Chapter 338 (Patreon)

The headache struck without warning.

For a brief moment, Kana squeezed her eyes shut, pain lancing through her skull hard enough to disrupt even her focus. Then it vanished.

When she opened her eyes again, the desert was gone.

Everything was gray. Not dark. Not foggy. Gray. Was there a fog in the first place? She wasn’t sure of it even with her [Night Awareness].

The color stretched endlessly in every direction, swallowing distance and depth alike. There was no sky overhead, no stars, no moon. Instead, something resembling a massive dome curved above her, enclosing the world inside an artificial horizon. The air itself felt wrong. Empty. Silent.

Kana immediately focused on her [Night Awareness].

Nothing. Her heart skipped. She reached farther with her senses.

Still nothing. No Suri. No Boris. No Rose Light. No knights. Not even the faint rhythm of another heartbeat hidden beyond the walls.

For the first time in a long while, her [Night Awareness] found only silence. She was happy and worried at the same time. That worried her far more than the strange world around her.

Slowly, Kana's attention shifted to the figure standing across from her.

A man. Tall and broad. Built like a fortress given human form.

His skin carried the tanned complexion common throughout the Empire, visible only around his eyes where his helmet failed to conceal him. The rest of his face was hidden behind polished steel.

It was not an ordinary helmet.

The metal shell molded seamlessly over his head and jaw, leaving behind only a narrow T-shaped visor. Two thin slits revealed dark eyes watching her from within. Below them, a small grated opening served as a mouthpiece. The helmet had no expression. No humanity. It looked less like armor and more like the face of a machine designed solely for war.

In his left hand rested a massive rectangular shield nearly as tall as Kana herself. In his right was a heavy mace capable of crushing armor and bone alike.

The moment Kana saw his stance, her stomach tightened slightly.

Defensive. He was already in a completely defensive stance. He wasn't preparing to attack. He was preparing for her.

"Who are you?" Kana asked.

Her voice echoed faintly through the gray chamber.

No response. "Where are we?"

Silence. The man remained motionless. Watching. Waiting.

Kana squinted her eyes. That alone told her something was wrong. Most people underestimated her. They saw a young girl. Someone barely tall enough to reach their shoulders.

The man before her wasn't making that mistake. Not even a little. It must mean one thing. He already knew who she was.

Or at least what she could do.

Perhaps a human status detection skill?

Information from somewhere?

An ambush prepared specifically for her?

None of the possibilities felt comforting. 

Kana clicked her tongue. Of all the opponents she could have faced, this was among the worst. Shield users. She hated shield users. Fast opponents could be outmaneuvered. Strong opponents could be avoided. But shield specialists turned every fight into a tedious puzzle where one mistake could cost everything.

Slowly, she unsheathed her curved sword.

The familiar whisper of steel filled the gray chamber. The man immediately tightened his grip.

Not much. Just enough for Kana to notice. She took a single step forward.

Then another. The giant remained rooted in place.

Waiting. Eyes completely following Kana.

Eventually Kana decided she had learned enough. Her body exploded forward.

To most observers, it would have looked as though she vanished. The gray ground blurred beneath her feet as she crossed the distance in an instant. Her curved blade flashed toward the narrow opening of his visor.

The man's reaction was immediate. The shield moved. Not fast. Not elegant. But perfectly positioned as if he was already expecting her to strike in that direction.

Steel slammed against steel. A sharp metallic crack echoed through the chamber. The force traveled up Kana's arm. The giant slid backward half a step.

Nothing more. Kana landed lightly and immediately retreated before the mace could counterattack.

For several seconds, neither moved. The exchange had been brief. Yet it told her everything she needed to know. The man could have attacked, she purposely gave him a slight opening. Yet he didn't.

He could have pursued at least after. Yet he didn't.

Even now, after testing her speed, he simply resumed his defensive stance.

Waiting. Delaying. As if stalling.

As though he would win by simply doing nothing. 

Kana's grip tightened around her sword. He was buying time. The question was for who?

And she had a growing suspicion that whatever was happening outside this gray prison was far more dangerous than the silent giant standing in front of her.

"Where are we?" she asked again. Louder this time, hoping he would answer.

This time her voice was louder and carried a sharper edge. Hoping he would answer. Any word would do.

The man stared back through the thin slits of his visor.

Unmoving.

Unyielding. And still utterly silent.

For the first time, Kana wondered if he was capable of speaking at all.

…

"Where am I?"

Suri spoke as she opened her eyes, only to find herself standing in a world painted entirely in gray. There was no sky above her, no visible horizon, only an endless expanse that seemed to stretch forever in every direction. The place felt wrong immediately. Empty. Artificial. As though someone had taken a piece of reality and stripped away everything that made it alive.

Without wasting time, she released her illusion scouts.

Invisible scouts because she made their color as grey as the surrounding. It spread outward from her position, racing across the strange landscape as she searched for familiar presences. Kana. Boris. Chelle. Ryle. Rose Light. Artin. Anyone. The illusion scouts traveled quickly, but after reaching a certain distance they simply stopped, as though an invisible wall blocked their path. Suri frowned. That alone told her enough. She wasn't standing inside a vast world. She was standing inside a confined space designed to feel vast. A prison disguised as endless.

That realization made her attention settle fully on the old man standing several meters away.

He had undoubtedly heard her question, yet he made no effort to answer. Instead, he merely raised a hand. Mana gathered around his fingers, dark and dense, before condensing into a black sphere that floated toward her.

Suri immediately understood two things.

First, the attack was very dangerous, her heart skipped a beat which rarely happened.

Second, the old man didn't believe she could stop it.

The orb moved slowly enough that she could have stepped aside without difficulty, but what caught her attention wasn't the attack itself. It was the fact that the old man had already turned his back toward her. The gesture carried a confidence that bordered on arrogance, as though her death was already decided.

That annoyed her.

Mana surged from her body and gathered into a barrier in front of her. Kana relied on speed. Boris relied on strength. Suri relied on understanding. From everything she had learned about magic, mana itself was often the most effective answer to mana-based attacks.

As the black orb approached, she studied it carefully.

Mana carried traces of its creator. Every skill possessed a signature. Most people couldn't see and sense  it, but Suri could.

The closer the black orb came, the more familiar it felt. Then realization struck. The mana composing the orb was nearly identical to the mana saturating the gray world around her.

Her eyes squinted. So that was it.

The old man wasn't simply trapped here. This place belonged to him. He was the one maintaining it. The mastermind.

The orb collided with her barrier.

A sharp cracking sound echoed through the gray expanse, like glass shattering beneath a hammer. The black sphere dissolved instantly, but fractures spread across Suri's barrier before it vanished as well.

The old man paused for a moment and turned his head over his shoulder.

Yet Suri noticed. The attack hadn't produced the result he expected. That small reaction told her something important. He wasn't invincible in his own world.

Still, she couldn't ignore the ocean of mana surrounding him. Even from a distance she could feel it swirling around his body, thick enough to make her uneasy. For perhaps the first time since the underwater dungeon boss incident, Suri wasn't certain she could win.

The thought should have frightened her. Instead, it made her heart race. Fear and excitement mixed together until she could no longer tell them apart.

Kana had proven something again and again throughout their journey. Victory wasn't always determined by who possessed more strength. Preparation mattered. Timing mattered. Strategy mattered. Sometimes the winner was simply the person willing to gamble everything on a single impossible move.

Of course, there were exceptions. Suri still thought that the underwater dungeon boss had been completely unfair. But this wasn't a dungeon boss. This was simply a person. Just like her. And people could be deceived.

A grin slowly spread across her face. It wasn't confidence. Not really. It was a performance. A carefully crafted mask meant to convince both herself and her opponent that she knew exactly what she was doing.

The old man turned back completely toward her, finally giving her his full attention.

Good. That was exactly what she wanted.

Mana began gathering around her feet and spread outward across the gray floor like ripples crossing the surface of a lake. The world itself seemed to tremble in response.

Suri held the old man's gaze and smiled wider.

Then she activated her skill.

"[Phantasm World]."

The gray world shattered.

Not literally. No cracks spread across the endless walls surrounding them. Yet it felt as though reality itself had fractured.

Color erupted everywhere.

Red bled into gold. Blue spiraled through violet. Rivers of emerald light stretched across the void like brushstrokes painted by a mad artist upon an infinite canvas. The empty gray expanse vanished beneath a storm of colors that refused to remain still, constantly shifting and flowing into one another. There was no sky. No ground. No horizon.

Only endless possibilities.

The old man's expression tightened. For the first time since Suri had arrived, genuine surprise appeared on his face.

Suri floated effortlessly through the transformed space, her red hair drifting weightlessly around her shoulders. The colorful currents reflected in her eyes as she examined her surroundings with obvious satisfaction.

"Much better," she declared.

Gray is so boring.

Without warning, she raised her staff. Mana gathered instantly.

The familiar black sphere formed before her exactly as it had formed before the old man moments earlier. Every detail matched perfectly. The density. The shape. Even the strange distortion surrounding its surface.

The old man's eyes widened. That reaction alone was worth the effort.

Suri grinned and flicked her wrist. The black orb shot forward.

The old man reacted immediately. His hand rose as dark mana surged outward, forming an identical sphere before him.

Two black orbs collided. The impact rippled through the colorful world. Waves of distorted mana exploded outward, scattering streams of color in every direction. The collision briefly illuminated the entire space before both attacks collapsed into nothingness.

Silence followed.

The old man stared at the empty space where the attacks had vanished.

Then slowly turned toward Suri.The shock had not left his eyes.

"You..."

His raspy voice echoed strangely throughout the colorful expanse.

"What did you do?"

Suri twirled her staff lazily. The gesture looked carefree, but her mind was racing.

The old man was strong. Far stronger than her. She could feel it every second she remained inside of her skill. But strength was not the same thing as understanding. And understanding happened to be one of her specialties.

Suri planted her staff in the air beneath her feet as though standing on invisible ground.

Around her, countless black orbs began to form. Hundreds of them.

Post note:

Glimpse of upcoming battles.

Fourth chap of the week.

Hope you enjoy the chap!🙂

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