Chapter 97: Is It Too Late

"Seven is dead. Did you feel it?"

"I felt it. His power is diminished. Dead is dead, I suppose. Not like we can really die. What was Seven up to recently?"

"Playing around in that human kingdom, the one called Aleisterre."

"What's the point of that? The dwarves and elves haven't gone to war yet. Seven should've come to help me out."

"Why are you always so fixated on making those two races fight? They have nothing to do with each other. What's the fun in that?"

"I don't know, but I find it amusing. One lives in trees, the other underground. Don't you think making birds and moles fight is entertaining?"

"I see your point. Then why don't you get those big creatures in the Endless Sea to come ashore and fight the land-dwellers? Wouldn't that be even more fun?"

"We can't mess with that giant squid at the bottom of the Endless Sea. Wake it up, and all seven of us might truly die for good."

"Fair enough. Now that you mention it, it does sound like fun. I'll come help you out when I have time. The corruption I set up has run its course anyway. The thing I was trying to create is already done. Let's give it a year and see what happens to the druids in the Sorensen Mountains."

"Alright, I'll look for you when the time comes, Three."

"No problem, Five."

In a rift between the void and reality, amidst some unlucky fool's mindscape, an endless darkness was interrupted by a blazing domain. Cracked, scorched ground stretched out as far as the eye could see. In the middle of it all sat an exquisitely crafted round table.

Two indistinct figures dressed in fine suits, seated on opposite ends of the table, engaged in a conversation that surpassed ordinary comprehension.

"Seven being dead isn't so bad. Before it revives, we can reclaim some of its power." Three raised its wine glass and took a sip. The crimson liquid inside shimmered like crystal, but a closer look revealed translucent human faces writhing, wailing, and contorting in agony.

"You can take my share too. I don't have much use for it. Consider it your payment for helping me out," Five said with a casual wave.

"Don't be so lazy—but sure, I'll happily accept it." Three's smile suddenly turned into a frown as it prepared to retrieve the power from the dead devil. "Wait a second..."

"What's wrong?"

"I can't feel Seven's power anymore. Seven's existence—it's been erased. Seven... seems to have undergone a true death." Three's tone was one of disbelief. It couldn't sense Seven at all, as if Seven had been utterly wiped from the world, leaving nothing behind.

"What?" Five, equally skeptical, tried sensing for traces of Seven, but there was nothing—no remnants, no residual presence.

"Seven... really has been erased entirely. What could have done this? Certainly not that giant squid. What could it be?" Three's voice trembled slightly. It was their undying nature that allowed the seven of them to act without restraint, unconcerned about the consequences of their actions.

But now, one of the seven had been completely erased. Not a temporary death, but true annihilation with no possibility of revival.

"This..." Five, too, was shaken and bewildered. What in the world could erase one of the seven so completely? They had no idea.

"Could it be One?" Three speculated after a moment of thought.

"...Possibly. One did absorb demonic power. It's—She's no longer truly immortal. She is unique," Five replied.

"What's she been up to recently?"

"Studying that peculiar Ryder family, I believe."

"Is that where Seven died?"

"Yup."

"..."

"..."

The two devils fell silent. The rift between void and reality returned to eternal stillness.

"Tch." Standing in what had become a hellish inferno of a mindscape, Wang Yu surveyed the area that should have been an endless lake, his expression grim.

This was bad. The space, now completely engulfed in hellfire, was likely unusable. As a half-trained wizard, he might have just lost his qualification as one entirely.

The hellfire burned furiously, turning the ground beneath him into nothing but scorched earth and flames. Though the flames didn't harm him, Wang Yu could sense that the space had become saturated and was unable to hold any more void energy.

Sure, the devil had been beaten into oblivion, but the mess it left behind had ruined his path as a wizard.

How could such disgusting beings exist? Wang Yu sincerely believed the world would be a better place without devils, mindflayers, and monstrosities like the Undying Lord. Their presence was nothing but an annoyance.

As Wang Yu prepared to leave his mindscape, he noticed a change in the flames. The hellfire began to recede, shrinking back toward the spot where he'd obliterated Seven.

As the fire retreated, the scorched earth was restored, revealing the original brick-paved ground beneath. Wang Yu could feel the space becoming usable again.

"Well, that's convenient," he muttered. He had no idea what was happening, but regaining his wizardry was certainly a good thing.

The fire began to condense and shrink more and more rapidly. The scorched surroundings reverted to their original state. At the center of the fiery convergence, a brilliant orb of light began to form.

Wang Yu stared at the orb. He still had no clue what it was. A remnant of the devil, perhaps?

Suddenly, the orb, now about the size of a fist, split into two parts. The larger part was about twice the size of the smaller. The smaller part shot into the sky.

"Not so fast." Wang Yu's hand intercepted the smaller orb mid-flight. No matter how it struggled, the orb couldn't escape his grasp.

He didn't know what this thing was, but he wasn't about to let it go. If it was something left behind by those pests, it should either be destroyed or put to use—not left to roam free.

Wang Yu knew exactly what to do. He clenched the smaller orb in his hand, picked up the larger one, and walked to the frame of his door within the restored space. He tossed both orbs inside.

As soon as they entered the frame, the two orbs disintegrated. Some parts dissolved entirely, while others coalesced into a single entity—a flame with a red core tinged with green, burning quietly beyond the doorway.

"Pure hellfire?" Wang Yu rubbed his chin. He didn't have time to ponder what it was. There were more pressing matters to attend to.

Wang Yu's consciousness detached from his mindscape. Though time moved slowly within his mindscape, he knew he had little time left in the real world.

𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

He still remembered the direction Pernia had pointed to before being discovered by the devil: below. Could it really be underneath the building? Staring at the ruin of the shattered building, Wang Yu realized he had to pick up his pace.

"Sacrifices, an essential element for demon summoning rituals, are not offerings to anyone. They're simply necessary for the ritual itself, especially those entities that require souls..." Wang Yu recited the knowledge every Nightblade was required to know.

To open the gates to the hellish planes, immense power was required. While magical arrays powered by mana could indeed open interdimensional gates to summon demons, the resulting mana surges would be impossible to hide.

If such an array were activated on one side of the capital, even a mere trainee magician on the other side would sense the massive fluctuations. As such, summoning demons purely through magic was virtually unfeasible.

This was why sacrifices had become a superior alternative. The souls of intelligent beings contained power. It was precisely because of their souls that the various races evolved into distinct entities. Otherwise, elves, who were capable of reproducing like trees, would have drowned all other species in sheer numbers.

The source of a soul's power remained a mystery, but the methods of extracting energy from it were well documented. The most effective way involved extreme emotion—joy and pain alike. When a soul experienced intense fluctuations in emotion, it would release vast quantities of energy.

Many scholars speculated that this soul energy might explain why those with extreme emotions often attracted the Void's attention. However, that hypothesis was yet unproven.

The second method involved crushing the soul directly. Though this also generates energy, it would be far less efficient than exploiting extreme variation in emotion. The ancient gnomes' ultimate source of energy was known as the Soul Furnace, a name that left little to the imagination. It was also what had caused their extinction.

As for demon summoning rituals, given the nature of demons and devils, they would undoubtedly choose the extreme method of tormenting souls—not only to harvest energy but also for their own amusement.

Edward had mentioned the missing slum dwellers by the city walls. It wasn't hard to guess what had happened to them—they had been used as sacrifices. The sheer number of sacrifices... Just what could the Ryders possibly be trying to summon? Was this a Selwynian plan? Wang Yu wasn't sure.

To transport such a large number of people underground without rousing suspicion, there would have to be an entrance nearby.

Wang Yu pondered for a moment. Moving such a large group discreetly in a short timeframe—digging new tunnels wouldn't be feasible. The entrance to the underground...

"The sewers!" The answer came quickly to him. The wall districts were on the city's periphery, and most sewer outlets were in those areas. Transferring large numbers of slum dwellers into the sewers wouldn't be too difficult.

"Why is it always the sewers?" Wang Yu muttered, exasperated. "It's like these people think they're rats or something."

Having decided on his course of action, Wang Yu prepared to sprint to the sewers. However, he realized that running there would take over ten minutes without the Gap, and exploring them once he arrived would take forever.

"Screw it. This better get reimbursed," Wang Yu grumbled, recalling the principles behind the reality anchor. A bold idea flashed into his mind. Though it carried significant risks. He hesitated, considering the anchor's astronomical cost...

"It doesn't matter. A demon summoning ritual is a bigger problem. I'll make Fang reimburse me later." Steeling himself, Wang Yu rushed to the reality anchor, scanning it with his ripples until he found a hidden maintenance hatch.

With a grunt, he pried open the only non-seamless panel, revealing the core of the anchor. The delicate magical core, surrounded by an array of runes and expensive materials, was the heart of the device.

The anchor's purpose was to project an unquantifiable surge of magical data into reality, rendering it exceptionally complex and precise, and thereby suppressing all Void distortions.

This incredible effect came at a steep price—tremendous energy consumption. The tiny core in front of him was comparable to the fictional arc reactor from old movies in his past life.

"Good thing this is stable, or I wouldn't dare touch it." Despite his complaint, he didn't hesitate. He used his ripples to scan the intricate magical runes, feeling almost overwhelmed by their complexity.

"What did Avia say? Shorting the energy just requires connecting the endpoints." Wang Yu exhaled deeply. He didn't need to understand the runes; he just needed an explosion. It was like disarming a bomb, only the opposite—he needed it to detonate.

"Got it." Wang Yu took a deep breath and connected two rune-etched metal plates. Instantly, the anchor emitted a shrill alarm, accompanied by a deep hum and flashing red lights—a clear sign of imminent failure.

Without a second thought, he bolted. He didn't know the blast radius, but the warning signals indicated there was enough time to escape.

After running for about a minute, Wang Yu sensed the explosion unfolding behind him. He turned to see a blinding light and instinctively closed his eyes. He opened them again. A small mushroom cloud marked where the anchor had detonated.

"At least this thing doesn't have radiation," Wang Yu muttered as he rushed back.

The explosion had left a massive crater, leveling the surrounding dilapidated structures.

At the center of the crater, a large pit revealed itself. With the anchor's suppression gone, an oppressive aura seeped from below.

The scent of sulfur grew stronger, accompanied by a molten fissure at the pit's base that oozed fiery liquid.

"Damn it... Am I too late?" Wang Yu's expression darkened.

Far away, Edward stood with a group of city guards and mercenaries as he awaited Wang Yu's signal. The sight of a mushroom cloud in the walled district, followed by a hellish rift rising into the sky, left him pale.

"It's too late..." Edward's face mirrored Wang Yu's grim expression.

Deep in the Abyssal Depths, an absolute prison that was isolated from the rest of the world, Sieg and Hugin walked along a corridor constructed of antimagic stone.

Suddenly, the professor pulled out a small slip of paper from his pocket.

"Charles mentioned that he would give me a little something. Almost forgot about it. Let's take a look."

"That Ryder kid? Another of his teasing poems?"

"Honestly, his antics are amusing." Sieg chuckled as he unfolded the note.

"...!" Sieg's smile froze in an instant.