Chapter 68: Chapter 68 – Burying the Star Witch

Axis vanished from sight for a moment, then a brutal kick slammed into Delilah’s light shield. The golden barrier shuddered violently, struggling to withstand a force far beyond what she anticipated.

Delilah was thrown down. Her back smashed into the ground, splitting the already fractured tiles into a gaping pit. Her breath caught, her spine protesting in a sharp crack. Fresh blood spilled from her lips, splattering over the flickering shield that still tried to protect her.

Axis descended like a meteor. There was no mercy.

His legs, insectlike yet muscular, crashed down on her shield again.

DOOOM!

The barrier trembled once more, the light shaking as if screaming. Fragile rays splintered into shards.

Delilah had no chance to counterattack. Her body swayed. Her vision doubled.

Axis leaned in closer…

And began to strike.

Massive, black-steel fists rained down on her.

BAAAM!

BAAAM!

BAAAM!

Every hit carved a new crater into the earth. They sank deeper and deeper, as if Axis intended to bury her alive.

Delilah clenched her teeth. Almost losing control. Almost collapsing.

But she forced her mind to keep working.

All the floating spears of light around her melted into layered walls of protection. She curled beneath them, letting each wall take the wrath of the Apostle of Space.

The ground around them rose and hurled upward. The air vibrated. A terrifying silence, then another earth-shattering blow tore through the city.

DUUUM!

Delilah peeked through a narrow crack in the shield.

And she realized something.

They were far from the city center now.

Deserted buildings. Empty streets.

This was the moment.

She raised her hand as high as she could. Light poured from fractures in the sky, gathering above them… more and more, growing heavier, until it formed a colossal spear that seemed to carve the heavens.

A flash visible from every corner of the city. Even those hiding in fear lifted their eyes, breath stolen by awe.

Axis looked up.

The spear fell, ripping through the atmosphere and striking the earth—

KRAAAAAAASSSSHHH!!!

A massive explosion of light swallowed an area the size of a stadium. The ground surged like a tidal wave, bursting skyward with debris and shattered streets. The reversed gravity Axis created buckled. Gravity snapped back to normal, and everything that had floated began to plummet.

Eldertree, the gigantic guardian at the city center, panicked. Its roots shot outward, catching the falling civilians before they hit the ground.

At the same time, Charlotte Haverty emerged in a healer’s uniform. She closed her eyes, hands clenched as if in prayer, and a wave of light burst from her. The wounded, both lightly and gravely injured, healed in an instant.

When the quake settled…

All that remained was a massive crater carved into the earth like a gigantic bowl.

At the bottom, the Star Witch lay helpless.

Her light shield was gone. Her battle dress was torn, stained with dust and blood. She looked up, her sight blurring.

Axis was still standing.

The armored black cocoon around his mouth had cracked, greenish blood dripping from his jaw. His breathing sounded like an insect ready to explode.

“Human…”

His voice grated like metal scraping metal.

“You made me like this. My respect…”

His iron grip clamped around Delilah’s throat.

She struggled, reaching for whatever light remained, but nothing answered.

Axis prepared to break her neck.

But—

SHUP!

An arrow simply appeared in the air. No bowstring. No sound.

It materialized beside Axis’s arm and sliced through it like butter.

CRACK—PLAAASH!!

His arm hit the ground.

Axis froze, all his spatial senses shrieking. As an Apostle of Space, he instantly understood: the arrow had teleported into his body.

Delilah saw it and finally let herself fall unconscious.

Axis snarled and whipped his head around, searching for the attacker.

No one was there.

SHUP!

A second arrow.

His other arm flew off.

Axis screamed. He launched into the air, zigzagging and tearing through the sky to evade attacks he couldn’t even perceive.

Yet the next arrow waited exactly where he would be.

It pierced his wing.

Then his chest.

Then his leg.

Axis crashed, tumbling across the ground in a humiliating heap.

Grinding his teeth, he unleashed a piercing high-frequency buzz. A gravitational barrier expanded around him.

But…

Another arrow appeared inside the barrier. It punched into his chest again.

Axis glanced at the unconscious Delilah.

“So there is a human… even more troublesome…”

He tried to flee, darting upward unsteadily. But the strongest arrow of the night manifested.

SHUUUP.

His abdomen split open like thin paper.

He collapsed to his knees, almost cut in half, yet clinging desperately to life.

He buzzed. Sharp. Panicked.

Space cracked open.

A humanoid moth with beautiful multicolored wings emerged, like a commander displeased yet forced to rescue his soldier.

Axis crawled toward him.

“Hurry…! Pull me in!”

The creature grabbed him and dragged him into the rift.

Just before the dimensional tear sealed shut, one last arrow pierced the rescuer’s back.

The insect’s scream echoed into the starless abyss… then disappeared.

The dimension closed.

The battle was over.

The night turned silent.

Only the wind still disturbed the drifting dust.

Far away…

In a high penthouse overlooking the ruined district, a man stood behind a panoramic window fogged by the cold night air. His hand still held a softly glowing bow, the string loose from firing the final shot.

Zephyr.

The cloth that usually covered his eyes lay discarded on the floor. Nothing hid the damage now—raw, jagged scars circling the area around his eyes, brutal horizontal gashes cut across his brow and upper cheeks, as if some cruel blade had carved at the same place again and again.

Both eyes were open.

His right eye looked like a calm blue sky, distant and unreachable.

His left eye burned red like an endless war at sunset.

Each iris and pupil was split into two, as though he housed four perspectives of the world inside a pair of broken eyes.

Zephyr watched the battlefield from afar. His breath fogged the glass.

“If only I had undone the seal sooner…”

He knew regret was pointless.

But silencing it was hard.

His left eye—the most precious curse of his life—expanded his awareness for two hundred kilometers. Every life was a tiny light on an invisible map. Paired with archery that pierced space itself and brief glimpses of the future…

Zephyr could kill anyone and anywhere.

But power came with a price.

Agonizing heat crawled from the back of his skull toward his cheekbone. And worst of all, his left eye could only detect existence, not the precise position or body part of his target.

So even though his arrows struck the Apostle again and again, he failed to land a fatal shot. That was why Axis survived.

His fingers trembled as he tightened his grip on the bow.

.

.

.

I rubbed the new face I wore thanks to [Faceless Mask]. The smell of blood clung to the air. Two young men lay motionless on the cold floor. Mindrender in my hand still dripped thick dark red, unwilling to let go of its last taste.

I took a slow breath. My footsteps echoed quietly through the empty room, joined only by the whisper of wind through a shattered window.

Then the first notification appeared in front of me.

[Quest: Revenge – Successfully Completed.]

[You have received 200 EXP.]

A grin tugged at my lips. That was what I wanted. Small revenge, maybe, compared to what comes next… but still satisfying.

I turned toward the exit. Time to visit my stepmother. But before I could move, a stream of new lights burst into my vision.

[Quest: Hunter – Successfully Completed]

“What…?”

[You have received 15000 EXP.]

[Received New Skill: <Five-Minute Rewind>]

[Received New Skill: <Dreamweaver>]

[Received Item: <Aphrodisiac Elixir>]

[Received Item: <The Edge of Bliss>]

[Received Special Item: <Key of the Tower of Space>]

[You Have Leveled Up to Level 30]

[You Have Received 5 Stat Points]

[You Have Leveled Up to Level 31]

[…]

I froze. My eyes widened, making sure I wasn’t hallucinating. The notifications kept coming without a pause. Every level increase made my chest tremble like an earthquake shaking the foundation of my life.

[You Have Leveled Up to Level 47]

[You Have Received 5 Stat Points]

My breath hitched. A dizzy rush pressed against my skull, a storm of shock, joy, and confusion. This experience went far beyond sanity.

But it wasn’t over yet.

The final notification appeared, closing everything with a single line that sent a rush of thrill through me.

[Skill Time Stop has been upgraded]

I stood there, speechless.

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