Way of the Knights

Chapter 817: Destroy it.

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The Dawn Council Badges, a unique identification that only its members were allowed to use. Raven packed as many functions as he could in that little thing just for convenience purposes. 

The result of the scan shocked Mark and Paul. They can't help but looked at the badge, displaying an empty crater and then looking without the badge to see the gross mess in front of them. 

"So that's why Malice Detection and Seismic Sense didn't work. The damn thing isn't even here in the first place." Paul ġrȯȧnėd, rubbing his rough palm on his face. 

"Yes. I'm actually surprised that you guys didn't know." Raven commented from the other side, setting up a tent as he talked.

"So like…did we enter some kind of time enhancement then? Why didn't I feel one?" Mark frowned. 

It didn't make sense to him. If they entered a time warp or enchantment, there's no way that neither him nor Paul would feel it. They're considered as peak experts in the Divine Realm, wouldn't it be so pathetic for them to not even recognize or sense something as easy as this. 

"You didn't feel anything?" Raven frowned. "That's new…wait, you guys are yet to tell me where you are though." 

"Oh! Haha. My bad." Paul chuckled. "We entered the Spatial Tear at the Howling Wind Great World. I used your Spatial Stabilization Seal to turn the tear into a Node. We're at the Nightmare Realm." 

"Ah! That place. Hmm" Raven thought for a bit. "Oh! I get it now. It's probably because of my Seal then. Haha."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Paul asked, confused about what Raven just said. 

"The seal I gave you served it's function. Figured I'll tell you that before you ask. It created a stable passage that allowed you to safely arrive at the Nightmare Realm. However…"

"I think the seal kind of – I'm not completely certain about this since I'm not there – interfered with the trap those Sly Foxes created for anyone who tries to enter that place." 

"The Spatial Tear itself is a trap – I think." Raven continued, "Given their abilities, it's not hard for them to purposefully create interferences within the Spatial Tear – i.e. Spatial Storms and such.

"I'd bet they created multiple replicas of the Nightmare Realm itself, connected it to one entrance and then left if there. This way, they can hide the existence of the Qlipoth Root. Well, due to my Seal changing the layout of the trap, I'm guessing that it fused all of the replicas into one."

"Meaning that you are within an Overlapping Realms. Due to that, the Qlipoth Root is visible to you but in fact, you're at the wrong area. Yeah, it's confusing I know." 

"Well…I can kind of…get it. I think." Paul hummed, "So it's like, 99 fake realms and one true realm meshed into a single thing. Like in a Paradox or something."

"Holy shit, dude! What the fuċk. Why are you smart? This is creepy!" Raven's widened as he stared at Paul. 

"Yeah, who the fuċk are you and what did you do to our friend?" Mark added. 

"I hate you. I hate you two with a burning passion! I seriously – you know what? I quit. Can't do this shit! Bye." 

"Wait, no come back! We're kidding. Come on, Paul." Raven was laughing as he watched Paul fumed while walking away. "Come on! Don't quit. I'm going to tell Ellen, I have Avatars back there I'll have you know."

"…traitor." Paul grumbled.

"Whipped." Mark snorted. 

"And you're not?"

"Touché."

"Ugh." Paul rolled his eyes, "Alright. What do we do then? We identified the problem, how do we get rid of it?"

"Uh, isn't that obvious already?" Raven raised a brow. "Destroy it."

"Yeah, we know. But how exactly. We're in a Paradox remember? I don't even know how we're going to get out." Paul replied. 

"No. What I mean to say is, destroy the entire thing." Raven stated. 

"The Nightmare Realm?" Mark asked. 

"Yes." Raven nodded, looking like he's stating the most obvious thing. "There's no reason for it to exist anyway."

"…"

Mark and Paul were speechless. But now that they're thinking about it, yeah, it's that obvious.

The Nightmare Realm truly has no reason to exist. It only brings pain and suffering. It only has death and no rewards. In addition to this, it's even hiding a Qlipoth Root – which was meant to be destroyed anyways. 

Because of the Qlipoth Root, the citizens of the Howling Wind Great World always has to suffer and send their men to death. Leaving this place intact doesn't do anything good. It's disappearance would be the greatest benefit for all. 

Since this is a considered as a Hidden Realm, destroying it won't harm the great world. It's also a Danger Zone so they have to deal with it in the first place. 

So yeah, long story short. Destroy it. Plain and simple. 

"…yeah. Yeah, I think we're going to do just that. Fuck, I hate how simple this turns out to be." Paul muttered as he brought out his spear and shield.

"Yeah, same." Mark nodded as he started surrounding himself with Crimson Lightning. "We have to make it as explosive as possible though. Just to make sure nothing survives."

"Sounds like a plan." Paul nodded. He then turned to Raven and said: "Yeah, I think we're good here. Thanks for the ȧssist."

"You're welcome anytime." Raven smiled. "Oh, be careful though. Make sure you keep the tunnel intact before you destroy the realm. We can't have you guys injured. Also, before you do that, survey the entire place first. See if you can bring something back for Laughing Dragon as clues."

"I'll do it. I'm faster." Mark offered. 

"Yeah. I'll wait here. Anyways, go and rest Raven. Come back soon, your wife's missing you." 

"Will do. Stays safe you two. Bye."

Raven disconnected the link. Mark started roaming as soon as he was out while Paul tried to locate and protect their exit. 

Mar, ran a few ŀȧps around the realm, searching for clues to bring back just like Raven suggested. He abducted some Abominations and retrieved some fossils that he saw and thought valuable. He took some samples of the soil and even spread his senses underground to check for some buried items. Anything that he could take back really. 

Once he was done with that, Mark returned to Paul's side and nodded. The latter understood what he meant and said:

"Well, how do we do this? Do we just…I don't know, go in a rampage until everything's destroyed?" 

"No. That's exhausting and risky." Mark rejected the idea.

"How are we supposed to blow up this realm then?" 

"We can look for the core of the realm." Mark suggested. "Once we found it, we overload it, place a tag, make our exit and then boom. Big explosion."

"You sound like someone who hasn't socialized for eons." Paul snorted. 

"Fits the theme, don't you think?" Mark replied, "We thought this mission was supposed to be complicated but it wasn't. We might as well follow the trend." 

"Right, the core's right over there. Let's get this over with. I wanna go home." Paul sighed. 

The two of walked towards the core. One stab of Paul's spear revealed it. A dark core filled with energy. They looked at each other first and nodded. 

Paul placed a trigger seal on the core first, this will prevent the core from exploding before they can leave. 

The two of them might be strong but they could still get severely injured if the realm exploded with them in it. The two of them can't afford to get injured badly. There's too much work to be done and they'll delay their schedule. 

There's no reason to risk it to save time. It's better to be safe than sorry.

Once the trigger seal had been embedded at the core, the two didn't waste time and started overloading the core with their berserk energies combined. Despite today's work, the two of them hadn't really spent much of their reserves so they have plenty to spare. 

The stream of berserk energy swiftly bloated the core, causing it to turn stable. The black core started trembling, cracks begun appearing at its surface but the two of them didn't stop just yet. 

They only stopped when the core's literally one second away from the exploding. The trigger seal activated right then and stopped the explosion. 

"I think we're good. Let's leave." Mark nodded to Paul's suggestion. 

They swiftly made their way to their exit, before they left, Paul threw a stone which hit the trigger seal and resumed the countdown. 

Mark and Paul felt the explosion even within the spatial passage. They didn't need to look behind to know that the passage was collapsing behind them. Their flight speed is faster though so they were safe. 

Once they're back at the Howling Wind Great World, they looked back and saw the tunnel collapsing completely. The Nightmare Realm is no more. 

"Mission Success." Paul stated. 

"Yeah, let's return to the Headquarters immediately.." Mark stated, "I want Laughing Dragon's help in locating the rest of the cult and Qlipoth."