Chapter 71: Illusions of War and the Shadow’s Theft

The deafening roar of battle tore through the tranquil air of the Whispering Forest.

Outside the goblin camp, the chaos was absolute. The entire perimeter was consumed by a blinding, mesmerizing display of shimmering spatial light and terrifying mana fluctuations. Dozens of glowing, ethereal figures clad in the magnificent golden-gilded armor of the Human Empire’s Royal Vanguard materialized out of thin air, marching forward with terrifying discipline. Fireballs rained from the sky, frost-laced swords cleaved through trees, and war-cries echoed with spine-chilling authenticity.

The goblins panicked, shrieking in utter terror as they scattered in all directions, scrambling to defend their territory against what they believed was a full-scale imperial eradication.

At the center of the carnage, the massive Demi-Goblin leader roared in primal fury. Standing nearly eight feet tall with his calcified bone plating, he swung his heavy club wildly, smashing several of the attacking royal soldiers into glittering dust—only for those figures to dissolve into harmless, swirling motes of violet light the moment they were struck.

High above the chaotic battlefield, standing gracefully upon the thick, shadowy branch of an ancient oak tree, a shrouded figure watched the spectacle unfold in absolute silence. A dark, formless cloak wrapped around the watcher, blending seamlessly with the surrounding night.

*Rustle.*

Keklar stepped out from the cave tunnel, his bluish-grey skin gleaming under the flashing lights of the illusory spellcraft. His sharp, crimson-tinged eyes narrowed as he surveyed the battlefield. Sensing the immense scale of the raid, he tensed his muscles, preparing to leap into the fray and crush the imperial invaders.

The moment Keklar moved to join the fight, the shadowy figure on the branch flickered.

In a fraction of a heartbeat, the shroud of darkness vanished from the tree branch entirely. There was no sound of wind, no trace of spatial movement—just an instantaneous translocation.

Deep inside the dark, secluded tunnels of the inner cave, the green-haired female knight was still pressed against the cold stone wall, watching the distant tremors in sheer bewilderment.

Suddenly, space warped right in front of her.

The shadowy figure materialized out of thin air. Before the knight could even draw a breath or react, a pair of slender, glove-clad hands gently but firmly scooped her up into a bridal carry.

The female knight gasped, her blue eyes widening in shock. She clutched at the stranger’s dark cloak, staring up in disbelief. "W-Who are you? Are you... are you from the royal rescue squad?"

The shadowy figure gave zero response. Not a single word, not even a change in breathing rhythm.

Before the knight could utter another syllable, the figure dissolved into a swirl of pure, dark mist.

***

A few moments later, miles away from the damp stench of the goblin camp, the crisp, cool night breeze suddenly brushed against the knight’s face.

She blinked rapidly against the sudden moonlight. Looking around in utter shock, she found herself standing safely at the cobblestone entrance of a quiet, bustling human border town—far away from the monsters, the forest, and the terrifying chaos. Her comrades and the missing scouting party were huddled near the town guard post just ahead.

"W-What...?" she whispered, turning around to thank her rescuer, but the shadowy figure had already vanished into thin air, leaving behind only the faint echo of dissolving shadows.

***

Far away, hidden deep within a secluded observation chamber overlooking the mountain ridges, **Ethan** stood motionless.

A glowing, translucent blue system notification floated directly in front of his face, pulsing with a sharp, warning crimson light.

> **[CRITICAL SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]**

> **[Target Alteration Detected!]**

> **[The Fate and Fortune value of the future ’Demon King’ (Keklar) has been forcibly tampered with and partially drained!]**

> **[The monumental Fate Opportunity where Keklar was destined to acquire a unique, game-changing Human Combat Skill has been intercepted and stolen!]**

Ethan stared at the floating text. A slow, deeply intrigued smile crept across his lips.

He raised a hand, tapping lightly on the system interface to pull up Keklar’s detailed profile. In his past life, before he had been betrayed and stripped of his Flame Demon bloodline, Keklar had risen from a mere goblin to become an absolute calamity—a monstrous sovereign who had stood alongside the tyrannical Emperor Arthur during the final wars.

*’Ah... so it was him,’* Ethan mused quietly, his crimson eyes gleaming with cold calculation. *’In my past life, Arthur’s ascension as Emperor required a horrific daily sacrifice of human souls to maintain his dominion. And Keklar... that monster was the vanguard who butchered millions to fuel Arthur’s dark throne.’*

Ethan flickered his gaze further down the data sheet, where Keklar’s current numerical statistics were displayed.

> **[Target Subject: Keklar]**

> **[Current Fate Value: 1,000,000,000 Points (1 Billion)]**

Ethan’s smile widened into a silent, amused chuckle.

*One billion Fate Points.*

It was an astronomical, incomprehensible figure. Even Sabrina—the brilliant prodigy and high-ranking noble—didn’t possess a fraction of that sheer, world-shaking karmic weight. It was absolute proof that Keklar’s system—the terrifying devour-and-evolve mechanic—was operating on a cosmic scale, making him a central pillar of this world’s narrative trajectory.

*’I cannot simply kill him outright,’* Ethan analyzed calmly, resting his chin on his fingers. *’Not yet. His Fate value is too dense; executing him prematurely without draining his karmic reserves would trigger a massive world-tier backlash. But... I can slowly chip away at his foundation. Every single fortune he loses, every major skill he fails to acquire, weakens his anchor to this timeline.’*

Ethan closed the notification window with a flick of his wrist. *’Let’s see how long your legendary evolution holds up, Keklar, when your destiny is being unraveled thread by thread.’*

***

Back at the Whispering Forest, the illusionary war was reaching its absolute climax.

The battlefield was a swirling vortex of chaos. Dozens of glowing, golden-armored royal soldiers charged relentlessly across the ravine, shouting battle cries that echoed off the canyon walls.

At the center of the storm stood **Keklar**.

His blue-grey muscles bulged, his body radiating a dense, suffocating aura of dark mana and metallic *Iron-Hide* reinforcement. Breathing heavily, his crimson eyes flashing with bloodlust, Keklar swung his massive, hardened fists with enough kinetic force to shatter boulders.

"Damn imperial dogs! Keep coming!" Keklar roared, unleashing a devastating wave of dark-magic shockwaves that tore through the ground.

*CRASH! BOOM! SLASH!*

He leaped forward, slamming his fist directly into the chest of a charging royal vanguard captain. But the moment his fist connected, there was no crunch of bone, no eruption of blood.

Instead, the captain’s body dissolved smoothly into shimmering purple pixels and fading mist.

Keklar stumbled forward, blinking in sudden confusion. "What...?"

Before he could process it, another royal soldier lunged at him with a glowing broadsword. Keklar spun around and swiped his claws through the soldier’s torso—only for that figure to instantly pop like a soap bubble, vanishing into thin air.

*Whoosh!*

All around the battlefield, the dozens of fierce, roaring royal soldiers, the clashing swords, the fireballs, and the golden banners suddenly flickered simultaneously like a failing hologram.

*FZZZ—T!*

In less than three seconds, the entire army of the Human Empire evaporated into nothingness. The blazing spells vanished, the war cries ceased, and absolute, eerie silence descended upon the ruined forest clearing.

The glowing illusions were completely gone.

Keklar stood alone in the center of the cratered, scorched clearing, panting heavily. The massive Demi-Goblin leader and the surviving lesser goblins crept out from behind the boulders, staring blankly around the empty forest, completely dumbfounded.

There were no corpses. There was no blood. There was no royal army.

Not a single trace of an enemy remained.

Keklar lowered his fists, his sharp, intelligent eyes scanning the empty horizon. A cold sweat broke out across his bluish-grey forehead. The system interface flickered in his mind, offering no comforting explanations, only a cold silence.

*’An illusion...?’* Keklar thought, his teeth grinding in sudden, burning frustration as a dark realization dawned on him. *’All of it... a massive, elaborate illusion?! Someone tricked my entire pack, wasted my energy, and kept me distracted...’*

He suddenly remembered the female knight locked in the inner cave. With a jolt of panic, he spun around and sprinted at full speed back toward the cavern tunnels, his heart pounding with a foreboding sense that something catastrophic had just slipped right through his fingers.

High up on a gnarled, shadowy branch of a towering ancient tree far beyond the ravine, **Ethan** stood completely motionless.

A chilling, amused smile played on his lips as he watched Keklar frantically sprint back toward the inner cave, only to discover his prized captive had vanished into thin air. From this vantage point, Ethan could clearly perceive the blue-skinned Hobgoblin’s furious, twisted expression of disbelief and panic.

*’Interesting,’* Ethan mused quietly to himself, his crimson eyes gleaming with cold, calculated insight. *’Unlike ordinary monsters or even the pampered geniuses of the human academies, this chosen one possesses an unnervingly sharp intuition. Even without direct proof, he can instantly sense when a major pillar of his destiny has been ripped away from him.’*

Ethan slowly lifted his gaze away from the chaotic goblin camp, raising his head toward the star-streaked night sky.

High above the troposphere, past the swirling clouds and deep into the silent, freezing expanse of the upper cosmos, the atmospheric pressure began to warp violently.

*CRACK—BOOM!*

A web of blinding, jagged silver lightning suddenly erupted across the dark heavens, crackling furiously without a single cloud in sight. The celestial energy surged with a divine, terrifying wrath, as if the very fabric of the world was reacting to the disruption in its grand script.

Relying on the supreme perception of his system-integrated blood-magic and the subtle guidance of the Red Fire Fairy, Ethan narrowed his eyes and pierced straight through the veil of the stratosphere, looking far into the deep cosmos.

There, suspended effortlessly in the cold vacuum of space, hovered a colossal, ethereal figure.

The entity wore an intricate, sweeping robe woven entirely from burning constellations and dying stars. Its face was completely obscured by a dense, shifting shroud of grey-white celestial fog, hiding any features from mortal comprehension. Thick, suffocating tendrils of pure black cosmic power radiated from its form, warping the surrounding starlight into gravity wells.

Ethan’s breath hitched for a microsecond, a rare flicker of realization flashing through his mind.

*’The Heavenly Will...’* Ethan recognized instantly.

This mysterious, god-like entity hovering in the cosmos was an avatar dispatched directly by the supreme Will of the World. And looking closer at the cosmic threads connecting the entity down to the surface, it was undeniably tied to **Keklar**. The system’s chosen protagonist—the future Demon King—was being directly monitored, guided, and protected by the universe’s own automated correction mechanism.

The Heavenly Will was trying to patch the hole Ethan had just torn in Keklar’s destiny.

Ethan stood silently on the tree branch, feeling the immense, crushing gravitational pull of the cosmic entity pressing down even from millions of miles away. But instead of fear, a dark, fearless excitement bloomed within his chest.

"So, the system of this world is finally staring back at me," Ethan whispered into the cold night wind, his voice steady and razor-sharp.

He raised his hand slowly, giving a mocking, silent salute to the star-robed figure floating in the distant cosmos, before stepping backward into a dissolving shadow.

The chess game across realms had officially begun.