“Where is this?”
Mann looked ahead. The boundless space was filled with all kinds of clocks, their hands moving slowly, irregular ticking sounds endless.
This place felt strangely familiar, because Helgort had created a similar space before.
“Helgort?”
“Is that you?”
His voice echoed through the space, but aside from the sound of the clocks, no one answered him.
“Am I… dead?”
“Right, my heart was pierced through. How could I possibly still be alive?”
But why was he still in this space?
Could it be that the souls of Divine Emissaries were trapped here after death?
No matter how he thought about it, Mann couldn’t figure out the situation.
“Anyway, let’s first see if I can get out.”
With that mindset, Mann began to patrol the surroundings, looking for any exit within the space.
But after a long time, he gave up on that approach.
Because no matter how far he walked, the surroundings never changed.
Either he was going in circles, or this space had no common sense of limitation.
Simply put, there was no concept of range here.
Though he didn’t want to admit it, escaping was basically unrealistic.
Realizing this, Mann sat down on the ground to think of a strategy.
‘The anomaly earlier…’
‘I remember before I lost consciousness, there was a notification about Skill Advancement?’
With that thought, the semi-transparent panel appeared.
But it only showed a few large words:
[Skill Advancement in progress…]
“Advancement? Then what about the trial for me? It can’t just be trapping me here, right?”
As soon as Mann complained, a murderous aura surged from behind.
After dodging the attack by instinct, he saw the familiar dagger.
The dagger was entirely blood-red, unmistakably his own White Fang.
And the opponent gave him almost no time to react, turning and slashing straight for his throat.
“Jump!”
At that critical moment, Mann instinctively activated his ability. After the two distanced themselves, the opponent didn’t pursue.
He simply stood still, beneath that familiar ferocious mask, his emotionless gaze fixed firmly on Mann.
“Are you the so-called trial? Or something else?”
“Why sneak attack me?”
The masked man remained silent. His figure instantly vanished from the spot, and when he reappeared, he was right in front of Mann.
“Damn it…”
Mann instinctively reached for a weapon, but there was nothing on him.
Left with no choice, he used Divine Light to form a blade and temporarily parry.
The result was that the Divine Light was dispersed, and he himself was knocked flying, crashing heavily to the ground.
“It hurts, you bastard!”
“Too weak…”
The masked man finally spoke, but his tone carried a hint of disappointment.
“That voice… Who are you?”
Mann stared at the man before him, his eyes widening.
The masked man said nothing in response, but in front of him, he removed the mask from his face.
It was a face identical to Mann’s.
A blatant provocation.
“You bastard…”
“Come on, Mann Matthews. As long as you defeat me, you can leave.”
“Retrospection!”
The next moment, the glowing dagger clashed head-on with the scarlet dagger.
“You don’t need to say it—I was planning to.”
“Heh…”
The masked man chuckled softly. With a light flick, he dispersed the dagger formed by Divine Light again, sending Mann flying backward.
“Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you—you’d better hurry. Your companions won’t last much longer.”
“Wh… What do you mean?”
Mann staggered to his feet, looking badly injured.
The masked man didn’t answer. He simply snapped his fingers, and several images appeared abruptly behind him.
“How can this be? Wake up! Mann Matthews, didn’t you promise to help me take back the Armor of Time? Who told you to let yourself be hurt?”
The person healing Mann was Yi Laisi, beads of sweat mixed with tears streaming down.
Behind her, an unfamiliar girl and Ge Rui En were transmitting mana nonstop, their faces weak and haggard.
And beside him, his father and the others lay still unconscious.
Just then, the images cut off.
“I should remind you—with your current state, you can hold on for at most thirty more minutes.”
“If you don’t defeat me within that time, you will vanish completely from this world and face true death.”
Mann’s face darkened, and he said nothing.
In his hand, Divine Light gathered again into the shape of a dagger.
“Oh? The aura is different from before. Finally getting serious?”
Their figures vanished at almost the same time, clashing again.
In the real world, the dragonized Sophien and Kris were locked in fierce combat.
“Sister, stop being so stubborn!”
“As long as you give up the throne and the power of the Pale Dragon God, you won’t have to worry about political affairs anymore. I’ll solve everything.”
“Then we can go back to how we were before…”
“The one who’s stubborn is you!”
Sophien suddenly exerted force, knocking Kris backward.
“So you colluded with the Heretic God Sect? So you planned to steal the Elf Race’s Holy Relic? And turned yourself into a monster like this?”
“Do you have any dignity as a member of the Royal Family?”
“Dignity? Heh heh…”
Kris lowered his head with a cold laugh, his expression full of disappointment.
“I never had that since birth.”
“Sister, I’ll ask you one last time. Do you really not want to stand with me?”
“You just want to satisfy your own sick psychology. How absurd!”
Sophien assumed a fighting stance again, looking like she had no intention of saying more.
“Absurd… Hahaha! I’ve done so much, and in the end, all I get is ‘absurd’?”
“Fine. I never expected you to understand me anyway…”
“And since you insist on standing in my way, I’ll have to remove you…”
“N-No… I can’t do this to my sister…”
“Monster! Don’t give me orders! Get out of my body!”
Kris wildly attacked the Evil God’s arm, but it was useless. The patterns on the arm gradually spread over his entire body, chaotic energy radiating with irregular fluctuations.
Then, he froze in place like a crashed machine.
“Heh heh heh…”
“Remove… no, that’s wrong. Destroy. I’m going to destroy everything!”
“Hahahaha!”
This sudden change left Sophien both anxious and alarmed.
“Kris! What is going on?”
Just as she stepped forward to check, Kris was already in front of her, followed by a sharp pain.
Blood dripped down. Sophien looked down and saw that her abdomen had been pierced by a dark gold spear.
An eerie sensation sent chills through her body. As the spear was pulled out, she felt as if all her strength had drained away, collapsing weakly to her knees.
‘Damn it… What is that spear? My power is leaking through the wound…’
Looking at the powerless Sophien, Kris smiled and raised the spear again—this time aiming at her head.
He stabbed down without hesitation, but stopped just before reaching the target.
A hand firmly gripped the spear’s shaft. Looking up, he saw a familiar, ferocious mask.