Chapter 95: Racing Against Time

Time rewound two minutes. Edward, nursing his grievous wounds, winced in agony as he gulped down the alchemical potion Wang Yu had provided. The elixir’s potency was truly staggering; the strength slowly returning to his limbs was no illusion, but the pain—the pain was agonizingly real.

So, Wang Yu, what is your plan? Edward asked, watching Wang Yu organize his gear.

According to your account, although we have slipped the leash of Penia Ryder’s prophecies, what has already transpired remains immutable. Summoning the city guard would take too long, and she has positioned herself at a unique juncture where the entire Blade of Night is unreachable. Reinforcements are simply not an option.

Wang Yu’s tone was level as he calmly sorted through his equipment. He paused, then discarded his axe and other heavy armaments to shed weight. If the plan succeeded, speed was his only requirement; if it failed, these weapons would be meaningless anyway.

True. Everyone who attempted to make contact failed. As of now, you are the only variable outside her foresight; everything else remains within her calculations.

That... is not necessarily true, Wang Yu replied after a moment’s thought.

What do you mean, not necessarily? Edward asked, puzzled.

Well, it is uncertain for now, but that is not the point. Since we cannot find human help, we shall simply turn to something non-human. Wang Yu pointed toward the sky.

Edward looked up, seeing nothing but the patrolling airships and the distant floating isle.

Her problem lies in being merely a witch, overly reliant on the Void. That always leads to trouble, especially when she is a fanatic who worships destiny. Wang Yu finished packing and prepared to depart.

You mean—?! Edward realized something. His gaze shifted back to the airships, his eyes now filled with hesitation, apprehension, and a flicker of excitement.

Exactly! Leave this side to me; you go coordinate with the others and bring the city guard. Wang Yu answered Edward’s unspoken question and broke into a run.

Edward clenched his fist. He still felt Wang Yu’s plan was bordering on madness, and he wasn't sure if the man could pull it off. But one must trust their companion. He turned and sprinted toward the city center; it was now a race against time.

...

A minute later, Wang Yu arrived back in the vicinity of the building. Since he and Edward had fled, the structure had fallen into a deathly silence, with no further activity emanating from within.

Ignoring the building, Wang Yu began his preparations. His consciousness sank into his mental realm, standing upon the endless lake formed by Void energy. He began to channel that power.

Wang Yu had once exploited his ability as a wizard to ignore the exhaustion of Void energy, pushing the concept of destruction to its limit to create a hammer—one with an infinitely small contact area and an infinitely short duration, yet possessing near-infinite destructive power. By colliding concepts, he had shattered the barrier of the Lord of Undying.

He intended to do the same now. He swept away all the Void energy, clearing the entire lake in an instant. He glimpsed the bottom of his own mental lake and raised an eyebrow in surprise, but there was no time to dwell on such details. The priority was the demon.

A nail and a small hammer appeared in his hand—two concepts: infinite hardness and infinite destructive power. Again, because of the infinitely small contact area and duration, they held no practical combat value; their sole purpose was the pure application of those concepts.

Lady Darkness, are you there? Wang Yu called out to the Lady of the Night.

Yes. The tall, veiled figure soon manifested within his mental space.

I beg your aid! Wang Yu bowed; he hated to trouble her again.

It is no matter. But can you truly achieve this?

I will not know unless I try. I believe I can.

Very well.

The dialogue in the mental realm lasted but a heartbeat in reality. Wang Yu opened his eyes, the two conceptual tools already in his grasp.

To hell with whether it works or not, let’s do it! He muttered to himself, raising the phantom hammer and striking the phantom nail.

Clink! A soundless but undeniably real explosion occurred. The hammer and nail, forged from Void energy, shattered into nothingness. Yet, in reality, nothing seemed to have changed.

Hm? Did I fail? Wang Yu frowned; this was problematic.

But soon, the change manifested. Through his ripple-vision, he saw tiny, jagged fissures appearing where the nail had struck—fissures revealing the starlight and the Void beyond.

Phew, it worked. It was just too small to see. Wang Yu sighed with relief, staring at the minuscule Void rift he had created.

This was his goal: to use the two absolute concepts to pierce the barrier between reality and the Void, creating a rift almost invisible to the naked eye.

Because it was so small, even at such close range, Wang Yu could barely sense any Void fluctuations. He doubted even the scouts of the Blade of Night could detect it without his cheat-like ripple-vision.

Was such a tiny rift truly useful? The answer was yes. Whether or not the barrier was breached was the difference between zero and 0.000...1. To others, they might seem identical, but in essence, they were worlds apart. To Wang Yu, however—an Archbishop of the Church of Nightfall with the Lady of the Night as his patron—it was everything.

Darkness began to seep from the tiny crack. The significance of a Void rift was that it allowed entities within the Void to directly influence reality, though it required vast amounts of power. This was why only those bored, omnipotent Evil Gods usually caused trouble by tearing through the Void.

One also needed to be able to detect the rift, but with Wang Yu acting as a beacon, that was no issue for the Lady of the Night.

What Wang Yu needed from this minor deity was simple: use the rift as a medium to raise the Void concentration above the building to a critical threshold. A threshold that...

...could be detected by the arrays on the floating isle. Yes, this was the non-human aid he had spoken of. As part of the city’s autonomous defense, once Void concentration reached a certain level, those drifting airships were no longer mere decorations.

Inside these airships were the massive metal pillars—Reality Stabilization Anchors—that had been used to drop the flesh-monsters during the Blade of Night’s purge of the Source of Life. These anchors were designed to seal the Void.

However, these airships required either a commander with clearance equal to Zig’s to issue orders, or for the Void concentration to hit the detection threshold. Both were difficult for the special operations team to achieve.

But difficult did not mean impossible. Wang Yu’s attempt had succeeded; he had breached the barrier and provided a vent for the Void energy. Now, it was time for the Lady of the Night to perform.

Gods varied in power, but their ability to manipulate Void energy was a dimensional strike against mortals. The Lady of the Night looked at the rift Wang Yu had created, her expression unreadable.

She waved her hand, and the infinite Void energy began to surge through the rift. Merely setting the energy in motion required little faith.

Wang Yu watched as the energy poured out, guided by the Lady of the Night toward the roof of the building where Penia stood. Bit by bit, the Void concentration there began to skyrocket.

Now, he waited. And prepared to charge in.

As the energy gathered, the concentration neared the critical threshold. Ten seconds later, it crossed the limit. An invisible ripple erupted, sweeping outward from the center of the roof.

The array on the floating isle activated the moment it touched the ripple, its complex rune circuits whirring to life like the components of a computer.

Location: Wall District. Void Concentration: Over-limit. Command: Nearest airship to deploy Reality Stabilization Spear. Extra: Notify highest-ranking Blade of Night member—Notification failed, holding.

The array operated autonomously in the absence of personnel, projecting signals and magical currents. Soon, the nearest airship received the order and began to close in on Wang Yu’s position.

It’s coming... Wang Yu readied himself. The moment the spear struck the building would be his window of opportunity.

...

Boom! The moment the massive metal pillar struck from the heavens, the aging, poorly maintained building—already weakened by Penia and Wang Yu’s previous skirmish—collapsed entirely under the colossal impact.

Dust and debris billowed into the sky. Load-bearing columns snapped, and the upper floors crumbled under their own weight. Stone flew, and the contents of the rooms were scattered in a chaotic frenzy.

Cough, cough... what happened? Penia stumbled out of the wreckage, limping. Had it not been for the final vision she had seen, she would already be dead.

Though the prophecy had only shown her the building collapsing, the moment the Reality Stabilization Anchor arrived, the Void fell silent, and her vision was forcibly severed.

Yet, it had barely saved her from being buried alive.

The Void is silent. A Reality Stabilization Spear? How? This weapon can only be deployed by the high command of the Blade of Night. How is this possible? Has the guidance of destiny failed again? Impossible. Absolutely impossible.

Penia sensed the surrounding Void and realized she could no longer draw upon any power. As she was not a member of the Blade of Night, she did not know the floating isle’s array had an autonomous detection function. Her shock and terror were absolute.

I must leave this Void-silent zone. Desperate to escape, she ignored the wounds on her legs and her tattered clothes, stumbling through the dust.

Snap! The sound of cracking stone reached her ears. Before the frail witch could react, she was slammed hard into the ground.

Wang Yu burst through the dust and pinned her by the throat. To him, the dust was no obstacle.

Speak! Where is the demon summoning circle? Wang Yu demanded, his voice cold. A witch stripped of the Void was no different from an ordinary human.

Cough, cough, little brother, can you let go? I... cough, cough... I can’t breathe... If you let me go, I... urgh!

Penia wore a seductive expression. Her voluptuous figure, visible through her ruined dress, was hauntingly beautiful, and the pallor of her face under his grip made her look pitifully alluring.

Wang Yu’s response was a sharp, Crack! as he snapped one of her fingers.

Speak. I don’t have time to waste on you. His tone was ruthless. He had no patience for her games; he only needed the answer.

Do you know who I am? Even if you are with the Blade of Night, you will pay the price for killing a Ryder. Penia winced in agony. Wang Yu’s coldness exceeded her imagination; as a powerful seer, she had never suffered such grievous injury.

Damn it, why are you still blustering, you lunatic? Can’t you read the room, or are you just insane? Fine, I’ll just turn you into an idiot.

A vein throbbed on Wang Yu’s forehead. Dealing with such a chatterbox was best handled with a dose of medicine. Had he not briefly considered the repercussions of her Ryder family status, he wouldn't have hesitated for a second.

"Gah, ugh, what did you feed me!"

Wang Yu fished out the same vial he had used on the Abyss Gate spy, clamped his hand over Ponia's mouth, and forced the liquid down her throat; thinking of the temperaments of Sieg, Shugyin, and Father Fang, he saw no need to consider her status and fed her the concoction without mercy.

"Mmm, cough, ah..." The potion took effect with rapid intensity, and the witch's frail constitution offered no resistance; Ponia’s expression turned vacant, her eyes rolled back to whites, and her consciousness slipped into a haze.

"Where is the demon summoning circle? How do I stop it?" Wang Yu demanded, enunciating every syllable as he raced against time.

"It is... it is... below." Ponia’s finger trembled as she raised it, pointing toward the depths beneath the structure.

"Below?! How do I stop it?" Wang Yu paused for a heartbeat before firing off his next question.

"Stop... it? It is... too late!" Ponia, her mind clouded, struggled to answer, but suddenly her body shuddered, and she lashed out with a violent swipe of her hand.

"Damn it, another complication." Wang Yu had already backflipped away from the sudden claw strike, watching with wary eyes as Ponia’s pupils morphed into horizontal slits—it was a demon.