Chapter 50: Asterin

The great lightning wolf of rank V advanced with an almost deliberate slowness toward the city, as if enjoying every step. Several blue plasma spheres floated around it, vibrating with unstable energy and threatening to reduce everything in its path to ashes.

Lucas stood before him, his armor shattered, covered in dried blood and hardened mud. He tried to stay on his feet… but his legs trembled.

The monster’s aura was overwhelming.

It wasn’t just power.

It was a crushing presence.

He clenched his teeth until his jaw ached, forcing himself not to back down, even though every instinct in his body was screaming at him to run. To escape. To survive.

And then the beast looked at him.

That was enough.

All the fighting spirit he had mustered crumbled in an instant. A violent chill ran down his spine, while cold sweat drenched his back beneath his cracked armor.

He felt as if an icy claw were slowly closing around his neck.

It hadn’t touched him.

But it was strangling him all the same.

His face drenched in cold sweat—concealed by the relentless rain—Lucas watched as the lightning wolf’s body began to be covered in blue lightning. Energy crackled around him, and a crackling sound filled the air, as if the sky itself were about to tear apart.

Now he had no doubts.

Neither with all their strength, nor with that of the knights, could they defeat that monster. Only if Lord Zephyr were present would they have a real chance of withstanding an attack of that magnitude.

But Zephyr was not there.

“There’s nothing we can do now…”

The thought was not dramatic.

Lucas let his body weight drop, ending up kneeling in the mud. His gaze was lost in the sky, dark clouds hanging over the city of Arkham like a funeral shroud. That was where he had grown up. That was where he had trained. That was where he had sworn to protect until his last breath.

And now it was going to fall.

He felt no remorse.

He had done everything in his power until the very end. His only regret was not being able to see young master Adam grow up, as he had shown potential that exceeded all expectations.

The storm roared.

And the wolf finished charging his power.

Lucas fixed his gaze on the monster. Before him, the lightning wolf had condensed a colossal plasma sphere, the size of a house, crackling with destructive energy.

And it launched it.

The blue mass advanced at a terrifying speed, destroying everything in its path. Monsters, trees, earth… nothing could resist the advance of that devastating force.

Lucas closed his eyes.

There was no time to dodge.

He accepted his fate.

Around him, the knights also understood the inevitable; some gritted their teeth, others murmured the names of their families. No one fled.

A few seconds passed.

But the impact never came.

Lucas frowned and cautiously opened his eyes.

And he stood still.

In front of him, amid the destruction and dust suspended in the air, a female figure stood with absolute serenity.

She was slender, fair-skinned, dressed in elegant armor that seemed forged in another era. Beneath it, an ancient blue dress flowed naturally, as if the battlefield were nothing more than a silent hall.

A golden crown rested upon her head.

A powerful aura emanated from her; it was not explosive or wild, but refined and absolute, befitting someone who had survived countless life-or-death battles.

Her golden hair shone as if it were sprinkled with gold dust, and her eyes, the same color, gazed ahead with unwavering calm.

The plasma sphere… was no longer advancing.

…

Asterin observed the plasma sphere with absolute calm.

She reached out her hand.

After millennia… she once again possessed a physical body, even if only for a few brief seconds.

It was enough.

With a simple gesture, the blue plasma began to compress upon itself. The energy vibrated, struggled, tried to expand… until it finally collapsed silently, disappearing as if it had never existed.

Asterin looked down at her own hand, flexing her fingers with slight curiosity. The sensation was different. Heavy. Real.

She picked up a branch from the ground, and a soft smile appeared on her lips as she remembered the words of a former companion. A gentleman obsessed with fencing who used to say:

As long as I have something to wield… I can unleash everything.

She placed the branch in front of her.

The wood creaked.

A golden energy began to envelop her, rising like a sacred flame ascending toward the sky. The air vibrated. Invisible hands—vast, ancient, like those of a forgotten deity—surrounded that condensed light.

The forest trembled.

Asterin closed her eyes for a moment and smiled as she felt that power coursing through her once more.

Then she slowly turned toward the demonic forest.

Her gaze pierced the distance, penetrating the deep darkness between the trees.

Her smile widened.

“I see… so that’s where you are.”

The air in front of her tore apart.

A huge sword condensed in the void, forged from pure light and ancient will. Asterin held it delicately, as if it were a feather… and took a step forward.

The sky opened up.

She descended at a devastating speed.

And she uttered a single word:

“אקסקליבר.”

The world turned white.

The sword of light descended from the open sky. The air split in its wake, the clouds were torn apart in a spiral, and the roar of the lightning wolf was drowned out by a deafening roar.

Lucas could barely look up.

He saw the golden line cross the sky.

And then it struck.

The ground shook violently. A shockwave swept across the battlefield, uprooting trees, hurling debris, and extinguishing the plasma spheres floating around the beast as if they were mere sparks.

The rank V lightning wolf tried to resist.

Its fur bristled with wild electricity. Lightning bolts descended in uncontrolled fury, crashing into the luminous blade.

But it wasn’t enough.

The golden sword pierced his skull.

It descended without stopping.

It cut through flesh and bone in a single perfect line.

The wolf’s colossal body hung suspended for a moment, split by a golden crack that glistened from head to ground.

The beast was split into two exact halves.

The light exploded upward, piercing the remaining clouds. The sky, which had been covered by black storms since the beginning of the siege, tore completely apart.

The clouds dispersed.

And blue once again dominated the sky.

Lucas fell to his knees, breathing heavily, unable to look away from the split corpse that was beginning to disintegrate into particles of energy.

The oppressive aura had disappeared.

The weight crushing his chest was gone.

The field fell silent.

Then, a drop fell on the cracked metal of his armor.

Then another.

And another.

It wasn’t the furious storm from before.

It was a gentle rain.

The water fell softly, washing the blood from the ground, settling the dust raised by the devastation.

Lucas tilted his face toward the clear sky, letting the rain wash the mud and blood from his armor.

…But the mysterious female figure was gone.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep