Chapter 124: The Void Mantle
The rain poured down in heavy sheets.
Holden stood in the mud, his Solar-Forged Sword held low at his side. The crimson edge cast a faint glow on the puddles at his feet. Behind him, the red warning lights were fading into a blurry smear. Out front, there was nothing to look at except dark trenches and the endless noise of the storm.
He waited.
His System screen sat open in the corner of his vision, passive scanning running at full capacity.
[Hostile Intent Detected: NONE]
[Anomaly Detected: NONE]
Eight hundred and forty-seven beasts surrounded him in the dark. Zero hostile intent from any human. Zero anomalies. The Void Mantle was doing its job perfectly.
But Holden wasn’t looking at the System anymore.
He was watching the rain.
Every raindrop that hit the mud created a tiny splash. Drops that hit a solid surface created a different splash. A smaller, tighter ring. He’d been standing still long enough to map the rhythm of the rain against the ground, the rocks, and the walls.
Something was wrong.
Thirty feet to his left, the rain was hitting something that wasn’t ground.
The splashes were too small and close together.
A vertical surface, slightly curved, was swallowing the impact of each raindrop. Rain was bouncing off an invisible shoulder.
Squelch.
A boot stepping deep into the mud. Twenty feet closer than before.
Holden didn’t turn or flinch. His 10,000x multiplier was processing the physical data at impossible speed, building a silhouette from nothing more than falling raindrops and the sound of footsteps.
Left shoulder. Narrow build. Right arm extended, holding something long and thin.
A Dagger.
It was five feet away now.
Holden’s fingers tightened on the Solar-Forged Sword.
The invisible attacker struck.
The dagger came from behind and to the right, aimed at the base of his skull. It moved faster than anything a Rank 2 fighter should be able to react to. A killing blow. The same strike that had nearly ended him in the Capital.
Holden turned his head.
The blade passed within a fraction of a millimeter of his neck. He felt the edge kiss his skin, parting the hairs on the back of his neck without cutting flesh.
Then he spun.
SHLCK.
Holden swung his Solar-Forged Sword horizontally through the rain. The assassin dodged, but the blade passed close enough to displace the air around the invisible figure. For a split second, the falling rain gave away a human shape as the droplets bounced off something solid in midair.
The assassin landed in the mud ten feet away.
Then a voice spoke up, low and strained with shock.
"How can a dead man see me?"
Holden didn’t answer.
He could see the silhouette now. The rain was his radar. Every droplet that hit the invisible figure created a tiny splash that mapped out a head, shoulders, arms, and legs. The outline flickered and shifted with each wave of rain, but it was there.
The assassin moved.
Fast. Incredibly fast. The dagger came in low, aiming for Holden’s stomach. Holden parried with the black blade, and the impact sent a shockwave through his arms.
Squelch.
The assassin’s left foot shifted in the mud. Holden tracked the sound and ducked under a follow-up slash that would have opened his throat.
He counter-attacked. The Solar-Forged Sword blazed with crimson fire. The assassin twisted sideways, and his Hellfire Cleave missed by inches.
The wave of fire slammed into the trench wall instead, turning the mud instantly to steam.
The rain kept falling.
Every time the assassin moved, the mud gave him away. The faint outline of rain bouncing off an invisible body. Holden’s 10,000x multiplier processed each physical clue instantly, building a real-time picture of where his enemy stood.
The attacks became erratic. The invisible figure blurred through the rain, his dagger flashing in and out of visibility as the firelight caught brief glimpses of the blade.
Holden blocked a straight thrust, followed by a reverse slash, and then a spinning backhand that nearly took his ear off. Each dodge left him less room to maneuver.
The mud was slowing him down. The assassin moved like the mud didn’t exist. Holden’s boots sank deeper with every step.
The assassin feinted left.
Holden bit on the feint.
The real attack came from the right. The dagger plunged toward his ribs with killing intent behind it. Holden twisted, but not fast enough.
He made a choice.
Instead of retreating, he stepped forward.
The dagger sank into his left arm, slicing through muscle from elbow to wrist. Pain exploded up his shoulder like liquid fire.
But the blade was inside him now. Anchored. Trapped in his flesh.
The assassin’s eyes widened behind the invisible hood. He tried to pull the dagger free.
Holden grabbed his wrist.
He gripped on with every ounce of his Iron-Body strength, turning his hands into solid steel. The assassin pulled, twisted, tried to break free. Holden didn’t let go. His left arm screamed in agony, blood pouring down his forearm, but his fingers were locked.
"You shouldn’t have come back," Holden said quietly.
He activated Hellfire Cleave.
Point blank.
WHOOSH.
Crimson fire erupted from the Solar-Forged Sword at zero distance. The compressed blast hit the invisible silhouette square in the chest. The shockwave blew the mud outward in a perfect ring. The rain within ten feet vaporized into steam.
The assassin was violently thrown backward, ripped out of Holden’s grip and dragged right out of the cloak’s protection by sheer force. The figure flew thirty feet through the air, slammed into a trench wall, and slid down into the mud.
The invisibility shattered.
The cloak’s invisibility shattered, leaving the black fabric visible over a thin man in dark leather armor. His chest was a crater of scorched flesh and molten metal.
His eyes were open, staring at nothing.
Dead.
Holden stood in the rising steam as the rain hissed against his blazing sword. His left arm hung limply at his side, blood dripping steadily from his fingertips into the mud.
[Ding!]
[Rank 3 Assassin (9-Star) Defeated!]
[Base Reward: 7,000 KP]
[2x KP Booster Applied!]
[Total: +14,000 KP!]
[Current Balance: 167,490 KP]
[Legendary Artifact Acquired: Spiritual Void Mantle]
[Description: A cloak woven from threads of null-space. Passively conceals the user’s energy signature, cultivation rank, and hostile intent from all forms of spiritual detection.]
Holden walked to the corpse.
He crouched in the mud, grabbed the black cloak, and pulled it free. The fabric was lighter than it looked. It didn’t feel like cloth. It felt like holding a pocket of empty space.
He stood up and wrapped the Spiritual Void Mantle around his shoulders.
The world didn’t change. But something shifted in the air around him, a subtle folding of reality that made his skin prickle for just a moment before going completely still.
He looked down at his hands.
They were gone.
The rain passed through where his hands should have been and hit the ground. Nothing splashed against his skin. No shape, no shadow remained.
Holden smiled.
He turned and walked back toward the fortress, and the rain swallowed him completely.