novelraw Chapter 113: The Veil ( I)
Chapter 113: The Veil ( I)
[Level Four — 2:05 PM]
The first Herald attacked before the team finished entering.
Not a chaotic attack — a coordinated one.
Three Heralds from the right flank simultaneously with the first from the front, cutting off the entrance angle so the team couldn’t retreat to Level Three without fighting.
An entrance trap.
They had prepared it.
"Formation," said Alex.
The team was already repositioning.
---
The Heralds on Level Four were different from the five on the road.
Not in level — in knowledge.
The first one who reached Grim didn’t attack directly.
He activated something — a small device, black crystal — and Grim’s energy fluctuated.
[Grim HP: 3,360 → 3,360/3,360] — no physical damage.
But Grim stopped.
**"Interference."** His voice carried something different.
**"On the Harvest. It’s cut off."**
"Can you fight?"
**"Yes. But the Harvest is blocked within a three-meter radius of that device."**
Alex processed quickly.
The Heralds knew how to block the Harvest.
They knew how to neutralize passive death abilities.
Years of preparation for this moment.
"Break the device," said Alex.
**"First the Herald holding it."**
---
Raven with Army of Bones — thirty skeletons materializing on the left flank.
The problem appeared in twenty seconds.
The symbol on the floor of Level Four was pulsing.
And Raven’s skeletons pulsed with it.
Not all of them.
Eight out of thirty.
Their movements desynchronizing from Raven’s commands, orienting toward the center of the chamber where the symbol glowed.
"Number twelve," said Raven.
"Flank position."
Number twelve kept advancing toward the symbol.
"Number twelve."
No response.
Raven had to use active concentration — not the passive control she normally maintained — to reorient the eight skeletons that the symbol was absorbing.
Which meant the remaining twenty-two operated with less coordination.
"The symbol is interfering with control," she said through her teeth.
"How many can you keep stable?" asked Alex without taking his eyes off the Herald in front of him.
"Twenty-two now. Fewer if the symbol keeps charging."
"Use the twenty-two."
"Already am."
---
Maya didn’t wait for instructions.
As soon as she saw the Heralds’ pattern — that three of them were orienting specifically toward Kira, not toward the team in general — Akari extended her five tails.
Not all nine yet.
Five.
The space was enclosed, the oxygen limited, Level Four with a structure that could give way if the heat was excessive.
Five was enough.
[Fox Fire — 15 orbs]
Not in a sweep.
In a specific pattern — the orbs moving between the Heralds approaching Kira, creating a barrier of heat without flame that forced them to change angle.
Kira could fight without worrying about her right flank.
Maya had calculated it before Kira asked.
---
Kira noticed it when they reached the twelve-meter radius from the center of the chamber.
Not gradually.
All at once — like pressing on a wound you didn’t know you had.
The left side.
The seal.
She kept moving.
She fired two arrows in sequence — a Level 68 Herald who had opened a formation toward Emily’s flank.
[Herald Level 68 — down]
Another step forward.
The pain increased proportionally to the distance from the center.
Kira adjusted her posture to compensate — weight slightly more to the right, the bow repositioned to not depend on the left side during the draw.
Functional.
Maya in her periphery — Akari covering the angle where the pain made Kira slower.
They hadn’t coordinated it.
Maya simply saw it and covered it.
---
Alex fighting his way toward the center.
[Shadow Step] — five meters through the Herald line.
[Blood Weapon — daggers] — three projectiles clearing the right flank of the corridor he needed to cross.
Another [Shadow Step].
The Heralds responded well — each time Alex appeared in a new position, two or three of them repositioned to cut off his next angle.
They had studied how Shadow Step operated.
They knew the approximate cooldown.
Which meant Alex couldn’t use it in the same pattern twice in a row.
A Level 75 Herald — the highest he’d seen on the level — cut off his route directly.
No interference device.
Just combat.
Level 75 against Level 43 without amplifications.
Alex blocked the first strike with [Blood Weapon — shield].
[Alex HP: 1,110 → 960/1,110]
The Herald was fast.
Clean technique, no waste.
Alex against a Level 75 Herald was mathematically problematic.
[Battle Flow — activating — 4%]
He blocked the second strike.
Gave ground deliberately — not because he was losing it but to reposition.
The Herald followed him.
Which took him away from his position cutting off Alex’s angle.
[Shadow Step] — not toward the center. Toward the Herald’s flank.
[Blood Weapon — sword] into the blind spot on the right side.
[Level 75 Herald HP: X → X-800]
Not eliminated. But slowed.
Alex kept moving toward the center.
---
[Grim souls: 860 → 895/1,000]
The density of Level Four was different from the previous ones.
Not because of the number of undead — there were no undead on Level Four.
It was the energy of the symbol, which as it charged released fragments of the souls it used as fuel.
Grim harvested them passively while fighting.
The interference device had fallen with the Herald holding it.
Harvest active again.
**[Grim souls: 895 → 912/1,000]**
Grim in Form 2/7 — two and a half meters, translucent armor, double-bladed scythe.
On Level Four, the crimson of his eyes responded to the violet of the symbol in a way that didn’t happen on the previous levels.
Recognition.
The Core and the fourth seal recognizing each other.
Grim noticed it.
He ignored it.
He had Heralds to handle.
---
[Grim souls: 912 → 930/1,000]
The symbol pulsed harder.
The rhythm of the countdown accelerating.
Raven lost control of five more skeletons — thirteen now oriented toward the symbol. Only seventeen stable.
"The symbol is charging faster," she said.
"I know," said Alex from the center.
Ten meters from the Veil.
The Veil hadn’t attacked.
Throughout the entire fight — the Heralds fighting, the symbol charging, Kira in growing pain, Raven losing skeletons — the Veil had been motionless in the center in front of the symbol.
Just watching.
Which was more unsettling than anything he could have done.
---
Ten meters.
Alex stopped.
The Level 75 Herald had been left behind — Emily with [Blessing of Protection] and two applications of [Heal] had given him enough margin to keep advancing.
The Veil remained motionless.
His violet mask.
Fragment 4’s light visible at the edges.
The eyes beneath the mask — not visible but present in a way Alex could feel through [Soul Sight].
"You arrived earlier than we expected," said the Veil.
No distortion filter.
Direct voice.
A teenager’s voice — not deep.
Just the voice of someone who is sixteen years old speaking with absolute calm in the middle of a battle.
"I tend to show up early for appointments," said Alex.
"That’s what people in a hurry to die say."
Alex looked at him.
The Veil raised his hands — not to attack.
To remove his mask.
The mask fell to the floor.
Level Four was silent for a second — even the Heralds pausing briefly, as if the ritual of removing the mask carried its own weight.
A boy.
Sixteen years old, maybe less.
Dark hair.
Eyes completely violet — not the iris, everything. No visible white, no differentiated pupil.
As if his eyes had been replaced by the Fragment.
No particular expression on his face.
Not threatening.
Not scared.
Not angry.
Empty.
Almost.
Because there was something — small, at the corner of his lips, in the minimal tension around his eyes — that wasn’t completely empty.
That was something the emptiness hadn’t finished covering.
Alex looked at him.
And understood something he didn’t want to understand.
*What he could have been.*
Without the Circle.
Without Viktor.
Without Grim being named that first day.
Without Raven appearing in his apartment.
Without Emily coming to his room the night of the expulsion.
Without any of the things that had happened between the Ceremony and now.
A boy with a Fragment and no one else.
For years.
The Veil raised his right hand.
Not toward Alex.
Toward the symbol.
The violet light of the symbol responded — intensifying, the rhythm of the countdown visibly accelerating.
And Kira, fifteen meters away, on the team’s flank, doubled over.
Not gradually.
All at once.
Both hands to her left side.
Her knees giving way.
Kira — who gave way to nothing — giving way.
[Kira — Seal Resonance: ACTIVE]
[Pain: no physical source]
[Fourth Seal: responding to the active symbol]
Maya moving toward her before she finished folding, Akari automatically repositioning to cover the gap Maya left in the formation.
"Kira—"
"I’m—" Kira tried to stand.
Not completely.
"I’m fine."
It wasn’t completely true.
The symbol pulsed once more — bright — and Kira’s side responded the same.
The Veil looked toward where Kira was.
"The anchor is in position." His voice without particular emotion. Like data. "The ritual can now be completed."