The morning after the fall of Silverleaf did not bring a sunrise. A thick, unnatural fog, born from the shattered Mana Spire, clung to the ruins of the city. Arlan stood atop the battlements, his golden eyes piercing through the mist. He felt a strange itch at the back of his neck—a sensation the System immediately identified.
[Warning: High-Level Stealth Signature detected!]
[Threat Level: Assassination Grade]
[Distance: 300 meters and closing...]
Arlan didn't move. He didn't reach for his blade. "Seraphina, take the men to the lower vaults," he said, his voice a calm ripple in the cold air. "We have a guest who doesn't like crowds."
Seraphina looked confused but saw the deadly seriousness in Arlan's eyes. She signaled the rebels to retreat. As soon as the courtyard was empty, the air itself seemed to ripple.
Cling!
Arlan tilted his head by a fraction of an inch. A thin, black needle, coated in paralyzing neurotoxin, whistled past his ear and embedded itself into the stone wall behind him.
"The Emperor's 'Silent Death'," Arlan muttered, a dark smirk playing on his lips. "I expected a Grand Inquisitor, but he sends a lapdog instead."
From the shadows of a collapsed archway, a figure emerged. Or rather, the shadows coalesced into a person. Clad in skin-tight, matte-grey leather that absorbed all sound, the assassin stood like a wraith. Two curved daggers, forged from 'Null-Steel'—a metal that negated mana—were held in a reverse grip.
[Target: Kage, The Silent Death (Level 28 Assassin)]
[Skill Analysis: Void Blink, Heart-Piercer, Cloak of Agony.]
"The Emperor wants your head, little prince," Kage whispered, his voice sounding like sandpaper on glass. "He said to tell you... he should have used a stronger poison."
Before the last word left his lips, Kage vanished.
Arlan's Chaos Core flared. He didn't look with his eyes; he looked with his mana. "Fenris, Wide Scan!"
The Shadow Wolf, still merged with Arlan's shadow, let out a silent pulse of dark energy. It hit an invisible barrier ten feet to Arlan's left.
SHING!
Arlan drew the Eclipse Blade just in time to parry a strike aimed at his throat. The impact sent sparks flying, the Null-Steel of the assassin's dagger clashing violently with the Star-Metal of Arlan's sword.
[System Alert: Null-Steel is draining your MP on contact!]
[MP: 1,450 / 1,500... 1,300... 1,150...]
"Fast," Arlan remarked, stepping back into a defensive stance. "But you rely too much on your tools."
Kage didn't respond. He moved like liquid, attacking from angles that seemed physically impossible. Every strike was aimed at a vital organ. Arlan was forced to use Void Step repeatedly, but each time he reappeared, Kage was already there, waiting.
[Stamina: 40%]
[Warning: Host is being hunted by a superior predator.]
"Superior?" Arlan laughed, a cold, dry sound. "System, activate Sovereign's Domain."
Suddenly, the gravity within a fifty-meter radius increased tenfold. The fog was crushed to the ground, and Kage's fluid movements stumbled. The assassin's boots cracked the cobblestones as his Level 28 stats were suppressed by the aura of the Void.
"What... is this pressure?" Kage gasped, his knees buckling.
"This is the weight of a throne you'll never sit on," Arlan said.
He didn't use a sword strike. He reached out and grabbed Kage by the face. His fingers, glowing with black-and-gold veins, sank into the assassin's mask.
[Skill Activated: Soul Devour (Modified)]
Arlan didn't just kill him. He began to rip the experience points and skills directly out of Kage's living mind. The assassin's screams were muffled by Arlan's palm. Blue wisps of soul-fire were sucked into Arlan's Chaos Core.
[Absorption in progress... 20%... 50%... 90%...]
[Skill Stolen: 'Void Blink' (Upgraded your Void Step)]
[Skill Stolen: 'Deadly Precision' (Passive)]
When Arlan let go, Kage was nothing but a withered husk. The 'Silent Death' had died in absolute silence.
[Level Up! Level 18 -> Level 21]
[Evolution: Your Shadow Step has evolved into 'Abyssal Blink' (No cooldown).]
Arlan wiped a stray drop of blood from his cheek. He looked at the two Null-Steel daggers on the ground. He picked them up and fed them to the Soul Forge in his system.
"One assassin down," Arlan looked toward the distant capital. "Eleven 'Saints' to go."
As the sun began to set, casting long, jagged shadows across the scorched ruins of Silverleaf, Arlan sat alone in the commander's solar. He was staring at his reflection in a shard of broken glass. His face was the same—high cheekbones, sharp jawline—but his eyes were no longer his own. Within the gold, the black void swirled like a storm of ink.
[System Alert: Sanity Check...]
[Current Sanity: 78% (Decreasing due to Soul Absorption)]
[Advice: Meditate or limit Soul Devour usage for 24 hours.]
"Shut up," Arlan whispered to the empty room. The System's blue light flickered in response, a silent observer of his fading humanity. He could feel Kage's memories scratching at the inside of his skull—cold nights in the assassin's pits, the smell of iron and poison, the mechanical loyalty to a father who viewed his children as expendable tools.
There was a soft knock on the door. Seraphina entered, carrying a small lantern. Its warm light felt intrusive in the cold, dark room Arlan had claimed.
"The scouts have returned," she said softly, keeping a respectful distance. "The Imperial Army has mobilized from the neighboring provinces. They aren't just sending soldiers, Arlan. They are burning the villages we passed through. They are erasing any trace of your 'liberation'."
Arlan didn't look up. "Good. Let them burn everything. It saves me the trouble of destroying it later. The more they destroy, the more people will realize that their 'Golden Emperor' is nothing but a butcher in silk robes."
Seraphina flinched. "You're starting to sound just like him."
Arlan's head snapped toward her. In a flash—faster than the human eye could track—he was standing inches from her, the Eclipse Blade partially drawn. The air around him grew so cold that Seraphina's breath hitched in a frost-filled gasp.
"Never," Arlan hissed, his voice vibrating with a dark power. "He kills for a throne. I kill for the end of thrones. There is a difference."
He sheathed the blade and turned away. "Get the men ready. We move into the Forest of Forgotten Lore at midnight. The Imperial cavalry won't follow us into the mist. They fear the old gods too much."
[Scene Shift: The Edge of the Forbidden Forest]
The Forest of Forgotten Lore was a wall of ancient, gnarled trees that seemed to reach up and choke the moonlight. It was a place where time didn't flow linearly—a graveyard of forgotten civilizations and beasts that predated the Empire.
As the rebel column reached the treeline, a heavy, oppressive silence fell over them. Even the horses refused to go further, their eyes rolling in terror.
[Area Discovery: The Forest of Forgotten Lore]
[Condition: Constant Mana Depletion]
[Warning: Reality Distortion active in this zone.]
Arlan stepped forward, his boots sinking into the black, mossy earth. He felt the forest watching him. Not with eyes, but with a collective, ancient consciousness.
"Stay close to me," Arlan commanded the rebels. "If you wander more than five paces from my shadow, I won't be able to find you."
He activated Sovereign's Domain, but instead of using it to crush enemies, he expanded it into a protective bubble. The black-and-gold aura acted as a beacon in the suffocating mist.
Deep within the woods, a sound echoed—a low, rhythmic thumping that sounded like a giant's heartbeat.
[New Threat Detected: Guardians of the Lore (Level Unknown)]
Arlan gripped the hilt of his sword. He knew that to reach the Iron Gate fortress, he had to survive this forest. But the forest didn't want his soul; it wanted his memories.