Chapter 61: Shadow of the Royal Capital

The night-veiled Royal City remained bustling, visibly more vibrant than any other town.

Wang Yu followed Sieg’s steady pace through the streets, observing his surroundings with a sense of wonder.

He still remembered the eerie atmosphere of his first night in the capital, where malevolent shadows seemed to lurk within the architecture, watching him and Aivya with a silent, malicious intent.

It was only when Captain Shugein appeared, the lantern in his hand dispelling that unsettling sensation, that the feeling faded.

He glanced at the lantern in his own hand, a gift from Sieg, which remained unlit.

He felt the air around him again; despite the crowds and the lively activity, the darkness of night still held sway, yet Wang Yu could no longer detect that same sinister gaze from the shadows he had felt upon his arrival.

When he had a question, he asked—it was his habit. He voiced his curiosity directly.

"Yes, this is one of your duties as a Night Watcher. As a patroller, you must use this lantern to disperse those dark, lingering things."

"The Royal City is a densely populated metropolis. We cannot track the myriad talents hidden among its people; the son of a commoner might possess the gift of a sorcerer, or a blacksmith’s daughter might have the aptitude of a mage."

"These talents may remain dormant, yet they still manifest—perhaps in dreams, perhaps in moments of intense emotion, or perhaps when influenced by some dark deity..."

"Mental energy—the psychic resonance of those gifted, and even the vast, untapped energy of those without—is in constant flux."

"Normally, a person's mental energy cannot directly affect reality; it requires a medium."

"But when the quantity reaches a threshold—thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions—this quantitative change forces a qualitative shift in the overflowing energy."

"The Royal City is such a place. Its population has reached a limit, and that limit has fundamentally altered the nature of its psychic energy."

Sieg paused here, pointing toward the sky. "Do you know what lies up there, beyond the stars?"

"I don't know." Wang Yu had been tempted to say "the universe," but he answered honestly. He knew Sieg wasn't looking for a scientific explanation.

"It is an ocean... the psychic energy shed by the vast population of this city gathers there. It is an ocean of human consciousness—complex, chaotic, disorderly... and ugly."

"Is that so?" Wang Yu looked up at the pitch-black night sky. It was cloudless, filled with stars. So, there was an invisible ocean hidden up there?

"Mental energy, at its core, remains mental energy. No matter how vast, it cannot directly influence the physical world—not even that terrifyingly immense sea of consciousness."

"The Void..." Wang Yu inferred what Sieg was about to say.

"Yes, the Void. The essence of the Void tends toward disorder and chaos; it constantly pushes the physical world toward entropy. Those with strong psychic resonance are always susceptible to the Void—this is what we call Void Affinity..."

Hearing the professor’s words, Wang Yu narrowed his eyes and looked up at the sky again. That chaotic sea of consciousness—was it like a sorcerer with unimaginable mental power? And if so, what was its affinity for the Void?

"This massive ocean of psychic energy attracts the Void, and the Void does nothing but manifest the 'evil' and 'darkness' within that sea into reality."

The Royal City was a place of prosperity, but for some residents, it was a wretched place. Oppression, persecution, violence—these ugly things were no different here than anywhere else.

The malice born from the residents' minds was projected into that sea, making the already complex collection of psychic energy even more twisted and chaotic.

Through Sieg’s explanation, Wang Yu understood the terrifying consequences of the Void exploiting this psychic ocean.

The beautiful things in that ocean tended toward order and harmony, but the Void, being the antithesis of this, would not manifest them. Instead, it would slowly strip them away from the chaos.

But those ugly things—the cruelty and tyranny hidden deep in the human heart—might be restrained by reality, preventing the perpetrators from acting on their thoughts. The Void, however, would not be so restrained...

The dark deities born from the Void, and other chaotic entities, coveted these ugly manifestations born of intense psychic energy, eager to bring them into reality and spread chaos throughout the city.

A night parade of a hundred demons, the suffering of the masses—Wang Yu simulated the scene in his mind. It was, indeed, a terrifying prospect.

However, Sieg’s smiling eyes caught no trace of tension or fear on Wang Yu’s face; the young man only wore the slight frown of someone lost in deep thought.

"So, how do you deal with this ocean of psychic energy?" Wang Yu asked, puzzled. He still couldn't see the chaotic sea that supposedly existed above.

"Aren't you worried? This thing is like an activated flame-magic trap; who knows when it might suddenly explode?"

"You all seem to be living just fine, and logically, shouldn't that be our job to handle?"

Clearly, Wang Yu was not troubled. If the city was fine, the Kingdom of Alastair must have its own methods of containment.

It wasn't his place as a small cog to worry; it was a simple truth—if the sky fell, the tall ones would hold it up.

"It seems I truly cannot frighten you. Very well, this relates to what I am about to show you."

The two walked for a while, Sieg crossing several streets before turning into a narrow alley.

It was a short alley, ending abruptly at a solid wall that blocked their path.

Sieg stepped forward and placed his hand against the masonry. A familiar spatial ripple appeared in the air, and the wall shimmered like water. The professor stepped through the rippling surface, and Wang Yu followed.

Inside, Wang Yu surveyed his surroundings. It was a corridor, not particularly wide, with walls meticulously lined with brick and stone, appearing incredibly sturdy.

There was no sense of spatial distortion here; the only anomaly seemed to be the entrance itself.

"The Root System. If the 'Interstices' are the channels hidden outside reality that traverse the city, these are the channels that wind through the city within reality."

"This network is hidden between the buildings of the Royal City. The wall you think is empty might be hiding a branch of this root system."

"The main trunk splits into countless branches, and these roots surround almost every corner of the city. Aside from the Interstices, you must also become familiar with the Root System."

"Of course, the place I am taking you today has little to do with the roots themselves; I am merely using them as a passage."

Wang Yu remained quiet, observing his surroundings as he followed Sieg.

Just as Sieg had said, the passage was long and filled with intersections, yet not overly narrow.

They walked without pause or dead ends. It was hard to imagine how such a massive network of corridors could be hidden within the city’s dense architecture.

Did the residents know that, perhaps just on the other side of their walls, soldiers of the kingdom were marching by?

With such architectural prowess and operational efficiency, this kingdom, empowered by supernatural forces, was in no way inferior to the great nations of Earth.

The corridor had no light source, but Wang Yu relied on his Inner Eye, so he did not need to see. As for how Sieg navigated, that remained a mystery.

Rounding a corner, the path widened and began to descend. As the space expanded, it could no longer be called a corridor, but a grand hall. A massive entrance appeared within the range of Wang Yu’s Inner Eye.

A steep staircase extended downward from the center of the hall into the unknown depths beneath the city. The depth was beyond the reach of Wang Yu’s ripples.

Standing at the edge of the entrance, Wang Yu felt a familiar sensation. The eerie, prying gaze and the chaos he had felt on his first day in the city were drifting up from this subterranean entrance—faint, but undeniable.

"What is this place?" Wang Yu asked.

"The entrance to the Royal City’s Shadow."

"The Royal City’s Shadow?" Wang Yu chewed on the phrase, unaware of its deeper meaning, and shook his head.

"If there is anything that can remain unaffected by the Void, and in turn, influence the Void once it reaches a certain magnitude, it is an Artifact."

"An Artifact? I see..." Wang Yu thought for a moment. It made sense that an object transcending reality and the Void could potentially turn the tide against such a terrifyingly vast ocean of psychic energy.

"The Reflection of the Stars. That is the Artifact held by the Royal Family. It twists everything, reversing properties. Its greatest trait is the inversion of all things... The Royal Family chose to seal this ocean of psychic energy beneath the earth, casting it down from the high heavens into an endless abyss."

"Wait, if this Artifact is as you describe, surely there’s a better way? They could have reversed and stripped away the malevolent aspects, or simply used the Artifact to move the energy elsewhere. There was no need to keep it under the city, forcing us to contain and manage it..."

Wang Yu still didn't understand. If such an item existed, why keep the sea of malice under the city? It seemed like inviting trouble, though there must be a reason.

"Wang Yu, you must understand that the use of Artifacts is rarely precise. These things transcend reality and the Void; how could they ever truly belong to us? We are merely users, perhaps even thieves, not masters."

"As for why we haven't moved it, there is a simple reason: this ocean has its own unique value... value so great that the Royal Family is willing to risk everything to maintain it."

Wang Yu nodded. He had been making assumptions. Not every Artifact was as easy to control as the Phantom Knight’s Banner or the Endless Pages. The cost of wielding the Reflection of the Stars remained unknown.

"Psychic energy and the Void are intertwined, and the Reflection of the Stars causes the Void affected by this energy to overlap with reality after inversion. The Royal City’s Shadow is, in fact, a unique region where the boundary between reality and the Void is blurred... chaotic, yet uniquely valuable."

"Every kingdom has its own trump cards and ultimate weapons. One of Alastair’s is this Shadow, where the Void and reality merge. When the Reflection of the Stars stops, and this space—manipulated and transformed by the Royal Family for centuries—is inverted, the ultimate weapon, the 'Divine Remains of the End,' will manifest..."

Sieg paused, then smiled. "You might have heard nothing but nonsense after the mention of the ultimate weapon; that is part of the non-disclosure agreement. Your clearance is not yet high enough to know these things. In short, just understand this: the Special Operations Group has high clearance. Aside from these secrets, everything else is fine."

Wang Yu raised an eyebrow. He hadn't heard any "nonsense"—the contract, as expected, had no effect on him. That was not a bad thing. Wang Yu said nothing.

“Then, welcome to the place where you shall labor for a long time to come: the Shadow of the Royal City, the Umbra of the Capital.” The professor did not elaborate, and their pace never faltered as he spoke.

The staircase reached its end, and a vast, somber subterranean expanse revealed itself to Wang Yu and Ziegler.

The ceiling was a vault of stone and earth, devoid of any true illumination save for scattered, bioluminescent specks that mimicked the sparse stars of a moonlit night.

Before their eyes, a city of the underworld, bathed in a dim, flickering glow, emerged within Wang Yu’s field of vision.

Intricate and labyrinthine, the architecture clung to the protrusions and hollows of the cavern, a honeycomb of structures scattered in chaotic disarray, connected by a web of tunnels and walkways that pierced through the confusion.

In the murky light, a multitude of people wove through this maze, moving with a practiced ease that suggested they were as much a part of this space as the stone itself.

Chaotic, flourishing, and complex, yet possessing a beauty all its own, this underground realm held a grandeur and sophistication rivaling the city above, its unique form dictated by its own singular laws.

“The Umbra of the Capital—a place of chaos. The Royal City allows it a degree of autonomy, fostering a special development born of freedom to maximize the utility of this anomalous space.”

“Can you feel it?”

“Yes…” Wang Yu stared at his palm, where the space rippled—the manifestation of his own power, the Ripple.

He had already sensed the peculiarity of this region; the Void was woven into reality, and the very air was saturated with the chaos of the abyss.

When his Ripple, bolstered by the Void, expanded, it did not merely travel further or strike with greater force; because the Void had bled into reality, his invisible waves had become visible.

“That is hardly a good thing,” Wang Yu frowned. The stealth of his Ripple was a vital asset; if this were the case…

“Wang Yu, a word of caution: be mindful of that observational ability of yours. Do not keep it active at all times. It is unnecessary, and it is best not to release it at all. Someone like me can sense the subtle fluctuations of the Void your power creates; your casual prying could easily lead to you being observed in return.”

“It was not obvious in the outside world, but here, as you can see for yourself, you must be careful.”

Wang Yu was interrupted by Ziegler’s warning before he could finish his thought.

“This…” Wang Yu froze. His Ripple—this special, almost cheat-like ability—could actually be detected? Had he simply never encountered an opponent powerful enough to perceive it until now?

He felt a pang of disappointment. His unique edge was not as absolute as he had believed.

No, wait. The Void fluctuations—it was true that his Ripple could extend further when augmented by the Void, but in essence, he could manifest it without such aid, though the range would be severely restricted. Then…

Wang Yu stepped closer to Ziegler and released the Ripple once more. This time, he did not borrow the power of the Void, limiting the effect to a sphere with a radius of only two meters.

“Professor, can you still sense the fluctuations?”

“They are gone. How? Oh…” Ziegler blinked, nodding in realization.

Wang Yu smiled; he truly appreciated a teammate with such keen intuition.

He did not yet understand the role the Void played in his arcane power, nor was now the time to seek that answer. It was time to get to work. His life would be intertwined with this chaotic underground city for a long time to come. The Umbra of the Capital—he found himself filled with a strange sense of curiosity and anticipation.