Eternal Thief

From that moment onward, the initiative completely reversed: every exchange forced the three commanders back, and every tactical formation was dismantled; even their combined assault failed.

The Dread Duchess seemed capable of finding the single weakness in every ancient racial ability. No matter how perfect their coordination became, she broke it with overwhelming precision.

Across the battlefield, the Evernight Council erupted.

”The Duchess is winning!”

”They’re retreating!”

”Advance!”

War fortresses surged forward once more, and rune formations advanced another hundred miles. The Corpse Clan’s defensive lines began collapsing everywhere.

Without the previous commanders holding back the other Evernight Dukes, the Yin Duchess froze entire armies, the Enchantress Demon Duchess enslaved battlefield after battlefield, and the Corpse Duke buried elite corpse formations beneath endless Death Qi.

The four Dukes didn’t even need to fight personally as their mere presence forced every Corpse General to hesitate, and no commander remained capable of stopping them.

The Corpse Clan’s morale plummeted, and the Evernight Council’s killing intent soared.

Amid the overwhelming chaos, Ace and Eva moved like ghosts. Eva smiled sweetly each time another Abyssal Lord became trapped within her spatial manipulation.

Before they understood what had happened, their storage treasures disappeared. Moments later, a single sword flash, and Ace erased every witness before anyone realized they had been robbed.

The battlefield itself concealed every crime, house Points continued rising, and treasure after treasure quietly entered Eva’s Ring of Endearment.

Yet Ace’s attention repeatedly drifted toward one battlefield, the Crimson Netherflame Revenant. His cultivation heart beat faster, and inside his inner world, the Demonic Black Spirit Fire Seed trembled violently.

Its desire to devour the Netherflame Revenant became almost unbearable, but Ace forcibly suppressed the restless black flame.

’Just settle down, it’s not time yet...’

Ace calmed the Demonic Black Spirit Fire, but his eyes never left the damaged corpse vessel. He knew interfering now would be suicide. But every exchange between the Dread Duchess and the Third Commander brought another opportunity.

So, he waited patiently and silently like a true thief for the single moment when the impossible prize would finally become stealable.

At this moment, from the highest platform of the Central Fortress, Belfast watched everything. His gaseous form had long become chaotic as he watched the battlefield below collapse.

Everywhere he looked, Evernight banners advanced, rune fortresses crossed ruined defensive formations, and entire Corpse Legions were retreating.

But above all, that one terrifying woman...the Dread Duchess!

The First Commander, the Second Commander, the Third Commander with four Ancient Corpse Vessels, and every priceless treasure they had accumulated over countless centuries, yet they were still losing.

”...Impossible...” His eerie voice trembled in disbelief.

At this moment, the Bloody Abyss Barbarian had already lost an arm, the Moon Mindfeather’s illusion feathers had been reduced by nearly half, the Twin-Devouring Nightmare had one shattered beast head, and even the Crimson Netherflame Revenant carried dozens of black wounds that refused to regenerate.

Although each wound was only the size of a fist, every wound permanently erased a portion of the puppet through Void Annihilation, and nothing could recover.

The reason behind such development was very simple. With every exchange, the Dread Duchess never wasted a movement or arrow as she would find the weakest point and, with every attack, remove another portion of an Ancient Corpse Vessel.

She wasn’t overwhelming them through raw strength, but hunting them like prey!

Belfast’s chaotic form spread, and the railing shattered.

”...No!” His calm composure finally disappeared. ”What kind of monster is she?! She is even stronger than the last time she was here!”

Right at that moment, another explosion erupted, and the Third Commander’s Revenant staggered backward while one of his legs had disappeared into black particles.

The Corpse Clan’s morale plummeted.

”Commander...!”

”Our Ancient Puppets...”

”They’re losing!”

Meanwhile, Evernight Council’s cultivators roared.

”The Duchess has cornered them!”

”Advance!”

”Kill them!”

Hundreds of kilometers of battlefield surged forward.

Belfast slowly closed his ethereal eyes, and when he opened them again, his hesitation had vanished.

”...Enough.” He turned toward a nearby Grand Abyssal Lord. ”You.”

The elder immediately knelt, ”My Lord Belfast.”

”You will assume command.”

The elder’s expression changed, ”But...”

”There are no buts. If this continues, there will be no fortress left to command.”

Without another word, Belfast disappeared.

Belfast’s corpse-puppet vessel suddenly becomes gigantic, resembling neither a humanoid nor a beast, for its body is entirely composed of dark gray mist, with no flesh or bones.

It now appeared as an enormous abyssal cloud, and within it, countless ghostly faces continuously appeared and disappeared.

Every face screamed silently; it was also an ancient, extinct race, the Abyssal Miasma Ghost. A creature that existed between life, death, and soul.

At that moment, Belfast had fully manifested the entire corpse vessel!

’BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!’

A terrifying pressure erupted, and the battlefield suddenly became dark, not because light disappeared, but because endless gray mist spread. It poured across hundreds, then thousands of kilometers.

Every cultivator immediately lost sight of everything beyond several dozen meters. ℯℯ𝘭.

”What is this?!”

”I can’t see!”

”My perception...”

”My soul!”

Even Evernight Earls and Evernight Marquises alike suddenly felt splitting headaches, and their souls felt poisoned.

The Corpse Commanders instantly recognized it.

”Belfast!”

”He came himself!”

Relief appeared, yet the next moment their expressions grew ugly because this mist spared no one. Corpse soldiers, Evernight soldiers, everyone suffered equally, and only undead souls possessed enough resistance to endure it.

The First Commander quickly activated a jade talisman called the Soul Barrier Formation. A translucent cocoon wrapped around the split soul inside the Moon Mindfeather.

The Second Commander followed. The Third Commander immediately protected the Revenant’s split soul with seven Soul Coffin Seals.

After all, protecting souls had always been the Undead Race’s greatest specialty.

The battlefield became completely blind; even the Dread Duchess vanished, and no one could locate her.

Right at that moment, Belfast’s voice echoed directly inside every Corpse Commander’s consciousness.

”Thirty degrees left.”

”Three hundred meters.”

”Above.”

”Fire.”

Belfast was the mist, and the mist was Belfast; that’s why every particle became his eyes, ears, and his very perception.

Nothing inside escaped him, and that’s why Belfast was aiming for and even willing to harm his own juniors for taking down the Dread Duchess was top priority right now!