Chapter 285: A Piece of Something Larger (2)

Chapter 285: Chapter 285: A Piece of Something Larger (2)

Chapter 285: A Piece of Something Larger (2)

"Grief might explain what you became," Draven said. His voice was a freezing, unshakable anchor that cut through the ancient pressure. "But it does not excuse you."

Draven raised his dark blade, pointing the steel directly at the clone’s chest.

"Lord Commander Vell bled in the mud to buy his people time," Draven stated coldly. "Theron died holding a barricade he did not have to hold. Thousands of people are starving in this district right now because they refuse to lay down and die. You mock the shield, but you are the one driving the knife into the backs of the people holding it."

Draven’s gray eyes were like chips of glacial ice behind his mask.

"You did not embrace the truth," Draven rejected fiercely. "You are a slave to your own loss. You are just a coward hiding inside a god."

Malakor did not scream. He did not fly into a manic, unhinged rage at the insult.

The ancient entity simply let out a slow, incredibly heavy sigh. The conversation had run its useful course. He recognized that there was no converting the boy in the white mask. Draven’s resolve was as dense and unbreakable as the wooden walls surrounding them.

The dull brown eyes of the engineer went completely dead, stripped of all philosophical curiosity.

"Then die with your shield," Malakor whispered.

The entity moved.

He did not phase through the air or distort the space. He stepped fully into the physical plane and lunged directly at Draven with terrifying, mechanical speed. The rusted knife aimed perfectly for the gap in Draven’s collar.

CLANG.

Aegon intercepted the lethal strike. He slammed the heavy shaft of his Blood Fire Spear directly into the rusted blade. The massive collision sent a shockwave of bright red sparks skittering across the concrete floor.

"We take him together!" Aegon roared, his crimson aura flaring into a localized inferno.

Nyx melted seamlessly from the shadow of the rusted gears. She materialized directly behind the clone, driving both of her obsidian daggers toward his lower spine.

Lucien darted forward in a blinding blur of blue lightning. The aristocrat thrust the Thunder Rapier at the entity’s knees, aiming to sever the tendons before the clone could phase out of reality.

Reina stood tall near the rubble. She could not swing her heavy axe, but her eyes glowed with fierce, unbroken defiance. She stood upright despite her shattered ribs, anchoring the squad’s morale with her sheer presence.

Draven stepped into the dead center of the chaotic formation. He became the flawless apex of the assault.

He triggered [Vector Manipulation]. He subtly altered the kinetic trajectory of Aegon’s massive swings, accelerating the heavy spear to terrifying speeds while simultaneously dragging Malakor’s limbs downward with localized pockets of gravity.

It was a perfect, synchronized five-on-one assault. The squad moved like a single, devastating organism, entirely overwhelming the physical limits of the stolen vessel.

The clone shifted, phased, and parried frantically. He struggled to maintain his footing against the relentless, coordinated pressure.

Draven struck with his dark blade, aiming a precise, lethal cut for the entity’s shoulder. The clone barely dodged backward, but Draven missed the follow-up strike. His reflexes felt undeniably sluggish again.

The realization hit Draven like a physical blow to the chest.

’It is not a spatial distortion,’ Draven analyzed, his mind racing at blinding speeds as he ducked under a retaliatory knife thrust. ’It is a passive suppression field.’

He finally understood the grand mechanics of the entity’s stealth.

’He does not hide from detection. He actively dampens the detector itself.’

That was exactly why [The Omniscient Cartographer’s World Map] had returned a dead signal twice. The fragment of the god radiated a dense, localized aura of pure entropy.

The aura literally slowed down human synapses, muffled magical sensors, and blinded the System’s radar. Draven had felt half a step slow this entire arc because he was standing inside a localized dead zone without ever realizing it.

The clone was forcing reality itself to rot just by standing in the room.

"Push him back!" Draven commanded, his voice cutting cleanly through the roar of Aegon’s flames. "Drive him to the wall!"

Lucien unleashed a blinding volley of electrified thrusts, forcing the clone to step backward to avoid being skewered. Nyx swept her leg from the shadows, targeting the entity’s ankles. Aegon swung his heavy spear in a massive, sweeping horizontal arc.

The combined kinetic force left the clone absolutely no room to phase safely.

The entity stumbled backward. His shoulders slammed hard against the petrified World-wood barricade that was sealing the factory door.

The moment the clone’s corrupted, Miasma-laced flesh touched the glowing green timber, the wall violently reacted.

HISS.

The ancient, purified nature magic of the World Tree surged outward. It was the exact same purifying, unyielding energy that had violently rejected the underground rot beneath Bastion Six. Thick, glowing wooden roots shot rapidly from the timber, wrapping aggressively around the clone’s wrists and pinning him firmly to the wood.

The clone thrashed against the glowing roots.

The pure mana burned his stolen skin like concentrated acid. Thick black smoke poured from the engineer’s eyes and mouth as the localized suppression field collapsed.

The fragment was entirely cut off from the Wildlands, suffocated by the holy suppression of the World-wood, and physically battered by the relentless squad.

The physical vessel could no longer contain the dark energy.

The entity did not die. It began to violently unravel.

The stolen flesh cracked like dry clay, revealing a blinding, chaotic void underneath. The fragment was actively dispersing. It was fading out like a suffocated flame rather than suffering a true biological death.

As the black smoke dissolved into the freezing air, the dull brown eyes locked onto Draven one final time.

"The wood will burn, Zero," the echoing, ancient voice promised. The cold whisper was aimed directly into Draven’s mind, unheard by the rest of the squad. "I will see you in the dark."

The body of the engineer collapsed into a lifeless, empty heap of ash and ruined cloth.

The factory fell dead silent.