Chapter 170: Impossibe Odds (X)

The Silver Moon hung suspended in the void above Aethelburg like a pale judge presiding over carnage. Its cold light filtered through the settling dust, casting the ruins of the Secondary Ring in shades blood and gore.

The air tasted of pulverized marble and something far worse—the coppery tang of spilled blood mingling with the acrid stench of burned flesh.

Silence had descended upon the battlefield like a funeral shroud.

In the deeper shadows near the obsidian gates, where moonlight dared not fully penetrate, something waited with the patient malice of a spider in its web.

Arthur Sterling’s body—if one could still call it that. He was sagged against a collapsed pillar like discarded meat left to rot.

The handsome features that had once charmed nobility and seduced the unwary were now a grotesque mockery of human form. Eyes that once sparkled with British wit stared blankly at nothing, their crystalline surfaces clouded and ruptured. The sockets wept trails of dried blood that had long since ceased flowing.

The torso bore the catastrophic evidence of draconic fury… his ribs jutted through torn flesh like the bars of a broken cage.

One of his arms dangled by threads of his own blood, the other bent at an angle that defied human anatomy.

Yet within this ruined husk, something ancient endured.

The demon’s consciousness flickered like a guttering candle in a tomb. It was weak and diminished, but stubbornly refusing extinction.

It had survived so long just like this. ’She’ had never had a body to begin with… she was just an evil spirit roaming the world for salvation.

Until The Great Lord saved her and freed her from the shackles, granting her true salvation. She had been given the ability to take control of others.

She had lived inside the body of a withering beast for far too long… just for the chance to infiltrate Aethelburg and then obtain the Orb that has the ability to break the seals over their Lord and free him.

’I need… a vessel,

’ the thought echoed through Arthur’s destroyed neural pathways, carried not by electrical impulses but by pure force of ancient will. ’Before this shell collapses entirely.’

After she successfully infiltrated Aethelburg, she had killed one of the many humans and taken over his body then infiltrated the Secondary Ring without being noticed.

Later she killed a charming female and took over her body in order to reach her goal. That was to free the ancient dragon who had the special Orb.

There was a clear ritual she had to undergo in order to attain that result and that would result in loosing her vessel… so, she prepared another vessel at the beginning.

It was that of one of the strongest humans she knew about… Arthur Sterling. The current body.

Using ’Her’ newly acquired female body… she seduced the charming young man into bed and then killed him while he was enjoying the taste of young female body.

He didn’t knew that it would be the death of him.

The next day she placed the body close to the cathedral and then proceeded with the ritual and successfully unsealed the dragon.

She did not encounter problems during this, except for the boy that was already at the cathedral before him. She even tried to seduce him in hopes of having a spare vessel… but his mind seemed to be especially strong willed.

Or perhaps it was filled with sorrow and loneliness.

As ’Her’ current vessel died at the blast that followed the ritual she quickly switched to ’Her’ new vessel and went to negotiate with the dragon.

That’s where the things went south!

Now on the verge of dying with this vessel… she had no choice but to look for a new one. A strong one!

The demon’s consciousness extended outward like grasping fingers, searching. The surrounding area was littered with corpses, but most were too damaged.

She needed something living.

Through Arthur’s ruined eyes—seeing not with light but with senses far older and darker, it perceived two figures emerging from the shadow of a half-collapsed building.

The first moved with an unusual quality, as if reality itself struggled to maintain his coordinates. He was the same boy she had encountered at the Cathedral.

’Perfect,’ the demon thought, Arthur’s cracked lips twitching in a grotesque smile. ’He was able to survive that blast and he is even healthy. I can sense it… That body will do nicely.’

She gathered what remained of Arthur’s power, drawing blood from the deepest reserves of Arthur’s dying form. The body shuddered as crimson liquid was forcibly extracted from bone marrow and from the spaces between organs.

Arthur’s corpse withered further, skin drawing taut against skull as the demon cannibalized its current vessel for one final strike.

The blood coalesced in the shadows between Arthur and his targets, forming a thread so thin it was nearly invisible.

**

Ishiki and Kaori ran behind the dragon, carefully observing his actions. While also being at awe on witnessing the inner ring.

There was a strange excitement deep within their hearts that came with the question if the dragon would actually kill the emperor and then they would return back home.

But there was also a question That Ishiki wished would turn out to be false. What if after the dragon kills the emperor… the scenario ends, but they get struck here because it was not them who killed the emperor?

He shook his head violently… when suddenly he heard Kaori scream.

“ISHIKI!”

He barely turned around when he felt Kaori’s body push him further. He fell to the ground some distance away and noticed an almost impossible thread that went straight.

Kaori too crouched low and jumped back.

The thread stopped for a second and then suddenly turned towards Kaori.

“Kaori!” Ishiki called out. “Be careful.”

She gritted her teeth and stood up… and at the same time the blood thread’s speed increased. She was weakened because of her corruption at night and lacked sufficient speed to dodge.

Within the next blink… she registered the impact as a point of absolute cold penetrating her left temple, just above the ear. There was no pain initially—just the strange sensation of foreign matter passing through her skull and the soft tissue of her brain.

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