Ye Bai, who had expected to be held back by the Lich King, rode atop Autofis and leaped into the fractured corridor of history in a way she had never imagined possible.
After a brief moment of shock, Ye Bai quickly stowed the Tome of Death back into her pack. Equipping the Tome in this situation would not only serve as a precise beacon for the Lich King but also forcibly transform her into an undead, subjecting her to additional environmental damage.
‘-10, -10…’
Sure enough, after unequipping the Tome, even while traversing the domain of radiant law, the damage Ye Bai suffered drastically decreased. No longer did she endure the oppressive penalties she had faced at the edges of the light.
Her gaze then fell upon the lines Autofis used as stepping stones. "Nameless One, is that you?"
"Yes…" The paper-thin figure’s voice cut off as the line vanished, only to resume when a new line formed. "The corridor of history…"
His voice flickered in sync with the shifting lines below, fragmented and weak—more so than Ye Bai had ever seen before, even worse than when he had helped her alter the Tome of Death’s conditions.
"This place is fundamentally composed of vast amounts of transcendent script…"
"…recorded history."
So that’s how it is… Ye Bai understood instantly. Though this place resembled a journey into the divine past, the entire world here was, in essence, history inscribed in transcendent script. It was this textual nature that allowed the Nameless One to "mend" the fractures in this manner.
In truth, he was using his own existence to patch the broken spaces.
But this act was draining his power. Beyond the fragmented messages he relayed, Ye Bai noticed the newly formed lines below growing increasingly faint, their supporting force weakening. Autofis’s leaps grew unsteady as the lines wobbled beneath him.
It seemed the lines would soon fade entirely…
Yet despite this, their renewal never slowed.
Ye Bai’s expression hardened as she fixed her eyes on the drifting space ahead, where the treasury stood—the only intact structure amidst the fractures.
That space was slowly drifting further away, for the radiant law was not static. It expanded and tore through the pale void like light itself, relentless and unyielding.
And the dangers weren’t limited to the path ahead—the pursuer behind them was closing in.
The Lich King, witnessing Ye Bai and Autofis advancing through the pure domain of light, displayed unmistakable shock through his fog-like visage. Clearly, he had never imagined such a method of traversal.
Then his gaze locked onto Autofis and the dark lines that somehow endured within the radiant law. Previously fixated on Ye Bai and the Tome of Death, he now noticed the two anomalies at her side.
Autofis earned only a brief glance, but when his eyes fell upon the lines supporting the donkey’s hooves—
Rory froze momentarily before his shadowy form erupted with pale flames. The undying body of the divine Lich King, a being beyond death, seethed with fury so intense it shook the very fabric of space.
"It’s you—!"
In the next instant, the Lich King surged forward like a storm, charging into the fractured corridor after Ye Bai.
"Boom…"
A collision of energies, like dry ice meeting water, echoed through the void. Ye Bai whipped her head around, and for the first time in this long chase, she saw the health bar of this godlike Lich flicker.
Previously, even high-tier necromancy from the Tome of Death had failed to breach his defenses. But now, as an undead forcibly entering this domain, Rory suffered under the radiant law’s erosion. His mountainous health bar dwindled, his colossal form billowing smoke as the light chipped away at him.
Yet compared to the Lich King’s immeasurable power, this attrition was negligible.
"…! At last, I’ve found you! Did you think you could return and reclaim the throne? The title of God-King belongs to me now! Every curse you cast upon me, I will repay tenfold!"
Rory’s soulfire eyes blazed like infernos, locked onto the lines beneath Autofis.
Such fury—had the Lich King recognized the Nameless One’s identity?
Ye Bai’s pupils constricted. Rory had even uttered a name, but like when the Infernal Demon King had spoken it, the syllables blurred into obscurity, unseeable and unhearable.
‘None may speak the King’s true name…’
The old rhyme flashed through her mind. The God-King of Conquest had forced the races into seclusion; the curses tied to the Infernal Demon King’s chains, the Lich King before her, and now the Nameless One’s unknowable "true name" when spoken by others—
An image of the blurred God-King from the corridor flickered in her thoughts—
But there was no time. The Lich King surged forward, ignoring the radiant law’s toll, closing the distance faster than Autofis could flee.
As the gap between them shrank, Ye Bai channeled the dense radiant energy around her, hurling "Arrow of Light" and "Purge of Radiance" at Rory.
The radiant law was merciless—other magics faltered here, but light-aligned spells thrived. Even basic-tier spells, amplified by the environment and Ye Bai’s formidable magic potency, struck true.
‘-2113’
‘-3463’
The numbers flashed, but against the Lich King’s titanic health pool, they were drops in an ocean.
"Begone!"
Unlike other foes, Rory ignored Ye Bai entirely. His wrath was reserved for the paper-thin figure—the one who had cursed him millennia ago, the one who now sought to reclaim the treasury.
He would have his vengeance. He would sever Ye Bai’s questline. And above all, he would seize the God-King’s throne in this era.
Ye Bai didn’t need to ponder deeply to grasp his intentions.
In the current state of the divine realm, where the Deep Sea Purgatory factions balance each other, the Void Spirits have vanished due to curses, the dragons have fallen, and the elves are lost in dreams, if the Paper Man's resurrection plan fails, the future may very well unfold as the enemy desires.
At this moment, the distance to the spatial location of the treasure vault was estimated to be nearly thirty meters. The guiding line below had faded to a faint trace, barely visible unless one looked closely. Ye Bai took a deep breath and quickly asked, "Nameless, if I focus my gaze as I did before, can you enter the treasure vault?"
The Lich King's goal was to prevent the Paper Man's resurrection, which meant the most crucial task now was to ensure the Paper Man revived.
Having come this far, Ye Bai no longer approached the Paper Man's mission with the initial skepticism or the mercenary mindset of a player waiting for tangible rewards. If the key to success lay in helping the Paper Man enter the treasure vault, reclaim his power, and break the curse, then she didn’t necessarily have to go in herself.
The Paper Man and Autofis were NPCs—if they died, they were gone for good. Ye Bai, as a player, could respawn. With her current experience points, even if she died here completing this quest, the loss would be acceptable.
Just as Ye Bai was devising a plan to hold off the Lich King herself, the Paper Man's faint voice spoke words that took her completely by surprise.
"No... I'm not important..."
"You must enter..."
Why?!
The question echoed in Ye Bai's mind, stirring up fragmented voices and thoughts. The doubts and contradictions she had about the Divine King and the Great Annihilation resurfaced, but there was no time to ponder them now.
'-13,252'
A crimson crescent—the Lich King's Death Scythe—slashed through the air. Though Autofis twisted aside in time, Ye Bai still suffered devastating damage from the god-tier attack. Worse yet, the scythe's true target was the Paper Man below, the fragile line supporting them.
The red arc sliced through the line, severing it in half.
Without support, Autofis lurched uncontrollably, plummeting downward and threatening to pull them away from the nearly reached treasure vault. Then, abruptly, the fall halted.
Ye Bai looked down and saw a significantly shortened line straining to hold Autofis aloft.
At least the Paper Man was still alive...
Her gaze shifted upward. Amid the pure white void, the Lich King's shadowy form—now greatly diminished by the erosion of the Light Laws—stretched toward the treasure vault. The dissipating black mist revealed a gaunt figure clad in battle armor at its core.
This was the Lich King's true form—Rory, the former High Chancellor of the Highvar Kingdom.
[Light Arrow], [Light Purification]
Ye Bai hurled spells upward, but they did little to slow the Lich King's advance. Autofis, lacking new footholds, could only sway unsteadily midair. Below, the Paper Man's strength was clearly waning.
Frustration gnawed at Ye Bai. If only she had wings to fly to the treasure vault! But the space was saturated with Light Laws, rendering low-tier non-light spells like Featherfall useless.
"Grrk!"
At this critical moment, Autofis let out a sharp, agitated cry, as if trying to convey something urgent.
Then, the Paper Man's whisper followed.
"Yes... one last gamble..."
—One last gamble? What did that mean?
Before the question fully formed in her mind, Ye Bai saw the remaining line below twist and transform into script she recognized—bold, primal, yet profound.
It was Draconic.
'Autofis Lield Lorn...'
Autofis? Autofis!
"As for 'Autofis,' in Draconic, it means 'swift.' I noticed you seemed troubled over a name, so I took the liberty of suggesting it."
The memory of the Paper Man's words from their first meeting surfaced. Alone, "Autofis" indeed translated to "swift," but paired with "Lield Lorn," it carried deeper significance.
More importantly, the middle name "Lield" had appeared on the ruins of the Sky City, etched into the remnants of an ancient Dragon King's monument.
Now, as an expert in Draconic with the system's aid, Ye Bai instantly grasped the true meaning of the script:
[The Dragon of Space]
"Grrk... ROAR!"
A deafening roar, the cry of a creature at the apex of this world's hierarchy, shook the air. Ye Bai felt herself slip from Autofis's back, tumbling onto a hard, jagged surface.
Before she could reorient herself, an immense, shadowy wing—large enough to blot out the sky—rose into her field of vision.
