Chapter 164: The whole city awakens!

Silver-violet light swallowed the magic screen completely. The overlapping shrieks, like an entire flock of eagles tearing apart a storm, still rang in the viewers’ ears.

Thousands of Succubi throughout Silver Moon stood silently before the blinding screen, none of them knowing whether Erik was alive or had fallen after using Thunder Eagle.

At that moment, a long alarm siren suddenly sounded from the heart of the city.

UOOOO!

The sound traveled through every watchtower, waking districts that had already fallen asleep. Women standing before their screens jolted in shock. Some hurried to their windows, believing Dark Mist had reached Silver Moon itself.

But along the main avenues, instead of soldiers evacuating civilians, they saw convoys being directed away from the main roads.

One, two, then hundreds of magic floodlights switched on at once. White light poured across the roads, ran through the commercial districts, and climbed over even the tallest rooftops, making the night sky beneath the protective barrier shine as brightly as day.

Backup light towers that had not operated for years also began opening enormous rings of light one after another.

"Is there a war?"

"There is no evacuation notice! What is happening?"

A female Succubus had barely finished asking when she noticed the cargo convoy in front of her being ordered to pull over. From public communication crystals, a stern female voice announced that priority routes were being opened for an emergency mission.

Citizens were instructed to stay away from the airship docks and make way for the mobilized forces.

On the vast landing platform atop the tallest building in the Mirielle family’s transportation district, one hundred and twenty female Succubi had assembled in a perfectly ordered formation.

All of them wore dark battle armor trimmed in silver, their weapons receiving final inspections while mana wings spread behind their backs.

At the head of the formation stood a woman carrying a banner embroidered with a silver star, trailing a long streak of light. Below them, the symbols across the landing platform lit up in sequence.

A long black-and-silver airship slowly rose from its support frame, its central cabin already prepared to receive the wounded with mana stabilization beds, anti-shock rings, and equipment to prevent Dark Mist intrusion.

The woman standing before the formation was not a general, but the butler who normally bowed her head while pouring tea for Mirielle.

Tonight, she wore a commander’s uniform, a short cloak draped over her shoulders and a sword at her waist. Her hair was neatly pinned up, and her eyes were so stern that none of the young soldiers dared move. The route lists and airship parameters around her wrist changed continuously.

"The outpost remains dangerous," she said. "Dark Mist has not fully receded, reconnaissance signals are unstable, and the escort target may already be critically injured. We have only one mission."

All one hundred and twenty Succubi straightened at once.

The butler looked at the Comet banner fluttering in the night wind, then spoke loudly enough to drown out the airship engines.

"Bring our god, Erik, safely back to Silver Moon!"

"YES!"

Their response rang out like thunder. It was not Erik’s official title yet. But after watching the image of a man drenched in blood beneath wings of lightning, even the famously strict butler could not think of a more fitting name for him.

She turned to the airship officer. "The anti-shock layer must be active before we receive the wounded. Contact the forces at the outpost and confirm a safe corridor before descending. No one is to recklessly send the ship into the black mist."

"Yes, Captain!"

The butler raised a hand to rub her temple. A moment ago, she had been trying to keep her mistress from fainting. Now she had to command an entire high-ranking escort squad toward a battlefield. She sighed so quietly that only she could hear it.

"Overtime again today."

Then she immediately straightened her shoulders and raised her hand forward.

"Comet Squad, depart!"

Hundreds of wings beat at once. One hundred and twenty elite Succubi shot into the sky, forming two escort lines on either side of the airship. The Comet banner led the way, trailing a long silver streak while mages continuously maintained the barrier around the vessel.

Citizens on the nearby rooftops looked up after them. Some immediately recognized the emblem on the battle armor and the banner at the front.

"It is Comet!"

"The Mirielle family’s Comet escort squad?!"

"I heard they can only be mobilized by a direct order from the madam!"

Whispers spread from the landing platform to the shops and plazas. Comet was known for transporting and protecting the city’s most important figures. The entire squad appearing in the middle of the night was already shocking.

Mobilizing all one hundred and twenty warriors alongside a medical airship looked even more like a military expedition.

A beautiful mature woman looked at the streak of light racing toward the horizon and asked the person beside her in confusion, "Who could be important enough for Comet to make such a display?"

The other woman remained silent and held up the magic screen, which was still completely white.

"Who else?"

The Comet formation accelerated. Magic circles beneath the airship’s wings lit up together, pulling the entire squad into a massive stream of silver light. In the blink of an eye, they passed beyond the western towers and flew straight toward the outpost covered by Dark Mist.

...

At the ruined guard station, the shrieks of Thunder Eagle finally became a horrifying explosion.

Erik felt all of the power gathering behind his back, pulling his body straight toward the black woman. The lightning wings closed like two colossal blades, their feathers of electricity sweeping through the tentacles forming a defensive line.

The stones beneath his feet burst apart, while dust was blown backward through the doorway by the pressure.

The black woman raised both hands. The first Dark Mist shield had barely formed before the head of the lightning eagle pierced through it, and the second layer immediately shattered as well.

She retreated, the red cross on her face flashing wildly, then suddenly sent a cluster of tentacles around the lightning to seize Erik’s wounded right arm.

"Stop! Do you want to destroy yourself?!"

Black bands clamped tightly around his upper arm and yanked backward. The deep wound that had already exposed bone was torn wider, and the pain nearly made Erik lose consciousness.

But his left fist kept moving forward. He knew this was his final chance to force his opponent to stop attacking.

Crack!

The sound of bone breaking came from his right arm. Erik gritted his teeth as hot blood spilled from his mouth, his vision darkening for an instant.

He did not pull back his fist. The lightning around his left hand suddenly blazed so brightly that the entire scene before him seemed to turn white.

Boom!

Erik’s body slammed into the final defensive line like a cannonball. His Lightning Element-wrapped fist punched through the black liquid, dragging all the power of Thunder Eagle into an explosion from within.

The black woman did not merely lose a part of her body. This time, her entire form shattered into countless fragments of Dark Mist, splattering across the walls, stone ceiling, and even the courtyard outside.

The red cross on her face was swallowed by the lightning. The tentacles wrapped around Erik’s right arm also dissolved into black dust in the air.

The shockwave swept away the last stone blocks still standing around them. Elowen had to kneel down, raising a Wind Element shield to protect the female soldier they had rescued.

When the lightning storm gradually faded, she could only see Erik stagger as he landed amid ground that had been torn apart.

The lightning wings behind his back dissolved into thin streams of light and went out completely. His right arm hung at an unnatural angle, his left hand still twitching, while blood from his mouth, nose, and ears dripped onto the stone floor.

Erik tried to stand straight, but the moment his knees buckled, he had to brace himself with his left hand to keep his balance.

"Erik!" Elowen ran to him, her cry catching in her throat at the sight of his broken arm. "You... do not move anymore!"

He tried to raise his head. Where the black woman had stood, only a scorched patch of ground remained, residual lightning running through the rubble. The nearby Dark Mist had dispersed as well, as though an invisible hand had thrown it away.

"Looks like..." Erik panted, forcing out a smile. "It is over."

Elowen looked at the empty ground, then at him. At last, tears spilled from her eyes. She wanted to throw herself into Erik’s arms, but she was afraid of touching his injuries, so she could only kneel beside him and place a trembling hand on his left shoulder.

"You won," she said, crying and smiling at once. "Let us go home. I will take you home."

Within Erik’s mind, the final numbers slowly disappeared.

[Contract Resonance: 00:00]

[Effect ended.]

[Beginning exhaustion state: 24 hours.]

The exhaustion hit almost immediately. All the mana supporting his body withdrew, leaving behind a heaviness so crushing that he could not even clench his left hand. The ringing in his ears intensified, his vision narrowed, and every breath sent a stabbing pain through his chest.

Erik lowered his head, forcing himself to stay conscious for just a little longer. Elowen was still injured at the shoulder, and the female soldier they had freed remained unconscious beside the boulder. He needed to leave the guard station before more monsters arrived.

But just as Elowen was about to help him stand, a soft laugh rang out again.

"Did you truly think that was the end?"

Erik immediately looked up. The particles of Dark Mist that Thunder Eagle had seemingly incinerated were quietly crawling back together.

They formed hundreds of thin black strands, winding around one another like a spiderweb before gradually rising into a humanoid shape.

Long silver-white hair grew back, white patterns appeared across the glossy black body, and finally, a blazing red cross returned to the mouthless face.

The black woman rose amid the mist coiling up from the ground.

Elowen stepped back half a pace and immediately raised her bow. Erik tried to force mana into his Heavenly Gate, only to receive a searing pain racing through pathways that were nearly depleted.

"You..." He struggled to breathe. "You are still alive?"

"Of course." The woman tilted her head. "You destroyed this body beautifully. I want to watch it again."

Her voice held its familiar playful tone, but the tentacles behind her spread out and sealed off the exit. She slowly looked at Elowen and the female soldier who had been rescued, then suddenly laughed.

"Succubi always like to believe they are the center of every battle. How amusing."

Erik frowned. The woman raised one glossy black finger toward him.

"From the beginning, my target was never those Succubi. I only borrowed their bodies to get close to what I wanted."

The red cross on her face flared.

"I want men. Especially a man like you."

Elowen immediately stepped in front of Erik, though her injured shoulder made the hand holding her bow tremble.

"Do not even think about touching him!"

A Wind Element arrow left the bowstring and flew straight at the enemy. But the black woman only flicked her hand slightly.

Dozens of tentacles wrapped around the arrow, crushed its mana, then gathered into a massive arm that swept across the room.

Elowen barely managed to raise a wind shield before her chest.

Boom!

The shield shattered. Her body was thrown backward into the cracked wall, her shoulder and back slamming hard against the stone. A mouthful of blood sprayed from Elowen’s lips.

She tried to brace a hand against the ground, but the fingers that had just curled soon loosened. Her emerald eyes slowly closed, and her bow slipped from her hand onto the ground beside her.

"Elowen!"

Erik tried to rush toward her, but his weakened legs gave out and he collapsed. Pain from his broken right arm made his whole body convulse. He dragged himself forward with his left hand, wanting only to know whether she was still breathing.

The black woman slowly approached.