CHAPTER 267: SPATIAL TURBULENCE

"What I've done... is even more meaningless than I had imagined. Even this final week we fought so hard to buy was nothing but a lie...

"Lord Wang Yu, ignite me with Cursed Fire! Its awakening might be inevitable, but if we can burn away enough of its life force, we might be able to suppress it—just a little longer."

The bitterness in Holo's voice was abyssal. To be struck with the realization that his every sacrifice, every struggle had been in vain—such a blow would have crushed most men.

Yet he rallied quickly and resolved to sacrifice the only thing he still could: his life.

"Understood."

Wang Yu nodded without hesitation. This was Holo's choice—and he would honor it.

Around them, the mountain groaned. Stone split. Cliffs collapsed with thunderous roars. Deep beneath the Sorensen Mountains, the world-eater stirred—its slumber broken, its form shifting in subconscious anticipation.

Pale green flame ignited in Wang Yu's palm. He pressed it to Holo's shoulder—and Holo burst into flames.

Ordinary Cursed Fire wouldn't have been able to ignite another living being so easily, but Holo was offering the last of his life force wholeheartedly.

The flame consumed him, then surged down the vines entwining his body, spreading deep into the mountain—toward every root and sprout under his dominion.

He would burn it all. Through the Cursed Fire, the life force of every plant he commanded would be sacrificed—transmuted into radiant energy strong enough to lull even the half-awakened World-Eater back into slumber.

"Farewell, Archbishop... and forgive me for the trouble."

Surrounded by fire, Holo raised his hand in parting.

"Farewell."

Wang Yu responded to the blazing silhouette with quiet gravity, then turned and placed a hand on Avia's shoulder, signaling her to evacuate them from the mountain with a Gate of Phases.

To the last, Holo had been a consummate warrior. Wang Yu would not let his sacrifice be in vain. They would bring word to the elves of Liaheim that the World-Eater was awakening.

"Mm."

Avia drew in power and filled the pre-set runic matrices inscribed over their bodies. The arrays came alive. Space vibrated around them as waves of magical resonance connected with the Gate of Phases she had left at the base of the mountain.

The three were drawn away, pulled through warping space as the green fire swept through the cavern.

The vines turned to ash. The cavern lost its support. With a deafening rumble, it collapsed, burying Holo and all that remained of his green dominion.

Yet the flames did not die. Beneath the rubble, they smoldered—life force now transformed into vital essence that spread outward through the Sorensen range.

And beneath the earth, the half-risen World-Eater, now enveloped in that power, slowly... gently... closed its countless half-open eyes, and sank once more into slumber. But this time, it would not sleep for long.

"Something's wrong. This is taking far too long. The Gate of Phases—did it malfunction?!"

Avia's alarm grew within the spatial rift.

The distance they had to travel was a mere ten kilometers. It should have taken no more than five seconds under normal conditions. Yet as time dragged on, they remained trapped in hyperspace.

Her senses swept through the distortion. The Gate of Phases was still functional—their coordinates were still shifting. The teleportation had not yet failed.

But the destination she had set was no longer fixed.

"The coordinates—no, they're... shifting. Constantly." Her voice was low with dread. The other end of the Gate had become a whirlpool of instability and flux, shifting with every instant. They were being dragged through hyperspace, yanked this way and that. At this rate, it would be impossible for them to return to the real world.

"It must be that devil, the same one that twisted Holo's and Sif's perceptions! It distorted the destination I prepared in advance.

"If the target coordinates are in constant flux, we'll be trapped here forever. And once the mana in the core of the spell runs out... we'll be stranded in the void."

Her brows drew tight. She understood what was going on now. The devil's power had infected the coordinates through a proxy—through Sif. Wang Yu and Avia were shielded by mental wards, but Sif was vulnerable. The corruption had spread through her.

"So that's how... That's the medium. Damn it. Its power spreads through the minds it's already touched."

Avia muttered rapidly to herself, her thoughts cascading. Every second that passed drained the mana she had supplied to the spell. Even a second's delay could result in certain death.

"Still... there's a solution. If Sif uses the Perfect Fractal spell to observe a fixed point, the distortion won't be able to spread through her any longer...

"But maybe I can do more. Maybe I can take advantage of this distortion, like Wang Yu always does. Maybe I can make this chaos into a bridge."

Her mind raced. Calculations churned in her head. "It's viable. The range limit of the Gate of Phases is tied to coordinate anchoring, not energy cost. Its energy expenditure scales only linearly with distance. If I can find a good set of coordinates, we might even be able to reach Liaheim directly!"

She had no intention of resorting to luck. Rather, she ran the numbers again and again. And in the end—yes. She confirmed everything to her satisfaction. It would work.

They could use the devil's trap against it by turning the chaos into a hyperjump.

A strange tearing sound echoed through the rift, like cloth being ripped apart. Avia focused her mana, split the warped interstitial space, and pulled Wang Yu and Sif into view. The three of them, who had been scattered in hyperspace, were reunited once more.

Magical lenses—Avia's Perfect Fractal spell—appeared over Wang Yu's and Sif's eyes. Glyphs flickered across their surfaces, transmitting a full briefing from her in just five seconds: what had happened, and what she planned to do next.

Neither hesitated. Wang Yu and Sif both trusted Avia deeply.

Avia would scan the rapidly shifting destination coordinates and relay them to Wang Yu through the lens.

Wang Yu, with his enhanced reflexes, would latch onto any good coordinates and transmit them to Sif before they could shift again.

And all Sif had to do was observe those coordinates. When reality clashed with the devil's distortion, the effect would dissipate. The shifting would cease, and the coordinates would be fixed.

Now the three of them waited, watching the endlessly scrolling coordinates. This was a plan that only the likes of Avia and Wang Yu could have carried out.

For most, the flood of fractal data streaming through the lens would be unreadable. Wang Yu couldn't help but marvel at the utility of Avia's Perfect Fractal.

Using her knowledge, the spell translated those coordinates into place names that Avia had memorized. Innumerable locations flitted through their minds—then, a name flashed before Wang Yu's eyes. The Forest of Origin. His consciousness split. His subconscious reacted instantly. Without delay, he triggered the spell, projecting the fixed coordinates into Sif's lens.

And in that moment as reality clashed against devilish distortion, reality won. The twisting ended. The spatial coordinates were locked in place: Forest of Origin, outskirts.

The chaos ceased. The Gate of Phases was activating normally again—it drew them forward, straight toward the Forest of Origin.

A journey that would normally take twenty days—and perhaps half that at maximum speed—would now be accomplished in less than a minute. Avia's genius had turned would-be sabotage into a hyperjump.

A tear in space opened like a door at the forest's edge. Three figures tumbled through: Wang Yu, Avia, and Sif.

"We must warn the elders—the World-Eater is awakening!"

Sif sprinted toward the trees, filled with urgency.

"Wait!" Wang Yu and Avia shouted in unison.

Both of them—Wang Yu with the Chariot, and Avia with her Perfect Fractal—could sense something wrong.

There was something beneath the forest floor.