Chapter 24: Severing the Illusion

The boy's fierce expression faded and was replaced by an eerie calm after nearly being decapacitated by Wang Yu.

He glared at Wang Yu venomously as he muttered incomprehensible words under his breath.

Wang Yu had no interest in a dialogue with the boy. He focused on replenishing his void energy as he recovered.

The benefit of having a low void energy capacity was that it didn't take long to refill it all. Within half a minute, he was fully restored.

The two were locked in a rather sinister standoff. Wang Yu stood protectively in front of Avia as he faced the boy.

The boy was frowning as his gaze fixated on Wang Yu.

Wang Yu was happy for the break. His inner eye remained active as it scanned for void energy. On her part, Avia sensed no magical fluctuations either.

The boy really did seem to be doing nothing but staring.

So be it. The longer things dragged on, the better it was for Wang Yu. Wang Yu was already at his void energy capacity, and he knew that the boy couldn't maintain this standoff indefinitely.

"The teddy bear," Avia suddenly warned. Her sharp senses had picked up something again.

"The teddy bear?" Wang Yu focused on it.

It was strange that the boy had held onto his teddy bear all this time, but it didn't appear strange to Wang Yu's inner eye—hold on, wasn't it a little more battered than before?

It definitely was.

Its once-bright eyes had turned dull, and one was even hanging only by a loose thread.

"I don't sense any mana flow," Avia added, her voice sharper. "He's not drawing power from external sources."

Something clicked in Wang Yu's battle-honed mind.

The endless shadowy claws that he had summoned surely required an enormous amount of energy—be it void energy or mana. The sheer number of the claws had been overwhelming.

If the boy had enough power to summon such a sea of shadowy claws by himself, this wouldn't have been a low-level task at all.

"In that case..." Wang Yu locked gazes with the boy for a brief moment before he focused on the teddy bear's remaining intact eye.

There it was—a flicker of life, a glint of intellect.

"Found you!" A savage grin spread across Wang Yu's face as he gripped his sword and assumed a combat-ready stance. He had finally found the real target he had to face—not the boy, but rather the teddy bear in his hands. The energy for manifesting the shadowy claws had to be coming from the bear somehow. Severing the connection between boy and bear was key.

"Nightblades! It's always you meddling with my plans..."

A hoarse voice emerged from the boy, though the speaker was clearly someone else entirely.

Words meant nothing to Wang Yu. His mind was set.

He ignored the teddy bear's voice as he prepared and charged.

Fighting spirit surged throughout Wang Yu's body, circulating in tandem with his ripple ability. It began to accelerate, faster and faster, until it reached the limit of what Wang Yu's ripple ability could bear. That was his threshold.

Wang Yu released the fighting spirit from his feet.

The burst of energy rocketed him forward, dust exploding underfoot as his body blurred.

His incredible physique, in tandem with his ripple ability, allowed him to soar toward the boy far faster than before.

He left a trail of afterimages in the air.

"It's futile. I might have a hard time dealing with an official knight, but you're just a rookie dealing with a supposed low-level task, aren't you? Count yourself unlucky..."

Wang Yu didn't know how the teddy bear had realized that he was a Nightblade, but his mind easily filtered out the taunts. Its villain's monologue could wait until it was all but dead.

Wang Yu had no intention of retreating. He adjusted his form in mid-air, sword poised, every muscle primed for action. He was certain the teddy bear would fight back.

As expected, shadowy claws materialized in an attempt to block Wang Yu, appearing right before him.

If he were to maintain his trajectory, Wang Yu would crash into the huge shadowy claws that had appeared out of nowhere.

They manifested from all directions, forming a web of death. Shadows lunged at Wang Yu from above and below, intent on seizing him.

Indeed, an ordinary knight might have been doomed, but Wang Yu was unfazed. He had no intention of dodging or parrying, and neither did he use his Double Jump technique.

His eyes narrowed as he focused. He took a deep breath. All knights had to fight in close combat, and this was no different.

Moments before impact, the boy holding onto the teddy bear smiled. Though it hadn't accumulated much energy, it was more than enough to kill this Nightblade rookie that was foiling its plans—and that pesky magician as well.

The lake of void energy in Wang Yu's mindscape rippled, the sign of wizardry made manifest.

At the last second, just as the shadowy claws were about to strike him, just as his nose was about to come in contact with the tip of a claw, Wang Yu made his move.

Void distorted reality as Wang Yu stepped through space.

He vanished. The next moment, the shadowy claws grazed his body, tearing off the outermost layer of his armor. It was evident what would have happened if the claws had struck flesh instead.

His void energy plummeted.

Space-distorting wizardry drained a terrifying quantity of energy. Wang Yu might be able to manage a millimeter of movement with true teleportation, but he had exploited a loophole once again.

Rather than directly move himself through space, he had waited until the black claw touched his body, allowing him to target the claw-body combination as a singular entity, and swapped their locations, just as if he were to switch his left and right hands.

The price was steep. The flesh he had lost from the tip of his nose and the armor that had crumpled at his back made it clear just how dangerous this trick had been.

Even so, despite the danger, success was success.

Wang Yu's sudden appearance left the teddy bear momentarily dumbfounded, but it hesitated only briefly. A cold glint flashed within the boy's eyes as he reacted.

Shadowy claws manifested to his back, this time targeting not Wang Yu but the boy himself.

They pulled the boy far from Wang Yu's direction, yanking him away with astonishing speed, faster than Wang Yu could move even with a mid-air Double Jump.

Even so, Wang Yu didn't falter. He maintained his original trajectory.

The boy sneered, his lips curling into a mocking grin. "That's it? Oh—and a sneak attack, I suppose. Did you think I wouldn't notice?"

A blazing Fireball hurtled toward the boy.

Though it hadn't been double-casted, Avia had charged it up for an incredibly long period of time, and it was massive. It shone much brighter and moved much faster than usual.

Avia had been preparing the spell ever since the initial confrontation between Wang Yu and the boy, after all.

"This is the limit of a low-rank magician's strength. Fireballs need contact to detonate. That one does have quite a bit of energy, but it's worthless if it misses," the boy scoffed. He clearly seemed to enjoy mocking others.

With a smug grin, he repeated his earlier move. The shadowy claws yanked the boy back as they redirected the fireball's trajectory.

The boy deliberately slowed down, nearly allowing the flames to catch up with him only to dodge at the last second and guide the magic away.

Like a clown performing for applause, the teddy bear relished in his opponents' frustration.

He glanced at the girl. Though she seemed worried and fearful, she didn't shrink back or freeze up in fear. "Boring..." the teddy bear murmured.

However, the moment the teddy bear diverted its focus, its fate was sealed.

Fireballs did need to make contact to explode. The previous Fireballs had proved that point.

Would Wang Yu and Avia fall for the same trap?

Of course not!

A sharp sound rent the air as a flying object closed in on the teddy bear. The boy's eyes widened—what was coming?

The shadowy claws instinctively yanked him downward. He barely dodged a shield that was flying toward his head.

It was Wang Yu's shield. Wang Yu had landed right where his shield had fallen.

The shield whizzed, but the boy's eyes widened as the teddy bear came to a belated conclusion.

The shield wasn't going to have hit the boy regardless. He wasn't the target!

"Boom!" The shield collided with Avia's fully charged Fireball right beside the boy's head.

An explosive eruption released searing heat and a shockwave of energy, engulfing the boy and teddy bear whole.

Wang Yu stood poised, his arm extended, his eyes narrowed. He focused on where the explosion had occurred. Before he confirmed his opponent's death, he wouldn't relax.

As if in response to Wang Yu's vigilance, the smoke cleared.

The boy lay on the ground. Strangely enough, his body appeared unscathed. It was frail and dirty. There were plenty of older wounds on his body, but no newer ones.

All the destruction had been absorbed by the teddy bear, by now nothing more than a scorched ruin. Much of its fur was blackened, and half its body had been torn open. Charred stuffing spilled out. Its button eyes were shattered completely.

What remained of the teddy bear was barely distinguishable.

The shadowy claws that had emerged from the boy's back dissipated into smoke and vanished. The smoke receded away to reveal a ruined house lined with rubble and scorch marks all over.

Wang Yu raised an eyebrow. With his inner eye, he could see that the last traces of void energy were dissipating from the teddy bear.

It looked to be devoid of any life or power.

Whatever entity had inhabited it had been obliterated by the blast The boy's true nature, however, became clear. He was nothing more than a distortion of void energy who was twisted to mimic reality.

In that case, who was the wizard that lay behind him?

The boy's form flickered erratically, like an old television losing its signal. His entire body wavered unstably in a patchwork of chaotic pixels.

Wang Yu had seen this before. The boy was losing its anchor, just like when the fragment of terror had lost the fear it fed on. The boy's creator was clearly losing power—the boy, the puppet, was unraveling.

Wang Yu shook his head. Wizardry wasn't something he fully understood. He turned to Avia, who was frowning.

"Wang Yu, the hunter had a single child: the daughter, Rose. This boy said that he was Rose's older brother..." Avia's voice was heavy with sympathy.

Wang Yu paused. The boy had mentioned saving his sister, Rose—but how did that make sense? Who was he?

Confused, he walked into the room from which the boy had emerged. There, huddled in the corner, was a small girl.

The room was strangely untouched by the battle outside, as if it had been shielded by some unknown force. Though the rest of the house had all but collapsed, the room remained structurally sound.

The girl's face was deathly pale, her skin coarse, dry, and stiff. She looked like a corpse.

As Wang Yu approached, however, her lively eyes met his gaze.

There were only two features on her body that looked alive: her lively eyes and the wound on her forehead from which fresh blood oozed out.

No corpse should have been able to produce such vivid blood...

Wang Yu didn't know what to say. He knew, the moment he saw her, that there was no saving her.

It wasn't that her injuries were beyond healing; rather, the girl had died long ago.

Something was keeping her alive—something unnatural. But no matter what force sustained her, the wound on her head could never be healed. She was dead. Nothing could change that.

Behind Wang Yu, the boy, now a dissipating creation of the void, began to walk forward.

He seemed to have obtained a burst of vitality upon seeing the girl. Wang Yu noticed Avia watching closely, her expression conflicted.

She gave no warning, so Wang Yu stood back, trusting in her judgment.

Rose's "brother" staggered over to the girl's side and allowed her to lean into his embrace.

His hand brushed her tangled hair, his eyes softening with a strange, human tenderness, something almost unimaginable for a creation of the void.

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. I even hurt so many people... I'm a failure as a brother," he whispered. His voice was tinged with regret and exasperation.

"It's alright. Th-Thank you for being here." The girl's voice was weak, but she seemed to be at peace.

The boy's eyes widened in surprise, then relief.

The girl's eyes slowly closed as her last breath slipped away. She had held it in since the teddy bear's destruction.

Life faded away from the girl who ought to have died long ago. As she passed, so too did the boy, his void energy no longer tethered to anything real.

Wang Yu sighed. Everything finally seemed to make sense.

The townspeople had shook their heads as they talked about the drunkard hunter. Rose was a girl who had suffered greatly. It wasn't hard to imagine that she would create a hero in her mind—a brother who could protect her from all the ills of the world.

And if that brother did her best to protect her, even if he failed in the end, could she ever blame him?

Wang Yu shook his head. The perpetrators of this tragedy lay in the form of two bodies that had crumbled to dust. There was nothing more he could do or say.

But whoever had twisted such innocent desire into something so vile—Wang Yu wouldn't forget what had happened.

"Let's go." Wang Yu grabbed Avia's hand and brought her out of the smoke-wreathed house, not looking back at her tear-filled eyes.