Chapter 387: Absolute Chaos [2]

Chapter 387: Chapter 387: Absolute Chaos [2]

Chapter 387 – Absolute Chaos [2]

"May I have this artifact," Omar said, in a lazy, gentlemanly tone, and everyone across the bloody battlefield froze in shock.

Especially Scarlet, the Dragon Hunter, and the masked, faceless woman, none of whom could fathom how anyone had managed to freeze them all at once.

Mr. Green’s skin shifted from green to red, betraying his mounting stress and fury.

None of which Omar cared about. He glanced at his pocket watch and watched the needle race forward, his stomach turning cold.

He’d stored one hour of Time Pause inside that watch, after months of grueling work. Barely a few seconds had passed since activating it, and only 45 seconds remained before time resumed its natural course.

’What kind of monsters are we dealing with here?’ Omar asked himself, dread quiet but insistent, knowing he needed to move fast. Still,

’Appearance, my good man. Appearance matters. Can’t look rushed in front of company like this.’

He smiled beneath his mask and, with an elegance that betrayed no urgency at all, tapped his cane against the carriage.

That section of the carriage crumbled instantly, as though decades of decay had struck it all at once. Through the gap, Omar spotted the artifact he’d been sent to retrieve.

Without hesitation — only 29 seconds left now — he leapt inside, holding his hat down with one hand to keep it from slipping off.

Once inside, he noticed only one box sat within the entire carriage, yet the essence radiating off it was bitterly cold.

He studied the black box, taking in the heavy, coiling essence wrapped around it. Omar wasted no more time. He grabbed it and tried storing it in his space ring — it refused to go in.

He frowned, realizing the artifact itself was resisting, as if alive in some way. With no time to dwell on it, he gripped the box tight and leapt back out of the carriage.

The instant he cleared it, Time Pause lifted.

"You—!" Mr. Green lunged towards him, but Omar’s voice cut through the chaos first.

"Skygazer!" Omar shouted.

At that exact moment, another man, wearing a scowling black fox mask, materialized in the sky, directly above the faceless masked woman who had just driven her bone sword into the Fourth Rank knight, leaving him teetering between life and death.

The woman lifted her head and watched the black fox-masked man grasp the sky itself in his bare hands — an act that, to any onlooker, looked as simple as gripping a sheet of cloth — and slam it down towards her.

Her eyes widened behind her mask. She reacted instantly, pointing a bony finger and firing off a blast of pure death straight into the attack.

Darkness laced with death surged towards him in an instant.

But that was her worst mistake. The black fox-masked man wielded the sky itself as a conductor, spun the attack, redirected its momentum, and hurled it straight back at her.

It struck her, piercing her left shoulder, blood spraying out.

Meanwhile, Omar had already dispatched the other four faceless masked men, along with the remaining knights, by draining their remaining lifespans through his pocket watch.

Since all of them were already wounded and near death, it hadn’t cost him much essence at all.

Artifact secured, Omar knew it was time to flee. Easier said than done.

The undead kept multiplying, swarming him from every direction like rats in an infested restaurant.

"Gentlemen, how about staying dead?" he called out, then internally, ’Appearance, Omar! Fight with elegance!’

Since his time-draining ability was mostly useless against the already-dead, his only remaining option was pausing time again. But the sheer number of undead put him in real danger.

He turned to check on his companion, and now friend, and found him facing off against the faceless masked woman, now wounded, her shoulder sagging.

’Horus, my good man, don’t let your temper blind you to the mission! Appearance, good man! Appearance!’

His thoughts snapped off as a Knight of Death slammed a fist coated in death essence into his face, nearly knocking the box loose from his grip.

"My good man!!!" Omar hissed, twirling his cane and cracking it down onto the Knight of Death.

The battlefield had descended into absolute chaos.

Black Fox — Horus Skygazer himself — glared at the faceless masked woman and grinned behind his mask. "Why hide behind a mask? I’d recognize the stink of a Hood anywhere, anytime. Show your face, Hel Hood. I have a bit of unfinished business with your grandson. Maybe you could tell him to get rid of a little something living inside me?"

The faceless masked woman tilted her head, then chuckled coldly. She glanced at her bloodied shoulder and instantly recognized the aspect wielded by the man in front of her.

Sky Aspect.

"How interesting," the faceless masked woman said, her essence exploding outward, forming behind her the illusion of a skull with burning, flaming red eyes. "Interesting!" she screamed, and the next thing Horus knew, the ground beneath him vanished into the gaping maw of a colossal undead beast.

Death screamed through his mind. Without hesitation, Horus triggered his Soulblade:

"Soulblade — Sky Pride!"

In an instant, ground became sky, and the faceless masked woman found herself flipped upside down, her body trapped within the concept of "Sky" itself.

Horus looked up, watched the undead beast falling towards him, twin swords in hand, and struck straight at the woman instead of the beast.

Rule one when fighting a necromancer: go for the master.

The woman laughed again, deeply amused, savoring the thick death energy saturating the battlefield. She licked her lips beneath her mask, then turned towards the dying Fourth Rank Black Knight, and realized he wasn’t truly Fourth Rank at all.

A false rank. And through his shattered helmet, she could already glimpse half of his face turning faceless.

Soon there’d be nothing left of him. He hadn’t been fully replaced yet, though. So she spoke, already knowing her god wouldn’t approve.

She didn’t care.

"If you agree to become my Commander of Death," she said, ignoring Horus entirely, "I’ll save you from death, and from losing your very identity. You have three seconds."

By then, Horus had closed most of the distance to her. But he froze before getting too close, retreating instead, his heart nearly bursting with dread.

That was when the Black Knight answered,

"I... accept."

And Horus knew he was finished.

’Fuck you, Vorn!’

...

The chaos of battle had left the stallions pulling the carriages slaughtered, and the carriages themselves scattered across the battlefield, blasted apart in every direction.

The mountains that had once surrounded them were obliterated, the scent of death and blood soaking the very air.

William remained locked in his fight against the masked man, just as cold and composed as when it started, while Omar slowly managed to break free from the undead, now that the faceless masked woman was preoccupied with Horus.

Soon, once his essence recovered enough, he’d be able to escape entirely. He gritted his teeth and cut down the surrounding Third Rank undead.

Meadow remained trapped inside the first carriage, sealed behind the very Tier Three artifact she’d used to imprison the Keeper.

Only now she realized her own artifact had been turned against her, into a prison of her own making. She now stood face to face with a faceless monster, one intent on devouring her, absorbing her very identity.

She screamed in terror, her glasses shattering as the faceless man’s face melted over her, seeping into her eyes, her mouth, her nose.

She was going to die, Meadow screamed inwardly, while the faceless thing cackled.

All of this while Diaila lay on the ground, blood pooling from her stomach, the dagger still buried inside her, pain so overwhelming it felt like her last breath was near.

Mr. Green stood over her, rising slowly on unsteady legs, preparing to chase down Omar and reclaim the artifact.

Diaila stared at the creature that had stabbed her, and every ounce of frustration she’d carried for months — the anger, the jealousy poisoning her since the moment she’d realized her love for Julaibib — combined with William’s words and the agony tearing through her body now, snapped something inside her completely.

Her eyes went bloodshot, teeth gritted so hard they cracked.

She activated the Tier 5 artifact Meadow had given her, the one that tripled her essence for 15 minutes, and poured every last drop of essence into her skill:

"First Skill..."

Mr. Green paused, sensing the surge of volatile, dread-soaked essence. He turned and saw Diaila, hatred burning in her eyes.

"Imposition of Rule: whoever moves first between me and Mr. Green receives the other’s wounds, but tripled!"

Mr. Green’s faceless expression flushed red with shock. He collapsed to the ground on instinct, suddenly terrified to move.

<Rule Accepted!>

"YOU BITCH!!!!"

...

While all this unfolded, Omar finally broke free of the undead. He checked his pocket watch and confirmed he had enough stored time to unleash his skill.

"Now—!"

"I... I’m sorry?"

Omar froze, snapping his head around. Behind him stood a short, bald man, shuffling towards him like a zombie.

But Omar’s attention wasn’t on the man himself. It landed on the small, ticking bomb strapped to his chest.

Three seconds remained.

His blood ran cold.

"The lovely miss said I should explode," the man said, then, grinning wide, eyes hollow of any reason, "So..."

Omar reached for his essence to—!

Too late.

"Boom."

The counter hit zero.

The Tier Four bomb detonated, and the battlefield itself shuddered to its core, a blaze of crimson fire erupting, consuming everything around it like some hellish beast finally unleashed after eons of imprisonment.

Far in the distance, Sarah watched the explosion light up the dark night, her expression calm.

She pulled out her moon mask and put it on. Her aura shifted entirely, and for a brief moment, the illusion of a moon flickered into the sky above.

She raised her hand, checked the time on her watch, then took off running towards the burning battlefield.

"Praise the Queen."

The Fallen Angel Sect had made its move.

—End of Chapter 387—