Chapter 94 Chapter 94 - The Coming (1/2)

CHAPTER 94

THE COMING

Lino's decision was not rash or made in an outburst of unbridled rage; rather, it was calculated and cold. During the short period of silence, he conversed with the Writ over his options, and learned of the particular function: forcibly crossing Realms for the short period of time.

Afterwards, Writ tried to explain the consequences, but Lino hardly cared. Anything short of permanent death was acceptable to him. After all, if he couldn't vent the anger in his heart, he was certain he'd never get a wink of sleep for the rest of his life.

Naturally, he didn't plan to exterminate the entire Su Clan; most of them were completely innocent and unaware, and however enraged Lino was, he wasn't blinded by it. Revenge and massacre are two things he didn't dare mix together. Thanks to Lucky, he already had a vague idea of who exactly to target which simply meant there was no reason to delay it any longer.

Because he couldn't fly, he knew it would take a bit too long to walk over to Su Clan - perhaps half a year at the very least - so he had Lucky lead him to the destroyed teleportation platform.

Tattered stone lay around, the circular formation cracked over its entire surface seven or eight times, with runic lines nearly entirely perished. He studied for a moment and, to his relief, realized he could fix it. It should be enough for a trip over there... and back here.

Lino didn't immediately go after Demons even though it may make a bit more sense to a bystander; though he very much wanted to save Freya, he knew that Prince Yox had long since left, especially because he couldn't find Lino. In the end... I just hope he won't do anything too quickly...

He set about to fix the formation while Lucky sat on the side, occasionally nibbling on some seeds while trying her best to suppress the surging screams. The already clouded sky grew even darker as heavy rain began to fall, soaking both of them. Yet, neither seemed to care much; Lino's mind was entirely focused on the formation itself.

He didn't know much about it but, thanks to his experience with arrays, he at least had some idea on the direction. Thankfully, he also had more than enough materials to fix it temporarily. After all, he didn't need it to be perfect or to transport hundreds of people numerous times. Making it stable for a day or two was more than enough for him.

He patiently worked through the entire night before a faint smile crept up on his lips. By now, clouded sky, as though pierced by an unknown power, was gone, replaced entirely by blue expanse with the golden sun slowly rising in the east. Lino wiped sweat off his brow as he looked up toward the horizon and sunrise. Though it was beautiful, it hardly impacted him much. It was time, he realized.

He looked at Lucky who didn't say anything and instead got up and walked onto the formation, followed by Lino shortly after. He took a deep breath and flung nearly twenty thousand Qi Stones he'd already prepared at the specific points of the formation. Even if he didn't know all the details, he knew the overall structure; formation served to rip open a void between two points in space - no matter how far away they were.

As space itself was extremely durable - even here, where Qi was rather weak - to do that required enormous energy, something Lino couldn't provide himself. After a void was torn open, space was bent between two points until the distance narrowed to measly few meters.

All this knowledge stemmed from his attempts to understand the Laws of Nature, as well as his reading in Ava's library. He came to understand a bit more about the world itself and how it functioned; for instance, he knew that clouds didn't simply 'appear' in the sky. Rather, they were formed from the invisible water vapour rising high up, where the temperatures drop and vapour in turn condenses - into clouds.

Similarly, he knew that space itself wasn't as flat as he imagined it to be; though the books he read on it were rather vague and didn't provide any definitive answers, by contemplating himself, he came to some conclusions in which he was quite confident. For instance, he believed one couldn't physically 'tear open' space; what they did was simply displace it, revealing the void behind it. At the very least, that's what Lino thought. He was too weak, though, to confirm it.

As he watched the formation light up and felt space around him vibrate, he realized that his conclusion seemed to be right; though it appeared as though space around him and Lucky was being destroyed, it was simply being 'moved' in a sense to create a hole. That hole was a spinning vortex which was just large enough for a person. Usually, large-scale teleportation formations would make the 'mouth of the tunnel' immensely vast, but the size of the tunnel itself connecting two points couldn't be too large. As such, though it seemed everyone was teleported at the same time, the reality was that they crossed the tunnel itself one by one and then were forced to wait - without realizing it - for others to catch up on the other end of the tunnel.

As Lino wasn't teleporting a lot of people, he used just enough energy to tear open the hole large enough for a person. Even though he was certain Su Clan had already destroyed the formation on the other end, it didn't matter; coordinates were already 'installed' into the formation beneath his feet, and he had rough destination in mind, even if he might be off by a few miles.

Without pausing, he walked into the vortex whereupon he felt strange vestiges of space assail him. Thankfully, the formation didn't simply open up a tunnel between two points, but also coated it in shielding which made it possible for a person to cross through. Otherwise, only someone who could manipulate space and void at will could cross freely through - something Lino certainly couldn't do.