Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 567: I don’t want you to die, Leoz.

Chapter 567: I don’t want you to die, Leoz.

Li Aozi admitted that his ability to freeze time was limited.

After all, time as such didn’t exist in the world; strictly speaking, he was just compressing the spacetime around him through gravity to a halt.

This was different from a general time stop; the time he personally experienced continued to move forward, and he could still be injured or killed because of it. Even though the attributes and development level of arcane energy by Crescent Moon were high, he was still inferior to his opponent due to the same rank and the oppression by arcane energy.

Unlike in novels and movies, Crescent Moon was verbose, but they took last-hitting seriously. After an initial scorn, they unleashed their full power for a saturation strike against Li Aozi.

The entire city of Trevela crumbled under the dimensional slash, with spacetime in disarray; the commercial streets fell towards two-dimensionality, subways plummeted like dying dragons towards the administrative centers, and residential and industrial areas collided chaotically and overlapped.

People’s bodies were dissected and patched up; when they regained consciousness, they found parts of their bodies on the other side of a wall, clearly seeing their own intestines wriggling quietly on car windshields.

The entire process of destruction was silent.

The most terrifying aspect of Crescent Moon’s arcane energy wasn’t its destructive power, but the fact that dimensional attacks came without any warning, impossible to preempt, largely resisted only by raw strength, causing a terror to the civilians of interstellar civilization far greater than any weapon, as even nuclear and starburst cannons gave a sign, still leaving a chance to escape.

Under Crescent Moon’s dimensional downgrading assault, no facility could escape, the veiled panic it induced was more terrifying than the actual damage inflicted by Crescent Moon.

Whether you were a bureaucrat, member of the wealthy scholarly faction, or ordinary civilians, under the merciless cuts of the dimensional slash, you wouldn’t even have the opportunity to scream before being dismembered.

The only limitation of Crescent Moon was that their range of arcane energy attack was limited, requiring both hands to be used as the medium no matter what.

After perceiving time for 19 seconds, Trevela was declared completely destroyed, both legally and geographically.

Had it been another of Zeta Rank, they’d have died countless times under such brutal and fierce bombardment.

"Hey! Li Aozi?! Aren’t you just making yourself an easy target?"

Zaniya kept shouting:

"Quickly end the time freeze, tear open a rift and escape now, there’s still a chance to survive, run!"

Under such an infinite dimensional slash, Li Aozi had absolutely no ability to resist, but fortunately, being of Zeta Rank and under the effect of the time freeze, his health points had not been deducted yet.

He couldn’t find Crescent Moon, nor was it possible to find them, not even with the Eye of Truth.

Because Crescent Moon wasn’t even in this dimension.

This suffocating gap in strength, in various senses, explained the terrifying degree of a dimensional downgrading assault.

But even so, Li Aozi, who was sliced into countless fragments, still held a firm belief.

In his fragmented pupils, the purple-red nebula still shimmered.

His mana recovery continued, and the curse persisted.

Catching that guy through the echo of gravity was impossible for the time being; instead of wasting mana to prematurely end the time freeze, it was better to confront him directly.

"Li Aozi, let’s stop fighting, we will definitely be stronger than this enemy in the future, run now!"

Zaniya was almost crying, her tone filled with urgency:

"You will truly die like this, you haven’t even injured the opponent, and they’ve already sliced you up, once spacetime resumes flowing, you will die! You will die even more miserably than the real Li Aozi!"

Li Aozi didn’t say much:

"I’m not the same as that waste Li Aozi. He couldn’t handle dying once, but from a physiological standpoint, I’ve already died three times."

"But this time—you will really die."

"No matter how many times I die, I’ll climb back from hell."

"...You’re lying to me."

"I’m not lying to you. With the ability of [Bloodline], my life force is tenacious, plus the favor of the planet, I will periodically recover my life. With this set of attacks, I’d at most enter a near-death state, he won’t come to his senses about me personally, and I won’t face my end."

Besides, even if I died, it would just mean switching to another implant gear body.

Zaniya didn’t believe his words.

"I sensed it with Divine Power before, Leoz," Zaniya said with a voice tinged with sadness, resembling a little girl trying her best not to cry:

"You’re going to die. I asked those entities who told me this, and the feedback from the Divine Power was consistent—you will die, ’Society’ will devour the planet, and I will be left with nothing."

[Zaniya...]

"My civilization is gone, my master is gone, the successor of my master doesn’t want me, and this planet is nearly gone too. I’ve waited so long, so very long—finally, a new Sword Bearer has arrived. He’s handsome and fun, daring to draw his sword directly in the face of overwhelming power, even if it’s a Narrative-Level Civilization—he dares to challenge it—I like him so much."

Unable to restrain herself any longer, Zaniya pleaded:

"Please, Leoz, I don’t want to lose another partner. Draw me out, and I’ll use all my strength to help you escape. You’re rich, right? You also have those undying little servant sprites, and you have me. We can make a comeback."

[Zaniya.]

Li Aozi tried to soothe her:

[I have a Mechanic friend, who once said something to me that no one could refuse upon hearing.]

Zaniya fell silent, quietly listening.

Li Aozi told her:

[Trust me.]

"...I can’t afford to lose anymore."

With that statement, Zaniya didn’t respond anymore.

Li Aozi had many conversations with her, but their soul-to-soul interaction was just a moment.

He turned his head and continued focusing on his next move.

[I can’t possibly escape.]

On this planet, there’s Newbie Village which he and the players built together, his dear brothers Lucite and Hobbs, many friendly classmates, the Aid Study Society he started, the refugees he had settled, and the Nikita family he invited over.

And of course, there’s the diligent Yavin Heskixin.

These individuals could be seen as burdens, but they are also his empowerment; each one had helped him in the past and now, and their future rested upon his shoulders.

"This isn’t about whether I should, but that I can, so, I’m going in."

Li Aozi’s tactics were not complex; he simply treated himself as bait, that’s all.

"For me, there’s no retreating, only moving forward."

The Calamity might unleash some catastrophe, but Li Aozi was actually unfamiliar with Arcane Energy and didn’t trust it; nevertheless, he was willing to strike first.

As a fellow Sovereign, Canyue understood the Traits of the Implant Gear body, and he would definitely appear at the time, using his Arcane Energy-wielding hands to thoroughly seal himself in two dimensions.

So, he was bound to show up.

Canyue knew this too, if he didn’t show up and just waited for Li Aozi to die naturally, it would give Li Aozi a chance to transfer to an Implant Gear body—faced with the explicitly hostile Li Aozi, would Canyue really allow him to live?

Not necessarily.

Canyue didn’t need to eliminate Li Aozi; he had already obtained the Fragment of the Eye of Discernment, and from his perspective, whether Li Aozi was aware of this or not—perhaps he knew, perhaps he didn’t.

Li Aozi decided to bet on it.

Canyue’s worldview is ’Social Darwinism’; those with this belief are easily radical, they advocate predation upon others while lacking a sense of security themselves. They might kill others on impulse, believing that only the dead can keep secrets definitely; ideally, they prefer only themselves to remain in the world, so much so that they wouldn’t even trust their consciousness backups, worrying that their successors might surpass them, the type to desire grinding even themselves to dust.

When in doubt, annihilate the Nine Tribes; it’s best to also kill the executioners and then those who execute the executioners.

Li Aozi decided to gamble—betting that Canyue would decide upon a killing intention and make a move to finish him off.

[You mustn’t show any mercy, Canyue, I’m begging you, Canyue, you have to finish the job!]

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