Chaos Heir

Chapter 1625: Blood

The fabric of space was already dying, but Khan could be more terrifying, enforcing his authority on that collapse, stopping it.

Of course, the collapse was unavoidable. Khan wasn’t the kind of being capable of fixing it. He might have been able to if he had opted for godhood, but that option was gone now.

Nevertheless, Khan was far from powerless. The current stillness in the collapse proved as much. His authority could prompt the cracked fabric of space to hold itself together, but that solution was far from permanent.

At some point, the collapsing momentum would become too unavoidable for Khan to stop. The trend would go beyond what his authority could affect. Space itself would become too brittle to hold together, but Khan could do much during that delay.

A red light flashed amid Khan’s obscuring gaze, revealing his disappearance when it subsided. Still, despite Khan’s absence, his suffocating authority remained, continuing to delay the universe’s collapse.

On a different, faraway area inside that shrinking, spherical, and cracked curtain that was the fabric of space, the Leviathan-class ship was somehow still in one piece, hovering in the middle of that universal calamity.

The black celestial body had long since disappeared, and the cracks had stretched over the ship. For all intents and purposes, that vessel should have fallen prey to the space’s shattering together with everyone in the army, but something managed to stave off that catastrophe.

The fissures in the space around and over the Leviathan-class ship shone with white light, featuring chunks of ethereal ice that slowed down the collapse of that shattered fabric.

Moreover, a layer of invisible energy covered the area, creating a sphere of fake space that managed to trick anything inside it not to follow the collapsing trend, basically giving the ship and its crew an alternative layer where they could exist in one piece.

Lord Envoy and Liiza were hard at work to buy the ship and army as much time as possible while standing on top of the hull. Yet, their efforts would have been for naught if it weren’t for their companion’s directives.

Lord Enforcer was also on the hull, standing behind Liiza and Lord Envoy, his huge hands resting on their backs. The collapse was ever-changing, demanding continuous adjustments to the mana Liiza and Lord Envoy released, and only Lord Enforcer could perceive and translate them into accurate orders.

That teamwork had saved the army from immediate destruction, but time was running short. The trio had only delayed the inevitable. The collapse’s intensifying momentum was making their efforts yield diminishing returns, and it wouldn’t be long before they failed to achieve anything anymore.

It was clear that the trio had to change plans, but that was easier said than done.

It had taken a combination of Khan, massive loads of synthetic mana, and the tracks left behind by the Scarlet Eyes’ army to open a path to that separate universe, three crucial factors that the Leviathan-class ship lacked now.

Now, the fabric of space couldn’t be more brittle. Piercing it had never been easier. It was already opening on its own, so crossing its horizon wouldn’t even be a challenge.

The destination was the issue.

The two universes weren’t exactly adjacent, not in the strict and mundane sense. Merely piercing the cracked curtain would only throw the Leviathan-class ship into the nothingness.

What the army needed was a gate, a proper dimensional passage that could bring it back to its universe, and those didn’t exactly come easy.

Of course, Liiza, Lord Envoy, and Lord Enforcer understood the necessity of overcoming that steep hurdle, and each of them fell into a silent brainstorm to find a solution while continuing to keep the collapsing universe at bay.

Lord Enforcer even relied on his element to connect the different brainstorming sessions so that the trio could fuse their expertise.

That helped greatly, but it also provided a terrible blow to their morale when Liiza experienced the worst heartache of her life, which the connection inevitably shared.

Needless to say, Lord Envoy and Lord Enforcer understood what that bottomless, overwhelming sorrow meant. Still, Liiza was quick to suppress it to continue focusing on their terrible predicament, so they ignored it out of respect.

The silent cooperation was bearing fruit, but the collapse suddenly halted, and the brainstorming session stopped with it. That new event shocked the two Royal Guards, making them curious but wary.

Meanwhile, Liiza directly abandoned that joint connection, fearlessly stepping forward without showing any hesitation.

Liiza’s actions deepened the two Thilku’s confusion until their hair stood on end. Something terrifying had descended into the area, but reassurance joined that instinctive reaction when the Royal Guards spotted long black strands and the golden crown that kept them down and still.

Khan had joined the small group on the hull, stopping right in front of Liiza, and her cold hands immediately reached for his face, almost squeezing it while she placed her forehead on his.

“[You were dead],” Liiza said in her native language through the mental connection, somehow holding back the tears.

Khan knew he should offer words of reassurance, but ended up remaining silent, his eyes closed as he immersed himself in the moment. After narrowly escaping death, Khan wanted nothing more than to spend entire centuries like that.

Still, Liiza seemed to have different plans since her eyes’ light soon shone on Khan’s face, flashing with a red glow and sending a chilling feeling through the mental connection.

“[You were dead],” Liiza repeated, her mental message more of a threat than a statement, making Khan open his obscuring eyes and wear a stupid smile.

“[It was just for a few moments],” Khan replied, his mental message ending up reaching the two Thilku, too. “[And it’s not the time].”

Liiza threw a this-isn’t-over look at Khan but let him go. Now that the trio had stopped managing their surroundings, the lack of an atmosphere had started becoming a problem, making their already short time even shorter.

Khan was aware of the issue, which was why he had rushed there in the first place. He didn’t have a solution, but Liiza would probably know what to do if he gave her what she needed.

After throwing a glance at the two Royal Guards, Khan scooped some of the half-dried blood on his now intact chest, which his touch revitalized. Sparks started to crackle inside the drops on his fingers, granting them power and something else.

“[Yeza carries my bloodline, too],” Khan explained, his mental message resounding through the area. “[You should be able to connect this place to her with this].”