This was something he had discovered by chance while researching his own abilities: a low-powered, non-destructive application of [Heart of the Black Hole] involving spatial manipulation, capable of creating a short-distance spatial passage.
He called it “Singularity Transit.” Its consumption was far less than the spacetime jumps of the pocket watch, but for evading his current surveillance, it was more than sufficient.
With a single thought, his figure abruptly blurred, as though melting into the shadows, and slipped soundlessly into the black mist.
In the next instant, he had passed through the “black mist passage” that had momentarily opened and connected to the shadowy corner of the quiet chamber, reappearing silently at the bend of an empty corridor.
The black mist rapidly dispersed behind him, leaving no trace.
The entire process produced no sound.
Even the fluctuations of elemental power had been devoured by the consuming force of [Heart of the Black Hole] itself.
He braced himself against the cold wall and took a shallow breath.
Even a short-distance “Singularity Transit” like this left him somewhat unsteady, a cold sweat seeping from his forehead.
But the light in his eyes was the gleam of success.
He had escaped.
Without a moment’s pause, Dottore moved like a specter through the complex corridors of Zapolyarny Palace, evading the patrolling guards.
Using the hidden passages built into the palace, he headed straight for a concealed underground safehouse he had prepared long ago, a place no one else knew about.
Inside the safehouse were some basic materials he had stashed in advance and the wrecked prototype of the spacetime pocket watch, whose core structure was still intact.
Dottore swiftly inspected everything, his expression grim.
He could not wait any longer.
His fingers brushed the cold surface of the new, improved spacetime pocket watch tucked against his chest.
His residence and the surface laboratory were both under control.
Though he could reach the hidden laboratory through other secret passages, without sufficient resources he could not conduct experiments.
Since they had not yet discovered that place, this was not the time to expose it.
Moreover, any mobilization of resources within Teyvat could easily be detected by informants stationed in other nations and reported back to Pierro.
He needed new variables, perhaps even new forces.
Sandrone’s predatory watching vexed him even more; he would rather face an unknown world than waste energy on that mechanical shut-in.
“I have no choice but to try my luck elsewhere…” Dottore murmured, tracing the cold engravings on the spacetime pocket watch, a resolute glint flashing through his eyes.
Though the risks were enormous, it was his only option at present.
He drew a deep breath, focused his mind, and sank his mental power into the new, improved spacetime pocket watch.
This time, his target was not the river of time but those “neighboring worlds” he had glimpsed before, worlds attached to Teyvat’s world bubble or that had brushed past on the endless timelines.
The moment he probed the watch, the miniature hourglass at its core, where a galaxy rotated and Sands of Time flowed, flickered extremely faintly.
Countless bizarre and dazzling scenes rushed past his consciousness as fragments: a mechanical wasteland, a magical forest, a cyberpunk metropolis, a primordial continent…
Most worlds were either dead or intensely repulsive.
Just as his mental fatigue grew overwhelming and he was about to give up, a faint but distinct “signal” was captured by him.
A chaotic, fragmented stream of information, brimming with desperation and supplication, forced its way into his mind like the cry of a drowning person: “Save us…
someone…
please save us…” The signal was extremely weak, as though it came from far beyond the barriers of an immensely distant world, and it carried a peculiar energy fluctuation that did not belong to the Teyvat system.
Dottore’s movements halted entirely.
A distress signal from another world?
A world currently being “eroded” and “devoured”?
More importantly, from that world’s energy system, Dottore had sensed a form of energy that was highly invasive yet intangible.
If it could be converted and harnessed, it would be a special energy source of immense potential.
Dangerous, beyond doubt.
But danger often went hand in hand with opportunity.
In the remaining foundations of a world on the brink of destruction, could there be materials he desperately needed, materials nearly impossible to find in Teyvat?
For instance…
an “Eternal Moment”?
“A distress signal?
Perfect.” A dangerous smile surfaced on Dottore’s pale face.
“Solve your troubles, acquire your ‘technology’ and energy samples, and while I’m at it, secure a cross-dimensional arms deal for Snezhnaya and enrich my own resource vault.” Killing many birds with one stone.
More importantly, this was his chance to break free of his current predicament and keep his plan moving forward.
With almost no further hesitation, a cold light flashed through Dottore’s eyes.
“I’ll go here, then,” he murmured to himself, as though answering that distant cry for help, or perhaps steeling his own resolve.
Dottore input the received coordinates into the spacetime pocket watch.
Suppressing the stabbing pain from his core essence, he channeled every ounce of his strength into activating it.
A hazy silver light radiated from the watch and enveloped his entire body.
The space around him warped and folded, the distortions far more violent than any previous attempt.
He felt as though he were tearing through a tough, ice-cold “membrane,” entering some completely foreign domain.
After an indeterminate span of time, Dottore was suddenly “hurled” out of the passage.
Just before he crashed heavily to the ground, he immediately activated the weight-rate force field of [Gravity Modulation], landing lightly and without incident upon a land that defied description.
This was a world saturated with despair and the stench of ruin.
The sky was a sickly, dark red, like congealed blood.
The earth was cracked, covered in twisted black veins that resembled blood vessels.
The air was thick with decay and a mind-addling murmur.
In the distance, the faint shapes of bizarre, half-collapsed crystalline structures were visible, but most were covered and eroded by a creeping substance like black sludge.
Monstrosities, part machine and part flesh, rampaged through the ruins.
The last remnants of humanity huddled in their final bastion, the distress signals they sent carrying a resolve to drag their destroyers down with them.
So this was K-127, the world that had sent the distress signal.
The situation looked even worse than what the signal had described.
Dottore steadied himself and swiftly suppressed his aura, allowing the power of [Heart of Fear] to faintly radiate outward.
It dispersed the invisible tentacles formed by the maddening whispers that tried to draw near.
He glanced at the spacetime pocket watch in his hand, its light now dim and its surface marred with a few more cracks, and carefully stowed it away.
“Now then, let us see what unexpected surprises this dying world can offer me.” He spoke in a low voice, his sharp gaze sweeping across the desolate, alien landscape.
The first step was to find the source of that distress signal.
Behind him, in distant Teyvat, within Zapolyarny Palace, almost at the very moment he vanished, the guards outside the quiet chamber sensed a faint ripple of energy.
They pushed open the door in alarm, only to quickly discover that the Second Harbinger, Dottore, the Doctor, had mysteriously disappeared from under strict surveillance.
The room was empty.
Only the lingering warmth on the bed proved that someone had been there moments before.
“Alert!
Lord Doctor is gone!” The guards’ panicked shouts instantly shattered the late-night silence of Zapolyarny Palace.
Pierro arrived swiftly.
He stared at the empty bed and the lingering, unsettling energy fluctuations that made his heart clench, his face turning livid.
His fist tightened until his knuckles went white.
“Dot…
tore!” Frustration and helplessness warred within him.
He had guarded against every possible probe and trick from Sandrone, but he had never imagined Dottore would use such a near-concealment method to leave outright.
“Send down the order,” Pierro’s voice was ice.
“Conduct a covert search for the Doctor’s whereabouts.
Prioritize investigating all known and unknown laboratory sites.
Keep it quiet.
In particular, avoid Crucabena’s notice.” He paused, then added, “Notify Columbina.
Request her assistance in sensing abnormal energy fluctuations.
As for the Marionette…
do not alert her.” He knew well that Sandrone would be more than happy to seize Dottore’s laboratory for herself.
“Yes, Lord Director!” And at that very moment, Dottore had already set foot upon a foreign, scorched earth thick with the stench of gunpowder and sulfur.