Linde stood in the center of the chaotic vault, his brow furrowed.
The power brought by the Shadow Aura's 100% affinity was so violent and difficult to control that it completely exceeded his expectations.
"It didn't work?"
Linde muttered to himself, his eyes sharpening even more, "How can we just leave the pinnacle we've reached with such painstaking effort to be shelved? There must be a way to control it!"
Give up? Absolutely not.
The more dangerous a force is, the more necessary it is to find the reins to tame it.
"Scope... perhaps controlling the scope is the key."
Linde has now retracted the aura into his body, which is a familiar tactic for him.
“Nix,” Lind’s voice regained its usual calm, “you hide in the deepest shadows over there. No matter what happens, don’t come near me, and don’t come out.”
"Meow? Master, you want to try again?"
Nix peeked her little head out from Lind's shadow, her cat eyes filled with worry.
"I knew it was dangerous, that's why I told you to stay away."
Lin De's tone left no room for argument, "Don't worry, the area is small this time. Go quickly."
Nix hesitated for a moment, but obediently darted to the corner of the secret vault with a "whoosh," almost blending into the shadow between the wall and the ground, leaving only her two nervous big eyes observing from the shadows.
After confirming that Nix was safe, Lind held his breath again.
"Activate! Shadow Abyss Aura!"
Buzz—!
This time, the activation didn't have the same sinking sensation of directly plunging into the sea of nothingness as before, but the resulting anomalies were even more bizarre and terrifying!
Linde's body suddenly felt light, his feet instantly left the ground, and he silently floated in the air!
What's even more terrifying is his body itself: from head to toe, his skin, clothes, hair... his entire human form was instantly dyed an extreme, pitch-black color that seemed to absorb all light!
It was neither a shadow nor filth, but a pure color of "emptiness".
He seemed to have become a solidified, human-shaped slice of the "Sea of Nothingness," a "void" existing in the real world!
Immediately afterwards, an irresistible and violent suction force erupted from this "human-shaped void"!
This time, the suction force is no longer directed at tangible matter, but rather acts on a more fundamental level of existence!
call--!
Inside the secret vault, the invisible air was the first to be frantically pulled apart, forming a visible, whistling vortex of white airflow that surged wildly into Lind's dark body, like rivers flowing into the sea, and vanished without a trace in an instant!
On the wall, the holy light runes that continued to emit a soft glow seemed to be squeezed tightly by an invisible hand!
The runes flickered and twisted violently, and the energy lines that made up the runes were deformed and dimmed like noodles being stretched. The order energy contained within them was forcibly extracted from the rune structure itself, turning into strands of golden light, which were also absorbed into the dark humanoid figure!
Even more terrifying is the space itself! Centered on Linde, the surrounding light began to distort and bend, as if the spatial structure was being pulled and dented by this terrifying suction force, forming a miniature, distorted "field of vision"!
Although the stone walls of the secret vault did not crack, their stable "presence" became blurred and thin in Lind's perception, as if they were about to be completely swallowed up at any moment.
"Meow—!"
Nix, hiding in the shadows, let out a terrified scream. She felt the shadow she was hiding in fluctuating violently, and the Shadow Abyss power that made up her body seemed to be summoned by a supreme being, almost breaking free of her control and flying toward Lind!
She curled up desperately, using all her strength to "nail" herself to the deepest part of the shadow, barely resisting the terrifying attraction that came from her instincts, the urge to throw herself into "nothingness"!
It was just a single breath after the halo was activated!
The air within a one-meter radius around Linde was completely evacuated, creating a brief, suffocating vacuum!
The holy light runes near him on the wall went out completely, and even the surface of the stone that made up the runes showed fine erosion marks, as if it had been weathered for millions of years!
The entire space of the secret vault seemed to be groaning under the strain!
"Enough!"
Buzz!
The darkness faded, and the suspended body suddenly landed, staggering a step before regaining its balance.
The violent suction within the secret vault vanished instantly, and the rippled air was violently pushed back in, producing a muffled boom! The light returned to normal, and the distorted sense of space calmed down.
Dead silence.
Lind was breathing heavily, his heart pounding like a drum. He looked down at himself—completely naked.
The instant he activated the halo, he clearly felt that the most basic matter and energy that constituted his body were being assimilated and devoured by that power, and he directly became part of nothingness! He became a bridge connecting nothingness and reality.
He quickly took out spare clothes from the mage's sleeve and put them on (thanks to the independence of the spatial equipment), before looking at the corner:
"Nix, are you alright?"
Nix's face flushed red as she slowly crawled out of the shadows, her cat ears drooping.
"Meow... Master... You... You just... became so terrifying... more... more 'empty' than the deepest, darkest abyss... It felt like even the emotion of 'fear' was being sucked away, meow..."
Her voice was trembling, and then with a "whoosh," she shyly but also with a sense of security, slipped back into the stable shadow that had reappeared at Lind's feet, as if only here could she feel safe.
Linde stood there, his outward appearance calmed after he got dressed, but inside he was in turmoil.
That brief experience gave him a deeper and more chilling understanding of the true nature of the [Shadow Abyss Aura]:
With the opening in place, the surface world could not withstand such a huge rift, so he was essentially "exiled" to the Sea of Nothingness, the place where he should have been in his current form.
The state of being absorbed into himself made him a void connecting the Sea of Nothingness and reality. Everything around him was drawn into the Sea of Nothingness by the pull of him and the Sea of Nothingness.
Linde stood still, the secret vault deathly silent, with only the faint but persistent glow of the remaining holy runes on the walls reflecting on his ever-changing face.
The fingertips still retained that eerie "melting" sensation of clothing being assimilated into nothingness—not a tearing, but a complete and silent return to "nothingness."
Entering can transform into a "void" that devours all things and annihilates existence, dragging everything within its reach—whether matter, energy, or even the very foundation of space itself—into that eternal nothingness.
That was an ultimate destruction beyond mortal comprehension, which even holy light runes could not withstand in the slightest.
If one retreats, one can escape into that absolutely void "Sea of Nothingness," completely disappearing from the realm of reality and becoming a "non-existence" that even the creatures of the Shadow Abyss cannot touch or understand.
It is an absolute sanctuary that cannot even be marked by time, an ultimate barrier that cannot be touched by any detection, tracking, or attack.
"Almost... invincible."
Linde slowly uttered this heavy conclusion, a hint of fanaticism flashing deep in his eyes that even he himself found unsettling.
This power surpassed the limits of his current imagination and even faintly touched upon some kind of... rule level.
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