Aster yanked his hand away from Seraphina’s grip, as if she were a debt collector who had just tracked down his home address. He stared at Balthazar, searching for a shred of logic in this sea of madness."Professor," Aster’s voice trembled as he fought the urge to scream. "If I run to the surface... where am I supposed to go? There’s a hundredthousand gold coin bounty on my head! Even the lunch lady who usually gives me extra rice will be trying to poison my soup by tonight!"Balthazar let out a long sigh, his voice as heavy as a millstone. From beneath his tattered robe, he pulled out a scroll of parchment that glowed with a faint blue light. It was the Aethelgard Academy’s mana topography map."You're right, Aster. The upper city is locked down," Balthazar said, his finger tracing the lines of light on the map. "The Abyss faction in the Magic Tower has deployed Shadow Inquisitors. They’re combing through every dormitory, every tavern, every ratinfested alley. On the surface, you’re

The damp, dusty stone corridor of the dungeon narrowed, pressing against Aster Vale’s chest like giant hands trying to crush his ribs. Behind him, Kaelen walked with steady strides, his junk wooden sword shimmering in the flickering torchlight. Bringing up the rear, Cassius and Valerius’s gang carried rusty chicken wire, rotting wooden planks, and discarded cardboard boxes with cold sweat on their faces—as if they were hauling bombs that could go off at any second.[COUNTDOWN: 50 HOURS 47 MINUTES 32 SECONDS.]Aster stopped at a junction. To the left was an empty storage room with slippery stone floors and walls covered in glowing blue moss. To the right, a dark passage ended in a water trap fed by an overflowing alchemical sewer."Stop," Aster ordered, his voice raspy from exhaustion. He pulled the burlap sack from his back and dropped it to the floor with an echoing thud. "We're stopping here."Kaelen immediately dropped into a defensive stance, standing before Aster with his wooden

[COUNTDOWN: 48 HOURS 14 MINUTES 12 SECONDS.]Malakor and his three guards moved faster than sound. The Abyss mana radiating from their [SoulRipping Daggers] was so dense and corrosive that it devoured the light around them. The glowing blue moss on the dungeon walls withered in an instant, turning into black dust. The torches in the hallway choked and died. In a fraction of a second, the storage room was plunged into absolute darkness.This was not merely an absence of light. It was a physical manifestation of the Abyss—a void that was heavy, freezing, and oppressive to the lungs of anyone breathing within it.Kaelen didn't flinch. He gripped his Cracked Iron Sword—the blade that had survived the World Law Tribulation in Chapter 6. The fractures in the steel emitted a faint golden glow, the only resistance against the engulfing darkness. Kaelen stepped in front of the cardboard box, positioning his body as a human shield, ready to trade his life for his Master.However, inside the "Ab

Thirty hours had passed since Patriarch Valerius and his elite retinue were swept away into a pocket dimension. Outside the cardboard box, time seemed to lose its meaning.The System, detecting the loss of the "karmic anchor" on the surface due to Aster’s interference, automatically compensated for the anomaly by forcibly accelerating the remaining time. The laws of the world could not wait. The apocalypse had to happen on schedule—or sooner.Inside the dungeon storage room, the only sound was the peaceful, rhythmic snoring emanating from the cardboard box that served as the nucleus for the [Absolute Dimensional Prison]. Aster Vale was dreaming about a pile of gold coins he could use to buy a new pressure cooker.Yet, outside the box, the atmosphere was chilling enough to freeze bone marrow.[COUNTDOWN: 00 HOURS 00 MINUTES 10 SECONDS.]Kaelen stood frozen in front of the box. His hands gripped his Cracked Iron Sword so tightly that his knuckles turned white. The crack on the blade pul

The Abyssal Behemoth’s giant bone scythe sliced through the air, carrying a deathly gale strong enough to shred steel. Kaelen closed his eyes, clutching the cardboard box behind him tightly, bracing himself for the impact that would surely sever his head from his body.But the death never came.KRAAAANG!A deafening sound shook the entire warehouse. The giant bone scythe slammed into something invisible exactly one inch in front of Kaelen’s face—the intangible boundary of the [Absolute Dimensional Prison] emanating from the cardboard box. The impact triggered a shockwave that obliterated dozens of surrounding monsters into a mist of blood. The Behemoth’s arm cracked, then exploded into bone fragments, unable to withstand the recoil from the laws of absolute dimension.However, Kaelen was oblivious to the miracle. His mind was too deeply submerged in an ocean of trauma. The blood gushing from his shredded stomach, combined with the mental pressure of seeing thousands of Abyssal monster