Void Realm War!

Watching the two operators fight over who would serve as the rear guard, Yaxiu suddenly felt a daze come over him. He knew everything they said was right. He also knew his own life was the most important; after all, only by preserving the Soul Summoning sorcery spirit would any of them have a chance to survive. The current situation was hanging by a thread. Entertaining hopes of escaping unscathed was utterly unrealistic, and sacrifices were inevitable. Besides, they were a squad—the most essential function of a team was sacrificing the interests of a few when necessary to secure the greater good. Therefore, their optimal decision was to leave one person behind first as a rear guard to stall for time. If the Heroic Spirit Legion was still going to overtake them, they would leave a second person behind. Yaxiu himself, even if he had to gouge out his own eyes to counter the curse, would keep driving to search for a sliver of hope. Gains. Probabilities. Expected utility. This was the approach with the highest probability of success, a strategy born of sheer necessity. Sacrifice was mandatory; abandonment was warranted. Faced with an irresistible torrent of fate, only fools would attempt to reverse it, while the wise strove to keep their losses within an acceptable threshold... Yaxiu felt his self-awareness slowly detach from his body, observing everything coldly from a third-person perspective, filtering out superfluous emotions and stray thoughts, even viewing himself as a mere chess piece. Everything was for the greater— "In any case, I'm staying behind!" Sonia pinned the White Queen down overbearingly so she couldn't squirm, reaching directly out to seize Yaxiu's hand. "Watcher, arm my troops!" The body temperature of a soul transmitted across the warm touch. Frankly speaking, Sword Princess's hand wasn't soft; as a sword sorcerer, her hand was inevitably steady and strong, pleasantly plump, giving him the odd sensation of being clasped by a cat's paw pad. Whether out of fear or excitement, her grip was exceptionally tight. Her thumb clamped firmly over his index finger, her forefinger pressed against the back of his hand, and her other three fingers wrapped snugly around his pinky, as though she wanted to knead his hand right into her palm. In that very instant, Yaxiu sensed a jarring anomaly! "Alright." The moment the word left Yaxiu's lips, he abruptly raised a hand and gouged out one of his own eyes! Before Sword Princess and Witch could even react in shock, the sports car braked sharply, tracing a donut-shaped arc across the grass before skidding to a halt right beneath the ramparts of the fortress! "What are you doing?!" "The city gates have opened. A Heroic Spirit Legion is flanking us from ahead." Yaxiu exhaled heavily. "No need to argue over who stays behind. We can't run anymore." "Then why did you poke out your own eye?!" Sonia asked frantically. "Seeing you two fight over who gets to go blind, I figured I'd sample the experience on your behalf." Yaxiu pulled his finger free, and his eye quickly regenerated. "Trust me, you wouldn't cherish the memory." *Watcher Form.* Through intense stimulation, Yaxiu finally tore himself free from his Watcher Form. He had only just realized that he had entered that state of absolute calm outside of combat—though, while Yaxiu might have felt he wasn't in combat, his sports car, battered nearly to pieces, might have begged to differ. Past experience dictated that Watcher Form triggered only in the direst moments, ensuring he made no blunders and operated at theoretically one hundred percent of his capabilities. Yaxiu was usually quite willing to slip into Watcher Form, treating it like an adrenaline-overdosed physiological phenomenon. The present situation was indeed a crisis, but Yaxiu hadn't anticipated that Watcher Form did more than assist him in battle; it also assisted in decision-making. Absolute correctness, maximum expected utility, the theoretically optimal decision. Looking back now, Yaxiu still didn't find any logical flaw in that train of thought. It was simply that in this world, not every 'correct thing' was something one ought to do. For instance, enjoying advanced calculus—the sheer thought of it was sickeningly perverse; and similarly, using one's teammates as expendable chess pieces. Yaxiu knew full well that this was what he should do. At first, he had even intended to do just that. Yet he simply couldn't bring himself to do it. "Don't speak of squandering your lives like that ever again," Yaxiu said. "You've already ruined my ability to endure loneliness. I have no interest in exploring the Void Realm alone." Sonia froze slightly, her fingers instinctively tightening around his hand. The White Queen spread her hands. "Then this time, we truly have nowhere left to run." The Refraction Curtain Wall shattered completely under a barrage of blazing fireballs. A juvenile Evil Eye Shadow Dragon swooped down from above. While its elders seemed to have little interest in the intruders, this young beast evidently fancied a midnight snack to whet its appetite. The trio made no attempt to resist. With their vision completely locked onto each other, they couldn't even aim at the enemy. "If we die here and miss our turn at the Spider Tower in a few days, the Soul Summoning sorcery spirit will be forfeited to the Empress." "It doesn't matter," Yaxiu said with immense confidence. "Even without the Soul Summoning sorcery spirit, I will definitely make her pay the price!" At the thought of the culprit who had framed and driven them to such desperate straits, even Yaxiu couldn't resist grinding his teeth. "Empress, just you wait!" "Very well," a flirtatious, arrogant voice suddenly chimed from behind them. "I'll be waiting~" *Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!* Behind them, an explosion like celestial thunder and terrestrial fire detonated. Accompanied by a shrill, mournful screech, the Evil Eye Shadow Dragon crashed right beside the sports car with a thunderous boom. Its ferocious draconic body, like a paper umbrella caught in a rainstorm, had been melted and punctured through most of its form! Upon hearing that familiar voice, Yaxiu and the two girls shuddered, disbelief plain across each of their faces! Even without looking, they knew exactly who had arrived! The question was, how could that person possibly appear here?! Glancing out of the corners of their eyes, they noticed that during the car's dash across the Main City's territory, it had left behind a vivid trail of purple halos. It was as though a watercolor brush had swept across a painting: the purple steadily bled outward, eroding a vast expanse of green territory before anyone had even realized it! Meanwhile, white specks began to sprout deep within the purple hues, swiftly spreading and weaving together to spin web after web across the purple expanse. And then— Spiders in full battle regalia descended along the webs. The Heroic Spirit Legion pursuing Yaxiu and the others plunged into instant chaos. Before they could even arm their troop classes, they proved as fragile as paper before the Spider Tower Legion, torn to shreds with resounding shrieks! Red Hats, Bluebeards, giant spiders, Maidens of Secret-Peeking... The Spider Tower Legion crawled ceaselessly out from the webs, storming the Giant Wood Fortress under the commander's will. At first, the Giant Wood Fortress was entirely caught off guard, allowing the Spider Tower Legion to seize the ramparts outright. Soon, however, the fortress creatures completed their armament, clashing violently with the Spider Tower Legion atop the walls in a bid to reclaim the initiative! The aftershocks of the collision between the two armies splattered against the sky, dyeing half the heavens a viscous purple and the other half a burning emerald green. With every passing second, shattered corpses plummeted from the ramparts; with every passing second, fresh soldiers rushed to the battlefield from the webs and from within the city! Without prelude, without dialogue, both sides launched straight into an all-out charge of the highest magnitude. The grand strategy was as crude as barbarians on a hunt, yet the underlying tactics were as delicate and masterful as an artist painting a canvas! Denzel sat poised atop an Eight-Eyed Weaving Spider, emerging from a web not far behind Yaxiu. Today, she took on the appearance of a Maiden of Secret-Peeking, and she 'looked' at Yaxiu and the others through blindfolded eyes, raising an eyebrow. "Not even looking at me? Do you only have eyes for each other?" Denzel murmured with a scoff. "Very well. Once you become my commanders, I'll put you in the same squad and let you stare at each other for hundreds of years until you're sick of it."