Chapter 395: The Promised Duel
Ignaz’s phantom materialized inside the grand hall of the Imperial Palace.
During the time Bai Fu had been resurrected, he had maintained constant contact with the Son of Prophecy to stay informed about the situation across the Explored Universe.
The moment he heard that the capital star of the Empire had fallen, he immediately used the Son of Prophecy as a "signal tower" to project himself in front of Bai Fu and speak to her directly.
At this moment, his chest had already been filled with fury.
The killing intent flickering in his eyes seemed to pierce through billions of light years, condensing into something tangible within the palace hall.
“Bai Fu!”
A deep roar echoed out.
Ignoring everyone around him, Ignaz stared unblinkingly at Bai Fu.
Bai Fu said calmly, “Are you here to threaten me or to surrender?”
In a cold voice, Ignaz replied, “You may hold the upper hand now, but—”
“Help, Your Majesty! Save me! They want to kill me, and they even snatched the Empire’s Supreme Crown and put it on Bai Fu’s head!”
Audoak suddenly cried out, interrupting Ignaz.
Before the Players could pin him down, Ignaz exploded first.
“Trash! Get out of my sight! This is no place for you to speak!”
“But—”
Audoak tried to protest, but Ignaz barked again.
“Say one more word, and even if Bai Fu doesn’t kill you, I will!”
Audoak opened his mouth but ultimately lowered his head in defeat.
Yeah.
How could he be so foolish as to beg Ignaz for help?
Ignaz had never seen him as worthy.
And not just Ignaz. The rest of the Original Accord, and even many within the Empire itself, had never looked up to him.
Audoak knew.
In truth, even Dmitri and Bualot had been deeply disappointed in him.
Yet their love for the Empire had kept Dmitri and Bualot faithfully assisting him despite their disillusionment.
He used to believe all of that was only natural and never cherished it.
Now, Dmitri’s fate was unknown, and Bualot had vanished.
Looking around the vast Imperial Capital, he couldn’t find a single loyal subject.
For the first time, Audoak felt like a complete failure—unworthy of being the Emperor of the Empire.
It was also the first time he felt regret—regret for having thrown himself entirely to Ignaz just because of the latter’s connection to the Empire.
“You really go that hard when scolding your own people?”
Bai Fu glanced at Audoak, then at Ignaz.
“Looks like you’re pretty pissed.”
“Pissed?” Ignaz sneered. “Bai Fu, you’d better release the Original Accord members from the Sanctum of Silent Night. Otherwise, once I return from the Dark Zone, I will turn the entire Sanctum into a living hell, no matter the cost!”
The blunt threat left the surrounding Players stunned.
What the hell—was this guy just announcing a massacre?
“Damn, Ignaz is such a bastard!”
“F**k, can’t beat Fufu so he’s threatening civilians now? Are you even human?!”
Curses flew from the Players.
Ignaz was unmoved.
No—he became even more brazen.
“Don’t doubt whether I can do it. And you don’t have enough time to relocate everyone in the Sanctum of Silent Night to a place unknown to me. The tricks you used on me before won’t work a second time!”
Bai Fu’s expression darkened. “Your goal is to preserve civilization, but your current actions are already in complete contradiction to that.”
Ignaz replied, “On the path to the future, some must always be sacrificed.”
“They don’t have to be.”
“If you kill yourself now, then of course they don’t have to be.”
Bai Fu: “……”
Since leaving Origin Star, she had never encountered a boss as shameless as Ignaz.
Other bosses might’ve been evil, but none had ever morally blackmailed her.
For a moment, the Players cursed even louder.
They streamed Ignaz and Bai Fu’s entire conversation live.
Not just to other Players—but also to NPCs across the Explored Universe.
Seeing this scene, most NPCs were dumbfounded.
Wait, was Ignaz really that kind of person? Wasn’t this some kind of fake smear stream?
Some doubted.
Others immediately began cheering for Bai Fu.
“Go get him, white-haired big sister!”
Bai Fu nodded. “Alright. I’ll release them. But you’re late. There aren’t many survivors left over there.”
Ignaz didn’t seem to care. He swiftly changed the topic.
“I have another request.”
“?”
“Bring your soul-type cosmic treasure to a location I designate and duel me. I don’t know what gave you the confidence to claim you can kill me completely in 300 days, but I will no longer give you time!”
“……”
More question marks appeared above Bai Fu’s head.
“You again? You really think the Sanctum of Silent Night is enough to hold me down?”
Ignaz burst into laughter. “Of course I’m not that naive. That’s why this time, I’m putting the chips on the line—every civilization in the entire universe!”
Huh?
Wait a minute!
Bai Fu suddenly understood what Ignaz meant.
Ignaz was saying, if she didn’t go, he would forcibly boost his power or spread news of the Reapers to trigger their descent—destroying all civilizations of this era, taking everyone down with him.
Damn. Even "bastard" wasn’t enough to describe Ignaz anymore.
Bai Fu had originally wanted to argue with Ignaz, but now she gave up entirely.
He’d gone completely off the rails—no point saying anything.
“I can’t give you an answer right now. Give me one day. This time tomorrow, I’ll tell you my decision.”
“Alright.”
Ignaz agreed readily, making no further trouble for Bai Fu.
Their conversation had been perilous, but to those unaware of the deeper meaning, it seemed entirely bewildering.
The stakes were the civilizations of the entire universe—what kind of nonsense was that?
As soon as the call ended, Ignaz was bombarded with questions from numerous Original Accord members.
Leading the charge was the recovering Weaver of Fate.
“Ignaz, do you even know what you’re doing?”
The Weaver of Fate didn’t even bother calling him ‘leader’ anymore.
Ignaz remained calm. “Of course I know. Don’t worry, I never really planned to go through with it. I’m only bluffing to scare Bai Fu. I’m betting she won’t dare call that bluff. Right now, this is our only way to force her to come out and face death willingly.”
His explanation convinced many, but not the Weaver of Fate.
The Weaver had joined the Original Accord even earlier than Ignaz.
Ignaz had only become the current leader thanks in large part to the Weaver’s support.
“…If you win the gamble, that’s good.”
The Weaver of Fate nodded without saying more.
He had realized something.
All this time, he had believed Ignaz had changed—but in truth, he had been gravely mistaken.
Ignaz had never changed.
The only reason he had seemed different was because he had never revealed his full self before.
His path up to now had been far too smooth.
From the moment he was born into the royal family of the Rebirth Empire, he had been draped in countless halos and basked in endless praise.
Before now, the greatest setback he had ever faced was the Empire's expeditionary force being defeated by the Esper Garden.
However, that loss was never enough to make him feel true pressure.
The Empire’s foundation remained intact, and more importantly, standing beside the Empire were the Supernova Warband and Titan Industries—two universe-scale factions that would never allow the Esper Garden to devour the Empire unchecked.
After overcoming the crisis posed by the Esper Garden, Ignaz was practically deified.
Whether within the Empire or later in the Original Accord, he was always exalted by those around him.
He had always stood above the clouds, looking down upon the world below.
He had never truly glimpsed the abyss.
And no one knew what he would become when he finally did.
The Weaver of Fate felt like he had seen it now.
And he began to regret.
But it was too late.
The Ignaz of now was no longer someone he could rein in.
The Original Accord had been established with one goal in mind: to find any way possible to resolve the crisis of the Reapers’ descent once and for all.
To achieve that goal, even sacrificing a portion of the population was considered acceptable.
But now, under Ignaz’s leadership, the Weaver of Fate felt that the Original Accord had gone astray.
He strongly suspected that once Ignaz established his new order, he would no longer bother trying to solve the underlying problem, and would instead focus on maintaining that order and eradicating anyone who dared challenge him.
“What should I do?”
The Weaver of Fate was momentarily lost.
He felt that Bai Fu would most likely cave to Ignaz’s threat and go to the duel—only to die indignantly at his hands.
And once Bai Fu died, among everyone known so far, there would be no one left capable of challenging Ignaz.
…
While the Weaver of Fate was at a loss, Bai Fu herself was also deep in thought.
Should she go?
If she went, with her current strength, it would almost certainly mean death.
But if she didn’t, there was still a high chance she would die—only she would be taking the intelligent life of the entire universe with her.
Truthfully, Bai Fu didn’t know much about Ignaz.
But based on his expression and tone just now, she felt that Ignaz was indeed the kind of man who could drag everyone down with him in a final blaze.
“Fufu, you absolutely mustn’t go!”
“Yeah, going means falling for his trap.”
“Don’t worry, Fufu! This world can’t really be destroyed, because it’s just a gam—@*#…”
In the grand hall, the Players were all trying to talk her down.
Some of them, as they spoke, had their words suddenly dissolve into meaningless, distorted syllables.
Bai Fu of course knew what they were trying to say.
It was nothing more than the belief that this world was just a game, and that the developers would never allow Ignaz to destroy the game world.
Even if he somehow succeeded, the devs would roll back the server—or launch a new version like some kind of parallel world where everything resets.
It was a reasonable mindset for Players to have.
But… was this really just a game?
Bai Fu almost didn’t believe it anymore.
So she didn’t think any kind of rollback or parallel world would appear.
Bzzz bzzz bzzz—
Just then, Bai Fu noticed her communicator was buzzing.
She tapped it open and saw that the caller was Ailijie.
Hm?
Had something happened on the Sanctum of Silent Night’s side?
Bai Fu quickly answered.
“I watched the stream just now,” Ailijie got straight to the point. “I think you can accept his challenge—but you need to find a way to delay the duel for a month.”
Bai Fu blinked in surprise. “Ailijie-jie, do you have a specific countermeasure?”
Ailijie explained, “I can use my power to accelerate your integration with the Double Helix Tree. As long as you fully fuse with it, I’m confident you’ll be able to defeat Ignaz.”
Bai Fu’s heartbeat skipped a beat.
She forced herself to stay calm.
“What’s the cost?”
“It’s just giving up my Ethereal Realm administrator status. My strength will drop, and I’ll be weakened for a while—but that’s no big deal. It’s not like you’ll ignore me after I lose power.”
Bai Fu stared into Ailijie’s eyes for a long moment before nodding in agreement.
No problem—she had her cheat powers. If anything went wrong, she could stop it instantly.
After ending the call with Ailijie, Bai Fu didn’t rush to reply to Ignaz.
She deliberately waited a full day.
Waited for the situation to escalate, for everyone to start speculating on what choice she would make.
During that day, she also made a few preparations.
First, using Audoak’s name, she issued a command to all Empire territories to cease resistance.
Then, she ordered Anya and others to raid Eternal Investment’s headquarters and beat José into the ground—to show the world the outcome of siding with the Original Accord.
After handling those two matters, Bai Fu had another in-depth discussion with Ailijie. Only after confirming all the details did she reach out to Ignaz.
“Alright. I accept. The time and place—have you decided?”
Ignaz sneered, “What’s the rush? I’ll tell you the location one day in advance.”
“What about the time?”
Ignaz didn’t respond immediately—he was clearly calculating how long it would take him to return.
Bai Fu jumped in, “Two months later?”
“No need for that long.”
“Then let’s say one month.”
Bai Fu pulled up the Imperial calendar and drew a circle around a date.
Ignaz didn’t think much of it and agreed without hesitation.
It wouldn’t take him that long to return to the Explored Universe anyway, but he still needed some preparation—and what could Bai Fu possibly achieve in a month?
Their conversation ended quickly.
Just like last time, this one was streamed live by a Player from start to finish.
The entire Star Sea was shaken by it.
But Bai Fu’s thoughts were no longer on the buzz.
She had just one month—to dispel the debuffs from her resurrection, and to bring Ailijie to her side.
On the second day after bringing Ailijie over, Bai Fu received good news.
The Esper Evolution Tree had extrapolated the evolved form of Dmitri’s Esper Power.
“Could it be that destiny favors me?”
Bai Fu’s eyes lit up.
Receiving such good news at a time like this—it was hard not to be thrilled.
She immediately sought out the Evolution Tree.
【Annihilation ex】
After reading the description of the new Esper Power, Bai Fu scratched her head.
What was clear was that this power was indeed much stronger than Dmitri’s original 【Annihilation】.
But Bai Fu didn’t think it was enough to pose a fatal threat to her.
“Is this Ignaz’s trump card?”
Bai Fu was baffled.
Suddenly—
“Fufu, Fufu.”
Bai Fu received a call from the Excavation-Princess.
“What happened?”
“Audoak said he has a secret to tell you—one that Bualot once shared with him in secret.”
“Hm?”
Bai Fu narrowed her eyes.
She sensed something unusual.