Chapter 136: Advent
“Ara? What’s wrong?!” Bai asked, her voice filled with panic, rushing towards her.
But as she drew closer, Ara’s uncontrolled power intensified, the Authority storm expanding.
With a low rumble, the royal carriage was torn apart, its fragments sent flying. Ara, at the eye of the storm, seemed to regain some clarity, her purple eyes focusing.
She looked around, bewildered, then saw Bai approaching, her hand instinctively reaching out.
“Bai…”
“Ara…”
Bai looked at her, her heart aching, then, glancing down, she noticed the scepter in her hand was glowing faintly.
And she could feel its power, connecting with some point in the void.
The temporary Vikarn node… was reactivating.
“How… how is this possible…?”
She realized that the closer she got to Ara, the worse her condition became. She didn’t know what to do.
In her concern for Ara, she was losing her usual composure.
But she forced herself to calm down, to think.
“Wait, this has happened before…”
A memory flashed through her mind. Ara, out of control, just like now, and then—
“…” She looked at Sasha, who seemed to have anticipated this.
“So that’s how it is…”
She looked down at her hand, at the blood on the scepter.
Her blood… her demonic bloodline.
“The scepter, upon contact with demonic power, activates a self-preservation protocol.”
“And Ara, as the Weapon, resonates with the activated scepter, her own Authority surging beyond her control.”
Sasha had used this to her advantage during their first encounter, to escape.
And now, she had used it again, to turn Bai’s victory into a defeat.
And she hadn’t even needed to guide it. The scepter, already connected to the half-formed Vikarn node, was now completing the breach, opening the gate to Vikarn.
“Bai, I see something strange behind you,” Ara said, her voice a low murmur, her gaze fixed on a point in the sky. “It looks… familiar…”
“It’s Vikarn,” Sasha said softly. “Little Sister Bai, you should know. The little girl you call Ara… she comes from Vikarn.”
“Her designation was ‘Zero.’ Later, upon completion of the project, she was named ‘Pandora’ by her creator.”
Sasha’s gaze was fixed on Bai, her voice low. “Meaning ‘the origin of all calamities.'”
“The origin of all calamities…?” Bai murmured, a bitter taste in her mouth.
The name… was so cruel.
Lilia, hearing this, her eyes widened, her gaze fixed on Ara.
The little girl in the photo from the Vikarn Annals, the one who resembled Ara… it really was her…
This “Nisha”… her words aligned with what she had read, except for her face, which was different from the “Neily” in the book.
“Stop her!”
A roar came from among the Legendary Knights. General Kweil was the first to react, charging towards Sasha.
Although he didn’t understand everything she had said, he knew her plan would bring ruin to the Empire.
The other Legendary Knights, recovering from their shock, also charged.
Even without their Authority, they were still Calamity Class warriors.
Ice Lily stepped forward, raising a [Frost Calamity] domain to block their path.
Although she no longer possessed the power of destruction, her demonic physique and her Authority were still formidable enough to hold them off, for a time…
Bai shook her head wryly, then tossed the scepter to Lilia and walked towards the Authority storm, towards Ara, ignoring the battle behind her.
“Little Sister Bai…” Lilia caught the scepter, looking at her, surprised.
She didn’t understand why Bai wasn’t fighting alongside the other Legendary Knights.
“It’s too late,” Bai said softly.
She walked through the storm, the chaotic power parting before her, as if recognizing her importance to Ara, or perhaps, fearing her.
“Too late…? What do you mean?” Lilia asked, seeing the scepter’s glow fade, the Authority storm around Ara subsiding as Bai approached.
“Sasha’s plan has succeeded,” Bai said, looking up, following Ara’s gaze. “The temporary Vikarn node has been established…”
She could almost see it, something shifting in the clouds, another world, crossing the void, descending upon Solor.
She finally understood why this method would destabilize the connection between Vikarn and Solor.
They were literally pulling Vikarn down from its place in the void…
A strange light enveloped everything, humans and demons alike, growing brighter and brighter.
“Wh-what’s happening?!”
The Legendary Knights, their attack on Sasha and Ice Lily halted, looked around in confusion.
A blinding white light, and then… nothing.
The scepter had breached the barrier between worlds, and for a brief, unavoidable moment, Vikarn and Solor overlapped, everyone present swept away, into the other world.
Vikarn… had arrived.
