—

‘Whew…’

Cedric breathed a sigh of relief at the disappearance of the Void Prince. Without his intimidating presence and commanding authority presiding over the void creatures, they’re now acting like headless chickens.

“You did good, Dawnbringer. Leave the rest to us.” Chancellor Igor’s voice echoed in his mind.

ROAR!!

What followed that was the energized roar of the wise dragon, prompting everyone else to give it their all for the final push.

The massive tear where the void pours was now stitched and mended. The Ancient Titan Chancellor was no longer occupied with containing it using his body and could participate in the cleanup once more. Similarly, the ones looking after him could also help now too.

And despite bathing directly under the waterfall of pure abyssal void energy, the Ancient Titan Chancellor and those who helped him were completely fine. Not only were they fine, they were completely sound in mind too. The awful density of pure abyssal void couldn’t penetrate their defenses and erode their sanity. They are alive and well.

All of this—the mending of the spatial tear, helping the Ancient Titan and the rest to contain and prevent the void from overflowing to the realm, reinforcing the shields, pushing the Void Prince back to where he came from, and re-sealing the entrance to the void to prevent it from being used by him to invade again—all of it was because of Cedric’s careful and meticulous arrangements.

One could even say that the only reason why the Northwestern Border Patrol Guardian Camp hasn’t completely collapsed and been erased from the face of the realm was because Cedric was there to protect it.

It hasn’t been easy. Each second that passed as Cedric did his best to stretch their remaining lifeline was fought with blood, sweat, and tears. Cedric has never used his brainpower as much as he did just now, which made all of this possible.

Similar to how he reinforced the barriers so that it would stay strong even with the constant erosion and pressure of the void density, as well as the method to exponentially upgrade his weapons, he also applied the same idea to protect the Ancient Titan Chancellor and his friends.

Without rousing the suspicion of the Void Prince and taking advantage of his disdain towards them, Cedric tweaked the runic formation just a bit so that it could apply for this specific situation. Then, he engraved it on the void suit of the Chancellors and the Paragons.

Of course he communicated with them first, secretly. And only after their agreement did he engrave the runes on their suits. As a result, they were able to endure the erosion of the void better while simultaneously enhancing the quality of their suits.

And since their suits were already at the peak of the current technological masterpiece, the amount of energy it would need for further evolution was greater than his weapons. Therefore, their suits absorbed a swimming pool or two’s worth of void energy each. Which was more than enough to really slow down the overflow of the void, preventing it from leaking to the realm.

After doing this, he focused his efforts on closing the rift that the Void

Prince made, which was probably the most difficult problem he ever had to solve to date.

Cedric knows that if that rift isn’t mended, the true collapse of the camp will only be a matter of when, not if.

To this, part of the credit goes to Chancellor Igor, because without his aid, Cedric wouldn’t have known where to start.

In the book he had given him, the story of how he witnessed the Ancients combining their power to create the Scarlet Division Wall and the creation of the Void Gates was included. There wasn’t much to work with since the chancellor was very young when he saw it happen, but what’s in there was enough to give Cedric an inspiration.

That, combined with Cedric’s ingenuity and expertise in concept laws and runic formations, made it possible for him to mend the rift and reinforce it as well.

The problem was that he needed to lay that formation down on the rift itself, and to do that, he would have to get past the Void Prince, which was nigh impossible to do at his current state. Moreover, he couldn’t expect the help of the cosmic-level experts since they were busy saving the camp, so he had to be creative.

And thus, he began throwing flying swords Void Prince’s way…

It accomplished multiple things: annoy him, interrupt his scanning of the battlefield just long enough to delay his research even more, reinforce the idea of the living creatures’ apparent ‘feebleness’ to feed his ego and hubris, and finally, slowly but surely lay the necessary formation to mend the tear.

Cedric expected this to be really tricky. He had prepared several plans ahead just in case the Void Prince caught on. Yet in the end, all of it was useless because that thing was so immersed in his sense of superiority that he didn’t even realize what was happening behind him.

Even in the final moments before his expulsion to the realm, he still had no idea what happened. Admittedly, the Void Prince was too young and arrogant, allowing Cedric to easily outsmart and manipulate his psyche.

With their leader gone and their connection to their mother severely weakened because of the re-sealing of the gates, the advances of the Void Creatures slowed down to a halt. From wolves, they turned to sheep, ready for slaughter.

Additionally, the density of the void went down at a pace visible to the naked eye. All that remains is to clean up the rest of the void creatures here, and everybody can rest after this long and grueling test.

While some still couldn’t believe that they actually made it out alive, there were some who knew that they barely made it. And that this was far from over.

The Void Prince isn’t dead; he just suffered a setback. It is very possible that he will come back stronger and angrier next time, and that’s the real test of whether the guardians can truly uphold their duties and responsibilities.

For now though, a little respite does sound nice…

**

“Ladies and gentlemen, those who had their Void Suits engraved with the runic formation that could absorb the void, please consider lending help to other campsites. Only if you’re able to, though. I just think that they might need more assistance because I’m unable to reach them.”

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Those who heard this perked up at the reminder. They’re more or less done cleaning up here. There’s only some lingering void air around, and it won’t take long before those disappear too. The alarms were already disabled, and the camp entered the rehabilitation state where most of the soldiers were resting to recover fast enough.

“You all heard him,” Chancellor Igor said to his fellow chancellors and paragons. “Lending help is almost effortless on your part; all you have to do is dive into the void sea and absorb as much as you can.”

“Yeah, the kid makes it too easy.” The Primal Beast Chancellor chuckled, “You just have to stand there, and the void levels will drain on their own; you don’t even have to do anything, and it will also upgrade your suits. Incredible work, truly.”

It’s because of this that none of them took offense to a mere Transitionary Realm kid expressing their opinions and suggestions with them. After all, to say that the camp still stands because of that kid wouldn’t be too much of an understatement.

And his suggestion was just in time because they just received reinforcement requests from other camps. They didn’t have it as bad as here, but it still overwhelmed them greatly.

“Ah, right. While you’re also at it, please take this with you.” Cedric presented an array disk to them, containing a very complicated set of runic formations.

“This is the same formation I used to reinforce the gates. It’s not indestructible, but it’s better than nothing. At least we can buy more time with this.”

The implication of his words was simple. The Void Prince will return with a vengeance. It’s not a matter of if, it’s when. His role was very passive during the first time, and it’s hard to prove that it will remain the same next time.

Whatever it may be, the guardians need to prepare because they are the first line of defense of the realm against the void.

The scaled arm of the Wise Dragon Chancellor patted Cedric’s shoulders and said, “You did well, Child. Way better than my wildest expectations. Leave this to us and have a good rest. We will need your insights even more in the following days ahead.”

Pressure and recognition fell onto Cedric’s shoulders at the same time. But he didn’t fold. He knows what he’s getting himself into before doing this.

He nodded and respectfully took his leave to get some rest. As soon as he disappeared far enough to not hear them, Chancellor Igor turned to his comrades and said:

“Don’t waste the sentiments and considerations of that child. Move out!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep