Eternal Thief

After getting Belfast’s assistance, the three Corpse Commanders with their four corpse puppets immediately attacked.

Instantly, axes, illusions, devouring jaws, and frozen Netherflames all struck simultaneously.

’BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!’

The Dread Duchess, despite her suppressed perception and law sense, remained calm, but those attacks were simply too many and too precise, as even her defenses couldn’t handle them.

At that moment, for the first time, blood appeared as a crimson line slowly formed across the Dread Duchess’s shoulder.

The mist-filled battlefield froze.

”...She bled...”

”We wounded her!”

Even the First Commander couldn’t believe it when Belfast’s ecstatic voice sounded.

Even the Dread Duchess seemed slightly astounded as she slowly looked down, and her fingertip brushed the wound.

When she saw the drop of dark crimson blood, she stared at it quietly. But instead of fear or panic, she couldn’t help but mutter.

”...Interesting.”

Thereafter, she smiled, but not coldly or mockingly; instead, excitedly as she said softly, ”It has been a very long time...since someone managed to wound me.”

The instant something about her demeanor changed, a tiny obsidian-black mark slowly appeared upon her forehead, hidden beneath her mask. No one could see it, as only faint black light escaped beneath the mask.

But right at that moment, thin runic markings silently spread beneath her sleeves, across her neck, her arms like living darkness.

Thereby, an aura descended completely different from spiritual pressure or killing intent, for it was something ancient, predatory, and absolute.

It felt like every devil in existence had opened its eyes; the heavens instinctively darkened, everything disappeared, and even space itself fell quiet.

The First Commander suddenly froze, and his split soul was trembling for some inexplicable reason. The Second Commander instinctively stepped backward.

But Belfast was the one who felt that aura far more closely than anyone else because of his unique corpse-puppet vessel, as he felt every particle of mist screaming.

On the other hand, the Third Commander frowned.

”...What is...” Before he could finish his sentence, he stopped.

The next instant, for just a fraction of a second, a black flash crossed his consciousness, and then there was no pain or warning, just darkness.

The third Corpse Commander’s split soul disappeared completely, and even the seven Soul Coffin Seals were never activated. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

For a moment, the Crimson Netherflame Revenant stood motionless, and then its burning corpse started falling into the dense mist.

Suddenly, silence descended as the First Commander stared blankly because he just felt the connection with the Third Corpse Commander had been severed, and he felt an eerie chill running down his very soul.

He thought it was his imagination or a flaw in his perception because of Belfast’s ability, so he called...

”...Third...”

But no response came, and he instantly checked the soul connection, nothing, and it wasn’t damaged or broken, but it was truly gone and erased as though the Third Commander had never existed.

”...Impossible...”

The First Corpse Commander’s voice trembled for the first time since the battle began. His two split souls, residing within the Bloody Abyss Barbarian and Moon Mindfeather, simultaneously searched for the familiar spiritual connection.

But he still found nothing, and at that very moment, Belfast’s horrified roar exploded directly into every Corpse Commander’s consciousness.

”THE THIRD COMMANDER IS GONE!”

His voice no longer carried the composure of the Corpse Clan’s supreme strategist, for it carried panic.

”His split soul...his corpse vessel...everything is gone!”

The Second Commander’s countless scarlet eyes widened, ”What?!”

Belfast frantically spread his perception through every particle of the Abyssal Miasma Ghost. After all, he was the mist, and every strand of gray fog was his eye, and every drifting particle was his ear.

Nothing inside this domain should escape him, yet...

”I can’t find him!” His voice became increasingly unsteady. ”There isn’t even a corpse left!”

The Crimson Netherflame Revenant had vanished, and even Belfast couldn’t comprehend it. The only explanation his terrified mind could produce was one even he refused to believe.

”...She erased the vessel itself...”

A terrifying silence descended when Belfast’s conclusion sounded. The First and Second Commanders instinctively looked toward the barely visible silhouette standing within the endless gray mist.

The Dread Duchess hadn’t moved; she merely stood there with bow in hand like the embodiment of inevitable death.

---

Yet the truth was completely different.

Several moments earlier, the instant Belfast released the Abyssal Miasma Ghost’s ability, Ace’s cultivation heart almost exploded. Inside his Inner World, the Demonic Black Spirit Fire Seed shook violently.

Its black flames surged wildly as its desire couldn’t be suppressed; now it was demanding to devour the Crimson Netherflame Revenant, and Ace had a feeling that if he didn’t do it, this spirit fire might go berserk.

With exasperation, Ace looked at the gray mist covering the battle, and his eyes immediately narrowed.

’This could be the chance!’

Without hesitation, he transmitted to Eva, ”I need to enter the mist.”

Eva glanced toward him beneath her veil, and her beautiful eyes narrowed slightly, ”...Now?”

”Yes.”

She immediately understood. Although she had no idea what Ace wanted inside that battlefield, she had already noticed his unusual attention toward the Crimson Netherflame Revenant long ago.

Whatever it was, it had to be important enough for him to risk entering a battlefield occupied by five Half-Abyssal Kings. But she didn’t ask another question, and instead, she calmly nodded.

”Be careful.”

The next moment, she deliberately manipulated space, bringing both closer toward the edge of the endless gray miasma. To outsiders, it merely appeared that she was retreating from the terrifying battlefield between Half-Abyssal Kings.

It was a perfectly reasonable action, and no one paid them any attention. But once they reached the outer edge, Eva quietly stopped.

”I know you don’t want me to enter, so I won’t.” Her voice remained calm with a hint of ridicule, ”I know my limits.”

Even with her mastery over Space Law, she wasn’t confident she could conceal herself from so many Half-Abyssal Kings within Belfast’s domain, so she didn’t insist on going with Ace.

But she also knows that Ace was different, as she had heard his impossible concealment countless times. If anyone could disappear beneath the noses of Half-Abyssal Kings, it was him.

She merely smiled faintly, ”But when you come back...you have to tell me what treasure was worth risking your life for.”

Ace simply nodded, and then he vanished, but not through Space Law or concealment, as his entire existence quietly dissolved beneath Lawless Darkness. Even space itself refused to acknowledge his presence!

Inside the Abyssal Miasma Ghost’s gray mist, Ace moved silently with the help of the Live Fate Map. He could see every Half-Abyssal King’s position and movement clearly, and nothing escaped his perception.

He didn’t even glance toward the First or Second Commanders, and his eyes remained fixed upon only one target, the Crimson Netherflame Revenant.

Thereafter, everything happened at once as a terrifying aura descended, the Dread Duchess moved, and a black flash appeared; it was so fast that even the Live Fate Map barely recorded its path.

The Third Commander’s split soul was instantly erased, and the Crimson Netherflame Revenant instantly lost all control before it began falling.

Exactly at that moment, Ace snapped out of his stupor and moved with Soul Threads assimilated with Lawless Darkness, which erupted silently from beneath his sleeves, and they wrapped around the burring corpse vessel with astonishing speed.

At the same time, he instantly activated the Absolute Pickpocket, and without the slightest fluctuation, the entire Crimson Netherflame Revenant disappeared, and not a trace remained.

Ace didn’t linger, and the instant the corpse entered the Thief’s Space, he immediately retreated with Lawless Darkness concealing his every movement.

Within a single breath, he had already left the Abyssal Miasma!