Chapter 448: Ninety-Third Floor, The Swamp of Time (4)
[Escape the world. Time remaining: 1 second.]
With my senses stretched to their limits, I felt the root of destruction split apart. I knew with certainty that I had stopped the fiery storm. Deep underground, the writhing, formless energy began to dissipate. However, the power contained within the depths hadn’t vanished entirely.
What?
I had clearly sensed the impending explosion and cut it down. To be precise, I had struck at the massive, pulsing core of energy that swelled as if it were prepared to detonate. Despite that, the force buried below still churned erratically. It no longer felt on the verge of exploding, though.
I cautiously released Flash Strike. Fortunately, it didn’t erupt. It seemed like I truly had stopped the destruction.
Hmm.
Thinking it through, that wasn’t strange. I hadn’t destroyed the power, merely the mechanism set to make it explode.
[Escape the world. Time remaining: 0 seconds.]
[Escape the world. Time remaining: 0 seconds.]
The tower’s message refreshed twice as if glitched.
Is it because I cleared the trial with a loophole?
The glitch and the shackle pointed toward that conclusion. I guessed that the other escape method was one of two possibilities. Either I could escape to another world, or something would allow me to remove the churning power below.