Skywall Fortress

Exterior military Encampment

“I can’t… breathe….”

“My ch--....est… agh…”

Excluding the hundred of guards stationed in the Shadow Keep Penitentiary, the Skywall Fortress was home to a formidable army composed of thousands of soldiers.

However, on the break of dawn, alarms echoed across the entire region as a noxious gas was released by unknown intruders.

This airborne poison was extremely deadly, so much so that the soldiers were given absolutely no time to react.

Even those who retreated inside the fortress or to the farms outside weren’t spared the effects of the poison.

By the time Leiu had reached the now-open gate of the fortress, dozens of soldiers were lying on the ground.

They were all dead, some foaming in their mouth and others struggling to breathe before dying a painful death.

It was a horrible sight, a massacre of untold proportions. Everything happened so abruptly, so unexpectedly, as disaster struck the soldiers of the Skywall Fortress.

Leiu stopped near the corpses, looking down at them before shifting gaze to the sky.

Even devoid of the powers of the Primordial Darkness, his body had already reached a state that made him practically immune to any and all poison, curses, or the like.

Still, his expression did darken quite a bit as he walked past the gate and saw hundreds of soldiers littering the vast spacious field.

This wasn’t a warning, this was a predetermined attack meant to eradicate every living soul in the Skywall Fortress and possibly in the prison down below too.

Leiu only stopped walking when he caught a glimpse of several hooded and black-clothed figures dashing between the shadows. Their movements were noticeably slow and sluggish, but they didn’t seem to be as affected by the poison as the unfortunate soldiers.

Disinterested in their purpose, Leiu was about to continue on and head to the penitentiary only to see someone rush outside with a sword in hand.

“...”

Castellan Julian, ruler of the Skywall Fortress, had one hand covering his mouth as he first caught sight of Leiu then of the fleeing Hashashin.

His pale face and trembling body notwithstanding, Julian shot forward with impressive speed, leaving crackles of purple lightning in his trail.

He intercepted some of the Hashashin and killed them in one hit, but with how dispersed they were, he was unable to catch all of them.

Two were able to slip through the fortress’ large gates and flee out of view.

Leiu watched this unfold as a large red-feathered eagle screeched down and descended from the sky.

It landed a short distance away from him, its eyes giving him a particularly hostile glare.

“Who are you?!”

With his blood-soaked sword in hand, the furious Castellan glared at Leiu.

“You’re strong, but you should leave this place and let your body naturally detoxify the poison.”

Unfortunately, with almost all of his soldiers dead in front of him, Julian was naturally not in his right state of mind. Even someone as laid-back as he was couldn’t maintain composure in such a tragic situation.

He moved with great agility, his sword thrust at the stationary Leiu.

Alas, the unknown youth caught the incoming sword with his bare hand before pulling it out of its wielder grasp.

Thereafter, Leiu used the hilt to hit Julian’s head, knocking him unconscious.

“You seem smart enough to understand human speech. Take him away or he will die.”

Leiu threw the sword on the ground while talking to the red eagle, which was about to attack him.

In the end, it proved to be smarter than its partner. It lowered its head and grabbed Julian with its beak before taking to the sky while letting out loud, mournful screeches.

…

The situation in the Shadow Keep Penitentiary was less tragic but infinitely more chaotic than the surface. What little contact the guards were afforded upon the arrival of disaster had helped them swiftly lock down the place.

Still, the poison seemed to have reached the 1st and 2nd underground floors, wiping everyone indiscriminately.

When a horror like that descended upon unaware victims, even seasoned and strong-willed guards abandoned all morals and fled to safety.

As for Leiu, with no one to stop him, he easily made his way into the elevator and forced his way through underground.

With screams of fear, panic, and distress echoing in the underground floors, it wasn’t particularly hard to jump down the elevator shaft and reach his destination.

Neither the Black Guard nor the Warden were anywhere to be seen, but when Leiu sliced open the entrance and made his way into the particularly cramped and small 6th floor, he only saw a couple of Special Guards.

“Who are you?! Identify yourself!”

They formed a line in front of him, holding their batons and readying themselves for battle.

“Lay down your weapons and stand aside. I’m not the enemy and I do not wish to kill you.”

Leiu’s declaration didn’t work, unsurprisingly. One of the Special Guards bravely charged him only to be blown away with a simple kick. The poor man crashed into one of the cells and fell head-first on the ground, unconscious.

“This is my last warning. Stand aside and I will not kill you.”

What few guards remained, either afraid or unwilling to put up a fight, lowered their batons and did as told.

With no communication from their superiors, the constant deafening alarms echoing from the surface, and the chaotic state of the upper floors, dealing with an unknown intruder didn’t seem like the best option for them right now.

“Y-you… it’s you!”

Feylord, who was as confused and surprised as the rest, peeked from his dark cell. Even though Leiu stood a distance away, Feylord still couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Stand back.”

As Feylord took three steps back, Leiu used the sword given by Julie and casually cut the bars.

The guards stood there, agape yet relieved to not have been as foolish as their defeated colleague.

“Wait! Help me too!”

A voice came from one of the other cells, which Leiu ignored. However, after taking a couple of steps, he suddenly turned around and looked at the cell adjacent to Feylord’s.

“What is a Voidspawn doing here?”

“They… wanted to use it to access the city down below. Those idiot-”

The Parasite stopped his explanation as Leiu down the Voidspawn’s cell and entered it.

Inside, he saw a young boy with light-purple skin, an innocent face that had a dazed expression.

“H-hello….”

The boy squeezed a smile as he raised his head and looked at Leiu.

“...”

A couple of moments passed, in which the sword in Leiu’s hand turned pitch-black and let out a malevolent and unsettling energy.

Without a shred of hesitation, sympathy, or pity, Leiu thrust the sword into the boy’s chest.

At first, the Voidspawn squirmed and tried to break free, but the darkness travelled from the sword into the body, consuming him whole.

Leiu let go of the sword, which only had the hilt remaining, then walked back to Feylord.

“Come on, we’re leaving.”

“Take me with you! Please don’t leave me here!”

Just as the Parasite pleaded with his life, one of the Special Guards spoke up

“E-ehm…. Sir, that one is a Parasite.”

“I know what he is.”

“I can help! Please… just destroy the magic formation!”

The Parasite pointed at the circle on the ground, but Leiu just kept staring back at him for a long time. In the end, he just walked toward the elevator shaft along with the quiet and visibly anxious Feylord.

…

“Sir, it is done!”

A fair distance away from Skywall Fortress, one of the surviving Hashashin relayed the news while breathing heavily.

He was accompanied by two more, who were in a much worse state than he was. The reagents they had taken had spared them a quick death, but it was clear that they were going to perish very soon.

“Good job. Your sacrifice will pave the way for a greater future to the Desert!”

“Yes! Thank you sir!”

The Hashashin shouted in unison before cutting off the communication and breaking the artifact. It wasn’t long before they succumbed to the fatal effects of the poisonous gas, their lifeless bodies lying on the ground, never to be discovered.

…

The Abyssal Sea

South of the Pirate Sanctuary

Fortunately for this bustling yet lawless port city, the earthquakes that had struck Astria a short while ago didn’t cause any major damage to it.

A freezing aura shot from Lucy’s hand, crystallising the ground and allowing her to slide across it. She had a couple of slash wounds on her body, but given the current dire situation, she paid them no heed as she tried her best to dodge.

A figure passed her, rolling on the ground before quickly jumping back up.

“It hurts!”

Mort lunged at one of the two enemies, which were both Paladins from the Holy Church.

Unlike the Holy Knights, these heavily-armored executors were extremely tough and relentless. It was already a surprise that they managed to pinpoint Lucy’s exact location. Then again, the matter was more complex than that, or so Lucy suspected.

This island belonged to the pirates, therefore, the presence of members of the church wasn’t allowed. The Holy Church must’ve paid the pirate lords quite a hefty sum to allow the Paladins in their turf.

One of the Paladins raised his triangular metallic-white shield, blocking an incoming wave of golden-colored flames. Three icicles hit his flank, but he barely flinched as his sword was slash from a distance, unleashing an arc of wide arc at the constantly-moving Lucy.

A couple of meters away, Mort reached the second Paladins and tried to pull away the shield from him only to be bashed right in the face and then pierced in the chest by the sword.

The Paladin unleashed Holy Magic, but, much to his surprise, the undead wasn’t affected as he hastily retreated while shouting gibberish-sounding profanities.

If Mort wasn’t here to distract one of the Paladins, Lucy wouldn’t have had stood a chance. In fact, even right now, she was being overpowered with ease.

Her unique Ice and Fire-aspected spells weren’t working on the Paladin, who, albeit looking like a human, was actually a man-made killing machine.

‘If I can just reach out…’

Lucy gritted her teeth as ice covered her hands and protected her from a powerful frontal blow: Her body was pushed back and, for a moment, her magic was cancelled by the influx of Holy Magic rampaging in the air.

Lucy hoped that the connection between her and the other two would trigger. Isabella’s regeneration would do wonders right now.

Alas, no such things happened, and as ever before, Lucy was left alone to fend for herself.

Lucy’s body grew heavy and tired, her Mana was almost depleted, and her only helper, Mort, was impaled into the ground by the Paladin’s sword. Things were looking grim and the probability of escaping from the Paladins wasn’t very low.

They were much faster than Lucy and unless she was a fair distance away from them, they would still be able to find her in a relatively short time.

As the Paladin readied himself and charged at her again, Lucy extended both hands and released a large wave of brilliant golden flames, but even that was literally cut by the Magic-imbued sword.

Desperate, Lucy hastily backed away while raising a thick wall of ice that, for a brief moment, stopped the incoming enemy. She used this opportunity to gather all her remaining Mana, condensing it into a swirling ball of flame that hovered right above her.

The fireball grew bigger and bigger before it exploded, bringing it with a shock wave that actually blew the Paladin back and damaged his snow-white set of armor.

“Ha… ha… ah…”

Lucy struggled to breath, her hands feeling numb and her chest in constant pain due to extreme over-exertion. The battle didn’t start that long ago, but she had to give it her best just to defend herself. The disparity between her and the enemy was just too big, especially since Holy Magic was particularly potent against those with Demons.

“What the hell is your problem?!”

Mort, albeit impaled and pierced many times, still managed to free himself and jump at the Paladin. However, he displayed unusual ferocity, his movement and strength multiplying as an ominous black-mist oozed from his body.

His fist connected with the Paladin’s shield, going through it and shattering the armor as well.

Before Mort could kill his opponent, the other Paladin intercepted and hit him from the rear. The two coordinated their attacks thereafter, temporarily focusing on the zombie, whom they deemed was more of a threat than the wounded and fatigued Lucy.

The two Paladins rushed at Mort from both sides, their swords glowing with intense light, but they suddenly, and quickly, jumped back.

“I found you.”

A creepy and chilling voice came from behind Mort, scaring him as he turned around.

“Aaaaah! A monster!”

He freaked out and was about to distance himself only for an abnormally long and thin decaying arm reached out from nothingness, grabbing hold of the top of his head and lifting him above ground.

The Undead Jester came out of the self-made portal, throwing a cursory glance at the Paladins.

“You are a perfect fit.”

“Let me go! Aaaaah! You’re scary! And you smell so bad!”

“...”

The Undead Jester gave the snarky zombie a look of annoyance.

“I’m starting to doubt that you’ll be able to do it, still… it’s not like there are other options.”

The Undead Jester sighed and started pulling Mort into the portal.

Lucy, although frightened by the lanky and abrupt appearance of such a horrifying creature, didn’t stand there and watch. She sprung into a mad sprint, using the crystallized icy ground to boost her speed and reach the portal.

Noticing this, who was helplessly flailing around in the air, extended his arm towards her.

“You can do it! Save me from this monster! Heeeelp!”

Sadly for him, he had completely misunderstood Lucy. When she grabbed his hand, she used her whole body to crash into him and push him into the portal.

The Undead Jester witnessed all of this unfold, but he neither stopped her nor said anything. In fact, he seemed to be preoccupied with something Eastwards, so much so that he didn’t react when his quarry disappeared into the portal.

“Seriously… What is wrong with this world? It’s like a gathering place for every nasty thing.”

Once he snapped out of it, he retreated back into the portal, which vanished into thin air.

The two Paladins maintained their distance, choosing to let their target flee. They seemed to know, at least a little bit, about the Undead Jester.

That made them not only wary but also unwilling to stop Lucy from going into the portal… even though they probably would have been able to stop her.