Chapter 49: At Death’s Door (III)

The roar of clashing metal was already fading, replaced now by the demons’ screams of pain and terror.

“I’m not sure I like doing this! It doesn’t even look like a battle anymore, it’s just a massacre!” exclaimed a visiare soldier as he drove his sword into a demon who was trying, without success, to hide among his packed-together companions.

Beside him, another young visiare cut seven demons in two at the same time. Or rather, he severed the space those seven demons occupied.

“Don’t forget that they’re the invaders! It was them or us!” Osvel shouted, turning toward the rest of his battalion. “And this is for Thaelor too! The demons were responsible for that attack by those green creatures!”

But seeing the danger Osvel represented, one of the more powerful demons seized the chance to attack while the visiare’s back was turned.

This was no ordinary demon. His sword began to glow with a sickly green light. By the time Osvel realized what was happening, it was already too late…

Or so it seemed.

An arrow suddenly appeared, lodged straight between the demon’s eyes, and he collapsed at once, letting out a guttural sound.

The arrow had not flown through the air. It had appeared directly in the enemy’s head.

It was a terrifying thing, if one stopped to think about it.

Osvel looked toward the line of hills and found Ily there, visibly annoyed, holding her bow with one hand while gesturing with the other for him to be more careful.

“If she put that much dedication into hunting, she wouldn’t come back empty-handed almost every time,” Osvel muttered with a smile.

It was then that some demons began taking out gemstones glowing with a somber purple light.

“Careful, they’re planning something!” Osvel shouted.

But there was no need to worry, because the stones went dark the very next instant.

***

“Veiled Trail“

Sae and Drazira looked at Nerez, whose arm was still raised beside them.

“Veiled Trail?” Sae asked.

“What did Lord Nereziel just do?” Drazira added.

Nerez, for his part, looked at the two of them while scratching his head, wearing an expression that showed he had almost as many doubts as they did.

“Let’s see, how do I explain this… according to Drazira, the demons had souls imprisoned inside the netherite stones,” Nerez said, taking a netherite stone from his own pocket. “‘Veiled Trail’ is a skill that lets me interact with the passages that form between a soul and the river of death.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“As expected of the god of death!” Sae exclaimed.

“That means…!” Drazira said, holding her breath.

Well, at first I could only travel to those passages. Now that the proficiency went up to D after I used it, I can open those passages myself. A pretty useful skill if you happen to find a lost soul…

“When I heard your story, Drazira, I ran a few tests, and it turns out I can open those passages inside the netherite stones themselves,” Nerez went on, putting the netherite stone back in his pocket. “Apparently, the souls wasted no time using them… or what do I know, maybe they were sucked in or something.”

Without the souls’ power, the demons were left at the mercy of Nerez’s army, and it did not take long for some of them to begin surrendering.

Fortunately, the skeletal soldiers moved with machine-like precision, and the demons who had thrown their weapons to the ground were quickly removed from the front line and subdued by the skeletons in the rear ranks.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the visiare or the forest spirits, who more than once, in the heat of battle, struck down demons who had already surrendered.

“This… this cannot be…” Drazel muttered as he watched the scene unfold.