Cain looked up.
The dust above him swirled violently as the lead Executor hovered in the air,
supported by a platform of condensed spatial pressure. Beside him stood the
final remaining Executor, his hands raised, his gray cloak whipping in the
unnatural wind.
They had used the vacuum created by Cain's Flash Step to track his exact
trajectory.
Cain grabbed the hilt of his sword and forced himself to stand. His right leg
screamed in protest, the torn muscle fibers burning with every millimeter of
movement. He shifted his weight entirely to his left side, bringing the blade up
into a defensive guard.
The leader looked down at him. The ash-gray hood shadowed his face, but the
absolute, emotionless authority radiating from him was suffocating.
"The anomaly utilizes the environment to compensate for its lack of divine law,"
the leader stated. He didn't look at the bisected corpse of his comrade lying
thirty meters away. He only looked at Cain. "Remove the environment."
The second Executor nodded.
They raised their hands in perfect synchronization.
Cain's tactical mind processed the movement instantly. They weren't aiming at
him. They were aiming at the center of the crater.
He tried to push mana into his legs to dodge, but the hollow lag in his core
stuttered. His torn thigh muscle spasmed, refusing to hold the pressure.
He couldn't move.
"Execute," the leader said.
A massive, synchronized pulse of spatial repulsion detonated from their palms.
It wasn't an attack meant to cut or pierce. It was a shockwave of pure,
unadulterated atmospheric pressure. The blast hit the floor of the crater and
expanded outward in a terrifying, invisible dome.
The gray dust was instantly obliterated, blown miles away into the sky. The
petrified trees were uprooted and shattered into splinters. The massive slabs of
slate and stone were picked up and hurled against the canyon walls like pebbles.
The crater was wiped completely clean.
Cain crossed his arms, channeling every ounce of mana he had left into a
Resonance Null barrier.
The shockwave hit him like a physical wall of iron.
The mana barrier fractured instantly. The kinetic force bypassed his guard,
slamming directly into his chest.
Cain was launched backward. He flew through the cleared air, crashing brutally
into the solid rock face of the ravine wall. The impact cracked the stone behind
him.
He fell to the ground, bouncing once before coming to a dead stop in the dirt.
Silence returned to the wasteland.
The dust was gone. The fog was gone. The pale, unforgiving sunlight beat down on
the barren, empty crater. There was nowhere left to hide. No debris to use for
an Exchange. No shadows to slip into.
Cain lay on his side.
His vision swam, dark spots dancing at the edges of his sight. He tried to push
himself up, but his left arm collapsed under his own weight. His ribs were
shattered. His internal bleeding had worsened, pooling warmly in the back of his
throat. He coughed, a thick splatter of dark blood staining the clean stone
beneath his face.
Footsteps echoed across the empty crater.
Slow. Measured.
Cain forced his head up.
The two Executors were walking toward him. Without the dust to obscure them,
they looked like reapers of absolute law. Their gray cloaks were spotless. Their
posture was immaculate.
"Eradication is imminent," the leader said, drawing a long, shimmering blade of
condensed spatial energy from his palm.
Cain stared at the approaching blade.
His physical body had reached its absolute limit. His muscles were torn. His
bones were cracked. His manual tactics had allowed him to kill three divine
vessels, but he had nothing left to give. Han Jae-Won's military mind had run
out of variables to exploit.
But deep at the base of his spine, the reservoir waited.
The Black Veil.
It pulsed heavily, a dark, suffocating weight. It didn't whisper. It didn't beg.
It simply reacted to the overwhelming, undeniable proximity of his own death. It
was a raw, violent instinct, rising up to flood his broken channels with
unstable, corruptive power.
If he opened the vault, he would survive.
But the cost to his soul would be irreversible.
The Executors stopped five meters away. The leader raised the spatial blade,
aiming the tip directly at Cain's neck.
Cain closed his eyes.
He let go of the lock.