Chapter 420: Imprisoned

The situation around Wang Yu was exceedingly strange. He could sense wild turbulence in the space surrounding him, eddies and currents shifting with every heartbeat. Yet no trace of magic existed within this domain. The chaos was not born from within, but rather shaped by power flowing in from far beyond.

"Wang Yu... that is your name, isn't it? I have watched you for a long time. A most unusual existence. You came from nowhere, and walk without the lofty ambitions of others with talent equal to yours. Your pattern of action is a riddle, your destination inscrutable.

"My gift has no hold over you. Prophecy cannot pierce the veil of your future, nor uncover the traces of your past. Yet you exist, and that alone ensures your actions leave marks upon the world. Those marks are enough to piece together the shape of your power."

𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

The voice of the Royal Astrologer Selene brushed his ear. Though calm and toneless, it was yet tinged with an odd note of wonder.

Wang Yu raised a brow, but did not stop studying the space around him with keen eyes. He had long known the day would come when others would notice his strangeness. He was an oddity that even he did not understand. And of course, those with the gift of foresight would be the first to notice.

The corridor surrounding him was vast beyond reason. Its walls lay so far away that even the Chariot's power, stretched to its utmost, could not touch them.

Both ends stretched into endlessness, or as close as that lie could come to the truth.

"You have grown quickly," Selene continued. "Far faster than I imagined. Among humankind, I have never seen one ascend so swiftly, not even those few prodigies I know.

"And some of your traits, some of your abilities, they make me doubt you are human at all. Are you born of the abyss? That cannot be. Your clarity, reason, and restraint are traits the abyss could never grant. Not since the Morningstar explosion."

She paused, then sighed. "We need not have been enemies. Our quarrel lies only with this kingdom and its king. You are different, and your resistance to corruption may even allow you to take Donatien Charlemagne's place."

Her voice softened. "So if you would lay aside your hatred, if you would cease this war for the throne, or even set down your resistance for a time, we could speak Perhaps there need be no blades between us."

Wang Yu's brow furrowed as he drew his starsteel blade. He had pieced enough together: she, or those allied with her, were moving according to some great design.

And by choosing to kill Donatien Charlemagne and destabilize control over Aleisterre, he had become a threat against them.

"So what is it that you seek? If you won't tell me, how can I bargain with you?"

"Our aim," Selene answered without hesitation, "is to forge a new nation. A utopia for all intelligent races."

Wang Yu frowned. He thought of an incident he had encountered in the past.

"Those clowns?"

He flicked his wrist. Under the effect of the Hammer of Fusion, his starsteel blade transformed into the Spellweaver's Tome.

The question was not meant to mock Selene. Wang Yu was simply recalling the Utopian Circus that Wang Yu, Charles, and Edward had once been ordered to dismantle. Was there a link between Selene and its ringmaster?

"..."

Selene fell silent for a moment. Then came her calm reply.

"Perhaps. But their way was wrong."

Wang Yu opened the Spellweaver's Tome. Magical circuits formed at his will. He had confirmed with his senses that magic was not forbidden in this place.

"A utopia, huh? Sounds fine enough. If everyone could live the life they long for... it wouldn't be bad at all." His voice carried no irony. If Selene truly could build such a place, Wang Yu would have no problem with her.

"In that case, will you join us? If so, today would really be an unexpected surprise."

"Can I kill Donatien Charlemagne and take control of Aleisterre?"

"No. He is a pillar of the plan. Even if you joined, I cannot confirm that you would be able to replace him."

Wang Yu clicked his tongue. "Then what's the point? Your utopia isn't much use to me if it can't satisfy what I want."

The choice was plain. His grudge against the royal house burned too deep. Had they not moved against him, would he be here now, storming their halls? No. The blame lay squarely with them.

And as for Selene's talk of setting down his sword, did she think him a fool? So far, she hadn't produced any material evidence. All Wang Yu had heard were empty words.

At best, there was a fifty-fifty chance she was telling the truth. It was far too slim for him to bet his life on, especially when he was right about to kill Donatien Charlemagne.

"I'm afraid," Selene murmured, "that no matter what you choose... it will not be the right decision."

But even as her words fell, the Tome's spell model clicked into place. A Gate of Phases loomed to life. Space rippled, and Wang Yu vanished in a high-priority fold of reality.

"..."

A soft sigh followed, almost wistful. Selene was disappointed.

Wang Yu reappeared—but his face hardened. He didn't seem to have moved.

By his reckoning, he had poured in enough power to travel more than two kilometers. Yet within this space, it was as though he had never left where he started.

"Not so simple, then..."

He lett the Chariot's power spill outward. But the corridor's walls lay far, far beyond reach, too distant for even that force of his.

From a horizon far away, a column of light speared toward him.

Wang Yu stamped on thin air. The void itself formed a step beneath his heel, allowing him to fling himself aside. The attack missed by a hair.

But this was only the beginning. Spells came from every side, shrieking down the infinite corridor. Chaos-warped spheres of black, bursting fireballs, spinning wheels of force, jagged spears of living steel, clouds of acid vapor corroding the air—

Clashing magics lit up the air in a riot of colors, flooding the space around Wang Yu. Spell upon spell collided and tangled, reacting against one another until they birthed a storm of chaotic turbulence. The assault was suffocating, smothering every inch of space, leaving Wang Yu almost no room to dodge.

He sprinted across makeshift footholds, planks of void energy blooming and vanishing beneath his feet as he ran. Behind him surged a ceaseless tide of detonating magic. A black thorn of solid night stabbed suddenly from his flank—he shattered it with a crushing fist. Ahead, a haze of corrosive vapors boiled toward him—he opened his lungs and loosed a dragon's roar, the fan-shaped blast scouring the acid cloud into nothing.

The Chariot's power, Silent Hall, was already in effect, sealing the area around him from birthing new spells. But the material remnants of magic unleashed from afar still pierced the ban. Endless waves of fire, steel, and light threatened to overwhelm him. The storm did not abate. And worse, the prison of space hemming him in would not collapse.

Wang Yu's speed was formidable, but as he ran, he realized with a grim jolt that he remained at the center of the corridor. No matter how far he fled, the prison itself shifted with him.

And it was vast, too vast for even the Chariot's power to fracture. His strength was immense, but every strike landed as though against cotton. His blows were swallowed without mark or meaning.

This was Selene's design: a bounded realm crafted specifically for him. It wasn't complex, just a moving cage that shadowed his steps. But simple or not, it did work.

The sensation dragged him back to his first plunge into the void. He felt as if he were falling endlessly, unable to find his footing, untouched yet helpless as he waited for death.

But this time, not only could he not escape, he even faced a ceaseless bombardment of spells. He could endure for now, but certainly not forever.

"..."

In silence, he tore at the void as one might rip cloth, wrenching open a rift and leaping through without hesitation. If this path was barred, he would find another.

But when he landed within the cubic fold of his private void, peering outward, his expression soured. Encircling his sanctuary were forms he knew too well—the Endless Corridor, its walls replicated perfectly, binding him here as tightly as on the outside.

"...How troublesome."

Selene's grasp of his powers was deeper than he had feared. Her cage was not confined to the material plane. It reached into the void as well.

"Too far again... I can't touch it. And are these things made of actual material at all? If so... does that mean she's tied to Roland...?"

For the moment, he remained safe within the domain claimed by his door. No external attack could breach it. Yet even here, he was still trapped within Selene's prison.

The problem was plain: the Chariot's power could seize control of any void it touched. But Selene had given him no chance to touch the walls of his new prison. It was simple in principle and brutally effective in practice.

"The Lady of the Night can't reach me... and this domain isn't truly invincible. Alone, I really might be killed here."

He shook his head, muttering. He couldn't see the Lady of the Night in the void, which meant that he couldn't contact her. And his own exploration had revealed the door's limits.

Outside, in the material world, the void domain he had control over was unassailable and would persist indefinitely. But when he himself stepped inside, his mental energy began to drain, slowly but steadily.

It was a weakness he rarely thought about, because mental energy was only needed to wield wizardry.

In the past, when he had wielded wizardry thanks to Roland's key, even when drained of mental energy, he did not collapse and die like ordinary wizards did. He merely lost the use of his void spells, and his mental energy would replenish with rest.

But now, as long as he remained in this "invincible" void, his mental energy would bleed away. When it ran dry, he would be cast out—exposed, materialized in the void, vulnerable to attack.

Whether he remained in his domain or not, he would die no matter what. Unless...

Unless he were not alone.

"Sorry to trouble you. I might've been a little reckless this time."

Wang Yu pressed his palms together, bowing lightly toward Avia at his side. His face softened when he looked at her, far more than when he faced his enemies.

"It wasn't reckless," she said with a smile. "We planned this together. We thought that your strength was enough, but Selene saw deeper than we expected. ‘Foreseeing every unforeseen possibility' is far easier said than done."

She laid her hand upon his door. Though he often appeared reckless, Wang Yu always sought her counsel. And though she worried, she never questioned his judgment, just as he never doubted hers.

Wang Yu yielded the Chariot's power through the door. Avia accepted the authority, and the wild force bent to her will. Under her command, magic surged in vast tides, no longer raw and unruly, but disciplined, intricate, and orchestrated with crystal-clear precision.

The Chariot's power was like a branching skill tree. Each branch unlocked new forms: the Commander's Throne, the Silent Hall, the Void Engine... Each could be refined, deepened, and wielded with ever-greater mastery.

For instance, the Silent Hall need not have covered so wide an area. He could have split its reach and drawn on the Void Engine with the strength that would have been freed up. But his mastery of his new skill was not yet absolute.

The Chariot's power could shape mana directly. In that sense, it could cast spells with authority beyond that of ordinary magicians.

And in that lay a truth Wang Yu knew well: a magician could wield this gift better than he ever could. Magic demanded vast knowledge, precise logic. He wasn't built for that. He had power, but not the mind for such work.

But he had something better. An external mind. A true prodigy. A magician by his side: Avia.

He did not even know the true depth of her magical skill. The strength of her mana vortex capped her power, but she had terrifying mastery of spellcraft. If it could be unleashed in full, she would be nothing short of monstrous.

So—what if the Chariot's power were hers to command, to let her weave spells without limit?

"Come on," Wang Yu said, grinning. "I'll defend. You attack."

"Mm! You're the tank, and I'm the DPS, right?" Avia's eyes sparkled with glee.

The void tore open at his gesture, and Wang Yu leapt forth once more into the storm. Power erupted around him, vast as a dragon, gentle and obedient as a hound.

The Chariot's new domain: Spellweaver.