely encased in chaotic muscle, appearing like a mountain of flesh forcibly knotted together.

The mountain of flesh pulsed and writhed, pressing toward the girl like an unstoppable tide. A bizarre sound echoed, twisting through the space: "Interesting human mage, become a part of me!"

A sickening sensation swelled in her brain the moment the voice sounded. The whispers of an Evil God, even a projection, were a blasphemy against the material world; simply hearing them made a mental toll unavoidable.

Avia endured the agonizing pain in her mind, concentrating her mental power to begin drawing in the Void energy from the space around her. She didn't know how Wang Yu would do what he claimed, but she simply trusted him, as she always did.

Her extreme affinity for the Void manifested at that moment. Even though the Void energy in this space had been branded by the Lord of Immortality, under the influence of the girl’s terrifying affinity, it flowed uncontrollably toward her.

"How interesting. I truly look forward to the changes you will bring once you become a part of me." Seemingly intrigued by the girl’s talent, the Evil God’s whisper in the Void shifted from its initial indifference to a hint of genuine interest.

The writhing sea of flesh halted, stopping before the girl as she completed her spell. This interesting human had piqued the interest of the Evil God dwelling in the Void.

With this level of Void affinity, if it weren't for the fact that she was clearly human, one might have mistaken her for one of their own kind.

The emotion of "interest" appeared within the emotional space of the Lord of Immortality. It observed with fascination the spell model taking shape in the girl’s hands—chaotic and disordered, it held the essence of the Void. What would she do next?

This sense of interest caused the sea of flesh controlled by the Evil God’s projection to pause before Avia, rather than surging forward in an overwhelming wave.

Unaware that the Lord of Immortality in the Void had become interested in her and her spell, Avia fought against the whispers that brought constant pain to her mind, finishing the incantation.

Vast amounts of the Lord of Immortality’s Void energy were continuously drawn by the girl into her mental realm. Above the boundless, clear lake, Wang Yu stood holding his door.

The castle representing the girl’s mental sanctuary already stood upon the surface of the lake. Wang Yu had moved his own sanctuary over; he was the only one who knew of this earth-shattering feat.

Watching the girl’s castle, a rift soon appeared on the lake’s surface at the castle gates. Starlight colors began to surge within, and liquid starlight flowed out from the opening.

The Void energy, normally pitch-black and studded with brilliant stars, was now veiled in a faint red light. Wang Yu did not know what it was, but it had to be the part that was not needed.

That rift was naturally the exit for the Void energy the girl was drawing from the outside world into her mental realm. This energy would enter her sanctuary, becoming her power to complete that energy-intensive spell.

However, before that, some impurities needed to be removed... Wang Yu held his door aloft and walked over. The Void energy had already turned into a river, flowing toward Avia’s castle.

Wang Yu opened his door and placed it in the path of the flowing Void energy, and thus, the energy poured into his door.

In an instant, Wang Yu felt the Void energy reach its limit. His storage capacity was too small; merely intercepting a fraction of the flow had filled his mental sanctuary to the brim.

Consequently, a small stream of Void energy overflowed from Wang Yu’s sanctuary, once again turning into a river flowing toward Avia’s castle.

But this time, after passing through Wang Yu’s sanctuary, the red light had vanished entirely, just as the chaotic debris that entered Wang Yu’s mental space had been wiped away.

The river of Void energy flowed into the girl’s mental sanctuary, and the abundant energy supply caused her castle to begin emitting a faint glow.

In the material world, when Avia felt the influx of abundant Void energy, she did not hesitate to use her mental power to channel it all into the spell in her hands.

Massive amounts of Void energy poured into the extremely complex and chaotic spell model. In an instant, thousands of runes began to link and react with one another.

The operation lasted only a heartbeat before they began to collide and conflict. Runes repelled one another, resonating and then separating; a chaotic rhythm emerged from this special spell.

The violent collisions grew more intense, but strangely, this complex and chaotic model did not shatter or dissipate amidst the frantic conflict.

Instead, through the continuous collision of the runes surrounding the edges, it remained on the verge of an explosion.

The internal turbulence continued, chaos and madness intensifying. The runes within shattered and crumbled, turning into something chaotic and unrecognizable.

As time passed, the cluster of runes, which had previously emitted light, began to turn pitch black. It no longer radiated light, but instead absorbed the light projected from elsewhere. It looked as if a black hole had appeared in the girl’s hands.

Finally, the runes at the edges collapsed as well. The entire spell transformed into a black-hole-like mass, hovering in Avia’s hands. Now was the time. The girl threw the special dagger into the black-hole-like mass.

Like ivy meeting a wall, the black-hole-like substance crawled directly onto it—no, it looked more like the backdrop of the starry sky, the black foundation beneath the endless, brilliant stars.

Was this... materialized Void?

"How fascinating!" The Evil God’s exclamation echoed from the invisible void. The chaotic flesh in the hall came to a complete standstill. Watching this scene, which was incredibly interesting even to the Evil God, it had truly become intrigued.

What could this girl actually achieve? It was willing to lose a projection just to see. It had been so long since anything—other than that golden, shining thing from years ago—had truly piqued its interest.

The materialized Void crawled onto the dagger the girl had thrown, adhering to it and burrowing within.

Perhaps the deep black object produced by this spell did not possess all the true characteristics of the Void, but its destructive power was already completely comparable.

The seemingly harmless, smooth black surface was a terrifying pulverizer of all matter; anything it touched would be destroyed and reduced to dust.

Avia did not know what could contain this spell, but for now, the only thing that could temporarily hold it was the dagger, crafted from a material whose structure Wang Yu had accidentally rendered chaotic to the extreme.

The materialized Void climbed into the blade of the dagger, and the entire weapon began to vibrate with a slight but extremely high frequency.

Even this highly unique dagger would eventually be destroyed by the materialized Void. The vibrating dagger emitted a hum with a special rhythm. It sounded... almost pleasant?

"I'll call you the Void Song..." the girl thought to herself. Her eyes grew firm as she gripped the hilt of the dagger and aimed it at the mass of flesh before her.

Her keen Void perception allowed her to know where the concentration of Void energy was in the sea of flesh before her—the core of the mass, the very anchor for the Evil God’s projection.

All she had to do was destroy this core and banish the projection of the Void Evil God.

Avia took off her Twin Star glove and put it on her left hand, revealing her Void-infused right arm.

Without hesitation, she gripped the dagger containing the Void. Unexpectedly, this right arm, which had brought her so much trouble, now allowed her to hold the Void directly in her hand.

Magic surged, and the Twin Star glove on her left hand bloomed with radiance. Blessing of the Wind, Path of the Breeze, Wind of Agility—the few remaining reserves of magic were mobilized, and several agility-enhancing spells were cast one after another.

In an instant, her mana was completely depleted, and the mental power she had been using continuously was nearly exhausted. Her vision blurred, and her head felt heavy and dizzy.

Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to endure the discomfort. Avia, gripping the "Void Song," began her charge toward the Evil God.

The triple agility-based spell enhancement gave the girl a brief burst of speed that only a knight could possess. A breeze swirled around her, carving a path forward.

Her eyes were locked on the determined direction; that was where the Void energy was most concentrated, and that was the target her strike had to hit.

It wasn't far; under the influence of the spells, it was already within reach.

Avia’s figure, surrounded by the gale, ran swiftly across the hall, rushing toward her target in the sea of flesh. She did not know why the Evil God’s projection had stopped, but that was no reason to halt her steps.

"Forget it, just become one with me," the eerie, grotesque voice sounded once more. Its capricious nature made the Evil God’s projection as chaotic and disordered as the Void itself, and its thoughts and emotions were no different.

The chaotic flesh combined, forming a giant muscular arm that swept horizontally toward the sprinting Avia.

The void energy, far more chaotic and concentrated than before, swelled to such a degree that this colossal hand dwarfed the monster Decathlon had become when Avia first faced him.

Swirling cyclones cradled Avia, and with a light tap of her toes, the girl vaulted into the air, narrowly evading the massive limb.

In the next heartbeat, energy coalesced in the void, twisting into existence a second hand of raw, pulsing flesh that descended like a vast, inescapable net.

Avia’s protective spells had heightened her agility, yet she possessed no power of flight; suspended in the air, she could only glide upon the currents of wind, unable to defy gravity further.

But as the giant hand descended, Avia remained calm, for she was no longer alone.

With the incantation complete, the need for such vast void energy vanished, and Wang Yu was no longer the paralyzed, useless shell he had been.

The void energy churned, and the mental space that had been drained to sustain Avia suddenly emptied, every drop of energy spent.

In the distance, an invisible platform materialized beneath Avia’s feet: Sorcery—Aerial Tread!

Her boots struck solid ground, and though her movements lacked polish, they remained ethereal and light.

Leveraging the platforms Wang Yu conjured from afar, and bolstered by the wind element, she danced away from the crushing palm.

Closer now, the core of the Evil God’s projection loomed within reach, yet the air here was thick with turbulent, converging void energy.

At the core, the projection’s power reached its zenith; flesh writhed and surged, and a dozen hands clawed from the ether to bar her path.

The girl offered a smile—it was enough, this distance was all she required to strike.

Her void-infused right hand tightened, shattering the already unstable "Void Song," and a crisp, ethereal chime rang out as the dagger splintered.

In its place emerged a blade of absolute darkness, a weapon several times larger than the original, shaped exactly like the dagger but forged from a solid, light-devouring void substance.

Gripping the hilt, she thrust forward, piercing through every obstacle as if it were mere mist.

The giant hand of flesh was run through as if it were air, offering no resistance, and in the next instant, the core of the Evil God’s projection was skewered.

Avia felt a slight resistance against her palm, the sensation of a blade parting living tissue.

To these void entities, being pierced by a "Void Song" forged from materialized void was no different than a mortal being run through by steel; the damage was absolute, undiminished.

"Wyghhhhh!" A grotesque shriek erupted from the core; the entity felt pain—a true, searing agony distinct from the destruction of material objects, a wound that could never heal.

Wild void energy began to hemorrhage into the surroundings, vast and uncontrollable, signaling that the core had lost its grip on its own power.

Avia, having delivered the strike, collapsed to one knee, her mind reeling; the exhaustion of mental strain, the depletion of mana, and the drain on her physical reserves hit her all at once.

Watching the sea of flesh—itself a distortion of void energy—begin to crumble, the girl wore a weary smile.

"Interesting. I have marked you; I shall come for you again..." A sinister, indifferent voice drifted from the void.

The true essence of the Evil God, the Lord of Immortality, cared nothing for the destruction of its projection, speaking only with a flicker of idle curiosity.

A mark surged from the collapsing void rift, streaking toward the exhausted Avia.

Terror flickered in the girl’s eyes; she could not bear to face the Evil God’s mark again.

There was no way to stop it; the void energy representing the mark dove into the lake of her mental space, flying toward the castle that represented her consciousness.

The mark of an Evil God would regenerate infinitely through the power of the void; it could not be purged, and once branded, the deity could watch the victim from anywhere, at any time.

But Wang Yu’s door had never moved; the mark, in its flight toward the castle, was intercepted by the door and plastered against its surface.

And then, nothing—the mark simply dissolved into smoke, and the capacity of Wang Yu’s mental space expanded by a fraction.

Amidst the incredulous roar of the Evil God and Avia’s stunned silence, the void rift closed, the projection vanished into nothingness, and at last, all was still.

(The first volume is coming to an end; tomorrow should be a transition chapter, some closing thoughts, and a few introductions. Please consider adding to your library and voting—thank you!)