My eyes followed the waves of destruction as they washed over the grand hall, the tremors rattling my bones long after the damage itself had settled. Only when the pain twisting deep in my stomach finally eased did I allow myself to breathe.

  A low groan slipped from my throat as I released my grip on the artifact Confinement of Rhapsody, along with the Mask of Penoply. The ashen mist thinned almost instantly, peeling away like dying smoke, and with it the passive concealment faded. My presence, once erased, was now fully exposed.

  I felt it at once.

  Countless gazes locked onto me.

  The creeping terror had already sensed me.

  Cold crawled into my hands, numbing my fingers as a chill slid down my spine. The creature was weakened—there was no denying that—after its clash with the slit-faced one. Yet even so, the sheer weight of its existence pressed down on my shoulders, heavy and suffocating, as if the hall itself bent under its will.

  My essence had recovered just enough. Barely enough.

  Enough to finish this.

  The creeping terror stretched its remaining limbs toward me. Its movements were sluggish and uneven, yet still impossibly fast for something so cracked. The air thickened as it moved, saturated with the stench of its wounds—burned chitin, spilled ichor, and beneath it all a sickly-sweet rot that had festered for centuries. Its many-jointed legs scraped against the stone floor, each movement sending dull tremors rippling through the grand hall.

  This time, I was ready.

  I pushed myself off the ground and vanished in a burst of speed. The limb came crashing down where I had stood only a moment before, pulverizing the stone beneath it. Cracks spiderwebbed outward as fragments flew.

  The creeping terror released a weak, distorted growl.

  My ears popped painfully at the sound. The pressure alone nearly ruptured my eardrums. I rolled aside as another mangled limb slammed down, missing my ribs by mere inches. Stone shattered again, and dust flooded the air—metallic, bitter, and thick with pulverized bone and debris.

  “Ugh.”

  The air rushed from my lungs as I hit the ground hard.

  The creature still hadn’t moved from its place. It struggled to attack, each motion slower and more labored than the last, as if even existing demanded too much from it.

  I needed to stall it.

  Just a little longer.

  Until they arrived.

  The scent of blood thickened, heavy and oppressive.

  “Gawr!”

  My heart pounded violently as I stared at it, cautious and tense. Following the recent battle, the creeping terror was incapable of summoning its full strength. This—this fleeting moment—was likely the only time an ascended being like me could face an avenger without dying in the very first second.

  A streak of white web shot toward me.

  It was slower than before.

  Much slower.

  I raised the Wand of Burden, ignoring the tremor running through my arm, and issued a single command.

  The webs wobbled midair.

  They froze.

  For a brief moment they hung there, suspended like gossamer threads caught beneath moonlight—then they crumbled into fine ash and scattered to the ground.

  The creeping terror abandoned the attack the instant it lost its sharpness.

  I drew in a deep breath—

  —and felt my stomach hollow out.

  It was like a void had opened inside me. A pitch-black emptiness, torn wide without warning.

  The pain was overwhelming.

  My breathing grew ragged and heavy. My blood felt dry and sluggish, as if it no longer flowed properly through my veins. I could feel my face pale as weakness spread rapidly through my body.

  I felt empty.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  What the hell…?

  My grip loosened involuntarily, and I could no longer keep the wand raised. Strength bled out of me, leaving my limbs trembling.

  Thwack—

  The creeping terror attempted to rise. Or at least part of it did. Its body was far too damaged to function properly anymore. It had suffered injuries that should have killed it several times over. The slit-faced one possessed overwhelming destructive strength, and it had done its work perfectly.

  The only reason it had fallen was simple.

  The creeping terror was vicious.

  And it knew how to fight.

  The floor shook once more as its crooked legs scraped forward, producing a ticking sound with every strained attempt to move.

  Tak.

  Tak.

  Tak.

  I pressed my lips together, forcing myself to remain steady.

  Time.

  I was running out of it.

  I couldn’t allow it to recover. Not even slightly. Even a fraction of its strength returning would spell my end.

  Then—

  Tak.

  Tak.

  Tak.

  Footsteps.

  Many of them.

  They echoed from the far corner of the hall, layered and uneven, unmistakably human.

  I didn’t turn around.

  The last remaining ruler—the creeping terror—tilted its grotesque head in surprise. It hadn’t sensed anyone. Its awareness faltered, confusion rippling through its broken form.

  Ashen fog seeped into the grand hall once more, thinner than before, but unmistakable. It curled low along the floor, swallowing shadows and dulling sound.

  I grinned faintly and forced my trembling body upright.

  I had left the Confinement of Rhapsody outside on purpose.

  And just as I had planned—

  They had taken it.

  I could feel eyes boring into my back. Dozens of them. Curious. Alarmed. Afraid.

  Several figures stepped into the grand hall, silhouettes forming through the thinning fog. They stopped as one, witnessing the broken ruler before them and the lone ascended standing its ground.

  All of them had arrived just in time.

  All of them would bear witness to what was about to happen.

  I clenched my fist and refused to turn back.

  Even as my insides screamed with hunger, tearing at me from within, I had to take one more step. Just one.

  I raised the hand holding the Wand of Burden and felt my body stiffen, muscles locking as if I had turned to stone. Pain crept in slowly, mercilessly. My vision blurred as tears welled in my eyes, and my heart began to pound harder than it ever had, each beat threatening to burst out of my chest.

  Above the crown castle, the sky changed.

  The sun vanished behind a dark curtain of clouds, swallowing the light whole. The heavens twisted and churned, clouds folding into one another like a storm trapped inside a sealed box—violent, restless, waiting to be unleashed.

  For a moment I felt the time slow down to a crawl.

  No, it really did.

  At this point everything had started to fit in.

  The enlightenment I had reached felt absurd. It didn't contain one ritual but rather held several of them in one. This was based on my understanding. It could have held different meaning as well, but in the end, I couldn’t find any.

  —Conspire the fall of something stronger than you: trap it, break its strength, then finish it before an audience.

  My vision blurred as my arm turned crimson, burning and tearing apart piece by piece before a scream came out.

  Booom!

  The ceiling broke as a pillar of light fell from heaven.

  It didn't just happen once; it happened twice, thrice and then continued till the ceiling had shattered and surpassed the recovery of the crown castle.

  The pillar of light fell repeatedly, striking the creeping terror with surgical precision—each impact sounding like a god's hammer against an anvil. The creature's mangled limbs spasmed violently, its chitinous shell peeling away in molten strips, revealing pulsating flesh beneath. The stench of seared meat and ozone flooded the hall, thick enough to choke on.

  And then—

  The floor below us gave in.

  I fell below, deep into an abyss. Where even the lighting didn't reach.

  My skin crumbled, bones began to shatter, and my mind went blank.

  Thud!

  The impact never came. Instead, I floated—suspended in blackness, weightless as a feather caught in a draft. My skin prickled with unnatural cold, yet my breath fogged the air. Something was wrong. The laws of this place were frayed and rewritten.

  As I drifted in mid-air, my consciousness began to slip away.

  It hurt… more than I could bear. One of the worst pains I had ever felt.

  And then I saw him.

  A figure stepped forward with slow, deliberate steps. The air turned cold, and the darkness peeled away from his presence as if it feared him.

  “Ah…”

  He stood tall, a suffocating aura pressing down on everything around him.

  “H—”

  My words broke apart as my throat ran dry.

  He—with silver eyes glowing like a shining star—looked down at me.

  “Hello, it’s nice to meet you, me.”

  The man spoke gently, wearing the exact same face as mine. A soft smile curved his lips as his figure flickered, unstable, like a dying light on the verge of going out.

  [End of Vol 4, Part 2: Road to nowhere]