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Eventually, Elara collapsed onto the cold, hard ground, from exhaustion and injuries, her body aching and her senses dulling. Rythe moved in for the final blow. He towered over her, his face twisted into a triumphant smirk. His weapon, still coated with swirling wind and mana, gleamed ominously as he prepared to bring it down upon her.
"You're a dangerous creature, Elara...", Rythe's voice echoed in the silent night, his words dripping with cold, ruthless finality, "You're too unpredictable, too feral. I had initially thought to play with you a bit and then torture you for a while... but it seems that would be too much of a risk. I'll just have to end this here and now."
Elara's eyes flared with defiance and indignation, her gaze never leaving Rythe's. Her body was failing her, her strength seeping out of her like the blood staining the ground beneath her. But her mind was still whirling, desperately seeking an escape, a glimmer of hope in the impending darkness.
She was a survivor, a vampire who had navigated the treacherous underworld and faced countless betrayals. She had fought against her own kind, against the human mercenaries, against everything that threatened her existence. She even killed her parents with her own hands in the end because they got in the way of her survival. And she wasn't ready to stop fighting yet. Even with death looming over her, she clung to her will to survive, her mind racing through countless scenarios and strategies.
Her body lay broken and bleeding on the ground, but her spirit was still unbroken. Even in the face of imminent death, Elara refused to submit, her heart filled with a desperate desire to live, to fight, to survive. As Rythe raised his weapon, preparing to bring it crashing down, Elara's thoughts raced, her eyes burning with an unyielding will and a fierce determination that not even death could extinguish.
Just as Rythe was about to deliver the final blow, a sudden change took over him. His triumphant smirk faded, replaced by an expression of shock. His mouth and eyes widened in surprise, his gaze growing distant and his body stiffening. A soft, barely perceptible touch ghosted over the armor at his back, it was a very light tap, followed by an internal sensation that was alien and terrifying.
His organs, once safely ensconced within his body, began to shift and twist in unnatural ways. An intense pain shot through him, like a searing hot knife skewering his insides. His heart, the rhythmic organ that had faithfully kept him alive all these years, began to contort within his chest, sending a wave of agonizing pain through his body. A choked gurgle escaped his lips as his heart underwent a torturous transformation, twisting and turning until it was unrecognizable.
Suddenly, his strength gave out and he collapsed onto the cold, hard ground, his body convulsing as his life force began to drain away. His eyes, once filled with the thrill of victory, now stared blankly into the void as his life slipped through his fingers.
Behind him, Elysar Valthoren emerged from the shadows, his form materializing as he deactivated his twisting magic that had bent the light around him, rendering him invisible. His usually calm face was etched with grim determination as he lowered his hand, the magic that had twisted and ruptured Rythe's organs slowly fading away. Elysar had used his unique ability to twist not only light but also the very fabric of life within Rythe. Rythe, the proud Knight Captain, had fallen, his life extinguished in the blink of an eye.
Elysar's unique magic, Spatial Twisting, was a manifestation of his innate ability to manipulate the fundamental aspects of reality within a limited scope of his own body by using his spatial magic. His control was not absolute, but within his entire body's range, he could distort elements of the world that others took for granted - light, sound, and even scent.
His manipulation of light was a visual deception, bending and refracting the photons that would normally reveal his position, causing them to curve around him. This created an illusion of emptiness, making him virtually invisible to the naked eye. It was akin to a mirage, bending reality to his will.
Twisting sound, on the other hand, was a more complex process. Sound traveled in waves, vibrating through the air and reaching the ears of those around him. By subtly manipulating the air molecules around him, Elysar could distort these waves, causing them to scatter erratically or dampening them entirely. The result was a sphere of silence, where his movements became whispers lost in the wind.
As for the scent, Elysar manipulated the volatile compounds that made up his unique smell. Every living creature had a distinctive scent, created by a mixture of natural body odors and environmental factors. By twisting these molecules, changing their structure, or redirecting them away from him, he could effectively erase his scent, becoming undetectable to those reliant on their olfactory senses.
He was even twisting the wind around him as he moved around in hopes of not changing its directions and then alerting his enemy of his arrival in that way. He thought everything out.
However, this ability had its limitations. It required a significant amount of mana control and precision to maintain, and it was only effective against those of similar or lower mana levels.
Individuals with higher mana levels than him, starting from those above the rank of Knight Captain, possessed a natural mana-sensing ability that allowed them to perceive disturbances in the mana around them. While Elysar could obscure his physical presence, he couldn't completely hide his mana signature, making him detectable to those with heightened mana senses. His Twisting magic was a potent tool, but it was not a catch-all solution, reminding him of the constant need for vigilance in the face of stronger adversaries.
Elysar's recent acquisition of cognition-enhancing magical drugs had amplified his abilities to an extent he hadn't foreseen. In the past few days alone, he had managed to master abilities that he had previously struggled with. Yet he acknowledged that he still wasn't on the Knight Captain's level in terms of just his own body and abilities, he was around halfway there at most. The current Elysare was sure that even the previous Elysar could've reached this point had he been more creative and less insane like him despite them sharing the same bad luck.
However, with those mana-enhanced weapons and thin, yet powerful armor made of unique materials that could also be considered his clothes at the moment, he could truly fight a Knight Captain openly if he wanted. Nevertheless, he still wasn't content with it. Thanks to the previous owner paranoid influence, everything that was outside his biological body, he still considered 'fake'. Only when his own strength reaches peak levels could he truly be safe.
But those armaments served as his insurance now, giving him the confidence to approach this Knight Captain person so close. And this encounter was a perfect opportunity to test the limits of his twisting ability, and he did so with a sense of exhilaration, rather than fear.
His mana-blasting weapons were combined with his own blood, enhanced with his clan's dream essence. He could now summon it from the small pocket space marked on his two forearms. They looked like two mini railguns when summoned and he speculated that they were one of the most expensive and precious magical artifacts in this world currently. Sometimes he even wondered what did he deserve to make his mother care so much about him, despite the previous owner being such a failure both mentally and physically. Nonetheless, he would like it if he said it didn't make him happy. After all, in his previous life on Earth, he never experienced such affection.
Elara watched in shock as Rythe's triumphant smirk turned into a ghastly expression of surprise and pain. His body spasmed before falling to the ground, coughing up blood as his life left his body. She had seen death many times before, but never like this - so sudden, so unexpected. She couldn't comprehend what had happened, how the formidable Knight Captain, a high-ranking operative of the Night Stalkers, holding the third highest ranking type in the organization, had been brought down in an instant, 'What the hell happened, am I dreaming..?'
And then there was her 'savior', a mysterious figure emanating the mana level of an ordinary Knight Captain. Despite her vampiric-enhanced senses, she hadn't sensed his presence until it was too late. It was as if he had appeared out of thin air, catching her completely off-guard. He stood very tall and muscular, his visible hair was silver and his silver and black noble attire gave off an air of elegance, yet also suggesting a readiness for battle. It was a strange combination of armor and ordinary clothing, unlike anything she had seen before.
His face was hidden behind a mask, concealing his identity and intentions. Her instincts told her to be wary; there was no telling what this stranger's true intentions were. She had experienced a lot of scenes like this in the underworld, first, they pretend to save you, and then they kill you themselves just to torture you mentally or for some other ulterior motive.
With these thoughts racing through her mind, Elara lunged forward to Rythe's dead body. It was a desperate attempt to recover strength, to feast on his flesh and blood to heal her wounds. She knew she didn't have much time. The ten Knight Vanguard members, who were forming an array to attack her, were also closing in in panic after noticing what happened to their leader. She needed to recover her strength to fight against the mysterious savior, if necessary, and to escape from her impending doom. The most important thing for her right now was to live and then get revenge on the organization that betrayed her and drove her to this point in the first place.
However, she was still glad that she managed to survive the ordeal. She slowly felt her strength and mana recovering whilst consuming the flesh of her former enemy and guarding herself with his armored body against the mysterious silver-haired figure in front of her who just observed her and was yet to speak or make a move.
Elysar contemplated, 'Has she failed to recognize me? Of course, I have ceased displaying the Valthoren emblems for quite some time, particularly since I began my outside expeditions. Individuals like her are likely to have journeyed extensively, where silver hair isn't deemed unusual. Even if I were to reveal my face, I doubt she'd recognize me. My appearance has significantly altered over the past few months, and the previous owner scarcely left the confines of home...', Elysar then scanned the woman in front of him entirely.
Having spent several days scouting the Outer Ring after receiving his magical drugs, yet failing to locate any fortune-touched individuals he sought, Elysar unexpectedly perceived an individual radiating an exceptional degree of luck with his Fate's Gaze. This person was swiftly moving from a position beneath him and his crew. He noticed it in the form of some kind of weird thread-like narrow vortex, leading him there. Curious, he inquired if Garrick knew of any underground passages in the area. Upon learning that this part of the capital city was riddled with subterranean tunnels, Elysar was imbued with fresh anticipation and promptly led his team to the location. His current Fate's Gaze range was extremely short currently, something he hoped would increase in the future, so he acted quickly to follow her.
Instructing his crew to hold back and move on his signal, Elysar cloaked his presence using his twisting ability, approaching close enough to observe the standoff between the woman and her adversaries.
He immediately tried to siphon her luck using his Fatewearer Amulet but was taken aback when it failed to yield any results. Shaken, he hypothesized that the woman might not be a full-fledged daughter of luck.
Her luck quotient was 80, her fate aura tinted blue. He surmised that perhaps only those with a luck value above 100 were the genuine articles, from whom he could extract luck.
Initially, the realization filled him with profound disappointment. However, it soon dawned upon him that he could 'steal' her luck, albeit in an unconventional manner - by enlisting her as his subordinate.
After all, he was in dire need of a personal force. His mother's assistance, while invaluable, wasn't something he could solely rely on. Trust was a precious commodity, and she hadn't earned his complete faith due to the secrets she kept and the mysteries that shrouded her. Besides, he desired someone who could perform tasks on his behalf without her knowledge.