Supreme Monarch



 •Rending Death •

 The shadow hounds moved through the forest completely uninhibited by any obstacles as they could choose to go through solid objects or bounce off them at will, and thus, they swiftly surrounded Zelda as the shadow aura that oozed off their bodies suddenly intensified. 

 In the same motion, they made a sharp turn and viciously lunged at the undead from all directions. 

 Their speed constantly increases as though unaffected by inertia. Their eyes glowed a deep crimson with razor-sharp fangs that could easily tear through steel like butter. At such speed, even Zelda would struggle to avoid all four of them at the same time much less in this current situation. 

 An almost invisible glowing red string mysteriously attached itself to her legs yet again and as she positioned herself to receive their attacks, she suddenly stepped on a random pebble and lost her balance.

 For an undead, this was something that should not be possible, yet Zelda found herself unable to stop her current momentum as her body swayed against her control. 

 *Slash.

 Without missing a beat, Blane appeared before the stumbling undead and swung his blade in a horizontal slash, his blade tracing a greyish-black arch that cut through the very fabric of space itself. 

 This was the result of the Advance tier skill, Rending Death. A unique skill he had attained from studying the tome of the Divine Tier skill, Absolute Rend.

 This incomplete skill was still powerful enough to cut through space itself, even though it was still unstable and hard to aim. However, this did not matter to Blane with the effects of his innate ability. 

 The ability to affect Fate itself.

 While his ability was still heavily limited by his competence and could not control fate on a Grand scale as that was beyond mortal limits, he could still affect the Fate of non-living things and the body parts of his enemies. 

 Hence why he was only going after Zelda's ankles and limbs, creating opportunities for him to land a finishing blow. 

 However—

 *Clang! BOOM!!!

 Despite the fact that she was now at the mercy of her target, having lost her balance. Zelda's expression did not change nor did she panic as she simply moved her weapons to defend herself. 

 •Shadow Armor• 

 The shadows around her quickly moved to wrap around her body before taking a more solidified shape and texture, reinforcing her current outfit with a layer of solid shadows as her arms moved to receive the attack from Blane's sword, completely ignoring the shadow hounds making at her. 

 The weight of the blade that tore through even the very fabric of space as it cut through the air felt like a mountain, completely shattering her daggers as she received the full force of Blane's attack, sending her flying through the air as she slammed into the ground a distance away. 

 An undead could not feel pain, yet Zelda found it difficult to stand, her shadow armor slowly disappearing after absorbing most of the damage she had received from that attack. 

 "How annoying. To think you can still survive such an attack!"

 Despite using most of his mana on his last attack, Blane immediately downed an expensive Mana recovery potion as he chased after Zelda, his shadow hounds trailing after him.

 His knees bent slightly as the ground shattered underneath his feet as his body shot into the air, a dark aura engulfing his blade as he held it overhead.

 "Secret Technique - Phantom fortress, Meteoric strike."

 The aura engulfing his blade suddenly intensified as his body moved shot down as though his mass had been greatly multiplied in mid-air.

 *BOOM!

 The air reverberated with an explosive impact that shook the entire forest, sending the magic beast running in the opposite direction. 

 However, Zelda had managed to push off the ground at the last moment, unable to use her skills effectively in her current state. Yet, another red string of Fate lashed onto her arm as a shadow hound suddenly came launching at her.

 Unable to maneuver herself in mid-air, she was forced to sacrifice an arm as the shadow hound viciously ripped her arm off as she struggled to maintain her center of gravity, landing awkwardly a few meters away from the impact as the other three hounds moved in to finish her off. 

 "Tsk. Can't seem to get any fatal hits. How can an undead have such high resistance to fate manipulation." 

 As Blane prepared his next attack, his shadow hounds continuously attacked the now defenseless undead rogue as her missing arm continuously failed to regenerate. Still, she moved swiftly as she avoided all their strikes within an inch despite Blane's threads of Fate lashing onto her legs and arms over and over again. 

 "Let's end this!"

 Blane lunged into the fray as he coordinated his attacks with his hounds, finally able to touch her with his blades albeit barely. Her movement speed and agility were greatly hindered by his threads as he used the environment to his advantage. 

 Whenever his threads touched a tree, it would affect her field of view and she would be unable to completely avoid any attack from that angle. Whenever it touched her legs, she would momentarily lose her balance and struggle to avoid his attacks.

 Given that her weapons were already shattered, she had lost her means of attack and could only allow herself to slowly get pushed back. 

 Her body slowly became more tattered and beat up as she barely avoided his blade techniques as he could no longer use his skills anymore after losing so much Mana already. 

 Having been driven to a corner by her target, Zelda felt as though she was on the verge of failing her mission. It would've been fine if she was just on the verge of dying without the prospect of disappointing her master. 

 The undead does not hunger, the undead does not fear, nor do they get fatigued or suffer any negatively induced status. Yet, she could feel something bubbling up within her very core the longer this fight went on and the closer she got to losing the battle. 

 Frustration.

 She was not frustrated because she was losing, but rather, she was frustrated because she felt like a disappointment. As the first Shadow Rogue created by her master, she held a sense of pride in that title.

 However, she was not the strongest of her peers. The arrival of Nessi made that quite apparent. A shadow rogue at the level of a Demigod was something her master could trust completely. 

 So why does she have to be weak? Even after her master had blessed her with a Darkness core, she was still weak. How can she allow herself to bring such disgrace to his name?

 "Absolutely NOT!"

 There was a crack. A crack within her very core and a crack in the very fabric of reality as an immersing aura exploded out of her body, returning the attacking shadow hounds back into shadows as Blane was sent flying from the explosive impact alone. 

 The entirety of the vast Ozark forest immediately went silent as every living thing trembled under the pressure of an insane amount of such ridiculously dense negative energy, that felt as though death itself, loomed over the entire forest. 

 The air froze as Zelda's aura suppressed everything, reducing everything around her to dust, including, the snow, the grass, the trees, the insects, and monsters as her aura transcended beyond the mortal plane.

 Her core has completely shattered from sheer energy overflow as it began to reform itself into a Death Core. 

 The shadows moved as though they had gained sentience as they attached themselves to her missing limb, reforming into her arm. All her injuries began to heal itself by the influx of negative energy and her outfit reformed with the shadows.

 The shadows soon moved into her hands as they solidified into two exquisitely designed daggers, oozing an abundance of negative energy. Dark lightning danced across her body as though it was a living entity waiting to pounce. 

 Safe to say, Blane was at a loss for words. 

 He could barely process what had just happened. One second he was on the verge of eliminating his opponent yet the next thing he knew, he was flying through the air and slamming into a massive tree. 

 Only to regain his composure and see the undead transforming into the embodiment of death before his very eyes. Her aura alone had disintegrated everything within a 30-meter radius but soon disappeared as though nothing had happened. 

 The oppressive and terrifying aura that almost drove him mad just a moment ago had suddenly disappeared yet her presence remained and he could feel his limbs trembling in fear.

 "What is this? Impossible!"

 How could he believe what his mind had just suggested to him? Blane was a warrior who has trained and studied his entire life just to live up to his potential.

 He knew what it meant to improve and grow as a fighter. He understood what it meant to transcend between tiers, the sudden jolt of energy one received as one got one step closer to their limits.

 This was why he could not believe what his brain was interpreting the current situation as, how can someone transcend tiers in the middle of battle? It requires a deep level of concentration and meditation to control the influx of Mana and avoid destroying one's Mana body and going berserk. 

 So what truly happened just now?

 "An illusion? Yes, it has to be. That's why her aura disappeared. Undead cannot evolve to begin with."

 Desperately clinging to the tiniest bit of hope he had left, Blane resisted the fear and forced his body to move, gathering his remaining Mana into one last attack. This state should also be a last-ditch effort from the undead to survive so he would put an end to everything with this one attack.

 Blane took a deep breath to calm his nerves, he lowered his stance as his aura began to skyrocket. His entire body was engulfed in a dark aura that shrouded his figure. 

 However, contrary to his body, his blade burned with a furious luminosity that encased the entire forest in perpetual daylight as though the sun had risen. His legs bulged as they dug deep into the ground and then. 

"Secret Technique - Dark Emperor, Lacerating Quasar Slash."

 His body shot forth like a bullet train as he spun himself in mid-air, his blade burning hotter than a star as the extreme luminosity erased every shadow around, making this attack, impossible for a shadow creature to avoid.

 This was an attack that completely eradicated the darkness. 

 Yet—

 Zelda blinked and the night returned almost immediately as his body was flung across the forest like a ragdoll. 

 Blane was confused as he almost lost consciousness in an instant. 

 What just happened?

 He strained his eyes to see what the undead had done and it widened. His body was still flying in the air yet he could see his storage box already in the hands of the undead, his weapon was melted and his body felt as though it had been crushed by the force of a black hole.

 He couldn't even process any of the information he was seeing when the undead stretched forth her arm and th

e Dark Lightning jumped eagerly at him before it all went blank. 

 He had died, his body disintegrating without even leaving behind dust.