CHAPTER 284: AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE

The force of the Chariot, which was immune to Temporal Stasis, radiated through the space around Wang Yu and gripped everything that had been frozen in time.

Five, who should have remained free to move within his own spell, found himself completely paralyzed.

Though he hadn't been directly affected, Wang Yu's Chariot had seized every atom and molecule around him, locking him down as if he were encased in a mold that fit his body perfectly. He had no room to move.

"Just what did he do?! There aren't any fluctuations of void energy or mana around him. Could Roland's hidden treasure be all that powerful?!"

His panic flared. "And as for that portal to the outside world—this space is now frozen in time. They'll definitely try to target me with their attacks."

Five mentally frowned, his attention locked on Wang Yu and the luminous portal above his head.

Temporal Stasis had a finite range. At its boundary lay a buffer zone where time was slowed, preventing a catastrophic rift between the still world within and the normal flow of time outside.

The space beyond Wang Yu's overhead portal belonged to the material world. Clearly, it lay outside the influence of Five's Temporal Stasis.

That meant observers on the other side saw both Wang Yu and Five locked in place—but they themselves could act freely for the full two minutes of the spell's duration.

Five realized that, the moment the spell ended, a barrage of spells might well rain down upon him. He had to be ready to evade with everything he had.

"Ten, nine, eight..."

He counted down silently, mind racing, as he began constructing a spell model in his mindscape—which he'd always scorned in the past.

This time, however, he would need to have a spell ready right as the Temporal Stasis ended.

The devils' instinctive manipulation of the void had a slight delay to it. Pre-prepared spell models, on the other hand, could be cast instantly.

The ghostly tick of a clock's hand echoed. Time surged forward. The moment the Temporal Stasis ended lifted, Five unleashed the completed spell. Void energy surged as spatial ripples gathered around him.

He was casting Voidstep, a basic but near-instant teleportation spell, in order to widen the distance between himself and the monster named Wang Yu.

But to his surprise, no assault came from the portal. Instead, a translucent magical lens formed over Wang Yu's right eye.

"What's that...?"

Before Five could fully voice his thoughts, Wang Yu struck. He thrust his Devastation Blade into a seemingly empty patch of space to his side.

Though no sound rang out, Wang Yu's attack struck true. The Desolation Blade pierced through the air and shattered something unseen.

To Five's horror, his Voidstep collapsed. A key rune in the spell model disintegrated, causing the spatial rift he had summoned to dissolve. His teleportation halted mid-cast.

His mistake was in using a spell model, which manifested in the void. When he began casting, the wizards watching from the material world had immediately identified the runes and the corresponding spell.

And, just like a mana circuit, if a key rune for a wizardry spell model was broken, the entire spell would collapse.

Having recognized the spell, Avia spent the remaining few seconds of the Temporal Stasis decoding the spell model with her Perfect Fractal lens. As the spell ended, she marked the vulnerable rune in Wang Yu's vision.

All Wang Yu had to do was land a blow—and he did.

Voidstep shattered. Now stranded, Demon Five had no time to react.

Wang Yu swung. The Desolation Blade carved black arcs through the air. In the blink of an eye, it slashed through Five's body multiple times. By the time Wang Yu sheathed the blade, the demon had already fallen apart into shattered fragments scattering into the void.

At the same time, Wang Yu reached up with his free hand into the halo above his head.

He pulled forth a black vortex. Orbs of shadow swirled around his palm, pulled toward the vortex's core by an unseen force.

This was the fifth-tier spell Void Manifest.

Wang Yu slammed it into Demon Five's remains.

The black vortex drew in every fragment of Five's body. The shadowy orbs smashed and tore his remnants into dust. Nothing remained, not even ash.

Assured of the kill, Wang Yu turned toward Mira, still protected by the Oath of Gold and Stone.

He moved to her, lifted her gently, and guided her into the luminous portal above. Forged by the Wishing Coin elixir, the portal connected the void and the material world.

The portal expanded, allowing Mira to pass safely through. Avia's mother had been saved.

Through the portal, Wang Yu gave a thumbs-up to Avia, Lilya, and Garcia, who were observing from the other side—then turned and ran in the opposite direction.

He could have left, too. But he had long since decided not to be hunted by these devils any longer. Four and Five were dead. Now, he would kill Three.

Far off, at the edge of a barrier woven by cursebinding wizards from the material world, Three was struggling. He was attempting to break down the barrier with his unique power of distortion.

He had watched as Wang Yu slaughtered Four and Five, and he had felt their strength return to the void. They were truly dead.

And something was missing in the strength that had been distributed among the remaining devils—proof that Four and Five had been completely erased. Though their powers remained, the same could not be said about their owners.

Terror gripped Three's heart. He no longer wished to fight. He just wanted to flee.

"Just how many spells have been layered in this damned barrier? Wizardry, magic, and even divine power?! Damn it! Distorting the Tree of Life drained too much power from both me and Five. Even with part of it returned, it's not enough!"

He hurled his remaining power at the barrier—but to no avail. As he had complained to Five, he was currently the weakest among the devils.

Wang Yu was closing in fast. The seal was far from breaking. Desperation filled Three's mind—a proud being who had spent his entire life mocking those beneath him now teetered on the brink of madness.

"I can't die! I mustn't die! Even if my body ends up destroyed, that's far better than being annihilated!"

Eyes locked on the approaching human, Three gave up on breaking the barrier.

"Don't come any closer, or we'll perish together!"

He turned, faced Wang Yu, and raised a twisted, chaotic sigil. His shout was filled with madness and dread.

Wang Yu stopped—not because of Three's threat, but because that sigil looked somehow familiar. Avia's anxious voice came through the portal, confirming his suspicions.

The sigil in Three's hand was tied to an evil god of the void, an old acquaintance of Avia and Wang Yu's: the Undying Lord.

"Yes, stop! One more step and I'll summon its attention. I might not die here, but you surely will be!"

A flicker of relief crept into Three's frenzied expression. His mad gambit had worked. The sigil of this god of the void still held sway.

Wang Yu shook his head, then declared coldly, "Do you think I can let a threat like you live? A ticking bomb like you skulking about in the dark? Killing you at the cost of my own life would be the wiser choice."

There was no emotion on his face. The sheer chill of his words reignited Three's panic.

He couldn't tell what this man—this monster—was really thinking.

"I have no reason to harm you or the ones you care about again. This was a coincidence—I swear that I'll steer clear if anything involving you ever arises again."

Three was desperate to convince Wang Yu.

"A devil's words are never to be trusted. Born of hell and beloved by the void, you devils subject the material world to chaos and calamity for nothing more than whimsy. Too many disasters bear your mark. How can I trust any of your promises?"

Three cursed. "We are naught but exiles, phantoms cast out from the infernal planes. We have no bodies, no place in the material world, and no path back to our homeland. The void is the only realm that will accept us.

"Its power comes with a price: the more chaos we sow in the material world, the more strength we receive.

"We cause chaos, but not for no reason. Our actions are impersonal.

"In other words, even if I continue to cause chaos and sow discord in the material world, I have no reason to threaten you, not when you can stand against me. There are plenty of other targets I can choose.

"Isn't that sufficient? Must we both die here under the hand of a god of the void?"

For once, Three's words sounded like the truth.

"Is that really the case? It makes a twisted kind of sense. The mindflayers were the same way—they sought to disrupt order to gain favor from the void. These devils may be no different," Wang Yu thought to himself.

In that light, their motives became crystal clear. The turmoil they had unleashed over the course of history suddenly made sense.

Wang Yu weighed the devil's words in silence. And in time, he reached a conclusion: what Three had said was not only plausible but also likely the truth. These devils had a reason for their twisted games, and perhaps the world had just discovered it.

"Your answer?"

Three stared hard at Wang Yu. The sigil of the Undying Lord in his hand flashed, as if to catch his eye. He feared Wang Yu would charge forward and strike him down before he could shatter the mark.

"...Yes," Wang Yu said, nodding slowly. "I think your logic is sound."

The solidified void coating his shattered starsteel blade receded, and he sheathed the weapon at his waist.

A breath of relief escaped Three—despite the fact that devils didn't need to breathe. He was truly grateful that Wang Yu had made what seemed to be a wise decision. Unless absolutely necessary, even he dared not summon a Void God.

A voice rang through the bidirectional portal.

"Are we late?"

"No," Wang Yu replied, smirking inwardly. "You're right on time. Otherwise, I might really have had to let this one go."

He responded with the Chariot's power.

A deafening crash erupted beneath Wang Yu's feet. Without warning, the moment he stowed his weapon, he crouched down and launched himself forward like a bullet, straight toward Three.

A surge of wind blasted down from the halo above his head, coiling around Wang Yu's form and propelling him faster still.

"Are you crazy? Do you really want to kill us both?!"

Three panicked. He couldn't fathom why Wang Yu would throw his life away in mutual destruction—and that moment of confusion cost him.

By the time he tried to muster enough void energy to flee, it was far too late.

The void energy around him had yet to stabilize by the time Wang Yu's Chariot-empowered hands clamped down on his skull.

"Why?! Why do this...?!"

Three's skull creaked and cracked under the force. As its shape distorted, it began to crack. Even as he died, he couldn't understand why Wang Yu had chosen to take him down. Wasn't he afraid of dying?

"..."

Wang Yu did not answer. When he fought, he neither listened nor spoke. If he did speak, it was always for a reason.

The demon's head exploded in Wang Yu's grip, followed by his body. Three's corpse burst into chunks of inert flesh and lifeless remains.

Simultaneously, the sigil linked to the Undying Lord shattered.

A twisted, unnatural ripple tore through the void, bypassing all magical barriers, all the spells meant to contain devils—and vanished into the abyss. In the very next heartbeat, the world began to change. Wang Yu felt it first. The space around him became strange and unstable.

And then, beyond the ruins Roland had left behind, a giant appeared. It emerged from nothing, from silence—an unfathomable titan cloaked in the madness of the void. Its presence pressed upon the very world.

Roland's vault remained as it was, but Wang Yu now felt the weight of a mountain bearing down upon him. His bones creaked; his body rebelled. Even the flow of energy within him slowed as if forced through a sieve.

The Undying Lord, an ancient god of the void, had arrived. It loomed far above, its form impossible to grasp. It was clearly aware of everything beneath it. In the void, the gods took on material form. Here, they were stronger than even the righteous gods who could produce miracles in the material world.

Wang Yu muttered, "As I feared, this space has been locked down."

He had tried to flee through the portal overhead, to return to the material world—but it remained silent and inert. The realm Roland created, a hybrid of matter and void, now belonged entirely to the god.

A low hum reverberated from the Undying Lord's form. Its voice was incomprehensible—a dreadful vibration no mortal could parse. Even the shell it wore, that illusion of a physical body, was meaningless. It was madness incarnate.

A distorted echo of its power brushed the rooftop. Even that faint wave tore at the edges of reality. Warped void creatures with star-smeared purple skin began to blink into existence, screeching and twitching.

Again the god reverberated—a form of speech, distorted and garbled beyond comprehension. Its gaze, alien and vast, settled on the one anomaly in this space: Wang Yu.

Wang Yu was small, defiant, and familiar. He had no soul—an anomaly in itself. When the god's power struck him, he was not corrupted. His face... was memorable. This was the knight who had once shattered one of its avatars—who had caused it to feel pain—alongside a certain young magician.

From its chaotic thoughts, a single emotion coalesced. Rage. The god lifted its hand and brought it down.

That crushing weight fell upon Wang Yu. But now that he had reined in the power of the Chariot, he was immune to void manipulation—even from a god of the void like the Undying Lord himself.

Unfortunately, the portal above his head was not. It shook, flickered, and teetered toward collapse. If it broke, Wang Yu would never return to the material world. He would be trapped in the void, doomed to drift until he starved.

And just before the divine blow could strike it down, a flicker of darkness bloomed beneath the descending hand. It grew rapidly as a new force surged upward.

A towering tree, vast and ancient, its black bark shimmering with starlight like a canvas of night, rose from the void and stopped the hand.

It was the Tree of the Night.