Chapter 38: Hurry Hurry Hurry! Let Me Watch the Show!

“…”

Surveying the familiar surroundings, the girl hesitated not at all and swiftly slashed down with the silver blade in her hand at the empty space before her.

“Zzzzz!”

Accompanied by the sound of the blade slicing through the air like a torn fabric, a silvery long scratch immediately split the air in front of her.

But what surprised Miss Vilyric was that the scratch didn’t take the shape of a door as usual; instead, it spread out like the branches of a tree, outlining countless intricate splits and nodes.

“Hm? What is this…”

After the initial shock, the priestess suddenly had a realization.

She had actually seen something similar before.

It might have been quite a while ago, but back in the City of Courage, the capital of the United Kingdom, the three-story “Sky Prison” managed by the 【Guardian of Sins】 and the kingdom’s ancestor, Edith Meikailande, shared a similar structural design as this.

The same space had been replicated and divided into countless parallel existences, much like parallel worlds that were identical yet did not interfere with each other. The situation here, although not completely the same, had a similar design concept.

Well, now that I think about it…

Vilyric had at one point suspected that this spatial technology was brought from the 【Illusion Realm】 by someone and then applied in the City of Courage, after all, the United Kingdom’s research level in spatial magic hadn’t reached the point where they could create such intricate parallel spaces.

But since a similar space has appeared in the Ancient Spirit Realm, could it be that the person who originally built the Sky Prison…

No, let’s change perspective. If Hen is indeed in the Ancient Spirit Realm, could there be a connection between this creation and her?

I need to find a way to clarify this.

Vilyric refrained from focusing on the countless separated nodes because each node was a “cage” created by the designer of this place using real space as a template, and most of them were likely empty, just like the desolate area she currently found herself in.

This probably explained why the priestess had always found it impossible to locate other people. But what was the strange aura lingering in these parallel spaces? Was it a manifestation of an evil demon?

Forget it, let’s get out of here first.

She gently touched the bottom of the countless split nodes.

This was the base point of the multiple spaces, concealed behind countless replicas, the true realm of reality.

If any sacred beast Qilin was likely to be found anywhere, it would undoubtedly be here.

The moment her fingertip made contact with that spatial coordinate, the silver light responded to the black-haired girl’s will, transforming into a vortex that sucked her in, causing Vilyric’s figure to vanish without a trace.

……

“Splash~”

In nearly the same instant, within the same scene, the priestess’s figure reappeared, lightly stepping onto the damp stone floor.

She looked around.

It was still the same sight as before the space transfer, but the pile of rubble that should have been borne away by the 【Radiant Protection】 was still intact, and the marks left when Vilyric rudely smashed through the stone wall had also vanished without a trace.

Everything looked oddly as if nothing had ever happened.

But this perfectly confirmed Vilyric’s hypothesis.

She glanced at the 【Void Trace Blade】 in her hand. The unstable silvery light that had been dancing on it had calmed down, still shimmering, indicating the presence of a cuttable spatial passage around her, yet the rhythm had become very regular.

This indicated that Vilyric had returned to a more stable realm of reality, no longer in the temporary small dimension replicated through special means she had been in before.

Numerous changes brought about by the environment continuously seeped into her perception, further solidifying this conjecture.

Unlike the cage formed from copied space, the ground and walls here were damp, and… an overwhelming aura of darkness was very thick, thick enough that it almost surpassed any place Vilyric and the others had traversed through in the tidal deep valley; it could almost be described as suffocating.

This level of darkness could be compared to the extreme de-evilized state reached in Zeng Family Village at the end of the millennium, when the Seven Stars aligned and summoned the moon of the Ancient Spirit Realm—a place that could chill the bones of ordinary people, making them feel dreadful and uncomfortable.

But what was stranger was… under such conditions, no evil demons were born around.

Perhaps this place was particularly hidden, nearly no living beings could reach here, failing to meet the conditions to foster the evil demons. However, if Vilyric were to say it, she would think it felt more like something was suppressing the evil energy here, preventing it from gathering and forming into a more complete entity.

“Hmm… I should be getting close.”

Vilyric stowed away the imitation 【Void Trace Blade】 and equipped her main weapon, the 【Eternal Staff · Heart of the World】, her gaze shifting towards the depths of the passage she had traversed in the replicated space. She quickly took a step forward.

Not long after, a sound other than her footsteps faintly entered the girl’s hearing.

“Whoosh~ Whoosh~”

That sounded akin to the waves lapping against the shore, creating a rolling sound, and as she proceeded further, the dark aura and humidity in the air were seemingly increasing. If Vilyric weren’t wearing the 【Feather Garb · Glarya】 but some other ordinary clothing, she would have probably found herself quite drenched by now.

Suddenly.

“Boom!!!”

A more intense explosion echoed violently at the end of the passage, shaking the surrounding stone walls as if a secondary collapse was about to occur.

The priestess frowned slightly but quickly perked up, her figure suddenly disappearing from where she stood.

The next moment, sharp spikes nearly a meter long shot up from below, abruptly piercing through the space she had previously occupied.

Dashing forward several steps to evade that bizarre attack, Vilyric remained calm as she swung her slender, white holy staff, fiercely striking the gem at the end, which was meant to cast spells, against a particularly massive black rock at her path’s end!

“Bang!!!!”

The dull, deafening explosion resonated through the passage. The staff, which looked merely a few centimeters in thickness, was unscathed, but the stone that had seemed rooted to the ground immediately shattered into fragments and flew off, crashing against the wall on the other side with a series of sounds!

Feeling the staff’s grip in her hands, reminiscing about the refreshing strike she hadn’t felt in ages, Vilyric glanced at the pile of broken stones scattered across the ground.

This thing is alive.

This is a demon, a demon of considerable power.

They say stones can come to life, and today, I’ve seen the real deal.

—Rock Spirit.

Don’t be fooled by its current shattered state, appearing as if it were dead; since it could merge into the ground and unleash such a spike attack, it’s definitely not dead just by being broken apart.

In fact, those fragments were visibly reassembling and fusing, and it wouldn’t be long before it returned to its original form, ready to fight again.

But Vilyric had no intention of entangling further with it.

This was most likely a demon controlled by the Demon-Suppressing Sect, responsible for guarding this place, and given the explosion she had just heard, their main force had likely already entered inside, clashing with someone.

She needed to hurry and go watch the show!

   

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