Chapter 189: Chapter 188 : Death (1)
Sakura writhed on the ground, her fingers clawing at the dead earth as a scream tore from her throat.
The pain of extraction was not physical alone. It felt as if someone had reached into her chest and was ripping the threads of her existence out by the roots. Her mana surged, then snarled back on itself, her thoughts breaking apart into static.
Arthur was not in much better shape.
His lungs burned, his muscles ached, and his mana pathways throbbed from overuse. Blood Domain’s backlash had left him dizzy and hollow. But he knew this was his chance.
If he let it pass, he wouldn’t get another.
’Finish it,’ Arthur thought. ’Now.’
He forced his breathing to steady, forcing his body to move.
He gathered every remaining speck of mana he could scrape together, dragging it into his hands. Voidmorph Carapace responded sluggishly, mana coiling around his arms and hardening into black, layered plates.
Slowly, a sword formed in his grip.
A black blade, rough at first, then sharpening as more mana condensed, its surface smoothing into a sleek, obsidian edge. The air around it warped faintly, as if the weapon itself didn’t fully belong to this world.
The extraction reached its end.
A cold clarity cut through the pain in his head as a set of notifications appeared before his inner eye.
[ Extraction Complete ]
[ Target: Sakura ]
[ S-Rank Talent Successfully Extracted ]
[ Talent Acquired: Foresight (S-Rank) ]
[ Foresight (S-Rank) ]
A rare precognitive talent that grants the user the ability to perceive fragments of the future.
Current Limit:
• Can see up to 2 seconds into the future.
Effects:
• Grants brief precognitive vision, allowing the user to react before events occur.
• Future visions consume mana proportional to the duration observed.
• Excessive use inflicts severe headaches and mental strain, worsening the farther into the future the user attempts to see.
[ Reward Notification ]
[ Random Talent Extraction ×1 — Completed ]
[ Attribute Points +50 — Received ]
Arthur licked his lips unconsciously.
"So that’s how you dodged my attacks so easily..." Arthur murmured. "You could already see them, huh?"
He read the notification again, this time more carefully.
’So this lets me peek into the future,’ Arthur thought. ’How far depends on my mana and mental strength. And in exchange, I get headaches. Great. Just what I love.’
He grimaced slightly at that.
Even so...
Two seconds was enormous.
In a fight where a single millisecond could decide life or death, two whole seconds was practically an eternity.
He looked up.
Sakura had stopped screaming.
She lay on the ground, chest heaving, sweat plastering her hair to her face. Her eyes were unfocused, as if someone had ripped a piece of her soul away and left a hollow ache behind.
She sucked in ragged breaths, her fingers digging weakly into the blood-stained dirt.
Arthur walked toward her.
His footsteps crunched over broken bones and brittle grass. He stopped just in front of her and raised the void-black sword, pointing its tip at her throat.
"It’s game over for you now," Arthur said quietly.
Sakura lifted her head.
For a moment, her violet eyes met his.
There was no denial there, no hysterical struggle. Just bitterness—and something like tired amusement.
"Yes," Sakura said. "I acknowledge it. It’s your victory."
She exhaled.
"I’m ready to be devoured," Sakura said.
Arthur’s mouth twitched.
"You don’t have to make it sound so sexual, okay?" Arthur said.
A faint, crooked smile tugged at Sakura’s lips.
"Looks like you really are a virgin, huh?" Sakura said.
Arthur ignored the jab.
"As this is your last moment," Arthur said, his voice turning serious, "can you tell me anything about that organization?"
His eyes sharpened.
"TCO," Arthur said. "And who’s running it."
Sakura’s gaze cooled.
"And why should I do that?" Sakura said. "Just kill me already, you bastard."
Arthur sighed.
"Well," Arthur said, "it was worth a try."
Mana gathered along the black blade, making it hum faintly. He adjusted his grip, preparing to swing.
Sakura closed her eyes.
’So this is it...’ she thought. ’Fine. If it’s him, then—’
A strange chill ran along her back.
Her shadow, sprawled beneath her on the dead earth, suddenly moved.
Not as a normal shadow did, bending with the light—but as if it had a will of its own. It rippled, twisted, and lifted like a dark, liquid veil.
A horrifying realization slammed into her.
Her eyes flew open.
"No... no, no, no," Sakura said, her voice shaking. "What the hell are you doing here? Run. You’re not strong enough—"
The ground around Arthur darkened.
Seven silhouettes rose from his shadow—seven black knights, their armor forged from pure darkness, greatswords gripped in their hands. They surrounded Arthur in an instant, blades raised, their presence heavy and violent.
Bobby stood in front of Sakura.
He had emerged from her shadow, breathing hard, his eyes fierce. The boy who bore the Shadow System planted himself between Sakura and Arthur like a living shield.
Even Sakura hadn’t realized he’d hidden himself inside her shadow.
Arthur’s muscles tensed.
He didn’t panic.
The world flickered.
Foresight activated.
For two seconds, everything around him moved ahead of reality. The knights’ blades flashed through his mind before their arms swung; he saw the exact angles of each strike, the path each sword would take.
Reality snapped back.
The seven weapons crashed down.
Arthur twisted, ducked, and stepped between the killing arcs exactly as he’d seen. Steel whistled past inches from his throat, his ribs, and his spine. One blade grazed his coat, slicing the fabric but missing flesh.
By the time the last sword fell, he had slipped through the gaps.
The vision ended.
A spike of pain stabbed at his temples.
Half the mana he’d painfully recovered burned away in an instant.
’Damn,’ Arthur thought. ’That costs more than I like.’
But he didn’t need much mana now.
His target was right in front of him.
He surged forward, closing the distance in a heartbeat, his black sword swinging toward Bobby’s neck.
The boy didn’t flinch.
"Run!" Bobby shouted over his shoulder, his voice cracking. "This is your chance!"
Sakura’s eyes widened.
"No!" Sakura screamed.
Arthur’s blade descended.
And then the ground beneath Bobby’s feet cracked.
A skeletal hand shot up from the earth, its bony fingers wrapping around Bobby’s ankle and yanking him downward. In the same instant, another skeleton erupted from the ground in front of him, a rusted sword in hand.
SCHLK.
The corroded blade rammed straight through Bobby’s chest.
His breath caught.
His eyes went wide.
Blood spilled down the old sword, splattering over bone fingers and dead soil.
Arthur’s sword stopped mid-swing.
’What...?’
The seven black knights around him froze, then crumbled back into shadow, dissolving into the ground as Bobby’s life bled away.
Sakura stared, stunned.
It had all happened in the span of a few seconds.
One moment, Bobby had been standing, defiant, shielding her.
The next, his body jerked as skeletal steel pierced him. Then his corpse fell to its knees before collapsing forward, landing right in front of her with a dull thud, his eyes empty.
"B... Bobby..." Sakura whispered.
She couldn’t think.
Couldn’t speak.
Her mind went blank.
Around them, the battlefield seemed to wake.
More skeletons rose from the earth—dozens, then hundreds, bones clicking and clacking as they pulled themselves upright. Empty eye sockets turned toward Arthur and Sakura, their jaws opening in soundless moans.
They surrounded them.
A tightening ring of death.
Arthur’s eyes swept across the battlefield.
’We’re both in deep shit now,’ Arthur thought.
He glanced at Sakura.
"Looks like you weren’t joking when you told me about certain death," Arthur said dryly.
His demonic bloodline stirred.
He could feel it in the way his senses sharpened, the way the scent of death in the air felt... familiar. The battlefield pulsed with an energy that resonated with something dark inside him.
Then he saw her.
She stood near the colossal tree, not far from its corrupted roots.
A woman with black horns curling back from her temples like a crown of obsidian.
Her hair was a deep, rich purple that flowed down her back in waves, contrasting sharply with her pale skin. Her eyes were pure black—no whites, no irises—just two bottomless abysses that seemed to swallow the world.
When her gaze turned toward Arthur, a chill shot down his spine.
It felt less like being looked at and more like being measured.
Judged.
"It had to be a Demon Lord, huh..." Arthur muttered. "And one as powerful as her."
The name surfaced in his mind like a half-remembered nightmare.
Astarate.
One of the Ten Demon Lords in the Demon World.
A Demon Lord who commanded the Authority of Death.
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