Chapter 155: This is my fate

The black-haired Succubus stood frozen beyond the broken wall. Her five claws formed from Dark Mist were still trembling, but the giant arm that had just struck at Erik’s chest had been knocked aside, gouging a deep line across the stone floor.

What shocked her was not only the power behind that blow.

It was also the person who had just appeared before Erik.

A figure clad in black stood between Erik and the tentacles. A smooth, unmarked mask covered their face, with even their eyes hidden behind a layer of dark glass. The figure was slightly taller than Erik, with a lean build, one hand gripping the shaft of a scythe nearly as tall as their body. The weapon’s blade curved like a crescent moon, its sharp edge still holding a few strands of black smoke that the wind carried away.

"Who are you?" the black-haired Succubus asked, her voice suddenly rising.

The masked person did not answer.

"Are you deaf?" She frowned, the black veins on her neck swelling. "I’m talking to you! A man who dares to interfere with my game, don’t you know the most basic manners?"

He remained still.

The opponent tilted her head, her expression shifting from annoyance to curiosity. She studied the mask, the cloak, and the black scythe, but found no mark of identification. Even his aura was strange, as though an invisible curtain separated him from the world around him.

"Where did you crawl out from?" She pouted. "I’ve never encountered anything like you."

The stranger only slowly turned his wrist.

The female Succubus grew angry. A Dark Mist blade shot from her wrist, sweeping across the room so fast that Erik saw only a black streak. The masked person slightly tilted the scythe.

Clang!

The blade shattered in two. Fragments of mana fell onto the stone floor, writhing before dissolving like diluted ink in water. Before she could create another attack, the woman saw the scythe’s edge stop less than a handspan from her neck. A black tendon rising beneath her shoulder cloth was severed by the wind from the weapon’s blade.

The female Succubus immediately went stiff.

A drop of blood slowly rolled down her neck. Her ever-present, capricious smile vanished, replaced by genuine caution.

"Wait..." She looked at the scythe, then at the mask. "Do you really intend to kill me?"

There was no answer.

Erik held his breath as well. He had seen the other person attack, but he could not understand how the masked figure had moved at all. At that speed, if he had wanted to take the female soldier’s life, he would not have needed to stop his hand. That made Erik even more certain that the stranger had realized the body before them was only a puppet.

At last, the scythe was withdrawn. The strands of Dark Mist crawling across the walls hurriedly recoiled, like a swarm of worms meeting fire.

The female Succubus took half a step back, both hands clenching tightly. She had no idea who this newly appeared figure was, much less why a man could make her mana fear him so deeply. But her pride would not allow her to admit that in front of Erik.

"Don’t think I’m afraid!" She forced a smile. "I just find you rather interesting."

The black mask did not turn toward her even once more. That indifference only made her angrier.

Erik took the chance to retreat toward Elowen. She was sitting against the stone slab, one hand pressing over the claw wound on her shoulder, the other gripping her bow tightly. When she saw Erik return, her emerald eyes immediately reddened.

"Are you alright?"

"I’m still here." Erik tried to smile, but the moment he clenched his hand, pain shot through his arm and made the corner of his lips twitch.

Elowen looked at the bloodstains on his clothes and wanted to stand. Erik immediately placed a hand on her uninjured shoulder, signaling for her not to move.

"Wait a moment. I don’t understand what’s happening either."

The masked person suddenly turned their head.

At that moment, Erik felt as though the other person was looking directly at him despite him being unable to see their eyes behind the glass. A chill ran down his spine, unlike the fear he felt before a powerful foe. It felt more like standing before a mirror, only for the reflection inside to move a beat slower than he did.

The figure stepped closer.

Elowen instinctively raised her bow. "Don’t come any closer!"

The stranger stopped, tilting his head slightly. Then he raised one finger before his mask, signaling for silence.

Erik had never seen that gesture before, yet for some reason, it felt familiar.

"Did you come to save us?" he asked.

There was no answer.

The masked person came close enough for Erik to see silver lines running along the collar. They did not look like decorations, because every strand flickered blue like tiny conduits on an unfamiliar device. A tear in the glove revealed a thin scar near the index finger joint, but the stranger quickly closed his hand.

Erik wanted to ask more, but the other person bent slightly toward his ear.

A whisper escaped, so quiet that even Elowen sitting directly behind him could not hear it. The masked person did not repeat it. What he had said remained within the small space between the two of them, unknown to anyone else.

Erik froze.

Whether it was because of the words themselves or that tone, his heart suddenly pounded. A familiar low cadence echoed through his memories, like a call he had heard long ago yet could not remember when. The harder he tried to search for it, the more his temples throbbed. Images that seemed about to surface slipped away like sand through his fingers.

"Wait." Erik hurriedly grabbed the stranger’s wrist. "Have I met you before?"

The black glove stopped in his hand. The person looked down at Erik’s fingers without moving for a long time, then gently removed them. He did not answer, only looked at Erik for another moment, as if he had more to say but could not.

"Who are you really?"

The masked person remained silent.

Outside the guard post, a terrifying roar suddenly tore through the mist. The stone roof shook violently, and white dust scattered over Elowen’s head. The monsters gathered around the door all dropped flat to the ground, as though they had sensed something more frightening than the one controlling them.

The masked person looked up.

Two blue lights appeared beneath his cloak along his back. Black pieces of material layered over one another and spread to both sides, forming a pair of wings that resembled bat wings. But instead of skin membranes, their surfaces held glowing technological patterns like hundreds of tiny streams made of light. Each time the wing joints moved, the air around them trembled, revealing rings of symbols Erik had never seen before.

Elowen’s mouth fell open.

"What... kind of ability is that?"

Erik did not know either.

The wings opened fully. Wind swept through the guard post, throwing Elowen’s silver hair into the air and making the stranger’s cloak flap violently. He did not bother to look back at the black-haired Succubus gritting her teeth by the door.

With a single beat of his wings, he shot into the sky.

Boom!

The remaining fragment of the stone roof shook violently. Erik had to lower himself to shield Elowen from the powerful wind, while the black-haired Succubus stumbled back several steps. She stared after the blue streak cutting through the mist, her expression shifting constantly between anger and confusion.

"What the hell was that?" she muttered with a frown.

Erik heard her clearly but did not ask. He was staring at the patch of sky that the wings had torn open, trying to hold onto the image of the masked person in his mind.

Above the outpost, the Dark Mist suddenly churned into a massive vortex.

A monster burst out.

It was not the skeletal giant serpent that was tormenting the female soldiers on the ground. The creature that appeared had the body of a bird of prey, with wings hundreds of meters long assembled from black bone plates and rugged armor. Three rows of curved spikes grew along its neck, while its long beak split into four pieces when it opened, revealing countless small teeth inside. Each time it beat its wings, hard feathers like daggers shot down into the forest, tearing trees into strips.

"The Black-Bone Giant Bird..." A female soldier at the outpost looked up, her voice growing hoarse. "How did that thing get through?"

Warning sirens immediately blared from the watchtowers still in operation. Elemental arrows flew into the sky, like a swarm of fireflies rushing into a storm. They struck the giant bird’s armor and shattered.

The monster headed straight for the cracked protective dome, where golden lines of light were reluctantly stitching the sky back together.

There, the translucent girl was still struggling to keep both hands pressed against a Sentinel symbol. Her slender body had faded so much that her chestnut-brown hair almost blended into the light behind her. Her amber eyes trembled as she watched the monster’s shadow grow larger and larger.

"Don’t come here..." She bit her lip. "I don’t have the strength to hold it any longer."

The giant bird opened its four-part beak.

A sphere of Dark Mist gathered before its throat, black lightning flickering across its surface. The translucent girl tried to pull one more thread of light from the ancient symbol, but both arms trembled so badly that they nearly lost their shape.

The sphere shot forward.

Just before it struck the protective dome, a blue streak suddenly cut across the sky.

The masked person appeared above the giant bird’s head.

He was so small that from the outpost, people could only see a black dot between those enormous wings. Yet when the scythe rose, the space around it suddenly fell silent. The blue light on his wings surged toward the weapon shaft, gathering into a thin line that traced the curved blade.

He swung his arm.

There was no roar, no lengthy incantation.

Only a single slash.

The Dark Mist sphere was cut in half, dissolving into torn pieces of fog. Immediately after, another line of light swept across the giant bird’s neck. Then the third, fourth, and fifth appeared from completely different angles, so quickly that those on the ground could not even see the next movement.

The colossal monster remained in its diving posture for another moment.

Then its body separated into dozens of pieces.

The armor plates and black bones shattered in the air, crushed into fragments by blue streams of light before they could fall onto the residential area. Its final roar went silent. The enormous wings that had just covered half the sky became nothing more than dark dust scattered by the wind.

The entire outpost fell silent.

One female soldier remained in the pose of drawing her bow, forgetting even to release the string. The person beside her slowly looked up, staring at the empty space that had appeared among the clouds.

"Who... did that just now?"

No one could answer.

In the sky, the masked person stopped amid the dissolving bone fragments, his technological wings spread wide like two bolts of blue lightning. He did not look at the female soldiers below, nor did he show any interest in his accomplishment.

He turned toward the protective dome.

"Autumn!"

The call rang across the sky, piercing through the trembling mana lines around the protective dome.

The translucent girl jolted. She was nearly exhausted, her figure so faint that light passed through every strand of her chestnut-brown hair. Yet upon hearing that name, her amber eyes opened wide. She turned and saw the blue wings, the curved scythe, and a face hidden behind a black mask.

"Why did you come here?" Autumn’s voice trembled. "The loop has already closed. You cannot remain here for long. If you keep trying to stay, you will..."

She stopped speaking when she saw a thin line of interference traveling down his arm. The blue lights on his cloak flickered unevenly, like a device operating beyond its limits.

The masked person moved closer. "I came to save you."

Autumn froze, then smiled softly. That smile was still as gentle as late autumn sunlight, but so sad that the person facing her could not possibly smile along.

"There’s no need." She shook her head. "This is my fate. You have done enough already."

"Not enough."

The masked person suddenly rushed forward, reaching out to take her trembling hand. Autumn instinctively reached back. For an instant, their hands nearly touched, but the gloved fingers passed straight through her translucent body.

There was nothing to hold.

He froze, then immediately tried again. The result was the same. The person who had just cut apart a colossal monster in the sky could not touch the hand right before him.

"You see?" Autumn lowered her gaze to their hands, her voice growing quiet. "I no longer belong to your world."