Chapter 33: Twelve Minutes
Chapter 33: Twelve Minutes
[Syncing coordinates.]
[Progress: 3%.]
[Space stable.]
[Estimated time: 12 minutes.]
The ring of blue light expanded around the black stone pillar.
Victor’s transfer device hovered half a meter off the ground, each silver line lighting up one after another. The air around the small plaza was more stable than most of the areas Ethan had passed through. At least, the walls around them no longer kept turning into unfamiliar architecture. The ground didn’t suddenly crack open and spit out another layer of space either.
But Ethan didn’t relax.
On the contrary, he grew even more wary.
Victor stood beside the device, one hand resting on the hilt of his energy sword. Nolan paced back and forth near the edge of the ring of light, his rifle already loaded with a new crystal. Mira stood near the stone pillar, occasionally looking at Ethan and then at her two teammates.
The atmosphere was very strange.
No one said it outright.
But after Ethan opened that black-red talisman, Victor and Nolan’s attitudes had changed.
They didn’t know what it was.
Didn’t know the name.
Didn’t know the rank.
Even less knew the effect.
But they weren’t blind either.
The fluctuation coming off that talisman was clearly stronger than the things the three of them had just opened. This alone was enough to make Nolan’s gaze turn unpleasant.
Nolan finally couldn’t hold back.
He looked at Ethan and said with a smile: "What was that item you just got?"
Ethan calmly replied: "Something usable."
Nolan waited a few seconds.
But Ethan didn’t say more.
The smile on Nolan’s face faded a little.
Nolan continued asking: "What’s the effect? We’re all waiting for the gate to open together anyway. Knowing each other’s abilities makes it easier to coordinate too."
Laira coldly looked at him.
Nolan immediately shrugged. "Just asking."
Ethan replied: "No need to coordinate. Just wait out the twelve minutes."
Victor turned his head and said: "In the Anomalous Coordinates, twelve minutes isn’t short."
Ethan looked at him. "Then all the more reason not to waste energy on pointless things."
Nolan chuckled softly.
But this time, the laugh was no longer friendly.
Mira looked at Nolan, then said in a low voice: "That’s enough. Ethan isn’t wrong. We just need to hold this position until the device finishes syncing."
Nolan glanced at Mira. "I know."
Victor didn’t join the conversation.
He only looked at Laira.
Not looking too obviously.
But Ethan still noticed.
Victor was assessing the distance between Laira and him.
Assessing Laira’s reactions.
Assessing how long it would take her to turn back and protect Ethan if something happened.
Ethan slowly let out a breath.
His left arm under his shirt still ached dully. The Void Fire had been forced down after he leveled up to Black Iron tier 5, but it hadn’t vanished. The moment his body weakened, that flame would flare back up.
He couldn’t fight for long.
Nor could he trust Victor and Nolan.
Ethan’s right hand rested on the talisman in his pocket.
This was the last card.
But if he could avoid it, he didn’t want to use it.
[Sync progress: 17%.]
From the outer edge of the plaza, a dry sound rang out.
Clack.
Clack.
Clack.
Mira immediately turned her head. "Something’s coming."
Victor raised his energy shield. "How many?"
Mira looked at the compass in her hand, her expression changing slightly. "A lot. The fluctuation isn’t strong, but they’re being drawn here."
Nolan sneered. "Again?"
From the ruined roads around them, black shadows crawled out one after another.
Gaunt humanoid monsters.
Skinned wild wolves.
Deformed birds with wings covered in bone spikes.
They all had purple-black crystals on their bodies.
Their eyes were empty, but when they saw the stone pillar at the center of the plaza, all of them immediately went berserk.
Victor shouted: "Stop them outside the ring of light! If the device is destroyed, none of us can get back!"
Nolan raised his rifle and fired in succession.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three deformed birds fell from midair.
Victor charged forward, his energy shield smashing the first monster to pieces. The sword in his hand swept across, cleaving a charging wild wolf in two.
Mira immediately covered Victor and Nolan with white light.
But the moment the monsters were cut to pieces, the purple-black crystals on them shot out a thin layer of dust. That dust stuck to Victor’s shield, eroding the blue energy into small holes one after another.
Victor gritted his teeth. "Mira!"
Mira replied quickly: "I’m doing it!"
The healing light fell onto the energy shield.
But the speed of healing was slower than the speed of erosion.
Ethan watched that scene, his gaze sinking slightly.
These monsters weren’t strong.
But the Void corruption on them was very troublesome.
Laira stepped forward one pace.
Ethan said in a low voice: "Don’t use wide-area attacks. The transfer device is still syncing."
Laira nodded. "I know."
She raised her hand.
Over a dozen dark red sparks shot out.
Not too large.
Not too bright.
But extremely precise.
Each spark pierced through the head or the purple-black crystal of a monster. Red flame blazed up in the blink of an eye, incinerating both corpse and corruption. Not letting the purple dust spread. Not shaking the ring of light. Not affecting the transfer device.
Nolan glanced over while firing.
His expression grew uglier by the moment.
A Partner who had awakened not long ago.
Whose current level wasn’t high either.
But this control ability had already far surpassed most of the Gold Awakened he’d ever encountered.
Victor saw it too.
He said nothing.
But the hand gripping his sword clenched tighter.
[Sync progress: 31%.]
The monsters kept charging in.
Laira killed most of them.
Victor and Nolan only blocked the ones that slipped past the edge of the ring of light.
At first Nolan fired very eagerly, but after a few minutes, he began deliberately conserving energy. He retreated back near Victor, only firing when a monster truly closed in on the device.
Ethan saw it.
Mira saw it too.
Mira said in a low voice: "Nolan, don’t save your rounds. If the numbers increase, Laira can’t protect the whole area alone either."
Nolan glanced at her. "Don’t give me orders. I know what I’m doing."
Mira was left speechless.
Victor said coldly: "Mira, focus on healing."
Mira pressed her lips together.
She didn’t say anything more.
Laira suddenly raised her eyes.
From the east side of the plaza, a monster nearly four meters tall broke through a wall and stepped out. Its body was like a bear, but its head had three distorted human faces. On its chest was a cluster of purple-black crystal the size of a fist.
A Bronze fluctuation.
But far more heavily corrupted by the Void than the rest.
Victor immediately stepped back half a pace. "This one’s trouble."
Nolan raised his rifle. "Shoot the crystal on its chest?"
Ethan said: "Don’t shoot."
Nolan frowned. "What?"
Ethan looked at the monster. His left eye ached slightly, but he still forced himself to look for one more second.
[Corrupted monster.]
[Level: Bronze tier 6.]
[Status: Unstable Void crystal.]
[Warning: Attacking the crystal core directly will cause a corruption explosion.]
Ethan said clearly: "The crystal on its chest is unstable. If you shoot it and shatter it, the corruption will explode."
Nolan sneered. "You sure?"
Victor looked at Ethan. "You have an analysis ability?"
Ethan didn’t answer.
Laira had already acted.
She raised her right hand.
A thin chain of fire shot out, coiling around the neck of the Bronze monster. Then she pulled hard.
Crack!
The massive neck was twisted crooked.
The monster roared, but wasn’t dead. It swung its claws down at the ground, making the whole plaza tremble.
The transfer device flickered.
[Sync progress interrupted.]
[Restabilizing.]
Victor shouted: "Don’t let it slam the ground!"
Laira didn’t look at him.
The wings behind her back spread open.
She vanished from her original spot.
A second later, Laira appeared right before the monster’s chest. Her flame-covered hand thrust straight into the flesh beside the purple-black crystal, then pulled out a twitching stream of black gas.
The monster froze.
Red flame spread from the inside out.
No explosion.
No corruption dust.
Only the colossal body collapsing, burning to ash right before everyone’s eyes.
Nolan couldn’t say anything.
Victor was silent too.
Mira looked at Ethan.
A more obvious astonishment appeared in her eyes than before.
Mira asked in a low voice: "How did you know that crystal would explode?"
Ethan replied: "A guess."
Mira looked at him.
She clearly didn’t believe it.
But she didn’t ask further.
[Sync progress: 49%.]
The monsters were temporarily cleared out.
The plaza was left with only ash and energy crystals scattered across the ground.
Laira gathered them up and handed them straight to Ethan.
Ethan didn’t absorb them right away.
He put the crystals into the temporary storage pouch Mira had given him. Then, he looked at the transfer device.
"Six minutes left."
Victor nodded. "If there’s no stronger wave of attacks, that’s enough."
Nolan suddenly asked: "Ethan, what level is your Partner?"
The atmosphere immediately turned cold.
Laira looked at him.
Nolan smiled. "Don’t look at me like that. I’m just curious. A Partner as strong as her, her level surely isn’t low."
Ethan calmly replied: "Black Iron tier 5."
Nolan froze.
Victor turned his head too.
"Black Iron tier 5?"
Nolan burst out laughing, like he’d just heard the most absurd thing. "Are you joking? A Black Iron tier 5 can kill a Bronze tier 6 like crushing an insect?"
Ethan replied: "Believe it or not, that’s up to you."
Victor looked at Laira for a long while.
Black Iron tier 5.
If it was really true, then Laira’s value was even more terrifying.
Such a low level already had combat power far surpassing normal. If she were nurtured with the resources of a major family, how strong would she become?
Victor didn’t dare keep thinking.
But the more he didn’t dare think, the harder the greed within him was to force down.
Nolan slowly lowered his rifle.
He stepped toward Victor, pretending to check the energy crystal on the body of his gun.
His voice was very low.
"You heard that, right?"
Victor replied coldly: "I heard."
Nolan said: "Black Iron tier 5. The master is only Black Iron tier 5 too. A Partner like that following him is a waste."
Victor didn’t answer.
Nolan continued: "The device is about to finish syncing. Once we get back, we won’t have another chance."
Victor looked at the ring of blue light expanding around the stone pillar.
[Sync progress: 61%.]
He said very softly: "Not the time yet."
Nolan smiled. "Then when?"
Victor didn’t speak.
But his hand rested on a metal band hidden at his side.
Inside that metal band was a tool prepared by the Hale family.
[Temporary Bond Lock.]
Originally used to suppress a Partner that had lost control.
How effective it would be on Laira, Victor wasn’t sure.
But he didn’t need to lock her for too long.
Just a few seconds.
Just a few seconds for Nolan to shoot Ethan.
As long as Ethan went down, the situation would change.
Behind them, Mira saw Victor’s hand touch the metal band.
Her expression changed slightly.
She knew that thing.
She could also guess what Victor was thinking.
Mira said in a low voice: "Victor."
Victor turned his head to look at her.
His gaze was very calm.
But the warning in it immediately made Mira fall silent.
Nolan looked at Mira and curled his lip. "Don’t overthink it. We just need to survive and get back."
Mira gripped the compass in her hand tight.
She looked at Ethan.
Ethan was standing beside Laira, his face still pallid, but his gaze very clear. He didn’t seem to be looking at them, but his right hand was always resting near his pocket, where the talisman he’d just opened was kept.
Mira suddenly understood.
Ethan was on guard too.
But being on guard didn’t mean he could avoid everything.
[Sync progress: 73%.]
The ring of blue light around the stone pillar gradually stabilized.
The transfer gate began to form a faint shape.
Victor looked at the gate.
Nolan looked at Ethan.
Laira looked at both of them.
No one said anything more.
But in the small plaza, the killing intent had already grown clearer than the sound of the wind.
Ethan said in a low voice: "Laira."
Laira replied immediately: "I know."
Ethan asked: "If I say run, can you get me out of here in the blink of an eye?"
Laira looked at him.
Then she smiled.
"I can."
Ethan nodded.
"Then get ready."
On the other side, Victor slowly tightened his grip on the metal band.
Nolan quietly switched a silver round into his gun.
Mira looked at both sides.
Cold sweat ran down her temples.
The transfer gate was still opening.
[Sync progress: 81%.]
The remaining nine parts should have just been a matter of waiting.
But no one in the plaza truly wanted to wait anymore.