Chapter 173: Battle of the Fractured Coastline, Mission Complete
In the hazy daylight, the night shattered silently.
It enveloped Rast, rendering his body ethereal and translucent, dragging him away from the Remnant of the Age of the Sixth Era.
Toward the other end of the River of Time, to that illusory and distant beyond.
Within the thickening night and the fading clarity of his consciousness, Rast saw lines of deep blue text slowly flowing through his mind.
【Nightworld Mission — 「Remnant of the Age · Battle of the Fractured Coastline」 Completed】
【Current mission rating: EX】
【The mission rewards for this Nightworld mission have been distributed】
【Sequence experience has been distributed】
【Your Arcana Sequence High Tier: "The Tower"】
【Your Rank Level: 59 (Fifth Tier)】
【As your level has reached the limit of the current tier, excess sequence experience has been stored】
【Based on your journey in this Remnant of the Age, the Crest Equipment obtained in this Nightworld has been reforged and elevated a second time】
【Your Crest Equipment "The Unfinished Fairy Tale Book" has ascended to "The Long-Gone Ode of Yesterdays"】
【Your Crest Equipment "Emblem of the Betrayer’s Wings" has ascended to "Chapter of the Fire Thief"】
【Your Inherent Skill "Heart of Steel Forging" has ascended to "Iron Heart Firmament"】
……
This was a world shrouded in Eternal Night, without Sun or Moon, and with no Brilliance of stars. Only the boundless, dim blackness served as the main theme of this world.
And Rast sank quietly into this silent black night, feeling the gentle veil of night falling upon his body, healing his injuries slowly through "Rollback".
Because of the Inherent Skill "Origin of Fate" obtained from Grey—one that could not be actively canceled—Rast's true body possessed a resistance far exceeding ordinary levels toward time and fate-type skills, to the extent that he could even achieve complete immunity within certain limits.
It was precisely because of this passive ability that Rast had completely overpowered the grey-haired girl, Fate’s Chosen, during the Sacred Ritual at the Royal City and his battle with Grey.
Skills like "Stagnant World" and "Time Rewind", which Grey held as trump cards and were nearly overpowered to the point of absurdity, lost all effectiveness against Rast, who easily overwhelmed her.
However, as a double-edged sword of an Inherent Skill, "Origin of Fate" became a disadvantage when Rast was gravely injured and needed to rely on rollback-type abilities for healing.
Setting aside the fact that Grey’s healing had no effect on him at all, even the routine post-mission recovery that the Nightworld provided to every returning Night Traveler barely worked on Rast.
With the same shattered internal organs and life-threatening injuries… an ordinary Night Traveler would have already fully recovered by now, restored to perfect condition. But for Rast, it only barely kept him alive, preventing death by a narrow margin.
"Looks like once I return to the Present World, I’ll be lying in a hospital bed at Starfall University again."
"But this kind of thing already happened once before, so the campus hospital should be used to it by now."
"According to Dean Silver, to prevent future incidents where the Nightworld's healing fails, the campus hospital specially hired a Night Blade named 'Pursuer from the Underworld', a doctor reputed to be able to save even gods as long as the patient is alive… Seems like I won’t have to stay bedridden for too long."
"By the way, Akxia also has a 'Doctor' tag, doesn’t she?"
His self-murmur echoed within the curtain of Eternal Night, and Rast couldn’t help but smile.
He had not forgotten that his first encounter with that long ice-blue-haired girl happened on the hospital bed at Starfall University.
Who would’ve thought that a fleeting meeting in a hospital would become the origin of everything, pulling forth a splendid and dreamlike fairy tale and everything that followed?
Recalling the bits and pieces of what they had experienced together, a trace of comfort rose in Rast’s heart.
Though the journey had been filled with twists and hardship, at least the ending was rather satisfying.
No matter what, he had ultimately pulled that girl out of the Nether Abyss and wrote an ending he had hoped for into that unfinished fairy tale.
It was not in vain that he had poured in so much effort, braving countless moments teetering on the edge of death.
Moreover, at the end of this Remnant of the Age—the future belonging to the civilization of the Sixth Era—Rast found much to look forward to.
On that night of the Black Sun, Leader Sisel took down four Legendary Beings with him in a grand deathmatch.
And after the Battle of the Fractured Coastline concluded, there would be no more Legendary Beings walking upon the lands of the Sixth Era.
Of course, even with the fall of the Legendary Kings, the Beast Tide in the deep seas, the rampaging Iron Cross Clan, and the Cult Group still posed immense threats to humanity—
But Rast believed that once Grey had grown, once she truly ascended to the throne of Legend, then with the mighty power of "Fate", all these hardships and barriers would not be insurmountable.
Having inherited the cross-era blueprint of knowledge from Sisel and himself, along with eyes that could see through Fate... perhaps Grey could lead the people of the Sixth Era to rise rapidly, catching up to the Present World's technological level in an extremely short span of time—
It was even possible that she might surpass the Present World's level and step into a true era of the future.
Indeed, according to the Present World's current understanding of the Nightworld, the Sixth Era was an epoch already destroyed, and no matter what the people of the Sixth Era did, that demise was supposedly predestined... but that, after all, was merely speculation, not a definitive conclusion.
Besides, Rast suspected that what he had traversed was actual history... If that truly was the real past and not some illusion, then the outcome of the future was not necessarily fixed; the possibility of parallel worlds and the like might exist.
In the guidance of Grey, the civilization of the Sixth Era might indeed step into a broader future.
“If it had been the me who once wandered Deep Blue Port, I probably wouldn’t have felt such ease and delight after completing the mission and reaching the objective.”
Rast, feeling the satisfaction and contentment overflowing in his heart, uttered a silent murmur.
It was truly a sensation he had never felt before. In the past, after achieving a short-term goal, he should immediately move on to the next step in his plan. Any excess emotion was merely a meaningless waste of mental effort. That was the doctrine Rast had upheld in the time loops of Deep Blue Port.
But after joining Starfall University and encountering and witnessing many people and events in both the Present World and the Nightworld...
That boy who once lived like a machine, with a heart driven by gears and powered like a steam boiler, had indeed changed, even if Rast himself hadn’t initially noticed the transformation.
“If I see Xiao Ai now, she probably wouldn’t have to worry about my mental state anymore.”
Thinking this, a trace of anticipation rose in Rast’s heart.
It was an anticipation to return to that border town drifting with the melodious sound of bagpipes, a place called "Canaan".
However, before heading to Canaan, he still needed to take inventory of the spoils from this completed Nightworld.
Rast moved his thoughts slightly.
In the next moment, lines of brand-new azure text unfolded before his eyes.
【The Long-Gone Ode of Yesterdays】
【Category: Crest Equipment】
【Description: This was once an unfinished fairy tale. After a new ending was written in blood upon its blank final pages, it was able to ascend and be completed as a renewed Crest Equipment.
Inscribed within this worn tome are ancient tales and long-past odes. Though the pages have long since yellowed, the spirit engraved in this fairy tale remains radiant as ever—
Even in the Abyss, one must chase that fleeting gleam, throwing everything aside in pursuit of one’s own happiness and beauty...
This blazing emotion, belonging to a certain girl, has never faded despite spanning an entire era, still shining like a diamond, dazzling and brilliant.】
【Equipment Effect: The words written upon this tome have a certain probability of being faithfully reflected into the scenery of reality. The story inscribed upon it will be woven into reality.】
【Note: The actual activation probability of this Crest Equipment will vary based on many factors including the difficulty of the written content, surrounding environmental limitations, the rank of the writer, their Spiritual Power, and the rank of the intended target.】