Chapter 58 Stable Anchor Bolts

The Spirit Artisans of Mech-Corpse Destiny have distinctive combat styles, varying by their affiliated Forging Court.

Some Spirit Artisans highly modify their bodies with prosthetics, turning themselves into terrifying killing machines, while others store vast design blueprints in their minds, crafting various weapons and even wearable mechanical armor on the fly to face enemies, adapting to changes in the battlefield.

Then there are Spirit Artisans like Rolf, who act like puppeteers, creating and controlling powerful steel constructs.

One man, an army.

A sky full of artillery fire and beams intertwined, forming a destructive torrent that washed over the Devouring Worm’s body; its seemingly indestructible scales shattered inch by inch, raising large clouds of charred, foul blood.

“Haha, this is the firepower advantage theory we at the Myriad Machine Concordance Institute are so fond of!”

Rolf burst into laughter.

Turning his head, he had expected Sirian to be terrified and trembling uncontrollably under the sound of gunfire.

But what met Rolf’s eyes was a completely opposite expression.

Sirian’s eyes held only a similar surge of excitement as Rolf’s; in fact, Sirian’s enthusiasm was even greater.

Seeing this, Rolf actually felt a touch of mutual appreciation.

“That’s really cool.”

Sirian praised genuinely.

“You’re quite interested in the power of mechanics, aren’t you?”

During a lull in suppressing the Devouring Worm, Rolf even had time to chat with Sirian.

“Of course,” Sirian added, “but to be precise, I’m extremely interested in anything that can harm chaos.”

“Oh? Then you must see this!”

Rolf grew even more appreciative of the young man before him; if Sirian was still alive after everything ended, he planned to invite Sirian to breakfast.

“What is it?”

Sirian swung his sword, cutting down a demon attempting to approach.

“Its official name is the Reality Material Stabilization Generator, but that sounds a bit too long and awkward.”

Rolf said, as the back of the Dominator armor bulged, and metal panels unfolded one by one, revealing a spire made entirely of crimson crystals.

“So, everyone prefers to call it the Stability Anchor.”

Under Rolf’s suppressive fire, the Devouring Worm’s ascent was greatly slowed, but even so, nearly tens of meters of its body had reached reality, like a coiled giant snake.

“Its main body is made of high-purity soul marrow, and its tail carries a special detonation system.”

The Dominator arched its body, its arms digging into the ground, as if shouldering a massive cannon.

“Just like the operating principle of the Beacon Lighthouse, when it hits a chaotic creature, amplified and diffused by the detonation system, the instantaneously released soul marrow power acts like a temporarily lit Beacon Lighthouse, enough to dispel the surrounding Liminal Gray Area, stabilize reality, and thus interrupt the ascent of the Spirit World.”

With the terrifying Devouring Worm right before them, and countless demons roaring around, in this desperate and insane situation, Sirian and Rolf chatted animatedly, as if they had just met and regretted not knowing each other sooner.

Rolf asked, “Do you want to press the launch button?”

“Huh?”

“Just kidding.”

Before he finished speaking, the Dominator armor launched the Stability Anchor, and the roar of a heavy cannon echoed.

It didn’t shoot at the Devouring Worm, but rather sped towards the ground, the boundary between the Spirit World and reality.

High-speed friction with the air ignited the outer layer of soul marrow on the Stability Anchor, and raging flames coiled around it, like a distant fiery meteor.

Sirian watched the fire fade.

There was no scorching wind or heatwave, no earth-shattering explosion, only a silently expanding fireball, until it became a slowly rising blazing sun.

Where the light touched, the chaotic grey mist was completely evaporated, and the demons vanished into ash without even a whimper.

A void was purified in the Liminal Gray Area, and the fusion of the Spirit World and reality within that area was interrupted, bringing the Devouring Worm’s ascent to a halt.

Amidst the harsh shrieks, a faint groan of flesh being torn could be heard.

The separated two realms ignored the sturdy scales, spatially cutting through the Devouring Worm’s flesh, and turbid blood rained down, splashing onto the ground like strong acid, corroding everything it touched.

With a reluctant growl, the Devouring Worm’s figure gradually disappeared into the darkness, like a sinking giant ship, slowly submerging underground.

“See, it’s quite simple.”

Rolf let out a long breath, “Most Crisis-level chaotic creatures can only threaten the safety of a City-state; if handled properly, they are far from capable of destroying a City-state.”

“No… I don’t think it’s that simple.”

Sirian interrupted Rolf, he couldn’t see the Devouring Worm’s figure, but he could sense that the ouroboros seal’s stinging had not ceased.

“Hmm?”

Rolf wondered what gave Sirian, a Rank One, the confidence to make such a judgment, and then, he felt it too.

The ground was no longer solid and even; instead, it rapidly sank like sand.

“Damn it, it’s trying to eat this area.”

Rolf’s expression changed dramatically.

Despite being banished by the Stability Anchor, the Devouring Worm did not retreat into the Spirit World; instead, it was willing to have its body cleaved by the separated realms just to devour the two of them.

Its head split open like petals, and countless black particles spread out in all directions like a swarm of bees.

This was its maw; anything it touched would sink into the Spirit World.

The ground began to collapse and sink, converging towards the two of them.

This wasn’t the first time Sirian had experienced the ebb and flow of the Spirit World, he shouted.

“Are there any more Stability Anchors?”

“Do you know how expensive these things are? Heer City doesn’t even have many of them.”

Rolf didn’t have time to retrieve the Dominator armor; he grabbed Sirian, and the roar of grinding machinery echoed from his aged body.

A narrow darkness followed Rolf’s steps like a shadow; the Dominator armor, left behind, was covered by it and disappeared.

“Damn it, its target is me!”

Rolf quickly instructed, “Sirian, get out of here. Just hide under the Beacon Lighthouse, and the light of soul marrow will stop the collapse of the Spirit World.”

Sirian worried, “What about you?”

“Me? I have my ways.”

Rolf’s aged face broke into a smile, and he stopped in place.

“As for you, keep running!”

Rolf turned his back to Sirian, facing the swarm of black bees that blended into the night.

“Seriously, I’m so old, and I still have to fight for my life with a monster like you.”

Rolf complained in a low voice, “Well, I suppose monsters like you shouldn’t be judged by common sense; even after death, you still want to feast.”

He took a deep breath, and a splendid shimmer flickered in his prosthetic eye; his black robe billowed without wind, and the roar of an engine came from beneath his clothes.

Vast source energy slowly lifted Rolf, pure white light filled his eyes, and streaks of ethereal blue lightning arced across his body, even transforming into massive bolts of thunder, mercilessly striking the ground, raising bursts of sparks.

Rolf opened his mouth, his voice cold and hollow.

“Rolf Reed, requesting connection to the concordance network.”

A similarly cold and hollow voice responded from the void.

“Authentication passed, Rolf Reed connected to the concordance network.”

“Requesting download of the World-Shaking Spear design blueprint.”

This time, the voice from the void did not respond immediately; instead, many sensors within Rolf’s body flickered at high frequency, reading the values of the surrounding environment.

“High-threat chaotic creature detected, request approved, World-Shaking Spear design blueprint synchronizing…”

A flood of information surged into Rolf’s mind; for a moment, even his self-awareness became blurred.

Rolf stiffly raised his right hand, making a comical pistol gesture, pointing forward.

Streaks of ethereal light and dashed lines converged at Rolf’s side, vaguely forming the phantom of a massive cannon.

“Initiating World-Shaking Spear printing, progress 3%…”

In an instant, countless bolts of thunder fiercely struck the ground, ionizing the air.

Any matter they touched disintegrated and transformed.

They were heated, melted, cooled, and forged into precise parts out of thin air, pieced together one by one into the complex phantom; in just over ten seconds, the phantom of the giant cannon materialized.

The cold voice paused and said.

“Printing complete.”

The World-Shaking Spear charged, gathering all its terrifying power; the extreme high temperature almost melted the muzzle.

“Bang–“

Rolf made an onomatopoeic sound, like a child.

Trigger, fire.

The World-Shaking Spear unleashed a stream of light several meters wide; at the same time, the World-Shaking Spear itself disintegrated due to the extremely high energy.

It could only fire once, but once was enough.

The stream of light pierced through the darkness, plowed across the earth, countless demons vanished into thin air, and even the Devouring Worm, unwilling to be banished, was enveloped by it.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, no terrifying echo, only silent evaporation.

The light was fleeting, and the darkness was utterly vanquished.

After the double blow of the Stability Anchor and the World-Shaking Spear, even if the Devouring Worm was a City-Ruin Beast, it was still inevitably banished completely, disappearing into the darkness of the horizon, leaving only scattered pieces of flesh and sturdy scales.

The World-Shaking Spear disintegrated into a pile of wreckage.

Rolf disconnected from the concordance network, and the design blueprints synchronized to his mind also disappeared; his suppressed personal consciousness reawakened, his forehead covered in dense cold sweat.

“Ha… I’m really getting old…”

Rolf felt a dizzying sensation, staggering as he turned around, only to see Sirian rushing towards him with a tense expression.

“Oh, Sirian, I’ve already repelled it…”

The moment Rolf finished speaking, a chilling coldness came from his spine.

He had banished the Devouring Worm, but a part of its “maw” still remained in the real world; the light stream had failed to completely evaporate them.

The lingering black particles, like a ribbon, coiled around Rolf.

This meager power couldn’t kill Rolf, nor even harm him, but it could shake the foundations of reality, dragging him into the quagmire of the Spirit World.

“Bastard!”

Rolf cursed in a low voice, his prosthetic hand disintegrated and transformed into a hand cannon, but he no longer had a chance to fire.

The darkness fell upon Rolf like an airtight curtain.

In the nick of time, a flash of fire ignited beside Rolf, and a shout came belatedly.

“Hold on!”

Sirian put one arm around Rolf’s shoulder, and with the other hand, plunged the boiling sword into the ground.

Fierce flames raged, soul marrow released.

Collapse—

Reality disintegrated around them like a sand table, and dark red fissures devoured the earth at a visible rate.

Soil and rocks, at this moment, were like biscuits chewed by an invisible giant beast, falling into the void in chunks and pieces.

When the dust settled, Rolf finally saw the precision of this collapse: a circular area with a radius of twenty meters, centered three meters beneath his feet, had been completely carved out, with vertical cliffs cut as if by a sharp blade.

In the center of this deep pit, the land where the two stood remained eerily intact, like a black obelisk growing out of the void.

Rolf paused, his voice dry, “Well done, kid.”

“Haha…”

Sirian’s face was pale, and he laughed wearily.

When the Devouring Worm consumed the earth, Sirian detonated all his soul marrow power, temporarily stabilizing reality, allowing the two of them to survive the collapse of the Spirit World.

The areas that couldn’t be protected, just like this, completely disappeared, sinking into the Spirit World.

“Ah… ah…”

Wails came from afar; Sirian looked up and saw a few scattered figures at the edge of the abyss.

Those were the Transcendent who had participated in the operation with Sirian; some had lost arms, some had lost legs, others were cut in half at the waist, and some even lost their heads.

The collapse of reality had also affected them; the lost flesh was not severed by a blade, but sank into the Spirit World along with the Devouring Worm.

Sirian looked further afield; the high walls of Heer City had also collapsed, forming a narrow gap, with a smooth, even cross-section, revealing the internal structure and metal surfaces.

Rolf had been too calm when repelling the Devouring Worm, so much so that Sirian hadn’t realized what terrifying power he had just faced.

“Sirian, you…”

Rolf now looked at Sirian with a different gaze.

Sirian, being only Rank One, when fully igniting his soul marrow, could achieve the effect of a Stability Anchor; even if only for an instant, even if the maintained sanctuary was so narrow, it was an undeniable fact.

Many questions filled Rolf’s mind, but he didn’t ask immediately; instead, he sighed.

“You’ve been a great help.”

“It’s nothing, I just did my best,” Sirian said softly, “You’re so powerful, you’d be fine even if you fell into the Spirit World, right?”

“I wouldn’t die if I fell into the Spirit World.”

Rolf nodded, then shook his head.

“But it would probably be very difficult to get out alive.”

Grotesque figures stood in the distance; as they approached, Sirian saw clearly that they were mechanical constructs, one after another, encircling the two of them, and then firing to suppress the remaining demons in all directions.

Someone hurried forward, asking anxiously.

“Chief, what’s the situation?”

Rolf didn’t respond, his gaze lowered, falling on the boiling sword in Sirian’s hand.

The intense burning had consumed the bandages on the boiling sword, revealing the emblem on the hilt.

Sirian’s heart tightened, and he asked tentatively.

“They call you… Chief?”

“Oh, right, let’s reintroduce ourselves, Sirian. I am Rolf Reed, the current Chief of Technology for Heer City.”

Rolf sensed Sirian’s unease and smiled.

“May I invite you to breakfast?”