Meanwhile, on the other side.
In the northern reaches of the borderlands.
Moonlight spilled across a desolate mountain ridge.
The air suddenly warped.
A blinding white light erupted out of nowhere.
Two figures plummeted from the glare, slamming heavily onto the ground.
Lin Gui’s back struck a protruding rock, sending stars before his eyes and causing his face to contort in agony.
Elvia crashed beside him, rolling several times before colliding with a dead tree trunk.
She lay on the ground, gasping for breath.
Her mind was a complete blank.
What had just happened?
That white light?
That demon?
Before she could process it, a hand clamped firmly around her wrist.
It was Lin Gui.
He scrambled up from the ground, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth and his face terrifyingly pale.
But he didn't stop.
With a wave of his hand, he yanked the flying vessel out of his storage space.
The vessel’s hull was riddled with charred marks.
Large sections of the wood had been melted away by fire, exposing the twisted structure beneath.
To prevent himself from being instantly incinerated into ash, Lin Gui had not stored the flying vessel at the very first moment.
Instead, he had let it help absorb some of the fire damage. Only after they escaped the scorching heat did he tuck it away into his space.
Now, the entire vessel looked like it had been through an oven, teetering on the verge of collapse.
But it could still fly.
"Get on!"
Lin Gui’s voice was hoarse, carrying the weight of an unquestionable command.
He kicked off against the vessel and poured mana into it, causing it to wobble and rise half a meter into the air.
He then grabbed Elvia, practically throwing her onto the deck.
He flipped himself up right after her.
Mana flooded into the craft.
The flying vessel lunged forward.
Its speed was much slower than before, but it was still remarkably fast.
Elvia lay flat on the deck, finally regaining her senses.
She turned to ask Lin Gui what had happened.
But when she saw his ghastly face and his eyes fixed resolutely on the path ahead, she couldn't bring herself to speak.
She could only grip the edge of the vessel as tightly as she could.
The wind howled in her ears.
The earth below receded at a breakneck pace.
This time, however, Elvia noticed.
The demons that had previously been gathering toward the south were beginning to fall into chaos.
Some continued their southward journey.
Others, however, stopped. They turned their heads, scanning their surroundings with blood-red eyes.
Then, they saw the flying vessel.
One.
Two.
Ten.
A hundred.
A frenzied blood-hue began to well up in those demons' eyes.
No longer were they hollow.
No longer were they submissive.
Instead, they were filled with a pure desire for slaughter.
They moved.
They raced toward the flying vessel.
They were in pursuit.
Lin Gui did not look back.
Fixing his gaze forward, he funneled mana into the flying vessel with everything he had.
His personal interface flashed in his mind.
Mana: 1238/13200.
Only twelve hundred left.
This amount of mana wouldn't even sustain the vessel at full speed for fifteen minutes.
But the edge of the radiation zone was just ahead.
On the Messenger's Compass, the red circle representing the impact zone was only a dozen kilometers away from their current position.
A dozen kilometers.
Under normal circumstances, he could have surged through that distance with his eyes closed.
But now...
A roar erupted from behind.
The sound was so powerful it made the flying vessel tremble.
Lin Gui glanced out of the corner of his eye.
A Legendary demon was catching up from the flank.
Its speed was staggering; with every beat of its wings, it closed the distance by a massive margin.
Lin Gui gritted his teeth, and the flying vessel banked sharply, threading through a gap between two mountain ridges.
The Legendary demon slammed into the ridge, causing half the mountain to collapse.
But it didn't stop.
Before the debris had even finished falling, it resumed the chase.
And it wasn't alone.
More demons joined the pursuit.
Transcendent ones.
Legendary ones.
And then...
Lin Gui’s gaze caught something on the horizon.
His pupils contracted instantly.
A silhouette emerged in that direction.
It was a tiny speck at first, but that speck grew at an alarming rate.
Not because it was moving, but because it was simply that enormous.
It was so massive that its silhouette was clear even at this distance.
It was a sky demon.
But it was completely different from the ones that had hunted them before.
Its wingspan was estimated to be over fifty meters.
Fifty meters—a size capable of blotting out half the sky.
Its body was covered in pitch-black scales—not a common black, but a black so deep it trended toward purple, like clotted blood.
Dark red veins traced the surface of those scales, glowing faintly in the moonlight like the blood vessels of a living creature or the fissures in molten lava.
Its head was an inverted triangle, adorned with seven horns at the crown.
Not three.
Seven.
The central, longest horn was a full two meters long, its tip glinting with a cold, metallic luster.
The other six horns curved to the sides like a crown—or a set of shackles.
Its eyes.
It had four eyes.
Two on each side, arranged vertically.
All four were vertical slits.
But they weren't golden.
They were deep red—a red so dark it was nearly black.
Like four burning coals. Like four entrances to the abyss.
There was no reason in those eyes.
No emptiness.
There was only madness.
Pure, world-ending madness.
It swept past beneath the clouds.
It merely passed by, but everywhere it went, the demons that had been chasing the flying vessel scrambled to get out of its way.
It wasn't out of respect.
It was out of terror.
Even those frenzied, mindless demons feared it.
It didn't even look at them.
It only stared ahead.
It stared at that tiny, teetering flying vessel.
It stared at those two insignificant lives.
There was only one thing in its gaze: hunger.
A hunger to tear them apart.
A hunger to destroy.
A hunger to turn every living thing into fragments.
Then, it moved.
With a simple tuck of its wings, its speed exploded.
The dozen kilometers between them vanished in an instant, the gap closing to less than five kilometers.
Lin Gui’s peripheral vision caught the approach of that gargantuan entity.
His scalp went numb in an instant.
This wasn't a chase.
This was death itself closing in.
"F**k."
Lin Gui forced the word through his gritted teeth.
He poured mana into the vessel. More. Even more.
The flying vessel’s speed began to climb.
This acceleration came at the cost of overdrawing his mana.
Lin Gui could feel his head begin to swim—a sign that his mana was nearly depleted.
But he didn't stop.
The flying vessel wove through the mountain ridges.
It skimmed past cliffs.
It squeezed through the narrowest of fissures between precipices.
Amidst the onslaught of demons, it was like a startled bird, fleeing desperately.
Behind them, the Legendary demons were left further and further behind.
But that Epic demon was getting closer.
Four kilometers.
Three kilometers.
Two kilometers.
One kilometer.
It hadn't even truly accelerated; it simply maintained that gliding posture.
Like an avatar of death.
Like destruction incarnate.
Lin Gui gritted his teeth.
The flying vessel pulled up sharply, skimming over a mountain peak.
Behind them, the Epic demon’s talons scraped against the mountain’s rock.
The entire peak was sheared off by its claw.
Broken stone fell like rain.
But it didn't stop.
With a minor adjustment of its course, it continued the pursuit.
Eight hundred meters.
Five hundred meters.
Three hundred meters.
Lin Gui could feel the shadow of that behemoth looming directly overhead.
He looked up.
He saw the seven curved horns.
He saw the four deep red vertical slits.
Those four eyes were fixed on him now.
Fixed on this little insect struggling for its life.
In that gaze, there was only madness.
Only destruction.
Only a pure, slaughterous desire to rip him to shreds.
Lin Gui’s vision began to blur—a symptom of pushing his mana to the absolute limit.
But he kept his eyes locked on the distance.
On the Messenger's Compass, the red circle was getting closer and closer.
Five hundred meters.
Three hundred meters.
One hundred meters.
Fifty meters.
Behind them, the Epic demon’s talons had already reached over the flying vessel.
Those five talons were each over a meter long, like five massive black blades.
They slowly began to curl inward, reaching for the vessel.
Lin Gui funneled the final dregs of his mana into the craft.
The flying vessel surged forward.
The talons scraped against the vessel’s edge.
The five tips left five deep gouges in the hull, nearly tearing the vessel apart.
At that very same instant, Lin Gui waved his hand.
The flying vessel was instantly pulled into his storage space.
He pulled Elvia into his embrace, and the two of them plummeted from the sky.
The wind roared in their ears.
A steep slope lay below them.
They struck the incline.
Lin Gui shielded Elvia’s head with everything he had.
The two of them tumbled down the slope.
Stones.
Thorns.
Dead tree trunks.
Impact after impact. Roll after roll.
Finally, they slammed into the base of the mountain.
Lin Gui lay prone on the ground.
There wasn't a single part of his body that didn't ache.
His left arm was twisted at a bizarre angle; the bone was broken.
At least three of his ribs were fractured.
His mouth was full of blood.
He forced his head up with great difficulty.
He looked at his personal interface.
The red circle was right behind him.
Less than ten meters away.
They were out.
They had made it out.
With heavy effort, he turned his head to look back up the slope.
The demons that had been pursuing them had stopped.
They stood at the edge of the radiation zone.
Their pairs of blood-red eyes stared at him fixedly.
They were grotesque, bloody, and crazed.
They yearned to charge across. They hungered to rip him apart.
But they stayed put.
It was as if an invisible wall was blocking them.
They stood there in a state of confusion.
Then, they turned around.
Facing back into the depths of the radiation zone, toward the surging tide of demons, they roared and departed.
Lin Gui struggled to look higher.
The Epic demon had also stopped.
It hovered right at the edge of the radiation zone.
Its massive body blotted out half the sky.
Its seven curved horns glinted coldly in the moonlight.
Those four deep red vertical slits were still fixed on him.
Staring at this ant that had escaped its claws.
The madness in its gaze was nearly palpable.
It was furious—frenzied with rage.
It yearned to give chase. It hungered to tear him apart.
But that invisible wall held it back as well.
It opened its mouth and unleashed a roar.
The sound was enough to make the entire mountain forest tremble.
Countless birds were startled from the trees, fleeing in a panic.
Yet, the demon simply hovered there, its gaze locked onto him.
Staring at the bloodied, broken little creature on the ground that couldn't even move.
Staring at those eyes that were looking right back at it.
Then, it withdrew its gaze.
With a powerful beat of its gargantuan wings, it flew back into the radiation zone.
That enormous silhouette grew distant, eventually vanishing into the horizon beneath the moonlight.
Lin Gui watched in that direction until the figure had completely disappeared.
Then, he lowered his head and spat a mouthful of blood onto the earth.
His hands trembling, he pulled a pile of items from his storage space.
Grass-and-wood ash.
Dry rations.
Medicinal herbs.
Aromatics.
He looked toward Elvia.
Her face was ghastly, with blood still clinging to her lips.
Her eyes were somewhat glazed, as if she still hadn't processed the life-and-death pursuit they had just survived.
But Lin Gui didn't have the time to wait for her to recover.
He spoke to her in a hoarse, weak voice, giving his final instructions.
"Listen..."
His voice was extremely faint.
"We are out of the radiation zone... but we are still in the wilderness..."
"The demons out here... are still a threat..."
"An ordinary High Rank demon... could kill us..."
He pointed toward the pile of supplies.
"Ash... to mask the smell of blood..."
"Herbs... apply them to the wounds..."
"Aromatics... scatter them around... to ward off Low Rank magical beasts..."
"Do not light a fire..."
"Do not make a sound..."
"Finally..."
"Remember, head north..."
"Do not look back..."
"And do not stop..."
"The Dark Tide has... not yet ended..."
"It will continue to spread... until the finale."
"Cough, cough!!"
"And..."
His voice grew weaker and weaker.
"Wait for me..."
"Wait for me to wake—"
Before he could finish, he collapsed face-down on the ground.
The exhaustion of his mana and the severe trauma to his body finally took their toll.
He fell unconscious.
Elvia stared at him blankly.
At his deathly pale face.
At his twisted left arm.
At the blood seeping from his wounds.
At the wretched state she had never before seen him in.
She parted her lips.
"Lin Gui..."
Her voice was very quiet.
Then, she snapped awake.
"Lin Gui!!"
Her voice grew louder, but there was no response.
There was only the rustling of the wind through the mountain forest.
And then...
Rustle.
No.
That wasn't the wind.
It was the sound of something moving through the grass.
Elvia’s body went stiff.
Very slowly, she turned her head.
She looked toward the darkness of the forest behind her.
The moonlight could not penetrate those woods.
There was only a sea of black.
And pairs of eerie green eyes.
They were right there, watching her in silence.
Those glowing green eyes emerged from the darkness.
One.
Two.
Three.
Five.
Five in total.
Their heads poked out from behind the tree shadows, their grayish-black fur glinting with a dull silver hue under the moonlight.
They were magical wolves.
Mid Rank magical beasts.
Individually, Elvia could have dealt with one easily in her prime.
But now...
Their mouths were open, crimson tongues lolling between their fangs and dripping with saliva.
A tongue licked across a snout, over a nose, and across teeth stained with the scent of prey's blood.
Their eyes were fixed forward.
Staring at the bloodied, motionless man on the ground.
Staring at the wounds that were still seeping blood.
The scent of fresh blood drifted through the night breeze.
It was a lethal temptation.
The lead wolf, the largest of the pack, stood nearly a meter and a half at the shoulder.
It took a step forward.
Its paw pads pressed against the withered leaves with a faint rustle.
Then a second step.
A third.
It emerged fully from the shadows, the moonlight illuminating its scar-ridden muzzle.
Its eyes never once left Lin Gui.
The other four began to circle from the flanks.
Maintaining a tacit formation, they approached slowly and silently.
Like five grayish-black shadows, they were closing the circle around their prey.
Rate on N.U.
