Chapter 69: I Have Found a Companion I Can Entrust My Back To
In the distant direction, in the wilderness on the outskirts of Frostwater Town.
The surging, roaring starlight gradually dimmed, then returned to nothingness.
The blood-colored mist, along with the faint night, once again became the main theme of this world.
Only the earth, scorched into molten lava and now slowly solidifying, remained.
And those piles of white ash left behind after the puppet dolls’ flesh was completely incinerated recorded the presence of that searing starlight from earlier.
Shiltina gazed at the pitch-black wilderness before her, empty and desolate.
In her hand, the crystal-like blade of 「Shimmering Morning Star」 had already fractured inch by inch, covered with cracks.
The thin sword let out a creaking sound from the strain, seemingly on the verge of shattering completely at any moment.
This was the price to be paid after using Shiltina’s Nightblade to release the true name of her crest armament.
A flash of silvery radiance disappeared in an instant.
The slender sword in Shiltina’s hand vanished, replaced by a crystal-like crest embedded in her chest, now covered in cracks.
However, looking at the piles of white ash that were once powerful puppets—also the result of her true name release—Shiltina’s spirit remained completely tense.
In fact, quite the opposite—her slender figure beneath the red-and-white combat uniform was slowly tightening.
「War Chariot: Instinct」 was activated.
Even the same sequence ability could exhibit entirely different effects depending on the user and their level of mastery.
Just like how the effect of 「Eye of Secrets」 differed vastly in the hands of Rast versus Ishta.
As someone Rast called a pure force of violence, the effect of “Instinct” in Shiltina’s hands was far beyond what Rast could hope to match.
If what ordinary people used was called “Instinct,” then what Shiltina used was “Super Instinct.”
In an instant, across this fog-covered, pitch-black wilderness devoid of any light, all sources of danger that could threaten her were thoroughly perceived.
Compared to before the true name release, when the area teemed with dangerous puppet presences…
At this moment, the vast majority of those puppets had been destroyed by 「Shimmering Morning Star」.
And now, only a single source of danger remained.
“Flan… is that you?”
A second-year student, ranked eighteenth on the Starfall Obelisk.
Aside from Shiltina, she was the highest-ranked second-year, just eight places away from Shiltina, a member of the Twelve Seats of the Round Table.
She was also once the vice-captain of the strategy team Shiltina had founded.
And once, she had been Shiltina’s best friend.
They had met long before enrolling at Starfall University, at a chance noble banquet in the royal capital.
Shiltina and Flan had lived in the same dorm, attended school together, shared meals, ventured into the Nightworld side by side, and talked about everything.
Until—
After a long period of endurance, a quarrel led to their falling out.
The once-strongest strategy team fell apart.
Shiltina and Flan walked down divergent paths and became strangers to each other.
Now, they met again amidst the Disaster Remnant.
One was manipulated by blood mist, a thread-bound puppet bent on killing outsiders at all costs.
The other was a traveler of the night, tasked with conquering the Nightworld.
Words had lost their meaning—only clashing blades and a fight to the death remained.
Swish, swish, swish—
The sound of cutting wind echoed across the wilderness.
Countless leaves sliced through the darkness, turning into arrow-like projectiles.
They pierced the sky, tore through the air, and stirred up a storm.
「Plant Whisper」—this was Flan’s Nightblade, and as the name implied, it allowed her to communicate with and command plants.
At a glance, it seemed to be a Nightblade with good stealth capabilities, mainly used for reconnaissance.
After all, there was nothing better for gathering information than inconspicuous, ever-present vegetation.
However—
As once-intimate friends,
Shiltina knew all too well how terrifying Flan’s seemingly harmless Nightblade truly was.
To surpass countless fourth-years as a second-year and rank among the top twenty of the Obelisk was not something one could achieve merely by gathering intelligence.
If not for the battlefield limitations of Flan’s Nightblade, her ranking might have surpassed even Shiltina, who possessed 「Sword of Infinity」, and she might have entered the Round Table earlier.
And now, the environment they found themselves in—the mountain forests on the edge of Frostwater Town—was where 「Plant Whisper」 thrived.
The current storm of leaf blades, as fierce as a thousand volleys of artillery, was just Flan’s appetizer.
What’s more, Shiltina’s main weapon, 「Shimmering Morning Star」—had already expended its power to hold off other puppets interfering with Rast, and could no longer fight.
“I’ll personally inform your aunt and uncle of your death… tell them everything, Flan.”
Murmuring softly, her words vanished amidst the sound of tearing air.
Shiltina fell completely silent.
In proportion to the emotions surging in her heart, the light in her eyes faded away.
The world around her seemed to freeze with a clang; the sound of tearing stopped abruptly.
She calmed the ripples of longing—not just in her speech, but even her emotions were sealed away.
She shot forward.
Her figure, burning with cerulean flames, weaved through the gaps between the searing leaf blade barrage.
The surrounding air tightened along with her lithe form, growing colder and frostier—her mind too, echoing her body, mechanically took on the chill.
Then, a few seconds later—
Shiltina’s body and spirit synchronized completely with the air around her.
Using the perception extended by 「Super Instinct」, Shiltina’s domain ruled the battlefield in an instant.
She grasped every trajectory and projectile in the entire space with pinpoint precision.
Without hesitation, she stepped on the ground and leapt high.
Dodging a wave of blade-storm, she used one leaf as a foothold to propel herself, changing directions midair with each step.
The space she had just occupied was slashed by the bladed barrage, leaving thousands of sharp cuts on the crystallized ground, exploding into shockwaves.
Had she stayed there for a moment longer, she would have been shredded into an unrecognizable mass of blood and flesh.
Riding the shockwaves, Shiltina adjusted her posture midair, moving at an unimaginable speed.
She stepped on the flying leaves shooting toward her, racing toward the high canopy within the dense forest.
Her airborne movements were as graceful as a bird soaring freely through the skies.
Countless leaf blades sliced past her burning blue figure with hair’s breadth precision.
Even with 「Super Instinct」 predicting their paths, dodging completely was impossible under such dense fire.
Many strands of Shiltina’s chestnut hair were severed by the bladed wind, fluttering down midair.
Her red-and-white knight uniform was torn, revealing pale, tender skin marred by ghastly wounds.
Crimson blood dripped, staining the skies.
Yet Shiltina had avoided vital points.
The injuries hadn’t affected her mobility.
Under the cerulean glow of 「Bloodburn」, the wounds began to heal slowly.
The incoming storm of leaf blades finally dissipated.
The girl who had stepped on the leaves to ascend to the skies now had nowhere left to stand.
That gallant knightly figure paused at the peak of the night sky.
Then, she stretched her limbs and gracefully fell toward the earth.
That form, cloaked in cerulean flame as it plummeted from the sky…
Was like a maple leaf falling in autumn wind—or a meteor streaking across the heavens.
And then, a few breaths later…
The cerulean meteor struck the earth.
It landed in the depths of a dark, dense forest.
Countless giant ancient trees twisted, entwined, and interlocked.
They formed a massive figure, like an armored giant made purely of wood and forest.
And atop this wooden giant’s head,
A girl with blood-red threads trailing behind her, face numb and eyes void of emotion, slowly lifted her gaze.
She looked up at the cerulean meteor falling from the dome above.
She raised her hand slightly.
In that instant, thick, sturdy tree branches surged and churned around her.
They rose up in front of her, transforming into layer after layer of wooden shields.
A fraction of a second later—
The cerulean meteor struck.
Boom—
Boom—
Boom—
Explosions rang out one after another, each sound signifying another wooden barrier being shattered by the cerulean meteor.
Shattered.
Shattered.
And shattered again.
When Shiltina finally broke through all the wooden walls and appeared atop the giant wooden figure’s head,
The cerulean flames around her body had grown extremely dim, flickering as if on the verge of extinguishing.
「Bloodburn」 was a skill that burned blood, incinerated the soul, and forced power to erupt in a short burst.
It was thanks to this amplification that Shiltina alone had managed to block all the blood-mist-controlled puppets in Frostwater Town—letting not even one through to hinder Rast.
Blocking was far harder than simply killing.
But now, the effects of 「Bloodburn」 were nearly spent.
The unstable flickering of her flames was proof.