I am even willing to sacrifice my own flesh and blood, if only to ensure your survival." — Kaien Rask
The sound stopped dead in its tracks, directly in front of our room door. A visceral, ominous dread instantly cascaded through my entire nervous system. I snapped out of my sitting position, my fingers automatically locking around the hilt of my blade.
The rhythmic creaking of footsteps that had been echoing from the corridor outside had ceased. It was lingering precisely behind the thin wooden barrier of our door.
I held my breath. For the entire duration that I had been tracking the audio, I hadn't detected a single gust of respiration. Could this be the monstrosity Yujin was babbling about? No, impossible. The corridor outside was claustrophobically narrow. My own frame practically scraped the ceiling out there. There was physically no way a creature of that rumored magnitude could fit in this hallway.
KRRRR...
A low, guttural canine growl vibrated through the door. Wait, a dog? Why the hell would there be a hound inside this place?
I immediately shifted into a low combat stance, completely on high alert. It could easily be a cloaking mechanism or a mutation of the monster Yujin described—even though I had been highly skeptical of his account, which sounded more like a macabre fairy tale born from blood loss.
My blade was already unsheathed, glinting in the dim light. Now, all that was left was to wait for the entity to make its breach.
A grueling minute ticked by since the shadow stationed itself outside, yet there was absolutely no follow-up movement. The stagnation made me second-guess my senses. Could I just be hallucinating from sheer, unadulterated exhaustion? No, those footsteps were far too tangible to be a trick of the mind.
Erring on the side of caution, I stealthily approached the door. Refraining from blindly throwing it open, I pressed my ear against the wood to reconnoiter. If the other side remained completely silent, only then would I breach.
Sure enough, there was nothing. Absolute vacuum. I threw the door open—the corridor was entirely vacant.
Something is fundamentally inverted about this entire establishment. I had sensed the underlying malice the exact moment we crossed the threshold, but I hadn't anticipated the terror would manifest this rapidly.
Suddenly, the faint sound of weeping echoed from behind me. I spun on my heel, my heart dropping. A shadowy, emaciated figure with unnaturally long, matted hair was looming over Yujin, its hand extending toward his face. Its maw was unhinged to a grotesque degree—wide enough to swallow the head of that little brat from earlier in a single bite.
"Hey!"
I didn't comprehend the tactical stupidity of my actions at that exact millisecond. But the moment the shout left my throat, the entity snapped its torso around, instantly locking onto my coordinates. It unleashed a deafening shriek before launching itself directly at me with terrifying velocity.
I barely managed to parry its initial strike, but out of nowhere, a secondary pair of pitch-black hands materialized from the darkness, clamping onto my torso. I was violently hurled backward. The kinetic force sent me crashing straight through the fragile wooden exterior wall of the inn, ejecting me far beyond the perimeter walls of the fortress.
Fortunately, my veteran instincts kicked in mid-air, allowing me to reorient my center of gravity. I executed a rough but managed landing in the dirt. The catastrophic downside? My primary sword had been violently knocked from my grip, lost somewhere in the surrounding thicket.
Before my brain could even synthesize the sequence of events, both shadows breached the shattered wall, descending upon my position. How the hell are they this fast? Their forms were entirely saturated with concentrated darkness. Dammit... I'm fighting creatures of the Abyss again.
If these entities were indeed manifestations of pure shadow, it presented a double-edged sword. The catastrophic news: I lacked any elemental affinities to permanently purify them. The saving grace: the silver Arkhe of Aurelyne pendant resting against my chest contained a residual reservoir of that exact holy energy.
In other words, a victory was theoretically viable. But with one massive caveat—I couldn't vaporize their core essence entirely.
Whatever. A reinforced daggers-only approach should be more than sufficient to dismantle their physical vessels.
I fluidly drew the tactical dagger anchored to my waist. Sensing the sudden surge of lethal intent, both shadows dissolved seamlessly into the darkness. But they hadn't retreated; they were actively executing a flanking maneuver to strike from my blind spot.
The pendant at my chest began to emit a low, rhythmic pulse of light. It wasn't blinding, but it provided just enough lumens to map my immediate surroundings.
KRRRRK!
One of the shadows lunged from a subterranean angle, aiming straight for my blind spot. Heh, did these mindless thralls honestly believe a textbook ambush could execute a veteran?
Before its claws could puncture my abdomen, a localized discharge of electricity crackled around my ankles, and then—
ZRRRT.
The sharp sonic boom of displaced air reverberated behind me. In a fraction of a second, the shadow's claws tore through nothing but empty air, while my physical form had already repositioned onto a thick tree branch hovering directly above them, looking down with a frigid, calculated gaze.
Teleportation? Heh, absolutely not. I had simply forced my musculature to move at peak kinetic velocity, my lower extremities entirely coated in a pressurized current of lightning aether.
I call this advanced movement technique: Flashstep. The catastrophic drawback was that I couldn't spam it consecutively within a narrow window without risking severe muscle tearing. But regardless, for that single split second, I am lightning incarnate.
Leveraging my superior velocity, I successfully repelled the first shadow's advance. Tracking the trajectory of its counterpart through the static in the air, I pivoted and delivered a clean, deep laceration across its torso.
It didn't take long for the dual shadows to become thoroughly overwhelmed by my sheer operational speed. However, my own biology was rapidly reaching its threshold. My respiration was turning incredibly erratic, and my cardiac rhythm was hammering violently against my ribs. This was the exact physiological tax I dreaded from over-exerting the Flashstep protocol.
"You're starting to bore me. Playtime is officially over," I stated coldly, raising my left hand into the heavy air.
The atmospheric pressure around us instantly ground to a halt. It wasn't their doing—it was mine. I had officially initiated Aetherial Resonance!
The ambient Aether in the immediate radius violently condensed, funneling directly into my palm and channeling down the fuller of my dagger. Within milliseconds, both were entirely enveloped in a highly unstable, crackling electrical field.
Witnessing the sudden spike in elemental mass, the two shadows finally registered primal terror. They instinctively pivoted to scatter into the dense brush.
A loud concussive blast erupted beneath my boots, cratering the soil. "You honestly think you can flee after ambushing me?"
My dagger cleaved through the dense atmospheric resistance, executing a series of lightning-fast lacerations that bypassed their evasive maneuvers. The localized time dilation that had made everything feel sluggish snapped back to standard velocity, followed instantly by the sharp, metallic ring of clashing steel.
KHYAAAAK!
Both shadows unleashed a synchronized, agonizing shriek. Heh, naturally. Even stripped of my primary longsword, I wasn't an interim Gold-Rank adventurer for nothing; my proficiency with close-quarters daggers was universally recognized within the guild.
Their physical compositions began to rapidly destabilize, crumbling into volatile black ash.
My lungs were still burning fiercely, but I finally allowed myself a momentary sigh of relief—
BOOOM!
An impossibly pale, emaciated fist materialized from the opaque fog, connecting squarely with my chest. The sheer kinetic trauma propelled me backward like a loose cannonball, violently snapping several thick tree trunks that obstructed my trajectory.
My chest instantly caved, air violently escaping my lungs. What the hell is this thing?! I couldn't detect a single shred of its presence before the impact!
I strained every muscle to lift my head from the dirt. Though my vision was heavily blurred and swimming with static, I could make out an unnaturally thin, porcelain-white torso that resembled a skeletal frame tightly wrapped in dead skin. Its joints moved with a jarring, horrific, stop-motion-like cadence.
My lower extremities still possessed enough neurological function to stand. My upper extremities, however, were completely compromised—both of my arms were entirely numb.
Dammit...
While I could forcefully trigger Aetherial Resonance, I had nowhere near perfected the systemic strain of the ability.
The emaciated monstrosity advanced, its lower jaw unhinging grotesquely. Suddenly, the bone structure of its right arm morphed, extending into a jagged, hyper-dense needle poised to execute a lethal impalement. I forced my unresponsive nervous system to override the numbness in my arm.
TRANG!
Khuukn! My dagger violently collided with its hardened, calcified limb. Thank the gods my reaction time allowed me to deflect the trajectory at the final millisecond; otherwise, my abdominal cavity would have been completely hollowed out. But the sheer impact cost me my remaining grip strength. My dagger slipped from my numb fingers, clattering into the dark undergrowth.
Desperate, I triggered one final, reckless Flashstep. I successfully managed to evade the immediate follow-up, but my legs instantly succumbed to severe paresthesia—a complete, pins-and-needles numbness that cut off all sensory feedback. I lost all stability and collapsed heavily onto the damp earth.
Son of a bitch! If I hadn't squandered so much raw voltage on those two low-level thralls earlier... I wouldn't be pinned down in a pathetic state like this!
The monster blurred forward. That pale, featureless face and those vacant, dead eyes materialized centimeters away from my nose. Its maw split wide open, the rancid, putrid odor of decaying organic matter wafting from its gullet directly into my sinuses.
It’s now or never.
A faint, cynical smirk tugged at the corner of my lips—the exact kind of expression that usually sent shivers down the spines of my rivals back at the guild. "You got entirely too overconfident, you bastard."
I didn't attempt an evasive maneuver. Instead, I intentionally tilted my head to the side, deliberately allowing its needle-like arm to drive straight through my right shoulder blade—pinning my flesh directly into the ancient stone structure of the fortress wall behind me.
CRACK!
The localized agony was catastrophic, mimicking a white-hot iron rod cauterizing raw meat, but I forcefully bit down on my own tongue to internalize the scream. The monstrosity sneered, operating under the delusion that it had successfully secured its prey.
At that exact sub-second interval, I activated Aetherial Resonance—not within my blade, not within my paralyzed limbs, but directly into the porous stone wall anchoring the monster's weaponized limb.
"Eat shit, asshole."
In this absolute point-blank proximity, I funneled the entirety of the residual Arkhe energy from my pendant straight into the structural matrix of the ancient, rotting fortress wall.
ZRRRRT!
An explosive electrical field detonated within the molecular pores of the masonry, completely obliterating its structural integrity in a fraction of a second. The entire wall suffered a catastrophic inward implosion—collapsing directly onto our coordinates.
The monster’s eyes widened, completely blindsided by the fact that the "prey" it had immobilized had just intentionally detonated its own anchor point. Utilizing the absolute final reserves of neurological signaling in my legs, I executed a micro-Flashstep—not to retreat, but to perform a rapid 180-degree inversion in mid-air.
Channeling every ounce of remaining leverage into my left fist, I delivered a brutal, shattering uppercut straight into the creature's jaw, forcing its mass backward just as hundreds of kilograms of displaced stone debris rained down from above.
BRAAAKKK!
A dense plume of dust exploded outward, completely compromising all visibility. I lay sprawled in the dirt, a gaping puncture wound in my shoulder, my respiration coming in shallow, ragged gasps. I couldn't verify if the structural collapse had achieved a kill-strike, but at the very least, it bought me a few critical seconds to drag my broken frame into the shadows of the forest.
"A veteran... never runs out of cards to play," I wheezed out faintly between mouthfuls of coughed-up blood.
I attempted to evacuate the immediate hot zone, but my biology failed me. Mere moments after the creature was buried, my lower limbs completely refused to support my weight.
If I remain stationary like this... I'm not going to make it out alive. I'll turn into a midnight snack for that ugly piece of work.
"Come on!" I snarled internally, desperately trying to force a neurological signal into my legs. The result was absolute zero. My physical vessel was entirely depleted of kinetic potential.
GRRKK.
From beneath the rubble, the shifting of stones echoed. The monstrosity was already extricating itself from the debris. Is this where my timeline ends? What about Yujin's status? Dammit... I don't even have the luxury to check on him.
My peripheral vision began to turn entirely black. Meanwhile, the chaotic shifting of rock behind me grew increasingly distinct. The creature was rising.
I dragged my torso around, watching the heavy stones slide off its porcelain skin. Its guttural, enraged screech pierced the night air. And then—
DUAAR.
The monster erupted from its stone confinement. My optic nerves could no longer render its form clearly due to advanced fatigue. The creature blurred across the clearing, closing the distance instantly.
Is this the final chapter?
I closed my eyes, bracing my nervous system for the inevitable tearing of putrid claws against my flesh. A profound sense of resignation washed over my psyche. I'm sorry, Yujin. It looks like I won't be making it back to the room.
One second ticked by. A secondary second elapsed. Yet, the anticipated physical trauma never arrived.
Instead, a sharp, crystalline whistle sliced through the midnight air—mimicking the sound of pressurized glass shattering under immense atmospheric tension.
SREEEK!
A translucent, brilliant blue arrow composed of hyper-condensed elemental ice tore through the clearing, pinning the monster’s primary limb deep into the earth just millimeters away from my face. The creature unleashed a deafening roar—not out of standard pain, but from sheer cognitive shock.
I slowly forced my eyelids open. My compromised vision managed to outline a silhouette standing at the edge of the clearing. Long, elegant hair whipped violently against a sudden, sub-zero wind that had abruptly blanketed the entire sector.
"W-Who...?" I whispered hoarsely, a fresh wave of blood escaping my lips as the simple act of vocalization aggravated my internal injuries.
The monster roared in unbridled fury, desperately attempting to wrench its frozen limb free from the elemental ice, but the incoming adventurer offered no window of reprieve. A secondary crystalline arrow materialized and struck with pinpoint accuracy. The creature shrieked violently, visibly suffering immense elemental degradation.
Managing to forcefully snap its frozen limb free, the entity realized it was tactically outmatched. It spun on its heel and bolted into the thick fog.
The silhouette remained stationary, calmly watching the aberration retreat into the woods. Why? Why the hell are they letting that bastard escape?
The figure stepped forward, approaching my position. I could feel a suffocating, incredibly potent aura of specialized ice magic radiating from their entire perimeter. Wait, ice sorcery? Have they completely mastered advanced Aetherial Resonance?
Ah... I can't hold onto my consciousness any longer. Regardless of what this individual intended to do with my broken body, I was entirely devoid of defensive countermeasures.
What's Yujin's status right now...? I pray to the Arkhe he hasn't been breached.
Meanwhile, far to the east, the gears of an identical destiny began to turn. The atmosphere within the primary hall of the Lumeris Guild remained intensely rigid, though the initial mass panic from several hours prior had somewhat subsided. The vast majority of the high-tier adventurers had already evacuated the premises—either to recuperate or to organize specialized emergency vanguard units to address the sudden alerts flooding the bulletin boards.
Aurelia sat slumped against a massive marble pillar, her vacant gaze locked onto the now-deserted reception counter. Her hands remained tightly clenched, cheap medical gauze crudely wrapped around the palms she had self-mutilated with her fingernails earlier. The hemorrhaging had officially ceased, but the volatile, burning fury in her chest refused to cool down.
"Are you still hyper-focusing on your homeland?"
The detached, icy voice caused Aurelia to flinch. Viola was suddenly standing adjacent to her, her sharp eyes scanning the heavy, securely locked primary gates of the Guild hall.
"They require immediate vanguard deployment, Sister," Aurelia whispered, her vocal cords raw and strained.
"Reinforcements are currently being synthesized, Aurelia. But you are explicitly restricted from deployment," Viola sighed—a remarkably rare display of emotional output from a woman whose disposition was universally flat and stoic. "The operational theater... is far more convoluted than a simple agricultural deficit and localized flash floods."
Aurelia snapped her head up. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
Before Viola could articulate a response, the heavy oak doors leading to the Guild Master’s private chambers creaked open with a low, authoritative resonance.
A man stepped out into the corridor. His physical frame was exceptionally robust, his neatly trimmed beard beginning to silver at the edges, and his eyes projected a level of unyielding, absolute executive authority that demanded immediate submission. This was Kluivert, the Grand Master of the Lumeris Guild.
Kluivert marched forward with a measured, deliberate stride, each step echoing heavily across the silent hall. He refrained from making eye contact with anyone, his gaze fixed straight ahead, as if analyzing a crisis unfolding far beyond the physical confines of the guild walls.
"Viola," Kluivert summoned, his voice incredibly deep and resonant, mimicking the sound of tectonic plates grinding together.
"Yes, Grand Master?" Viola immediately executed a formal bow of deference, followed closely by Aurelia, who reluctantly scrambled to her feet.
Kluivert came to a halt directly before them. He looked down at Viola, before shifting his severe, analytical gaze onto Aurelia. The sheer intensity of the stare made Aurelia feel as though her very soul was being systematically stripped bare and scrutinized.
"I have just received a highly classified dispatch from our intelligence vanguard stationed at the western frontier," Kluivert stated, his voice echoing across the now dead-silent hall.
"What does the intelligence report dictate, Master?" Viola inquired, her brows knitting together in a rare display of concern.
Kluivert let out a heavy, solemn breath. "The cataclysm ravaging Aethelgard... it is completely devoid of natural elemental origin. It is a entirely manufactured plague."