Elvira didn’t waste ti the mont she landed. She took out the Empyrean Crystal.
Ben recognized it at once.
Its appearance had changed.
Its surface was covered in dense rune carvings, and the inside seed to hold a strange power that didn’t feel like normal mana.
Complicated magic spells began to form in the air.
A staff appeared in her hand. The Empyrean Crystal floated above it.
The runes on the staff began to glow.
Elvira stabbed the staff into the ground.
The whole area began to shake.
A huge amount of mana gathered at once.
It was so much that Ben could see it with the naked eye.
A whirlpool of mana poured into the Empyrean Crystal, then flowed outward into the many magic circles.
Space trembled.
A barrier began to appear.
Ben’s eyes narrowed.
He could feel it. This wasn’t a normal barrier.
It didn’t just block things.
It felt like it cut space itself and sealed it shut.
Elvira released her grip and fell to the ground.
She smiled. "It worked. Now we should have enough ti."
"I doubt this barrier can stop her," Ben said.
"It can’t," Elvira replied. "This only changes how ti flows here.
For one second outside, we will have one day inside."
Ben sighed.
"So you want us to enjoy our last days? Or do you have another idea? Maybe teleport to another plane?"
Elvira looked at him. Her gaze was deep and complicated.
"Ben, do you understand how her power works?"
"I can tell a little," Ben said. "Probably because of the Primordial Fla.
That chaos law strips authority from the plane and interferes with the most basic laws directly."
Elvira nodded. "You need to rember this. If you want to defeat Eve, you need sothing out of this realm."
Ben felt uneasy at her words, but he didn’t press her. His focus was on the incoming danger.
"What do you an, out of this realm?"
Elvira pointed at his pickaxe.
"This artifact’s power cos from a strong creature outside this realm. We don’t know which one, but this should be the key to beating her."
"You an the power of Blockify?" Ben understood, but he still felt confused.
That power made sense for construction, but how could it beat soone stronger than them?
Was he supposed to turn Eve into blocks?
’Wait a minute...’
An idea surfaced in Ben’s mind.
"Elvira, how do you think my Blockify ability works?"
In the past, he thought it was just so magic that cut everything into fast cubic forms.
Now he wasn’t sure.
"In the past my system allowed to transform into the Hive Sovereign and create my own force," Ben said. "But isn’t this a different type of ability from my pickaxe?"
His pickaxe granted him the ability to turn anything into blocks.
It could also absorb an enemy’s power and hit it back.
But he rarely used that ability lately, because his enemies were too strong.
Trying to absorb an attack from Eve felt pointless.
Her attacks weren’t normal attacks.
She rewrote reality itself.
It was like having a machine built to accept liquid, then trying to force sothing solid into it.
The input was completely different.
But what if he kept upgrading the pickaxe?
If he kept finding stronger materials, wouldn’t it eventually reach a level where it could absorb even laws?
Ben’s breath slowed.
"Elvira... what if the system was given to so I would ignore the pickaxe?
What if the pickaxe is different from my system?"
"Different?" Ben repeated.
He tried to rember the first day he arrived.
The system appeared, then it gave him this pickaxe.
’Wait... the system also gave a pocket inventory back then.
That ans the system treated the pickaxe as so kind of external tool.’
The thought made him frown.
"You an the pickaxe’s origin isn’t the system?"
Elvira nodded. "I have a feeling that even if she kills all of us, that pickaxe will still survive.
It will probably find a new owner, looking for soone to stop Eve."
Ben shook his head. "There’s no one else. After she kills and takes the Primordial Fla, she will fuse it into a new power and rewrite the whole reality."
Ben couldn’t even imagine how strong she would be with that.
How could anyone beat an enemy that could twist the universe, then erase rules with a wave of her hand?
There would be no ti to grow.
No ti to prepare.
Elvira watched him for a mont.
"I don’t think destroying whole realities is that simple, Ben. Do you still rember that tower?"
Ben looked down.
Far below, underground, he still rembered that strange dungeon tower where they faced that weird enemy.
He and Elvira only cleared a few levels before they left and never returned.
"The ability to give rewards that can even upgrade your system is beyond normal comprehension," Elvira said. "After we die, the pickaxe will probably go to soone else."
Elvira hesitated, then continued.
"Maybe inside that tower there’s another dinsion completely split from this plane.
"A place created to nurture soone strong enough to beat her."
Ben exhaled.
"I see. So the tower is so kind of protection chanism against her. But why?"
"I don’t know," Elvira said. "We need to understand her motive more. I doubt Eve is doing it just for power."
They had only t her, but Elvira felt Eve wasn’t the type to do sothing this huge for a simple reason.
"I see." Ben slumped on the ground. He lay down and looked toward the sky, warped by the barrier.
"Then we can only pray the best for the next generation."
Elvira looked at him. She wanted to say sothing, but decided not to. With a smile, she lay down too and put her head on his chest.
Ben closed his eyes and felt her warmth. His hand moved and began stroking her hair.
This was a rare calm.
Since coming to this world, he never really had ti to breathe.
There was always sothing happening.
If not, he was busy creating and upgrading his kingdom.
"It seems the whole Hive Sovereign path was a trap," Ben said.
"It absorbed so much of my ti and resources and led to this situation."
"It’s possible," Elvira replied. "Maybe that was the purpose.
She created such systems and summoned strong beings, both those already strong and those with potential."
Ben raised his hand. "What do you think, Apophis, as soone who ca from another world?"
Light shot from his fingertip, then transford into a shape the size of an adult man.
Its head looked draconic, and dark scales shimred violet under the light.
Apophis chose this form because she didn’t want problems with Elvira.
"At my era each daemon were already a strong being" Apophis said.
"But I saw those system users Eve leads. They look like people with potential.
Since you appeared in this generation, what Elvira said is probably right."
Elvira frowned and sighed.
"Not only is she stronger, she’s many steps ahead of us.
In the first place, we were never her real enemies. We’re just a small obstacle on her path to succeed."
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