Chapter 496: Clear Goal

"Boom!"

A ray of lightning swept through the ranks of the Utopia organization's spellcasters, its immense destructive power instantly shattering the shields they had pre-cast upon themselves and obliterating them until not a bone remained.

Only a handful of spellcasters managed to escape by etherealizing their bodies instead of bracing for impact, but the black dragon that charged in immediately had no intention of sparing them, mercilessly crushing them into a pulp of flesh upon the ground.

"Lord Wang Yu's power is truly excessively effective; for these frail mages who rely on spellcasting for self-preservation, it is nothing short of lethal. However, it seems the Utopia organization never intended for these beings to perish simply because their physical forms were destroyed."

Exhaling a frigid torrent that froze the few knights scattered among the spellcasters into fragile ice sculptures, the White Dragon Patriarch Mistrix sighed at the power of the Chariot: Silent Hall—a dimensional strike against spellcasters that rendered them unable to cast within its range, forcing them to rely on pre-arranged measures, which was truly disastrous.

Simultaneously, the natural circuits of magic flowing within his body extended his perception, capturing traces of what concerned him in the surrounding space, seeking evidence for his prior conjectures, and the answer seemed to be exactly as he had envisioned.

He paid special attention to the locations where the Utopia spellcasters' bodies had disintegrated; there, things that necromancers were particularly familiar with manifested—the souls of those Utopia members who had perished.

Logically, souls should dissipate shortly after the destruction of the body unless the environment is exceptionally tranquil; once magic or other energy fluctuations intensify, these souls, stripped of their physical protection, are easily destroyed. Yet, this rule did not fully apply here.

The souls of those "dead" Utopia spellcasters were shielded by a layer of void energy, slipping back into the void through microscopic fissures. The void was naturally the home turf of the Utopia organization; protecting these souls and finding them suitable new bodies was likely no difficult task.

"Caught you. Necromantic magic is quite strained when it comes to imprisoning these souls; they are highly resilient, and even as mere souls, they can still utilize a significant amount of void energy. To influence them, one must first break through this layer of void energy."

Within the void, the girl held a sinister lantern emitting a greenish-blue flame. Inside, one could see many small clusters of flame, separate from the main fire, dancing about—these were the souls of the Utopia members captured by this lantern forged of necromantic magic.

These souls had attempted to slip back into the void through the fissures after death, but the problem was that Wang Yu's own void space was nearby. Entering the void from this region was akin to walking into a tiger's den; save for a very few that slipped through the cracks, the girl had bound them all with the soul-locking chains of necromancy.

"Can you extract any information about the Utopia organization from these souls?"

Wang Yu asked Avia. Even now, the intelligent races of the continent knew very little about this organization they were locked in a life-or-death struggle against. Why were they doing this, and how would their actions ultimately affect the continent? All of this remained a mystery.

This had led to a dire situation in the eyes of the Sky Mechanical City and the Five-Race Alliance: the inability to truly mobilize all the continent's inhabitants to join the war against Utopia.

Even now, while all kingdoms had handed over their available resources to the Alliance and the Sky Mechanical City, the force gathered to fight Utopia was far inferior to that of the past war against the Abyss.

Aside from the fact that the major kingdoms had not personally entered the fray, leaving it to the Alliance and the Sky Mechanical City, the greatest difference from the past war was the participation of the gods.

Against the Abyssal creatures, due to their pure malice and indiscriminate slaughter, every inhabitant of the continent clearly understood that if the war were lost, everyone would surely die. Because of this, no one hesitated, no one tried to compromise, and they threw everything into the fight just to survive.

But Utopia was different. They were so adept at keeping their actions secret that the inhabitants of the continent could not truly realize what the outcome of failure would be. Even the events in the Theocracy of the Light God and the destruction caused by the towers to various nations served as reminders of Utopia's threat, yet it was still difficult to equate them with the Abyssal creatures of the past.

Only when the collective thoughts of the masses reached a certain scale and prayers were offered would the gods respond and descend into the material world. The manifestation of so many gods during the war against the Abyss stemmed from the near-unanimous belief of the continent's inhabitants to "destroy the Abyssal creatures at all costs."

Unable to realize the consequences of losing to Utopia, there were even entities on the continent who supported cooperation with them, or who wanted to let Utopia try building their so-called "Utopia." While these were certainly a tiny minority, a lack of consensus was inevitable.

A slow death by a thousand cuts—this was perhaps the best way to describe the actions of the Utopia organization. The conflict did not come from invaders from the heavens, but from intelligent races like themselves, which inevitably gave many inhabitants an unrealistic fantasy.

Under the premise of such fantasies, the struggle against them was bound to be hindered. In this gap, Utopia might unknowingly complete what they set out to do. Their act of creating "nodes" seemed far gentler than the massacres initiated by the Abyssal creatures, and until everything was complete, the danger remained hidden.

The inhabitants themselves could hardly realize this fact, but the wise naturally understood. The Five-Race Alliance and the Sky Mechanical City existed to avoid this situation, bearing the resources provided by various nations to concentrate power to the greatest extent and fulfill the duty of fighting Utopia.

Fighting until now, beyond the ever-increasing threat assessment, the specifics of the Utopia organization remained a blur. If useful information could be gleaned from these souls at this moment, it would certainly be good news.

Avia pondered, carefully gathering a small cluster of necromantic magic on her finger and touching it to the lantern—crafted from materials collected from the necromantic plane mixed with necromantic magic—to make contact with the dancing flames inside, the souls bound by the girl.

"Crack, bang!"

However, even though the girl was extremely cautious in contacting these souls, attempting to read something from them, they self-destructed from within the moment they were touched by necromantic magic.

A chain reaction occurred; the souls within the blue-gray lantern exploded one after another, shattering until the lantern in the girl's hand was split open. A massive mental shockwave was directed at the girl who had attempted to read the information, only to be instantly annihilated by the cube shielding Avia's soul, rendering it useless.

"It failed. The Utopia organization must have long since tampered with their members' souls; it is impossible for necromancers from the Alliance or the Sky Mechanical City to read anything from them."

The girl expressed slight regret as she updated Wang Yu on the situation. While they couldn't obtain useful information, there was an additional discovery.

"These souls all seem to be connected to a massive entity, located at a point within the void, roughly near the area we need to head toward."

The girl's gaze pierced the boundaries of Wang Yu's domain, looking deep into the void below. She could now roughly understand how the Utopia organization managed to produce so many members.

"It is certainly impossible for these members to persist in the material world; if they did, they would inevitably leave traces, and it wouldn't be impossible to find any news about them like now. Therefore, a more likely form is that the souls of Utopia members from history are preserved within the void."

Avia nodded slightly, sharing her conclusion with Wang Yu.

"So those ruins that suddenly appeared were actually prepared for these old-era souls preserved in the void? As long as their bodies are reshaped, these members can reappear in the world at the appropriate time—that is, this era."

Wang Yu said casually, his Saint Spear, Casimir, fully charged, converting the harvested life force into a destructive beam of energy that swept out, eliminating the last squad of Utopia spellcasters caught in the Chariot: Silent Hall domain.

"I believe that is the case."

The girl replied, though she did not speak in absolutes.

"In other words, as long as we head to that area and destroy the collective that houses these Utopia members' souls, the organization will basically be finished, right?"

Wang Yu asked concisely, his gaze fixed on the horizon where something was gradually manifesting.

"Haha, it's a slight deviation from the previous plan but not contradictory. If you want to do that, I approve."

Avia chuckled. It was easy to guess what Wang Yu wanted to do, but it had to be said that there was nothing wrong with it; essentially, it was no different from the previous plan, just with a more defined target.

"Fair enough. But for now, we have to handle things here first. It seems the Utopia organization has also begun to enter a full state of war."

Wang Yu replied with a light laugh; the two knew each other far too well.

On the distant horizon, directly above the underground entrance in the center of the Ash Plains, the massive phantom that had once appeared on the Bloodfang Empire battlefield manifested once more. As it raised its hands, a massive torrent of mental shockwaves surged from its location.

Raising his hand, the power of the Night Sky Tree reached Wang Yu, and with a wave toward the rear, fluid darkness covered the bodies of the surrounding dragons, providing protection for their minds with the power of the Lady of the Night.

"Move out. Let's give the Utopia organization a surprise attack."

The "Dark Sword" capable of stripping away existence was held by Wang Yu as he walked among the dragons, erasing the presence of each one protected by the Lady of the Night. Before the mental tide reached them, the dragons and Wang Yu vanished from the Ash Plains.

On the other side, the Sky Mechanical City, which had been steadily advancing its front and destroying Utopia's towers with legendary combat power and war machines, also noticed the phantom on the distant horizon.

"Activate the World Anchor defense function. Temporarily sever the connection between the void and the material world to avoid mental interference."

Icarus issued the command. Within the main city of the Sky Mechanical City, the World Anchor stored inside began to rotate slowly, projecting its unique power. The Sky Mechanical City no longer needed the help of gods to resist such attacks.