A Snap of the Fingers

PS1: As usual, the background music for this chapter is "Run Free," the one from "Two Steps From Hell." It seems quite short, so I suggest looping it. That's all.

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"Hurry up, hurry up..."

Nick was already delirious, but he still weakly repeated, repeated.

Selendron laughed hoarsely, tears streaming down the face of this powerful and proud elven commander. He murmured, "Kang De, I admit the Dusk Warband's defeat, I humiliatingly begged for help from the rear, all for you, all for this day. You're finished. Even if you escape now, it's no use..."

The mercenary group that had stormed the Dusk Legion's camp also received this terrible news. Some were hesitant, while others resolutely stormed into the city to deliver the message.

A Xing said, "Kang De, we're leaving. I'll take you away; no one can hurt you."

The Autobots calmly replied, "Father, I must say, you've done your best..."

Selendron's laughter lingered for a long time.

Kang De looked at Nick, who was also looking at him with a sorrowful, pleading, and desperate gaze.

They've already tried so hard.

The people in this city.

They gave up everything, fought with all their might, whether they knew it or not, they all struggled and sacrificed for the suffering people, the ignorant people, the brave people, and the respectable people of this land.

This is the fate that awaits them.

All courage, all cowardice, whether despicable or noble.

It's all meaningless.

This city is destined to be destroyed.

Sooner or later.

Even if the Dusk Warband's attack is blocked, and even if the elves outside the city are defeated, the main elf force will crush the city like ants.

It's the same ending no matter what.

There is no hope, only death; that is the life of the people living here.

Did their valiant fight and selfless sacrifice truly have any meaning?

Nick made such a sacrifice, hardening his heart and giving up everything, only to halt the Dusk Warband's advance for a few days, at the cost of so many lives lost...

He stared blankly at Nick, who was on his deathbed.

Nick blinked and looked at Kang De. He was usually an elegant nobleman who should have lived his life in an orderly manner, but he chose to burn his life in these few days.

The mayor understood Kang De's meaning and read his eyes.

I have no regrets...

He murmured.

But then, tears of blood streamed down her face.

Nick's grief and resolute expression were utterly profound.

He sighed sadly and desperately, not for his own fate, but for others, for the countless lives in the city that were helpless and adrift like duckweed.

"But I'm still so sad..."

Kang De understood his brief words and sorrowful sigh.

He suddenly felt a deep, bone-chilling sorrow—the bewilderment of the brave, the tears of the sacrificed, the weakness of the indomitable—the saddest things in the world.

He had never felt the weight of fate like this before.

Those acts of courage and sacrifice destined to be meaningless, those acts of despicable behavior and betrayal that ultimately amounted to nothing.

This is the fate of all beings in Valentan.

That shouldn't be the case.

That shouldn't be done.

The faces flashed through his mind—the faces of the people who died in this city, every single one of them. They were born in a chaotic world, their lives were as worthless as grass, their sacrifices were fruitless, and their courage was meaningless.

A tear slowly slid down.

Intense and overwhelming emotions welled up inside me.

At this moment, he finally realized the heavy fate that the people of this world bore. He finally understood that the ultimate suffering of the people here was not due to the lack of technology or the backwardness of Civilization, but rather because this cruel and heavy fate had befallen every innocent and ordinary person.

This feeling, this impulse to change everything, stems from a personal experience of suffering and sacrifice—the purest hope and determination—called...

--mercy.

Tears fell to the ground.

The next moment, intense light burst forth from Kang De's chest, the extreme heat pressing against his pounding heart. The Crimson Scroll, originating from the King of Gods, radiated an unprecedented brilliance, shining with the divine name of justice and mercy, and the powerful divine force sank into Kang De's soul.

In an instant, heaven and earth reversed, the world disappeared, and he appeared in an indescribable and incomprehensible dimension, looking around at everything with a bewildered and confused expression.

Beneath our feet, a long river flows from the past to the future, giving order to space and defining the state of the world.

He saw countless eyes appear in the endless void, whispers echoing from the depths of his soul. Each voice inquired about his wishes, offering him everything in exchange for the Crimson Scroll in his possession.

"No."

He murmured, "I just want to save them."

Those vibrant lives—those he knew, those he didn't, those who were alive, and those who had died.

And their shared fate.

"I could have never come here, I could have had everything..." Kang De whispered, "But now, I only want to save these people who are unaware of joy in life and sorrow in death, who could have lived happy and fulfilling lives."

Those pairs of eyes left in disappointment, and then, the world was left with only one sound. Kang De felt the gaze of the last pair of eyes, calm and warm, even with joy.

"As you wish."

The long river beneath our feet surged and churned, and the world around us became bizarre and fantastical, a dimension that no human could ever comprehend in a lifetime.

In that ever-changing, endless void, Kang De saw what he had wanted to see.

That was a...

Door.

"It's useless. Even if you run now, you'll be hunted down and caught. All resistance is pointless. There's only one reason you'll die: by being enemies with Twilight Moon!"

Selendron's laughter echoed in his ears. Before him stood the A Xing, who looked nervous yet expectant. Kang De opened his eyes and turned to look at Selendron.

"Not necessarily."

Upon hearing this, Selendron met his eyes, intending to mock him, but instead saw that those eyes were no longer the color of the Cathayan, but rather the same golden rings as A Xing's.

He was startled. "You..."

Kang De shouted sternly, "Come here!"

The Autobots transformed and drove in. Kang De pressed down on his hood, and the next moment, the portal opened, Iron Son vanished from the world. Kang De picked up a spear and said to A Xing, "How high can you throw this?"

"Very high," said A Xing. "What are you doing?"

Kang De's mind raced, and he looked up at the sky. "I want to go over there!"

"That's easy! There's an even more convenient way!"

A Xing roared to the sky, and instantly, a cry came from the horizon. A black dot grew larger as it approached—it was a giant eagle, landing on the platform amidst a whirlwind. A person jumped down from the eagle. "My lord!"

"Cassandra, Falconer, I give you my command!"

In front of others, A Xing showed no gentleness whatsoever, only an unyielding authority. "That means taking Kang De into the sky, obeying his commands, wherever he wants you to take him!"

The kneeling warrior had healthy, wheat-colored skin and a tall, athletic build—a physique strong yet possessing a feminine grace. Upon hearing this, she looked up, first glancing at Kang De with hostility in her eyes, then resolutely refusing. "I swear to follow you until my last breath. The elven army is approaching; I cannot abandon you and flee with him, absolutely not!"

"This isn't about running for your life; this is an order!"

The henchman's disobedience made A Xing lose face in front of Kang De. She made a move to hit him, but Kang De stopped her and said to Cassandra, "This is not an order, this is war."

A moment later, the giant eagle flapped its wings and took to the air.

Kang De said to the A Xing, "Guard this place and wait for my return."

The A Xing makes an "OK" sign, making it even cuter than when it's in its gorilla form.

A giant eagle flapped its wings, soared over the city of suffering, and took off.

"That's Cassandra's eagle! And it's carrying someone on it! Not the captain!"

The troops outside the city had received news that the main elven force was on a massive offensive and about to arrive. The news spread like wildfire, and fear was as pervasive as ever. With the authority of their commander, they dared to challenge the exhausted Dusk Warband, but now...

"We followed her to rescue her lover, and now we're just going to let him run away first?!"

Outside the city, someone was already shouting, "Coward! Coward!"

He cursed as he drew his giant bow, but the next moment, a longsword appeared before him. "What do you think you're doing? That's my sister! If you dare hurt her, I'll kill you!"

"Your sister ran away with this man! Abandoning us!" the man glared at the young man with the sword drawn. "We'll die if we stay here! Run now, and we might have a chance to survive!"

He raised his arm in a rallying cry, and many were already itching to move. Cassandra's brother tried to dissuade them, saying, "It's not necessarily about running away! The Commander must have a plan..."

"Not running away? Then what is he going to do? Go and defeat that main elf force?"

The young people had no way to refute this mockery and contempt.

The sky was vast and distant. A giant eagle soared into the clouds. Kang De sat behind Cassandra and said calmly, "You have a lot of grudges against me. To prevent you from doing anything foolish, I'll make it clear beforehand: even if you throw me off right now, I won't die from the fall, but you will die a horrible death, without me even having to lift a finger."

Cassandra said coldly, "Don't worry, I obey the captain's orders. No matter how absurd it is, I will take you to a safe place and then come back..."

"This is not your task," Kang De said. "Keep this direction, keep ascending, until the limit of your bird's reach, the higher the better."

Cassandra gritted her teeth, ordering the giant eagle to continue ascending while saying, "This direction is where the main elven force is coming from, you..."

"Stop talking nonsense."

The giant eagle continued to rise into the sky, soaring above the thin clouds. The sunlight grew increasingly intense, but the temperature also dropped lower and lower, and the ground became smaller and smaller, until the city of Valentan became an insignificant little matchbox.

Until the ground resembled a realistic and colorful map.

The giant eagle let out a cry, and the surrounding temperature began to chill to the bone. Cassandra shivered and said, "We're almost at our limit. Any higher and we won't be able to take it."

That's about enough.

Kang De released the other man's waist and stood up. "Your next command is to catch me when I need help."

Cassandra said, "Wait! What are you trying to do?"

You'll understand.

Kang De pulled out a Tomahawk, ran his hand across the blade, and then threw it downwards.

Then he leaped down from the giant eagle.

Cassandra screamed, but the next moment, Kang De, who had been looking calm, vanished.

The world shifts, Kang De leaps out of his apartment in the neighborhood, climbs to the top floor, and jumps down from the other side. He uses his Tomahawk to slash along the wall to slow down, and below, the massive Autobots has already spread its arms.

"Father! Where are we going?"

Main road.

On this bustling main road, hundreds of cars of all kinds were lined up. Kang De had already explained the plan to Iron Son. The divine power of the Dragon of Space and Time filled his body, giving him the power to change the world. Let's start now, let's start from here.

He stood in the center of the crossroads, his hands clasped together, his immense divine power connecting him to the world, just as the divine power of time had once been integrated into this world.

"I need the Fire Warding and Iron Wall Enchantment to grant them the ability to remain intact under high temperatures..."

Words become law, intentions follow the heart. At this moment, Kang De and the Dragon of Space and Time are both present, the will of the King of Gods sweeps across, the endless White Mist surges up, and two torrents emerge from the ancient chaos of the White Mist, two torrents of Element revealing their specific forms.

"Very good."

Kang De spread his hands apart.

It was a door.

The portal connecting the two worlds remains open and stable.

Let's begin!

The Autobots roared in response, its powerful engine revving as it charged towards Kang De from a distance, grabbing cars parked on the roadside and hurling them at the open door behind Kang De!

Two torrents of Element swirled behind Kang De and before the portal, Fire Warding and the other iron-walled. As the golden light in Kang De's eyes reached, the swirling currents formed two extremely primitive enchantments for Akatum, before passing through the portal and arriving in the skies above the otherworld!

The Autobots' power systems were running at full speed, hurling vehicles—vans, cars, SUVs, commuter cars, taxis—like a discus thrower. They even smashed the road surface step by step, bombarding it with massive chunks of asphalt, heavy roadblocks, and even long streetlights!

"Father!"

The Autobots shouted, "I must remind you, perhaps your ascent to the other world isn't high enough!"

"I know!"

Kang De calmly replied, "Therefore..."

He looked up at the vast sky above, his spirit extending infinitely to form an anchor point. Then he leaped backward, his body disappearing, returning to the sky of another world.

The anchor point is on the axe head, thus appearing below the Tomahawk.

Cars kept whizzing down from above.

"Simply repeat this process."

He spread his arms, and the divine power of spacetime roared out, opening the spatial portal once more!

The countless cars that crashed down fell back into the White Mist World, landing in the far distance where they had just anchored.

They fell one after another, like shooting stars.

As the last car came to a stop, Kang De shouted, "Cassandra!"

A giant eagle swooped down and caught him. Cassandra, still shaken, asked, "What were all those things?"

"Strength."

Kang De handed her the axe. "Continue to ascend, count to one hundred in your mind, then throw the axe away!"

Before Cassandra could ask anything, Kang De vanished from his spot and reappeared on a street in the White Mist World, looking up at the whistling energy weapon hurtling down.

"Too slow!"

The power of time spread through the void, golden hourglasses enveloped the world, and meteors falling from the sky accelerated their descent. Kang De tilted his head back, waiting. "Calculate for me."

"Yes! Speed calculation complete, adjustments needed..."

As the flow of time changes, the portals of space open, and speed parameters are adjusted according to the flow of time until they pass through the portals again and arrive in another world.

Then, repeat this process.

Accelerate, accelerate, accelerate, accelerate.

"Father, the world... is changing."

With each opening of the spatial gate, and with each change in the flow of time.

Kang De calmly said, "Continue."

He knew what he was doing, and he knew what would happen next.

On Earth, Wang Xiaoman stood silently by the door of Kang De's house. She missed Kang De, who was no longer in this world, but she certainly didn't know what had happened.

There exists an uninhabited world almost identical to Earth, shrouded in White Mist and shrouded in mystery. Both worlds should maintain the same flow of time, differing only by three hours. However, what the girl is unaware of is that at this very moment, in that White Mist World, the flow of time is gradually accelerating.

In other words, the time anchor point between the White Mist World and Earth is gradually approaching and synchronizing.

This process is repeated.

The falling speed kept increasing, until Kang De even had to activate time acceleration to open the portal, to prevent these increasingly terrifying falling objects from crashing directly onto the ground of the White Mist World.

"Father... the enchantment is nearing its limit and could break at any moment."

"Oh."

Both father and son knew what this meant.

Kang De remained silent for a moment, then a spatial portal opened before him; he was going back.

"Father."

"What?"

"You're about to do that kind of thing... How are you feeling right now?"

Kang De remained silent, then stepped through the doorway, leaving behind a calm voice.

"I feel sorry for the war's victims who are about to die."

The second half of the sentence appears in another world.

"And I feel... sadness for another victim this war will soon bring."

Cassandra caught him and asked, "What?"

Kang De said, "Descend, find the Elven vanguard cavalry battle group."

Cassandra obediently gave the order this time. She had some guesses about what was about to happen, some disbelief, but also some anticipation. The only thing she was certain of was that the man behind her... was no ordinary person.

She couldn't help but ask, "What were you trying to say?"

Kang De laughed.

His thoughts drifted back to the day he first defended the city. He and Hong San led a bunch of rookies from the Heaven and Earth Society to the city wall as cannon fodder, while their veteran captain shouted many amusing things.

--The Earth God is the deadliest bastard in all of this siege warfare.

Now things have changed; the veteran captain has long since died in battle. But no matter how time flows or how the world changes, he was right after all.

As the giant eagle descended, the mountains and rivers gradually became real. Under the sunlight, he could see a large cavalry force roaring in, their armor like clouds, capable of destroying almost everything.

We're very close to Valentan.

He said softly, "I mean, praise gravity."

Cassandra asked, bewildered, "What? So what exactly are you trying to say? What are you going to do?"

"Me...?"

Kang De stood atop the giant eagle, bowed his head for a moment, then looked up and smiled.

I want to snap my fingers.

He raised his hand.

Clatter

The door opened.

The falling objects, their speed already inflated to terrifying limits, hurtled down. The intense friction and resistance exceeded the enchantment's carrying capacity, causing the outer shell to shatter. Extremely high temperatures instantly engulfed everything, melting barricades and asphalt, turning cars into giant fireballs. Massive kinetic energy projectiles, each weighing several tons, streaked across the sky with terrifying trails of flame, crashing down at near-ground height.

Kang De said, "Take off."

People from the direction of Valentan shouted, "What is that!"

A dozen or so Star of the Firmament shone across the sky, like divine swords of light piercing the earth.

They landed in the center of that massive cavalry force, surrounded by everything.

Then, as if the sun had lit up the horizon, or perhaps it was just an illusion, those kinetic weapons roared as they crashed into the earth, the unprecedentedly massive impact force spreading and dissipating, turning the solid earth into an ocean, the soil churning like waves, large chunks of land collapsing and rising into the air, cars instantly disintegrating and scattering, and countless molten metal parts being launched in all directions like a torrential rain!

The billowing dust, the powerful winds, and the terrifying shockwaves swept across Valentan, as if the wrath of a god had descended upon the earth, followed by a deafening roar.

Those who wanted to run, those who wanted to continue fighting, everyone stared blankly at that scene.

"What... what's going on...?"

"I... I think I saw Cassandra's eagle..."

"Does she have that kind of ability?"

No... it can't be...

"Ah... that is..."

Amidst the raging winds, the giant eagle pierced through the clouds. Cassandra was too terrified to utter a word, while Kang De remained focused ahead, his voice calm and undisturbed.

"Keep advancing. The Elven Legion is not just a cavalry force; their main force is still behind."

In the city of Valentan, even the elves forgot about the fighting. The heavily wounded Selendron struggled, looking in that direction, his voice frantic. Although he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he had vaguely realized what had happened since Kang De had just left, but he couldn't believe it.

"What's going on? What's that? What's that?"

He frantically struck up conversations with everyone around him, including A Xing and A Xing followers who followed.

No one paid him any attention, and the mercenaries remained deathly silent.

After a moment, A Xing said calmly, "See for yourself."

Selendron opened his eyes wide and looked over. The dust raised by the Star of the Firmament had dissipated a little. Through the clouds and mist, in the far, far distance, with the elf's unparalleled eyesight, he saw hundreds of longswords of light piercing the sky and crashing down towards the ground in the far, far distance.

The commander of the Dusk Warband stared wide-eyed, even until blood seeped from them. He stared desperately, praying it was just an illusion, but finally let out a wail that sounded unlike anything a sentient being could hear.

"No!!!!!!"

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PS1: Awesome! This chapter is 6,000 words! 10,000 words updated today! The extra chapter I promised, I did it! And I even exceeded the target! Hand over your blades, recommendations, and monthly tickets!