Free Web NovelChapter 491: The World Anchor
"Wang Yu, be ready to receive the cargo. It's already been dispatched to you."
A magitech transmission flared to life nearby, carrying the familiar voice of the machine spirit Astartes. Accompanying the message was a massive freight container streaking through the sky from afar. The array inscribed within trailed a long plume of flame, splitting the air as it hurtled toward him at astonishing speed.
"Received. I'll begin the assault on the interior of the Ashen Wastes with the dragons in thirty minutes. After that, I'll probe the City of Sin beneath. As for the Alliance and the Skyborne City expedition, act as you will. There's no need to coordinate with me."
He extended the power of the Chariot. Invisible force seized the incoming cargo mid-flight and tore away its sealed outer shell in one smooth motion, revealing what lay within: an elven relic, the Primeval Lance Kasimir, courtesy of the Tree of Life in Liaheim.
"Now that's a surprise... didn't think I'd end up with such a perfect weapon in the end."
Laughing, Wang Yu gripped Kasimir in his hand. The enormous living spear displayed no hostility; instead, slender rootlets unfurled from its body and wrapped gently around his arm, drinking in his life force. Its towering form shrank at once, adjusting itself into a size far more convenient for him to wield.
Vital energy surged from Wang Yu into the sacred weapon, bathing it in a soft emerald radiance. In return, the spear released a faint ripple of emotion: a pulse of bright, eager joy.
"Wang Yu, what do you think this spear actually is?"
Through the Chariot's power he shared with her, Avia could sense everything he felt. Even the spear's subtle, emotional feedback had reached Avia, prompting her sudden question.
"What? The Tree of Life's core? No, that's not right. The Tree of Life would die if you pulled something like that out of it. You know what, just tell me. You obviously already have a guess in mind."
Wang Yu blinked. He hadn't spared a thought for the true nature of the weapon. He tried to come up with an answer, rejected it immediately, then simply turned to the young woman who clearly knew better.
"Don't you think it resembles a certain ability plants have? A cutting, of sorts."
Avia stated her theory plainly. The moment she did, Wang Yu looked again at the thing in his hand and suddenly felt a creeping sense that something was... off. Or, rather, that the truth was uncomfortably close to what she'd just said.
"...Oh, hell. I have no idea how the Tree of Life reproduces. And thinking back, when the World Tree split into three, there's no way it literally chopped itself into three pieces. So, to the World Tree, weren't those three Trees of Life essentially what these sacred relics are to the Tree of Life itself?!"
Wang Yu could only marvel at the faint consciousness he could sense within the weapon. After all this time, he'd somehow ended up wielding the "child" of a Tree of Life. No wonder the elves guarded this spear so obsessively. For all he knew, this thing might one day grow into a new Tree of Life.
"Wang Yu, be careful with that. Try not to break it. Though honestly, even if you do, there's not much the elves could say," Avia teased lightly, applying just a hint of pressure.
"I'll try, I'll try." frёewebnoѵēl.com
Wang Yu didn't dare make firm promises. A weapon, after all, had to be used like a weapon. At this point, holding back meant dying. If he really ended up damaging it... well, that was just because this miniature Tree of Life was simply that strong a weapon.
"No more joking. We're about to enter the Ashen Wastes. Can the Chariot's power block spontaneous combustion?"
Avia dropped the playful tone. She was preparing something herself, and wasn't taking advantage of his Chariot power at the moment.
"Yes. The Wastes' unique properties can be treated as a kind of invasive force. It might not be magic or void energy, but the Chariot can still intercept it."
Wang Yu flexed his fingers. Around him, the spherical domain of the Chariot shimmered faintly. Beyond its surface, an intrusive energy pressed against it, unable to breach the barrier. The peculiar power of the Ashen Wastes was denied entry.
The Ashen Wastes was one of the great wonders of the continent. In this barren region devoid of nearly all flora and fauna, a strange diffuse energy filled the air. Any living being who entered would have this force invade their body, accumulating heat within until, at a certain threshold, they ignited, burning from the inside out until nothing remained.
This spontaneous combustion was not a result of ordinary fire or simple heat. It resembled a transformation of matter itself. If it were merely elemental fire, elemental creatures—especially fire elementals—should have been immune. Yet in truth, elemental beings died even faster here, their cores scorched clean after only a few steps.
Almost all alchemical materials were likewise affected. Left within the Wastes for too long, they would lose every inherent property and collapse into the same drifting dust that filled the air above the region.
And the deeper one ventured toward the heart and the depths of the Wastes, the stronger this terrifying property became. On the surface, even near the underground entrance to the City of Sin, one could remain for a while without immediate danger; the energy wasn't yet potent enough to kill swiftly.
A formal knight, with a honed body, could traverse the surface freely. The moment the invasive force began damaging their tissues, their metabolism and regenerative abilities could expel the heat and compensate for the damage.
But underground, everything changed. That was why the place was called the City of Sin. The strength of the spontaneous combustion surged explosively in strength below ground level. It wasn't only present in the air but also infused into the matter itself.
The ground beneath one's feet, the air one breathed, the drifting ash in the dark—this strange power lay buried everywhere. It penetrated anything in the vicinity and invaded their bodies, bypassing shields of fighting spirit or mana. The only defenses were either void energy to distort physical matter, or the overwhelming domains of legendary knights.
Not far beneath ground level lay a place called a city, though in truth it resembled a prison far more than any settlement. It must have been built by some bygone civilization, one of those intelligent races long since swept away by the river of time.
The scale and resilience of its architecture made one thing unmistakably clear: it had been constructed for legends. In other words, the so-called City of Sin existed for a single grim purpose—to exploit the peculiar nature of the Ashen Wastes and inflict ceaseless torment upon powerful criminals.
What made this place stranger still was the material from which it had been built. Saturated with the combustive energy unique to the Ashen Wastes, it possessed astonishing strength, so much so that even a weakened legend could not break out of it. Yet once removed from that high-density field of energy, the same material would crumble almost instantly, collapsing into worthless dust.
The scholars' leading hypothesis was that the intensity of the Ashen Wastes' peculiar energy had once been far greater than it was now. Within its present range, even the energy permeating to that depth wouldn't inflict enough harm to a legendary knight. Punishment, in that sense, was no longer possible.
But that judgment applied only to legends. Any being below that threshold, upon stepping inside, would last only a few paces before turning to ash. And deeper still, beneath the City of Sin, the force of that combustion grew so fierce that even legends could not survive it. To the present day, none knew what lay beneath that dreadful region.
It was in such a place that the black dragon Pompeii once trained. He relied solely on the extraordinary resilience of his kind to brave the depths beneath the City of Sin, forcing his body to adapt to each harsher stratum of energy by sheer regenerative might, challenging the limits of his flesh again and again in pursuit of a breakthrough.
Tragically, the aberrant dragon simply lacked the time. If he had had more time to grow, who could say what realm he might have reached—how monstrous his flesh might have become, or whether he would have glimpsed the truth hidden at the bottom of the Ashen Wastes? freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
The Utopia had chosen this very region to construct their third node. Most likely, they intended to use the Ashen Wastes' subterranean conditions, so lethal to both wizards and knights, to drastically weaken the allied forces, buying themselves the time needed to complete the node.
Yet this combustive energy remained something the Chariot could sense, touch, and influence. As long as they remained within the field of power Wang Yu unfurled around them, none needed to fear the effects of spontaneous combustion.
"Almost ready. Let's move out."
Once Avia finished her preparations, Wang Yu sent word to Skyborne City and the allied forces, informing them that the war had begun.
"You intend to enter just like this? The Utopia has yet to reveal itself."
Astarte's inquiry came over the magitech link. The Utopia had shown no sign of responding to the Alliance. As a result, every contingent in the coalition was holding their position and waiting for the right moment to strike.
"It doesn't matter. Even if they cower in the void, I can still reach them. Besides, Skyborne City surely possesses weapons capable of striking beings hidden in the void, doesn't it?"
Wang Yu mounted the silver dragon. With a single gesture, he signaled the host of dragons behind him, leading them toward the heart of the Ashen Wastes. The domain wrought by the Chariot's power held firm, keeping all the combustive energy at bay.
Meanwhile, Avia's Perfect Fractal lens projected the surrounding void currents into Wang Yu's sight. The dragons received the same vision: a luminous chain of void energy pointing directly toward the center of the Ashen Wastes. Their destination.
"Indeed. And if you are to advance ahead, Lord Wang Yu, you will undoubtedly draw part of the Utopia's ire. With your permission, we wish to use that opening to deliver our prepared weapon to its designated point."
It was Icarus, not Astartes, who answered this time. As he spoke, the decks of Skyborne City unfurled. Rails and mechanical arms ground into motion, lifting an immense object from the city's inner foundries to its upper platform.
It was a colossal pillar, a masterpiece of intricate mechanisms and the latest breakthroughs in Skyborne City's study of the void. In a sense, it was this era's Morningstar: not in destructive potency, but in purpose. It was a single stroke meant to decide the fate of the battlefield and shatter the Utopia's nascent third node.
Rifts in the void flickered constantly beside the massive metal column. Void energy surged out in controlled cycles, flowing around the pillar, completing a circuit, then slipping back into the Void through another rift. A deep, resonant hum filled the air as its embedded reactor fed power into the weapon, the "World Anchor."
This was the engine of war that Skyborne City had forged for this campaign. Once delivered to the target point, it would be driven into the void itself. And when that happened, no matter how securely the Utopia Organization hid themselves, their third node would never—could never—be completed.
