Chapter 89: Flash Kill and the King's Declaration! (Patreon)

"Belle, where's it now?"

Wise stood at the edge of a broken mine-shaft platform, his gaze sweeping across the gray-black stone floor ahead.

Crimson light seeping from the cracks lit the whole shaft like a bulging blood vessel, stretching all the way to the edge of sight.

"Seven hundred twenty meters. Moving at about the same speed as before — still in a straight line."

Belle's voice came through the comm, her speech noticeably faster than usual. "Its direction... Bro, it's running toward the outer ring."

"Toward the outer ring?"

"Yeah, it's been moving away from the core zone this whole time. The route's dead simple, no direction changes — like it's fleeing from something."

Wise frowned slightly.

A Lord-class Ethereal actively moving away from the core zone was strange in itself.

An Ethereal's behavioral logic boiled down to two drives — push toward areas of high Ether concentration, and hunker down where it's low.

The core zone was the richest spot for Ether concentration; under normal circumstances a Lord-class would want nothing more than to set up camp there and never leave.

Yet here was this one, hightailing it outward. There was only one explanation.

It had been driven out by something nastier.

He and Little Guang exchanged a glance.

Little Guang was already standing half a step to his right, her droopy ears tilted forward — she'd clearly heard Belle's report too.

She didn't say anything, but her meaning was clear — whatever the reason it was running, now that they'd crossed paths, they'd fight it.

This commission was a clearing mission at heart; the number and quality of Ethereals cleared tied directly into the final score.

A lone Lord-class was a delivery landing right on their doorstep.

"Let's go."

Wise stood up and cinched his pack straps tighter.

"Mm."

The two of them advanced along the edge of the mine shaft.

The gray-black stone floor beneath their feet widened steadily. The mine walls on either side bore the corroded remains of some kind of mining equipment, rust and carapace fragments tangled together until it was impossible to tell one from the other.

The Miasma concentration in the air had climbed another notch; with every breath they could feel a faint burning sensation in their throats.

After walking forward for about four minutes, Belle's voice sounded again.

"Five hundred meters! It's almost at the open platform ahead of you — the terrain there is fairly flat, good for a fight."

"Copy."

Wise slowed his pace and lowered his stance.

Little Guang followed three steps behind and to his right; the patterns on the Azure Empyrean Sword Casket had already lit up, its pale cyan glow standing out sharply in the dim shaft.

"Little Guang, has it reached the platform?"

"Almost." Little Guang's droopy ears twitched slightly. "I can hear footsteps — heavy, a four-legged rhythm."

Beast-type.

Wise ran quickly through the traits of beast-type Lord-class Ethereals in his head — fast, powerful impact, but poor turning ability.

Fighting it out here on an open platform would be far easier than in the mine shaft.

Two hundred meters ahead, the shaft suddenly widened into open space — a large, naturally formed platform, its floor level, scattered with a few broken metal pillars that looked like they'd once supported the ceiling of the old mining area.

And that massive shape was slowly emerging from a shaft opening at the far end of the platform.

Wise got a clear look at it.

A beast-type Ethereal, moving on all fours, its build a size larger than any of the three Lord-classes they'd faced before.

Thick carapace covered its entire body, dense patterns flowing slowly across the surface like pulsing veins.

Its movements weren't fast, even a little stiff — every few steps it would pause, twisting its head back as if to check that whatever was behind it hadn't caught up.

"Just as I thought."

Wise kept his voice low. "It's spooked. Its attention's entirely behind it."

"Mm." Little Guang's voice was equally quiet. "It hasn't noticed us."

"Then let's make the most of the first-strike advantage."

Wise stepped half a pace back, clearing the sightline and firing angle for Little Guang.

Little Guang raised her right hand, forming a Yunkui Summit spell-seal with her fingers.

Several Ether longswords condensed into form around her, blades forward; an orange-white glow flared briefly at the edge of the dim platform, then quickly drew inward — she was suppressing the Ether fluctuation to avoid alerting the target.

Miguel had taught her this trick.

In real combat, the first strike's most important trait wasn't power — it was concealment.

Too obvious an Ether fluctuation could easily give them away; if the target bolted early, the whole thing would be wasted.

Wise watched the Ethereal's path, silently counting three seconds.

It had reached the center of the platform.

No cover anywhere around — it couldn't escape.

"Now."

Little Guang closed the fingers of her left hand.

Several streaks of orange-white sword light shot out almost simultaneously, fast enough to leave afterimages in the air.

They didn't travel in straight lines but curved slightly, striking the Lord-class Ethereal's flank simultaneously from several different angles.

"Thud, thud, thud—"

The Ether longswords drove deep into the seams between carapace plates; Ether energy detonated at the points of contact, blasting the surrounding carapace outward.

The impact sent the Ethereal's whole body staggering sideways two steps, its forelegs carving three deep gouges into the ground, sparks and rubble flying to either side.

It let out a roar.

The sound was loud, thick with obvious rage and panic — it clearly hadn't expected that after running this far, something would still be waiting for it ahead.

But it was too late.

Those Ether longswords weren't meant to kill it.

Once the blades pierced the carapace, Little Guang's Ether energy spread outward along the blades like tree roots, burrowing into the Ethereal's joints and locking down mobility in its right foreleg and left flank.

The Ethereal caught on.

A Miasmic Shield finally, belatedly flickered to life on its carapace surface, thick dark-red energy seeping out from beneath the shell like something alive, climbing up along the blades in an attempt to "squeeze" the embedded swords back out.

"It's activating its Miasmic Shield."

Belle reported quickly over the comm. "Ether fluctuation is concentrating at the contact points—"

"I'm not giving it that chance!"

Wise's figure vanished the instant the words left his mouth.

Dimensional Detachment.

He reappeared at the Ethereal's right flank, his whole body suspended in midair, his right leg already charged full with dark-gold Ether energy.

The Miasmic Shield the Ethereal had just raised hadn't finished forming; the energy layer was still spreading outward, and at its thinnest point it was no more than a membrane's thickness.

Wise's kick landed.

"Boom!!"

The kick came heavy and hard, slamming straight into the Ethereal's right flank.

The half-formed Miasmic Shield shattered outward from the point of contact like glass under a hammer, carapace fragments flying, Ether particles scattering into the air.

It wasn't over yet.

In that instant, Wise's Dimensional Detachment showed a brand-new application — not teleporting "himself" away, but detaching a "piece of the enemy's body."

This time, though, Wise kept the "intensity" under control.

The instant his right foot made contact with the Ethereal's body, he triggered the ability — centered on the point of contact, a palm-sized chunk of carapace and the tissue beneath it were forcibly "carved" away from the Ethereal.

Not shattered, not blasted apart — simply erased from reality.

The cut was mirror-smooth, without leaving so much as a speck of debris.

The Ethereal's roar changed pitch instantly — not the bellow of rage, but a scream torn from some primal instinct.

A hollow now gaped where the flesh had been, crimson Ether particles pouring out of the wound like something leaking from the hole.

The searing pain sent it fully berserk.

Every pattern across its body lit up to full intensity; the Miasmic Shield on its carapace abandoned defense and expanded outward in a frenzy.

Ignoring the wound on its chest still leaking Ether particles, it drove all four limbs forward and hurled its massive body straight at Wise.

Its speed was absurd — at least double what it had been.

Wise's foot had barely touched down when the Ethereal's blade-shaped foreleg was already slashing at him.

The carapace, wrapped in berserk Ether energy, screamed through the air straight for his head.

No time to dodge.

But Wise had no intention of dodging in the first place.

The next instant, five Ether longswords appeared on the ground in front of Wise, blades pointing up, arranged in a vertical line to form an improvised barrier.

"Clang—!!"

A ringing clash of metal exploded across the platform.

The Ethereal's blade-shaped foreleg struck the spines of the Ether longswords and was forcibly blocked.

The impact traveled down the blades into the ground; the stone platform beneath Wise's feet split into a web of cracks, rubble bouncing loose from the shock.

But the swords didn't break, and he didn't retreat.

The block held.

The Ethereal's attack was deflected; its momentum carried it stumbling forward half a step, forelegs gouging two deep furrows into the ground before it barely steadied itself.

Its head hung low, the patterns on its carapace flickering wildly — it had entered a stunned state.

The window was razor-thin.

An average combatant wouldn't have time to do anything at all — by the time they reacted, the Ethereal would already have recovered.

But Wise and Little Guang were no ordinary combatants.

This exact rhythm of combat was something they'd drilled over and over, countless times, on the training grounds of Yunkui Summit.

Both of them were positioned as heavy-strike attackers.

Miguel had told them: the core of a heavy-strike attacker was this — seize every opening, and make every strike fast and vicious, never giving the enemy a moment's breath.

Not a single beat could be allowed to lapse.

"Here it goes."

The corner of Wise's mouth curled up; he was already moving in the same instant the block landed.

His right fist, wrapped in dark-gold Ether energy, hooked upward from below, slamming precisely into the Ethereal's exposed jaw.

"Boom!"

The Ethereal's head snapped back from the blow, carapace fragments flying from its jaw.

Little Guang's sword formation converged at the same moment.

The five swords that had been planted in the ground tore free and spun around the Ethereal's body, slicing at it — each blade specifically targeting the seams in its carapace.

Not random slashing, but deliberate — stripping away its defenses layer by layer.

"Left foreleg," Wise called out.

"Got it."

Little Guang flipped her left hand, and two new Ether longswords shot out from her palm, driving at an angle into the carapace seam at the base of the Ethereal's left foreleg.

The blades spun, grinding the entire section of carapace to pieces; the Ethereal's left foreleg lost all support instantly, and its whole body tilted to the left.

It tried to brace itself with its right foreleg, but Wise had already circled around to its right side.

Dimensional Detachment. Vanish. Appear.

He appeared directly behind the Ethereal, one fist charged full with Ether energy, and slammed it into the weakest point of the carapace on its back.

This punch used no new technique — just raw physical force amplified with Ether — but it hit hard enough. The Miasmic Shield shattered completely under the blow, carapace fragments scattering to either side, exposing the pulsing core beneath.

The core was exposed.

"Little Guang!" "Mm!"

Little Guang dropped from midair.

The Azure Empyrean Sword Casket at her feet blasted out a jet of pale cyan propulsion, accelerating her to full speed.

Her right hand gripped her physical longsword, physical-type Ether energy laced along the blade, its surface glowing a cold silver-white.

She drove straight down from above, plunging the blade into the Ethereal's exposed core.

The instant the sword pierced through the core, the Ethereal's body froze.

Its limbs locked in mid-stride, frozen in place; the patterns on its carapace stopped moving entirely, their glow flickering on and off — like a lamp about to go out.

Then Wise's right fist slammed in from behind, delivering the final blow.

Ether energy detonated inside the Ethereal's body, and it began to disintegrate from the core outward.

Dark red particles poured out through the cracks in its carapace, as if something inside were tearing it apart.

The limbs crumbled first, then the torso, and finally the head — the entire massive body dissolved into drifting motes of light in under two seconds, scattering on the wind.

Three seconds.

From the block to the kill, less than three seconds had passed.

The platform fell silent.

All that remained on the ground was a shallow crater and a few carapace fragments that hadn't yet disintegrated, slowly darkening under the crimson glow.

Wise shook off the last traces of Ether clinging to his right fist and rolled his neck.

His joints popped twice, the tension slowly draining from his muscles.

"We're getting more in sync."

"The timing on that block was spot on."

Little Guang sheathed her longsword and tucked the strands of hair that had fallen across her shoulder behind her ear. "That hit had some real force behind it. Your hand okay?"

"I'm fine." Wise clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking twice more. "The block landed in time — the impact got spread out."

"How's your reserve holding up this time?"

"Better than the first time."

Wise glanced at his right hand; his fingertips had a faint numbness, but nothing serious. "Probably because I only carved out a small piece this time. Last time, with that other Lord-class, I cut out a much bigger chunk and nearly drained myself dry."

"Good, then."

Little Guang stowed the Azure Empyrean Sword Casket behind her back and walked over to peer at the edge of the crater.

Residue from the disintegrated core still lingered at the bottom, slowly evaporating.

"Its carapace was thicker than the others before it."

She crouched down, picked up a fragment, and turned it over to look. "The patterns are denser too."

"Sounds like it was an old-hand Lord-class."

Wise walked over. "When an Ethereal feels threatened, its defensive instincts reinforce its carapace. This one ran all the way from the core zone — it must've scared itself half to death."

Little Guang nodded, tossed the fragment aside, and stood up, brushing the dust off her hands.

The two of them stood on the platform; a brief silence lasted a few seconds.

Then Belle's voice burst through the comm.

"Bro! Senior Sister Little Guang! The Ether fluctuation's off—"

Wise glanced down at the terminal on his wrist.

The Ether fluctuation curve on the screen had been flat, a green line lying quietly in place.

But starting three seconds ago, a red line had begun climbing at breakneck speed.

Not a gradual rise — a vertical spike.

The curve's angle was nearly ninety degrees, shooting straight from the baseline to the top of the screen — and it kept climbing. The terminal's display range could no longer keep up; the numbers were spinning wildly.

"What is—"

"Bro, that presence! It's the same one that drove out that Lord-class earlier!"

Belle's voice was thick with tension, the words tumbling out almost too fast to separate. "It hasn't come chasing after them, but its presence... it's like it's deliberately spreading outward!"

Wise looked up.

The gray sky above the platform showed no change — no dark shape falling from above, no tremor in the ground, no roar of an Ethereal.

Nothing at all.

But he could feel it clearly — the Ether concentration in the air was rising sharply, as if something were pouring energy outward from the direction of the core zone.

Not an attack, not a shockwave — just pure energy diffusion.

Like ripples spreading from a stone dropped into water — except this stone was absurdly, impossibly large.

Every hair on his skin stood on end.

It wasn't cold — once Ether concentration passed a certain threshold, the human body produced an instinctive stress response.

"It's confident."

Little Guang stood beside Wise, her droopy ears flattening back, her voice level. "It's telling everything in this region — this is its territory."

Not a pursuit. A declaration.

That King-class Ethereal had no intention of moving at all — it stayed right there in the core zone, spreading its presence outward.

Like a lion lying at the center of its territory, giving one lazy roar to tell everything passing through — this stretch of grass is mine, and anyone with sense had better clear off.

"Belle, what's the data say?" Wise keyed the comm.

"Bro! The Ether fluctuation signature's matched—" Belle's voice paused for a second, and in that second Wise could hear her fingers flying across a keyboard. "King-class. And a mature-stage King-class, not a newborn one!"

Mature-stage. Wise's brow furrowed.

A newborn King-class and a mature-stage King-class weren't remotely the same thing.

The former was still adapting to its domain, its effects unstable.

The latter had already mastered its domain completely — when to open it, when to close it, how far it reached, how to sync it with its own combat rhythm — all of it down pat.

Against a freshly-ascended King-class, brute strength might still carry the day.

Against a mature-stage King-class, strength alone wasn't enough — you had to understand its domain mechanics inside and out, or you'd never even know what killed you.

"Fairy, confirm it."

"Confirmed, Master No. 1."

Fairy's voice cut in, stripped of its usual tsundere edge, its tone grave in a way that didn't sound like her at all. "The Ether fluctuation signature matches the mature-stage template in the King-class Ethereal database at ninety-three-point-seven percent confidence. Additionally, distinct Miasma characteristics have been detected within this Ether fluctuation — positively correlated with the Miasma concentration changes in the Lemnian Hollow."

"So its domain is definitely being influenced by the Miasma."

Wise picked up where Fairy left off.

"Confirmed. The data supports that inference."

Wise and Little Guang exchanged a glance.

Earlier, while resting in the half-collapsed building, the two of them had already discussed this — if this King-class's domain was bound to the Miasma, the situation would be far more complicated than an ordinary King-class.

An ordinary King-class domain was already hard enough to deal with; layer on the Miasma's qualitative effects, and who knew what kind of mess it might produce.

"Bro, what are you two going to do?"

Belle's voice carried worry, her pace slowing, though the tension in it hadn't eased at all.

Wise didn't rush to answer.

He stared toward the core zone for a few seconds.

The Ether fluctuation was still climbing steadily, showing no sign of easing.

The King-class Ethereal hadn't moved; it just stayed where it was, as if waiting for something.

It wasn't giving chase, but its presence had spread all the way out here.

That in itself was a statement — it wasn't afraid of them running, and it wasn't afraid of them coming either.

"It's waiting," Wise said.

"Waiting for what?" Little Guang asked.

"For us to walk in on our own." Wise's yellow-green eyes reflected the crimson skyline in the distance. "Or for another Lord-class to get chased its way, so it can eat again."

That earlier Lord-class had been the one it drove out.

It didn't chase them down itself — it just projected its presence outward, scaring the Lord-classes into fleeing on their own.

Then it either waited for prey to stumble into it, or waited for weaker Ethereals to get driven its way as a snack.

This approach showed it held absolute command over its own territory.

"So what about us?" Wise turned to look at Little Guang.

Little Guang looked back at him, her ruby eyes holding no hesitation, no retreat.

Her droopy ears had already risen slowly from their earlier flattened state, back to their normal alert angle.

Her breathing was steady, her posture relaxed — no different from how she looked back on the training grounds, ready to begin a new round of practice.

"Big Bro Miguel said we need to take down at least one King-class."

Wise adjusted his pack strap again. "And besides, it's already put its presence on full display — it wouldn't feel right not to go pay it a visit."

"How's your recovery?"

"Not bad." Wise flexed his right hand. "Enough to get by."

Little Guang looked at him for two seconds.

"Then let's go."

Wise nodded.

Over the comm channel, Belle's voice started once and then stopped, as if she had something to say but swallowed it back.

In the end, she simply raised the HDD's scanning precision and pushed every bit of detectable terrain data ahead onto their terminals.

"Fairy, full assist on the scan."

"Confirmed, Master No. 2. Scanning module switched to maximum output. All detection data will sync in real time to the terminals of Master No. 1 and Ye Shunguang."

Wise walked forward two steps, then suddenly stopped, tilting his head to glance at Little Guang.

"What?" "Nothing."

Wise looked away again. "Just... it makes me really happy, being able to fight alongside you."

Little Guang blinked, caught off guard for a moment, then curved her lips into a small smile.

"Me too."

The two of them kept walking.

Ahead, beneath the hazy gray skyline, the crimson glow burned brighter and brighter, as if something were smoldering deep underground.

The Miasma in the air had grown thick enough to see — gray-black particles drifting slowly through the air, settling on clothes, on hair, on skin, carrying an indefinable warmth.