Chapter 310 (Patreon)

The moment shattered.

There was no warning, no shift in stance, no coiling of muscle to hint at what would come. One heartbeat, King Rut’er Lez stood as he had before—silent, composed, a figure carved from something ancient. The next, his hand moved.

The sword left his back in a single, seamless motion.

Kana didn’t see the draw.

She saw the result.

A vertical arc of steel carved through the air, clean and absolute, as though the space between them had simply been split apart. Her mind screamed at her to move—to twist away, to vanish, to do anything—but her body lagged behind, caught in something far worse than hesitation. There was no opening. No hesitation in the strike. It came down with a certainty that denied reaction.

So Kana raised the curved sword she was holding.

Not because it was enough. But because it was all she had. Steel met steel—and the world broke.

The impact didn’t ring. It thundered. A violent burst of force exploded outward, kicking dust into a spiraling vortex around her feet as the weight of the strike crashed down through her arms. It wasn’t just strength. It was pressure. Intent. Something far heavier than a simple blow.

Kana felt it travel through her bones. Well, she was more surprised that her sword didn’t shatter from the impact though a visible few cracks could be seen.

A sharp, splintering sensation shot up her forearms, faint cracks forming underneath the surface as pain flared bright and immediate. Her grip faltered for the smallest fraction of a second, her breath catching as blood slipped past her lips, warm and metallic against her tongue.

Still—

She held. Barely. Behind her, the others moved without any command.

Boris didn’t hesitate. The moment the blades locked, he surged forward with a roar, his spear cutting through the air with brutal force. “[Cleave]!” The strike carried everything he had—weight, momentum, intent to break through whatever stood in his way.

Suri followed without pause, mana surging around her like a storm given shape. Her staff flared, light gathering, condensing, then lashing outward in a crackling arc of energy. “[Lightning Bolt]”

For a fleeting instant, it felt right.

A perfect counter.

Then the world corrected itself.

A thin shimmer appeared around the creature’s body—faint, almost dismissive. A barrier, blue and translucent, manifesting with such ease it might as well have always been there. Boris’s spear struck first, the impact dispersing with a dull, hollow resistance that carried none of the force he had put into it. Suri’s lightning followed, brilliant and violent… only to scatter across the surface, breaking apart into harmless strands of light before fading into nothing.

Not blocked.

Dismissed.

Kana’s breath hitched, but she didn’t stop.

Her right arm trembled under the strain, pain screaming through it, but her left hand moved on instinct. The dagger slipped free from her hip, its weight familiar, grounding. She shifted, forcing motion through a body that no longer wanted to obey.

[Dagger Pierce]

Her arm blurred forward, precise, aimed for a gap—for the smallest imperfection in that impenetrable defense barrier.

There was none.

The creature didn’t block it this time with his barrier as if mocking her.

It didn’t deflect.

It simply moved. A fraction of a step. A minor adjustment of posture. Perfect. Minimal. As if Kana’s strike had been anticipated long before she had even decided to make it.

Then—

His foot came down.

A single stomp. At first it looked insignificant however it wasn’t.

The moment it struck the ground, something changed. Not in the stone beneath them, but in the air itself. The pressure they had been enduring twisted, condensed, then exploded outward with terrifying precision.

Kana felt it before she could react—a crushing force slamming into her body from all directions at once, as though the very space around her had decided to reject her existence. Boris was lifted clean off his feet, his roar cut short as the air was forced from his lungs. Suri’s barrier snapped into place on instinct, layers of mana weaving together in a desperate defense—

And shattered.

All three of them were thrown back like nothing.

Kana’s body hit the wall hard, the impact ripping through her already fractured arms as pain flared white-hot across her vision. The breath was driven from her chest, blood spilling freely now as she coughed against the stone. Boris crashed beside her with a heavy thud, his weapon slipping from his grasp as he struggled to draw even a single steady breath.

Suri landed unevenly, barely catching herself before collapsing, her footing unstable, her cloak coated in dust. For a moment, it looked like she might fall.

She didn’t.

Her grip tightened on her staff, knuckles whitening as she forced herself upright.

[Lightning Bolt]

The skill came again, brighter this time as if it had its own will, fueled not by calculation but by refusal. Refusal to accept what they had just witnessed. Refusal to stand still and do nothing.

The lightning screamed through the air.

And met the same result.

The barrier appeared.

Effortless.

The skill broke apart on contact, scattering into fragments of fading light that vanished before they could even brush against the creature beneath.

And through it all—

King Rut’er Lez did not advance.

He did not press forward. Did not rush to finish what he had so easily begun. He simply stood there, sword resting at his back once more, the faint shimmer of his barrier dissolving like a thought no longer needed.

Watching them.

Waiting.

As if everything they had thrown at him—every strike, every skill, every desperate attempt to survive—

Had barely been worth acknowledging.

….

The creature did not hurry as if everything was his usual routine.

It simply advanced, savouring each step, as though time itself had decided to move at its pace and nothing else mattered. Its feet touched the stone with quiet certainty, yet the sound carried—heavy—echoing through the hall like the tolling of a distant bell. Not loud. Not rushed. Just… inevitable.

Suri refused to stop.

Lightning tore from her staff again, wild and relentless now, no longer the clean, precise strikes she had once been proud of. “[Lightning Bolt]” The words came sharper, faster, almost overlapping as she spammed the skill again and again, pushing past the careful limits she usually respected. The air cracked with each cast, the scent of burning ozone thickening around her as arcs of electricity lashed forward in jagged bursts.

She twisted her wrist, altered the angles, layered illusion upon illusion over the attacks—splitting a single bolt into five, bending their paths, hiding their origin, masking the rhythm of her casting. To any normal opponent, it would have been chaos. Confusion. Overwhelming.

To this creature—

It meant nothing.

The barrier appeared again. And again. And again.

Each time it formed with perfect timing, intercepting every strike before it could even come close to touching him. It didn’t flicker. Didn’t strain. It simply was as natural to him as breathing.

Her skill shattered against it like glass thrown at a wall. The creature didn’t even slow down. Didn’t even glance her way.

That was the worst part.

Suri’s chest tightened as she cast again, her breathing growing uneven, mana burning through her faster now, rough and unrefined as desperation crept in. She changed her targets, casting illusions over Kana, over Boris—wrapping them in layers of distortion, bending light, warping presence, trying to make them disappear.

Nothing changed.

The creature walked straight toward them. Toward Kana and Boris.

As if Suri didn’t exist.

Her fingers trembled.

Not from exhaustion. From understanding. 

Suri had always easily understood things.

From the moment she could think, the world had unfolded itself to her in patterns and rules. Cause and effect. Action and consequence. Her mother’s hands moved through herbs and mixtures, each ingredient chosen for a reason. Animals hunting, surviving, dying—cruel, yes, but never random. There was always a logic beneath it, something she could trace, something she could know.

Even people followed patterns, if you watched long enough. Even danger had structure. Even fear had reason.

Well except—

Kana.

Kana had always been… different. Unpredictable. Illogical. Moving through the world like she followed rules no one else could see. Suri had tried, more than once, to understand her. To reduce her to something that made sense.

She never could.

And now—

Now she understood something else and it was something far worse.

This creature. This situation. She was so certain about it.

The gap between them wasn’t something they would be able to close. It wasn’t something to fight through. It was a wall. Absolute. Unyielding. The kind that didn’t crack no matter how hard you struck it.

They wouldn’t win.

Not with their current strength.

Not with anything they had and maybe they would never reach the creature’s strength in their lifetime.

The realization settled into her bones like ice, spreading outward, slow and suffocating.

Today—

This was the end. And she hated that she understood it easily.

Another [Lightning Bolt] fired, weaker now, her mana thinning despite her will. The barrier appeared again, flawless, unbothered, swallowing the attack whole before it could even leave a mark.

Why was it ignoring her?

No.

It didn’t feel like mercy. It felt like a selection. They would kill them first before her.

Her throat tightened.

“Wake up!” she cried, her voice breaking free of her control, raw and sharp as it echoed through the hall. It wasn’t a command anymore. It was a plea. A refusal. A desperate attempt to drag reality back into something she could fight.

Part of her—small, buried, unwanted—whispered a different thought.

Don’t wake up.

If they didn’t wake up…

If they never saw it coming… Would that be easier? Would it be at least a painless death?

Her grip tightened around her staff until her knuckles whitened.

No!

No, she didn’t want that. She didn’t want any of this. The creature kept coming.

Closer and closer to them.

Each step shrinking the space between them until it felt suffocating, like the air itself had grown heavy, pressing down on her chest, making it harder to breathe. The hall seemed smaller now, the walls closing in, the distance between life and death narrowing with every quiet footsteps.

Her vision blurred at the edges, whether from strain or something deeper, she couldn’t tell.

Did they hear her?

Did it matter?

For a heartbeat, nothing changed.

Then—

A faint movement.

Kana’s fingers twitched against the ground, weak at first, then firmer as she forced movement through pain that should have kept her still. Her body trembled, but it answered her will.

Beside her, Boris groaned, dragging in a ragged breath that sounded like it scraped his lungs raw. His arm moved, then his shoulder, his body struggling against its own weight as he pushed himself up inch by inch.

Slow and looked awfully painful. But they were moving.

They were getting up. Suri’s breath caught—not relief, not quite hope, but something close enough that it hurt.

It might have been better if they stayed unconscious on the ground.

And the creature—

Was already there.

Close enough now that its shadow stretched over them. Close enough that the end no longer felt distant. It felt like the end of everything.

Post note:This is quite a predicament. Sixth chap of the week!Hope you enjoy the chap! 🙂

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