172: Can a gaze that transcends dimensions really crawl across the internet cable?

The Abyss?

Is it a place? A code name? Or a... state of being?

The unknown breeds a fear deeper than despair.

The fervor that had just ignited on the internet due to the Savior's arrival was doused like a bucket of ice water, cooling instantly.

In its place was a thicker, more unsettling silence.

Vatican.

Inside the Sistine Chapel, Jeanne d'Arc, who had just finished a high-level meeting with the envoys of Five Permanent Members, was preparing to depart.

Her eyes, which had turned pure gold, suddenly contracted to the size of pinpricks.

An unprecedented, bone-chilling dread surged through the link of her saint graph directly into the core of her consciousness.

The enemy... is getting stronger!

It's a... leap in the level of life itself!

Like an ant, under her gaze, its flesh stripped away and its bones twisted, swelling into a prehistoric behemoth ready to devour all in just a few seconds.

This expansion was illogical, defying the conservation of energy and trampling over the laws of causality!

Mirror World, New Delhi.

Glug... glug... Huge bubbles bulged on the surface of the viscous black mud, each one bursting to spew out more twisted, indescribable matter.

Those newborn tissues were no longer simple energy bodies.

They grew fascia, derived skeletons, and even began to simulate biological features.

Twisted tentacles covered in barbs, malformed maws full of sharp teeth, and... eyes.

In the live broadcast from the black sphere, a massive eyeball, crudely stitched together from flowing black pus and bleached white bones, slowly rose from the center of that foul land in New Delhi.

It had no eyelids or lashes, only a single massive pupil reflecting chaos and madness.

It turned, ignoring physical distance and dimensional barriers, precisely locking onto the lens broadcasting to all of humanity.

It was looking at everyone in front of their screens.

At this moment, time seemed to stretch.

Across the world, billions of gazes met that demonic eye from the Abyss through their screens.

Mental shock!

The gaze of that "Eye of the Abyss" was itself a form of mental pollution that transcended dimensions!

It needed no sound or movement; its mere "existence" was enough to drag humans with weak minds into the Abyss of madness.

Millions of viewers worldwide simultaneously experienced varying degrees of hallucinations, mania, and fainting.

Panic exploded completely!

This was no longer just a show!

That monster really could crawl through the internet cable to kill people!

Within the contaminated zone of Mirror New Delhi, more "Abyss Creations" broke through the ground.

Some looked like piles of walking rotten meat, while others were centipedes made of countless skeletons—various forms, like a collection of living nightmares, beginning to actively attack and devour all non-contaminated matter within range.

Just as the world fell into a doomsday-like chaos, the frequency of the crimson countdown numbers above the Tokyo black sphere suddenly accelerated.

Beep.

Beep-beep.

Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep—!

[Time remaining until the complete birth of the "Beast": 62:13:45]

[Time remaining until the complete birth of the "Beast": 55:47:19]

[Time remaining until the complete birth of the "Beast": 48:00:00]

The remaining seventy-plus hours were forcibly compressed to forty-eight hours by an unreasonable power!

Two days!

In two days, that complete monster connected to the entire "Abyss" would descend!

Vatican.

Jeanne d'Arc no longer hesitated.

Her duty as the Savior did not allow her to pin her hopes on the meetings and deployments of mortals.

Her figure instantly turned into a blinding streak of golden light, tearing through space and teleporting directly from the Vatican to the skies above Tokyo in the Mirror World.

The golden light shone down, its holy aura temporarily dispersing the haze over this dead city.

Floating in mid-air, Jeanne d'Arc used her authority as the Savior class to issue a call to all Holy Grail War participants still within the Mirror World.

"In the name of the Savior, I declare a state of emergency."

"The threat of the 'Beast' has exceeded estimates. All participants, cease hostilities immediately."

"Coordinates: Tokyo. Assemble!"

...Mirror London, atop the ruins of the Palace of Westminster.

Inside the open-air laboratory Isaac Newton had built for himself, a massive blackboard was covered in dense formulas that would drive any modern physicist mad.

Suddenly, an invisible, malicious force swept through.

On the blackboard, those formulas representing the truths of the universe were crudely wiped away as if by an invisible hand.

Only a chaotic, sickening graffiti remained.

Newton jerked his head up, pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, and looked toward the distant East.

For the first time, the fire of "wrath" burned in the eyes behind his lenses.

It was the fury of reason being desecrated... Mirror Washington, in the ruins of the Lincoln Memorial.

Li Bai and Zhang Ruoxu sat cross-legged, recovering the vital energy consumed in their battle with Roosevelt.

Both opened their eyes at the same time.

"What heavy... foul energy." Zhang Ruoxu's brow furrowed deeply; he felt the spiritual energy of the entire world being contaminated by a viscous power full of death and malice.

"Heh." Li Bai stood up and gripped the green lotus sword at his waist. "Those previous opponents were merely within the realm of 'humans'."

He looked up, his gaze seemingly piercing through thousands of miles of space to see that black land frantically expanding.

"This thing can no longer be called a 'living being'."

...Mirror Shanghai, the penthouse suite of the Peace Hotel.

Furina was carefully tasting a delicate tiramisu with a small silver spoon.

Suddenly, the hand holding the spoon froze.

Her face instantly turned paler than the napkin on the table.

"Ugh..."

Beside her, Lord Uther (octopus), Madam Heivima (seahorse), and Miss Xebelda (crab), who were disguised as plush charms, simultaneously manifested their elemental forms, circling her anxiously and letting out bursts of uneasy cries.

They felt it—a terrifying natural enemy capable of making even the elements tremble and disintegrate.

Furina's body began to shake uncontrollably; the sweetness of the cake could no longer bring her a shred of comfort.

It was a fear originating from the depths of her soul.

The three groups of Servants and Masters did not hesitate for a moment upon receiving Jeanne d'Arc's call.

Mirror London: a light gate composed purely of mathematical formulas and geometric figures opened before Newton.

Mirror Washington: Li Bai laughed heartily as the green lotus sword unsheathed, turning into a streak of green light that swept up Zhang Ruoxu and soared into the sky.

Mirror Shanghai: Furina endured her fear and, surrounded by her three Familiars, turned into a vortex of azure water elements, vanishing into the horizon.

Three streaks of light of different colors converged from three different cities in the Mirror World toward a single coordinate—Tokyo.

Humanity's final line of defense was assembling!