Chapter 243: Fire... Can You Burn for Me One More Time... One More Time!!

Lin Guang's eyes shot wide open.

It ends in ten seconds?!

But the two of them were still who knows how far from the origin point that separated truth from falsehood, let alone having any hope of reaching the top.

No... even if they couldn't make it in time, he had to get her there no matter what—

[Nine.]

[Eight.]

He pushed upward with everything he had, miraculously squeezing out another thread of magic power from his soul, using the Pride Domain to propel himself upward.

[Seven.]

[Six.]

In the pitch-black deep sea, the young man seemed to see a glimmer of light.

Maybe it was an illusion, or maybe they really had floated up to that height.

But...

It was still so far.

If he hadn't been carrying Mengmengxiang, perhaps he truly could have fulfilled the miracle he promised the girls, completed the vow to deny himself and crawl back out from the interstice of nothingness.

But even though Mengmengxiang's soul had weakened to its absolute limit, weighing almost nothing, it was still like that final straw, pressing down on a spine already bowed under an unbearable load.

This time, it seemed he was finally going to fall here.

[Five.]

[Four.]

[Three.]

But at this very moment.

In that instant before everything came to an end, in this place no one would ever know about.

The young man's soul bloomed once more with a faint, dying flame of light.

Fire...

Can you burn for me one more time...

One more time!!

—A silent yet soul-rending roar.

What followed was the sound of something inside the Soul Gem beginning to crack and shatter.

That was... the Pride Domain.

And amidst that shattering sound, its ignorant instinct actually emitted a ripple of approval, as if it had completely acknowledged his pride.

The young man didn't hesitate for even a moment. His illusory hands instinctively wrapped around Mengmengxiang, using the last shred of his strength to lift her upward.

But just at that instant.

Lin Guang, who had lost nearly all perception, unable to see or hear anything... suddenly felt something moving.

It was a topsy-turvy sensation, as if up and down had swapped directions, flipping him into a face-up position.

Suddenly, a pair of slender and gentle hands pressed against the young man's back, then gave a push.

The force was light, yet utterly without hesitation, propelling him toward the real world above.

A soft, sweet voice drifted to his ears: "Thank you... my other self..."

It was a voice so familiar, a presence so familiar, yet coming from another person's mouth, it made one involuntarily dazed.

Lin Guang tried to turn around to look, but his soul was already too weak, unable to discern anything.

[Two.]

[One.]

[Connection interrupted.]

Consciousness plunged into darkness.

..................

Outside world.

Universal Megacorps [L Corp] affiliated, Second Research Institute.

Control center.

HUM—

Red alarm lights flashed alternately across the control console, piercing mechanical buzzers seeming to drill through everyone's eardrums in the room.

"Warning! Anomaly detected in B-01 project main control hub, energy consumption spiking four hundred percentage points!"

"Main magic power reactor operating at overload!"

"Magic shielding system overloaded, structural cracks appearing in the barrier core!"

"System entering unlimited functional overload operation!"

Everyone's fingers were hammering out streaks of afterimages across virtual light screens, anxious reports overlapping in a cacophony as the entire hall erupted into chaos.

The deputy director stood before the main console, sweat beads the size of beans covering his forehead, magical light flickering in his eyes as he desperately adjusted magical reactions across all sectors while barking orders:

"Immediately connect backup reactor two... no, connect two, three, and four all at once! Sever the computational matrix connection!"

Yet bad news continued to pour in from every direction.

"Report! The deep data matrix is undergoing artifact mutation, unable to execute forced interruption commands!"

"Warning! B+ grade combined apocalypse armament [Wall of Sighs], True Transformation spell core has mysteriously deactivated!"

"What the hell!!"

The deputy director, who usually cut the figure of a refined, successful middle-aged man, couldn't help but swear.

His face turned ashen, eyes locked onto the gem-like artifact at the center of the screen, blazing with piercing light.

The [Utopia] project had always been the most well-behaved project in this research institute, showing no signs of danger for over five years.

Aside from a batch of girls joining the project every six months, devouring massive amounts of resources and computational power, even routine maintenance was extremely light.

He had once marveled at the capability of his fellow executives, wondering how an artifact containing such massive amounts of Abyss could remain this docile. Truly, they were the most outstanding game designers of the modern era.

Who would have thought that after years of quiet behavior, when it finally blew up, it would blow up BIG.

The power this artifact was currently displaying was already approaching a First Sequence (A) grade artifact!

If it went berserk and activated, that would be equivalent to a Forbidden Species descending into reality itself. This city attached to L Corp would likely turn into an Abyss in the first instant!

And those of them on the front lines would have absolutely zero chance of survival.

—I knew those big shots on the board of directors were all madmen who didn't care if anyone else lived or died. Who in their right mind dredges something up from that deep in the Abyss, makes it the core of a project at this level, and feeds it every single day?!

He had already abandoned using his throat to speak, directly using data streams to coordinate every department.

[Pull ALL physical blocking gates! Activate Alpha-level defense protocol!]

[Notify the security department, immediately load annihilation rounds!]

[All front-line researchers, immediately don anti-contamination armor, prepare for high-concentration Abyss reaction—]

"Wait! Chief, something's wrong!"

A monitor operator at the main console suddenly widened his eyes, staring intently at the spectrum analyzer in front of him, his voice carrying an unmistakable bewilderment, "There's no Abyss reaction! The Abyss stabilization anchor hasn't suffered any damage!"

The deputy director froze for a moment.

The next instant, he directly pulled up that operator's data, sweeping his gaze across the various readings on the screen.

The counter ran smoothly. The Abyss contamination index gauge sat quietly in the green zone representing safety.

The reading was zero.

Apart from devouring energy like a whale and its influence beginning to extend outward, it showed no biological danger whatsoever.

"...?"

The next moment.

The gem-like artifact in the screen erupted with pure golden light, illuminating the cold, hard control center as brightly as day.

The light was extremely gentle, like a warm winter sun.

Accompanying a series of strange magic power fluctuations, shadow after shadow began materializing out of thin air, one after another.

Those were...

People?

The fully-armed security personnel and the flustered researchers all stood frozen in place, staring at the screen in utter astonishment.

..................

HSSS—

With a dull sound of pressure release, a cryo-chamber door popped open outward.

Pale green nutrient solution splashed across the floor carrying a pungent medicinal smell, while white cold mist billowed upward.

A girl's hand gripped the edge of the chamber door.

"Cough... cough..."

A head of white hair plastered wetly to her cheeks and neck by nutrient solution, the girl codenamed Phoenix crawled out of the cryo-chamber in a sorry state.