met free Chapter 286: The Struggle of the Residual Image in the Rift
Chapter 286: The Struggle of the Residual Image in the Rift
With the Rift Core destroyed, the Guardians finally had a brief respite. Their spaceship traversed the vastness of the universe, the starry sky outside the portholes still deep and boundless, but an uneasy atmosphere permeated the air.
Wagner leaned back in his seat, took a deep breath, and gazed out the porthole with a complicated expression. "It's finally over, isn't it?" His voice was low, but tinged with uncertainty. "I can feel that crazy energy has disappeared, but why do I still feel uneasy?"
“Because things aren’t that simple.” Selena didn’t look up, her fingers flying across the star map. The energy fluctuation data displayed on the screen made her frown more and more. “The core of the rift has indeed collapsed, but the energy field of the universe is still abnormally chaotic, which means… there is still something left behind.”
Ares paused for a moment, his sharp gaze fixed on the runic sword. The sword's light flickered slightly, as if responding to his doubts. He said in a low voice, "The will of the rift will not be easily extinguished. It is not like an ordinary life form; it is a phenomenon, a concept that distorts the rules. As long as the rules exist, it will try every means to find new rifts."
Selena nodded, her tone cold and stern: "We may have only destroyed a part of the rift; its true will may still be hiding in some corner, waiting to be reborn."
"So what should we do?" Wagner scratched his head in frustration. "Are we just going to keep chasing it until the universe is destroyed?"
Ares looked at the star map, his eyes sharp and revealing an unprecedented determination: "If the rift is still alive, then we must find it and completely cut off its last escape route."
Selena tapped the screen with her fingertip, and a brand new region of abnormal energy appeared on the star map. This time, they were no longer scattered, but rather contracting in one direction—towards the edge of the universe.
“These residual energies… are converging.” Selena looked up at Ares. “The rift remnant hasn’t completely disappeared; it’s trying to reshape itself.”
Ares gripped the rune sword tightly, his voice cold and stern: "Then we'll chase after it and destroy it completely before it finishes."
The spaceship initiates jump mode, target—the edge of the universe.
When the spaceship arrived at its destination, the sight before them made the three gasp in horror. This place was unlike anywhere else in the universe; there was no starlight, no gravity, and even the flow of time seemed to slow down. In the endless void, a colossal energy rift, like a wound tearing through space, slowly devoured everything around it.
In the center of the rift, a distorted shadow was slowly taking shape. Its form was no longer that of the giant, but a pure darkness, an existence without a concrete form or fixed rules. It had no eyes, yet it exuded an omnipresent, watchful gaze.
"Guardians..." A deep and eerie voice came from the darkness, as if echoing directly in the depths of everyone's soul, "You think that destroying a core can end my existence?"
“This time I won’t give you another chance.” Ares gripped the rune sword, its blade gleaming brightly. “We won’t make the same mistake again.”
The rifting afterimage emitted a chilling laugh, "Mistake? Your biggest mistake is believing in the eternity of rules. And I am an existence outside the rules... I am the shadow of the universe, the crack in time, a concept you can never eradicate."
"Enough!" Wagner roared, leaping into the air and slamming his battle axe with thunderous force towards the afterimage of the rift. However, his attack passed right through the shadow the instant it made contact, causing no real damage.
“This thing… has no physical form at all!” Wagner frowned, his face grim.
“It is trying to merge itself into nothingness.” Selena analyzed the data quickly, her tone urgent. “If it succeeds, it can completely break free from the constraints of the rules and become a true immortal being.”
Ares's gaze was icy as he said in a low voice, "Then we must stop it before it's finished."
The rift's afterimage began to move, its shadow spreading outwards, attempting to engulf the guardians' presence. Ares used his runeblade to create a barrier, barely managing to stop the darkness's encroachment, but his expression grew even more grave.
“The power of the rune sword can resist it, but it cannot directly attack its body.” Ares pondered for a moment, his eyes flashing. “We need to find its energy source.”
Selena quickly scanned the afterimage of the rift and finally locked onto a faint energy fluctuation. "At the deepest part of the rift, there is a core region, the key point for it to reshape itself."
“So we have to go in.” Ares took a deep breath, his eyes resolute.
"Are you sure?!" Wagner's eyes widened in surprise. "That's the core of the rift! Who knows what might happen if we go in!"
“If we don’t go in, it will be completely reborn outside the rules,” Selena said decisively. “We have no choice.”
“Then let’s go in,” Ares said, enunciating each word clearly.
Without hesitation, the three rushed towards the center of the rift, and their figures gradually disappeared into the engulfing darkness...
The moment they entered the rift, the three felt an unprecedented fear and loneliness. There was no time, no space, only endless darkness and whispers echoing within their hearts.
“This is… the consciousness realm of the Rift,” Selena whispered, her eyes scanning the surroundings, but she could not see any physical presence.
“Don’t be fooled by its illusions.” Ares’ voice was firm, his rune sword emitting a faint glow that illuminated a small patch of space around him. “It wants to make us lose our way; we must stay alert.”
“But the problem is, how are we going to destroy it?” Wagner frowned. “This place doesn’t even have a physical form; we can’t just shoot at thin air, can we?”
Selena pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "The rift is not a physical entity; it is a phenomenon, but it still relies on some kind of energy source to maintain its existence. What we need to do is find this energy source and sever it completely."
"So, we're going to deprive it of the conditions for 'survival'?" Ares nodded, gripping the rune sword tightly. "Then, let's start by dismantling its core rules."
They continued forward, gradually approaching the deepest part of the rift, and ahead, a distorted light slowly emerged...
"You have found me." The Rift's voice turned chilling, and the distorted light slowly coalesced into a new form—a monster that had fused with the cores of all the defeated beings, an existence that did not belong to any rules.
"But you will never be able to leave either," the rift whispered. The next moment, the entire space began to collapse, and countless dark tentacles lashed out at the three of them—