The wind had finally died. An eerie, heavy silence settled over the devastated land — louder than any explosion.
Radiation still crackled across the ground, releasing faint black and dark green sparks that danced like dying fireflies. The entire southern region of Layer 102's central land had been reduced to nothingness. Only a vast, empty darkness remained, with space itself fracturing and splintering. Through the cracks, Void Creatures occasionally slipped into the layer, drawn by the chaos.
Almost all the shadow beasts that had been guarding the Will and the Pseudo-Hypernova Beast were long gone — annihilated in the blast.
Eric, Adrian, and the Hypernova Angel Spirit floated silently in the air, watching the aftermath for only a moment before turning to leave. They flew quickly, putting as much distance as possible between themselves and the battlefield while they still could.
Eric glanced at the broken space around them. For a brief second, the thought of using the spatial fractures to escape crossed his mind — before he immediately discarded it.
The Void was far more dangerous than staying here. Neither he nor Adrian walked the Boundless Pathway. Entering those cracks would be suicidal. He had learned his lesson—no unnecessary risks.
The final detonation of Event Horizon had cost him dearly. He had manually triggered the formation's self-destruction within his Domain of Emotions. The backlash was severe. A large number of his charms had been destroyed, severely limiting his ability to use techniques at full power. He would have to make do with whatever remained, relying on weaker, improvised versions.
His physical condition was even worse. The explosion had ravaged his body, and his Domain of Emotions had suffered heavy damage.
The Will was undoubtedly at its weakest right now. A part of Eric burned to turn around and press the attack while the enemy was vulnerable… but he knew the truth. His injuries were far more serious than he had initially calculated.
He was the group's main combat force. If he wasn't fit to fight, any attack would be suicidal.
So they kept flying — fast and silent — focused only on creating distance.
Eric may not have killed the Will, but he had wounded it badly.
And right now, time was the most valuable thing he had won.
...
Where the singularity had been, there was now only a crater — deep, dark, and bottomless, as though the earth itself had forgotten what used to fill that space.
The Will's body drifted near the ground, flickering between solid and corporeal every few seconds like a flame in the wind. It had managed a defensive technique in the final moment before the explosion. It had not been enough to escape the full cost, but it had been enough to survive it.
Behind it, the pseudo-Hypernova Beast lay on the ground, black smoke rising from its body in slow, heavy columns. The Will had spent nearly everything it had left to pull the Beast back from the edge. That choice had not been without calculation; the Beast was still essential as it was the main attack force utilized by the Will, without it, the Will's danger would fall by half, but it had cost more than the Will had intended to spend.
Around them, only a handful of Void Shadow Beasts remained standing. They had survived because of what they were made from — dead Void Creatures whose innate abilities persisted even in shadow form, making them harder to destroy than the rest. Small mercies.
The Will's gaze moved westward, toward where Eric and the others had fled. The space around it continued to crack in thin, dark lines as more Void Creatures pressed through from wherever they came from, filling the silence the explosion had left behind.
Eric had bought himself time. Not victory. Time.
The Will did not move to pursue immediately. It knew better than to chase while injured — that was the kind of mistake that turned a temporary setback into a permanent one. It needed to stabilize before it could advance again.
And in truth, the overall position had not changed as much as it might appear.
Eric had won something here. But he had paid for it heavily. The Will had felt the cost through the explosion itself — the kind of expenditure that didn't recover quickly, if at all. Whatever Eric had left now was considerably less than what he'd arrived with.
The Will looked down and summoned the remaining of the Aura left behind by its main body, its brows furrowing a little.
The Aura capacity of a Hypernova is usually tens to hundred times more, but the expenditure in the previous fights had been huge, not to mention that a large amount had to be used to maintain some accidents around the temple in the past.
What remained was still a huge amount, but the will knew better than to use Aura extensively without any care. Unlike Eric, it can't regenerate any new Aura using any method, as the main body was long gone.
It heaved a deep sigh as it settled onto the ground and began to think.
As It thought, it worked. Its Aura moved carefully, drawing on the remaining fragments of its main body's corpse — what little was left — as black liquid seeped upward through the cracked earth and spread across both the Will and the Beast, forming a slow cocoon around each of them.
Healing. Slow, but real.
"The Energy Pathway Walker is very talented," it started to think as its body healed. "His background is also unusual. Deeper than it should be for his rank."
It had been probing Eric throughout — not just fighting him, but reading him. Every exchange had been about information. Every technique Eric deployed had been catalogued, studied, and filed against future use.
But one thing remained unresolved.
By Will's calculation, Eric should not have escaped the black hole. The mathematics of it was clear — once inside, the Walker's uniqueness should have been neutralized, the exit closed. And yet Eric had recovered his uniqueness from within and gotten out, forcing the Will to pull the shadow beasts back voluntarily before triggering the singularity's collapse.
That didn't fit any pattern the Will had constructed for him.
"A high-ranking Relic?" It was possible. It was the most logical explanation. But the specific nature of it, like the Pathway it belonged to, the mechanism that had allowed escape from something designed to be inescapable. All of that remained unknown.
Unknown things needed to be understood before they could be countered.
The Will had already mapped Eric's attack patterns, his habits, his instincts under pressure, the order in which he reached for his techniques when the situation deteriorated. It had been building counters for each of them throughout the fight.
But a trump card it couldn't see was a problem it couldn't solve.
Make him use it again, the Will decided. Study it. Then counter it.
Eric was a smart opponent. He would not reveal it easily. But smart opponents still had limits — still had moments where the only remaining option was the one they'd been saving.
The Will simply needed to create that moment again.
It had done it once already.
It could do it again.
...
While the Will was recovering and making its own plans. Eric and the group finally found a moment of respite deep within a forest of crimson-leaved trees. The leaves glowed with a faint, eerie light, casting everything in a blood-like hue.
The Hypernova Angel Spirit gently set Adrian down.
Adrian knelt on the ground, retching. The Hypernova Angel Spirit gently placed a hand on his back, sending a soft wave of golden light to ease his nausea. After a few moments, Adrian whispered hoarsely, "I'm… I'm okay." He then sat cross-legged and started practicing his Aura control, refusing to remain a burden any longer.
The Angel Spirit then stood up as it sent waves of golden light through the forest to detect any hidden threats. Eric gave it a small nod. The Spirit returned the gesture in silent understanding.
Eric sat down on the cold ground and crossed his legs. He closed his eyes and turned his consciousness inward. First, he sent a thin thread of Meditation Aura into Adrian's body, calming the boy and healing his minor injuries. Only then did he fully focus on himself.
His condition was dire.
His mind felt fractured, riddled with cracks. His body — which had barely stabilized — was once again a wreck: internal bleeding, punctured lungs, multiple broken bones, and a heart that kept stopping for several terrifying seconds at a time. Every breath was painful.
His Domain of Emotions was in shambles. Although his Aura reserves were currently high, that was one of the few bright spots. He had exhausted every last Aura stone. If he ran dry now, natural recovery would be agonizingly slow. Time was the one luxury he could not afford.
At least his Meditation Aura was in the yellow zone. It wasn't nearly enough, but it was something.
Eric sank into deep meditation. He used what little Meditation Aura he could spare to mend the most critical injuries first, leaving the rest to his body's natural healing.
But the corruption… that was the true torment.
Thick black veins spread across the right side of his face and down his left leg. It felt like molten iron crawling through his veins. The corruption ravaged his physical body without touching his Auras or inner realms. He endured the excruciating pain in complete silence.
When he examined his remaining charms, his expression darkened. Only a small fraction were left. He would have to heavily modify his techniques, and their power would drop significantly. Inferior techniques would have to serve as backups.
Heal. Modify. Plan. Improvise.
There was so much to do, and so little time.
What worried him most, however, was the Will.
It was no fool. Both sides had been carefully observing and countering each other. Eric had succeeded this time, but the next confrontation would be far more difficult. He would need to prepare more subtle, layered traps.
The Imperator's Cross had already been used. He could not rely on another blessing to save him. The Will was surely suspicious of it now and would try to probe its secrets in the next fight.
His eyes narrowed.
"The Pseudo-Hypernova Beast… could be used as bait again," he thought, then immediately shook his head. "But the Will won't fall for the same trick twice."
Around twenty minutes passed. Adrian was shakily trying to coat his arms with Aura, while the Angel Spirit continued healing its injuries.
Suddenly, white sparks crackled across Eric's body. Both he and the Angel Spirit opened their eyes at the same time.
A flicker of hope ignited in their hearts.
"The Church is trying to connect," Eric said quietly, his voice laced with cautious optimism.
Eric had been lent the Imperator's Cross by Father Irenaeus. The will that was in the Imperator's Cross was also that of Father Irenaeus's; Eric's will was in it too, but it was only the allowance of Father Irenaeus's will that he could use it. Now, this will was being used to try to set a connection with Eric; his eyes flickered with optimism. The previous despair seemed to disappear as light shone on them.
But that hope had barely taken root when the entire forest trembled.
A suffocating, overwhelming pressure descended like a mountain crashing down. The crimson leaves shuddered and fell from the trees as space itself seemed to warp.
The Will had arrived.
It stood silently at the edge of the forest, its cold, ethereal form radiating ancient malice. Behind it stretched an army of Void Shadow Creatures, and looming at its side was the massive, wounded Pseudo-Hypernova Beast.
The two sides faced each other once more. The brief moment of respite had come to a brutal end.