As if provoked by our defiance, the finger reacted.
Before it had even descended fully, a beam erupted from its center.
Pure gold.
It did not travel through space—it tore through it. The beam carved a straight path toward us, distorting everything along its trajectory as if reality itself was being forced to yield.
Silver cried out sharply.
With a violent flap of his wings, he surged upward and unleashed a concentrated crimson beam. It roared forward, meeting the descending golden beam head-on.
"Are you angry?" I said quietly staring at the finger.
Essence churned violently within my channels as I clenched my fist and drove it forward.
"[Hand of Convergence]," I muttered.
A massive fist materialized before me, formed from condensed Essence and layered elemental force. Lightning coiled around its surface. Space warped along its edges. Fire and ice intertwined within its structure as it shot forward to intercept the beam.
Silver’s attack collided first.
BOOM!
For a brief instant, the crimson beam held.
Then it shattered.
The golden beam tore through it without slowing.
My fist struck next.
The moment it connected, fractures spread across the golden beam, its perfect structure destabilizing as the force of convergence resisted its descent. The beam wavered, distorted but did not break.
Still, the impact forced it off alignment.
My attack continued past the beam, surging upward toward the finger itself.
"Knight," I said calmly, without taking my eyes off the sky. "Get him."
Knight vanished instantly and reappeared beside the trembling Naga. Shadow chains erupted from his hands, binding the traitor completely before he could react.
"All of you, return," I said. "I will summon you if needed."
Silver did not hesitate. His massive form dissolved into crimson light and returned to my Core. Knight and Lyrate followed.
I opened the Merit Shop again, my attention splitting between the descending construct and the options before me.
Above—
My fist struck the finger.
BOOM!
The impact shook the sky.
For a fraction of a second, the descending finger slowed, its runes flaring as my attack forced resistance against its authority.
Then—
It was erased.
Completely obliterated.
The fist disintegrated, its Essence torn apart as though it had never existed.
The finger continued its descent.
Unharmed.
The pressure on me increased with every passing second. It was no longer distant. No longer abstract. Fractures began spreading across the dead surface below, massive cracks tearing through the ground as the sheer authority behind its existence pressed downward. Entire sections of the barren world collapsed inward, unable to withstand its presence.
I watched it calmly. A thought surfaced.
What would it do once I was gone? Would it stop?
Or would it complete its descent and erase the relay entirely, even though the only remaining Hollow Star operative was now my prisoner?
I paused.
Then opened the Merit Shop again and selected the teleportation token to Feradros. But it was disabled.
I frowned.
"What?" I muttered.
I scrolled again, slower this time. The list had changed.
Only two options remained.
#$#**#@ RuinVaythos
I blinked, staring at the first entry.
The name was corrupted. Unreadable. As if the System itself had refused to define it.
For a moment, I said nothing.
Then I laughed quietly, shaking my head.
I looked up at the descending finger.
"System," I said, my voice calm, "are you forcing my hand?"
There was no response.
The finger continued its descent, indifferent.
I exhaled slowly.
"Fine."
I selected the Ruin.
Vaythos was not a place I intended to return to. Not yet.
The token materialized in my hand, cold and faintly glowing with System authority. I raised my other hand. The bound Naga was pulled toward me instantly, dragged through the air by invisible force. He struggled weakly, but the shadow chains held him firmly. I grabbed him by the arm.
The portal opened. I gave the descending finger one final look. Then stepped through. The moment I stepped through, the portal closed behind me. There was no transition. No sense of movement. Only suspension. I did not feel space pass around me. I did not feel distance shorten. Instead, it felt as though I had been removed entirely, held within something that existed outside conventional coordinates.
Time passed but not instantly. It stretched.
One second.
Five.
Ten.
The Naga remained suspended beside me, bound in shadow chains, his fear still radiating even through his restrained state.
Twenty seconds.
The System authority around the teleportation held steady, but unlike previous transfers, this one felt... distant. Detached. As though the destination was not merely far, but isolated.
Thirty seconds.
Then reality returned. Space snapped back into place. Gravity seized me instantly. My feet touched solid ground. The Naga collapsed beside me. My perception expanded at once. Psynapse flared outward instinctively, sweeping across the environment in every direction.
And I stopped.
Surprised.
I stood on a floating landmass shaped like an inverted pyramid, its massive stone base tapering downward into nothingness. The structure hung suspended in empty space, unsupported, its sheer scale stretching far beyond the horizon of any normal city foundation.
It was enormous. Easily five or six times the size of a major city.
Ahead of me stood walls.
City walls.
Ancient. Broken. Scarred.
Sections had collapsed entirely, leaving jagged openings where immense force had torn through them. Deep cracks spread across their surface, blackened and fractured, as though burned and shattered by something catastrophic.
Beyond the walls, the city itself stretched inward.
Ruined.
Buildings stood in various states of destruction, many reduced to skeletal remains. Towers leaned at unnatural angles. Entire districts had collapsed into rubble. The ground was split apart in long, violent fractures, and vast sections of the surface bore clear signs of intense heat and impact. This was not decay. This was aftermath.
A city that had survived war. The Naga stirred beside me, his trembling form dragging my attention away from the city.
I looked at him.
And irritation surfaced instantly.
He had chosen this. Chosen them. Chosen to abandon everything for borrowed authority.
My hand moved before he could speak.
The slap cracked across his face with enough force to snap his head sideways, his consciousness collapsing instantly. His body went limp, the last resistance disappearing completely.
I did not slow.
I began walking toward the broken city gates. Behind me, his unconscious body lifted into the air, suspended by invisible force, floating beside me like cargo.
The ruined city waited ahead.
**************
Back on the dead planet, the moment the portal closed, the descending finger stopped.
It did not complete its descent. It did not strike the relay. It simply remained there, suspended above the fractured world, its enormous form radiating silent authority over the ruined base below.
Then, slowly, the pressure began to recede.
The suffocating weight that had been crushing the planet’s surface lessened, the cracks spreading across the dead crust stabilizing as the invisible force withdrew. The golden runes covering the finger dimmed one by one, their brilliance fading as though their purpose had been fulfilled.
The finger trembled once. Its massive form destabilized, breaking apart into countless golden motes that drifted outward like fragments of shattered light. The particles gathered together above the relay platform, condensing, compressing, reshaping.
A figure formed.
A woman floated where the finger had been.
Her body was composed of dense golden glow, her outline flawless, her presence calm yet incomparably vast. Her eyes held no emotion, only clarity. She did not stand upon the surface, nor did she interact with the environment. She simply existed above it.
Defender Aurora.
==================
Bonus release: 1 Chapter for every 100 GTs