Six Hundred Escape
In the dim underground tomb, within the enclosed limited space, Misha, who had sneaked into her family’s mausoleum, and the black-clothed person, also a sneak-in, engaged in a short but intense confrontation. Following this clash, the mysterious black-clothed person used their wind ability, which left both Misha and Doro, who was far away, astonished. The black-clothed person did not give Misha any time to be surprised; they immediately launched their next attack.
Without giving the opponent a chance to catch their breath, the black-clothed person used their fingers, charged with compressed air currents, to sh**t several wind blades directly at Misha. Although these cutting wind blades were invisible, Misha, with her superhuman sensitivity to airflow, immediately sensed the impending danger. She extended her hand forward, releasing an air cannon towards the direction of the black-clothed person. The invisible air cannon moved swiftly through the air of the underground tomb, colliding with the similarly invisible wind blades. The air cannon shattered, and the wind blades were deflected from their trajectories, striking the stone pillars and rock walls of the tomb.
Seeing that one strike was ineffective, the black-clothed person did not stop. They waved their hand, causing a whirlwind to form around them and blow towards Misha, as if attempting to suppress her entirely with the force of the wind before attacking her.
Faced with this assault, Misha did not back down. She immediately blew a strong gust of wind to counteract the incoming force. For a moment, the two opposing gusts collided in the center of the underground tomb, creating chaos as they scattered in all directions. In that instant, the swirling winds, beyond both parties’ control, engulfed the entire underground tomb, stirring up years of accumulated dust. Amidst the swirling dust, the already dim underground tomb became even darker, making it difficult for Misha, who had night vision, to see clearly. They all became alert and cautious.
Facing such a scene, both sides took different measures. Misha immediately blew a circle of wind around herself, dispersing the dust and ensuring visibility to prevent any sneak attacks. Meanwhile, the black-clothed person pulled out a sigil from their clothing, wrapped it in a gold coin, and threw it forward. As the glow on the gold coin disappeared, the sigil burned into ashes in mid-air. From where the sigil burned, a sudden burst of intense light erupted, and a small glowing orb emitting white light floated in the middle of the tomb, illuminating the surroundings. Instantly, the visibility inside the underground tomb increased, and the black-clothed person could see the outline of Misha’s shadow through the dust.
“What… Is this a lighting sigil! What is he planning?”
Seeing the source of light in the dark space, Misha couldn’t help but become wary. While maintaining her guard, she immediately shot several wind blades towards the shadow cast by the light, taking advantage of the opportunity to locate the black-clothed person and launch an attack.
However, unexpectedly, the wind blades that pierced through the dust and headed toward her didn’t perform a typical dodge. Instead, the black-clothed person lowered their body, seemingly melting like an ice sculpture, quickly dissolving onto the ground and spreading out as a pool of dark shadows. From Misha’s vantage point obscured by the dust, it appeared as though the black-clothed person had suddenly vanished underground.
“Can he really burrow underground?”
Seeing the sudden disappearance of the black-clothed person’s figure, Misha immediately focused her gaze on the ground, fearing an ambush. However, instead of seeing the black-clothed person emerge from the ground, she witnessed another strange sight.
A shadow, floating in the light of the lamps inside the tomb, emerged from the fog in front of Misha, slithering along the ground like a snake, rapidly advancing toward her.
The shadow, which existed without a physical form, quickly swam to a spot just in front of Misha. Misha’s eyes widened, and she immediately hurled several wind blades at the snake-like shadow. However, the shadow quickly twisted and deformed like rubber, dodging each blade, leaving only sharp cuts on the ground. When the snake-like shadow reached Misha, it rapidly spread out like spilled ink, forming a shadow mass. From this mass, the black-clothed person quickly emerged, wielding a dagger and rushing toward Misha. At that moment, his distance from her was less than a meter.
Facing this sudden situation, Misha’s expression tightened. She then lifted one foot and forcefully stomped on the ground. At the instant her foot touched the ground, a pressure wave gathered beneath her foot exploded outward, creating a chaotic current that swept towards the surroundings. The black-clothed person, who had rushed close to Misha, was immediately blown off balance by this stormy stomp. Seizing this opportunity, Misha immediately counterattacked, swiftly slashing her sword and cleanly slicing the black-clothed person in half, severing him into two pieces.
However, just as Misha thought the battle was over, something shocking happened. The severed shadow of the black-clothed person transformed into two dark phantoms and distortedly vanished in mid-air, leaving neither bl**d nor remains. This caused Misha to freeze, her eyes filled with shock.
“What?!”
“Watch out behind you!”
At that moment, the warning voice of the so-called detective echoed again in Misha’s mind. Upon hearing this, Misha immediately turned around and saw another snake-like shadow rapidly approaching her from within the dust behind her. From this shadow, another black-clothed person quickly surfaced, wielding a dagger and lunging at Misha.
At this distance, Misha could no longer use her wind abilities to counterattack. She hurriedly turned and stretched out her hand, gripping the dagger of the black-clothed person with her left hand. The dagger, enchanted with “Shadow,” quickly cut through Misha’s glove, but Misha, using her “Stone” skin, managed to hold the dagger firmly despite the bleeding from her fingers.
Holding the weapon aimed at her, Misha raised her right hand and swung the blade fiercely at the black-clothed person. At this range, there was no escape for the black-clothed person. Just as Misha’s sword was about to strike the black-clothed person’s forehead, an unexpected event occurred.
Suddenly, Misha’s fatal final attack came to an abrupt halt. Her sword clearly stopped just centimeters away from the cold mask of the black-clothed person, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t move it an inch further.
Misha felt as if she was being restrained by some powerful force, unable to move at all. Yet, there was nothing else around her to physically restrain her. It was as if she was possessed by a powerful ghost, unable to move, though no spirit had appeared on the battlefield.
“This… is…”
Her eyes wide open, Misha moved her only movable eye around to look at her surroundings. Then, she saw something even more astonishing. On the floor of the underground tomb, her shadow, illuminated by the nearby floating lamp, began to show abnormalities.
Black shadow ropes extended from the shadow of the black-clothed person in front of her, connecting to Misha’s shadow. It seemed to tightly bind Misha’s shadow, while the black-clothed person’s shadow performed actions completely different from its physical counterpart. The shadow ropes thrown out had no corresponding physical entities, and the bound shadow made Misha’s physical body immobile. The constraint from her own shadow seemed to have transferred to her real body.
“This… is the Shadow Path?!”
Seeing this, Misha muttered in disbelief. Meanwhile, the black-clothed person who had successfully restrained Misha loosened the dagger held by Misha and drew another dagger from his cloak. After infusing the dagger with powerful “Shadow” enchantment, he wielded it and thrust it straight at Misha’s throat. Under the third-tier “Shadow” enchantment, the second-tier “Stone” defense would not last long.
In the reflection of Misha’s widened eyes, the sharp dagger imbued with the “Shadow” spiritual essence rapidly approached, seemingly about to pierce her throat. She was about to lose her life at any moment. Just when the crisis was at its peak, a turn of events occurred.
Suddenly, a fine, dense smoke enveloped Misha’s body. Wherever this smoke covered, Misha’s body turned into a peculiar semi-transparent state, resembling a ghost, but more ethereal, flowing with various dreamlike colors.
This was Dream Body Transformation! Seeing Misha’s condition, Doro immediately intervened again, using the “Shadow” and “Enlightenment” spiritualities to drive the Illusion Scale Incense Cage, transforming Misha’s entire body into a dream form. Once Misha’s body was transformed into a dream form, she lost her physical reality temporarily, turning into a Dream Realm Being, a phantom existing in the real world.
Phantom bodies do not cast shadows, as light cannot create shadows from non-physical forms. Therefore, the moment Misha was transformed into a dream form, her shadow disappeared, rendering the black-clothed person’s shadow ropes ineffective.
Escaping the black-clothed person’s shadow restraints, Misha regained mobility. After paying the price of losing a part of her dream body to the black-clothed person’s enchanted blade, she finally managed to avoid the fatal strike. Misha’s dream body then quickly drifted around to the black-clothed person’s side, where Doro released her from the dream transformation, restoring her to her physical form. Immediately afterward, Misha launched a counterattack.
Wielding her sword, Misha unleashed a fierce gust of wind, blinding the black-clothed person. Seizing this moment, Misha stepped forward and swung her sword at him. The black-clothed person quickly recovered and countered, throwing several shadow ropes towards Misha. Learning from her previous experience, Misha reacted immediately, slashing the ground with a wind blade, cutting through the strange shadow ropes and preventing them from controlling her again. However, this action delayed her offensive rhythm.
Seemingly after witnessing Misha’s dream body transformation, the black-clothed person judged that he could not k*ll her. He believed that continuing to engage with Misha here was not a good choice. Thus, when Misha’s attack was delayed, he did not choose to continue the offensive or reinforce his defense. Instead, he turned and ran toward the exit of the underground tomb. Seeing this, Misha immediately pursued with her sword raised.
“Don’t think you can escape!”
Facing the fleeing black-clothed person ahead, Misha gathered her spirituality in her sword, intending to release wind blades at him. However, just as she raised her sword to strike, the black-clothed person suddenly turned back and threw something at her. Upon closer inspection, it was a pendant, the ancient artifact that the black-clothed person had taken from Amper’s stone coffin!
The pendant was thrown between Misha and the black-clothed person, directly in the path of her wind blades. If Misha unleashed her full attack, the pendant would surely be destroyed. Facing this scenario, Misha had no choice but to forcefully redirect her attack at the last moment, causing the wind blades to veer off course and hit the wall of the underground tomb. After stopping her attack, Misha hurriedly stepped forward and grabbed the pendant.
Meanwhile, the black-clothed person once again merged into the shadows, dissolving into the ground and transforming into a snake-like shadow, rapidly slithering toward the exit tunnel. He completely disappeared into the darkness there.
Witnessing this, Misha immediately followed suit, securing the pendant. However, when she reached the tunnel entrance, a burst of fire suddenly erupted from the distant end of the tunnel, followed by a loud explosion and tremor.
“Boom!”
Accompanied by a deafening explosion, a powerful shockwave traveled from the front of the tunnel downward, blowing into the underground tomb and nearly knocking Misha off balance. After regaining her footing, Misha looked ahead and felt fresh air blowing in from outside the tomb. She couldn’t help but mutter in astonishment.
“That guy… has blown open the sealed door?!”
“More accurately, he blew apart the wall beside the sealing stone. The door is made of Helim Stone, which is harder to destroy. The wall probably contains only a small amount of Helim Bricks, and he must have set the explosives there during his infiltration,” Doro responded to Misha from afar, then sternly warned.
“The explosion has already attracted your Extraordinary Beings and the An Yin Bureau. Now, run! Otherwise, it will be too late!”
Hearing Doro’s words, Misha was momentarily stunned. After quickly reacting, she manipulated the airflow to lift herself up and rapidly flew toward the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, the door had been damaged by the explosion, and Misha quickly exited the underground tomb through the opening created by the black-clothed person. Along the way, she saw several unconscious tomb guards, likely knocked out by the black-clothed person who had come out first.
Following this, Misha rushed out of the Loyal Guardian Church, entering the forest before her family and colleagues arrived. She swiftly flew through the dense woods, distancing herself from the Devonshire family cemetery. During this process, she pondered the identity of the black-clothed person she had encountered.
“Who is that guy…? Why can he use so many abilities related to the Shadow Path? bl**d Darkness Path, Storm Path… Even the Shadow Path, which should be inherited by the Osotlis Royal Family… The Eight Pinnacle Nest shouldn’t be limited to just the bl**d Darkness Path, right?”
During her flight, Misha asked Doro this question in her mind. At that moment, Doro was deep in thought, seriously analyzing the origins of the mysterious black-clothed person. She now had a premonition about the black-clothed person’s identity, based on her own conjectures.
“Perhaps… we might have run into an old acquaintance this time…”
Doro murmured, her thoughts drifting back to the New Year’s celebration where Duke Barret was assassinated, half a year ago. That was when she first witnessed the Eight Pinnacle Nest’s strongest piece in Prite.
That was… the murderer, the Night Demon.
