The heavens and earth were roaring, and the air was filled with the smell of burnt ozone.
Lin Yi knelt on one knee in the ruins, his left hand supporting him on the ground, his right hand clutching his chest—the force of the recoil had almost shattered three of his ribs.
Blood trickled down between his fingers, spreading out in dark red patterns on the scorched ground.
He stared at the mass of destructive energy gathering in the air, the mysterious figure's declaration, "The game should end," still echoing in his ears, and a metallic taste rose in his throat.
"Chu Yao, the data!" he hissed through gritted teeth, his voice hoarse with a metallic scraping quality.
"Analyzing!" A mechanical voice came from the light brain on his wrist. Chu Yao's projection appeared beside him, and the pale blue light and shadow were trembling. "The target's energy level has broken through the current dimensional limit. It is estimated that the impact will cover an area with a radius of 500 kilometers in 30 seconds. Survival rate... 0.03%."
0.03%.
Lin Yi closed his eyes.
The number felt like an icicle piercing the back of his neck.
He could hear faint groans behind him—Su Qing had fallen into a pile of rubble twenty meters away, her snow-white hair stained with blood; Long Wu's dragon scale armor had three deep cracks, revealing the bleeding skin underneath; a dark figure was huddled in a street corner, its shadowy form somewhat blurred.
Further away, those who had been bound to him through the bond of faith were kneeling on the ground, heads in their hands, veins bulging on their foreheads—their power was being frantically drained to maintain his previously shattered "space-time storm".
"Boss..." Long Wu suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood, stood up unsteadily, and the dragon pattern on the side of his neck emitted a ghostly light. "One more time! You pulled my life back from the abyss, so let's fight it out again today!"
“Mr. Lin.” Su Qing’s voice was softer than usual. She stood up, supporting herself against the broken ice picks. Her fingertips were still bleeding, but she reached out her hand to him. “I haven’t finished telling you the truth about what I owe you.”
The shadowy form of the dark figure suddenly solidified, transforming into a human shape.
The face that had always been shrouded in shadow was clear for the first time—it was a man with cold and hard features. He nodded to Lin Yi: "My lord said that we shall live and die together with the ruler of time and space."
Shouts echoed from afar.
Those who had changed jobs wiped the blood from the corners of their mouths. Some bit their fingertips and pressed them to the ground, while others raised their weapons and pointed them at the sky. The light band of the faith link was brighter than ever before, like countless golden streams flowing into Lin Yi's body through the folds of the air.
Lin Yi suddenly laughed.
He wiped the blood from his face and stood up.
The wind lifted the hem of his blood-stained clothes, revealing the longsword at his waist, forged from fragments of a spacetime rift.
“Chu Yao,” he said softly, “move all the backup energy sources here. Including the three strands of my essence that exist in the rift.”
"This will cause your Mythical Realm to regress by three stars!" Chu Yao's projection suddenly became urgent. "Host, this is suicidal consumption—"
"Execute it." Lin Yi interrupted her, his gaze sweeping over everyone present.
The ice crystals in Su Qing's hair refracted rainbow light under the sunlight, and an inextinguishable fire burned in Long Wu's dragon eyes. Ancient totems emerged from the shadows behind the black figure, and the light bands of the job changers wove a golden cocoon around him.
He recalled the wariness in Su Qing's eyes when he first met her in the beginner village, the image of Long Wu squatting at the alley entrance drinking alone after being abandoned by his family, and the voice of the shadowy figure in the other-dimensional ruins saying, "I have seen too many civilizations perish, so I choose to believe in you."
"They've entrusted their lives to me." Lin Yi looked at Chu Yao, his eyes more determined than ever. "I can't let them lose."
Chu Yao's projection paused, and the pale blue light and shadow suddenly softened.
"Full power mode activated. Host's original resonance detected... Spacetime fusion ready."
Lin Yi took a deep breath.
He could feel the power of his teammates flowing in through the link of faith—Su Qing's ice-elemental essence carried the crispness of snow, Long Wu's dragon blood surged with the roar of ancient beasts, the shadow power of the black shadow was like the most resilient thread, and the beliefs of the job changers were the purest light.
These forces converged within him, intertwining and merging with his spacetime origin, growing larger and larger like a snowball.
His pupils began to glow with a silvery-blue light, and fine spacetime runes appeared on his skin. Even the ground beneath his feet began to distort—the flow of time around him became chaotic. A fallen leaf drifted into the air and suddenly flew back to the branch, and a drop of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth back to his lips.
"Time and Space Merge!"
With a low shout, the energy around him suddenly exploded into a blinding light.
The light was not simply bright; it carried a rhythm that made the space itself tremble—nearby rubble floated into the air, distant clouds were torn apart, and even the ball of destructive energy in the mysterious figure's palm paused slightly.
"boom--!"
The moment the destructive energy collided with the fused light cluster, the entire world seemed to be put on pause.
Lin Yi's consciousness fell into chaos. He could hear the cracking of his bones and feel his soul being roasted on a fire, but what was clearer was the belief of his teammates exploding into fireworks in his mind.
Su Qing was shouting "Hold on!", Long Wu was yelling "Boss, I haven't even seen you get married yet!", the shadowy figure was chanting ancient incantations, and the voices of the job changers converged into a wave: "Time and Space Dominator! Time and Space Dominator!"
The ball of light began to shrink, eventually forming a semi-transparent shield above everyone's heads.
The shield's surface was adorned with star-like patterns, each pattern corresponding to the power of a teammate—Su Qing's ice shards, Long Wu's dragon scales, the shadowy figure's dark patterns, and countless badges of job changers.
The mysterious figure's destructive energy struck the shield, sending up blinding sparks. The shield trembled violently, but it did not shatter.
"Now's the time!" Lin Yi bit his tongue, spitting blood onto his longsword.
The power of the spacetime rift was fully activated, and the longsword hummed as it transformed into a streak of light. "Su Qing! Long Wu! Shadow! All job changers—smash it!"
The ice crystals at Su Qing's fingertips suddenly surged, transforming into ten enormous ice spears, each imbued with all of her ice-elemental essence; Long Wu raised his head and let out a dragon's roar, dragon blood flowing from his seven orifices, condensing in mid-air into a fire dragon tens of meters long; the black shadow formed hand seals, and the shadows transformed into thousands of black blades, each engraved with a god-slaying incantation; the skills of the job changers were even more overwhelming—fire-elemental meteor showers, lightning-elemental nine-heaven divine thunder, wind-elemental tornado blades, like a magnificent yet deadly fireworks display, all poured towards the mysterious figure.
The mysterious figure finally reacted.
It raised its hand, and shadow energy formed a barrier around it, but this time the barrier was no longer indestructible.
Su Qing's ice spear pierced through the first layer of shadow, Long Wu's fire dragon burned through the second layer, and the shadow's black blade tore open cracks in the third layer. Meanwhile, the torrent of skills from the job changers surged into these cracks like a tide, tearing the barrier to shreds.
"Snap—"
A crisp sound.
A crack appeared on the left shoulder of the mysterious figure, from which black liquid seeped out, emitting a putrid stench.
Its scarlet pupils suddenly contracted, and it let out a roar similar to that of a wild beast. The shadow energy around its body suddenly surged wildly, as if it wanted to devour all the attacks back.
"Now!" Lin Yi's eyes shone brightly with silver-blue light.
He seized the opening of the spacetime rift, instantly appearing behind the mysterious figure, his longsword pointing directly at its heart, "Spacetime Reversal!"
Time reverses at this moment.
The mysterious figure froze, and the cracks began to heal—but only for a moment.
Lin Yi's longsword pierced through its "heart," drawing out a string of black blood droplets.
The drops of blood fell to the ground and corroded deep pits.
The mysterious figure suddenly let out a sharp screech.
Its body began to become ethereal, like smoke being blown away by the wind.
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly, and he was about to give chase when he saw that its figure had completely disappeared, leaving only a piercing laugh: "Interesting... Looking forward to the next meeting, Time and Space Ruler."
"Night Owl!" Long Wu suddenly roared.
Everyone turned their heads and saw Night Owl standing at the edge of the ruins, a black teleportation talisman between his fingers.
He smirked at Lin Yi, revealing his gleaming white teeth: "Mr. Lin, until we meet again."
"Trying to run?" Su Qing raised her hand to launch the ice spike, but Lin Yi stopped her.
"Don't chase after them." Lin Yi stared at the direction where Night Owl had disappeared, his chest heaving violently.
He could feel the power within his body drying up, the origin of time and space like a drained spring, and he needed to hold onto his longsword for support even to stand.
Chu Yao's projection became blurry, and her voice crackled with static: "Target detected to have left the current dimension... Night Owl has used an interdimensional teleportation array."
The battlefield suddenly fell into dead silence.
The wind swirled scraps of paper past everyone's feet, and the distant siren of an ambulance could be heard—the Reality Alliance's rescue team had finally arrived.
Su Qing staggered and helped Lin Yi up, while Long Wu sat down on the ground with a thud. The dark figure disappeared back into the shadows, and the job changers staggered and helped each other up.
"Just like that... they got away?" Long Wu wiped the blood from his face, his voice filled with resentment.
Lin Yi gazed at the sky where the mysterious figure had disappeared, his silver-blue pupils gradually losing their light.
He could sense that something was watching them from the shadows—it could be a more powerful entity behind the mysterious figure, remnants of an alternate dimension that hadn't been eliminated, or even the secrets of the Infinite game itself.
Chu Yao suddenly issued an alarm: "Abnormal spatial fluctuations detected! A 0.01% crack has appeared in the dimensional barrier!"
"Boss?" Su Qing called him softly.
Lin Yi looked away and turned to his teammates.
Su Qing's face was still stained with blood, Long Wu's dragon scale armor was tattered beyond recognition, the shadow form of the black shadow was still somewhat unstable, and the clothes of the job changers were covered with scorch marks.
But in their eyes, an inextinguishable fire burned.
“It’s not over,” he said, his voice not loud, but it struck everyone’s heart like a nail. “They got away, but next time…” He gripped his longsword tightly, fragments of the spatial rift gleaming on its blade. “We will be better prepared.”
The wind suddenly picked up.
In the distance, the setting sun dyed the clouds blood red.
Chu Yao's projection suddenly flickered and emitted a soft sound: "Detected...unknown signal. Source...another dimension?"
Lin Yi looked up.
He saw a very faint black shadow on the horizon, like an eye, slowly closing.
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