Chapter 209: Into the Abyss

Having learned of the true identity of the metal orb that he held, Wang Yu rushed toward the capital's shadow alongside Avia and the smoke demon.

The passage connecting the surface of the royal capital to its subterranean twin was long, but Wang Yu managed to clear it within just a few minutes.

As he burst out of the tunnel, Wang Yu cast a glance toward an underground city in the distance—the Abyssal Outpost, nestled deep within the capital's shadow. What met his eyes wasn't the usual dim and gloomy skyline, but rather something ablaze with firelight: chaos, vivid and unrelenting.

The underground city, already steeped in disorder, had erupted in flames.

Explosions echoed intermittently through the air, perhaps the work of unstable alchemical fuels combusting within some back-alley workshop.

Wang Yu could clearly see ruptured alchemical pipes spilling volatile fluids that caught fire the instant they met wandering sparks. Plumes of fire erupted from the breaches, turning segments of the city into furnaces.

"Worse than I thought," he muttered. "The capital's shadow is chaotic on the best of days. If the Abyssal Gate has invaded, it'll be all too easy for things to spiral into all-out war."

The city's factions had always been a tangled web. Gangs guarded their turf, and alliances shifted like sand. While the Nightblades had made some effort to intervene over the years, their influence here remained limited.

Now, with the Abyssal Gate stirring up conflict, the underground metropolis had plunged into complete anarchy.

Some gang—or perhaps several—had seized the moment to settle scores, igniting a citywide battle under the guise of resisting an invasion.

"No wonder they called in the Captain," Wang Yu muttered. "This place is a powder keg. Anyone we see—they're going to shoot first and ask questions later. Still, they shouldn't pose a serious threat on their own."

He sighed. "We'll take it step by step." Truth be told, he wasn't sure he could complete the mission that had originally fallen to Hugin. If it came to it, he'd withdraw. Surely the capital could find someone better suited to the task.

"I'll try calling upon the Lady of the Night," said Avia softly. She looked out over the burning city, at the strange, shimmering place where void and reality coiled together. A divine shroud might let them pass unnoticed.

Avia had a personal connection to the Lady of the Night, and could easily draw on her spells.

"Oh, right. I forgot about that..." Wang Yu scratched his head. Ever since he'd shattered Roland's key in his mindscape, his link to the void—and thus to the Lady—had gone dark. The divine arts he once wielded with ease had gradually slipped from his memory.

From the surrounding shadows, liquid darkness began to flow, gentle as water. It cloaked Wang Yu and Avia in shadow, rendering them unseen.

"It worked... Wait, no."

Wang Yu had been about to breathe a sigh of relief when he noticed a problem. The metal orb that housed the Mirror of the Stars remained untouched by the shroud. The flowing shadows could not cling to it; they simply slid off its smooth surface.

"Damn it. That thing's glowing like a beacon now," he said, exasperated.

"There's a strategic-class curio within," the smoke demon's voice rumbled from within the armor. "This orb protects the curio and ensures that it can't be stolen easily. It'll open up automatically once we reach our destination."

Shockingly, the smoke demon didn't ramble on as it usually did. Even it seemed to understand the severity of the situation.

"It's likely made of a special alloy," Avia added, "crafted to resist both void and magic and built purely to safeguard what lies inside."

With a sigh, she dismissed the divine veil. Stealth was off the table. Brute force was their only option.

"Of course they'd assign me to this," Wang Yu grumbled. "A regular knight guarding a strategic-grade curio—just what do they think I can do?"

He rubbed his chin with one armored forearm and shook his head. Still, he had made it this far. He might as well try. He'd never lift a hand for the sake of the royal family or those nobles rotten to the core, but how could he give up on his fellow Nightblades?

"Avia," he said, "cast Stone Armor on me. Mask my face. We'll charge straight through in the chaos. Once we reach the Abyss, we should be good."

"Understood." Avia began her chant, drawing on the surrounding earth.

Pebbles and dust spiraled upward from Wang Yu's feet, encasing him in a shell of dense, earthen armor—not thick, but firm enough to obscure his features completely.

Then, Avia veiled herself with a concealment spell. Thus disguised, the two dove into the chaos of the city below.

"Which gang are you from? Speak!" No sooner had Wang Yu set foot in the underground city than he was targeted by a gang in the midst of a shootout with a rival group—who were also looting the homes of the city's residents while they were at it.

He offered no reply. Taking advantage of his extraordinary physical prowess and the Spellweaver's Tome, Wang Yu darted like a phantom through the labyrinthine city as they rushed toward the Abyss at full speed.

"Damn it! Take that bastard down!" To the gang leader, Wang Yu's complete disregard of him was a challenge to his authority. With a snarl, he ordered his men to raise their alchemical crossbows, enchanted weapons of varying quality churned out from the underground forges.

A volley of bolts flew toward Wang Yu, filling the air with sharp, metallic shrieks. Dodging them all would be impossible.

With a sudden whoosh, a fierce wind surged to life. Avia had made her move, casting the defensive Storm Barrier to protect them both.

Buffeted by the chaotic currents of a miniature tempest, the bolts veered wildly off-course, thudding harmlessly into the buildings Wang Yu used for leverage.

In the blink of an eye, he launched himself off a series of pipes and ledges. A few powerful strides took them out of the ambush entirely.

"Tch. Forget it. Let the Black Serpents deal with that masked freak." Realizing their prey had escaped and that pursuit would cost them their skirmish, the gang leader wisely chose to redirect his energy to the battle at hand.

Wang Yu's brows furrowed as he sped forward. The chaos in the underground city was worse than expected—gangs were locked in frenzied combat, blades flashing at the mere sight of a stranger. If you couldn't name your faction fast enough, you risked getting attacked on the spot.

"Would declaring myself as a Nightblade help...? No—it won't work. I don't know where the Abyssal Gate agents are hiding."

Announcing his identity might deter gang attacks—but it would certainly draw the attention of the Gate's operatives. And those hiding in the shadows were far more dangerous. If they struck while he was trying to avoid a fight...

No. The risk was too great.

Wang Yu scanned the surroundings with heightened awareness. Avia, attuned to his thoughts, cast a Clairvoyance spell on him without any prompting, sharpening his vision so he could assess the terrain from afar.

Despite his agility and constant vigilance, he couldn't entirely avoid conflict. While vaulting through the window of a derelict building, a sword suddenly lashed out from the shadows.

Wang Yu didn't even flinch. The blade crashed against his armored form, sending a burst of sparks into the air. The attacker's sword chipped from the impact, but Wang Yu's smoke-forged armor remained unscathed.

"That suspicious man the boss mentioned is right here!"

Voices erupted from within the building—someone had been lying in wait. A gang had staked out his route, anticipating his movements even though he'd avoided any semblance of a route.

A clamor of footsteps echoed from below as a tide of enemies surged into the narrow alleyways beneath him, weapons drawn and eyes fixed on Wang Yu's silhouette above.

"I don't want to fight," Wang Yu's voice rumbled from within his stone-clad armor. "Just let me pass."

"Says you! Surrender now. We'll question you in our base. No one barges into gang turf during an all-out war without a reason. How do we know you're not scouting for a raid?"

Whoever these people were, they had no intention of letting Wang Yu through.

Glancing around, Wang Yu saw more enemies emerging onto the rooftops, surrounding him from all sides. A sprint wouldn't cut it this time.

His eyes narrowed beneath the helm. A subtle hand signal flashed toward Avia, who remained hidden by a Camouflage Skin spell. The message was clear: prepare to strike.

"Choose now—surrender, or die here!"

The gangsters below were still barking threats, confident in their numbers. But they had no idea how deadly narrow terrain could be in the hands of a skilled spellcaster.

"Make it quick. We need to break through," Wang Yu whispered to the smoke demon. Then, he released his grip from the building and dropped straight into the heart of the enemy crowd.

Confusion reigned. No one understood what he was doing until the walls themselves began to quake.

The stone buildings flanking the alley rumbled ominously. Then, like jaws snapping shut, the walls crushed inward.

Stone pillars and spikes erupted from the ground—Avia had acted.

"Ah! My leg—what the hell is this?!"

"A magician!"

"Kill him before he can cast again!"

Earthen spikes impaled the limbs of the slower gang members, while pillars split the dense crowd into fragmented, disoriented clusters. An unlucky few were flattened outright.

As they reeled in shock, Wang Yu landed, Spellweaver's Tome in hand. He quickly cast the second-tier Seismic Invasion.

Upon impact, the ground beneath his feet cracked with a thunderous tremor. The stored force sent shockwaves coursing through the street.

Already destabilized by the earthen upheaval, the gang members struggled to keep their footing. Many collapsed outright. Then came the smoke demon.

With a hiss, two enormous scythe-like blades of smoke unfurled from Wang Yu's back like wings.

They slashed outward in sweeping arcs. In an instant, shrieks filled the air as blood and severed limbs flew skyward.

These gangsters were less cowardly than Wang Yu expected.

Even in the face of such carnage, they didn't flee. Two figures—likely full-fledged knights—leapt over the barricades Avia had created, rallying the survivors for a coordinated assault.

Wang Yu had no interest in wasting time. He hadn't dropped in to fight, but rather to carve a way out. His mental energy surged into the Spellweaver's Tome for the overcharged third-tier spell Earthen Drill.

Earthen spells had a significant advantage: after all, dirt and stone were everywhere. Unlike spells that required conjuring elements from thin air, earthen spells only needed to manipulate their surroundings.

Dust and rubble swirled upward, gathering at Wang Yu's right hand and swelling into a spinning, massive drill of solid stone larger than Wang Yu himself.

He launched forward, using a powerful stomp to direct the spinning mass. The Earthen Drill roared like a siege weapon as it crashed into the nearest building, pulverizing walls and dragging Wang Yu with it.

With unstoppable force, he burst through the structure, tearing through the obstacles and racing off toward the direction he'd originally intended to escape.

A savage trail was gouged directly into the ground.

With unrelenting violence, Wang Yu drove the Earthen Drill through wall after wall, grinding down everything in his way into dust. He carved a brand new path for himself, one that no one dared to stand against.

Sensing that he was close to breaking through the building's outer perimeter, Wang Yu willed the massive stone drill to detach from his arm and surge forward on its own.

It blasted through the final barriers, then exploded in a storm of debris, shattering walls and ceiling alike.

Avia's blessing wrapped around him once more, letting Wang Yu pick up speed again. He left the stunned gang members behind, streaking through a back alley of the underground city, racing toward his destination.

"Almost there..." Climbing up a tower wrapped in tangled pipes, Wang Yu perched at its peak and glanced into the distance. One of the three lighthouses standing at the border where the city met the Abyss had come into view.

Wang Yu was almost at his destination, but he felt no relief.

He had sensed something amiss. He was being followed—and not by just one or two people. While leaping from building to building, he had occasionally glimpsed other figures darting through the shadows and moving as swiftly and nimbly as he did.

At first, he dismissed them. But as he drew nearer to the edge of the city, and the gang conflicts began to dwindle, it became increasingly clear that they were tracking him.

"Damn it. I've been marked."

Wang Yu came to a grim conclusion. Even though he had gone out of his way to avoid clashing with local gangs, his single-minded behavior had clearly drawn attention.

His actions simply stood out too much. Even without revealing his identity as a member of the Nightblades, Wang Yu had caught the eye of the Abyssal Gate.

When Wang Yu finally paused, those who had been pursuing him emerged from the shadows of nearby buildings, silent, steady, and encroaching.

They kept their distance, forming a loose circle around the tower where he stood. From the edges of rooftops and scaffolding, they stared up at him: two dozen masked figures, eyes like frost, blades in hand, poised to strike.

Wang Yu calmly swept his gaze over them. Through Avia's mental link, the output of her Magician's Eye spell flowed into his mind: there were five full knights, and over ten intermediate- or higher-rank knights-in-training.

Even with Avia's help, even with the protection of the Smoke Demon, facing this many enemies would be no easy task.

Breaking out via brute force was out of the question. These were the most dangerous foes he had yet encountered. They wouldn't give him the chance to turn his back and flee. That would only get him killed faster.

Conflict loomed between Wang Yu and the Abyssal Gate. The air itself seemed to tense and crackle with gunpowder. The faintest spark would ignite the clash. Both sides were waiting for a signal to strike.

The Abyssal Gate had yet to fully gauge Wang Yu's strength and hesitated to make the first move. Wang Yu, meanwhile, had already begun preparing to risk it all.

Behind him, blood squirmed under a thin glass patch adhered to his back. It was a vial of Recaptured Glory, a potent adrenal concoction. With a single mental command, it would shatter and flood his bloodstream, launching his body into overdrive.

Avia, shedding the now-pointless illusion spell that had kept her hidden, was doing the same. Magic, cloaked by a layer of void energy, thrummed as she began channeling the strongest spell she could currently cast.

But just as the battle was about to erupt, something happened. The darkness rippled unnaturally behind one of the Abyssal Gate agents, whose attention was locked onto Wang Yu.

Two pale arms emerged from the shadows, empowered by the Lady of the Night's protection, and seized the man by the shoulders.

He let out a strangled cry, but before he could react, razor-sharp fangs sank into his neck. Boiling-hot blood was drawn out in a torrent.

At the same moment, the shadows around them writhed and twisted. From within them surged alien creatures that plunged into the midst of the Gate's encirclement and threw their formation into chaos.

A hulking werewolf lunged, claws slamming into a full knight with brutal force. Even without fighting spirit, the beast's sheer physical strength matched that of its opponent. Its talons ripped through light armor like paper, sinking deep into flesh.

A mimic-beast let out a warbling shriek as it latched onto an unlucky victim's head, pouring caustic slime through his orifices and corroding him from the inside out.

These were only a few among many. All at once, other strange creatures burst from the dark, launching a sudden assault on the Abyssal Gate.

Wang Yu's lips curled into a grin. "Well, would you look at that..."

A projection of the Lady of the Night appeared in the air beside him.

"I did receive a rather agreeable position from Hugin, after all," she said, voice tinged with amusement. "Supporting the Nightblades is only natural. But truth be told... I came mostly to help you, my friend."