Chap 127: His Obsession

The purple glow on Sade pulled Tee’s focus to his nose, then to his black-filled eyes that blinked. His black-fitting dress blended into the dimness, making his head and pale hands pop like the overcast moon.

One question repeated in her mind, echoing with her racing heartbeat. Why were Sade and Riven here? A faint sound resonating from the void above caught her attention, and she glimpsed the red glow smudge.

Sade had heard her earlier yell to him and his members, calling them fools. He always avoided that specific mortal, even casting attention on his escaped puppet. But how could he resist the opportunity to consume his mind with the vessel’s alluring presence? That energy signature was a sign he and his members were closer to success than ever.

Riven scanned the air, ensuring the other Sentinels remained distant in the vast vacuum. It had no reason to believe the mortal’s companions were unaware of her dual-energy state. Yet they were not to know the dark lord’s plans for her. The last thing they needed was an uproar that would rob the mortal of her choice—or trigger her extermination. She was to come to them willingly.

Sade’s creepy, black-filled eyes held a tiny dot, and Tee couldn’t tell if it was a sheen or his pupil. It reminded her of Snickers, and her heart sank. Why was she thinking of that rodent at such a tense moment? Was the universe punishing her for what happened to Snickers? But it was an accident!

Sade’s hand moved, drawing her attention to the crown-size ring he held. Its golden, coarse surface reminded her of the fragment. Her eyes narrowed at the upsetting reality.

That was it. She realized why both Riven and Sade were here. The Harbingers had planned to lure them with the fragment and eliminate them—the same plan they had for them. The absence of her teammates confirmed it. She gulped.

Sade stopped moving his hand and placed the large ring on his head. The action wiped Tee’s mind blank. She gripped her swords tighter, while the deep growls from the levitating beasts twitched her ears.

Why did Sade place that fragment on his head…?

Was it her cue to slice his head off, kill him, and take the fragment? The thought of killing a Harbinger and reclaiming the fragment was tempting. But she couldn’t smile or salivate. The tension in the air, being outnumbered, froze her expression into stone.

Sade's eyes glowed purple as he raised one hand toward the mortal. How demotivating. It frustrated him that he couldn’t sense the strong energy signature again. Even in his drained state, he should have detected the faintest trace of Dark mana. Yet there was nothing to pull from. Perhaps the mortal needed something to ignite the flame.

Tee’s eyes bulged as the five levitating beasts dashed toward her. She stood her ground and extended her foreseeing vision above her head. She wasn’t looking to survey the battleground—her focus was on spotting any expanding red vortex that might trap her.

She channeled her strength into one leg and leapt into a powerful twirl. One monster’s mouth was sliced open, and the red glow from its eyes vanished.

Sade stepped closer, grey palms open, trying to sense the mortal’s energy. In a split second, he shifted focus to create an energy field. A spinning sword lodged in his barrier before shattering it. He stepped aside to avoid another blade and froze a splash of monster blood just before it could stain his hair.

The energy he had left wasn’t enough to maintain a strong barrier. He couldn’t keep creating and shattering shields endlessly. He extended a leg through the long slits in his dress, stopping a minion’s rolling head. Crushing it to a pulp didn’t move him—such worthless creatures.

What a shame if his beasts died and the flame still didn’t ignite. Would Riven be willing to do the honors?

Riven reminded Sade it wasn’t one of his mindless pets to command.

The mortal pulled her blood-drenched swords from the third beast. Sade felt his control slipping over the remaining two, yet he still couldn’t sense her dark energy. Summoning stronger or more pets in his critical state wasn’t wise.

So he broke the chant that allowed his remaining pets to breathe. They no longer needed it outside the vast vacuum. That strengthened his control and suppressed their urge to flee.

Only darkness could control darkness. Yet all sorcery, whether Shinra or Dark mana, required energy.

Riven, in its dark cloud form, glided aimlessly high above the ground. It counted to three—the same number of Sade’s pets the mortal had slain. Still, no energy signature came from her, and its attention shifted to its other members in the void.

Meanwhile, Kie soared toward Legion’s fiery eyes and glowing axe. The collision from their earlier blasts had pushed the Omega matter back. Engulfed in energy, Kie was willing to test his luck even with a missing right hand. He continued whipping energy waves at Legion, aiming to extinguish his light.

Miko’s lashes and a pinch of her nose had been eaten by the cloud, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it before the deep, reverberating voice spoke again. It was as if the void itself had found a tongue.

“You, the Sentinels, fight a lost cause. Join us or give in, for death is the only escape from what is to come.”

Kie agreed with the voice’s final statement. Death was better than pain and suffering—but he hoped Legion endured both before he went down. He lashed another wave of energy at the fiery eyes holding the axe. Their blasts collided in another explosion, pushing the red cloud of annihilation back.

The mention of the creators made Zod’s mind buzz. Energy blasting from both his hands to propel him forward, he yelled to the voice, “Who the hell are the creators?!”

Zod’s yell cut through the pain clouding Saeda’s mind. It pierced even the faint rumble of energy from her own hands. She knew he wasn’t speaking to her or Miko nearby, but hearing a voice didn’t mean it was a cue for conversation. Her brows knitted as the voice responded.

“The creators are the divine minds that inspired the Alpha Seal… And you cannot stop their coming. They have the power to create the cosmos and reclaim the planet’s life.”

Zod knew the Alpha Seal caused the first Apocalypse because of the elders. But did the voice mean the creators had been coming for over two thousand years? If those divine minds were that powerful, shouldn’t they have arrived already? Shaking off the illogical thought, he decided to focus on soaring faster with his energy blasts.

The voice continued. “The life energy that ensured the planet’s survival will bring its end. Not even the planet or its Sentinels can stop it. Opposing us will only bring the worst to come…”

Miko glanced back from the endless void ahead. The energy trails from her, Zod, and Saeda’s blasts stretched at most fifteen feet—enough to keep them ahead of the surging cloud. But further to her right, the red mass was constantly pushed back by explosions of light.

Through brief dimming in the blasts, she spotted two sources of color. The faint blue glow of Kie and the orange of Legion. Both were blocked by the red cloud, which was closing in, curling around them as if forming a trap. Miko’s glowing eyes widened in horror—the cloud was about to trap Kie inside.

Saeda watched Miko soar out of their streamlined formation to the right until she vanished from sight. If it weren’t for the pain from her missing lower leg and the red matter chasing her, she would have joined Kie to fight Legion. But she was still new to blasting energy from her hands, and how Miko managed to keep it up was a mystery.

Saeda forced herself to think above the pain. She wasn’t like Kie, who could whip energy from his flaming swords… or Zod, who stayed ahead of her with stronger blasts. Miko could teleport to save herself, but the throbbing in her leg confirmed one thing. Should she leave Zod and go help?

The pain reminded her she was more useful to Kie and Miko by staying out of the way. She couldn’t do anything to help them and it was the same for her former family. Her mother was gone, and there had been nothing she could do. She blinked away the tears in her eyes.

Miko teleported a foot ahead of the cloud chasing her, giving her room to continue soaring in a curve toward Kie and Legion. She passed through the swirling matter, which still surged from all angles, trying to enclose them in a massive sphere.

The last breath of Sade’s remaining beast left it with a blood-curdling shriek. Its body lay pinned under three swords, but Sade never glanced at it. His eyes remained fixed on the mortal.

Still, he could not sense what he wanted from her. That would take longer than he expected. He stopped a smile from forming, his pale lips twitching instead.

Tee’s heart pounded in her chest, her muscles stiff from constant alertness. She kept her eyes wide, using her foreseeing vision to scan above her. Sade, with the fragment on his head, and Riven in its intangible smoke form faded from her attention as the dim lands around her vanished into pitch blackness.

She snapped out of her foreseeing vision and darted her eyes downward. Her heart sank—her feet pressed against nothing but darkness. Her lungs tightened after inhaling empty air. Panic surged, and she squeezed her neck. Crap! She was suffocating again.

The life created by the Sealed Bond was the first to disappear. Inanimate objects followed, the environment reverting to what it once had been, deep beneath the earth’s crust. Sade had anticipated that, but it was not yet time to leave. He wouldn’t depart until he got what he wanted—or his energy was drained enough to make breathing in his form impossible.

Tee shut her eyes, and the pain in her tummy and chest intensified. Like before, squeezing her neck wouldn’t help—it was only a matter of time before her claws emerged. But what could she do? Worse, the Harbingers could not know about her dark side, or they would tell her teammates. Her mind wanted to give in to suffocation, but her body kept fighting. Damn, why couldn’t she just pass out? But wait…

She ripped her blood-filled eyes open to see the sorcerer with his palms extended toward her. What was she thinking? She couldn’t pass out with two Harbingers before her. Through the brain-stabbing pain, one question tormented her. Why hadn’t she been snatched by a vortex or possessed already? Was wiggling in pain considered too much movement for Riven? What was the four-eyed bird waiting for?

The pressure threatening to rip her chest open forced her to shut her eyes again. Instead of darkness, she saw black-and-white static. She wanted to tear off the turtleneck that felt too tight around her neck. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and a searing pain shot from a vein in her neck.

Sade and Riven watched the mortal struggle. They both sensed her dark energy flicker on and off. Sade tried to pull the energy, but nothing came—it was buried too deep beneath the surface.

However, he was the master of patience. After all, he had waited over a thousand years under Jorah’s command. That thought brought a flood of memories of the years he had watched her grow up.

He remembered the day he found her, and the day he lost her. When he found her again, she stood on the opposite side of the line. But that was where she belonged—for now, fighting alongside the Sentinels until her time came to join him. Though their reunion would be brief, he would savor the last moments before the end she would bring.

Another vein burst from the suffocating mortal, and her dark blue shirt began to flood with red. Riven, floating as a black cloud, remained unimpressed. The waiting, the painful gasps—everything annoyed it.

Where was the powerful dark side it had heard so much about? Riven’s focus shifted to Sade’s twitching fingers. Indeed, the sorcerer struggled to maintain his calm composure while dealing with the girl.

Three months had passed since Sade had been cut off from the vessel, but Riven remembered how things were before then. During his free time, Sade would enter the modern world to spy on the mortal girl. He claimed it was subtle guidance to set her on the right path, but in truth, it was more accurate to call it stalking.

Sade insisted the mortal never noticed him. Riven, however, doubted it. With Sade’s knowledge of chants powerful enough to break Sealed Bonds, he must have done something to her. She was his obsession.