Chapter 342: The Hammer of Fusion

"It's been quite a while since I last stepped into my mindscape. Coming here is basically like sleeping and dreaming for me—it's rest, but never the good kind. I can never rest well here."

Setting foot upon the domain that belonged solely to him, Wang Yu looked around at the pitch-black expanse. The only tangible item in this entire space was the solitary door standing at its center.

At first glance, nothing had changed from before. Nothing existed here save for that lonely door. Once, there had been a ball of hellfire within its frame, but Wang Yu had yanked it out for his own use long ago.

"Hm? Something feels... different."

His brows rose. He had an odd sense that something had shifted—a subtle, almost imperceptible, change. He couldn't yet put his finger on precisely what.

The surrounding darkness was just as empty as always. The change, then, had to lie with the door itself.

He approached and examined it in detail: the broken handle, the slightly worn panels, the conspicuous notch he himself had knocked into the frame. He found nothing amiss—until his gaze drifted lower.

"...The floor? Well, I'll be damned."

Beneath the doorframe, the ground was no longer the featureless black it had been, but rather a perfect replica of his own apartment's floor, down to the stubborn crumbs trapped in the narrow crevices he'd never been able to clean.

"When did this happen...? I could've sworn it wasn't like this before."

He crouched and ran his fingers over the familiar surface. The wooden grain and texture were just as he remembered them, though the illusion extended only about ten centimeters before fading back into the darkness of his mindscape.

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

He couldn't recall when or why such a change had appeared. The door, a mysterious artifact surely intertwined with his crossing into this world, still held far too many unanswered questions.

"What was I even doing before I crossed over...? I've thought about it countless times. I was taking a nap, only to wake up right by the side of that damned wild wolf. I almost got killed the moment I arrived! It was a hell of a lot stronger than any wolf back on Earth.

"Doors are meant to be passed through... Could the other side really be my home? No... It's impossible. I've tried it before. If I could've climbed out through that busted window, I'd have done it long ago."

Arms crossed, Wang Yu considered his situation. He had ample time to spare. The Central Assembly's six obelisks had been dealt with, and he could rest easy for the time being. With Avia watching over him, there was no fear of his wounds worsening. His body would recover on its own.

He pushed the door open and stepped inside. The room beyond was the same as ever: the small, familiar bedroom where he had lived for years. The messy desk, the twin bunk that only he used, the guitar that he barely played—everything was in its proper place.

"If nothing's changed in here, then nothing outside should have changed either..."

His gaze swept across the room. His instincts agreed that nothing was different.

"...Well then."

He tapped his fingers lightly on the desk, speaking half to himself, then walked to the window. Drawing the half-closed curtains fully, he revealed the view beyond.

"No change here, either."

Outside lay his apartment complex. From his sixth-floor vantage point, he could see the small park below. A few children played on the fitness bars, while two old men, presumably their grandfathers, played chess nearby. A bird soared past from high above.

Like a photograph frozen in time, everything was motionless, just as they had been the very first time he looked out through the window in his mindscape.

"Hm? This... didn't use to open, did it? Definitely not. If it did, I would've tried climbing out already."

Almost without thinking, his fingers flicked at the window latch. It clicked, and the window that had once been sealed as if welded shut easily swung open.

Wang Yu was truly startled. If the window could open, would he actually be able to climb out? And if so... what then?

A six-floor drop was nothing for a grand knight like him.

He leaned forward and poked his head through—but before he could lean far enough to look down, his forehead struck something solid but invisible.

He rubbed his forehead. It had been a solid hit, but it didn't feel painful. In his mindscape, he'd never felt true discomfort.

This time, instead of his head, he stretched his hand outside. Sure enough, just a short distance beyond the frame was a smooth, impenetrable barrier of air. It kept him sealed in, window or not.

"Well, fine. No rush. Change is still a good sign. Looks like this door's influence is slowly spreading outward in the real world... and here, my range of movement is growing as well.

"Either way, I need to keep track of these changes. Figure out what's causing them—and decide whether or not to push them further."

Leaning on the sill, he looked out at the scene he'd viewed so many times before. It was oddly satisfying to be able to stand here like this, something he couldn't have done back when the window wouldn't open at all.

His gaze fell on the soaring bird outside, and a mischievous grin caused his lips to curl. Turning back to the desk, he picked up a napkin, dabbed it with a little spit, crumpled it into a ball... and lobbed it toward the frozen bird.

The paper ball struck the invisible wall with a soft thunk, bounced back into the room, and landed neatly in Wang Yu's palm. He shrugged, helpless—his little act of mischief had failed.

He wandered around the room twice, pulling a few books off his shelf and flipping through them. The contents were intact and perfectly normal, which only reinforced that this room was no mere figment of his imagination. There was no way he could have memorized every page of the books on his own shelf, especially the ones he'd barely even glanced at.

He turned toward the door. A subtle awareness stirred within him—his body in the real world had healed enough to move. The nap was over. It was time to wake up.

But as he stepped forward, preparing to withdraw his consciousness from his mindscape, he suddenly realized that he was still holding the paper ball he'd caught earlier.

Oddly enough, as he stepped past the doorframe, the paper was yanked backward, halted by something akin to that invisible barrier outside the window.

"This... is no small change," Wang Yu murmured. "But why?"

He released it. The ball dropped to the floor, rolling to a stop on that narrow strip of real-world flooring that had somehow intruded into the black void. Its existence here was confined strictly to that patch. Wang Yu had never once managed to carry an object from this room out into the rest of his mindscape. This was the first time.

He didn't dwell on it further. He returned to his physical body.

As he opened his eyes and sat up, he could sense a faint, lingering weakness, but the gaping hollow in his chest had been filled by Avia's latent ability. All that remained was for the new flesh to harden until it matched the rest of his body.

He was no longer in the Central Assembly's chamber, but in their quarters at Skyborne City. He was lying on a bed.

Avia was kneeling by his bedside and using magic to check his condition. The moment he awoke, she leaned in close, her voice full of concern.

"How are you feeling? That wound was terrifying. Even with Aurelian's mark to keep you alive, I was still so worried..."

She nuzzled her cheek lightly against his.

"Pretty good," Wang Yu said with a smile. "I'm recovering fast. All thanks to you and the Lady of the Night." He glanced across the room and gave the black-clad woman a thumbs-up. "Right, how long was I out?"

"Thirty-six minutes."

"That short, huh?"

He grinned. With his constitution, two- or three-day comas were a thing of the past—once he'd recovered, he'd naturally awaken.

"You're awake," said a familiar voice in his mind. It was Astartes, speaking through the communication device Avia had brought back and placed by his bed.

"I never imagined you could go this far," the tower spirit continued. "Not even the most exaggerated tales in the biographies I've read come close to this."

"The Central Assembly," it said, "has now been... erased. Many of my constraints have been lifted. I can even speak to people other than you now.

"No matter what, I owe you my thanks. You broke the stranglehold my creator's disciples placed on Skyborne City's progress. A city long stagnant has begun to evolve again.

"Stagnation is what Merlin most wished to avoid. You've restored Skyborne City's vitality. I wish I could offer you the city itself in gratitude, but that's not within my power. It's just as Merlin's disciples once told you."

The sincerity in Astartes's voice was unmistakable. It had fought for change for so long, only to be shackled by countless restrictions until Wang Yu appeared.

"Much of the alchemical machinery and devices in Skyborne City are not truly mine to give," it went on. "The things I can freely manipulate are probably useless to you. But with the Central Assembly gone, those rules seem... to be shifting. We'll see what happens in the future.

"For now, as a token of gratitude, I want you to have something that is solely mine. I think you'll find it useful."

As it spoke, a heavy, ancient-looking hammer materialized beside the bed. Wang Yu picked it up, immediately sensing its unusual nature.

This was a curio, and no ordinary one at that. It was unmistakably part of Astartes itself. He tossed it lightly into the air, and it vanished into the void above his head.

"This is the Hammer of Fusion," Astartes explained. "It can merge any two non-living objects into one, allowing you to switch between their forms at will."

There were many details left unsaid, but Wang Yu's thoughts were already wandering. The fact that a machine spirit could own a curio at all sparked an idea in his mind.

"Lady Darkness," he said, holding out the Crimson Mark, "see if you can use this. If you can, the results might be rather interesting."