Closing the Rift

**Boom!!**

Just as the Nightshade Battle Emperor had departed, a thunderous roar tore through the sky above, followed by a chorus of agonized, wailing shrieks. Lu Yuan looked up.

Dark green blood sprayed in great gouts. Flesh and viscera rained down from above, followed by massive, mutilated carcasses.

The bodies of Saint-grade Aberration Feral Beasts.

His eyes narrowed slightly. In the distance, his Shadow Clones radiated a powerful aura.

High in the sky, the Nightshade Battle Saint Gladys watched a flame-wreathed carcass slowly drift to the ground, a faint smile on her lips. She glanced to the side as the Twin-headed Demon Race Battle Saint Dengba and the Star Dwarf Battle Saint Silas flew over to join her.

Black-gold lightning crackled across every inch of Dengba's body, his aura immense and overwhelming. He flexed his fist and grinned broadly.

"Barely enough to get the blood pumping."

Beside him, Silas smiled and opened his mouth to reply — but in that instant, all three of their expressions shifted at once as they turned toward the Dark Night Forest.

From that direction, a stream of terrifyingly powerful auras rose into the air — every single one at the Saint level.

A moment later, their eyes went wide. Ice shot down their spines.

Because in the distance, the Spatial Rift had somehow shrunk to little more than a hairline crack. In moments, it would vanish entirely.

The three Battle Saints fell silent. Gladys's brow creased, bewilderment giving way to words she couldn't hold back.

"What's going on over there?! All those powerful Saint-level auras — and what's happening to the Aberration Source? Is it actually sealing itself?"

Silas narrowed his eyes, uncertainty threading his voice.

"Could it be that some powerful figure is helping us?"

Dengba's two heads exchanged a glance, then both split into grins at once. One of them spoke.

"Let's go find out!"

He shot off in that direction without another word. Silas followed, starlight swirling around him as he moved.

Gladys cast a glance at the warriors still fighting below in defense of Dark Night City, her brow furrowing as she hesitated for just a moment. But when her gaze landed on Lu Yuan — still churning out Spatial Vortexes without pause — she made her calculation: *With him here, they should be able to hold for now.*

Her jaw set. She transformed into a streak of dark crimson flame and vanished.

In the Dark Night Forest, within the pitch-black Dark Domain, dark green light suddenly surged from within. A thunderous roar followed as the domain was torn apart by a dozen jagged rents, green flames erupting through the gaps and consuming what remained of the darkness.

The enormous Belok — a hundred meters tall — stood wreathed in green fire, growling as he surveyed his surroundings, all four of his eyes burning with murderous intent.

Beside him, the gray-haired, curly-locked Mu Jing wore his usual expression of cold indifference, though his skin was now traced with intricate green markings, and green flames smoldered in his eyes. He looked out at the dissipating darkness and narrowed his gaze.

"Who did this? Show yourself if you have the guts!"

Belok swept his gaze across the area. Finding nothing, he roared in fury.

Then, in the same instant, both of them froze — expressions changing as one, heads snapping up toward where the Spatial Rift had been.

They watched as the final sliver of the Spatial Rift slowly closed, the sky returning to stillness — leaving only the green flames burning across the ground, casting the Dark Night Forest in an eerie emerald glow.

Both of them stared, struck dumb by what they were seeing.

"Impossible! Someone sealed the entrance?!"

Belok's roar shook the trees.

Even Mu Jing's ever-composed mask finally cracked. He snarled.

"Where's Bridge?! He was supposed to be guarding that rift! What happened? We need to get back there, now!"

They were already moving toward where the Spatial Rift had been — when they sensed an overwhelming surge of power from behind them.

Three streaks of light closed the distance in an instant, materializing just behind them.

Black-gold lightning. Brilliant starlight. Dark crimson flame.

The three resolved into human shapes: Dengba, Silas, and Gladys.

Dengba's two heads each fixed on one of the green-robed figures, a flicker of surprise crossing his faces as both mouths opened at once.

"Belok?"

"Mu Jing?"

Silas and Gladys were no less taken aback, their expressions hardening into wariness as they stared at the two figures.

Silas's brow furrowed. His gaze swept across them as he spoke slowly.

"Heavenly Calamity Cult? What are you doing here?"

Belok and Mu Jing's expressions darkened the moment they were recognized. A brief silence fell. Then Mu Jing's cold composure reasserted itself. He looked past all three and said flatly:

"None of your concern."

Gladys's expression turned frigid.

"The Aberration Source. Was that your doing? Were you trying to destroy Dark Night City?"

The killing intent radiating from her deepened with every word. Dark Night City was the Nightshade Race's lifeblood in the Upper Layer of the Land of Origin. The idea that someone had targeted it — had tried to destroy it — was not something she could let pass.

Silence settled between them, both sides watching the other with guarded eyes.

Then a powerful aura flared to life nearby, pulling everyone's attention at once. It was coming from the area where the Spatial Rift had been. Green flames were burning there now.

The sight made Gladys, Silas, and Dengba's expressions darken further. That aura — clearly another member of the Heavenly Calamity Cult.

The moment Belok and Mu Jing sensed Bridge's presence, they moved without hesitation — two streaks of light shooting toward him.

Gladys, Silas, and Dengba erupted forward simultaneously, their auras blazing as they launched their attacks.

Dengba let out a thunderous roar: "You're not going anywhere!"

He threw out his massive hand. A colossal arm of black-gold lightning materialized in the air — a thousand meters from shoulder to fingertip, its palm alone the size of a small city — and crashed down toward Belok.

Silas condensed a barrage of stellar phantoms and hurled them at Mu Jing. Each phantom radiated such crushing force that anything caught within would be ground to powder by the weight of a thousand collapsing stars.

Gladys was already wreathed in dark crimson flame, and behind her, a massive fire-bird took shape — shrieking as it beat its wings and surged toward Mu Jing.

Two devastating attacks converged on Mu Jing at once. His expression twisted.

A savage snarl crossed his face. He roared, and sinister green flame erupted across his entire body. In the next instant, a sharp horn thrust from his forehead, and fine scales rippled across his skin. The man who had appeared human until that moment seemed to have transformed into something else entirely — though whatever he had become, his aura surged dramatically.

A pair of enormous phantom wings formed behind him, woven from concentrated green flame. With a single beat, dozens of green fireballs erupted outward, transforming into a rain of fire that streaked toward the crimson fire-bird and the stellar phantoms.

**Boom after boom** filled the air. Green flame, dark crimson fire, and stellar radiance clashed and raged across the sky.

The fire-bird and the stellar phantoms ground through the barrage and continued bearing down on Mu Jing. His face paled. He threw himself aside at the last instant, barely escaping the assault.

Simultaneously, the green markings across Belok's colossal body blazed with a strange, lava-like luminescence. He roared, and battle armor forged of solidified green magma coalesced around him, his aura spiking sharply. He threw a fist that met Dengba's colossal lightning arm head-on.

The collision sent shockwaves tearing in every direction. The black-gold lightning arm dissipated — but Belok was sent hurtling backward.

Belok and Mu Jing seized the opening and continued retreating toward Bridge's position. Gladys, Silas, and Dengba gave chase.

Meanwhile, at the site where the Spatial Rift had been, Bridge floated in the air above. The mountain that had once stood beneath him was nothing but ash.

He scanned his surroundings, and his gaze settled on the empty sky where the Spatial Rift had been.

The color drained from his face.

He had no idea who had trapped him — or who had sealed the rift. All he knew was that his adversary appeared to be a Saint wielding both a devastatingly powerful dark-type Combat Technique and a death-type Combat Technique. And that bastard Saint could even create clones — all deploying death-type Combat Techniques simultaneously.

There was no other explanation for how he'd been weakened like that. To say nothing of being frozen in place by spatial constriction afterward.

Something occurred to him. He looked around. Every one of his Battle Emperor-level subordinates was dead.

Hardly surprising. If even he had been helpless, Battle Emperors would have stood no chance whatsoever.

"Damn it all!"

He snarled — and in that same moment, two familiar auras approached rapidly in the distance, with three more in pursuit behind them.

*Those are the other two Apostles.* Something jolted through him. *What did they do to end up being hunted?*

Questions crowded his mind, but he understood what needed to be done. He transformed into a streak of light and shot toward them.

With the exit gone, if the three Saint-level Apostles failed to regroup, they would each be hunted down and killed separately by the Battle Saints. They had to unite.

Bridge moved to reinforce the others.

Below the spot where he had just been, the shadows stirred. Shadow Clones emerged from the darkness, watching in silence as Bridge's light faded into the distance. Then, as the green flames flickered, they vanished without a trace.

Belok and Mu Jing fought off the attacks at their backs while pushing toward Bridge, bitterness gnawing at them both.

They couldn't make sense of it. How had the exit simply ceased to exist? Without losing it, they would have been long gone. And with Bridge standing guard, how had anyone managed to seal it in the first place?

Then a familiar aura closed in rapidly from ahead. They exchanged a glance, and both saw the same spark of relief in the other's eyes.

Bridge.

But Gladys, Silas, and Dengba had noticed the approaching presence just as readily. They exchanged a look, and what they saw in each other's eyes was grave.

These two Cult Apostles were already extraordinarily powerful — in a one-on-one fight, none of them could be certain of suppressing either of them, let alone killing them. With a third arriving, they might not even be able to keep all three here.

Unease flickered through the three Battle Saints as they racked their minds for a solution.

Then Bridge appeared, joining up with Belok and Mu Jing.

Belok's four enormous eyes locked onto Bridge. His voice came through a furious transmission.

"Bridge! Do you have any idea what happened?! What became of the Spatial Rift?! What were you doing up there?!"

Bridge knew there was no good defense. His mouth twitched — he was about to explain —

"This isn't the time." Mu Jing's voice was flat, cutting him off. "We leave first, talk later. If they summon more Battle Saints, we're finished."

That snapped the other two back to reality. They nodded in unison.

Bridge's transmission: "Agreed. Move."

The three were of one mind.

But just as they turned to retreat, a dense black mist erupted from nowhere — sweeping over all six of them in one wave, swallowing Bridge, Belok, and Mu Jing along with Gladys, Silas, and Dengba behind them.

All six of them froze.

Bridge, Belok, and Mu Jing were the first to recover — and their faces contorted in the same instant.

This wasn't the first time they'd seen this Dark Domain.

"Son of a—! *Again?!* Get out here and fight, you bastard!"

Belok unleashed a furious roar, green flames erupting outward in concentric rings, hammering against the darkness and making it shudder. The other two immediately raised their guard, scanning in every direction.

Unlike the three enraged Cult members, Gladys, Silas, and Dengba were genuinely puzzled. They raised their guard against this unknown dark force and looked around warily — but hearing Belok's outburst, all three paused. They exchanged a glance, a shared flicker of astonishment passing between them.

After a brief silence, starlight flowed around Silas as he surveyed the domain's interior.

"So... it was this person who stopped those three before?"

Before the others could respond, hundreds of Shadow Clones condensed out of the surrounding darkness — a dense, swarming mass that crowded the Domain on every side.

Each clone radiated a powerful aura. No single one was a match for any of the Saints, but the sheer number was another matter entirely. If so many converged on a single target, even a Battle Saint would be forced to give ground.

The moment the clones appeared, every last one of them extended a hand toward Bridge, Belok, and Mu Jing — and grasped at the void.

Even before the gesture came, the three Apostles had felt a chill the instant the Shadow Clones materialized. And when they saw every clone reach out in unison, the memory struck them all at once — those pale, ashen Hands of Death.

The blood drained from their faces.

"Hell—"

Belok's curse died in his throat as a swarm of Hands of Death swallowed him whole. Mu Jing and Bridge were no different — both consumed by the same tide of grasping, deathly hands.

When the Hands of Death finally receded, all three of their auras had dimmed noticeably.

Gladys, Silas, and Dengba shared one look — and moved on pure instinct.

"*Now!*"

All three launched themselves at the weakened Apostles simultaneously.