The Void

A spatial ripple tens of meters tall appeared. A monster with a humanoid shape and enormous flesh wings slowly emerged, its entire body covered in flesh wings and tentacles.

Its pale eyes fixed on Aurelian.

"Starforge... blood sacrifice... resurrection..."

A strange, whispering murmur rang out.

"It ends here."

Aurelian made George stop, then turned to face the enormous, misshapen monster.

"Starforge... blood sacrifice... resurrection..."

The monster kept repeating the same words as it drew closer to Aurelian.

"There's nowhere left to run, but you think you've got me cornered? I'm telling you, you don't!"

Aurelian leapt off his horse and stood firm on the frozen plain.

"A so-called magical barrier is an overlapping space created when a powerful source of magic distorts space. Once that source disappears, the barrier will collapse like a building whose foundation has been removed."

Aurelian spoke coldly as he watched the monster.

Then he immediately turned and ran toward the center of the magical barrier. That was his final destination, and the core sustaining this pocket dimension.

He darted between countless ice pillars, racing toward the site where the Ice Sculpture Tree had once stood.

Roar—

The misshapen monster pursued relentlessly. Countless ice pillars crumbled to icy dust beneath its feet, while a mass of tentacles coiled around the monster corpses inside and lifted them into its gaping maw to be devoured.

Fleshy growths kept sprouting across its enormous body, and its magical power continued to rise until it had reached a terrifying level.

If the magic it had accumulated inside itself burst out, its power would probably rival that of a nuclear bomb from the technological side!

And Aurelian had nowhere left to run. The exit from the magical barrier had already been blocked.

"Here!"

Aurelian dashed to the mound of icy dust. A powerful surge of magic was flowing beneath it.

A magical barrier was essentially a tightly sealed, closed-loop system, and its powerful, surging source of magic was the very core of that system.

He only needed to interfere with it to make the system collapse on its own.

Once the barrier collapsed, the chaotic currents of the void outside would pour in and ravage everything here.

But Aurelian was taking a gamble. As he remembered it, this world had a rule concerning the void beyond its boundaries.

The more powerful a being's magic, the more the void would turn against it after it entered.

Because of the void's restrictions, humans in this world knew nothing about what lay beyond it.

That didn't stop Aurelian from exploiting this trait of the void and the monster's immense reserves of magic to thrust it into the abyss. It was the only option he had. If a truly powerful Upper Rank knight had come instead, they could probably have dealt with it using just one massive burst of magic.

But using the void's nature put Aurelian himself in danger too. He had reached the third stage of magic, the Lower Rank. Among all living things, he too belonged to the ranks of those with powerful magic.

Interfering with the source of magic sustaining the barrier was extremely risky, but Aurelian could first exhaust what little magic he had. That would minimize the danger the void posed to him.

Besides, he was wearing a suit of Anti-Magic Armor, which could withstand the chaotic currents of the void to some degree.

So Aurelian was taking a risk, gambling for a chance at survival. At least it was better than doing nothing.

The misshapen monster kept drawing closer in the distance. Along the way, it had devoured who knew how many magical beasts, and its already enormous body had grown another size. The aura it gave off was even more terrifying; it had clearly reached Upper Rank strength.

But it had only reached that level by using vast amounts of magic to force its growth. It didn't possess true Upper Rank power.

Upper Rank was a city-level threat!

"Now everything comes down to this. If I win, I go home to a massage from the maid. If I lose, I take a trip to the void."

Holding Innocent Starlight in one hand, Aurelian smiled wryly.

"Starforge... blood sacrifice... resurrection..."

The enormous, misshapen monster continued its murmuring. Seeing that Aurelian had stopped fleeing, it sent out countless snake-like tentacles that swept toward him, seeking to wrap around him completely.

"Come on!"

Snowflakes drifted down from the sky. He plunged the azure blade of Innocent Starlight into the frozen earth beneath his feet.

As he poured in all his magic, purple light rippled across the blade!

The sudden gust of wind caught his blue cloak and sent it billowing!

Crack, crack—

The ground beneath Aurelian began to split, fissures opening up one after another. A dazzling glow shone faintly from within them.

The cracks spread outward from Aurelian at a terrifying speed, sending layers of snow surging across the frozen ground.

Boom!

An incredibly powerful, unstoppable pulse of magic burst outward, erasing the monster's advancing tentacles!

The monster's anguished roar shook the entire world.

Yet Aurelian, standing at the center, was miraculously unharmed. The egg hanging against his chest had protected him.

He could feel the magical pulse dissipating the instant it neared him. Otherwise, he would have been erased too—perhaps even worse, vaporized on the spot.

He thanked the egg silently. If the situation weren't so urgent, he would have kissed it hard.

Rumble—

The entire barrier began to turn upside down as it crumbled. Aurelian swayed from side to side, struggling to keep his footing.

The frost-covered earth began to crack apart into chunks, which then sank and disappeared below.

The barrier had lost its source of magic and was being torn apart.

The hazy sky gave way to blackness. Aurelian could sense the nothingness within that darkness.

The void had come. It was about to claim this place.

The misshapen monster grabbed the land that had not yet sunk with two enormous hands. It was still struggling to reach Aurelian.

It would do anything to capture him.

Its furious roar brimmed with unwillingness, while the will behind it continued to drive it onward.