Still moving? Northern’s eyes flickered.
The spear piercing Weiss was still forged from the “Moon Silver.”
Although when he struck, he deliberately held back to coerce Lortisa into submission, leaving Weiss barely alive.
Yet not only was there no pain on Weiss’s face, he didn’t even struggle; on the contrary, he slid his left hand along the cold spear shaft, pushing it further through his chest to close the distance and firmly grasp Northern’s wrist.
“You can weave through the mist and easily dodge, true. But you can’t retaliate physically while assimilated with the mist. Well, most who use phasing have this limitation—it seems you’re no exception.”
Weiss’s voice was hoarse from blood loss.
“You have to dispel the phase for the body to interact, so you just need to catch that moment.”
A chill ran up Northern’s spine from his wrist, and he instinctively shuddered.
How did this mere mercenary know so much? Was it a guess on the spot or battlefield experience?
But the shock lasted only an instant before Northern’s arrogance quickly suppressed his unease.
“Oh? And what do you intend to do?”
He sneered, raising an eyebrow as he looked at the vermin hanging off his spear and still spouting nonsense.
“Knowing only that much and thinking you can beat me? I admit you’ve got some tricks, but a lone mercenary surviving the disaster zone is already lucky.
Your ignorance has exhausted the Lord’s mercy. What comes next is execution time.”
Weiss paid no mind to his threats, even laughing aloud.
“No, no, no, you’ve misunderstood. Winning against you isn’t my responsibility.”
Catching the hidden meaning in his words, Northern glanced downward at the golden figure in the distance, eyes full of disdain.
“Your life is in my hands; she dares not act rashly. Even if I crush you now, no matter how fast she is, she can’t hit me.”
Weiss smiled bitterly, coughing up blood, but his eyes shone brilliantly.
“That’s why winning isn’t my job. Creating an opportunity for Tisa so she can finish you off—that’s what I’m doing!”
With that, he suddenly removed the “Eye of Meromero” embedded in his left wristguard with his right hand, then tore off the “Homeward Dust” cloak, wrapping the orb tightly.
Using his last strength, he hurled the bundle forcefully toward Lortisa’s direction.
Northern couldn’t see the mercenary’s exact expression, but the overflowing confidence stirred a wild unease within him.
A worm-like commoner.
A piece of garbage mercenary from the lowest tier.
Why—why did he feel such apprehension?
—Whether from fear or caution, he could not let that thing fall into Lortisa’s hands.
Northern immediately summoned the black mist all around him; the “Dark Doom” storm rose, swirling toward the package flipping in midair.
But when it came to speed, the spreading black mist could never compare to the golden female soldier.
The golden afterimage tore through the thick fog as Lortisa flashed up, agile and steady, catching the familiar cloak midair.
The enchanted orb inside the bundle no longer emitted a holy light.
The “Eye of Meromero” was now murky and restless, strands of dark smoke twisting within, as if it were truly an eyeball freshly plucked from a demon’s socket.
Lortisa hesitated not at all.
In just a fleeting glance, she fully understood Weiss’s intention and immediately draped the familiar cloak over herself.
It seemed somewhat smaller than she remembered, but the reassuring feeling remained.
She untied the old blue sash fastened at her chest and skillfully tied it back onto the cloak’s collar.
In an instant, her magic erupted and shifted dramatically.
The once blazing, radiant golden light dimmed like a solar eclipse.
The burning magic gradually subsided, and the scorching heat in the air cooled accordingly.
Yet her aura remained undiminished.
Lortisa moved again, still a golden shadow but with a darker, more somber hue.
Northern was within the fog field he created, the absolute domain of the Doom Knight.
But this time, he couldn’t sense her.
He couldn’t track the young soldier captain’s movements; her path vanished completely from his perception.
Until a sound of air ripping behind him, an irresistible force slammed hard into his spine.
He was thrown uncontrollably, rolling on the ground, smashing through boulders before finally coming to a stop.
—This is bad!
Northern struggled to stand and quickly merged back into the “Dark Doom” black mist, trying to conceal himself.
But Lortisa’s hand pierced cleanly through the phased fog, grabbing his collar.
“How is this possible?!”
Northern blurted involuntarily.
Weiss fell from midair, his body crashing heavily to the ground.
Though he felt no pain,
his limbs were numb, injuries combined with blood loss—
forget pain, even his senses were fading; he couldn’t control his legs and almost bit the dust hard.
Still, when he lifted his head and saw the young knight lord who relied on phasing but ended up humiliated, too weak to even get up, he couldn’t help but gloat:
“Lord Northern, looks like you’re dumbfounded now, huh?”
The “Eye of Meromero” was not only capable of outputting enchantments but also of extracting the target’s magic.
More precisely, it could temporarily switch the magic attribute of the targeted object.
The “Dark Doom” the Doom Knight relied on was merely a manifestation of magic.
As long as it was switched to the same attribute, it would possess the same nature and capabilities.
Like attaching holy light to a stone to harm darkness.
By extracting the Doom Knight’s magic through the Eye of Meromero, then enchanting the cloak “Homeward Dust” with the same attribute, it became a homogeneous piece of equipment.
With the cloak possessing “Dark Doom” affinity worn by Lortisa, she also gained the ability to move unseen within the “Dark Doom.”
Different magic attributes are like oil and water, unable to blend, always separating as if on different planes.
But the same magic attributes cannot bypass or cancel each other out.
Water from a river and water from the ocean are both water; when mixed, they always interact.
The moment Weiss was grabbed by Northern was exactly to extract magic from his true body.
“Your downfall is that you underestimated me.”
Weiss looked on as Northern was choked by Lortisa with nowhere to escape, feeling a surge of relief.
Yet Northern’s throat still managed to squeeze out words, roaring fanatically toward the sky:
“Who wins or loses is not certain! I have received grace, discarding life and death, embraced by the Father’s blessing!”
With his voice, a terrifying suction force erupted from his center, forming a massive vortex that swept up all the black mist around.
His body, almost incinerated by Lortisa’s magic to the point of dissipating, was visibly regenerating rapidly.
Lortisa frowned slightly.
Weiss’s eyes widened.
They hadn’t expected that simply grabbing him wouldn’t be enough to kill.
More importantly, the “Eye of Meromero” was only a purple-grade item; the attribute enchantment was time-limited and had to be used immediately.
If permanent enchantment were possible, he’d have started a magic equipment forging shop as a side business long ago and made a fortune.
In other words, if they couldn’t finish Northern within the “Dark Doom” affinity duration on the “Homeward Dust,” they might lose their only chance to kill him.
From the sudden changes in their expressions, Northern saw their predicament.
He, however, was no longer anxious.
“Even you, Lortisa, cannot destroy me! That is the difference between mortals and me! Hahaha—”
But then, in the next moment,
Northern’s laughter abruptly stopped.
A sword’s blade pierced through his back, emerging from his chest, the tip dripping black blood.
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