novelraw Chapter 444: Awakening Moment
Chapter 444: Awakening Moment
Viola knew Clark well; she understood that he never spoke recklessly.
If he said he was confident in withdrawing, then he must have his trump cards and contingencies.
Faced with the confidence displayed by her mentor, Viola’s wildly pounding heart gradually settled back down under those calm words. Her rationality, scorched by anxiety, began to regain the upper hand.
She closed her eyes and fell silent for a moment.
When she opened them again, the panic in her gaze had been replaced by a decisive sharpness.
“Fine.”
Viola hesitated no longer. She decisively retrieved a transparent crystal the size of a fingernail from her storage artifact; within it, liquid starlight seemed to flow.
She pressed it into Clark’s hand.
“This is the highest authority authentication core for all the external binding spell formations and extermination spell formations. With the plane fully sealed now, it might not allow direct control of the formations from outside. But if you find Starfall inside, or need us to coordinate an attack on a specific point from outside… the moment you successfully breach the internal isolation layer and establish a brief link, the extermination formations’ firepower systems will automatically recognize and avoid the area marked by this crystal’s energy signature.”
She stared intently into Clark’s eyes. “You must keep it on you, in activated state.” Clark said nothing more. He simply tucked the seemingly fragile yet crucially important crystal into an inner pocket of his gray robe, his movements as casual as if placing an ordinary pebble.
“Understood.” He nodded, then turned toward the main control light screen. “Now, pull up all the detailed monitoring data from every dimension for this plane over the past few months—especially the phase changes in energy tides, the spectral analysis of law disturbances, and the migration trajectories of barrier weak points.”
His tone returned to its usual research-oriented state. “I need to accurately determine, based on the current deterioration trend, how much time remains in the safe infiltration window, and from which coordinates to enter to encounter the relatively minimal initial resistance.”
Viola immediately complied, her fingers flying across the light screen. Vast streams of data were reorganized, categorized, and highlighted.
Jie Ming stepped forward as well, assisting with some auxiliary calculations and cross-verifications of the data.
Soon, Mentor Clark had integrated all the information. Before leaving, he paused slightly at the alloy hatch. “Oh, right, Viola—after I return, I want to discuss with you the issue of you calling me ‘old man.’”
“Uh…” Viola choked at the words.
Before she could say anything, Clark had already stepped out through the hatch. The warship’s heavy alloy doors closed silently behind him, sealing out the faint radiation of the Chaotic Void.
In the control room, Jie Ming and Viola gazed out the viewport at the green plane wrapped in scarlet spell formations, and at the tiny point of light where Mentor Clark had last vanished into that green expanse. For a time, neither spoke.
An atmosphere of worry began to spread between them.
Venturing deep into a living plane that could rampage at any moment, with chaotic laws—even knowing their mentor must have preparations, it was impossible not to feel concerned.
Jie Ming was the first to break free from the silence. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to redirect his attention to the present reality and their assigned roles.
“Senior Sister…” He turned to Viola, his voice regaining its usual steadiness. “We need to start preparing in advance as well. You’ll have to go outside and personally oversee the fine-tuning of the formations.”
After all, only sixth-ring wizards who had fully mastered law solidification and could briefly resist the erosion of void rules could move and cast spells relatively freely in the Chaotic Void.
Among the two of them, only Viola could do that.
Though the formations were now linked to the warship and could be manipulated from inside, having someone who could directly intervene manually at critical moments was an essential safeguard.
Moreover, when manipulating the binding formations, it was still best to rely on a wizard’s direct judgment.
Viola had adjusted her emotions by now; the worry in her eyes had been replaced by resolve.
She nodded. “Understood. I’ll handle the precise regulation of the external binding formations. Jie Ming, you stay here and remotely lock onto and control the core activation units for those three plane extermination formations.”
Her tone carried an undeniable gravity. “You’re the final safeguard. If things truly… become irreparable, if the bindings collapse and neither Mentor nor Starfall can escape in time, then it will be up to you to activate the extermination protocol, completely destroying this plane to prevent it from fully awakening and causing an even greater catastrophe.”
“I understand,” Jie Ming replied solemnly.
Viola said no more. She gave one last glance at the tranquil plane beyond the viewport, then turned and strode purposefully toward the warship’s airlock chamber.
The doors opened and closed. Her figure soon appeared in the viewport’s field of view.
Transforming into a streak of dark red flowing light, she flew toward the nearest and most massive scarlet binding formation core.
That formation resembled a gigantic compass in the void, slowly rotating as it awaited its master’s final command.
In the control room, only Jie Ming remained.
He quickly seated himself at the main console, his hands sliding across the light screen to pull up and display side-by-side the control interfaces for the three plane extermination formations.
Each interface was extraordinarily complex, encompassing dozens of subsystems including energy focusing, trajectory prediction, synchronized activation, overload safeguards, and more.
Jie Ming focused intently, beginning the final parameter calibrations and pre-charging preparations.
His mind linked tightly with the warship’s detection arrays, locking unyieldingly onto that green target.
Time passed in silent tension.
The warship’s detection arrays fed real-time data from the “Fallen Star Plane” back to the light screens.
Suddenly!
The main curve representing spiritual activity shot sharply upward!
The steepness of its surge even exceeded the worst-case prediction models Viola had shown earlier!
“It’s starting…” Jie Ming’s heart tightened.
There was no need for Jie Ming to send alerts outside, because almost at the same moment, the scene beyond the viewport underwent a dramatic change.
That green plane, “adorned” with scarlet formations, abruptly “came alive”!
It wasn’t a visual movement, but an indescribable eruption of “presence.”
The entire plane seemed like a primordial behemoth startling awake from slumber, its intangible will fluctuations crashing outward like a tsunami.
Even through the warship’s barriers and the distant void, Jie Ming could feel that vast, chaotic, oppressive force brimming with primal life restlessness.
The plane itself hadn’t moved, but its green barrier edges began to fluctuate violently, constantly expanding and contracting like a heart pounding wildly.
This mere “restlessness” before full awakening was enough to churn the already unstable surrounding Chaotic Void.
Those twisted lights and shadows grew even more frenzied, shattered rule fragments were pushed aside, forming ring after ring of invisible energy ripples that spread outward.
And the pre-activated scarlet binding formations, emanating suppressive auras, immediately became the most direct irritant to this nascent consciousness.