THE VILLAIN'S POV

Chapter 286: Light and Shadow (2)

Once all eyes were on him, Ghost knew what was coming.

After all, he had pulled off something neither Vermithor, Dark Sister, nor Balerion could do.

He had thrown his daggers, then unleashed a strike that cleanly sliced through that creature.

”How did you manage to cut him like that?” Snow asked.

Ghost stayed silent for a moment—then finally spoke.

We all had our secrets. Some weʼd started sharing lately, and others we still kept hidden.

This time, Ghost chose to reveal a bit of his own.

”I didnʼt cut him.”

”What?” Snow and I asked in unison, confused.

Ghost matched our stride as he explained something weʼd never heard from him before.

”All I did was isolate the portion of space he was in. The parts of his body inside the sealed zone remained intact. but the ones outside were simply severed.”

He said it without emotion, but what he had done was far from ordinary.

It was complex .. but in simple terms, he had manipulated space itself.

By isolating the exact area he targeted from the rest of the surrounding space, anything outside the boundary was instantly sliced .. erased.

A strike that cut through the very fabric of reality, destroying anything beyond the limit Ghost set.

That ability was absolutely insane!

”Since when did you have something like that?!” Snow asked in disbelief.

If Ghost had used something like that back in the Victoriad, who knows how things mightʼve turned out. The outcome of the entire arc couldʼve changed.

Snowʼs question seemed to stir something in the silent assassinʼs memory.

”I came from the Court of Shadows,” he said.

Naturally, we were familiar with that organization of assassins .. though only the bare minimum.

Ghost continued.

”The Court exists… and doesnʼt, at the same time. You canʼt reach it through conventional means.”

Snow and I listened closely.

After all, nothing on the map ever mentioned a place called the ”Court of Shadows.”

So, as paradoxical as his words sounded… they somehow made sense.

”The Court of Shadows is a brutal training ground that produces the fiercest assassins, as Iʼm sure you both already know. But those assassins arenʼt equal. Theyʼre ranked and classified under a system .. the Court system.”

The Court was unlike anything else.

”There are ten Courts in total. The first five are manageable, but from the sixth to the ninth… theyʼre pure hell.”

Was it something like a trial system? A series of missions or death matches?

Thatʼs what I imagined. I never fleshed out the Court of Shadows properly in the past .. it was just a concept I introduced on the fly.

But then something caught my attention.

”Why only up to the ninth?” I asked. ”Arenʼt there ten Courts?”

Ghost answered calmly.

”The tenth was always thought to be a myth. No one in history ever reached it. The trial at the end of the ninth is simply… impossible.”

His voice held weight. A memory soaked in blood.

”The ten Courts have always existed, shrouded in mystery .. some even believe they werenʼt created by humans. Over the years, top assassins have tried to reach the final stage. Not a single one succeeded.”

”But then…” Ghost paused for a moment. ”A few years ago… that changed. I reached the Tenth Court.”

At those words, Snow and I looked at him with newfound respect.

I didnʼt fully understand what that meant, but Ghost had just claimed he achieved something no one else ever had.

Ghost Umbra… was far more important than he let on. And Imhe had learned that the hard way, not so long ago.

He broke the rules of the Court during the Victoriad .. an offense punishable by death. But he lived… while others died.

Because his life was too valuable to lose.

”I canʼt tell you what I found in the Tenth Court,” he said. ”But that ability I used earlier… itʼs something I learned there. And itʼs not a power I can afford to use in front of too many eyes.”

He made it clear that he wouldnʼt say another word.

But heʼd said enough.

”Youʼre incredible, man,” I said without thinking.

Snow nodded with a smile.

”Iʼm glad to have someone like you watching my back… Ghost Umbra.”

Knowing our comrade was far stronger than we thought .. it was reassuring. It boosted our chances of survival significantly.

Because who knew what horrors still lay ahead…

…

…

…

Frey and his team continued their journey into the unknown.

Among the three, Ghostʼs eyes quietly followed Freyʼs back. His mind drifted to the words he hadnʼt spoken… the rest of the story.

What he found in the Tenth Court.

What shaped the Ghost Umbra of today.

It wasnʼt a grand treasure… nor a legendary place.

It was a room.

Just a single dark room, with a wooden chair in the center.

A chair upon which a man sat.

Ghost had only been thirteen when he miraculously passed the Ninth Court.

And what awaited him in the Tenth… was a man.

A man in a long coat and wide-brimmed hat. What stood out were his arms .. arms that were as long as he was tall, over two meters in length.

A strange being. Eerie, almost unsettling. But he smiled when he saw Ghost and welcomed him.

And those arms… were impossible to ignore.

Thatʼs why Ghost referred to him as the man with the long arms.

A being unlike anything he had ever seen before.

After surviving the hellish trials of the Court, Ghost found himself face to face with an ending he couldʼve never imagined.

The man with the long arms was calm ..welcoming even as if he had been waiting for Ghost all along.

That mysterious figure… became his mentor. His guide.

”You have no idea, Frey…” Ghost thought quietly as he looked at his friend.

The shadow that follows the light .. Ghostʼs obsession with finding someone to fight beside, someone to serve from the shadows… it didnʼt come from nowhere. It wasnʼt something passed down by Mist, or anyone else.

No.

That ideal… was planted in him by the man with the long arms.

He told Ghost many things. Things that shaped his beliefs. Things that made him search for a ”light” whose shadow he could fight from.

And the one Ghost ultimately chose… was Frey.

He tried to hide it as much as he could.

But deep down, Ghost always knew.

That one day, this moment would come.

Because the man with the long arms had already told him what fate awaited him. What he was destined to do. Why the Court of Shadows even existed in the first place.

Ghost had been confused at first. But as he watched Freyʼs journey ..

Watched him defy logic, change fate, and rise through fire and blood .. he grew certain.

It was him.

Frey Starlight.

Everyone plays their role in this world. And Ghost… he had simply played his part from the very beginning.