Chapter 199: Your Death
The three captains climbed from the rubble of the collapsed keep, smoke and embers curling around their bodies. Each one radiated the heavy aura of mid Mana Heart realm cultivators — two at Rank 4, one at Rank 5. Their clothes were torn, as they burned with killing intent.
The largest of them — a bald man with a jagged scar across his skull and an axe the size of a door — stepped forward at rank 4. His eyes locked onto the cloaked figure standing at the edge of the destruction.
"Who the fuck are you?"
Kael smirked beneath his mask.
He drew the Void Edge MK. II blades from his storage ring.
"I am your death."
Lightning Body activated.
White arcs exploded across Kael’s body, transforming his physical form into living lightning. His muscles shifted from flesh to something faster, something that existed between states of matter. At the same time, Thunder God Technique’s first form synchronized his nervous system with electrical signal speed. The world didn’t slow down — his perception accelerated until every dust mote, every flicker of flame, every micro-expression on the captains’ faces registered with crystalline clarity.
He moved.
The bald captain with the axe reacted fast for a mid Mana Heart cultivator — he raised his weapon in a defensive arc, steel humming through the air. But fast for Rank 4 was glacial compared to what Kael now possessed.
Kael’s blade sliced across the captain’s shoulder as he passed — a clean, shallow cut that opened flesh and muscle but missed anything vital. The captain roared and swung back, but Kael was already three meters beyond his reach, circling toward the next target.
The Rank 5 captain moved.
He was leaner than the axe wielder, with silver-streaked hair and a curved blade that hummed with wind mana. His attack came from Kael’s left — a horizontal slash accompanied by a concentrated gust of wind that extended the blade’s reach by two meters.
Kael shadow-stepped.
He reappeared behind the Rank 5 captain, both blades already slashing. The captain twisted with inhuman flexibility, wind mana swirling around his body to deflect the strikes. The deflection wasn’t perfect — a thin line of blood appeared across his ribs.
The third captain — a woman with short-cropped hair and twin daggers — flanked from the right. Kael turned to meet her, but the axe captain was already charging from behind, weapon raised for a devastating overhead strike.
All three attacked simultaneously.
Kael couldn’t use gravity.
The residual traces were the problem. Gravity manipulation left forensic evidence in the environment — warped space that persisted for hours, compressed earth that any competent investigator could identify as Vorn family techniques, altered gravitational fields that screamed his bloodline’s signature. He’d gone to considerable trouble to eliminate the Pillar Knights without leaving Vorn evidence. The mission was to eliminate the targets without leaving any trace.
So he relied on what remained.
Lightning Body for speed. Thunder God Flash for perception. Shadow Step for repositioning. Devouring Darkness for energy drain. And the Void Edge blades themselves — Grade 1 weapons that didn’t need elemental enhancement to cut through mid Mana Heart defenses.
The axe came down. Kael sidestepped with lightning speed, the blade burying itself in the ground where he’d stood a fraction of a second earlier. Before the captain could pull it free, Kael’s boot connected with his jaw — a lightning-enhanced kick that snapped the man’s head sideways and sent him stumbling.
The dagger woman was faster than her companions. Her blades found Kael’s guard twice in rapid succession — tink, tink — metal ringing against metal as he deflected with both Void Edge blades. She pressed the advantage, launching a flurry of strikes that forced him backward.
The Rank 5 captain recovered and attacked from Kael’s exposed left flank. Wind blade extended, cutting a line through the smoke-filled air.
Kael dropped into a split, both attacks passing over him. He swept both blades in a low arc, forcing the dagger woman to leap backward. The wind captain’s extended reach became a liability — Kael’s sweep destabilized his footing, and the man had to abort his follow-up to regain balance.
The axe captain ripped his weapon from the ground and charged again. "Stand still and die!"
Kael shadow-stepped to the dagger woman’s blind spot and slashed. She twisted away, but not fast enough — a cut opened across her thigh. She hissed in pain and pivoted, daggers flashing in a defensive pattern that was impressively tight.
The Rank 5 captain appeared above Kael, descending with a wind-enhanced strike. Kael crossed his blades to block. The impact drove him to one knee — Rank 5 physical strength was no joke even without techniques.
The axe captain’s attack came from the front while Kael was staggered. He deflected with one blade and caught the axe handle with his other hand, stopping the weapon inches from his face.
Close.
He headbutted the axe captain. With his body cultivation, the man reeled back, blood streaming from his nose.
The dagger woman seized the opening. Both daggers plunged toward Kael’s kidneys.
Shadow Step.
He reappeared ten meters away, breathing slightly harder than before. The three captains regrouped, forming a triangle formation with their wounded comrade — the other Rank 4, the one Kael had cut first — standing guard at the rear.
Their expressions had shifted. Frustration burned beneath the surface. They were mid Mana Heart realm cultivators — experienced fighters who had survived Zenthoria’s brutal hierarchy for years. And they couldn’t touch a man who radiated only Rank 1 aura.
"Stop running!" the axe captain screamed.
"I’m not running." Kael’s voice was calm. "I’m choosing when you die."
He moved again.
This time, he didn’t engage all three. He targeted the wounded Rank 4 — the one he’d cut in the first exchange. The man was the weakest link, his shoulder injury slowing his reactions by a crucial fraction of a second.
The dagger woman intercepted. Kael feinted left, shadow-stepped right, and appeared directly behind the wounded captain. Before the man could turn, Kael’s blades were already moving.
Darkness and lightning spiraled along the Void Edge weapons. The Sky Rending Technique’s fourth form — Void Split — activated.
The slash extended outward as a horizontal plane of annihilation. Edges sharper than reality should allow. The wounded captain didn’t have time to scream. The attack passed through his torso from right shoulder to left hip, opening a wound that bisected his body cavity.
He collapsed without a sound.
"One down, two more to go" Kael said.
The remaining two captains stared at their comrade’s corpse with horror. The Rank 5 captain’s expression hardened from frustration to cold fury.
He’s realized this isn’t a fight he can win conventionally.
"Enough games."
The Rank 5 captain raised his curved blade above his head. Wind mana exploded outward. A tornado formed around him, expanding rapidly, sucking in debris, fire, and smoke.
"Tempest Annihilation."
The compressed tornado launched toward Kael as a concentrated wall of wind. The crushing pressure of the wind hit him like a physical force, lifting him off his feet and throwing him backward.
Kael flew through the air, tumbling end over end, before slamming into a crumbling wall thirty meters away. The impact cracked the stone behind him and drove the air from his lungs.
Light injury. The wind pressure was spread across too wide an area to be lethal at this range.
He hit the ground and immediately pinned one Void Edge blade into the earth, using it as an anchor to pull himself upright. Blood trickled from a cut on his forehead. His ribs ached where the wind had compressed them.
The Rank 5 captain was already advancing, wind swirling around his blade. The axe captain flanked from the right, weapon raised.
Two on one. Time to change the math.
Kael formed a hand sign with his free hand — fingers interlaced in a pattern.
"Dark Summon."
The shadow beneath his feet split open.
A vertical rift in reality — blacker than black, deeper than darkness — tore through the ground at his feet. Cold air poured from the opening, carrying the scent of ash and something older. Something that didn’t belong in this world.
A claw emerged first. Then another. Then a massive paw the size of a dinner table.
The demon wolf pulled itself through the gate.
Three meters tall on its hind legs. Fur like polished obsidian that absorbed light rather than reflecting it. Eyes that burned with crimson fire. Muscles that rippled beneath black skin like coiled steel. Its aura radiated outward — Rank 4 Mana Heart, dense and corrupt, saturated with demonic energy that made the air taste of blood.
The wolf’s jaws opened, revealing teeth the length of daggers. A low growl rattled the remaining rubble.
The axe captain stopped mid-charge. His face went pale.
The Rank 5 captain’s advance slowed.
Kael pointed at the Rank 5 captain.
"Kill him."
The wolf didn’t hesitate.
It launched itself forward with a roar that shattered windows in the surrounding ruins, covering the distance to the Rank 5 captain in two bounding strides. Wind blades slashed at its flanks — the captain wasn’t going down without a fight — but the demon wolf’s fur absorbed the attacks like they were nothing.
The captain’s eyes widened. His wind couldn’t cut through the fur.
The wolf’s claws found his chest.
Meanwhile, Kael turned toward the remaining captain — the woman — as the sounds of combat erupted behind him and the Rank 5 captain screamed.