Chapter 618: Three Shadows

In a nearly destroyed world... filled with an endless expanse of blood and death, where the thick, choking ashes of disaster blanketed the desolate skies, stood a brutally wounded man at the very epicentre of the ruin...

With a pulsing rune sword pierced deep through his chest, the man reached out with his right hand, his bloodied fingers fiercely grabbing the collar of his killer.

The dying man, using his last remaining fragments of willpower before his soul vanished completely into nothingness, spoke through gritted teeth, his voice trembling with a chilling finality...

The Emperor has three shadows...

One summoned from the depth of the abyss...

Destined to be the strongest... %^%^$^

One forged from a mountain of gold...

Bound to sit on the throne of pride... %^%^$^

And one born of his own flesh...

Fated to be the greatest betrayer in all of history... %^%^$^

The man coughed violently, spraying a thick stream of dark blood across the scorched earth, and then continued in a desperate, pleading tone that echoed with haunting urgency, "YOU MUST FIND ALL THREE OF THEM, AND KILL THEM."

"NO MATTER THE COST... AXEL, YOU MUST KILL THEM, OTHERWISE YOU WILL DIE BY THEIR HANDS, AND IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE TO DEFEAT THE Emperor, LET ALONE KILL HIM."

***

Axel’s eyes snapped wide open, revealing his pitch-black irises and an utterly emotionless, hollow gaze fixed upon the world.

The very first sensation that registered in his numbing mind was the thick, powerful magical vines tightly constricting his limbs. Subconsciously, the sudden stimulus triggered a deeply ingrained self-defence mechanism. The invisible, destructive form of energy that swirled violently around his entire body erupted once more in a chaotic shockwave.

Instantly, the pressurised burst completely obliterated the enchanted magical vines into fine dust, scattering the green remnants into the wind.

Axel found himself hovering slightly above the scorched ground, and only then did he fully notice the invisible, distorting energy swirling erratically around his naked figure. He realised with detached clarity that he was stark naked, stripped of his garments by the sheer ferocity of his descent.

Yet, he quickly pushed those trivial concerns aside, immediately identifying the source of potential danger and locking his blank eyes onto the hovering fifth-phase powerhouse standing just a short distance away.

The elven tribe leader frowned deeply, his expression shifting from guarded caution to profound bewilderment.

Despite his immense knowledge, centuries of experience, and deep mastery of sylvan magic, he could not fathom the nature of the power surrounding the black-haired young human.

No conventional form of energy could inflict such a fundamental and absolute level of destruction down to a microscopic level. More than that, it even seemed from his discerning perspective that the young human was exerting this terrifying phenomenon entirely unconsciously, as if breathing or blinking.

But that defied every known law of power. For any mortal or seeker to wield such a potent, reality-fraying form of destructive power, they should have had to pay an astronomical, soul-crushing price.

Convinced that there was something deeply unnatural and dangerous at play, the elven leader remained entirely unconvinced by the boy’s helpless appearance and launched an attack once more.

Whosh! Swosh!

Countless thick green vines, woven tightly from complex sylvan magical symbols, manifested one after another in mid-air, shooting forward like emerald lances toward the black-haired human.

Axel remained momentarily unsure of the exact chaotic situation he had plunged into, but his mind continued to operate with terrifying, lightning-fast precision. He recalled how the previous attack from the fifth-phase elf had been effortlessly obliterated by the unknown forcefield acting on his subconscious defence.

Hoping to turn the tables, he attempted to consciously channel and wield that very same destructive power, wishing to unleash it as an offensive weapon against the oncoming onslaught.

Yet, contrary to what he desperately willed...

That volatile power refused to bend to his commands, flowing out in all erratic directions and indiscriminately destroying everything surrounding him. While a portion of the vines lunging at him did disintegrate upon colliding with the chaotic aura, several agile vines managed to pierce through the sporadic outbursts of the destructive energy field.

Sensing the incoming threat intended to impale his body, Axel moved his physical form with incredible, inhuman speed, effortlessly dodging the trajectory of the remaining vines.

With a flick of his wrist, a replacement rune sword materialised within Axel’s grip, intricately engraved with the Rune of Metal and heavily imbued with supreme severing power...

Kachink!

Axel swung the blade in a swift, fluid arc, lopping off one thick vine after another, while more of them dissolved into nothingness as they brushed against the flurrying wave of destruction that stubbornly refused to come under his direct control.

Within seconds, all the magical vines targeting him were completely eradicated. At the very same moment, however, the rune sword in his hand rapidly cracked and crumbled into fine grey dust.

Axel glanced down at the dusty remains resting in his palm, realising that the weapon hadn’t broken merely from the physical stress of parrying the magical vines, but rather because it had been exposed to the aggressive decay of the destruction energy surrounding his own skin.

A grim realisation settled into the back of his mind. The more he allowed the unknown destructive energy to manifest around him, the stronger he felt a deeply disturbing numbness creeping into his cognitive faculties, as though an invisible predator were rapidly eroding his mental clarity.

Forcibly pushing that alarming issue to the side for the moment, Axel fixed his gaze back upon the formidable elf, standing entirely silent.

Gradually, the hovering elven powerhouse glided downward through the air, his boots touching the earth only a few meters away from Axel. The man crossed his arms, speaking in a cold, hostile tone, "Who are you, human?"

He paused for a fraction of a second, his bronze eyes narrowing as he corrected himself. "No... are you even truly human?"

For the first time since waking, Axel spoke. His voice was remarkably calm, flat, and devoid of any emotional cadence. "I am human... I originate from the Suncrest Kingdom within the human lands."

He paused briefly, deliberately fabricating an identity to shield his true background from pursuit, and introduced himself: "You can call me Arlo."