"Father, something's wrong. There isn't a single Ethereal in the area. For Hollow Zero, that's highly abnormal." Hiding within the Kamui space, Zhong Ling sent a message to Zhong Yan.
Hearing this, Zhong Yan finally realized what had slipped past his notice — Hollow Zero, which should have been teeming with Ethereals, was now eerily empty.
Facing the Creator, whose expression remained unchanged, a sense of unease suddenly welled up in Zhong Yan's heart.
"Father, I think things are already heading in a direction we didn't foresee. My guess is… all the Ethereals that disappeared from Hollow Zero have already moved into New Eridu," Zhong Ling continued, voicing the same suspicion that Zhong Yan was already entertaining.
That bastard, once he realized he had no way out, must've decided to burn it all down — forcing the Ethereal army's invasion of New Eridu a full decade ahead of schedule.
With that realization, Zhong Yan immediately began planning his return to New Eridu.
Even though the current iteration of the compound was still in the experimental stage, and even if Ethereals' combat effectiveness declined outside the Hollow, New Eridu was still in no position to repel them — especially with such a sudden assault.
At that moment, Zhong Ling's voice rang directly in his ear: "Father, send me back to New Eridu. You stay here and finish what you started. Everything we lost before — this time, I'll save it all."
Zhong Yan was stunned for a moment, then gave a faint smile. Without hesitation, he had his Kamui-space shadow clone activate the technique, sending Zhong Ling back to New Eridu.
Then, turning his eyes once again to the Exaltist leader below, Zhong Yan no longer showed a trace of hesitation. He pulled a vial — a prototype compound given to him by Zhong Ling — from his coat pocket and hurled it at his target.
The vial arced through the air and smashed cleanly against the Creator's body, splattering its corrosive contents across his form.
The leader's expression shifted to shock as he felt the liquid devouring him. Not only did it block his ability to absorb surrounding Ether — it was even dissolving his physical body.
He was dumbfounded. New Eridu's current scientific capabilities could already produce something like this?
If so, then why had they feared the Ethereals all this time? Just dumping this stuff into a Hollow would decimate entire swarms.
They never needed to hide in the first place.
Then, he suddenly grasped a chilling possibility.
"I see now… So that's how it is. Which means, there's still hope for the Exaltists."
Ignoring the agony of the chemical and black flame burning away his flesh, he looked up at Zhong Yan with disturbing calm.
Someone had discovered their base location and developed technology far beyond this era. There was only one explanation:
A person from the future had returned to the present.
In their original future, the Exaltists must have succeeded. Only then would someone try to come back and change that fate.
And if time paradoxes didn't exist, then no matter what the future-self tried to alter in the past, the Exaltists' ultimate success was already written.
Fixed events… could not be changed.
A crazed grin spread across the leader's face, then turned into maniacal laughter.
Zhong Yan had no intention of wasting breath. With a flick of his finger, he shattered and scattered the remaining vials across the Creator's body.
Within seconds, the man's body — impervious to all physical harm — was completely dissolved, not a trace remaining.
With the death of the original, the Exaltists as an organization were effectively dead. Even if some splinters or clones remained, they no longer posed a true threat.
At least not for decades.
By then, New Eridu would likely have evolved far beyond any fear of Hollows.
"That's one problem handled. Time to get back and clean up the other mess," Zhong Yan muttered, turning to his three subordinates before activating Kamui and warping them all back to New Eridu.
...
A little earlier, in New Eridu.
Swarms of Ethereals had already devastated multiple adjacent streets. Before the elite units of Hollow Special Operations could arrive, the city's enforcers were doing everything they could to hold the line.
Thanks to the efforts of Zhao Anmen, the casualty rate among the enforcers was kept to a minimum — but it wouldn't last. Without massive sacrifice, they lacked the firepower to resist the Ethereal hordes.
"If the Hollow Special Operations unit doesn't arrive within the hour, pull the line back another twenty kilometers," Zhao Anmen said darkly, massaging his forehead as he read the latest withdrawal requests from the front.
By his calculations, it would take at least a full day for Hollow Special Operations to fully mobilize.
Barely half a day had passed. Even if reinforcements did arrive now, they'd only be throwing themselves into a meat grinder without proper prep.
"Commander Zhao!" At that moment, Zhu Yuan rushed into the command tent, visibly excited. "Squad Nine — they reported a sighting of Uchiha!"
Zhao Anmen's eyes lit up. "Are they sure it's really him? There've been a lot of copycats around lately — this isn't the time for wishful thinking."
"Absolutely certain. Squad Nine says the Ethereal horde in their sector is already being wiped out by him."
"Well done. Of course it had to be him."
With confirmation that Uchiha himself had returned, Zhao Anmen finally felt a weight lifted from his chest.
Even if he couldn't stop the Ethereal army outright, Uchiha could at least slow them down.
That would buy Hollow Special Operations enough time to prepare — and relieve immense pressure from the enforcers.
...
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
"Pull your teams out and reinforce other sectors. I'll handle this area myself," Zhong Ling said calmly to the wide-eyed enforcers behind him.
Before returning to New Eridu, he had deliberately donned the full battle attire of Uchiha. That way, no one would distinguish him from Zhong Yan, and the truth of his origin — that he was from the future — would remain hidden.
The last time, without his Mangekyō Sharingan awakened, he could only watch helplessly as his father died before his eyes.
This time, he would not let the future repeat itself.