"Ian, is he... really dead, gaga?"
Gaga landed back on his shoulder, his small eyes staring at the corpse, feathers still slightly puffed up.
"He’s dead."
Ian stood up, wiping the dark green blood from his fingertips.
His gaze swept over the surroundings.
The Star Sea Illusion Realm was still brilliant. On the broken platforms in the distance, the flames of battle flared up one after another.
But he could feel it...
The closer he got to the center, the more the Shadow Binders, Echo Mirage Spirits, and even stranger Rule Created Creatures increased in strength.
The shadow mutant Selas had just encountered had an aura approaching Level One Peak.
’The trial is accelerating the elimination process,’
Ian muttered to himself, looking up toward the deepest part of the Star Sea.
There, a dark blue "island" ten times larger than the other platforms floated in the Void.
Its surface was awash with a starlight so pure it was blinding.
It was like the remains of a Fixed Star, frozen in time.
’The core...’
He took a deep breath. The wound on his chest, bathed in a flowing Jade-like Radiance, was already mostly healed.
But the exhaustion in his Sea of Spirit remained heavy.
After continuous high-intensity battles, even with his Spirit Devouring Trait absorbing some of the negative emotions, his energy was nearly depleted.
"Let’s go."
Ian didn’t linger. With a slight adjustment to his Gravity Field, his body shot toward the next platform like an arrow.
The silver ground flew backward under his feet as the broken platform, caught in his Gravity Field, was flung behind him.
Within his Sea of Spirit, the faint golden specks of light that had been forcibly compressed back into a state of Liquefaction continued their slow, steady rotation.
With each rotation, the resonance with the call from the depths of the Star Sea grew a little stronger.
"Ian, there’s an energy fluctuation at your three o’clock, to the left..."
Gaga crouched on his shoulder, feathers slightly ruffled, a dark light flowing in the depths of its heterochromatic eyes.
"It’s three mutated Shadow Binders. Their auras... are close to Level One Peak."
Ian didn’t break his stride, simply pointing his right index finger toward the front left.
ZAP!
A slender, pale purple beam of light tore through the Star Sea, crossing five hundred meters in an instant.
It precisely pierced the "core" of the first Shadow Binder.
Ice and Fire Energy exploded inside the shadow conglomerate, the clash of extreme cold and scorching heat leading to its complete Annihilation at a molecular level.
The second and third ones lunged at the same time.
Ian opened his left hand, palm facing the Void, and gently clenched his fist.
HUM!
Two black dots the size of a Rice Grain shot out silently, tracing arcs through the air before sticking to the "heads" of the two Shadow Binders.
And then...
...they collapsed inward.
POP. POP.
Two faint, crisp sounds.
The two mutated Shadow Binders were devoured by the gravitational Singularities, leaving not even a trace behind.
The entire process took less than three seconds.
Ian retracted his hand and continued forward.
Behind him, in the Star Sea, came a succession of screams and the booming of Witchcraft.
The sounds grew more distant and sparse.
’The casualties are mounting...’
He muttered to himself, his black eyes scanning ahead.
As far as his eyes could see, for at least ten kilometers, dozens of platforms of varying sizes floated in the Void.
At this moment, most of the platforms were already empty.
The traces of battle on the platforms had also diminished.
Only in a few scattered spots did the light of Witchcraft still flicker—the last struggles of the remaining survivors.
The closer he got to the core of the Star Sea, the more brilliant the starlight became, and the greater the "pressure" in the air grew.
It wasn’t physical pressure, but a deeper, more profound "weight of civilization."
It was as if countless pairs of eyes were watching from the darkness, waiting... to cull the weak.
"Gaa..."
Gaga shrank its neck, its feathers unconsciously puffing out even more.
"I feel... so heavy, gaga."
"Even though the Star Spirit Race is extinct, their residual collective consciousness is still immense."
Ian explained calmly, his pace not slowing in the slightest.
"The closer we get to the core, the more we are stepping into their ’memory’."
"Ian, on the platform to the right... there are bodies."
Gaga said quietly, staring at a broken platform seven hundred meters away.
On the platform lay three corpses clad in the blue robes of the Tide Association.
The wounds weren’t from sharp weapons, but from some kind of "Rule Erosion" that had completely carbonized them, their surfaces covered in dark blue crystalline patterns.
’The residual defense mechanisms of the Star Spirit Race...’
Ian’s eyes narrowed slightly.
He could feel that the spatial structure around that platform was extremely unstable.
Dark blue torrents of energy slithered through the Void like venomous snakes, ready to erupt the instant they touched a living being.
"We’ll go around."
He changed direction, fine-tuned his Gravity Field, and carved an arc through the air, avoiding the death zone.
「Three hundred kilometers away.」
Bazaar crushed the head of a Shadow Binder, his dark red Blood Blade planted in the center of the platform as he gasped for breath.
The wound on his left shoulder had clotted, but the twisted gash on his side, torn open by a gravitational Singularity, still ached faintly.
’That little bastard... Just how many trump cards is he hiding...’
He gritted his teeth, his blood-red eyes locked on the direction of the core.
’I can’t let him reach the core first.’
Bazaar pulled out his Battle Saber and kicked off the ground, causing spiderweb cracks to explode across the platform’s surface.
His body shot toward the next platform like a cannonball.
But less than a hundred meters into his flight...
HUM!
The shadows at the edge of the platform suddenly roiled, and three even more twisted shadow mutants slowly rose up.
A viscous, dark blue liquid seeped from the cracks in their heads.
The spikes at the ends of their six appendages glowed with the dark light of Rule corruption.
Their auras... all at Level One Peak!
"Damn it..."
Bazaar’s expression darkened.
’These damn things are getting harder and harder to deal with.’
「In the depths of the Star Sea.」
Ian landed on a relatively wide platform.
In the center of the platform stood three figures.
They wore Silver Robes and Silver-White Rings on their chests.
It was Liam’s group of three; the old man with Crystalization was not with them.
At the moment, none of them were in good shape.
Liam’s left arm was twisted at an unnatural angle, and the Light Runes on his Silver Staff were mostly dim.
The young Witch clutched her chest with her right hand, dark red blood seeping between her fingers.
The brawny man stood at the front, one-third of the Runes on his bare arms shattered, his face deathly pale.
Before them lay the remains of five shadow mutants.
Dark blue ichor flowed on the ground, emitting the stench of decaying starlight.
"Someone’s coming!"
The young Witch looked up alertly, the silver threads between her fingers instantly tensing.
But when she saw clearly that the newcomer was Ian, her pupils shrank, and her fingers trembled slightly.
"It’s you..."
Liam gritted his teeth and stood up straight, holding his Silver Staff horizontally across his chest.
His eyes were filled with vigilance, and even... a hint of tension.
Ian didn’t even glance at them. Without breaking stride, he headed straight for the other side of the platform.
"Wait!"
Liam suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse.
"You can’t... go any further."
Ian stopped and turned to look at him.
His black eyes were devoid of any emotion.
"Why?"
"Further ahead, the density of shadow mutants increases threefold, and... ’Star Remains Guards’ have appeared."
Liam took a deep breath and pointed to his broken left arm.
"We just ran into one. We barely survived three of its attacks and were almost wiped out."
He paused, his voice growing lower.
"That thing... its strength is definitely beyond Level One Peak. It might even retain some Level Two traits."
Ian was silent for two seconds.
"Thanks."
He turned and continued forward.
"You’re still going?" the young Witch couldn’t help but ask. "That’s not something we can handle..."
"I have my own business to attend to."
Without looking back, Ian’s figure had already leaped off the platform and disappeared into the turbulent Star Sea.
The three of them watched his retreating back, looking at each other in dismay.
"He’s insane..." the brawny man said in a low voice.
"No."
Liam shook his head, a complex look in his eyes.
"He’s just... far stronger than us."
「Another twenty kilometers passed.」
On another platform, Ian encountered the team from Shadow Moon Tower.
Herman stood at the front, his gray robe tattered, a claw mark on his chest so deep the bone was visible.
Two others were still alive behind him, both injured.
"Ian..."
The moment Herman saw him, a flicker of pleasant surprise appeared in his eyes, but it quickly vanished.
"You can’t go any further."
He walked over quickly, lowering his voice.
"I sensed... someone from the Immortal Heart up ahead."
"Gunnar?"
Ian remembered the three-meter-tall giant.
Back before the giant gate, he had swept his gaze over everyone as if they were ants.
"Yes."
Herman nodded, his expression grave.
"Even after being suppressed by the Rules, his strength hasn’t changed much. His physical body is ridiculously strong. We saw him from a distance just now... he shattered a Star Remains Guard with a single punch..."
Ian glanced at the claw mark on Herman’s chest.
The Jade-like Radiance was slowly repairing the wound, but its progress was slow; it was an injury caused by Rule corruption.
"You should retreat to the outer perimeter."
Ian said calmly.
"The trial only gets more dangerous from here on. There’s no need to throw your lives away."
Herman opened his mouth, but in the end, he just nodded with a wry smile.
"You... be careful."
Ian didn’t reply and turned to leave.
He had actually anticipated this. Earlier, Herman hadn’t stepped in to stop Bazaar and Selas.
「Fifty kilometers later.」
Before him, there was only endless, brilliant starlight, and deep within it, the faint outline of the "core."
But the further he went, the greater the pressure became.
The dark blue turbulence of the Rules washed over him like a physical tide, each wave causing his Sea of Spirit to tremble slightly.
Even Gaga was forced to retreat into the shadows, leaving only its small eyes to scan the surroundings warily.
"Ian... there’s something up ahead..."
it suddenly whispered, its heterochromatic eyes locked on the area to the front left.
There, three broken platforms floated in a triangular formation.
Between the platforms, dark blue energy torrents cascaded like a waterfall, forming a natural "barrier."
And behind the barrier...
...the faint figures of a dozen or so pale colossi could be seen.
They stood motionless in the Void, the dark red Star Cores in their chests pulsing slowly, emitting a violent and heart-stopping fluctuation.
A Living Corpse Guard Legion.
Moreover, they were complete, unweakened creations of War.
’Can’t go around,’
Ian judged in a low voice.
The turbulent waterfall between the three platforms covered a range of at least five kilometers.
To avoid it, he would have to take a detour of at least twenty extra kilometers.
And besides...
He looked behind the barrier.
The "positions" of those Living Corpse Guards vaguely followed some kind of formation.
As if they were guarding something.
’I’ll go straight through.’
Ian made his decision. A pale purple energy began to gather at the tip of his right index finger.
But just then, a deafening explosion suddenly erupted from the Star Sea to his right!
BOOM!!!
A dark red energy storm exploded, completely tearing a small platform to shreds.
From amid the rubble and turbulent energy, a burly, bear-like figure charged out and slammed heavily onto the platform three hundred meters in front of Ian.
"Damn it... What a hellhole!"
The newcomer cursed as he stood up, patting the dark blue crystalline dust off his body.
He was three meters tall, with muscles knotted like granite, and his skin was covered in dark red Runes.
At this moment, the Runes were emitting a scorching aura, forcibly pushing back the surrounding turbulence of the Rules.
’A Level Two Wizard from the Immortal Heart... Gunnar.’
Ian stopped in his tracks.
His Mimicry effect was still active.
But Gunnar seemed to have sensed something.
He whipped his head around, his blood-red eyes sweeping toward the edge of the platform like searchlights.
"Who’s there?"
His voice was filled with unconcealed aggression.
Ian slowly revealed himself.
His gray Wizard Robe fluttered gently in the light of the Star Sea.
Under his skin, the Dark Gold, Rock-like texture faintly shimmered in the starlight.
"One of the little Insects from before?"
Gunnar squinted, looking Ian up and down, the corner of his mouth twisting into a disdainful smirk.
"To be able to sneak this far... I’ll grant you have some skill."
He stood up straight, his three-meter-tall frame casting a large shadow.
"But now, get lost."
"I’ve taken a fancy to this platform."
Ian looked at him calmly.
"I was here first."
"Here first?"
Gunnar threw his head back and laughed as if he’d just heard the funniest joke.
His laughter was so loud it made the crystals on the platform’s surface tremble.
"A piece of trash who isn’t even Level Two dares to say that?"
He took a step forward, and the ground cracked with a CRACK, forming a spiderweb pattern.
"Listen up, Insect."
"Right now, I’m giving you three seconds."
Gunnar held up three fingers, each as thick as a carrot.
"Turn around and get out of my sight."
"Otherwise..."
He clenched his right fist, and the dark red scars on his knotted arm suddenly lit up.
"I’ll crush you into a pulp."
Ian was silent for two seconds, his gaze growing dangerous.
That contemptuous look, however, made Gunnar’s pupils shrink.
"Are you done?"
Ian raised his right hand, fingers spread, and aimed his palm at Gunnar.
"Then it’s my turn."