Pillar of Yita

The final combat ended in a pyrrhic victory.

Fang Hong gently wiped the dust off his face and scratched his head as he looked at the remnants of the Clockwork Fairies scattered around. He hadn’t expected the attacks from these dark spheres to be so fierce in the final battle, but it was lucky he managed to hold on in the end.

He looked up, and the hall was empty, no longer sensing any connection between the Resonance Crystals and his Main Crystal—surely there wouldn’t be any more enemies now, Fang Hong thought. In the previous battle, his computational workload peaked, once controlling over twenty-five Silver Pursuers even at that.

And this was accomplished without Miss Tata’s assistance.

As a level seventeen Combat Artisan, this was indeed somewhat unbelievable.

But the unbelievable couldn’t change the outcome of the combat, just as the world behind the Door seemed to consider this battle still unimpressive.

At least the outcome was no different—

The hall was almost devoid of any intact Silver Pursuers, so even one more black Clockwork Fairy would have been enough to take Fang Hong’s life here. But he thought there wouldn’t be another wave of attacks since all the dark Stars were scattered haphazardly on the ground.

The world behind the Door always made sense—

But just as this thought fell, Fang Hong wished he could slap himself because sometimes being a crow’s mouth is fatal. In the dim space ahead, a patch of dark metal spheres quietly emerged.

They had no power but still floated in mid-air.

And this time, the total quantity was even larger than the scale of the previous attacks combined.

Seeing this, Fang Hong couldn’t help but scream inwardly, ”How can this even be possible to pass!” Not being foolish, he turned to flee. But suddenly, a matrix of dark Stars emerged, casting a red glow. An intense light beam intertwined, forming a light web indistinguishable from one another.

Fang Hong barely took a step when a dazzling sea of red light completely engulfed him—although the Dark Ritual auto-triggered, saving him his life, it didn’t help much, only letting him leave a last message, ”Ah—!”

Then more high-temperature red light pierced through his body, completely turning him to ashes.

If one had to ask what Fang Hong felt at that moment, the only consolation was that it was within a trial, so the excruciating pain didn’t feel real; otherwise, just the experience of being turned to ashes would be enough to leave a psychological shadow—

The reason Invokers require specialized psychological counseling after leaving Eteliria is not only to eliminate the sense of disparity and psychological gap between the two worlds but sometimes for some Invokers, it might truly leave lifelong psychological diseases.

Being an Invoker in this era is by no means a carefree, risk-free job.

Even though everything is just a trial.

When Fang Hong finally woke up, he sat like a dazed quail for a few seconds. He shook his head, finally realizing what was wrong in this trial—

It’s not that he got anything wrong.

But because that neutral and rigid voice gave a prompt beside him:

”Extreme Multicontrol Test complete, participant completion rate is one hundred sixty-two point three percent.”

What a joke is one hundred sixty-two point three percent with decimals? Fang Hong couldn’t help but be exasperated, while Miss Tata quietly added, ”Mr. Knight, I believe this challenge has no end. Beyond one hundred percent completion, every step you advance, you’ll face an exponential increase in enemies.”

She continued, ”So it’s not that the trial is too difficult, but that Mr. Knight has progressed too far.”

”Just as its name suggests—” Miss Fairy’s voice was calm as water, explaining.

Fang Hong couldn’t help but interrupt, ”...Wait a second, Miss Tata, don’t say it, I already know...” He wasn’t deaf; upon hearing that prompt, how could he not know what happened? But to admit it was somewhat embarrassing, hard to speak of.

Yet Miss Fairy glanced at him and said, ”This is indeed an extreme trial, Mr. Knight.”

Fang Hong weakly replied, ”I know.”

Thus, he tried to pursue victory in a limitless difficulty assessment.

And he actually passed five stages, eventually facing over a hundred dark Stars, personally experiencing the effect of being turned to ashes; whenever Fang Hong thought about that experience, he couldn’t help but want to curse.

But the rigid prompt voice didn’t empathize with his mood, still asking in a singular tone:

”A score of one hundred sixty-two point three percent is enough to be recorded in the Silver Tower’s achievement registry. Would the participant like to leave his name?”

”Wait, what’s the benefit of this record?”

Fang Hong immediately followed up with a question.

The rigid voice replied emotionlessly: ”There are no benefits.”

Fang Hong’s interest instantly diminished by half, ”Then what’s the use?”

”So that means not leaving a name?”

”No, of course, I will.” On the contrary, having no benefits yet unable to achieve fame, Fang Hong would never agree to that. Fortunately, the rigid prompt voice showed no disdainful emotion, otherwise, it would have immediately given him a white eye.

And at that moment, a black metal sphere silently emerged from the darkness, almost startling Fang Hong as he recognized it as the kind of dark Clockwork Fairy from just before. He originally thought this thing existed only in a virtual training ground, but unexpectedly, it truly existed.