Wits end

As the messenger knocked on the door, Samuel lunched at him, feet first. Where the door was mere moments ago was now a gateway to an unknown location. Stunned at the scene before him, the messenger didn't manage to react properly before being sent flying into the tear. The second he was gone, Samuel removed the tear and proceeded to use the concept of Spirit Gun to condense a sword, which he then wielded with his right hand. Without any previous mastery of the weapon, he waited with bated breath for the door to open. As he heard the click of the door, and sensed the weakening of the formation covering it, he slashed towards the person who peaked his head out. However, contrary to how Samuel would like this to go, or how he imagined the situation could turn out, the reflexes of the person were lightning quick. The formation instantly activated at full strength, charging up an attack that had just barely reached the Enlightenment stage.

This alerted not only Samuel who was now cursing, but also the rest of the 'neighborhood' as well as the patrols in the nearby area. Soon, the entire headquarters were alerted. Samuel was indignant. How could he possibly allow himself to fail?

"This is it. This is the only chance I have of revenge in the foreseeable future. If I fail now, they will most likely always keep the formation on, or seek protection from powerhouses at the Enlightenment stage. At that point there would be nothing I could do about them. NO! I will take them all out today, not allowing even one of these vermin to walk out of here alive!"

A tear appeared in front of Samuel once again, this one however led to the center of the formation. He could have opened one of these at any time, however he knew there were three peak True Cultivation stage experts always guarding there. Originally, he didn't want to take unnecessary risks, but now, he had no choice. He entered the tear just as the thick bolt of sinister purple lightning struck towards his previous location. Had this hit him, he would need to flee immediately, needing to recover for months, perhaps years. 

On the other side of the tear, an intricate core of runes and spiritual lines were crisscrossed and tangled, forming a sphere of multicolored light, where the most prevalent one was sinister purple. Samuel needed to untangle or damage the core enough so that it would lose functionality, and he would need to do so fast, as the three guards were already launching their attacks towards him. 

"No time to think, I'll blast it with a Withering Wave, if that doesn't work, I'll have to use Singularity. Let's hope for the best."

A withering yellow colored wave emerged from Samuel and surged towards the core.

"How dare you attack the Black Lotus, especially with your meagre strength!"

A purple-black light beam was sent flying towards Samuel, easily traveling at the speed of sound. Knowing he would be unable to doge this, he opted to open another spatial tear, and attempt something he had never done, but dearly wished would work. With the emergence of the tear, the attack was sucked into it. But the thing about Samuels Dimensional Tear ability is that it only allows two points in space to be connected, one can't just open a tear into nothing, meaning the attack had to exit somewhere. And that somewhere was in the face of one of the other guards. 

"ARGH" 

Fully unsuspecting and ready to launch his own attack, he was hit square in the face with his comrade's light beam. Although the damage was far from enough to kill him, it dealt significant damage and interrupted his attack, giving Samuel more time. Time that the Withering Beam took full advantage of to reach the core.

To Samuels dismay however, the attack merely made the intensity of the colors fade slightly. Over a hundred Withering Waves, according to his calculation, were necessary to make the core obsolete. He simply did not have this amount of time. Now left only with this last resort, he ripped his blindfold off, opened his eyes and utilized their ability, Singularity. The reason why this was the last resort was because of the stability and amount of energy the core possessed. It was probable that upon being devoured by the singularity, the energy beam that would be released would be powerful enough to annihilate the entire area of at least 10,000 square kilometers surrounding their location. Meaning, not only would his eyes be significantly strained because of the stability of space around it, if he did not react fast enough, he would perish here together with the rest of the Black Lotus. 

"DIIEEEEE!"

The final guard who had been charging his ultimate attack, to make sure he incapacitated their assailant launched it at the last possible moment, catching Samuel by surprise. The unfortunate thing, however, was the fact that he had already managed to create the strongest singularity possible with his current talent. 

His torso barley hanging onto his legs with a few pieces of flesh, his eyes bleeding that dreaded silver blood, his head spinning and an ever-increasing singularity in front of him, Samuel was at his wits end. 'If I don't leave now, I will perish', he thought. However, he realized to his final dismay that his qi reserves were empty, leaving him no chance of opening another spatial tear. 'Is this how I'm going to die? Dying from my own attack, in pain, in some unimportant location, without doing anything with this new chance at life I was given?'

Samuel was unwilling to accept this, choosing to use what little energy he had left to utter 'gowla' to enter his time sphere. The energy boost to his mind helped him recover mentally. The physical pain was still constantly being transmitted to his senses, but it was not intense enough to not allow him to think.

"I have five seconds times 100,000 to think of a solution, or I'm dead. Not even six days. The only solution would be to create a technique to gather more spiritual qi, allowing me to open a spatial tear. But this is not logical, as it would need to surpass the gathering rate of my hair. It would take far longer than five days to create something like that. Think Samuel, think!"

His neurons rapidly firing in his head, his eyes fell upon the décor of the time sphere. 

"There must be something to these items. I know I won't be able to use the notepad, pen and inkwell. But the clock, calendar, bed light and pot must have some purpose or effect. If they don't, there will be no reason for me to stay in here anymore, choosing to accept my death would be better at that point. So please, for all that is holy, let this work."