The battlefield fell silent.
Even the abyssal monsters stopped. Even the sword formations stilled.
Even Commander stared, breath caught in his throat as all of them saw the berserk abyssal leader slowly turn into dust.
But all of them quickly co to their senses and attack the remaining forces of the abyss. This ti it was a one-sided slaughter, as the commander also joined and quickly destroyed the abyssal beasts.
The battle quickly ca to an end as the abyssal rift slowly closed down, leaving only the eerie aura behind.
The soldiers imdiately began clearing the battlefield, retrieving fallen comrades, checking for lingering corruption, and reinforcing defensive formations.
But Apollo didn’t join them.
He stood apart, high on a broken stretch of wall, eyes fixed on the distant horizon.
His aura was calm... Yet within his gaze flickered unease.
During the fight, he had sensed it—faint but unmistakable.
Multiple abyssal auras. Not clustered around this outpost. Not concentrated like the rift here.
But scattered. Spread across the land. Like embers of an approaching wildfire.
He could feel them even now, pulsing far away like distant heartbeats of corrupted abyssal power.
"...This wasn’t an isolated attack," he murmured.
His fingers tightened slightly on the hilt of his sword.
Sothing far bigger was unfolding—too coordinated, too sudden, too widespread. And if the abyss was making such large movents...
"How am I supposed to find Origin in the current situation..." he whispered.
The system had sent him here on purpose. The abyss was erupting in multiple regions. The Origin was sowhere in this world.
Every instinct scread that the pieces were connected.
But right now, he had no clear path—only dread, the chill of uncertainty, and a horizon filled with the distant corruption of the abyss.
Just as he was about to go back to the archives, the commander quickly ca, "Apollo, wait a mont."
"You felt it as well, I assu," he said. "The abyss didn’t strike only here. It hit multiple outposts at the sa ti—perfect timing, coordinated, planned. Soone is directing them... soone powerful."
Apollo said nothing, but his silence was answer enough.
The commander took a step closer, lowering his voice. "I won’t lie. We suffered losses. Even sword masters... couldn’t hold everywhere at once."
He exhaled, gaze drifting toward the distant sky where the rift had vanished.
Apollo’s brows tightened.
The commander finally t his eyes. "So I’ll speak plainly. We need your strength."
He hesitated, then added in a tone that was almost... careful.
"And in return, we will give you anything our domain can offer. Information, identity traces, archive access beyond the restricted level... even assistance in traveling the deeper sword regions. Whatever you seek, I will petition for you."
Apollo started to think for a mont. He needed help to find out about the origin, and nothing could be better than the help from the Sword Pavilion that guards all three thousand domains of the Empyrean Sword Realm.
He slowly sheathed his sword.
"...Fine," he said. "Tell where I’m needed."
"Good, then can you lend your strength right now, as I received a help signal from another outpost?" Commander quickly said.
Apollo didn’t hesitate.
"Where?" he asked, already turning his gaze toward the horizon.
The commander raised his hand, and a streak of crimson sword-light shot into the sky, unfolding into a shimring projection of the domain—a map ford entirely of sword-qi threads. One of the glowing points on the map was flickering violently, like a candle struggling against a storm.
"That one," the commander said, his expression grim. "Outpost Seventeen. The signal reached us monts ago. They’re under heavy assault—and unlike us, they don’t have help from an unexpected swordsman."
"We have a teleportation portal here; you can arrive instantly."
Apollo nodded and imdiately arrived at the teleportation portal.
"Be careful; although the general situation there should be the sa, who knows if there’s more to it?" Commander, before Apollo leaves, tell him to be alert.
Apollo didn’t reply with empty reassurances. He simply stepped forward, his aura steady, confidence radiating not from arrogance but from certainty in his own blade.
The teleportation array humd beneath his feet, sword-qi runes lighting up around him. Space warped, folding inward like water swirling down a drain.
Just as the light rose to engulf him, the commander called out one last ti:
"Apollo! If things are worse than expected—don’t fight recklessly. Survival is most important."
Apollo glanced back just slightly, eyes cold and resolute.
"Don’t worry, I don’t plan on dying. I still have things to uncover." With those words, he vanished into the portal.
While Apollo disappeared, the battle in various corners of the crimson domain was going on full throttle as Abyss forces seed to co with great power and were suppressing most outposts unless they were lucky and soone unexpected like Apollo appeared.
It was clear they had planned and had a great deal of understanding of the strength of different outposts, which was quite different from Abyss’s reckless battle.
Apollo, after a mont, finally arrived at the outpost number 17.
The mont Apollo erged from the portal, the world slamd into him like a tidal wave of the devastating power of the abyss and its corruption.
A choking, pitch-black mist covered the sky. Sword-qi formations flickered wildly, barely holding.
The ground shook with every clash. Screams, steel, and abyssal roars blended into a storm of chaos.
Outpost Seventeen... was already on the brink.
Apollo’s boots touched cracked stone. His gaze swept across the field in a single, cold sweep—and his expression darkened instantly.
The situation here was dire, as almost all of the outpost was destroyed; only a single guard was guarding the portal, who looked quite injured, as it appeared calling for help was the last dire effort.
From the aura, he felt only a few hundred swordsn who were still alive were also being slaughtered by the Abyssal monsters.
"...This place won’t last two more minutes," Apollo murmured.
And more terrifying—
Three massive auras made the land tremble as all three of them seed to be at the edge of the half-step transcendent realm.
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