Sarkar cackled inwardly, slipping unseen through the chaos of the battlefield. Raleigh's blessing rendered him a phantom, untouchable and invisible among the throngs of enemy soldiers. The Empire's forces surged around him, completely unaware of the deadly predator in their midst. Each step Sarkar took carried him closer to his target, a living specter moving through the heart of the chaos, driven by ambition and bloodlust.
But his mind kept wandering.
'The boy with white hair—alive. Again.How?'
Sarkar was certain he had killed him. His blade had pierced the boy clean through, a fatal blow no one could survive. And yet, he'd seen the boy earlier, walking and breathing as though untouched by death. The memory gnawed at him.
"Maybe a revival skill?" he muttered under his breath. But the thought didn't sit right. No, it was something else. Something far darker.
The Devil of Peace.
The stories had reached even him. Whispers of a ghost-like figure with silver hair and eyes like pools of blood, haunting battlefields and offering salvation to the dying. But at a cost.
The Devil's "peace," they said, wasn't without consequence. Those who accepted the pact survived their mortal wounds, but they were stripped of their will to fight, doomed to a lifetime of pacifism. Soldiers returned alive but broken, their fire extinguished. They refused to fight, even on pain of death. Raleigh was forced to lock them up in a temporary dungeon until the Devil's influence faded.
Sarkar had laughed at the tales, dismissing them as drunken fantasies. But now, with the boy alive and unscathed, his laughter was gone.
Earlier, when he'd seen the rat, instinct had taken over. He'd unleashed a comet of searing flame, reducing the area around the boy to ash. No one could have survived the attack, or so he believed. Satisfied, he had moved on, focusing on the true prize.
Today, he would kill someone worthy.
The commander's orders echoed in his mind: General Thanason—a name spoken with reverence and fear. If this mission succeeded, the rebellion would crumble, and the Empire's iron grip would falter.
Sarkar slipped into the commander's tent with ease, Raleigh's blessing ensuring his invisibility. The air inside thrummed with power.
And there he stood.
Thanason.
The general's dark hair and piercing yellow eyes radiated an aura of unshakable authority. He stood like a statue carved from obsidian, surveying the battlefield with cold calculation.
Sarkar's grin faltered. His heart quickened. This man wasn't mortal. He was a storm incarnate.
He wasn't scared, he didn't feel such weakness. Only exhilaration.
He tightened his grip on his dagger, his flames roaring in anticipation. One silent step after another, he closed in.
The dagger fell in a flash of silver.
//////////////////
A towering figure carved through the rebel forces like a hurricane. His blade was a symphony of death, each strike precise and devastating. MageKnights fell before him, and soldiers scattered like leaves in the wind.
He fought alone, an unstoppable force amid the chaos, conserving his mana for the true challenge ahead.
Being surrounded meant nothing to this man, it only meant death would be dealt at every angle.
Sarkar's dagger struck the air. His instincts screamed at him. 'Too easy,' his mind hissed. 'It was all too easy.'
Thanason was a renowned general. It couldn't be this simple.
Before he could react, a blur of motion tackled the "general" to the ground. Sarkar's eyes narrowed as he saw his target fall—not to him, but to a boy.
A new rat. This one with green eyes.
The boy's green eyes burned with fury, his MageKnight sword trembling in his grip. Sarkar's grin returned, wider and more feral.
"Another rat, huh?"
With a flick of his wrist, flames erupted along his blade, the heat warping the air. His invisibility dissipated, revealing his towering, fire-wreathed form.
The boy froze, disbelief flashing across his face. Sarkar wasted no time, swinging his blade in a vicious arc. The boy barely dodged, his hair singed by the flames. His counterattack was quick and precise, but Sarkar parried with ease.
"Combustion," Sarkar growled. His body ignited into a scalding red mist as blood evaporated through his skin, his muscles bulging with explosive power.
The boy leapt back, crying out as the heat seared his skin. Sarkar advanced like a predator, his voice low and menacing.
"You. Will. Die."
The fear in the boy's eyes was intoxicating, fueling Sarkar's bloodlust. He seized the boy's face in his armored hand, lifting him effortlessly.
Noah screamed as the burning blood charred his skin, agony consuming him. For a moment, he wanted to give up. To just let it end.
But then, an image flashed in his mind.
Arthur. Covered in blood, dragging a wounded soldier to safety, refusing to fall.
'If he can do it, so can I.'
Something clicked. A blue screen blinked before Noah's eyes, and a notification filled his vision.
Blessing of the Sky: (The sky is ever-changing. Prove yourself.)
Blessing of the Sea: (The ocean is unyielding. Prove yourself.)
Both conditions fulfilled! Blessings have high affinity. Combine blessings?
Yes / No
Noah's lips trembled. Through the pain, he screamed, "Yes!"
Power surged through him like an unstoppable tide. Frost rippled across his scorched body, extinguishing the flames. His green eyes bled into an icy blue, a frosty mist spilling from his skin.
In his hands, a weapon formed—a blade of frost, sharp and glinting.
Noah raised the sword, his voice calm, almost casual. "This time, I won't fall behind."
Sarkar snarled, his flames battling the icy mist. Their swords clashed again and again, steam hissing with each strike. But Sarkar's skill was undeniable, and he pushed Noah back with relentless precision.
Then came the moment. Sarkar's blade pierced Noah's side. Blood spilled, pouring out onto the floor.
Sarkar grinned in triumph. "Finally…" He turned to the General, ignoring the feeling of wrongness that had persisted.
But then, the "general" dissolved into mana, revealing a trembling man of short stature and bright red hair.
Sarkar turned, realization dawning too late. It had been a trap.
Behind him, Noah rose, frost covering his healing wounds.
"Your turn," Noah said, his voice as cold as winter.
Sarkar roared, lunging with blazing fury. But before he could strike, a spear burst through his chest. It was a black spear, with white runes webbing across it. A truly terrifying relic that thrummed with power.
Sarkar staggered, blood dripping from the black spear impaled through his heart. His gaze locked onto Noah, whose frost-covered form smiled weakly, then he collapsed on the floor, feeling his lifeblood drain out of him. Frantically, he looked for the owner of that spear.
He saw a person with silver hair, and eyes the colour of blood, he was holding the spear, and looking down on him with disgust.
A single thought skittered across Sarkar's mind as he died. 'You.'
"Took you long enough, Arthur," Noah rasped.
Arthur stepped forward, hands still on the spear—Ascension, a relic of immense power. He had spent the time Noah had bought him finding it, thankfully its recovery location had been mentioned in the novel after the death of the first commander.
He grinned, though his body swayed with exhaustion.
"We did it," Arthur said, relief washing over him.
As the battle subsided, Arthur and Noah lay side by side on the blood-soaked ground, staring at the darkened sky.
"So, explain," Noah broke the silence, his voice weak but insistent.
///////////////
Deep underground, Raleigh faced Thanason in the tunnels.
Darkness and light clashed in a battle of wills and raw power.
"You were never a true spy, Raleigh," Thanason grunted, his blade of light forcing Raleigh back.
The spymaster smiled thinly. "No, my old friend. I've always been a warrior first."
With a final surge of darkness, Raleigh struck, enveloping Thanason in a cocoon of shadows. Thanason was trapped. Raleigh was smart. If Thanason broke the shell, he caused the tunnels to collapse, condemning his army above him to oblivion.
But instead of worrying, he waited patiently. It should've happened soon. Then it did, the sphere of darkness crumbling around him, the mana disappearing.
Thanason stood unharmed, his yellow eyes gleaming. Raleigh collapsed to his knees, drained, his once-sharp features hollow.
"H-how. Sarkar died? But how?"
Thanason smiled coldly. He knew Raleigh's S-Rank skill. 'Spymaster General.' And he knew its drawbacks, after all, they had grown up together.
"Any last words Raleigh?," Thanason said softly.
Raleigh's voice trembled. "It wasn't you I feared. I don't care what anyone says, I never hated the people of Thoracen. But those damn nobles. My daughter... It was my failure."
Thanason sighed before striking the final blow. "And that failure destroyed you, old friend"
////////////////////////
Arthur sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. "The commander we're fighting—Raleigh. He was the ex-spymaster of the Thoracen Empire. It was because of him the rebellion became as dangerous as it did. Well, him and a few others."
Noah listened intently, frowning. "Go on."
"Raleigh has an S-rank skill called Spymaster General. It lets him grant powerful blessings to anyone who agrees, giving them new abilities. But the skill has a flaw."
"What kind of flaw?"
"If someone blessed fails their mission, Raleigh loses his ability to use mana for a week. If we hadn't interefered the mission would've been successful, and Raleigh would've retained his power. But because we killed the MageKnight first, the mission registered as a failure, and Raleigh was drained, meaning General Thanason would be able to win the battle between them.
"But this was an imposter, not General Thanason. Shouldn't the mission be registered as a failure anyway?"
Arthur smiled. "That was General Thanason's plan. But because the blessed MageKnight thought the General overlooking the battle was his target, if he killed him, the mission would've been successful, and the General would've died, extending this war even longer."
Noah let the information sink in, then asked softly, "How do you know all this, Arthur?"
Arthur hesitated, the weight of the question evident in his expression. Finally, he sighed.
"I'll tell you, if I have to, but could you not?"
Noah smiled faintly. "Fine."
Arthur grinned back. "That easy huh."
"You saved our lives, I reckon you're allowed to keep one or two secrets."
The two lay in silence, exhaustion finally claiming them as the sounds of war faded into the distance.
Above, the stars began to emerge, their cold light a quiet witness to the battle's end.