"Who? Who killed him?!" Nick barked, his voice tight and harsh as he pivoted on the balls of his feet, eyes darting from shadow to shadow, trying desperately to pierce the forest’s green veil for any trace of an attacker. His face darkened with a furious rage, jaw clenched so hard a muscle twitched in his cheek.
anwhile, Blake dropped into a crouch beside Astor’s lifeless body, fingers swiftly checking for any lingering pulse even though it was obvious the man was long gone. His brow furrowed as he inspected the clean cut at Astor’s neck and the faint traces of soul force still lingering in the air like a fading afterimage.
"Be careful, Nick," Blake murmured grimly, rising back to his feet, his face a mask of grim calculation. "I think there’s another party in the Berserk Lightning Region besides us and those from the Great Ruler Empire."
Just as Blake was still grappling with the shock of Astor’s sudden beheading and trying to piece together which mysterious force could harbor such deep enmity as to strike so decisively, he caught a flicker of movent at the edge of his vision—and then his eyes widened in sheer horror as he saw Nick suddenly swallowed whole by a swirling sphere of black flas that erupted around him like a living inferno.
"NICK!" Blake shouted, his voice hoarse and raw with disbelief and terror, but it was already far, far too late to save his comrade.
BOOM!
The black sphere imploded inwardly with a thunderous crack, collapsing upon itself like a dying star. A shockwave of blistering heat rippled outward, and in the sa instant, a grisly explosion of blood, flesh, and shattered bone sprayed across the trees and foliage, painting the forest in grueso splashes of crimson as fragnts of Nick’s body flew in every direction.
Blake staggered back, his face draining of color as he stared blankly at the bloody mist that hung in the air for a fraction of a second before raining down upon the leaves. His eyes grew wide and bloodshot, veins bulging in his neck as an unhinged rage took hold of him, smashing through whatever icy calm he normally held as an assassin-class cultivator.
"I will kill you, you bastard!" he roared, his voice ragged, trembling with grief and murderous fury, his gaze whipping around wildly, searching every shadow, every trembling leaf, desperate to catch even a glimpse of the attacker who had slaughtered his companions so rcilessly.
But despite the raw, predatory force of his gaze, the forest around him seed utterly empty, as if the killer had dissolved into thin air. Yet in that sa breath, before he could even begin to move or summon his weapons, a black flaming claw suddenly burst straight through his stomach from behind, erging out of his abdon in a sizzling spray of blood and shredded entrails.
Blake’s eyes went impossibly wide as he choked and spat out a mouthful of bright red blood, his breath rasping as shock overtook the blazing rage that had consud him only seconds earlier.
"Who... are... you...?" he managed to gasp out, his voice a thin whisper as the strength drained from his limbs, his trembling fingers scrabbling weakly at the claw protruding from his torso.
But that was the only question he could ask before the life faded from his eyes, leaving them dull and glassy.
"Ashes of Insight," Max’s cool, unhurried voice muttered as he stepped forward, his figure materializing from the shadows as though he had always been part of the forest itself.
The black flaming claw dissolved instantly, replaced by roaring purple flas that ignited across Blake’s body in the blink of an eye. There was no ti for screams, no chance for even a final breath, as the flas devoured him completely, crackling hungrily as they turned flesh and bone to fine gray dust.
Within monts, nothing remained of Blake except drifting ashes that spiraled gently through the air, carried away on the faint breeze that whispered through the blood-soaked trees of the Berserk Lightning Region.
Max stood silently amid the blood-scented air of the forest, his figure motionless as the faint purple glow of his flas slowly faded around him. His eyes were shut tight, brows drawn into a concentrated furrow, as a flood of mories poured into his mind like a rushing river breaking through a dam.
Each fragnt of Blake’s life unfurled before him in vivid detail—scenes of a wailing infant cradled in trembling arms, a boy training relentlessly under the harsh tutelage of Thunder Monarch Hall masters, monts of secret pride as Blake honed his assassin arts to deadly perfection, missions carried out in shadows, blood and silence, and finally, the stunned terror and searing pain of his final monts as Max’s flaming claw tore through him.
He stood there for several monts longer, rooted to the spot as he worked to digest the torrent of information now embedded deep within his own mind. Then, slowly, he opened his eyes, which glead with a sharp, crystalline clarity, as though the world itself had co into sharper focus.
A faint smirk curved his lips, and a strange, almost amused light flickered in his gaze. "I never knew I was that good of an assassin myself," Max murmured under his breath, his voice carrying an edge of dark humor as he considered how easily he’d eliminated three powerful cultivators who had been sent to capture or kill him.
Thanks to the mories harvested through the purple flas of Ashes of Insight, he now possessed every secret Blake had held—including the exact location of the Lightning Ten Legs Spider’s hidden cave, which lay deep within a twisting labyrinth of storm-ravaged tunnels beneath the Berserk Lightning Region.
His eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he considered his next steps. "Its strength is around the sixth level of Champion Rank, but since this is the lightning region, its power might be even higher," Max muttered, his voice low and focused as he prepared himself ntally for the looming battle.
Without another word, his figure blurred and flashed out of sight, streaking through the dense forest in a series of precise teleportations as he sped toward the spider’s lair.
Trees, rocks, and flashes of distant lightning whizzed past him in a dizzying rush as he traveled, the air crackling around him with residual static from the violent storms that forever churned above the Berserk Lightning Region.
As he flew onward, a knot of urgency twisted in his chest, for although he was confident in his own abilities, he could only hope he wasn’t arriving too late.
The thought of Omar—or worse, Omar’s subordinates—reaching the Lightning Ten Legs Spider first and securing the ten precious eyes gnawed at his mind, for such an outco could spiral into complications he wasn’t ready to face.
User Comments
0 comments from readers