Chapter 393: Escape, An Idea

"This is a bit troublesome. I hadn't anticipated this, and it seems I'll have to spend some time here."

With a single, thunderous blow, Wang Yu sent the mountain-sized abyssal creature plummeting to the deepest, infinite reaches of the void, then dragged the shell of the dream deity back into the domain covered by his own gate.

He intended to test whether the peerless gravitational pull inherent to the space created by the abyssal creature still persisted, but through a rift in the void, he caught sight of something else.

Endless seawater cascaded down from above like a falling firmament; the sheer volume of water crushed the air, emitting a piercing shriek that threatened to rupture eardrums, while the friction had already set the bottom layers of the sea to a boil, churning with countless bubbles.

Wang Yu and his companions had never considered the source of the water in the tidal barrier. The vast pit beneath the Endless Sea seemed to perfectly correspond to the volume of water that rose above sea level in that barrier. Thus, when Wang Yu incidentally collapsed the tidal wall, the water column, over ten thousand meters high, naturally crashed down into the abyss below.

He had originally planned to fly out using magic or alchemical machinery, but that was clearly impossible now. While high-level magic could mitigate the pressure of tens of thousands of meters of water, maintaining it until they reached the surface was a different matter entirely.

The most troublesome aspect, however, were the oceanic behemoths within the extreme biome. Their life force was entirely off the charts; were it not for the fact that these creatures rarely appeared in shallow waters, they would have long since become a major scourge to the continent.

Then again, those dangers posed no real threat to Wang Yu, who could now retreat into the void to avoid harm; at most, they were merely an inconvenience.

"Let's slowly climb up through the void. It's a bit sluggish, but at least there's no significant risk."

After a moment's thought, Wang Yu clapped his hands together and made his decision. The protective range of the gate was mobile, though dragging it required effort and was not particularly fast. With the dream deity’s shell—still brimming with residual power—as a tow, pulling it up through a thousand meters of ocean was no difficult task.

Without delay, and eager to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, Wang Yu began to channel the power of the dream deity’s shell to haul the group and the gate upward. The pace was slow but steady; he estimated it would take four or five days to reach their destination, which was nothing compared to the time Sieg and Noelle had spent trapped in the Ash Wasteland.

"Void creatures are starting to appear in the vicinity, Wang Yu. Is there anything I should be wary of?"

Avia’s voice reached Wang Yu’s ears. As he hauled the entire space upward, he looked out into the surrounding void. Just as Avia had noted, the area they had occupied previously was devoid of void creatures because it had been claimed by the great octopus.

Now, as they continued to ascend and left the region once dominated by the beast, the deep purple void began to teem with strange, twisted entities that flew in erratic patterns, emitting maddening, shrill cries.

The girl had been studying Wang Yu’s space and observing the outside world through it. Being noticed and attacked by void creatures was something the meticulous Avia had anticipated and prepared for from the start.

"I'm not entirely sure myself. Keep a lookout. If only a few notice us, ignore them; if there are too many, we'll use the void rifts to evade them by slipping into the material world."

Wang Yu found it difficult to provide a definitive answer. This ability had only just fully manifested, and he himself needed time to explore and understand it. He wasn't certain if void creatures could penetrate this domain, so he could only prepare to dodge back and forth between realms.

Avia’s intuition seemed correct; Wang Yu’s domain was a glaring anomaly in the void, much like an abyssal evil god suddenly appearing in the material world. To the void creatures, they were now a material presence intruding upon their domain.

Gradually, void creatures began to follow them upward. At first, they were scattered, small entities, but they soon evolved into a swarm of increasingly grotesque and massive individuals.

They stared at the small object ascending through the void with rotting, gargantuan eyes that shimmered with indescribable light. Curiosity, malice, fear—a chaotic jumble of emotions churned within these inherently disordered beings, whose minds were twisted beyond description. This made them highly volatile, ready to launch an attack on the area at any moment.

"Damn it, wait..."

Wang Yu was about to curse and prepare for evasion when he looked up and saw something familiar. A dome of pure darkness descended from the upper reaches of the void, shrouding the void creatures above. Then, like a surging tide, the darkness enveloped the space where Wang Yu’s gate resided.

"Lady Darkness?"

Avia asked tentatively. Although she had communicated with the Lady of the Night before, she had never entered the void to speak with her directly. As the darkness she recognized descended, the girl realized who had arrived to help them out of their predicament.

"It is I. I have finally found you. I could not reach this region personally before because of that wall, but now that the wall has collapsed, I can come here myself."

As the darkness completely surrounded them, everything around them became strangely clear. The Lady of the Night’s "Divine Kingdom" had arrived alongside her response.

The vast Tree of the Night Sky was dotted with stars, and one could faintly see the Midnight Library in the distance, along with the black silhouettes of the members of the Night Church moving within. The area influenced by Wang Yu’s gate had been completely subsumed by the Lady of the Night’s domain.

The tall lady appeared outside the gate’s boundary, curiously tapping the cubic edge with one hand, while the other held the strange artifact—the Blood-Red Mark. It was this item that had allowed her to pinpoint their location.

"What is this? I seem to be completely blocked; my power cannot act upon it."

There was curiosity in her tone; she had never seen the void occupied by this gate before.

"Er, it’s something I’ve newly learned. Wait a moment, I should be able to let you in."

Wang Yu thought for a moment and, relying on his connection to the gate, modified a few things. When the Lady of the Night tapped the edge again, her arm passed through successfully. She took a step forward, and her entire form entered the domain.

"It seems I didn't need to worry about those void creatures after all. If the Lady of the Night couldn't enter without my permission, they certainly couldn't either."

He mused to himself, while the Lady of the Night began exchanging updates with Avia and Noelle about the changes that had occurred during their disappearance.

Only then did they learn that while Wang Yu and Avia felt as though little time had passed, more than two months had actually elapsed in the outside world—roughly synchronized with the time Sieg and Noelle had spent in the Ash Wasteland. A great many changes had already taken place.

"So the Dragon God really does have a deep connection to the abyssal creatures. And Sieg’s sister... did she fail?"

After a brief exchange of information, Wang Yu and the others had a rough understanding of the situation outside. He truly hadn't expected Aerielian to fail. Was there really an existence that even that silver dragon, powerful as she was, could not handle?

"Can you take us up?"

Wang Yu pointed upward, hoping for the Lady of the Night’s assistance.

"Of course."

She consented. Power radiated from the Tree of the Night Sky, enveloping the area around the gate and pulling it upward. With Wang Yu’s cooperation, they ascended rapidly, far faster than he could have managed on his own.

"Oh, that’s a huge help. Right, and this—could you make use of this?"

Estimating the time, they would reach the surface in less than five minutes. The Lady of the Night was a god, after all. Wang Yu suddenly remembered the shell left behind by the dream deity.

He didn't know what it was composed of, but it was certainly packed with power. He could use it through the power of the Chariot, but he wondered if the Lady of the Night, being a deity herself, could utilize it. With that thought, he pushed the shell into the Lady of the Night’s "Divine Kingdom."

"This is... the power of dreams. An ownerless object? I shall try."

The Lady of the Night wasn't entirely certain, so she reached out to touch the shell. Upon contact, the body strangely dissolved into a faint, pale purple mist, which naturally dissipated and merged into her Divine Kingdom.

"His power has been drawn to me. I can indeed wield this ability related to dreams now."

A dreamlike, thin veil of smoke drifted in her hand, and under her control, it shifted into a myriad of indefinable shapes.

"I see..."

Wang Yu raised an eyebrow. It was actually quite strange. No one considered the Lady of the Night a deity of dreams, yet when he handed her the shell of this ancient dream deity, she could use it. What was the logic behind that?

Regardless, he decided to put it aside for now. They would ascend, and then wait for Sieg to wake up.

...

"Bang!"

With a single punch, Sieg shattered the thick tree trunk in front of him. He looked at his fist, which remained without a single scratch, and then at the pile of shattered rock fragments nearby, shaking his head slightly.

"Why would I dream of this time? It’s been a while since I’ve had a dream..."

Sieg’s consciousness was quite clear; he knew he was dreaming, and the scene was exceptionally vivid—more detailed and lifelike than the memories that had grown somewhat blurred over time.

"Hmm, I had almost forgotten the feeling of despair when I discovered my magic circuits were naturally defective, my true name was incomplete, and I was completely unable to fly or use magic. Back then, I was like a madman, training my physical strength to compensate."

Muttering to himself, he walked to a small stream in the forest he used as a training ground. He looked at his reflection in the water; he was much younger and more naive than he was now, though his overall features remained unchanged.

"Sigh... I actually used my human form to train back then. After that incident, I used my human form the entire time I traveled the continent with Noelle. It’s quite nostalgic, really. Most dragons wouldn't use this form so often."

After discovering his own defects, Sieg had spent a period in deep despair, unable to accept the reality. Feeling weak and powerless, he had attempted to emulate the Black Dragons—a race with weak magical ability but exaggerated physical strength—using his Red Dragon body to compensate for his magical shortcomings through sheer physical might.

He had trained like a madman every day. What he had just done was exactly what he used to do. But, ironically, he had always used his human form for training. The reason was simple: in human form, he at least looked "complete," unlike his dragon form, which revealed his broken and ugly wings.

A simple, somewhat pathetic pride. But everyone goes through such a process of growth. It had taken Sieg a long, long time to shift his mindset. At the very least, after arriving on the continent, he had slowly come to accept his defects, using them as a catalyst to develop virtues rarely found in dragons: humility, a love for learning, and so on.

"How long did it take me to accept myself? I can't quite remember, but it was definitely after I came to the continent that I slowly let it go."

Sighing as he lay upon the ground, Sieg let his mind drift through a haze of idle recollections; letting go had taken a long time, for the dragons, a race of vast longevity, possess a mental maturation cycle just as protracted, making Sieg’s own early development quite remarkable—yet to let go was not the same as to surrender.

Indeed, for Sieg had a sister such as her; if his own inherent incompleteness was one reason he favored his humanoid form, then Aerielian was surely the other.

"Boom!"

A thunderous roar echoed through the valley, and Sieg knew it was Aerielian mastering her own power; she favored her human guise far more than most dragons, a rarity among their kind, and though Sieg had been influenced by her, her own strength was rare enough in its own right.

"A peerlessly powerful silver dragon, an incomplete red dragon, and a red dragon of ordinary but decent talent—all one family? It sounds like a joke or some fairy tale, doesn't it, sister? I know, I know..."

His gaze drifted, and Sieg spoke to himself, recalling this place in his memory, perhaps somewhere in the heart of the Dragon Isles.

In the distance, the clouds flickered with light that did not belong to his memories, and a sensation of rising stirred within his body; he realized he was waking from the dream.

"You're awake?"

Opening his eyes, he saw Wang Yu crouching beside him, with Noelle standing behind, and Wang Yu’s voice reached his ears.

"Mm, not dead. That’s good."

He nodded and climbed to his feet, his body shifting into its humanoid form as his consciousness returned, though he remained exceptionally weak.

"Rest for now. I'll tell you the general situation on the Dragon Isles, relayed by your sister to the Lady of the Night; it’s safe to say it is very grim."

Wang Yu placed a potion into Sieg’s hand and proceeded to recount everything Aerielian had told the Lady of the Night regarding the carnage on the isles, Mielos, and the Dragon God.

Sieg’s brow furrowed, his expression turning grave; he had suspected the state of the Dragon God while in the Ashlands, but he had not imagined it would be this dire.

"My advice is to run. Don't go. With our strength, trying to deal with an entity of that level is essentially suicide. If we could have helped before, it’s useless now; we’d likely be dead before doing anything at all. Leaving it to the Sky Mechanical City and the other continental powers once they confirm the news is the better choice."

Wang Yu waved his hand, expressing his thoughts; he hadn't changed much since the days in the Royal City, and after learning what had transpired on the Dragon Isles, his stance was clear. Expecting Wang Yu—a man who was a legend, if one could even call him that—to engage in a frontal battle at the level of a Dragon God?

That was overestimating him. The matters in the Void were a fluke born of his unique nature, but in the material world, there were no tricks to be played; you either could or you couldn't. One misstep meant annihilation, leaving not even bones behind. In terms of raw power, Wang Yu was, ultimately, lacking.

"..., no, I must go."

Sieg fell silent for a moment, then shook his head, rejecting Wang Yu’s proposal.

"Ho, Professor, you’re quite confident."

Wang Yu locked eyes with Sieg; the look in the other’s eyes did not seem like bravado, but rather a genuine certainty, even after knowing everything about the Dragon Isles.

"Fine. If you truly intend to go, I do have an idea."

Sieg did not explain the source of his confidence, and Wang Yu did not ask; instead, after a brief pause, he drew upon details from the Lady of the Night’s report, realizing that if his deductions were correct, he might actually be able to intervene in a battle of that magnitude, although...