Chapter 92: Fair Battle? (Patreon)

Across the plaza, the dark gold light peeled back like a receding tide — off the ground, out of the air, even off the surface of Avarus's carapace — before sinking away entirely into their clasped hands.

Wise let out a long breath.

That sacred, unrefusable pressure was gone, replaced by an exhaustion that sank straight into his bones — like a machine that had run flat-out for three days and nights, suddenly cut off from power.

His meridians felt nearly bone-dry; he couldn't catch even a single steady Ether fluctuation inside himself.

But his mind was clear — clearer than it had ever been.

What had just happened was an instinctive reaction, triggered right at the edge where his consciousness was about to be swallowed whole by the Miasma.

At that moment his Ether circuits had been so disrupted they'd stopped functioning — he'd had no strength left to consciously activate the mysterious Authority dormant inside him. But Little Guang had just finished a full-power Ether output moments earlier, and the energy inside her body was still in an extremely active, overflowing state.

So the instant their hands clasped together — the instant of physical contact — the overflow of Little Guang's Ether fluctuation acted like a fuse, and miraculously ignited the Authority slumbering inside Wise.

Wise stared at his own right hand. The warmth of Little Guang's palm still lingered on his.

"Wise!" Hurried footsteps sounded beside him.

Little Guang had rushed to stand in front of him almost the instant the light faded.

Her face was still pale, the cold sweat at her temples not yet dry, strands of hair sticking messily to her cheeks — but those ruby-red eyes were filled entirely with worry.

She grabbed his arms with both hands, looking him up and down, words tumbling out fast. "Are you hurt? Does anything feel wrong?"

Her droopy ears pressed flat against her head, and her voice carried an obvious tremor.

She didn't ask what that dark gold light had been. She didn't ask why their clasped hands had produced such a miraculous effect.

The first question out of her mouth was about his body — whether he was okay.

Wise looked at her.

Little Guang's eyes were full of worry — the purest form of concern this girl had for him.

After enduring a Miasma corrosion strong enough to shatter an ordinary person's mind, her first instinct upon recovering hadn't been fear, hadn't been curiosity — it had been to rush over and check on him.

"I'm fine."

Wise turned his hand and caught her wrist, pressing his fingertips lightly against her pulse.

It beat steadily, just a little weak. "My Ether reserves took a big hit, that's all. Don't worry, I'm not hurt."

"Really?" Little Guang stared into his eyes, as if trying to tell whether he was just putting on a brave face.

"Really." Wise smiled, his tone softening a little. "What about you? Don't just worry about me — you took Miasma damage too, didn't you?"

"I'm... fine too, now."

Only then did Little Guang let go of his arm, breathing out softly.

She patted her still-heaving chest. "That really scared me. I thought we were going to die here."

In truth, Little Guang was brimming with curiosity about that dark gold power.

The way it had appeared, the absolute dominance it had shown over the Miasma Domain — both went beyond anything she understood about Ether energy.

But compared to all that, Wise's safety came first in her mind.

As long as Wise was okay, everything else could wait.

Wise watched her faintly trembling ears and the lingering fright still in her eyes, and something in his chest softened without his meaning it to.

But he quickly pulled his gaze away, looking down at his empty palm, his thoughts settling back onto that mysterious power.

How was he supposed to explain it to her?

Honestly, even if Little Guang had asked, Wise wouldn't have had a clear answer to give her, not anytime soon.

He'd used this power a few times before, but every time it had only ever scratched the surface.

He didn't know the true name of this Authority, and he didn't fully understand how it worked.

What it had shown so far was more like a "cancellation" or "erasure" directed at Ether energy and other Authorities.

He'd once asked his own big brother, Miguel, about it.

As the memory of that conversation surfaced, Big Bro Miguel's voice seemed to echo in his ears again.

"An Authority is a completely different animal from Ether energy or honed technique. An Authority is a concept given power, made manifest. Before its holder truly gains the ability to understand and command it, it exists in something like a quantum state. The broad concept it embodies gets shaped by the holder's mindset — even their convictions — and that's what determines the final form. Two people can hold Authorities from the same family and end up with wildly different shapes and powers."

Miguel had looked at him then, his tone unusually serious. "Right now, you're like someone holding a legendary sword that's never been sharpened. You can club someone with it, but you can't cut to the core. Only once you figure out what it is you actually want to sever — in your heart — will that sword finally find its edge."

Wise pulled his thoughts back.

The matter of the Authority would have to wait.

That burst just now had been a flash of inspiration under extreme duress — in his current state, there was no way he could reliably call on such an unstable power. It clearly wasn't going to be regular combat support for what came next.

But he'd noticed something more important.

Wise raised his head and looked toward Avarus at the center of the plaza.

The veteran King-class still stood there, but its posture had shifted from its earlier arrogance to extreme wariness.

Its forelimbs were drawn half-in, the fissure on its belly clamped shut, and the dark-red patterns on its horn flickered erratically.

More importantly, Wise could no longer feel that nauseating Miasma corrosion.

The Ether concentration in the air was still high, the oppressive pressure still there — but the nausea and dizziness that had acted directly on the nervous system were completely gone.

It was as if someone had taken an eraser and scrubbed away an entire layer of the Domain's rules governing "Miasma eruption."

"Little Guang." Wise spoke, his voice steady. "Do you feel it?"

"Yeah."

Little Guang had noticed the change too. Her droopy ears slowly rose, settling back into their alert angle. "Its Domain's still up, but that dizzy, nauseous feeling is gone."

"The Authority's power might have receded, but it 'washed' the rules in this whole area just now." Wise ran through the situation quickly. "Avarus's Domain's core mechanism was Miasma corrosion — that dark gold light deleted that mechanism outright. All that's left in its Domain now is pure Ether-concentration pressure."

In other words, for the next ten-odd minutes, Avarus's Domain wouldn't be able to trigger another Miasma eruption — it couldn't corrode their nervous systems or their Ether circuits.

It had lost its nastiest trump card.

What they faced now was just a "normal" King-class Ethereal — one with a powerful Miasmic Shield, the ability to boost its own stats, and an awakened King-class-exclusive ability.

Still, even "normal" for a King-class was strong — absurdly strong, even.

But for Wise and Little Guang, with the Miasma's influence gone, they now genuinely had what it took to fight it head-on.

"This time, let's really go at it." A cold smile curled at the corner of Wise's mouth.

He turned to Little Guang. "Ten-odd minutes. This is when it's weakest — and it's our chance."

Little Guang's fingers came to rest lightly on the Azure Empyrean Sword Casket at her waist.

She didn't say anything, just gave a small nod.

In her ruby-red eyes, the earlier panic had vanished completely, replaced by pure focus and calm.

"Then let's not waste time." Wise stepped forward.

Avarus seemed to sense their intent.

It let out a low snarl, light suddenly flaring bright along its horn.

It wasn't going to wait any longer.

The veteran King-class's battle instincts told it that these two tiny creatures before it carried some power it couldn't understand — and couldn't stand against.

It had to crush them with the most violent physical force it could muster, before that power resurfaced.

Its massive body surged into motion.

Its heavy limbs pulverized the dark-red carapace ground beneath them, sending shattered rock flying.

Avarus charged like a heavy armored train, head lowered, its massive horn driving straight at Wise and Little Guang.

Its speed was almost unbelievable for something so enormous.

"Scatter!" Wise and Little Guang leapt apart in the same instant.

Avarus's charge missed, its horn slamming hard into the ground where the two had been standing.

With a thunderous boom, the impact tore a crater several meters wide into the hard carapace ground, the shockwave hurling debris outward in every direction.

Wise adjusted his posture mid-air, planting both feet against a broken metal pillar and pushing off, shooting toward Avarus's flank like an arrow loosed from a bow.

His figure vanished mid-flight — and the next instant, he appeared at the joint of Avarus's right foreleg.

His right fist, wrapped in the last dregs of Ether energy his meridians could squeeze out, slammed silently into the carapace's seam.

The instant it made contact, Dimensional Detachment triggered.

A palm-sized chunk of carapace, tissue and all, vanished straight out of reality, the cut surface smooth as glass.

Avarus let out a pained roar, its right foreleg faltering as its massive body tilted to the right.

"Little Guang!" "On it!" Little Guang's voice rang out from directly above Avarus's head.

She hovered in midair, the Azure Empyrean Sword Casket humming under Ether-energy power, venting pale cyan bursts of thrust.

Hundreds of Ether longswords unfurled behind her, forming a massive ring of blades.

As her right hand slashed down, the ring of blades spun like a meat grinder, cutting into Avarus's back.

"Clang-clang-clang-clang—!" A dense storm of metal impacts merged into one continuous roar.

The carapace on Avarus's back was unbelievably hard — even physical-type Ether energy, known for its sharpness and toughness, could only leave shallow white marks on it.

But Little Guang wasn't after a single killing blow — she wanted enough accumulated damage.

The blades didn't slice through the carapace; instead, they forced their way into the seams along its grain, using Ether-energy vibration to lock themselves in place.

Hundreds of swords formed a massive net, pinning Avarus's huge body in place.

Avarus went berserk.

The fissure on its belly forced open a crack, and a wave of dark-red energy burst out, surging back along the swords lodged in its body.

"Oof!" Little Guang grunted and was sent flying.

Half her sword formation was violently shaken apart.

"It's using its ability again!" Wise shouted.

Avarus reared up its forelimbs and slammed them down onto the ground.

Centered on it, the carapace ground began to writhe wildly, countless sharp dark-red crystal spikes bursting up like bamboo shoots after rain, spreading densely in every direction.

This was a King-class Ethereal's Domain privilege — Environmental Alteration.

The spikes grew at a ferocious speed, blanketing the entire plaza in the blink of an eye.

The ground beneath Wise's feet suddenly heaved, three half-meter spikes stabbing straight at his calves.

Wise's form flickered — Dimensional Detachment carried him up into the air.

From up high, he saw Little Guang using the Casket's thrust to hover as well, dodging clear of the wave of ground spikes.

"This big thing's got quite a few tricks up its sleeve." Wise gritted his teeth.

They couldn't afford to waste their ten-minute reprieve on a war of attrition like this.

"Its shell's too hard." Little Guang wiped blood from the corner of her mouth, her eyes cold. "My attacks don't hit hard enough. We need to find a weak point."

"The weak point's most likely the belly." Wise stared at the tightly shut fissure on Avarus's abdomen. "That's where it stores Miasma and Ether energy — the core of its whole body. If we can force its belly open, we get a shot at hitting the core directly."

"It's on guard now, though." Little Guang said.

"Then we'll just have to provoke it." A flash of ruthlessness crossed Wise's eyes. "Little Guang, you pin down its attention and its forelegs — I'll circle around from behind. The moment its belly opens, I'll try Dimensional Detachment again, see if I can end it in one shot. Even if I can't, I'll create an opening for you."

"...Just be careful, okay?"

Wise nodded. "Of course."

The next instant, Little Guang dove in first.

She no longer gathered a wide-ranging sword formation — instead, she concentrated all her Ether energy into three longswords.

The blades blazed with a light so bright it hurt to look at; faint spatial ripples even flickered across the edges — a sign of physical-type Ether compressed to its absolute limit.

"Break!" Little Guang closed in from the front, the three longswords stabbing at its face in a triangular formation.

Avarus instinctively raised a foreleg to block.

With a resounding clang, the three swords were stopped dead by its horn, sparks flying everywhere.

But the sheer force of the impact still jerked its head back.

In that exact instant, Wise moved.

Dimensional Detachment. Gone. There.

He appeared on Avarus's back.

Without a moment's hesitation, Wise poured every last scrap of Ether energy left in his body into his right fist and drove it straight into the weakest joint in the carapace on Avarus's back.

"Break, damn it!"

Dimensional Detachment triggered.

But this time, he wasn't detaching a small chunk of carapace — he was trying to tear away the entire Miasmic Shield covering its back.

A massive backlash surged up through his fist; Wise felt like his right arm was about to be torn apart.

His meridians were nearly bone-dry, unable to squeeze out even a trace of Ether — but he clenched his teeth and forced it through anyway, ripping that entire layer of dark-red Miasmic Shield off Avarus's back, carapace and all.

"ROOOAR—!!!" Avarus let out an agonized, ear-splitting shriek.

A wound the size of a washbasin gaped open on its back, dark-red energy spraying wildly from the raw hole.

The agony stripped away all its reason. It abandoned every defense, and the fissure on its belly snapped fully open.

The "great maw" spanning its entire belly split wide, revealing the massive core pulsing inside, radiating blinding red light.

"Little Guang!" "Leave it to me!" Little Guang flipped in midair, the Azure Empyrean Sword Casket unleashing thrust like never before.

Her entire body became a streak of orange-white light, shooting straight into Avarus's gaping belly.