Chapter 94: The Blade Drawn for You (Patreon)

At some point, without anyone noticing, the air in the plaza had stopped being air at all.

Calling it despair made flesh would have been more accurate.

Avarus's reshaped body was larger than before, its black-red carapace like an alloy recast at searing temperatures — not a single seam marred its surface.

It stood at the center of the plaza, no longer wearing that lazy, waiting air from before. Now it carried a tangible weight, as if it meant to crush the entire space flat.

Its curved horn stood out more sharply now, black patterns crawling wildly across its surface.

The fissure on its abdomen had sealed completely; new carapace had grown over the old wound, a black so deep it set the nerves on edge.

But the most terrifying thing of all was its Domain.

The first-phase Domain had been corrosion — nausea, dizziness.

The second-phase Domain added a crushing gravitational effect on top of that.

Wise could feel his bones creaking.

Not a figure of speech — they were actually creaking.

Every single bone bore down under some invisible weight; his knees had gone so weak he could barely stand.

There was no more stomach acid left to bring up — he didn't even have the strength left to dry-heave.

The world in front of him had turned into a television with terrible reception — thick static snow, streaked through with red horizontal bars.

A shrill ringing filled his ears, like someone drilling straight into his temples.

Little Guang was on his right.

She knelt on one knee, her whole body convulsing — the physical toll of Ether circuits thrown into total chaos.

Wise wanted to go to her.

He took a step. His leg buckled, and he dropped straight to one knee.

"Damn it…" He gritted his teeth so hard blood seeped between them.

A dead end.

An undeniable dead end.

A King-class Ethereal — even a freshly-minted Void Hunter Hoshimi Miyabi would likely have had her hands full with one.

Let alone Avarus, an apex King-class that had undergone a qualitative shift through deep fusion with Miasma.

Anyone who didn't understand Miasma could easily fall to that first-encounter killing blow.

And right now, Wise and Little Guang couldn't even stand steady.

Avarus didn't attack right away.

It seemed to be savoring the moment.

Its massive head swiveled slowly, its compound eyes — no whites, only dark red light — sweeping over the two humans on the ground.

As if looking at two ants.

Wise's mind raced.

Even with his vision blurred, even with his nerve signals lagging, he hadn't given up on the fight.

Was there still a chance?

In its second phase, Avarus hadn't just gotten an exponential boost across the board — its Domain's very effect had shifted in kind.

The Domain no longer just scrambled nerves; now it could directly pin down their movement.

Just standing still, they were already severely restricted — never mind facing the storm of an attack that was surely coming.

And there was no way out, either.

The Domain sealed them in like an iron barrel; they didn't even have the option to run.

So… it was time to reveal his trump card.

Wise's right hand reached for the band on his wrist.

It was the Creation Talisman Big Bro Miguel had given him.

He couldn't be sure that using the Creation Talisman would guarantee a win over Avarus.

A second-phase King-class was simply too strong.

But bolstered by Big Bro Miguel's Power of Creation, he had absolute confidence he could get Little Guang out.

During the Battle of Eridu, he hadn't yet been through special training — his Ether ability had only just awakened.

And yet, on the strength of the Power of Creation alone, he had clawed his way alive out of that mountain of corpses and sea of blood.

He was far stronger now than he'd been then.

Use the Creation Talisman to save their lives and break through with Little Guang — the success rate was a hundred percent.

But if he left with Little Guang, the commission would count as a failure.

He couldn't let everything the two of them had fought for go to waste!

Wise's eyes went cold.

Get Little Guang out.

Then come back alone.

Ride the Power of Creation the Talisman granted while it was active, and go all-in against this giant bug.

It was the safest plan.

The only one that covered both Little Guang's safety and completing the commission.

Wise's fingers hooked around the edge of the bracer.

He didn't look at Little Guang.

He couldn't let her draw the Azure Empyrean Sword.

That sword, mountain-guarding treasure of Yunkui Summit that it was, could grant its wielder Void Hunter-tier combat strength.

But Wise never wanted her to pay that sword's cruel price again.

Even though he knew perfectly well that Little Guang also carried a Creation Talisman from Big Bro Miguel.

In theory, under the protection of the Power of Creation, it could withstand that Void Hunter weapon's backlash.

But Wise didn't want to gamble on it.

He had no idea what would happen if Little Guang drew the Azure Empyrean Sword at full power.

Even with the Talisman's protection, that sword was still dangerous!

Even a one-in-ten-thousand risk was more than he'd let her take.

He had promised Little Guang.

Promised himself.

Promised Big Bro Miguel, promised Senior Brother Ye, promised Master, Senior Sister Fufu, and everyone else.

He would never, ever let the Azure Empyrean Sword hurt Little Guang again.

Not even once more.

"Little Guang, hang on," Wise said under his breath, his voice raw as sandpaper scraping stone.

He closed his eyes, focused his will, and prepared to activate the Talisman.

Energy of a higher dimension — the fundamental power of the Source of Creation.

An omnipotent force that encompassed every concept and property in existence.

Given enough of it, anything at all could be done.

In sheer standing, this power utterly crushed both Miasma and Ether energy.

Wise's will triggered the Creation Talisman.

A pale blue glow quietly bloomed within the Ether-energy Domain that Miasma had corroded.

The instant that pale blue light appeared, the air around them seemed to freeze solid.

It was hard to put into words — like a single drop of the purest clean water falling into a pool of murky mud.

That drop of clean water didn't burst or roar. It simply existed, quietly.

Then the Miasma began to dissolve.

The black-red, tangible Miasma particles didn't even get a chance to struggle the instant they touched the pale blue glow's edge — they broke straight down into the most basic Ether particles and vanished without a trace.

A crushing dominance from a higher dimension.

No flashy effects at all — just pure, absolute suppression of rank.

Before the Power of Creation, Miasma wasn't even worth calling an ant.

Wise felt the pressure on his body lift.

That feeling of his bones being crushed vanished; the dizziness and nausea receded like a retreating tide.

His vision cleared, and the Ether energy that had run dry in his meridians began slowly reviving.

But he froze.

Something was wrong.

This light — it was wrong.

Wise looked down at his own wrist.

The Creation Talisman had indeed activated; pale blue light was pouring out of it in an endless stream.

But what accompanied that pale blue glow wasn't the strange, sacred dark gold light he carried within himself.

It was countless razor-sharp streams of silver-white current.

Those silver-white streams moved as if alive, weaving and threading through the pale blue glow, carrying an intent of sword-edge sharpness pushed to its absolute limit.

A moment later the currents surged into a silver-white waterfall that shot skyward, shattering the entire stretch of ground still wrapped inside Avarus's Domain.

The sword intent was so fierce that Wise's own skin prickled with pain.

He knew, with total clarity.

This power wasn't his.

Or rather, its source wasn't him.

Wise's head snapped around.

He saw Little Guang.

At some point, without his noticing, she had risen to her feet.

No longer half-kneeling on the ground, she stood there ramrod straight.

Her left hand hung at her side; her right gripped a longsword.

The Azure Empyrean Sword Casket lay fallen at her feet, its pale cyan patterns gone dark and dead.

In her right hand was the very blade that had been sealed inside that casket — the Azure Empyrean Sword itself.

Its slender blade shimmered with a cold, silver-white light.

The Creation Talisman's pale blue glow enveloped the blade, blending perfectly with the silver-white current pouring off its edge.

Little Guang had beaten him to it.

She had activated her Creation Talisman and drawn the Azure Empyrean Sword before he could.

Wise's pupils shrank to pinpricks.

He wanted to shout, wanted to charge over and wrench the sword out of her hands.

But he couldn't move.

It wasn't that his body wouldn't respond — he was stunned into stillness by the state Little Guang was in.

Her back looked so slight from behind.

The modified white qipao had taken plenty of damage in the fight just now, its hem caked with dust and blood.

But she stood as steady as a mountain.

Her dark brown hair was losing its color.

Starting from the tips, the black and brown pigment stripped away in an instant, replaced by a pure, utterly unblemished snow-white.

The white crept upward along each strand, and in under two seconds, her waist-length hair had gone entirely white.

That white hair stirred with no wind inside the Domain, every strand seeming to carry some razor-edged sword intent of its own.

Then came her forehead.

The smooth skin there rose slightly, swelling.

A red horn broke through the skin, jutting up at a slant toward the sky.

Red patterns swirled across its surface, echoing the dark gold markings on Avarus's own horn from afar — and yet entirely unlike them.

The Lucid Mind Realm.

It was a second personality hidden deep inside Little Guang.

The other Little Guang — decisive and ruthless in a fight, her presence fully unleashed, iron-willed, fearless.

Wise stood rooted where he was, staring at that silver-white silhouette.

He had never seen Little Guang like this.

The Little Guang he knew had eyes that curved into crescents when she smiled, her laughter like a breeze carrying the scent of osmanthus.

Kind, considerate, deeply responsible — she always put other people's safety above her own.

Innocent and endearing, a little green around the edges, optimistic, cheerful, hardworking and strong.

But the figure standing before him now was an unsheathed blade.

No spare emotion. No fear. No hesitation.

Only absolute calm and a pure, undiluted urge to destroy.

Little Guang didn't turn around.

She only tilted her head slightly, sweeping Wise with the corner of her eye.

Those ruby-red eyes had darkened to a deep crimson now, bottomless as two ancient wells.

There was no trace of the warmth he knew — only an indifference cold enough to make his heart clench.

"Back off."

It wasn't loud, but it carried clearly into Wise's ears.

Not her usual soft, sweet voice — this one was hard and cold, edged with the ring of metal.

Two words, like two blocks of ice striking together.

Wise took a reflexive half-step back.

It wasn't fear that pushed him back.

It was instinct.

In this instant, Little Guang's danger rating had shot straight through the roof.

The sword intent rolling off her made Wise feel, for a second, like he wasn't facing Little Guang at all, but their own 'sister-in-law' Hoshimi Miyabi standing there instead.

Avarus's power was built from Miasma — something external.

But Little Guang's power in this moment erupted from somewhere deep in her soul.

The Power of Creation's pale blue glow gave her the energy base; the Azure Empyrean Sword's silver-white current gave her an outlet to unleash it; and the Lucid Mind Realm's persona was the control switch for it all.

At the center of the plaza, Avarus moved.

It sensed a threat.

A survival-instinct sense of danger stripped away its earlier arrogance.

Its massive body leaned back slightly, the dark gold markings on its horn all flaring to life, the carapace on its abdomen heaving violently as it gathered energy.

It let out a roar.

The sound wave, wrapped in black-red Miasma, surged straight toward Little Guang.

This was the Domain privilege unleashed at full power — a fusion of Environmental Alteration and Miasma corrosion.

The black-red wave blotted out the sky, enough to tear apart any living thing that dared get close.

Little Guang raised the Azure Empyrean Sword in her hand.

No flashy opening stance. No gathering a sword formation.

She simply pointed the blade forward.

Silver-white current burst out from the sword's tip.

No sound.

Truly, no sound at all.

When the silver-white current met the black-red Miasma wave, there was no explosion, no shockwave, no collision on any physical level.

Only silent dissolution.

The instant the black-red Miasma touched the silver-white current, it was as if some invisible hand had simply wiped it away.

Deleted, entirely, at the level of concept.

The silver-white current punched straight through the black-red wave, straight through Avarus's Domain, and shot directly toward Avarus's own body.

Avarus's massive body jolted violently.

A crack appeared on its horn.

The crack was small, but against the black-red carapace it stood out with blinding clarity.

A thread of silver-white light seeped in along the crack, wringing out of Avarus its first true scream of pain since entering its second phase.

"Roaaargh—!!!"

This wasn't the pressure and fury of before — this carried genuine fear.

Its enormous body began backing away.

One step. Two. Three.

Its legs gouged deep furrows into the hard, carapace-covered ground, and still couldn't stop the retreat.

Little Guang started walking.

Her steps were light, just like when she walked the flagstones back at Yunkui Summit.

But with every footfall, the carapace-hard ground of the plaza cracked outward in every direction.

The pale blue glow around her grew ever brighter, the silver-white current ever fiercer.

Her white hair whipped wildly behind her, the red horn on her brow glowing with an eerie light.

She looked like a war god stepped straight out of myth, walking with the will to destroy everything toward the colossal thing that had ruled the core zone for three years.

Wise stood where he was, watching her back.

His hand still hung frozen in the air, still reaching for the bracer.

He had meant to shoulder everything himself.

He had meant to use the Power of Creation to shield Little Guang, to keep her away from the Azure Empyrean Sword's danger.

But he hadn't expected Little Guang to be even more resolute than him.

In her own way, she had put herself between him and the enemy.

Just like before, back in the mining tunnels, when the Domain had been about to swallow them whole and she'd tried to draw the Azure Empyrean Sword to protect him.

She had always been this way.

Putting his safety above her own.

Only this time, it wasn't the gentle Little Guang doing it — it was the decisive, merciless Lucid Mind Realm.

Wise's hand slowly lowered.

He looked at Little Guang's back, at that snow-white hair, at that red horn.

Familiar memories surged up in him like a tide.