Ethan steadied himself, then pulled Laira into a dive.
The lightning net swept across an array that had just been raised. The energy lines immediately burned red, but the controller had already severed the link before the flames could travel back.
They had learned how to counter the Thunder Flame Sky Net.
The older Elf fired his first arrow.
It wasn’t aimed at Ethan.
The arrow flew straight into the gap between him and Laira, precisely where the two halves of the Thunder Wings were resonating.
Ethan raised his hand.
Thirty feathers assembled into a shield.
Boom!
The arrow detonated.
The lightning link between them shuddered violently.
"Beat two."
Before Ethan could counterattack, two Beastkin squads had already split apart.
One charged at Laira, forcing her back.
The other didn’t look skyward.
They rushed straight at Ruo Yan.
The Necromancer raised its broken staff. A Bone Shield formed, but the instant it appeared, three combat arts struck it simultaneously.
Boom!
The Bone Shield shattered.
Ruo Yan wrenched her Soul Threads and tripped the lead Beastkin. His body hit the ground, but the two behind him immediately stepped over.
A long spear thrust toward her chest.
Ethan saw it.
He couldn’t leave her.
The Thunder Wing beat hard, and his body became a streak of lightning plunging downward.
"Beat three."
A Thunder-Iron blade formed on his left hand.
Clang!
Ethan severed the spear before it reached Ruo Yan, then spun and drove the pommel into the second Beastkin’s face.
That one was sent flying.
The last one activated Bloodrage and swung a war blade horizontally. Ethan raised his wing to block, but the impact still rattled the Primordial Armor.
Laira dove from above.
Her Thunder-Iron wing slashed across the Beastkin’s shoulder. Thunder Flame erupted, burning out the energy in his body and slamming him to the ground.
She landed beside Ethan, her breathing already ragged.
"They’re stalling."
"I know."
Ethan looked at the lightning flickering on and off at the wing’s edge.
Just one course change to protect Ruo Yan had already broken the plan to finish this within ten beats.
The survivors realized it too.
The older Elf shouted, "He’s running out of energy! Keep going!"
The people behind him immediately grew more frenzied.
No more clear formations.
No more strength-preserving tactics.
They only needed to drag Ethan out a little longer.
One beat.
Two beats.
Until the Thunder Wings went dark.
Ethan raised his left hand, about to force out his remaining energy. But right before he acted, the entire room suddenly shook.
Boom!
Not like the tremors from combat.
This time, the stone floor didn’t just crack.
A black line stretched across the space above as well.
Crack!
The first fissure appeared from ceiling to floor. Then a second. A third.
The metal walls began dissolving into tiny particles of light. Puppet parts scattered across the battlefield were pulled off the ground by an invisible force.
The mechanical voice rang out:
[Severe damage to the spatial core detected.]
[The main inheritance has been completed.]
[The central treasure has been claimed.]
[Insufficient energy to maintain the independent world.]
[Beginning collapse process.]
Everyone who had been fighting stopped at once.
A black-purple spatial vortex appeared where the Thunder Wings had been.
At first, it was barely two meters wide.
Then it expanded rapidly.
Stone, bone, weapons, and puppet fragments were sucked into the vortex. A wounded Elf couldn’t keep his balance, and his body was instantly pulled off the ground.
He screamed.
A comrade nearby quickly wrapped vines around his legs and pulled him back.
The spatial fractures around the room also widened, forming unstable escape routes.
The older Elf looked at the vortex, his expression changing instantly.
"Retreat! This space is about to disappear!"
No one cared about Ethan anymore.
The Elf group ran toward the nearest fracture. The surviving Beastkin also dragged their wounded and Brakk’s corpse backward.
One Beastkin knelt before his leader’s body and smeared Brakk’s blood onto the Red Fang emblem. The symbol on the emblem lit up at once, recording the Thunder Flame’s energy signature along with images of Ethan and Laira.
The older Elf also produced a small crystal.
Before stepping into the spatial fracture, he held the crystal up toward Ethan. Green light swept across his face, the Thunder Wings, and the Primordial Armor, then turned into a point of light that flew off into space.
They were transmitting information to the outside.
No threats needed.
Ethan understood.
Once they left this place, the Elves and the Red Fang warband would not stop.
Korr led the Stoneweavers toward a different fracture. Before leaving, he paused and looked at Ethan.
"They will hunt you."
Ethan partially retracted the Thunder Wings to conserve energy.
"I know."
"The Elves can trace Aldren’s energy signature. The Red Fang warband will also search for the one who killed their leader."
"I know."
Korr looked at Laira and Ruo Yan.
"Then survive and get out of here first."
He didn’t promise to help, nor did he ask Ethan to remember the favor.
Korr simply placed his hand over his chest, then led his clanmates through the spatial fracture.
The room emptied quickly.
The last survivors filed into the exits one by one.
Ethan landed beside Ruo Yan.
Laira stood on the other side, one hand bracing his shoulder. The resonance state was nearly over, and the Thunder Flame around her body had weakened noticeably.
Ethan looked at the nearest spatial fracture.
"Go."
Ruo Yan directed the Necromancer to step forward first. But the moment the four of them started moving, the vortex behind them suddenly intensified its pull.
Boom!
Laira spread her wings and held onto Ethan.
Ruo Yan also wrapped Soul Threads around all three of them and tried to pull toward the exit.
The strange thing was that the stone debris and corpses nearby were no longer being sucked in.
The last Elf running through a fracture wasn’t affected at all either.
The vortex was locked onto them alone.
Laira gritted her teeth and beat her wings, but her body was still being pulled back inch by inch.
"This thing is only targeting us."
Ethan opened the Eye of Truth.
Pain immediately lanced through both eyes. Blood continued down his cheekbones, but lines of information appeared rapidly.
[Target one: Owin’s successor.]
Light marked Ruo Yan.
[Target two: The successor’s soul anchor point.]
The marker shifted to Ethan.
[Target three: The owner of the remaining portion of the Thunder Wings.]
Laira.
[Conditions fulfilled.]
[Opening the final data layer.]
Ethan understood immediately.
This wasn’t a vortex randomly spawned by the ruin’s collapse.
It was merely using the collapse to activate a hidden pathway.
He retracted the Thunder Wing.
"Don’t resist."
Laira turned to him, her orange-red eyes showing clear doubt.
"What do you see?"
"It’s not trying to kill us."
Ruo Yan looked at the widening vortex, then glanced at the trail of blood beneath Ethan’s eyes.
"I hope your eyes aren’t broken."
The pull surged.
All three of them and the Necromancer were ripped off the ground at once.
The spatial fracture ahead vanished from sight.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Ethan couldn’t feel gravity. There was no spatial wind, and none of the sensation of his body being torn apart like in previous teleportations.
When light returned, they hadn’t fallen into a room.
Around them was a space of absolute black.
Countless memory fragments drifted through the darkness. Torn puppet blueprints, complex soul structures, magic arrays, puppet symbols, and images of creatures Ethan had never seen before.
Ruo Yan straightened up.
The Soul Threads around her began to vibrate on their own, as though resonating with the entire space.
The Necromancer knelt on one knee beside her.
At the very center of the void, countless streams of purple data were converging.
They formed a body.
Disheveled hair.
An old coat.
A face carrying a familiar weariness.
Owin.
But the energy from this figure was entirely different from the personality recording they had met in the workshop.
It wasn’t like a soul.
It wasn’t like an ordinary projection either.
The figure slowly opened its eyes.
Ruo Yan unconsciously tightened her fingers.
"Owin?"
Purple data flowed continuously across the figure’s face.
Then a deep, hoarse voice spoke.
"Don’t be mistaken."
The memory fragments throughout the space lit up at once.
"I am not Owin’s soul."
The figure looked at Ruo Yan, then shifted its gaze to Ethan and Laira.
"I am the final copy, created from his soul data before he died."
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