The Shadow Tide surged like a pack of starving beasts breaking free of its restraints, snapping at the trail of Neji and Shadowweave's retreat. They were not living creatures, but manifestations of the chaotic rules within the Chaos Echo Zone. Their forms twisted without cease—at times becoming countless fine tendrils, at others converging into dark curtains that blotted out the sky. Wherever they passed, even the void itself groaned beneath the strain.
The milky-white force field intertwined with Neji's own Ordered Chaos Force Field, forming their final barrier as it desperately held against the tide's edge. Every impact made the force field shudder violently, its light flickering erratically. Shadowweave pushed her speed to its limit, while her exploration suit's thrusters had long since been driven beyond capacity, letting out a shriek of overload.
The boundary drew ever closer, and that oil-paint-like distorted scenery lay right before them.
Yet the Shadow Tide behind them moved faster, about to swallow them both whole.
At that critical moment, a fierce glint flashed through Neji's eyes. He spun around sharply, no longer content with mere defense.
Chaos True Essence surged into the Crystal Ring on his wrist like a burst dam. The ring erupted with an unprecedented, blazing milky-white radiance. Rather than spreading outward, the light condensed to the extreme, becoming a pure white beam no thicker than an arm yet seemingly containing infinite order and stability. It shot savagely toward the center of the largest dark curtain, the one chasing them most closely!
"Spear of Order!"
This was a variant application he had just comprehended from the principles of the Chain of Order. It compressed the powers of stability and restraint to their utmost limit, turning them into a one-use piercing attack with intense anchoring and purification effects.
The instant the white beam