Legend of the Embroiderer

Chapter 490 Trial of the Void Realm

The gray light from the spacetime rift was like solidified fog. When the guardian passed through the rift, he felt half of his energy being drained away, as if he had sunk into a cold, deep sea.

The ground beneath your feet is not solid, but composed of countless tiny gray dust particles. Stepping on it creates ripples, revealing the unfathomable darkness beneath.

The sky of the Void Realm was a uniform leaden gray, devoid of sun, moon, and stars, and without the movement of wind. Transparent, wispy particles floated in the air; upon closer inspection, these were countless fragments of shattered spacetime, within which scenes from different eras could be vaguely discerned.

Burning starships, crumbling cities, smiling children...

When these fragments touch his skin, they cause a stinging pain, as if reminding him that these are untouchable phantoms.

Twelve observer statues kneel neatly around the altar. The statues are not made of stone, but of solidified fragments of spacetime, with a fine gray pattern covering their surface, like dried-up blood vessels.

Their eyes were two black holes, staring straight at the white robe on the altar, the eerie curve of their lips seeming to mock them silently.

The Guardian gripped the Chaos Lightsaber tightly, and the three feathers on the blade emitted a faint glow, illuminating a ten-meter radius around it.

As he approached the altar, the stone statues suddenly turned their necks in unison, making a "crackling" sound. Gray tears seeped from their black, hole-like eyes, dripping into the dust and turning into tiny worms that crawled toward the guardian.

"This is not a statue of the observer."

The guardian felt a chill run down his spine. He noticed that the palms of the stone statues were engraved with the same runes as those on the black-robed man's stone tablet, but the runes were covered by gray dust and were not easily noticeable.

He swung his sword and cut the crawling worm in half. After being cut, the worm turned into a wisp of green smoke, emitting a faint smell of sulfur.

The white robe on the altar moved without wind, drifting towards the guardian. The hole at the hem of the robe perfectly matched the hole in the white robe he was wearing, as if the same garment had been torn and then stitched together.

The moment the white robe touched him, countless unfamiliar memories suddenly flooded the guardian's mind:

An observer dressed in the same white robe was studying the power of chaos in a laboratory, a fanatical smile on his face, as he injected his blood into a chaotic crystal.

He argued with the other elders in the council, brandishing half a black stone tablet in his hand.

Finally, he stood on the ruins of the Observer civilization, pressed the stone slab to his chest, and his body was gradually swallowed by dark purple energy.

"These are... the memories of the man in the black robe?" The guardian suddenly retreated, his white robe falling into the dust and returning to its still state.

But the skin around the Observer's Mark on his arm began to turn gray, as if it were being eroded by the aura of the Void.

Just then, one of the stone statues suddenly stood up. As it stood, its body continuously decomposed and reassembled, with gray fragments scattering and coalescing, eventually transforming into a gray figure similar in size to the guardian, holding a longsword made of fragments of time and space.

"Outsider, accept the trial of nothingness."

The voices of the figures sounded like countless people speaking at the same time, both familiar and strange: "Only by acknowledging one's own nothingness can one gain the recognition of time and space."

It swung its sword, leaving a black trail as the blade sliced ​​through the air. The space within that trail vanished, becoming absolute nothingness.

The guardian dodged to the side, his lightsaber clashing with the opponent's longsword, producing a piercing metallic scraping sound.

To his surprise, he discovered that his opponent's sword could absorb his energy, and with each collision, the light on the lightsaber would dim a little.

What alarmed him even more was that the figure's moves were exactly the same as his, as if it were imitating his every action.

During the fierce battle, the other stone statues also turned into gray figures one after another. Their moves were different; some were good at defense, some were good at speed, and some could manipulate spacetime fragments to attack.

The guardian was trapped in the center, his wounds continued to increase, and the gray erosion was spreading, gradually covering his left arm.

"Who are you?" the guardian roared, channeling chaotic power into his lightsaber. The blade erupted with dazzling light, temporarily forcing the figures back.

But he discovered that the more chaotic power he injected, the stronger those figures became, and their bodies would develop dark purple patterns, becoming more and more similar to the aura of the man in black robes.

Suddenly, the white robe on the altar fluttered up again. This time, it did not approach the guardian, but instead transformed into a gray ribbon of light that wrapped around a human figure.

The figure's body began to tremble violently, and its gray outer shell peeled away, revealing a dark purple body inside—a young man in black robes!

"It seems you still don't understand."

The young man in black robes grinned maliciously, holding the other half of the black stone tablet in his hand, which matched the stone tablet at the bottom of the Fountain of Memory perfectly.

"These are all manifestations of your inner fears, and the more you resist them, the stronger they become."

He pieced the two stone slabs together, and the runes on the slabs instantly lit up, emitting gray energy waves that enveloped the entire altar.

The guardian felt a sharp pain in his brain, and countless negative emotions surged forth like a tidal wave:

Fear of failure, uncertainty about the future, doubt about one's own identity...

His consciousness began to blur, the Chaos Light Sword slipped from his hand, and the gray erosion spread to his heart.

Just as he was about to be swallowed by the void, the badge suddenly burst out with golden light, and the remaining power of the Time-Space Overseer formed a barrier, temporarily blocking the gray erosion.

The light feathers on the blade also resonated strongly, projecting the image of the fused entity.

Don't be fooled by appearances!

Although the image of the merged entity was blurry, the voice was exceptionally clear: "The Void Realm is a trial ground set up by the Observer Civilization to select those who can control the power of balance. Those stone statues are actually the manifestation of the obsessions of the guardians of past generations!"

The Guardian awoke with a start, recalling the scenes he had seen in the Fountain of Memory, where the mentor of the first Observer had also undergone a similar trial.

He gripped the lightsaber again, no longer resisting the gray figures, but instead trying to guide the chaotic power within him to merge with the power of creation.

When the two forces formed a tiny tai chi pattern in his palm, the movements of the figures suddenly slowed down.

“That’s the key.”

The guardian suddenly realized what was happening. He stopped attacking the figures and let their blades pierce him.

But just as the sword was about to touch him, it was deflected by the Tai Chi pattern on his body, and the figure's body began to become transparent.

Upon seeing this, the young man in black robes roared and inserted two stone slabs into the altar. The altar began to shake violently, and gray dust was stirred up, forming a huge vortex.

The remains of twelve stone statues rose from the vortex, assembling into a colossal gray giant. The giant's head had twelve different faces, each bearing a different expression: pain, anger, sorrow, joy...

"Since you refuse to submit, then let's all perish together!"

The voice of the man in black robes echoed in the vortex. The giant swung his hammer, made of fragments of spacetime, and smashed it down on the guardian. Everything in its path turned to nothingness.

The guardian did not dodge. He plunged his lightsaber into the ground, pouring all his energy into it. The three light feathers simultaneously burst forth with dazzling light, forming a huge golden shield.

Runes of creation and chaos flow across the surface of the shield, the two forces intertwining to form a perfect balance.

When the giant hammer struck the protective barrier, there was no earth-shattering collision, only a soft "thud." Both the hammer and the giant turned into countless gray dust particles, merging into the ground of the Void Realm. The young man in black robes let out a unwilling roar, his body engulfed by golden light, dissipating into a wisp of green smoke. But before disappearing, a relieved smile appeared on his face.

The white robe on the altar floated to the guardian and automatically draped over his body, fitting him perfectly.

As the white robe clung completely to his body, even more memories flooded his mind, this time the memories of the guardians of the past:

How they search for the key to destiny, how they fight against chaos, and how they make difficult choices at crucial moments...

The last memory is of a blurry figure standing at the center of the universe, inserting the twelve wings of the Key of Destiny into the heart of spacetime, his body transforming into countless points of light, repairing the cracks in the universe.

The figure's profile resembled a guardian, a man in black robes, and a composite entity.

"I see."

The guardian murmured to himself, finally understanding that the power of balance was not about sacrificing oneself, but about embracing all possibilities, including light and darkness, justice and evil.

Just then, the Void began to collapse, cracks appeared in the gray sky, revealing a colorful light below.

Half of the black stone slab at the bottom of the Fountain of Memory flew out of his badge and combined with the other half of the stone slab remaining on the altar to form a complete stone slab.

The runes on the stone slab lit up, projecting the coordinates of the fourth Key of Destiny—"The Abyss of Reincarnation".

The guardian gripped the intact stone tablet and turned to walk towards the newly appeared spacetime rift.

But he didn't notice that on the inside of his white robe was embroidered a symbol identical to the one at the top of the Destiny Goddess's scepter, only this symbol was gray and blended into the surrounding fabric.

Deep within his consciousness, a gray seed was quietly sprouting—the obsession the young man in black robes had deliberately left in his body before he vanished.

At the other end of the rift, at the entrance to the Abyss of Reincarnation, an old man in a gray robe was smiling and waiting for him. In his hand he held an oil lamp, the flame of which was gray and illuminated a stone tablet at his feet. On the tablet was engraved a line of words: "Reincarnation goes on and on, the beginning is the end."