Meanwhile, on the other side.
Mirror-Shadow City.
After bidding farewell to Lin Gui and Eve, Hannah flapped the bat wings on her back and flew low through the ruins of Mirror-Shadow City.
She did not intentionally hide her tracks.
Because she knew.
Those things, from the moment she stepped into this dead city...
...had already discovered her.
A dull throb came from her chest.
She was not a soul mage, nor did she have any corresponding secret techniques to sense spirits.
But her intuition pricked her like ice needles.
She was already firmly locked on.
To return to the Voiceless Rift, she had to cross...
...the blockade of those fellows.
The surrounding ruins were terrifyingly silent.
Broken stone pillars and collapsed roof trusses cast distorted, ghostly claw-like shadows in the dim light.
An oppressive feeling, far heavier than in other city-states, weighed down on her head, almost suffocating her.
Hannah's crimson eyes sharply scanned every shadowy corner.
Her fingertips curled slightly, and demon energy faintly flowed at the tips of her claws, ready to strike at any moment.
Just then.
Behind a broken wall to her rear-flank, a dark shadow suddenly appeared!
Hannah spun around abruptly, her sharp claws about to tear forward.
But she froze in the next instant.
A familiar aura.
She forced herself to halt her attack, letting the dark shadow close in.
The other party grabbed her wrist with a force that made her wince in pain.
Without a word, he dragged her along as they dashed away.
They passed through several narrow alleys and turned into a half-collapsed building.
Finally, they dropped into a hidden basement entrance.
As soon as they stepped into the dim underground space, the dark shadow let go of her hand and turned around.
It was Hugh.
His face was stained with dirt and dried blood, and his eyes suppressed a surging anger.
“Are you out of your mind?!”
His voice was extremely low, but he gritted his teeth at every word.
“I covered the retreat and faced off against those monsters for three days!”
“Just to get you out!”
He took a step forward, his eyes rimmed with red.
“Do you have any idea how important you are?!”
“I paid such a heavy price... and you actually came back?!”
Hannah looked up, her crimson eyes burning with an equal fire.
“I won't abandon my family to run for my life alone!”
Her voice trembled, but she was resolute.
“If we die, we die together!”
Veins throbbed on Hugh's temples from anger.
“This is madness!”
“Do you want Avalon, because of your emotional impulsiveness...”
“...to be completely destroyed?!”
Hannah sneered, but her eyes were filled with sorrow.
“The Demon King Pillar, I have already handed it over to that mage.”
“He will take it back to Avalon.”
She paused, her voice growing softer.
“And the Demon King's blood... with my death...”
“...will transfer to Mors.”
Hugh was startled.
“...A mage? Which mage?”
Hannah turned her face away.
“The one... the little mage who was forced.”
Hugh was stunned for a long while.
Only then did he speak hesitantly:
“He... hasn't left yet?”
Then, Hannah mentioned Lin Gui opening post offices in Blackwater City and other city-states.
She said he was even taking commissions to deliver letters and soul beads to ghosts.
Hugh's expression suddenly became extremely colorful.
Delivering letters to ghosts... at the Wall of Sighs?
That little fellow's business had already expanded to this extent?
Was he really that wild?
Hugh did know that there were many specters drifting in these dead cities.
Before Lord Gusion became a Demon King, he was a top-tier soul mage among the Demon Race.
He had casually mentioned these “interesting neighbors.”
But Hugh never expected...
...that the little mage would actually do business with them.
The tense argument between him and Hannah was diluted a bit by this news.
The atmosphere became inexplicably strange.
Hugh rubbed his temples, forcing down the odd feeling in his heart as he looked at Hannah.
“But your return this time is simply suicide.”
“The enemy's soul tracking has locked onto not just me...”
“...but also you.”
Hannah's gaze was calm:
“I didn't come back to die.”
“I came to wait.”
“Wait for what?” Hugh asked.
“Wait for the right opportunity.”
A sharp light flashed in Hannah's crimson eyes:
“The fact that I haven't become the Demon King yet...”
“...proves that Lord Gusion, Roger, and the others are still alive.”
“They must still be inside the Voiceless Rift.”
She lowered her voice, but every word was clear:
“If the two of us join forces, we can pull out the 'nails' guarding the outside.”
“Then we can use the soul mark scrolls left behind by Lord Gusion.”
“To guide them and show them the way!”
A sliver of hope ignited in her eyes:
“Maybe... we can save them.”
She paused, a cold chill welling up in her eyes:
“And even if they really died inside...”
“...I can still ascend to become the Demon King.”
She raised her hand, demon energy swirling around her fingertips.
“And then, I will avenge them.”
Hugh looked at the resolute killing intent in her eyes and fell silent for a long time.
Ultimately, he sighed:
“It's useless.”
His voice was hoarse, carrying deep exhaustion:
“No one can come out of the Voiceless Rift.”
“Not even the avatar of the Demon King who dragged Lord Gusion in.”
“That is His domain.”
He looked at Hannah, his gaze heavy:
“Soul... is His law.”
“A soul mark cannot possibly guide Lord Gusion and the others...”
“...to find their way back.”
Hugh's eyes dimmed completely.
“Moreover, all the soul mark scrolls Lord Gusion left behind...”
“...I have already used them all.”
“Not a single one lit up, and not a single one connected.”
The Voiceless Rift was like a natural shielding field.
It completely severed all connection.
He didn't have a single scroll left in his hands.
Hannah's voice trembled, but she still stubbornly said:
“Then at least... help them clear the threats outside!”
“They will definitely come out!”
By the time she finished, her voice carried a hint of a sob.
Hugh did not answer. He only slowly pulled open his lapel.
Revealing the hideous and terrifying wound beneath.
The edges of the wound were a strange grayish-black.
The flesh looked as if it had been corroded by something, refusing to heal.
He curled his lips bitterly:
“I never expected that I, a grand Mid-tier Legendary assassin...”
“...would be pushed to this point by two High-tier Transcendents.”
He coughed, blood foam spilling from the corner of his mouth:
“One hundred and forty-six times.”
“I killed them a full one hundred and forty-six times.”
“Yet even when they were reduced to a pile of minced meat...”
He looked up, his eyes filled with an irrepressible dread:
“...they would still resurrect.”
“In ways beyond my imagination.”
Hugh coughed up another mouthful of blood.
The blood was dark, with a faint blackish tint.
He said hoarsely:
“That is not the rebirth of the Vampires...”
“...that is a kind of... law of immortality.”
“They are simply unkillable undead.”
He wiped the blood from his mouth and let out a self-deprecating smile.
As a Legendary expert, he should have had protective qi to shield his body.
Ordinary Transcendents wouldn't even be able to touch the hem of his clothes.
But among those people, there was one who could control an entire Undead Knight Order.
There was even a Mid-tier Legendary knight among them.
The most terrifying part was that no matter how many times Hugh killed them, even if he burned their bodies to ash and ground them to powder, they would always appear before him again... completely unscathed.
In all his life, Hugh had never seen such enemies.
It was like a nightmare he couldn't wake up from.
Hugh had originally wanted to urge Hannah to leave, to get out of the tracking range of the soul mark.
Once Gusion perished, she would be able to ascend to Demon King.
Relying on the soul affinity and concealment traits of the Eleventh Pillar Demon King... she could return to Avalon.
And he would stay here.
To pin down the fellow locking onto them, buying Hannah some final moments.
Before the words could leave his mouth, his pupils contracted sharply—
The surrounding shadows were wrong.
It was too quiet.
So quiet that it felt as if sound had been... intentionally drained by something.
Hugh moved.
Without even turning his head, he threw his hand back.
A dark light shot out of his sleeve, instantly piercing through the floorboards!
“Pfft.”
The dull sound of a sharp blade entering flesh echoed.
A knight dressed as a scout had just emerged halfway from beneath the floor when the flying blade pinned through his skull, killing him on the spot.
“Run!”
Hugh barked, grabbing Hannah's wrist.
With his other hand, he clawed at the air.
The scout's head exploded with a bang.
Dragging Hannah with him, he crashed through the back wall and dashed out.
However, the exposure of their position had already trapped them completely.
They had barely rushed out of two alleys when a row of dark figures suddenly materialized at the mouth of the alley ahead.
Draped in black robes, faces covered, standing in absolute silence.
An entire squad of knights blocked all paths.
Every direction, every rooftop, every shadowy corner... was filled with a deathly killing intent.
Rate on N.U.
