At the knight's command, the mountains broke apart where the attack had struck, dragging all the other threads clinging to them into the abyss. Rubble struck unseen rock walls in the depths with thunderous crashes.
Then the mountains rose into the heavens like a barrier, blocking the gazes directed at Lu Mingfei from the battlefield of God War.
Nidhogg was enraged. He keenly caught the opening the knight had exposed by helping Lu Mingfei and immediately lunged. The Conceptual Armament in his tailbone was not yet fully forged, but it tore through the golden radiance's defenses as a blunt weapon.
The knight raised his sword, but this reflexive block was too hasty. He lost the strength to hold his ground in this space and was driven backward by Nidhogg's enormous body, even having to gather fierce winds behind himself to slow his retreat.
But this played right into Nidhogg's scheme. He immediately stripped the knight of his power using the orthodox authority of Sky and Wind, then condensed lightning within the already thick mass of air. A Wind King Ultimate Word Spirit powerful enough to rival Primordial Authority erupted against the knight's back. Under such an assault, tangible matter could only shatter and melt.
Within the searing plasma, the knight was indeed falling freely. His armor was on the verge of disintegrating, and his powerless arm seemed to be clutching the golden greatsword on instinct.
Lu Mingfei was still running at full speed.
"Gate, gate, gate! Where are you, gate?" His stamina was ultimately that of an ordinary human boy, and the long run had left him drenched in sweat.
He simply repeated the knight's instructions in his mind, as though doing so would let him forget the people who had died in the storm and the apocalyptic God War.