The Invincible Young Master

Chapter 246 246 - Ominous Cube

Silica lowered her hand again, reaching toward Reynold's body with an expression that was neither caring nor cruel, simply calm.

But before her fingertips met his skin, he vanished.

The hall bent. The stone steps rippled.

Everything trembled as if someone had wiped the world clean with one sweep.

In the blink of an eye, Silica found herself standing on an endless green plain.

The soft grass swayed beneath a gentle breeze.

Above her, sunlight filtered through the colossal branches of a world-sized tree piercing the sky.

"A domain?" Her eyes narrowed. The faintest spark of cold amusement danced through the void-like calm in her gaze.

"So… someone dares to interfere?"

She stepped forward once, just one step. And space cracked.

Just as she was about to step out, a bright ray of light glimmered on her skin.

BOOOOOOM!

Reality tore open, expelling her back into the true world. Smoke curled from her half-burned skin, but her body twisted and mended itself with unnatural speed. Flesh came wove together like threads pulled by invisible hands, knitting her whole again.

Her gaze turned downward, toward the stairway.

Through the settling dust, an elf girl ran with a body on her shoulder.

And when Silica saw them, ancient fury ignited behind her empty, godlike eyes.

Silica's expression dimmed, her features sharpening as a cold shadow swept across them.

"Bold."

She lifted her hand with the grace of someone brushing aside dust.

Behind her, miasma curled and thickened, gathering into the shape of a colossal claw. Each finger stretched longer than a stone pillar, its edges razor-sharp, its surface swirling with crawling, hungry veins of darkness.

With a low, tearing howl, it lunged forward, raking down the stairway toward the fleeing elf.

Lina had only reached the halfway point when the sound split the air.

It was too fast.

But before those claws could reach her, a burst of silver light flared behind her like a small sunrise.

Two figures appeared, they were the two guards who had fallen earlier, their bodies glowed with cracks of molten red. Their bodies was shaking as if barely holding themselves together.

They didn't utter a single word.

They simply braced for the miasma to reach them.

Then they erupted.

BBBOOOOOM!!!

The impact shook the entire stairway.

A blinding explosion swallowed the monstrous claw, drowning the miasma in a roaring sea of light.

The massive claw shattered under the force.

Using that force, Lina propelled her even further below and soon reached the elder's side.

"What happened to Lord Reynold?!" one of the silver-armored ran up to her.

Lina knelt and lowered Reynold carefully beside the elder, laying him with as much care as she could manage in the chaos.

"I don't know. He… he just collapsed. His consciousness is sealed, by something ancient."

The commander paled, fear swallowing the color from his face.

"We cannot stay here." She said.

Lina bit down hard on her lip. Her eyes flicked upward, to where Silica resumed her slow descent down the stairs, her skin whole again, shimmering faintly as ruined flesh mended seamlessly.

"Elder…" she said quietly, "teleport us. Get everyone out."

The elder's remaining hand curled into a fist. "The core flame is still in her possession."

"We… have to abandon the core flame." She finally said.

The elder didn't answer at first. His lips pressed together, his jaw trembling as he looked around the battlefield.

Reynold lay unconscious at his feet.

The soldiers were exhausted.

He understood what all of it meant.

If they stayed, they would be throwing lives into a bottomless pit.

No one among them could face the ruin lord, not like this.

"…Very well," he said at last, his voice steady but heavy. "Buy me time. A few minutes will be enough."

But his gaze lifted up the steps, where Silica, no, the thing wearing her body, descended with quiet, eerie composure. Every step she took brushed aside lingering miasma like a gentle breeze.

"With her standing there," he murmured, "I doubt she'll simply allow us to leave."

Lina's hands tightened around her staff.

She could try to slow the ruin lord, but illusions, tricks, barriers, nothing she had would hold her for more than a breath.

Just then, the silver-armored commander stepped forward, his voice steady despite the trembling ruin around them.

"How much time do you require, Elder?"

The elder looked at him, then at Silica's approaching figure.

"You cannot stop her. None of you can."

"I know." The commander's reply came instantly, without the slightest waver. His eyes held a grim clarity, the kind born only in those who had already accepted death. "But… there is something that can."

Recalling a mysterious item, Lina froze.

Before entering the ruin, she had sensed the silver armored soldiers hiding something ominous in their ranks.

"If you can, then… buy me as much time as you can."

Without hesitation, four soldiers sprinted to the back lines and hauled the massive box forward. Bringing forward, they set it down before the commander.

The box was covered in talismans, glowing faintly as if restraining something alive inside.

Upon seeing the box up close, Lina could sense that things maliciousness more clear.

The commander didn't hesitate.

He ripped the chains apart, talismans fluttering like dead leaves as they were torn away.

Then he threw open the lid.

Inside rested a huge obsidian cube as tall as a man's chest, its smooth black surface carved with runes that pulsed like living veins. The symbols writhed faintly, distorting the air around it.

The commander reached in and lifted it with both arms, muscles bulging beneath his armor. A low hum filled the stairway as soon as his fingers touched it.

He turned toward the stair and threw it.

The obsidian block shot upward, leaving a warped trail in the air, like a meteor fired from a siege cannon, hurtling straight toward the ruin lord.

"Open!" the commander commanded, thrusting a finger toward the cube.

Thump…

Thump…

Thump…

A sound like a heartbeat echoed on the chamber.

Halfway up the stair, Vearos, extended an arm.

A wall of red mist surged from his palm, thick and churning like boiling blood.

The obsidian cube struck the mist, and stopped, hanging in the air amid the writhing red fog.

For a single breath, the hall went still, so quiet it felt as if the ruin itself held its breath.

Then, CRAAAAAAAAACK!

A deep fracture shot across the obsidian cube's surface, glowing with a sickly red light.

Another heartbeat boomed from inside, heavy and ancient.

The crack split wider.

A massive arm, dark, glistening, carved with runic scars that writhed like living worms, burst out and clawed at the red mist.

"Ghh!" Vearos choked, sweeping more corrosive fog forward.

The mist devoured chunks of flesh instantly, but the arm regenerated faster than it could melt.

In a flash, the monstrous limb surged forward and slammed down.

SPLATTER!

Vearos's body collapsed into a burst of blood and crushed bone, smashed flat against the stair.

The cube shattered completely.

Floating in the air above the debris was a colossal severed head. Its lids were shut tight, and its mouth was sealed with thread. The skin looked mummified yet pulsed faintly with life

A tremor rippled through the ruin's foundation, an eerie vibration that crawled through every stone.

Then, slowly, the eyes opened.

Pits of endless black locked onto the ruin lord standing high on the stair.

The sealed mouth strained, and then ripped apart.

RRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!!!