Chapter 982: A Leak from the Void
A young woman with cross-shaped white pupils silently examined the spear in her hands, then lifted her gaze to the tree that appeared to be several metres away from her, before returning her eyes to the spear without a word.
She stood in the middle of an open grassy field, the tree being the only other living thing in sight besides herself.
A soft breeze passed over the land, gently tousling her long black hair, which was woven into a single braid resting over her left shoulder.
After a few moments of silence, she looked up at the sky and finally spoke.
"Um, Lady Berlal. Spears are weapons meant for thrusting, so expecting me to ’cut’ with one is a lot easier said than done..."
Lowering her gaze to the tree ahead, she continued, "Especially when I have to do it through a distorted space."
As she spoke, the space between her and the tree rippled like a body of water disturbed by a stone, as if reminding her that while it seemed only a few metres away, the distance was stretched beyond anything she could measure.
[Elaine. Do you really think I don’t know what a spear was built for?] a voice asked, echoing directly in Elaine’s mind.
"I’m not saying you don’t, but given the rather special circumstances of my target, I can’t exactly achieve ’cutting’ with a ’thrusting’ weapon," Elaine replied.
Magic power flowed through her arms as she continued, "If you want me to cut that tree, then..."
She trailed off, and from the top section of the spear, just below its tip, a curved blade extended outward. She twirled the weapon in her hand before raising it slightly, ready to swing it down.
"I can use this instead."
[Put that thing back in.]
"..."
Elaine silently retracted the scythe blade of her soul-bound weapon, Requiem, pouting as she looked back up and then complained.
"But I can’t cut through that distorted space without Requiem’s scythe form! Besides, how does this apply to—"
Elaine suddenly went silent, her mouth still open and her eyes blinking repeatedly.
Her grip on the spear loosened, and the weapon fell to the grassy floor. The instant it did, Elaine’s eyes began to glow.
Her Netherknight in his Wraithfly mode, perched on her shoulder, suddenly flew away, and the moment he did, an immense wave of pitch-black death energy erupted from Elaine’s body.
Anti-divinity poured out from her in rolling waves, and just as Berlal was about to question Elaine’s sudden actions, the space behind the young woman began to crack.
What had appeared to be a minor spatial fissure instantly became a gaping rupture in the fabric of space-time, with cosmic energy bleeding in from the tear and leaking through the seams of the torn spacetime.
Berlal, who was actually on another planet several light-years away, snapped her gaze toward Elaine, her eyes widening at the sight of the deep darkness leaking from the rupture behind her.
’That’s...the Void?!’
She crossed the distance instantly, just as Elaine, a blank expression in her eyes, slowly turned her head and murmured, "...Arthur?"
The cosmic energy spilling from the rupture in space-time began to merge with the death energy emanating from Elaine’s body, forming a massive storm of power around her, which caused the rupture to widen even further as Elaine’s soul tried to connect to the rest of her existence from within the Void and drag it into reality.
But Elaine hadn’t even fully turned her head when two hands appeared, reaching toward the sides of her head.
"!"
Hostile intent immediately seeped into her energy, but she couldn’t react quickly enough, and the hands touched the sides of her head.
Instantly, her eyes rolled back, and she lost consciousness, her body collapsing into Berlal’s arms.
The moment Elaine lost consciousness, the rupture in space-time was sealed as if it had never existed, and all the cosmic energy that had spilt out was pulled back in, along with the enormous death energy and anti-divinity she had released.
Berlal frowned, then lifted her gaze to meet the eyes of the other existence who had acted at the same moment she did to suppress Elaine’s uncontrollable power.
It was a woman dressed in a simple black gown, her hair glimmering with countless sparkling dots, like stars scattered across the night sky.
Her star-shaped pupils that met Berlal’s gaze as she asked, "Berlal. What the hell is this child?"
"..."
Berlal didn’t have an immediate answer to that question.
In the first place, even she wasn’t entirely certain whether what she thought was the answer was actually correct.
However, before addressing that, there was something far more pressing that needed her attention.
’Elaine called Arthur’s name. Did something happen to him?’
Berlal immediately tugged on her faint link to her race’s Progenitor, calling out to him.
’Aleksas. Are you with Arthur? Can you check on hi—’
[I’m already heading to him.]
That was all Aleksas responded before shutting off the link, and although his voice sounded as calm as ever, the fact that he was already en route made Berlal’s frown deepen.
"Berlal."
The voice of the woman in front of her pulled Berlal from her thoughts, and she quickly adjusted her expression.
"The answer to that question of yours, Julio, I’m afraid even I’m not so sure about anymore," Berlal replied, placing her hand under Elaine’s knees and lifting the unconscious young woman’s body.
"One of my students seems to have run into a problem."
When Berlal said this, Julio raised an eyebrow. "Your student ran into a problem, and that problem is related to what the hell just happened?"
"Very likely," Berlal said.
Julio stared at her silently for a moment before asking, "Where are you going? I’m coming with you."
"It would be in our best interests that you didn’t," Berlal said.
This response made Julio wear an incredulous frown, but that incredulity lasted only a split second as she instantly realised why Berlal had said that.
"Whatever it is you’re up to, I’m not gonna like it, am I?" Julio asked.
"It’s not that you won’t like it, it’s just that, to be frank, you’re not exactly flexible enough to let it go, even though it has no real consequence for you, your domain, or anyone, really," Berlal said.
"If it’s something I’m not going to let go, then there’s definitely a consequence somewhere for someone," Julio shot back.
Berlal didn’t respond to that, and Julio exhaled silently, pressing her fingers to her temple.
Elaine’s sudden abnormal state was almost certainly due to something that either Arthur had done or something that had been done to Arthur, and given that Arthur was an Illegal Eternal Candidate, Berlal didn’t want Julio finding out about his existence, since she was certain the other woman wouldn’t react well to the fact that he was an undocumented Dual Candidate.
"Just go already," Julio finally said.
"We will continue our discussion later," Berlal replied.
As she spoke, her shadow expanded, and when Julio glanced at it, she said, "You will give me an explanation. You know that, right?"
"Of course I do," Berlal replied, turning away. "If I were in your position, I would want an explanation too."
She then stepped into her expanded shadow, dropping into it like a stone sinking into water, and vanished.
