I could barely breathe anymore. My body's strength was being relentlessly drained, and I felt as if my ghostly soul was about to shatter. The colossal black humanoid before me was terrifyingly powerful.
I couldn't break free from his grip at all. My consciousness felt like it was being sucked dry by his savage eyes. I struggled desperately to stay awake, but the darkness that devoured the Black Forest was already right in front of me, like a wall that could swallow everything. I was almost at my limit.
My consciousness was slipping beyond control, but I knew very well that if I lost it, I would be completely consumed by this wall of darkness before me.
"Hold on to your consciousness, Ethan Zhang. I'm almost there."
A voice echoed in my mind—it was The Undertaker. My eyes widened in shock as I fought to stay conscious. Just as I was about to black out, The Undertaker appeared before me, pressing a hand against the body of the black humanoid.
Suddenly, the force restraining me vanished. The colossal black humanoid began to swell, while The Undertaker grabbed my collar. With a thunderous boom, the giant exploded right before my eyes. The Undertaker lost a hand in the blast, panting heavily as he dragged me away.
"What on earth just happened?"
I asked immediately. The Undertaker looked grave, and I noticed his lost hand hadn't regenerated.
"We'll talk once we're back."
Soon, we were back at the base of the Great Pillar. Heavenly Soul was already waiting for us with Sylvia Blue and Rachel Lan. The Undertaker, still breathing heavily and missing a hand, raised his arm as a passage appeared in the sky. We entered quickly.
Inside a brightly lit, spacious room, The Artisan and The Sleeper were present.
"As expected, the will of darkness and our connection to it have become completely chaotic. That's why you couldn't reach us quickly."
"What exactly happened?"
All three of them fell silent. After a long pause, The Sleeper stood up and looked at me with a trace of apology in his eyes.
"Sorry, this whole situation is our fault."
The Sleeper began to explain. During my days in this city, the three of them had tried to cross the city wall using a special method to enter Emperor Huang's Domain. The weapons inside hadn't detected their presence, so no alarms were triggered.
They kept venturing deeper into Emperor Huang's Domain, all the way to the city's lowest level. There, they saw something—they didn’t know what it was, but all three sensed it was extremely dangerous. Then, they touched it.
Immediately, that thing unleashed a power they had never seen before. The fragile darkness shattered, and it took them a long time to finally escape from Emperor Huang's Domain. As for what’s happening now, the only thing they're sure of is that this darkness is about to be devoured.
"Why did it come to this? Isn’t there any way to fix it?"
Only after arriving here did I clearly sense the will of darkness—it was anxious, almost desperate.
All the homunculi in the city had been gathered up by them. Now, the darkness was spreading faster and faster.
"What about the Founding Emperors? Rachel, do you know where they are?"
I asked immediately. Rachel Lan shook her head.
"After we split up, the two of them disappeared. I have no idea where they went."
At this moment, The Artisan stood up and waved her hand. A map appeared to our right, with the outer regions marked in red.
"The red areas show what’s already been devoured. Nearly half the space we live in has been swallowed by darkness. In about ten days, the devouring will reach the outskirts of this city."
I lowered my head, thinking quietly. I didn’t know much, except that the Twin Emperors' Domains still existed.
"Why do the Twin Emperors' Domains still exist?"
I asked right away. The three exchanged glances, and finally The Undertaker spoke.
"We don't know. Things are chaotic here too. That thing—like a tree with many branches—what exactly is it?"
Then, an image formed in my mind—The Undertaker transmitted what he’d seen: a mass of pitch-black, pillar-shaped matter surrounded by countless whip-like branches flying in all directions. The feeling it gave off was deeply unsettling.
"What exactly is it?"
All we know now is that the mutation devouring this darkness was triggered when the three of them touched something at the very bottom of Emperor Huang's Domain.
"This isn't the time for discussion. There's no choice—we have to release the light."
The Artisan spoke. I looked at her in confusion, but The Sleeper immediately objected.
"The light we've gathered from the Living World is barely enough. Even if we release it to hold back the devouring, it’ll only last a few dozen days at most. Is it really worth it?"
"Then tell me—do you have any way to slow the rate of erosion?"
The room fell silent. Everyone's face was grave, except for Sylvia Blue and Rachel Lan.
"If we have light, just release it. There’s no point overthinking. If this darkness keeps shrinking, we might not even get a chance to fight back."
My eyes widened. The three stared blankly at Rachel Lan, while The Undertaker nodded.
"I think Rachel Lan is right. This isn't the time to hesitate."
The three stood up, telling us to wait here. Then, a screen appeared to our right, showing the scene around the Thirteen Pillars. I watched quietly.
Black rings of light slowly began to rise from the base of the Thirteen Pillars, moving upward. Gradually, the rings grew brighter and became transparent—they were light.
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I stared in astonishment as the surfaces of the Thirteen Pillars suddenly erupted with intense light. These beams seemed almost tangible, spreading in all directions. I watched as they formed a wall of light, gradually halting at the outskirts of the Black Forest.
I swallowed hard. The wall of light stopped right at the edge of the devouring. Behind the translucent barrier, I saw giant black humanoids emerging from the darkness, trying to break through—but they couldn’t.
More and more of these black humanoids appeared. I swallowed again. Within minutes, the three returned.
"By the way, what happened to your hand?"
I asked, noticing The Undertaker's right hand still hadn't healed. I was also astonished that he could destroy those giant black humanoids when I was utterly powerless against them.
"Those weren't pure darkness—they were fragments, like debris. All I did was trigger an explosion of the dark power inside one of them, not kill it. Those things must have come from the Unreal. After devouring this darkness, they gained substance and could manifest as humanoids. Most of their bodies are made of mixed forces from the Unreal; dark power only forms their shape."
"Is your hand unable to heal because it’s tainted by power from the Unreal?"
The Undertaker nodded, raising his one hand. I noticed something faint at the severed end of his right arm. He placed it on the table, and we all leaned in, watching silently.
I saw red, blue, black, white, and other colored particles flickering at the stump of his arm. This power was unlike anything I’d ever seen. It was this force that prevented his arm from healing.
"You’d better not touch it, Ethan Zhang. You don’t control dark power as well as we do."
I quickly withdrew my hand with an "Oh." The room fell silent again. Rachel Lan sat beside me, quietly watching the screen as more and more dark humanoids appeared, endlessly attacking the wall of light.
"What should we do? If they keep attacking like this, our stored light will run out quickly. We might not even last ten days."
"Wait..."
At that moment, The Sleeper suddenly stood up and vanished before our eyes, his expression urgent.
He returned in less than five minutes.
"Maybe we’re in the middle of a disaster right now."