Blackstone Fortress.
This place no longer bore any resemblance to what it had once been.
Augustine had received Ye Qiyan's order to search the city for survivors. Unexpectedly, he had actually found someone.
"Overlord, just ahead."
Standing in Augustine's hand, Ye Qiyan looked at a barrier shrouded in light within an underground cavity at the fortress's center.
Once they reached the ground, Eve immediately wanted to shoot the barrier open, but Ye Qiyan stopped her.
Approaching the barrier, Ye Qiyan raised a hand and pressed it against its surface.
[Light Resonance-Vitality Protection] [A defensive barrier created by a Light Elemental Resonator through a connection to their own life. If the barrier is destroyed, its creator dies as well.]
Inside the barrier was the survivor Augustine had found, and Ye Qiyan knew her.
Chloe, the blonde girl who had been the first to speak to him after he entered this Platform World.
Time stood still within the barrier. Chloe stood in the center holding a person-tall Wand, surrounded by wounded soldiers from the fortress.
Presumably, she had been unable to withstand the Black Tide brought by Abyss and, at the very last moment, had used this barrier linked to her own life to protect the wounded.
But the main reason she had survived was merely that Abyss had not turned his attention elsewhere. The [Despair] that had engulfed this world was nothing more than a more comfortable environment [Abyss] had constructed for himself.
The barrier could not be destroyed carelessly, or Chloe would certainly die.
But if time was simply allowed to pass until the barrier exhausted her life, Chloe would die as well.
Should I save her?
"She was the first person I met, after all. I'll call it repayment for treating me to a meal."
``` [Talisman