Chapter 42: Mutation

Lortisa strode forward, the golden tips of her hair tracing sharp arcs in the moonlight.

Although the young Sergeant’s emotions never showed plainly on her face,

Ves, following closely behind, could clearly feel the oppressive low pressure thickening the air around them.

He quickened his pace, falling into step beside her and tentatively asked, “Um… Tisa, what do you plan to do next?”

At the sound of his voice, the invisible chill surrounding Lortisa slightly receded.

She didn’t care what others thought, but she would never let her anger drag down the most important person.

Besides, everything she intended to do was ultimately for his sake.

Lortisa turned her head slightly, coming to a halt and facing Ves.

Her tone returned to its usual calmness, but her words left no room for doubt:

“Just as we agreed. At the battle debriefing, expose Nortern’s abuse of power for personal vendettas.”

Ves scratched his head, still hesitant:

“I know you’re furious, and so am I. But even if there’s motive, if he insists it wasn’t intentional, there’s not much we can do about it.

And isn’t that Knight Captain someone special? The Siglivell family is a pretty influential noble house in the kingdom, right? Plus, they have the backing of the Knight Order. If you confront him head-on, it’ll be hard for you to function in the army going forward…”

Out of concern for her position and the politics involved, Ves didn’t want the young girl before him to alienate herself from those powerful factions by doing something thankless and exhausting.

She had already helped him so much this time, narrowly escaping disaster — that alone was more than enough.

“No.”

Lortisa shook her head gently, her emerald eyes steady and unwavering.

“Justice should never bow to tyranny. Even if all we can prove is command negligence and arbitrary rule, he must face the consequences for what he did tonight. He has to pay the price.”

That rising sense of righteousness stirred something quietly within Ves.

Once upon a time, he too had faced inequality with unwavering integrity and justice.

But after crossing over and trying to survive in this unfamiliar world, many compromises became necessary.

Especially as a mercenary, constantly drifting, dealing with all classes and powers, with countless kinds of people—

On the surface, one had to become smooth and adaptable.

Now, Ves wasn’t sure if he had dulled himself from holding back too long, or if his edges had simply been worn away.

Hearing the conviction and resolve in the girl’s words,

he gave a light chuckle and said no more.

If she believed this was the right thing to do, then she deserved his support.

Besides, she was nothing like him—a worthless mercenary.

Lortisa of gold, the kingdom’s strongest soldier captain, wielded power befitting her pursuit of justice.

Just as the two prepared to move forward again,

—「「「——Haibardura!!!」」」

A deep, twisted, familiar wail, as if from a rift in the abyss, rang out once more.

They both whipped their heads around, pupils shrinking sharply.

The black mist, which had seemed to dissipate moments ago, rose again from the ground like a living thing.

But this time, the fog did not seep from the forest—it spread thickly at the center of the Holy Patrol Knights’ formation.

The dense darkness, like spilled ink, rapidly expanded.

With it came an overwhelming chill, deathly silence, and a soul-level terror that weighed down on them like a suffocating net.

The dark veil instantly swallowed the moonlight, engulfing the entire knight squad.

Fear spread like a plague among the knights.

Warhorses reared and neighed in terror, and panicked shouts broke out—

But all these sounds were quickly drowned out by the ever louder, more piercing wails.

Ves’s hair stood on end, his consciousness nearly frozen in place.

He knew this feeling all too well—

The same suffocating despair he had felt when first encountering the Soul-Eating Prime in Quietday Town.

This time, the oppression was even purer and more horrifying.

This was what a lord-class Wretched truly looked like.

—Again?

Lortisa’s eyes flashed with deadly intent, almost instinctively clenching her fists, golden flames about to burst forth—

But she suddenly stopped.

Frowning, she stared hard at the roiling black mist.

—Something’s wrong.

There was no sign of any formed spirit in this fog.

The monster seemed to have abandoned its usual shape, becoming something stranger and more elusive.

And then, in the moment of her hesitation,

the churning mist exploded outward, rapidly swelling until it covered the entire hillside clearing.

Sky and earth plunged into darkness, all light utterly cut off, as if the world itself had been swallowed by despairing blackness.

“Ves!”

Lortisa’s heart tightened; she reached out frantically—

But her hand grasped only empty air.

Ves, who had been standing right beside her moments before, along with the voice she just heard, had vanished.

Meanwhile, the spreading black mist began frantically contracting inward.

Countless agonized, twisted faces appeared, forcibly pulled and compressed together.

Though she tried not to look closely, some of the faces unnervingly felt familiar.

The overlapping heads and souls no longer formed a chaotic mass but slowly sketched out a vast, orderly silhouette.

A half-figure of a knight, composed of black mist and clad in battle-worn, smoky armor, emerged slowly in midair.

Without a lower body, the massive torso floated above the ground, hollow eye sockets glaring down.

—「「「——Haibardura!!!」」」

A bone-chilling roar—

This time, the sound was clear.

Though it shared the same pronunciation, it was no longer a cry of pain.

Instead, it was layered bursts of malicious, mocking laughter like a poisonous miasma.

Until all the black mist was swallowed by an invisible giant mouth, transforming into a black tornado connecting heaven and earth.

Accompanied by that grating laughter, it spiraled high into the sky, and then the darkness on the hillside receded like a tide.

Moonlight returned, illuminating the deathly still clearing.

Lortisa stood frozen, her emerald pupils shrinking into narrow lines of danger.

The scene before her sent chills down her spine.

All the Holy Patrol Knights who had once lined up there, along with their warhorses,

stood motionless, frozen in place.

Each pair of eyes were wide with terror; their faces locked in the ultimate fear of their final moments.

Their skin was ashen and lifeless, drained of color, utterly devoid of vitality.

They had died as if their souls were forcibly torn away by fear itself.

Lortisa’s gaze swept rapidly over the deathly ranks, her heart plunging.

Not only was Ves missing.

Nortern was nowhere to be seen.

And the fallen female knight, Mophiana, was gone as well.