The old man's lips moved faintly, his voice so low that only he himself could hear it. His hoarse tone carried an ancient weariness.
The light beam completely dissipated, and the Sea of Knowledge above the Tower of Erudition returned to silence, as though nothing had happened.
The Guardian withdrew his domain at the same moment.
The crushing weight pressing down on Lu Yuan abruptly vanished. Air flowed again, the wind returned, and the sounds of the distant battlefield rushed back into his ears.
Lu Yuan drew a deep breath, his limbs weak and his knees nearly giving out.
He raised his head toward the Guardian.
The old man's stooped figure still stood there. The pitch-black aura around him slowly receded, and the Black Eyeballs closed one by one, sinking into the depths of shadow.
After the Guardian withdrew his domain, Leike's Insect Tide began to contract. The gray insect carpet covering the entire Workshop Ruins swiftly drew back toward the center, revealing the battlefield beneath.
Klaus stood amid the ruins.
The green light on his Bone Sword had yet to fade completely, and grayish-white fluid stained its blade. At his feet, Nine's body lay on the shattered stone ground, head and torso parted ways. The cross-section of Chitin at the break glimmered with dark-green crystalline light.
Nine's head had rolled two steps away. Its mouth still opened and closed, its eyeballs still turning. Chitin's vitality kept him from dying for the moment, but that was all. Clearly, Klaus had spared his life.
J lay collapsed against a wall, his entire body shriveled, skin clinging tightly to bone. The wrinkles on his face ran so deep they looked carved there, making him seem decades older.
Margaret's extraction had nearly squeezed every drop of moisture from his body. Even his blood