NOVEL WEB Chapter 245: Unravel What Binds Us
The seals which were moon-white in color, crossed the gate like spiderwebs.
Victor drew the crafted scrolls from his storage and released them across a low ledge.
A low groaning sound rang out where they landed.
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[ INITIATING SEAL REINFORCEMENT ]
[ Required Components Gathered ✅️ ]
Bloodline Integration: 72% (VOID EMPEROR)
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Victor dropped Caustic Moon Sand into a hollow bowl. Once poured, a cloud of pale dust rose like threads through the moonbeams.
Carefully, Victor lit the Crescent Night Phial's eclipse flame and heated it. When carefully balanced, he placed a dust-covered talisman into the glow as it cooked, shifting color from silver to pale gold.
His hands traced lines in the dirt. His voice recited sealing mantras with a low tone: "Moon-chain, bind from void. Let light and dark entwine. Flow through threefold circle—seal be whole."
At the first flicker, gold veins crept into the dull talisman. It glowed, resonated, then snapped into place, pinned atop the eastern pillar. It whispered with reassurance
.
'One down...'
He moved to another tap, pouring Moonveil Thistle Decoction atop the nearest chain knot. His fingers twined the solution around cold iron, chanting "My qi weave, union cleave…" The chain drank the golden red liquid until warmth spread through it.
A lock of icy-blue energy pulsed and sealed.
'Two down...'
Victor opened the Farling Steel cauldron and combined Dragon's Breath Crystals and liquefied moonlight in swirling patterns.
Steam erupted with sapphire haze.
He breathed into the steam vortex, imprinting critical patterns of his void qi, stable enough to resist drop below the threshold.
Four pillars in a row were next: Dragon Coil, Pacifier Seal, Ether-Lock, Voidwell...
Each of them demanded a specific timeline of boiling, stirring, chanting.
As he worked, his bloodline continued to coat his avatar in an aura that pushed against the presence of this place.
'Scratch: An error sonic reaction at pillar three.' The cauldron hissed violently with vapor scraping the edges of sanity.
Victor froze for a moment before steadying himself with a deep breath.
He corrected the flow of his qi and grounded things to a single frequency while reciting the silence rune "Zhuan Yan"… and fixed the loop.
The Cauldron's lid rumbled, then cracked inward and bloomed.
A small sapphire orb floated above it, hissing softly.
He grabbed it with scroll ink droplets and pressed it against pillar two. Light rushed outward, sealing perfectly.
At each pillar's base, Victor took his celestial parchments which were thin as mist yet unbreaking. Each scroll required woven lines of moon-silk and qi-shaped inks written in perfect symmetry.
He dipped the serpent-ink pen and penned the glyph: "Void Anchor of Eternal Slumber, let gate stand unshaken."
Each glowing parchment sealed itself onto the pillar, fusing with the chain-link enchantments.
Fifth pillar, sixth pillar... he worked until nine parchments were sealed across the eastern half of the ring.
As time went on, he started to sense the backlash of staying in the ancient grove for too long.
Although he was at 72% Integration, he was still nearly 30% away from full Integration.
The pressure and feeling of expulsion was multiplied within close proximity to the gate.
Nevertheless, he carried on. He still had a lot to do.
...
...
(( Thirty hours Later ))
Victor stirred from a daze as cracks of ice painted across his vision. Every inhale came as a brittle shard of cold.
His mind spun at the numbers etched in his consciousness. Thirty hours in the Weeping Hollow, battling enchantments and his own bloodline for control.
The seals he'd started reinforcing a day before were supposed to be only a few more left.
Unfortunately, a couple that were left was atop the gate which was more than two hundred feet high.
To make matters worse, some of these seals emitted certain harmful enchantments whenever any presence was in close proximity which made it even harder to fix.
Victor gathered all of his qi to surround himself, holding the frigid enchantments at bay.
But he could feel the bone-deep cold locking into his legs, crawling slowly upward, threatening to claim his frail flesh in crystalline ice.
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SYSTEM – SEAL 120 LOCATION: Gate Apex
Height: 210 ft
Environment Hazard: Absolute Zero Enchantment
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Fueled by sheer desperation, he activated the Void Domain once again.
[ SYSTEM – EMPEROR VOID DOMAIN ACTIVE ]
Time Dilation x200
Cooldown: 200 minutes
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Instantly, the gate's frigid aura slowed. Ice had formed on the steps and then melted.
Fissures in the concrete pillars recoiled. He took advantage of the changes he made within the surroundings and sprinted up the left chain-rail to the pillar's apex.
When he reached it, his legs were limp icicles. He stumbled and clutched at its rusted edges.
Two seals, one below his feet and one above his shoulder. One was a talisman carved from void starstone; the other, an ice-black chain link rolled between five interconnected glyph plates.
He dropped to his knees, and began the ritual.
The void starstone was first. Candlelight aura from the phial—now purple-blue—burned down onto the talisman as he read each syllable of the Perfect Seal Formation in perfect clarity.
Cold permeated but within the Domain, time had slowed down for everything that existed here except for him.
This allowed him to complete the process without freezing since the brewing cold became slow.
His qi-coiled hands directed the transformation; bolts of energy threaded across the glyphs. After a few seonds, the talisman glowed gold once more before snapping into place.
He pressed upward for the chain-link seals.
As the ice enchantment melted away under his qi imprint, he repeated the incantations.
When the last chain-linked glyph wrapped itself with a golden spiral, Victor slumped with a drained but triumphant look.
The Void Domain rippled and shattered, returning time to its normal pace. The chill returned with fresh violence.
He staggered backward with blood trickling from the corners of his mouth.
Now only the remaining seals left to fix were even lesser than before.
Although they required similar precision but without the crutch of slowed time, it was unknown what effect the other seals would give off.
<[ SYSTEM – Bloodline Integration: 72% → 73% ]>
<[ Status: Qi Reserves – Critically Low ]>
But Victor refused to quit.
—
On the other side of the iron ring... within the dimension where the Corrupt Immortals were kept, they felt the shifting energies across the barrier.
As Victor stood at the center of the seal formation, his hands were spread out as he channelled his Qi into yet another seal.
But as he fed power into the seal, an unexpected reaction occurred—
A fissure of perception rippled through his mind like a deep pulse from the other side. The sealing matrix had momentarily thinned the veil between dimensions.
And for the first time, Victor saw into the prison realm beyond the seal.
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[Prison of the Corrupt Immortals – The Forgotten Void]
The space beyond the gate was not merely a cage.
It was a shattered dimension.
The sky had no stars. Only red thunderbolts occasionally flickered across a sea of perpetual gray storm clouds.
There was no sun, no moon, no light source and yet everything was dimly illuminated by a sickly green glow that bled up from the cracked earth itself.
Massive floating land masses hovered in midair, like torn flesh. Some of these islands were broken palace ruins suspended in impossible geometries or spirals that led nowhere, staircases that twisted into the void.
Every few moments, anguished screams echoed from far-off corners, carrying more resentment than pain, and it was unclear whether they were real or just remnants of madness.
On the ground, the land was bleak and broken. Rivers flowed, but they were dark as ink, and they throbbed as though alive.
Trees existed, but they had flesh-like bark, and their leaves looked like hands curled in agony.
And amid this horrid domain, they were gathering…
Not five... Not ten... But fifty distinct, terrifying presences.
Each of them was seated or floating in isolated locations across the void. Some were embedded in crimson crystal prisons, some stood motionless beneath incredibly lofty monoliths carved with forgotten runes, while others stalked the cracked terrain like beasts, snarling with faces of men.
Some had multiple arms and burned torso as if they had been dipped in flame for eternity.
Others had golden eyes that wept blood, and halos of broken swords that orbited their heads.
One had an elongated neck, with a serpent-like head twisted sideways that whispered ancient curses into the soil.
Another was seated on a throne made of kneeling corpses as skeletal wings draped in rusted chains dragged behind him.
The most horrifying floated upside down above a blood pool with his face wrapped in bandages marked with heavenly sigils, but you could still feel his smile underneath.
They were once divine, once revered… now warped abominations with powers distorted beyond recognition.
And they all turned at once as if they sensed Victor watching them through the veil.
Their voices did not speak in words, but in overlapping waves of intent.
> "Mortal... you meddle with bindings not made for you…"
"He bears the Void… he could open it…"
"Come closer… unravel what binds us…"