Night Journey

Chapter 59 Stabilizing Anchors
The craftsmen of the Mechanical Destiny have distinct fighting styles due to the different forging courts they belong to.

Some spirit craftsmen will highly cybernetize their bodies, turning themselves into terrifying killing machines. Others will record a large number of design blueprints in their minds and create various weapons on the spot, as well as wearable mechanical armor, to fight the enemy, depending on the changes in the battlefield situation.

Other spirit craftsmen, like Rolf, are like puppeteers, creating and manipulating powerful steel creations.

One man becomes an army.

The sky was filled with artillery fire and beams of light, which intertwined and turned into a destructive torrent that washed over the body of the Devouring Worm. Its seemingly indestructible scales crumbled inch by inch, raising large amounts of charred blood.

"Haha, this is the kind of firepower superiority science that our Wanji Tonglu Academy is so passionate about!"

Rolf burst out laughing.

He turned his head away, expecting Cillian to be terrified and trembling under the sound of gunfire.

But what Rolf saw was a completely different expression.

In Cillian's eyes, there was only a similar surge of emotion to Rolf's, and even more so, Cillian's enthusiasm.

Seeing this, Rolf actually felt a sense of sympathy.

"That's so cool."

Cillian praised her sincerely.

"You seem quite interested in the power of mechanical skeletons?"

In the brief moment between suppressing the Devourers, Rolf even had time to chat with Cirion.

“Of course,” Cillian added, “but to be precise, I have a very high interest in anything that can kill Chaos.”

"Oh? Then you'll have to see this!"

Rolf admired the young man even more, and if Cillian was still alive after everything was over, he planned to invite him to breakfast.

"what is that?"

Cillian swung his sword and cut down a demon that tried to approach.

"Its official name is Reality Stabilizer Generator, but that sounds a bit too long and too convoluted."

As Rolf spoke, the back of the Dominator Armor bulged, and the metal plates unfolded one by one, revealing a spire made entirely of crimson crystals.

"Therefore, people are more accustomed to calling it a stabilizing anchor."

Under Rolf's firepower, the Devourer's ascent was greatly slowed down, but even so, its nearly tens of meters long body had already reached reality, like a giant snake coiled up.

"Its main body is made of high-purity soul essence, while its tail has a special detonation system."

The ruler arched his body, his arms driven into the ground as if he were carrying a giant cannon.

"Just like the operating principle of the Lighthouse, when it hits a chaotic creature, the power of the soul essence released instantly after being amplified and diffused by the detonation system is like a temporarily lit Lighthouse, which is enough to dispel the surrounding narrow gray area, stabilize reality, and thus interrupt the ascent of the spirit world."

With the terrifying worms close at hand and countless demons roaring and swirling around them, in this maddening and desperate situation, Cillian and Rolf, as if they had known each other for a long time, began to talk at length.

Rolf asked, "Are you going to press the launch button?"

"what?"

"Kidding."

Before the words were even finished, the control armor fired its stabilizing bolts, and the roar of heavy artillery echoed throughout.

Instead of shooting at the Devourer, it sped toward the boundary between the ground, the spirit world, and reality.

The high-speed friction with the air ignited the essence of the outer layer of the stabilizing anchor bolt, and raging flames coiled around it, like a distant fire meteor.

Ciri watched the firelight fade away.

There were no scorching winds or heat waves, nor any earth-shattering explosions; there was only a silently expanding fireball, until it became the rising sun.

Wherever the ball of light touched, the chaotic gray mist was completely evaporated, and the demons turned to ashes and vanished without a trace, without even uttering a mournful cry.

A void was created in the narrow gray area, interrupting the fusion of the spirit world and reality within it, and also stopping the upward movement of the Devouring Worms.

Amidst the piercing howl, one could faintly hear the low groans of flesh being torn apart.

Ignoring the sturdy scales, the separated realms sliced ​​through the flesh of the worm-eating creature in space, raising a cloud of murky blood that crashed to the ground, corroding everything it touched like strong acid.

With a low growl of resentment, the Devourer's figure gradually disappeared into the darkness, like a sinking giant ship, slowly disappearing underground.

"See? It's very simple."

Rolf let out a long breath, "Most chaotic creatures at the city-state level can only threaten the safety of the city-state. If dealt with properly, they are far from being able to destroy a city-state."

"No... I don't think it's that simple."

Ciri interrupted Rolf. He couldn't see the Devourer, but he could sense that the stinging pain from the Ouroboros Seal hadn't stopped.

"Ok?"

Rolf wondered where Cillian, a first-ranked individual, got the confidence to make that judgment, and then he sensed it too.

The ground was no longer firm and flat; instead, it sank rapidly like sand.

"Damn it, it's trying to devour this area."

Rolf's expression changed drastically.

Faced with the banishment of the stable anchor, the Devourer did not sink back to the Spirit Realm. Instead, it preferred to have its body separated by the two realms in order to devour the two of them.

Its head split open like flower petals, and countless black particles spread in all directions like a swarm of bees.

This is its mouthparts; wherever it touches, it will sink into the spirit world.

The ground began to collapse and sink, converging on the two of them.

This wasn't the first time Cillian had experienced the ups and downs of the spirit world, he roared.

Are there any more stabilizing anchors?

"Do you know how expensive this thing is? There are only a handful in the entire city of Hull."

Rolf didn't have time to retrieve his Domination Armor. He grabbed Cillian, and the roar of mechanical meshing echoed beneath his aged body.

The narrow darkness followed Rolf's steps like a shadow, covering the Domination Armor that had been stationary and disappearing from sight.

"Damn it, it's targeting me!"

Rolf quickly instructed, "Cillian, leave this place. As long as you hide under the Lighthouse of Light, the Light of Soul Essence can stop the collapse of the Spirit Realm."

Cillian asked worriedly, "And what about you?"

"Me? I have my own way."

A smile tugged at Rolf's aged face as he stopped in his tracks.

"As for you, keep running!"

Rolf stood with his back to Cillian, facing the pitch-black swarm of bees that blended into the night.

"Seriously, I'm so old, why would I want to fight a monster like you to the death?"

Rolf muttered a complaint, “That’s true. You monsters shouldn’t be judged by common sense. Even in death, you still feast.”

He took a deep breath, a brilliant light flashing in his eyes. His black robe billowed without wind, and the roar of an engine came from beneath his clothes.

The immense source energy slowly lifted Rolf up, pure white light filled his eyes, and streaks of dark blue electricity danced across his body, even transforming into massive bolts of lightning that mercilessly struck the ground, sparking bursts of sparks.

Rolf opened his mouth, his voice cold and hollow.

"Rolf Reed, requesting to connect to the network of equal laws."

A similarly cold and hollow voice responded from the void.

"Authentication successful. Rolf Reid has been connected to the Network of Peers."

"Request to download the design blueprints for the World-Shattering Spear." This time, the ethereal voice did not respond immediately. Instead, numerous sensors within Rolf's body began to flash at high frequency, reading values ​​from the surrounding environment.

"High-threat chaotic creature detected. Application approved. Design blueprints for the World-Shattering Spear are in progress..."

A flood of information rushed into Rolf's mind, and for a moment, even his self-awareness became blurred.

Rolf stiffly raised his right hand, comically mimicking the motion of a pistol, and pointed it forward.

Streaks of faint light converged around Rolf, vaguely forming the phantom of a giant cannon.

"Printing the World-Shattering Spear has begun, progress 3%..."

In an instant, countless bolts of lightning fiercely struck the ground, ionizing the air.

Anything that comes into contact with it will disintegrate and undergo a qualitative change.

They were heated, melted, and cooled, and cast into precise parts out of thin air. These parts were then pieced together one by one into the complex phantom. In just over ten seconds, the phantom of the giant cannon became a real object.

The cold voice paused.

"Printing complete."

The terrifying spear charged with energy, its terrifying power fully concentrated, and the extreme heat almost melted the muzzle.

"boom--"

Rolf made onomatopoeic sounds like a child.

Trigger, fire.

The spear of terror unleashed a beam of light several meters in diameter, and at the same time, the spear itself disintegrated due to its extremely high energy.

It can only fire once, but once is enough.

The light pierced through the darkness, plowed across the earth, and countless demons vanished into thin air, along with the resentful worms that were unwilling to be banished.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, nor any terrifying echo; only silent evaporation.

The light vanished in an instant, and the darkness vanished completely.

After being struck by both the stabilizing anchor bolt and the terrifying spear, even though the Devourer was a beast that wreaked havoc in the city, it was inevitably banished and disappeared into the darkness of the horizon, leaving behind only pieces of broken flesh and tough scales.

The terrifying spear disintegrated into a pile of wreckage.

Rolf disconnected from the Network of Harmony, and the design blueprint synchronized into his mind disappeared as well. His suppressed personal consciousness reawakened, and his forehead was covered in a dense layer of cold sweat.

"Ha... I'm really getting old..."

Rolf felt a wave of dizziness and staggered around, only to see Cirion rushing toward him with a tense expression.

“Oh, Cillian, I have repelled it…”

The moment Rolf finished speaking, a chilling coldness ran down his spine.

He banished the Devourer, but some of its "mouthparts" remained in the real world, and the light stream failed to completely evaporate them.

The remaining black particles, like a ribbon, wrapped around Rolf.

This power alone is insufficient to kill Rolf, or even harm him, but it can shake the foundations of reality and drag him into the mire of the spirit world.

"Bastard!"

Rolf cursed under his breath, his prosthetic arm disintegrating and transforming into a hand cannon, but he no longer had the chance to fire.

Darkness, like an impenetrable curtain, descended upon Rolf.

In the moment of crisis, a spark ignited beside Rolf, and a roar arrived belatedly.

"Stand still!"

Cillian put one arm around Rolf's shoulder and used the other hand to drive the Boiling Sword into the ground.

The flames raged fiercely, releasing the essence of the soul.

collapse--

Reality crumbled all around like a sand table, with dark red fissures visibly devouring the earth.

The soil and stones, at this moment, were like biscuits being chewed up by an invisible behemoth, falling into the void in chunks and pieces.

As the dust settled, Rolf finally saw the precision of the collapse: a circular area with a radius of twenty meters centered three meters beneath his feet had been completely carved out, the vertical cliff face as if slashed by a sharp blade.

In the center of this deep pit, the ground where the two stood remained strangely intact, like a black obelisk growing out of the void.

Rolf paused for a moment, then said in a dry voice, "Well done, kid."

"Ha ha……"

Cillian was pale and gave a weary laugh.

As the Devouring Worms devoured the earth, Cillian detonated all his soul essence, briefly stabilizing reality and allowing the two to survive the collapse of the spirit world.

The areas that were not protected, just as they are now, have all vanished and sunk into the spirit world.

"Ah...ah..."

A mournful cry came from afar. Ciri looked up and saw a few scattered figures at the edge of the abyss.

Those were the superhumans who fought alongside Cillian. Some had lost arms, some had lost legs, some had been cut in half, and some had even lost their heads.

The collapse of reality also affected them; the flesh and blood they lost were not severed by sharp blades, but sank into the spirit world along with the Devouring Worms.

Looking further into the distance, Cirien saw that the high walls of Hel City had also collapsed, revealing a narrow gap with a smooth, flat surface, clearly showing the internal structure and metal cross-section.

Rolf was so composed when he repelled the Devourer that Cillian had no idea what a terrifying power he had just been fighting.

“Cillian, you…”

Rolf now viewed Cillian in a different light.

Despite being only at the first rank, the soul essence that Xilian fully ignited was able to achieve the effect of stabilizing the anchor, even if only for a moment, and even if the sanctuary he maintained was so narrow, it was still an indisputable fact.

Rolf's mind was filled with many questions, but he did not ask them immediately. Instead, he sighed.

"You've been a great help."

“It’s nothing, I just did what I could,” Cillian said softly. “You’re so powerful, you wouldn’t be in any danger even if you fell into the spirit world, would you?”

"I will not die if I fall into the spirit world."

Rolf nodded, then shook his head.

"But it's estimated that they'll have a very hard time getting out alive."

In the distance, a series of ferocious figures rose up. As they drew closer, Cillian realized that they were mechanical constructs that surrounded the two of them and opened fire on the remaining demons in all directions to suppress them.

Someone hurried over and asked anxiously.

"Chief of Staff, what's the situation?"

Rolf did not respond, his gaze lowered and falling on the Boiling Sword in Cirion's hand.

The intense burning had completely burned away the bandages on the Boiling Sword, revealing the emblem on the hilt.

Cillian's heart skipped a beat, and he asked tentatively.

"They call you...Chief?"

"Oh, by the way, let's get to know each other again. Cillian, I am Rolf Reid, the current Chief Technology Officer of Hull City."

Rolf noticed Cillian's unease and smiled.

May I invite you to breakfast?

(End of this chapter)