Chapter 56: Suppression

“Wang Yu, I have to remind you of something…” Sieg’s voice echoed in Wang Yu’s ear. He was able to make use of the Gap to establish long-distance communication with Nightblades members bearing an emblem.

As a logistics officer, Sieg typically avoided frontline combat. His role was to remain in the Gap, providing intel and various forms of support to other members.

“What’s the matter, Professor?” Wang Yu asked, sprinting through the gaps between buildings. He darted and leapt across rooftops, scaling barriers and vaulting over obstacles in seamless, agile pursuit.

“You’re calling me Professor, too? Never mind, we’ll discuss that later. Listen, I know you have a wizard’s abilities, but you should avoid using them unnecessarily. Wizards aren’t welcome in the capital,” Sieg warned.

“Why?” Wang Yu asked. He leapt off a flat roof and grabbed onto the spire of a nearby small chapel, then climbed up swiftly to perch himself at a high vantage point.

From there, he looked in the direction of the walls. Under the darkening sky, fires blazed brightly, painting the horizon in fiery hues. His destination wasn’t far off now.

“It’s because of the void. Accessing its power is too easy,” Sieg explained. “Although becoming a wizard requires void affinity, gaining void powers doesn’t. Compared to the controlled nature of mana, the chaotic void is simply too unstable.

“An ordinary person who makes up his mind to sacrifice everything for power may well attract the attention of a void entity and be granted abilities. Many of the problems we deal with stem from the void,” Sieg elaborated, his tone grave.

“I see… And this affects certain groups in particular, I assume,” Wang Yu continued. His thoughts raced as he closed the gap to his destination. With another jump, he vaulted over the roof of a house. The blazing fires ahead grew even more apparent.

Sieg’s acknowledgment was tinged with heaviness.

“I get it,” Wang Yu murmured. The void was akin to a weapon anyone could pick up, but which came with an uncontrollable recoil.

In desperate circumstances, people might not care about the consequences. They would seek out the void regardless of the fallout.

He pursed his lips. The void’s allure was like a cautionary tale, a warning to those who pushed others too far. The price of ignoring that warning could be mutual destruction.

In that case, he would do his best to avoid using those abilities publicly. Wang Yu had never relied heavily on the void for convenience, at any rate.

As he concluded his conversation with Sieg, Wang Yu arrived at his destination. He had taken advantage of the Gap for rapid travel, and his first task now was to act as an emergency dispatch officer for the Nightblades and assist the city guards in defense. He frowned at the burning streets ahead and leapt down from the rooftop.

“Hold the line! Damn it, you motherless cowards! Are you all out of strength? If this line breaks, we’re all dead! Hold it! Even if you die, keep holding the line!”

On the fiery street, a soldier clad in heavier, more ornate armor than the others bellowed out orders. His sharp, near-hysterical voice cut through the cacophony as he urged the frontline shieldbearers to maintain their position.

“It’s useless! It’s too hot! Those things won’t die! Captain, think of something—damn it, get away from me!” one of the shieldbearers cried out.

The soldiers at the front braced themselves, gripping their shields tightly as the flames danced closer.

Emerging from the inferno were grotesque, twisted humanoid creatures made of stitched-together lumps of flesh.

They charged relentlessly, indifferent to the flames roasting their bodies. Their charred, fatty tissue melted into oily residue, dripping and fueling the fire that clung to them. They gave off a fearsome stench as they burned.

One shieldbearing soldier, body scorched by the heat, gritted his teeth. One of the burning creatures barreled into him with monstrous force, pushing him back despite his heavy tower shield. The shield screeched against the ground, leaving deep gouges in its wake.

“Argh! Damn you!” the soldier roared in pain. The creature’s impact sent chunks of seared flesh flying off its body, splattering molten fat onto the shieldbearer.

The stickiness of the fat caused it to adhere to his skin as it burned, causing the soldier to shriek in agony. His strength faltered, throwing the formation into disarray.

“Return to the source!” rasped the blood-curdling voice of the abomination. The creature, flesh seared but seemingly immune to death, wasted no time exploiting the opening in the formation. Bereft of reason, its only driving force was its sacred mission, the ritual of Restoration of Life, in support of its master Erphine.

With horrifying agility, the burning monstrosity leapt past the shield and tackled the soldier, engulfing him in its flaming, oozing mass.

“Argh! Ugh—” The soldier’s muffled screams were cut off as the creature covered his face completely. His writhing body fell still as it was overwhelmed by the suffocating, burning mass.

He had lost all semblance of resistance; it was clear that he was done for.

“Infantry, reinforce the line! Reinforce the line! Don’t let them break through! Burn them to ashes! They won’t be able to keep moving like this forever!” the squad captain yelled, his voice trembling with desperation. His teeth ground audibly as he watched the chaos unfold.

The captain had underestimated the creatures. Initially, the grotesque abominations had seemed manageable. Though they were difficult to kill, their strength and speed had limits, and teamwork had sufficed to keep them at bay. Severed limbs and blunt force often bought them precious moments.

Even so, the creatures were monstrously persistent. Their bodies were resistant to damage, and nothing seemed to slow them down or stop them entirely.

They were able to repeatedly clash with the soldiers without sustaining much damage.

The soldiers’ strength waned, while the abominations showed no signs of exhaustion. Worse, more of them kept emerging from deeper by the walls as they joined the fray.

Their numbers left the soldiers, who were all at least advanced knights-in-training, at a loss as to how to proceed. It was then that the captain realized that the majority of the residents had evacuated. He gritted his teeth and resorted to fire,believing flames would destroy the abominations.

A torch soaked in oil ignited this rundown district that consisted largely of wooden buildings. The flames began to spread rapidly, but the captain didn’t worry about the fire extending beyond the walls. As long as they could burn these seemingly indestructible monsters to a crisp, it would all be worth it.

However, he had made a terrible mistake. The monsters turned out to be far more flammable than expected, and the roaring flames quickly engulfed the creatures made of writhing flesh and blood.

However, they didn’t fall. Even as their bodies were charred and burned to ashes, the abominable amalgamations of flesh leapt out from the flames like unkillable demons.

“What’s going on? Are these monsters protected by hell itself?!” the squad captain shouted. He watched the monsters emerge from the flames as his scalp tingled in fear.

Their bodies blazed with flame. Grease dripped from them, feeding the flames on the ground. The flaming monstrosities left fiery trails behind them, and looked like infernal demons blazing with the fires of hell.

“Damn it, it’s so hot! They’re impossible to kill!”

“Ahhhh! Help me! They’ve grabbed me. Save me!”

“Mark, no! I’m coming for you! Don’t—argh, it burns! Ahhh—!”

Panic and chaos began to spread. These flaming monsters were even harder to deal with than before. The fire, intended to destroy the creatures, had instead been unwittingly weaponized by the unrelenting monstrosities. Their flaming bodies caused severe injuries and disrupted the soldiers’ ranks.

A breach had been created where a shieldbearing soldier had been tackled. The flaming monsters poured out through this gap. The squad captain had no choice but to order the infantry forward to hold the line. If the formation fell, the massive number of monsters—and the flames—would engulf them all.

“Damn it, what do we do now?” The young squad captain bit his lip in frustration. His decision to set the monsters ablaze had turned out to be a mistake; these creatures were far more bizarre than expected.

The grotesque bodies, despite being continuously baked by the flames, kept regenerating at an absurd speed. Not even fire could stop them. They were far beyond what the city guard was equipped to handle.

He was deeply anxious and frustrated. The soldiers’ bladed weapons barely did anything against these monsters, and the burning fat that the soldiers hacked off the monsters’ bodies would even splatter onto each other. Some of the monsters rampaged from time to time, knocking down groups of soldiers at once, as more and more of them squeezed through openings in the soldiers’ ranks.

The infantry that continued to rush forward to fill any gaps was finding it harder and harder to survive. The captain’s mind whirled.

Retreating was out of the question—it was something he couldn’t afford to do. But facing these hellish monsters seemed impossible, too. His lip was almost bleeding from how hard he was biting it. The monsters were breaking through the defenses at an alarming rate…

“Order your men to retreat in an orderly fashion! Reinforcements are on the way. This situation is related to the void. You’ve done well. Just hold on a little longer. Help is almost here!”

A commanding voice rang out near the flames. The squad captain looked up toward the burning buildings and saw Wang Yu leaping down from the rooftop of a nearby house. As he channeled his fighting spirit, he relayed orders from his superior to the squad captain.

“Everyone, listen up! Fall back in an orderly manner! Hold the line as you retreat!” the squad captain shouted at the top of his lungs. With this new information, he realized the threat was beyond what ordinary soldiers like them could handle. Since specialized forces were on the way, they simply had to follow orders and retreat without giving additional ground to the monsters.

Wang Yu leapt from the rooftop and activated the powers of the Lady of the Night. His body began to darken, blending into the shadows and detaching from reality. His presence became faint, his movements almost silent.

He landed among the flaming monsters, but none of them noticed him. To humans, Wang Yu would have been quite conspicuous amidst the roaring flames, but these creatures clearly lacked vision. Their senses couldn’t detect him.

Squinting his eyes against the piercing light of the flames, Wang Yu surveyed his surroundings. His enhanced physique allowed him to breathe freely even in the smoke-filled air. The flames couldn’t harm him directly without physical contact, either.

Wang Yu ignored the flaming creatures madly charging forward and focused on the burning buildings on either side of the street. These ramshackle wooden and stone structures were already teetering and could collapse with just a bit of force.

He activated his fighting spirit. The power of Blood Tempest surged through his veins.

From his back, he drew a steel axe, extending his arm and aiming at one of the taller buildings nearby.

With an explosive burst of energy, Wang Yu unleashed his full strength. His fighting spirit amplified his power fourfold, bringing his already impressive strength, at about 1.6x the human maximum, to a terrifying level. In mere moments, his strength reached a level six times that of the human maximum.

His target, the foundations of a small building, didn’t stand a chance at all.

With a devastating blow, Wang Yu split a pillar in two. The building, losing its support, began to collapse.

Burning wood and superheated stone from the collapsing building rolled out in all directions. Shockingly, the building seemed to have been a warehouse filled with brick and stone. As it collapsed, a shower of debris scattered through the streets.

The stones tore through the monsters as if they were slicing through tofu.

The force of the impact pulverized them, breaking them up into chunks.

These creatures didn’t have much in the way of defenses at all; in some sense, they were weaker than even ordinary humans. Their key asset was their horrifying regenerative ability, but it simply wasn’t enough against the barrage of stones.

The collapsing building came crashing down in full, crushing a significant number of the flaming flesh creatures as wood, dust, and stone spilled onto the streets. The fire was suppressed for a moment before it began to burn even more fiercely.

Wang Yu dashed out of the dust cloud that had buried many of the creatures beneath the rubble.

Meanwhile, the soldiers had regrouped and were methodically clearing out any monsters that hadn’t been destroyed.

Wang Yu ran toward the retreating soldiers. The squad captain rushed forward to meet him.

“Sir, are those monsters dead?” The squad captain wasn’t sure of Wang Yu’s position, but felt that “Sir” was appropriate after witnessing his feat.

“No. We can’t kill them yet. Reinforcements are almost here. Hold the line and ensure that none of the creatures escape this area.”

Wang Yu didn’t turn to face the squad captain. Instead, he kept his eyes on the fiery ruins. His tone was grave.

Using his inner eye, Wang Yu could see the details of the situation. The entire area was enveloped in a field of void energy of significant concentration. Each of the monstrosities was connected by invisible threads of void energy to an unknown point deeper down the street.

These threads supplied the creatures with a constant flow of void energy, which they used to regenerate at a nightmarish speed.

Without eliminating the source of that void energy, these monsters would be virtually unkillable.

Wang Yu picked up a stone from the ground, channeled his fighting spirit through his arm, and hurled it with immense force. The stone tore through the air with a shrill hum, smashing into a monstrosity that was attempting to ambush a shieldbearer.

The stone pierced through the creature’s chest and pulped its flesh. Though the attack wasn’t fatal, the impact caused the monster to recoil and prevented it from its assault.

Wang Yu shifted his gaze to the burning rubble. The monstrosities buried in the rubble weren’t dead; their charred bodies writhed beneath the debris.

He watched as scorched flesh began to ooze out from the gaps between the rubble as they attempted to reassemble into complete forms.

Wang Yu frowned. At this rate, the situation would be hopeless. He lacked the means to deal with these endlessly regenerating abominations. While he could handle one or two easily without sustaining any injury, facing such overwhelming numbers was a different matter entirely.

“The reinforcements are here!” A soldier’s shout brought Wang Yu a moment of relief. The specialized forces that the Professor had mentioned had finally arrived—his comrades-in-arms, the Nightblades.

Turning his head, Wang Yu saw a squad of heavily armored knights riding warhorses down the street. Their swords were noticeably thicker and heavier than regular blades. Though they numbered only about ten, their presence was overwhelming.

The city guards instinctively made way for these formidable knights. Their well-trained horses showed no fear, even against the blazing inferno. The knights galloped at full speed and stopped just before the fiery rubble.

One of the knights removed his helmet and took out a monocle-like device, placing it over his eye. After surveying the area, he shouted, “Requesting airship support! Deploy the reality anchor immediately!”

“On it!” A heavy thud echoed from above, signaling the deployment.

Wang Yu looked up to see one of the wooden airships he had noticed upon arriving in the royal city. At some point, it had silently positioned itself overhead. Its lower hatch opened, releasing a massive metal pillar.

The enormous pillar, engraved with intricate magical runes, plummeted from the sky. It streaked downward, leaving a trail of light. In an instant, it slammed into the rubble with an earth-shaking impact.

The pillar’s sheer weight and the momentum from its fall shattered the debris, shaking the ground with a thunderous crash.

Moments later, the reality anchor began emitting waves of energy that pulsed outward. It absorbed the ambient magic in the air, activating the runes etched across its surface.

A deep hum reverberated through the area as a shockwave spread outward.

Through his inner eye, Wang Yu watched in amazement as the void concentration in the area plummeted. The invisible threads connecting the flesh monsters to their energy source were severed.

The monsters, deprived of their regenerative energy, began to writhe uncontrollably. Under the intense heat, their grotesque forms charred and crisped into charcoal-like lumps.

As for those monsters that weren’t buried underneath the rubble, they were tossed into the flames by the heavily armored knights, allowing the flames to strip them of their twisted lives.

Wang Yu marveled at these well-trained Nightblades, as well as the metal pillar that had descended from the heavens. “Is this what the Nightblades are like? Is this a true capital-trained force? I’m still far from this level…”

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