8mi Chapter 39 Sealing
Chapter 39 Sealing
The moment Xiguang opened her eyes, Karen felt the whole world brighten by one degree.
It wasn't a physical change in brightness, but an enhancement of perception on a psionic level. The contractual bond became active and clear again the moment the cub awoke, like a long-dried-up pipe suddenly filled with a clear spring. Although the psionic energy transmitted by the dawn was still weak—less than five percent of its peak—that faint, pure light psionic energy, like the first ray of dawn in the darkness, gave Karen the power and… hope she desperately needed.
"Dawn..." Karen whispered, holding the cub in her arms even tighter. "Can you move? Can you help?"
Xi Guang struggled to lift her head, her amber eyes fixed on the battlefield beyond the rocks. The Shadow's massive body was struggling against the combined attacks of three powerful members of the Order; several wounds marred its black fur, and dark silver blood dripped onto the ground, corroding small pits. The cub let out a low, anxious growl; it wanted to help, but its body was too weak to even stand.
"You don't need to fight directly," Karen said quickly. "Lend me your psionic energy. All of it. Shadow needs help; it won't last much longer."
Xi Guang nodded without hesitation. The cub closed its eyes, and the royal markings on its forehead glowed with a faint but firm golden light. Pure light energy surged into Karen's body through the contract link. Although the amount was small, it was enough to activate the nearly depleted spirit markings on his wrists.
The interplay of gold and silver shone brightly once more.
This time, Karen didn't attempt to invoke his domain power—his body and spiritual veins couldn't withstand that level of strain a second time. He chose a simpler, more direct method:
resonance.
It is not the spiritual veins of the entire forest that resonate, but the spiritual veins of the shadows.
In the previous battle, Shadow had briefly established a spiritual ley line connection with Karen to cast a sealing spell. Although Shadow initiated the connection and it was quickly broken, the frequency and characteristics of Shadow's spiritual ley lines during the connection were "recorded" by Karen's spiritual ley lines.
Now, what Karen needs to do is to reproduce that frequency in reverse.
He concentrated all the light energy provided by the Dawn on his right wrist, and the light from the gold and silver runes grew brighter and brighter, the pattern of the runes began to change—not a complete change, but a subtle adjustment, like a precision instrument fine-tuning its frequency. Karen closed his eyes, searching his memory for that feeling: the frequency of the Shadow's spiritual veins, that deep, ancient fluctuation that seemed to come from the end of time.
found it.
Karen opened her eyes, and within the light of the gold and silver spirit patterns, a trace of almost invisible dark silver seeped in.
He raised his right hand, palm facing the shadows beyond the rocks.
"Shadow!" Karen shouted with all her might, "Catch!"
It wasn't a transmission of sound, but a call of psychic energy. A faint beam of psychic energy, interwoven with gold and silver threads and tinged with dark silver, shot from Karen's palm, pierced through the cracks in the rock, and struck Shadow's back with precision.
On the battlefield, Shadow was struggling to parry Roland's Devouring Blade. The impact of the clashing blades sent it sliding backward, revealing another deep, bone-revealing wound in its chest. The staff-wielder's spells followed in quick succession: three silver chains erupted from the ground, binding its limbs; the gauntlet-wielder's heavy fist slammed into its side, the force of the punch as sharp as a blade.
At this critical moment, Karen's psionic beam struck.
The shadow's silver eyes suddenly lit up.
It didn't look back, didn't hesitate, and didn't even think. Its body reacted instinctively—opening all its spiritual vein defenses and accepting the beam of spiritual energy without any defense.
It wasn't an attack, but... a key.
The moment Karen's psionic beam entered the shadow's body, it was like a key being inserted into a lock. The two highly matched psychic veins resonated intensely under the catalysis of the external energy.
Om-!
A deep, rumbling sound, seemingly emanating from the depths of the earth, spread out from the shadow. The surrounding air began to distort, light was refracted into bizarre colors, and even the flow of time seemed to slow down. The wounds on the shadow's body stopped bleeding, dark silver blood flowed back into its body, and the wounds healed at a visible speed.
It's not a true cure, but rather a partial reversal of time.
One of the Shadow Guardians' fundamental abilities is the manipulation of shadow time.
However, this ability requires a massive amount of psionic energy, which Shadow couldn't utilize in his previous state. Now, with Karen's psionic energy replenishment and the amplification effect from resonance, he can finally cast it briefly.
"This is..." Roland's expression changed for the first time. "Time reversal? Impossible! Your power has clearly declined to..."
"How much do you think you know about me?" Shadow's voice regained its previous majesty and power, even becoming more resonant. Its body swelled slightly, and beneath its black fur, dark silver patterns flowed and spread as if they had come alive. "Three hundred years of dormancy were not for weakening, but for waiting."
It raised its right forepaw and lightly swished the tip of its claw through the air.
A black rift unfolded before it, not a spatial rift, but a temporal one. Inside the rift were countless overlapping, rapidly flashing fragments of images—everything that had happened in this area in the past few seconds: Roland's sword swing, the staff-wielding man's hand seals, the gauntlet-wielding man's punch trajectory.
The shadow reached its claws into the crevice, grabbed a certain "image," and then pulled it outwards with a sudden jerk—
Time reversed by five seconds.
It wasn't that time was reversed for the entire world, but rather for a localized portion of this battlefield area. Roland's sword returned to its raised position, the staff-wielder's chains retracted into the ground, and the gauntlet-wielder's fists returned to their sides.
Shadow himself returned to the position he had been in five seconds earlier—completely unharmed, with full health and mana.
"Now," Shadow said, his voice eerily calm, "let's start again."
It moved.
This time, the speed was at least three times faster than before. The enormous body left countless afterimages on the battlefield, as if a dozen shadows were attacking simultaneously. Claw strikes, bites, and tail sweeps—each attack precisely targeted the weaknesses of three enemies, and each movement skillfully avoided their combined attacks.
Roland and his two companions were now completely on the defensive.
They couldn't keep up with the Shadow's speed, couldn't predict its attack trajectory, and even defense became difficult. The Shadow's attacks were not only fast but also unpredictable—claws would appear from unexpected angles, tails could bypass defenses and attack the back directly, and sometimes attacks would even emerge from their own shadows.
In just ten seconds, the battle was completely reversed.
The staff-wielder's staff was shattered by a single claw, the silver crystal exploding, and the backlash of psionic energy caused him to cough up blood and collapse to his knees. The gauntlet-wielder's metal gauntlets were bitten and torn apart by the shadow, along with his hands below, and he screamed as he staggered backward.
Only Roland was left barely holding on.
But his condition wasn't much better. His armor was covered in claw marks, and his left arm hung limply, clearly broken. He could still wield the Devouring Blade, but the dark red gem on its hilt had dimmed considerably, indicating that its energy was about to run out.
"This is... the true power of the Shadow Guardian?" Roland gasped, but his eyes remained fervent. "Indeed... indeed worth the Order's three hundred years of searching... If we could capture you... if we could study your power..."
"You won't have that chance anymore." The shadow stopped ten meters in front of him, its massive body lowering slightly as if preparing for a final blow. "Today, you will die here. Then, I will go to your leader and ask him about that debt from three hundred years ago."
Roland smiled.
He laughed wildly and distortedly.
"You think...you've won?" he said hoarsely. "You think...this is all I've prepared?"
He raised his still-movable right hand, the tip of the Devouring Blade pointing towards his chest.
It wasn't suicide.
Instead... it pierced.
The blade pierced through the armor without resistance, reaching the heart. Dark red blood gushed out, but not a normal red; it was a dark red mixed with black, corrupting energy. The blood spread along the runes on the sword, activating its final power.
The dark red gemstone on the sword hilt shattered.
It's not about breaking, but about "releasing".
The immense polluting energy sealed within the gem was released in an instant. Dark red mist spread wildly from Roland's center, corroding the ground into scorched earth, withering plants into ashes, and even turning the air into a highly toxic environment.
But this is not all.
In the center where the fog was thickest, Roland's body began to change.
Black crystalline patterns appeared on his skin, his eyes turned completely dark red, and instead of bleeding from the pierced spot in his chest, a new, beating black heart grew—exactly the same as the previous split body's.
No, not exactly the same.
This heart was larger and more twisted, its surface covered with writhing blood vessels and nerves. With each beat, it spewed out more dark red mist, further transforming Roland's body.
"For the glory of Azure Flame..." Roland's voice became inhuman, like a mixture of countless voices, "For the Lord's great cause... I am willing to become calamity... to purify everything..."
He has completely mutated.
No longer human, or even a living being.
Instead, it was a humanoid monster made of dark red mist and black crystals, with a black heart embedded in its chest.
Shadow's silver eyes narrowed.
"You're insane," it said. "Willing to let the remnants of the spirit world corrupt you, abandoning your human identity... what exactly did your cult leader promise you?"
"The ticket to the new world..." Roland—or rather, the former Roland—answered in a distorted voice, "In the new order created by the cult leader... I will gain... eternity..."
It moved.
Its speed was several times faster than before, almost on par with the shadow. The dark red mist left a long trail behind it, and everything in its path was corroded and devoured.
Shadow went to meet him.
The battle between two inhuman beings has broken out once again.
But this time, Shadow found himself in a tough fight.
Roland's mutated body was virtually immune to physical attacks; Shadow's claw strikes could only leave shallow scratches on the surface of the black crystal. The crimson mist was highly corrosive, and Shadow had to continuously expend psionic energy to maintain its defenses, otherwise its fur and muscles would be rapidly eroded. Even more troublesome was the black heart—it was constantly absorbing surrounding energy, even the psionic energy dissipated during Shadow's attacks, then converting it into even more crimson mist.
This is a long time.
The Shadow's psionic reserves are rapidly decreasing, while Roland's (the monster's) power is growing stronger.
Karen watched anxiously from behind the rocks.
He could sense that the resonance between the shadow and his spiritual veins was weakening. The time reversal just now had consumed too much power, and now the shadow's spiritual energy was almost depleted. Roland (the monster), on the other hand, seemed to be a perpetual motion machine, growing stronger with each battle.
Something has to be done.
This must end.
Karen looked at the weakened Xiguang in his arms, then at the gold and silver spirit runes on his wrist. A crazy plan took shape in his mind.
"Lia, Grom," Karen whispered, "Once I'm out, take Dawn and leave immediately. Run downstream along the stream, and don't look back."
"What are you going to do?" Leah grabbed his arm. "Going out now is suicide!"
"It's not about sending them to their deaths," Karen said. "It's about sealing them away."
He looked at the constantly beating black heart in the center of the battlefield.
"Shadow taught me the principles of sealing techniques. The essence of the remnants of the spirit world is a mixture of the rules of two worlds. It cannot be destroyed, but it can be sealed. The key to sealing is to find the 'nodes' inside it and then 'cover' them with the power of opposite rules."
He raised his right hand, and the gold and silver spiritual patterns on his wrist shone brightly.
"The light energy of Dawn represents the order and life of this world, the opposite of the chaos and death rules of the spirit realm's remnants. My guardian bloodline is born with the power to seal away calamities from beyond the realm. If I could infuse the light energy of Dawn into that heart, and simultaneously guide it with my bloodline's power..."
"Then you'll be consumed by the pollution!" Grom roared. "Didn't you see what happened to Roland?"
“It’s different.” Karen shook her head. “Roland willingly accepted the contamination and gave up resisting. But I have the protection of the Dawn’s light energy and the empowerment of the Guardian’s bloodline. Most importantly…”
He looked into the shadows.
"I am not alone."
On the battlefield, Shadow was once again repelled by Roland (the monster). Its left foreleg was corroded by the dark red mist, exposing the bone, and its movements became noticeably slower. Exhaustion deepened in its silver eyes.
Right now.
Karen took a deep breath, hugged Xiguang, and rushed out from behind the rocks.
Instead of rushing towards the center of the battlefield, they rushed towards the edge of the battlefield—the location of the dark silver magic circle that Shadow had previously set up.
The magic circle is still there, and the patterns are still clear.
"Shadow!" Karen shouted with all her might, "Resonance! Resonate to the fullest extent!"
Shadow instantly understood Karen's intention.
Without hesitation, its massive body leaped backward, breaking free from contact with Roland (the monster) and landing beside Karen. At the same time, it once again activated all its spiritual vein defenses, establishing the deepest connection ever between itself and Karen's spiritual veins.
It's neither the previous one-way energy transfer nor simple frequency matching.
It is a genuine, profound resonance between two souls.
Karen felt her consciousness being pulled into an endless dark space. Not an evil darkness, but a tranquil, profound darkness, like the night sky. Within the darkness, countless silver points of light flickered, like stars. Each point of light represented a memory, an ability, a piece of knowledge.
Everything that the Shadow had accumulated over three thousand years was now fully revealed to Karen at this moment.
Karen's consciousness was also completely open to the shadows.
He saw the memory of the shadows—
In the first Spirit War, the sky was torn apart and the earth burned. The first generation of guardians formed battle formations, sealing the rifts with their lives. The young Shadow Guardian stood at the edge of the battlefield, watching familiar figures turn into specks of light and vanish, vowing to find a way to completely end the calamity.
For three hundred years, he lay dormant, disguised as a black cat, traversing various floating realms, searching for clues and observing changes. Until in Dustlight Town, he sensed the awakening of the Guardian's bloodline, so he approached, observed, tested, and finally decided to follow.
He also saw the Shadow's plan—
It's not about simply sealing away the remnants of the spirit world, but about studying it, understanding it, and finding a way to make the rules of the two worlds compatible. It's not about destruction, but about... coexistence.
Because the Shadow knew that the rift in the spirit world wouldn't close forever. The collisions between the two worlds were cyclical, and the next one would inevitably come. If a way to coexist hadn't been found by then, the result would be yet another devastating war.
Karen understood.
I understand completely now.
Then, knowledge of shadows flooded his mind.
The principles, structure, and methods of performing ancient sealing techniques.
A specialized sealing technique for dealing with remnants of the spirit world—【Shadow Lock】.
And most importantly: how to transform the light energy of the Dawn into the "lock core" for sealing.
The resonance lasted only three seconds.
But in Karen's mind, it felt like three years had passed.
When he came to his senses, Shadow had already reverted to its kitten form due to overexertion, lying weakly at his feet. Meanwhile, Roland (the monster), enveloped in a raging crimson mist, charged towards them.
There is no time.
Karen gently placed Xiguang on the ground. The cub seemed to understand something, nuzzling Karen's hand with its forehead, then closing its eyes and transferring all of its last bit of primal spiritual energy to him.
The light from the gold and silver runes turned into pure gold.
Karen raised her hands and began to form hand seals.
It wasn't any known language or gesture, but rather the sealing hand seals that the Shadow had just taught him, the seals reserved for the Ancient Guardians. Each gesture caused a specific resonance in the surrounding psionic energy, and specks of light in the air began to converge towards his hands.
Roland (the monster) had already rushed to within ten meters of him, and the dark red mist surged towards him like a tsunami.
Karen completed the final handprint.
Put your hands together in prayer position, then push them forward forcefully.
"In the name of the guardian's bloodline—"
"By the power of the contract with the Lightwing Lion Royal Family—"
"By the authority of this worldly order—"
"seal!"
Golden light burst forth from his palm.
It wasn't an offensive beam of light, but countless fine chains made of pure light energy. The chains intertwined and stretched in the air, like a giant net, enveloping Roland (the monster) and his beating black heart.
Roland (the monster) tried to dodge, but the chains were too fast and covered too wide, making it impossible to avoid them.
The chains bound its limbs, then its body, finally converging on the black heart. The moment the golden chains touched the black heart, they emitted a piercing hiss, like red-hot iron being plunged into ice water.
The dark red mist began to dissipate.
The black heart began to beat slower.
Roland (the monster) let out a final, unwilling roar: "No—!!! The Cult Leader's... grand undertaking... the New World..."
The chains tighten.
Golden light seeped into the black heart, spreading along every blood vessel and nerve, purifying and dispelling the dark red polluting energy wherever it passed. The blackness on the surface of the heart began to fade, revealing the normal, dark red muscle tissue beneath.
Finally, when the golden light completely covered the heart, the heart stopped beating.
It detached from Roland's (the monster's) chest, fell to the ground, and turned into an ordinary, dark red lump of flesh that no longer emitted any energy fluctuations.
Roland's (the monster's) body began to collapse.
The black crystals shattered and peeled away, and the dark red mist completely dissipated, revealing Roland's original human body beneath. But that body was riddled with holes, with a huge cavity in its chest, and its eyes had lost all their luster.
He knelt down, then fell forward and remained silent.
died.
He's really dead.
Karen's legs gave way, and he collapsed to his knees. The sealing spell had nearly drained all his spirit and spiritual energy; he didn't even have the strength to lift a finger. The scenery before his eyes began to blur, his ears rang, and his consciousness gradually sank into darkness.
Before he fell into a complete coma, he saw the last thing he saw:
Shadow struggled to crawl to his side and said in a weak but firm voice, "Well done... young guardian..."
Then, Shadow also fainted.
The forest returned to silence.
Only the sound of the stream and the faint chirping of birds in the distance could be heard.
And the remains of the black heart that no longer beats on the ground, and the half of the core of reason next to it.
The seal is complete.
But the battle is far from over.