Eternal Thief

At that moment, Ace, in Kharon’s guise, remained standing silently beneath the drifting black ash, his hand no longer resting on the hilt of the Killing Slaughter, as though nothing extraordinary had happened.

The battlefield around him had yet to recover from the unbelievable scene.

Ace also didn’t care about Vale or his lackeys from the Weaponized Mystic Haven, as he doesn’t even remember them anymore.

Yet beneath that calm, Ace knew he had achieved his objective, and beyond that, he had also confirmed that the Darkness Force can easily kill Undead Souls despite three major realm differences.

However, the Darkness Force had only done half the work, while the true deciding factor was his advanced Sword Heart assimilated by the Force of Darkness. But he can only confront the Abyssal Lord Realm of the Corpse Clan, and that too was his limit, as Quasi and real Grand Abyssal Lords were still beyond his league.

After the fact, the results left even Ace in some disbelief, but he quickly recovered.

Right now, Ace knew the Dread Duchess was probably watching him and most likely suspicious of him, but she wouldn’t trouble him. At least not until this war was going on, and that was good enough.

Ace slowly exhaled, allowing the last wisps of black ash to drift past him. The battlefield remained unnaturally silent. Thousands of eyes were still fixed upon the lone figure who had erased a Sixth-Star Abyssal Lord with three silent sword draws.

Without another glance at the scattered ashes, Ace simply turned around, and his indifferent gaze met Eva’s hidden smile. There wasn’t a single word exchanged between them.

He merely looked at her with calm eyes, as though asking one simple question.

’Is that good enough for you?’

Behind her veil, Eva’s crimson lips curled upward, and a playful, knowing snicker escaped her.

’Showing off already?’ Her beautiful eyes sparkled mischievously. ’Not bad.’

Before either of them could exchange another thought, Ace’s expression suddenly froze. His pupils contracted into razor-thin slits. An icy glint surfaced deep within them. His right hand instinctively twitched toward Killing Slaughter.

At almost the exact same moment, Eva’s smile disappeared, and a long, obsidian bow, seemingly etched with countless flickering stars, silently appeared within her elegant hand. She never pulled the string or even lifted the bow.

Yet, space suddenly distorted before dozens...hundreds...thousands of tiny spatial ripples silently unfolded around her.

The next instant...

’BOOM!’

Arrows descended from impossible directions; some fell from directly above, others emerged sideways from empty space, while several shot upward from beneath the battlefield before curving through space itself.

Each arrow ignored conventional trajectories, appearing as though entire constellations had decided to rain judgment. It was the Galaxy Orbital Archery!

’BOOM!!’

’BOOM!!’

’BOOM!!’

Thereby, the surrounding void exploded, and a midget Corpse General suddenly staggered out from an invisible spatial crack. His corpse cloak had already been pierced by seven black arrows before he even understood what had happened.

Abruptly, his expression instantly changed.

”...!!”

The Corpse General’s undead flames violently trembled. He had been hiding within folded space since the very beginning, patiently waiting for the mysterious guardian to lower his guard after finishing the previous battle.

Instead, the moment he revealed even the slightest killing intent, Eva had already counterattacked, or more precisely, she had been waiting for him all along.

The Corpse General looked toward the silent swordsman, and his undead soul trembled. He had personally witnessed those three impossible sword draws and watched another Corpse General perish without even seeing the sword leave its sheath.

To fight him? Against that monster?

His survival instincts completely overwhelmed every other thought, and without the slightest hesitation...

’BOOM!’

His corpse Qi erupted, and space shattered beneath him as he fled without looking back as fast as he possibly could.

”...”

Ace watched the fleeing figure, and his expression grew colder than before, since he had only been fulfilling Eva’s request earlier. Now, someone had dared to launch a sneak attack against his woman.

Even if she had never been in any real danger, that didn’t matter as his eyes gradually turned icy with killing intent. But suddenly, his gaze shifted toward his left.

”...”

An empty stretch of space trembled before two nearly invisible spatial distortions quietly spread outward. The concealment technique was extraordinary. Even many Evernight Earls hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

Yet, Ace has the Live Fate Map, and he simply looked at that empty location and nothing more before the two hidden Corpse Generals instantly stiffened.

”...!!”

Their faces became deathly pale with one identical thought.

’He found us?!’

Cold terror erupted inside their undead souls. They had originally planned to eliminate this terrifying guardian together while he was distracted.

Instead, the moment that indifferent gaze landed upon them, they felt as though death itself had locked onto them.

At that moment, they had only one thought.

’Run!’

Neither of them hesitated, and the two Corpse Generals simultaneously abandoned their concealment and fled in opposite directions.

The surrounding Evernight experts were stunned upon seeing three Corpse Generals fleeing a single Abyssal Guardian, a rare sight.

Ace’s eyes remained emotionless.

”You wanted to kill me.” His voice was calm. ”But now you’re running? Disgraceful!”

His hand rested upon Killing Slaughter, and for the first time, his killing intent quietly spread, but it wasn’t overwhelming or violent; instead, it was absolute.

’Shing!’

The same sound sounded like a death knell before a single streak of black lightning silently crossed the battlefield. Nearly a thousand miles away, one fleeing Corpse General suddenly stopped.

His head slowly separated from his neck as a perfectly straight black line divided both his corpse vessel and undead soul.

Before he could even scream...

’BOOM!’

Both exploded into countless black particles.

’Shing!’

The second draw followed immediately. Another streak of black lightning flashed through distorted space. The second fleeing Corpse General hadn’t even managed to open another spatial passage before both of his legs quietly detached.

His horrified expression froze, and an instant later, his entire body split apart with his undead soul before both vanished together.

The final Corpse General looked back just once. He saw nothing except the distant figure calmly standing in place. His sword had never visibly moved, and despair filled his face as if his fate was already determined.

’No...’

’Shing!’

The third draw arrived, and after a moment of silence, his corpse vessel stopped moving. A thin black line appeared across his forehead. Then, his entire existence quietly divided into two perfect halves before disintegrating into drifting black ash.

It was three draws again, but this time three Corpse Generals met their complete annihilation.

The battlefield fell silent once again. Only countless horrified gazes remained fixed upon the unmoving guardian. Even the Evernight Earls unconsciously felt chills run down their spines as this Abyssal Gradian realm junior seemed to be killing Corpse Generals as easily as cutting butter.

The most terrifying part was that he never left his place at all, and his expression remained indifferent, with no hint of backlash from using forbidden spells or taboo arts.

Meanwhile, hidden beneath the chaos of collapsing corpse fragments, three storage treasures quietly vanished without any spatial fluctuation or law ripple, unnoticed.

Invisible Soul Threads withdrew as naturally as flowing water before disappearing into Eva’s sleeve. It was another perfect harvest.

Not far away, Eva struggled to suppress her laughter before her voice echoed inside Ace’s mind through their secret communication.

”You’re impossible...” There was unmistakable amusement in her tone. ”If you keep killing them like this...”

She glanced toward the three drifting clouds of black ash before her smile widened playfully, ”We’re going to run out of fools willing to personally deliver their treasures to us.”

Ace merely looked toward the increasingly restless Corpse Clan army. His indifferent expression never changed.

”There are plenty left.”

His eyes slowly swept across the battlefield, making several Corpse Generals who happened to meet that calm gaze instinctively shiver.

”...”

For some reason, they suddenly felt that continuing this war had become far more dangerous than facing the Evernight Earls themselves!