Inside the Ancient Ruins...
The entire expanse, spanning approximately forty thousand square kilometers, rumbled violently as if the world itself were groaning in agony.
Numerous cracks spider-webbed across the massive sand castle situated at the very heart of the ruins, and chunks of its towering structure began to crumble under the relentless quaking of the earth.
Deep in the underground chamber of the castle, Azrael sat slumped on a crack-marred black throne, his body leaning back while his half-closed eyes drooped in a heavy, groggy haze.
"Pull him quickly!" Vanessa shouted, her voice filled with urgency as she felt the tremors engulfing the entire ancient ruin.
Luo Bingqing and Elyara did not need Vanessa’s warning as the instant they sensed the violent shaking of the colossal sand castle, they dashed toward Azrael, seized his hands, and attempted to drag him away from the throne.
"He isn’t budging," Elyara said through clenched teeth as she and Luo Bingqing tried to pull Azrael using all their strength.
But despite pouring all their strength into the effort, Azrael remained rooted to the throne as though his very body had fused with it.
Luo Bingqing released Azrael’s hand, and an icy chill began to seep from his body. A few seconds later, two chains of solid, frost-bitten ice manifested and wrapped around Azrael’s body.
Together, Luo Bingqing and Elyara grabbed the chains, and tried to pull with all their might, straining to tear him free.
"Damn it! Was the seat of this throne coated in some kind of glue? He isn’t moving at all!" Elyara shouted, her frustration echoing through the trembling chamber as even with the strength of the ice chains, Azrael did not so much as shift.
Luo Bingqing and Elyara’s eyes darted nervously toward the castle walls, where chunks of stone and sand were breaking loose and falling in a rain of rubble.
"We... we won’t be buried alive under this castle, will we?" Elyara asked in a low, uneasy voice.
"Buried alive?" Vanessa gave a sneer at the question. "Forget being buried alive. At this rate, the entire space of these ruins will collapse. When that happens, we’ll all be swallowed by the space turbulence you saw at the far end of the ruins."
Luo Bingqing and Elyara felt their breath hitch at Vanessa’s words, their faces draining of color as a chill of dread settled over them.
"I can’t even run from here right now!" Vanessa cursed, her frustration cracking through her usually cold tone as she thought of the raging sandstorm that encircled the entire sand castle.
The storm weakened only once a day, at noon, and that precious window had already passed. Now there was no chance of escape. Even with her peak Epic-level power, she knew stepping into that storm would be no different from diving into a meat grinder and she would be shredded to pieces before she took a dozen steps.
At that moment, Vanessa’s gaze flicked toward the ancient wooden door standing behind the crack-filled throne.
’Yes... it might be my only way to escape safely,’ She thought, her eyes narrowing as a calculating gleam lit her expression.
She shifted her gaze toward the nearly forty members of the Transcendent Organization who were panicking a short distance behind her.
’From the reaction of that door, I only need the blood of a few more people to open it. If I use the blood of these Epic- and Class-level individuals, it should be enough to unlock it.’
Once the thought surfaced, Vanessa did not hesitate.
She cast a fleeting glance over her shoulder, and without anyone noticing, she released an invisible, poisonous miasma.
It drifted silently through the air, mixing seamlessly with each breath her companions drew. In their frantic state, none of the Transcendent Organization members sensed anything amiss, not even the Epic-level warriors who had earlier joined Vanessa in attacking Azrael and the others.
’I never wanted to kill them,’ Vanessa mused coldly as the poison seeped deeper into their lungs. ’They’ve worked tirelessly for the past two years to help me. But they cannot blame me. If we all die here, everything they’ve done so far will be useless. Better that I survive to carry their efforts forward than let it all end in vain.’
Not a flicker of guilt passed through her eyes as she continued to manipulate her toxic energy, ensuring every last one of her comrades inhaled a fatal dose.
Meanwhile, inside the protective barrier, Luo Bingqing and Elyara kept their eyes fixed on Azrael, uncertainty and concern shadowing their expressions as they debated their next move.
"Let’s wait," Elyara finally said after a long silence.
Luo Bingqing turned to her, momentarily taken aback. "What do you mean?"
Elyara slowly lowered herself to the trembling ground, her gaze locked on Azrael’s slack, groggy face.
"Since he chose to sit on that throne despite knowing the danger, he must have a reason," She said in a low, steady voice, recalling the cryptic words he had spoken to her the day before they ventured into the core of the ruins. "I don’t believe he would deliberately put us in danger."
Luo Bingqing opened his mouth to argue but stopped as their reality sank in. Truthfully, given their current situation, there was little else they could do besides waiting.
They could leave the barrier and try to flee, but Vanessa would almost certainly attack the moment they stepped outside and even if they survived her ambush, the raging sandstorm beyond the castle made reaching the ruins’ portal and escape impossible.
All things considered, remaining inside the star-level barrier was the safest choice.
With a resigned sigh, Luo Bingqing sat down beside her.
"Let’s hope you’re right and that he didn’t sit on that thing out of sheer curiosity."
At this moment, Azrael’s condition grew ever stranger. Though his entire body felt as if it were being torn apart and burned from within, he displayed no outward reaction, nor could he, even if he wished to.
It was as though his consciousness had drifted into another realm. In that strange, formless space, he could sense every change occurring within his body: the tearing pain, his boiling blood, and the strange golden light that poured into him through the throne.
He felt it all with unnerving clarity.
Yet, despite the overwhelming sensations, his will to act seemed to have faded away. It was as if his very desire to move or speak had been erased.
He could even hear Luo Bingqing and Elyara’s urgent voices calling to him, but their words passed through him like distant echoes, unable to stir his mind.
Rattle! Rattle! - - - -
The sharp, metallic clamor of chains echoed through the void of his mind and in an instant, Azrael’s unfocused thoughts snapped into clarity.
"Huh?" He murmured, blinking as awareness flooded back and for the first time since the ordeal began, he found he could move again.
But the moment he regained his senses, one question immediately gripped him.
As his eyes adjusted, he realized he was no longer in the underground chamber of the sand castle. Instead, he stood within a vast, lightless expanse, an endless darkness devoid of even a single flicker of illumination.
Lowering his gaze, he noticed his own form appeared faint and hazy, as if his body were no more than a translucent shadow.
While he frowned at the strangeness of his situation, a sudden, inexplicable presence flared behind him.
Instinctively, Azrael spun around, only to find a tall man standing a short distance away, silently watching him from the darkness. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦•𝘯𝘦𝘵