Chapter 505: Rivalry

Almost the instant that entity, presenting as a physical heart in the material world, manifested before Wang Yu, he sensed a presence deeply etched into his memory—the aura of the void's deepest recesses. Its degree of chaos and distortion was rare even within the void itself, a far cry from the shallow layers Wang Yu typically frequented.

He had experienced this profound distortion twice before: once when he was still painfully weak, tumbling headlong into the void, catching a glimpse of this force that held no sway over him before he was fished out; the second time was deep within the Endless Sea, in that domain doomed to a daily cycle of ruin, where the same essence clung to that colossally massive octopus.

And now, the void energy swirling around this heart evoked that very same sensation. A thing born from the abyss of the void, its mere existence sufficed to project this primal "essence of the void" into the surrounding space.

"How could such a thing manifest in the material world? An entity this close to the depths of the void should be suppressed to the absolute limit by physical reality. The Utopia organization has never before displayed an ability to harness the void to this degree..."

Aboard the Sky Mechanical City, Icarus watched the massive heart slowly take shape below, the telemetry flashing across his monitors forcing him to take a deep breath. How many more cards was Utopia hiding?

"Perhaps their sole reason for engineering those anomalous environments was to drag the powers of the deep void into the light and bend them to their will?"

Astarte offered a reply to Icarus’s musings. After a brief moment of thought, Icarus realized the tower spirit’s hypothesis was highly likely the truth. She had beaten him to the punch, though it was a conclusion he would have reached on his own soon enough.

"That is practically a fact now. The chains wrapped around that heart—you can discern their composition, can't you? They are an exact match to what we detected in those anomalous zones created by Utopia."

Icarus murmured, his hands moving without pause to manipulate the boundary anchors—systems only he and Astarte held the clearance to manage. If they were to contest an entity from the depths of the void, the boundary anchors had to be brought to absolute full capacity.

Boom!

The gargantuan heart broke through the waves of the miry sea, any obstacle barring its path instinctively converting into other forms of matter; dry sand drifted down slowly, the heart completely unfazed by the damp, muddy marshland as a domineering domain aggressively expanded outward in its wake.

The boundary between the material world and the void blurred. This was no crude, jagged mingling like a void fissure, but a natural projection of a slice of the void onto the material plane, constructing a domain identical to the areas surrounding the "nodes" Utopia had created previously, yet requiring no prior machinery.

The entire allied army was swallowed by this domain, and the wide-area stealth shroud Wang Yu had cast over his allies dissolved under the washing tide of this abyssal power. The Goddess of Night’s authority held no meaning before this pure, deep void energy; this was a clash bordering on the foundational laws of existence, where unique traits and conceptual tricks were reduced to their absolute minimum utility.

The descent of this blended realm of matter and void, along with its attendant power, immediately began to usurp the surrounding mages' influence over the void upon its manifestation. The heart stood like the epicenter of this void domain; while it existed, the surrounding void forces could be wielded by it and it alone.

"It’s a lot like that giant octopus beneath the Endless Sea. I wonder if the Goddess of Night's power will be forcibly usurped too. Then again, my use of her divine power is driven by the raw force of the Chariot. As long as its intensity doesn't surpass the Chariot, nothing can stop me from utilizing this power in the simplest way possible."

Wang Yu watched the heart expand its domain while he began dividing the divine power of the night into two shares. One share he applied to himself, using the divine power to ignite a Chariot-driven Void Engine of unprecedented strength, while the other share was delivered into Avia’s hands for her to command.

Creak, groan...

A faint, almost imperceptible sound echoed as the spatial fabric around Wang Yu was manipulated by the power of the void—the product of the girl wielding the night's divine power in preparation.

Across the allied lines, the mages quickly realized their power was being stripped away. However, just as Wang Yu had anticipated, the coalition army, alongside the Sky Mechanical City, had engineered contingencies for every scenario. This loss of authority over void energy, which made shielding against the internal combustion forces incredibly difficult, fell well within their predicted variables.

Clang!

Deep within the Sky Mechanical City, the boundary anchors moved abruptly downward driven by alchemical mechanisms. Though nothing in the material world obstructed their descent, the metallic structures screeched violently, warping slightly as if locking horns with some ferocious, invisible adversary.

Bang!

The power furnaces pushed to absolute capacity, converting energy into a wild, tempestuous force that slammed the boundary anchors down, shattering the threshold of the resisting force. The anchors successfully plunged deep into the void, immediately deploying a counter-domain that neutralized the heart's realm which had stripped the mages of their influence.

The force of the boundary anchors canceled out the heart’s domain that had so heavily compromised the battlefield, restoring the surrounding environment to a state of relative neutral equilibrium.

"The boundary anchors can still descend about halfway further. If we push their output to that level, it should still remain within safe tolerances, while shifting the surrounding environment to favor material laws, effectively suppressing that heart's power."

Astarte spoke to Icarus, who stood in the command deck of the Sky Mechanical City, asking if they should increase the output of the boundary anchors to achieve a counter-suppression.

"No, there is no need. Doing so would place an unnecessary strain on the anchors and interfere with our own mages' use of void energy. For now, we use the anchors merely to prevent a total collapse here. The true purpose of the boundary anchors has yet to be unveiled."

Icarus responded coolly. Counter-suppression sounded wonderful in theory, but its actual efficacy remained uncertain. Who knew if that heart had already shown its full strength? Damaging the boundary anchors now would be a true case of losing more than they gained.

"Understood. Then, shall we prepare to coordinate a blanket of fire with the allied forces?"

Astarte acknowledged, simultaneously projecting an array of war machine controls in the form of magical illusions before Icarus.

"Yes, unleash them. To engage in a clash of this scale under relatively equal terms—let's count ourselves lucky for the moment. Do you think Utopia has more forces in reserve?"

Icarus’s mental focus shaped into phantom fingers, rapidly tapping across the magitronic control console, calling up every weapon of war the Sky Mechanical City had prepared for this campaign. These engines were built for this exact hour; to be unleashed without regard for loss, without regard for consumption, was their sole purpose.

"I do not know. Why ask a tower spirit? My database lacks sufficient data to support an analytical profile on Utopia."

Astarte deployed the war machines one by one according to Icarus’s commands, offering a casual counter-question. Most of the standard residential structures atop the Sky Mechanical City had been completely inverted into the subterranean bulk, while scholars entered the upper-middle tiers of the city’s interior to operate and analyze the various apparatuses.

"Why? I was hoping for a response with a bit more emotional intelligence, if only to boost my own morale. After all, you are a machine soul forged by Master Merlin himself, possessing your own thoughts. You ought to make a few judgments of your own, shouldn't you?"

Icarus replied with a faint smile. The feeds returning from the battlefield cast a massive beam of light from the heavy cannons extending out of the deployed lower main body of the Sky Mechanical City, the blinding radiance piercing the observation window to illuminate his face, rendering his features difficult to discern.

"As a commander, do you truly require such a thing as morale? Shouldn't your sole consideration be how to rally the morale of the forces under your command?"

Astarte replied in kind while manipulating the outer formations of the Sky Mechanical City. Coordinated with the expanding armor plates, she raised a colossal, one-way magical aegis and projected it across a vast distance. It slammed down onto the front lines of the battlefield with a thunderous roar, shielding the charging line of legendary warriors from a fire element implosion unleashed by the heart from a fissure.

"Don't forget, I wasn't some commander before this; I was merely the president of a certain academic society within the Sky Mechanical City. This duty was forced upon me by the circumstances. Strictly speaking, I am a scholar at best. The person who truly placed me in this position was Lord Wang Yu, so perhaps I really do need some encouragement to make better judgments."

Icarus laughed softly once more, murmuring in a low undertone as the rhythm of combat on the battlefield grew exponentially more ferocious. The battle-qi of the legendary knights intertwined, forming an unprecedentedly powerful vanguard that collided violently with the chains lashed out by the heart. After a momentary freeze, the attack unleashed by the heart's deep void power was shattered by the knights, the chains fracturing into nothingness.

"As expected, the power the knights forge with their own physical bodies—akin to the essence of the void but walking a different path entirely—is immune to the varying priorities of void energy."

"Are you still in the mood for jokes in this state? Very well, if you truly require a morale boost to function, I am willing to offer a comforting thought. For the answer you seek, Utopia likely possesses no further creations on par with this heart."

Astarte’s tone carried a hint of helplessness, seemingly unable to comprehend why Icarus sought such a meaningless answer.

"Is that so? Then we have a sliver of a chance. If another creation of the same tier existed, we would have absolutely no path to victory."

Having received the meaningless, perfunctory answer that satisfied him, Icarus appeared exceptionally pleased.

"Did that actually give you some confidence? Hah, that mindset... I must say, your competence for this role relies on far more than just that monstrous fellow."

...

Buzz!

Standing atop a large crag, watching the titanic heart in the distance, a highly pronounced shockwave suddenly erupted around Wang Yu. Space distorted instantly as fractured structures attempted to splice and alter one another, only to collapse and recede in futility.

"A completely twisted structure, entirely unaffected by the Phase Gate. Yet this method of casting is also a Phase Gate."

Sula's figure materialized a vast distance away, speaking with a smile to Wang Yu, who silently turned around.

Brushing away the turbulent energy currents left behind by the brief clash between Avia and Sula, Wang Yu replied flatly.

"I've been waiting for you."