Luna stared at the headless body of the former pilot she had just ended. For a moment, she wanted to ask herself if it was right to do so. She had just killed a fellow human which was morally wrong.

But was there any humanity left to save?

'I don't think so.'

The headless corpse moved for a few seconds before falling on its back. It seized all motion and didn't even twitch.

An Ascender stood behind her, his eyes wide with shock after witnessing what she had done to his colleague. The man was trembling in fear to the point where tears were going down his face.

"I am sorry about your partner...A quick end is what he deserved," she said in a serious and powerful tone.

After giving the ascender one last look, Luna ran off to the darkness ahead to face the wraith and defeat it. She wasn’t going to fight it alone, of course. Gail was in the sky his energy arrows ready to strike down anything that tried to get in her way.

Luna had never seen a Wraith before. But from the webtoons she read as a child, and the extensive knowledge about Cursed Creatures she was fed, Luna was confident she had an idea of what it looked like and how she could locate one. Especially one that is capable of entering minds.

Mind-controlling creatures had one thing in common; the strength of their powers was generally limited by distance. So, for the wraith to control these three men, it needed to be close.

Also, Luna had noticed something odd about this Mind Wraith as she called it. Its abilities seemed to be almost flawless. And by the way, she noticed that the black blade the possessed man was using dissolved into the shadows once he completely died.

Generals weren’t supposed to possess dual abilities. Had it evolved to a higher class?

‘That would be bad. But I need to first find it.’

The camp was hidden in a rocky area where monsters rarely approached due to the tough terrain. On top of that, the rocks were both good for cover and a perfect place to create a defense port just in case they were ambushed by something.

But in this situation, the rocks were currently acting as a great cover for the Mind Wraith.

She stopped running when the sounds of the battle started to grow faint.

Gail landed on her right side, his golden eyes scanning the towering rocks with intense determination. He didn’t dismiss his bow, as he still sensed something was close.

Without saying anything to her companion, Luna tried to sense further. It was pointless to sense for a ghostlike being, but maybe it would work because it was alive in a way...

‘Never say never.’

As her senses traveled to the rocky areas, Luna struggled to remain focused qi sensing might have been part of martial arts. But it required great mental strength. She kept the distance in mind as she tried hard and hard to sense for a life core.

Suddenly, she immediately stopped when her ability was forcefully stopped after stretching up to a specific rock not so far from the pair. It felt like something had hit her head. At least the pain was bearable and her thoughts were still running. She seemed to be getting hurt a lot these days.

“There…” She pointed at a big crack in one of the red towering rocks. The crack's entire size was enough to be an entrance to a cave and dark enough to be the hiding place of the Wraith they were looking for.

“Should we lure it out?” Gail first inquired from his captain.

Luna nodded. “We can’t fight it in its element, I have a hunch that this thing can control shadows. So yes, we should lure it out. Maybe then I could get a better look at its powers."

'A cursed tyrant?' Gail was briefly shocked by Luna's hunch. However, he maintained his calm face as pulled onto the golden string of his beautiful bow. There, light slowly gathered from the point where his figures had notched, transforming into a golden energy arrow.

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Luna was almost blinded by the brightness of his arrows. They were energy itself and he was the only one in the world who could touch them without burning to death. The government had made sure to hide any details about the concept the handsome Ascender wielded...if she remembered correctly, his Aura was given the grade Upper A.

Meaning it had the potential to become something incredible as the Ascender grew.

Luna gripped onto her sword and stared at the chasm. Though weak, she could feel its powers trying to latch onto her mind. “As soon as it gets out, get into the sky!” she commanded as she prepared for what was to come.

Gail didn’t respond as the archer had all his mind on shooting this one arrow. He focused on manifesting the golden arrow and drawing out its full power. Once it was done manifesting, he sharply exhaled and let go of the golden string. The arrow flew to the large chasm with an explosive force.

It entered the chasm and disappeared along with its light. It didn't take long for the Wraith to react after Gail's arrow hit something.

An ear-piercing screech escaped the depths of the chasm. The force behind the screech was enough to make the rock it was in quake ominously. Then, the shadows around the rock suddenly started to move in reaction to the creature's emotions. That movement disrupted the wall blocking her qi sense and Luna was finally able to glimpse into the creature...

'I was right, its core has become more pure. it evolved.' It took her a second to process the situation. This thing was strong but it just recently evolved. It was still getting used to its new abilities.

Immediately, she turned to Gail and bellowed. “It evolved to a Tyrant, run!”

Unfortunately, her warning came too late because the shadows around them turned into tangible tentacles that grabbed Gail by the foot. He was then pulled and ran through one of the towering rocks.

Before Luna reacted, another tentacle appeared behind her. It moved in what felt like a second and hit with a force that swept her off the ground and almost destroyed her armor.

She collided with a towering rock, causing its entire structure to collapse with her in it.

“Ahh!!” She groaned in pain as she tried to get up. Although the suit was on and took most of the damage, Luna found herself coughing out some blood in response to the impact.

Still coughing, she emerged from the pile of rocks.

'I know we damaged your hiding spot...but you're overreacting.'

She first noticed Gail’s energy arrows raining down on the shadow tentacles. His arrows were similar to pure light, so they destroyed the darkness with ease. But more and more kept on forming from the shadows around them. Fighting this thing at night was their biggest mistake.

If he continued like this, he would be out of zenshi in minutes. Luna needed to act fast or else all of this was going to be for nothing.

"Now or never."

Taking a deep breath, she ran towards the chasm at an incredible speed. As soon as she stepped into the stone’s shadow, tentacles took shape and started attacking her.

Her sword flashed and many of the tentacles were destroyed in quick and precise swings. Another came for her but she slid right under it and cleaved through it with terrifying ease. She made sure her blind spots were accounted for as she battled the shadow creations. The Tyrant’s ability was extremely lethal now that there was no sun in the sky. However, since the Wraith hadn't discovered the true potential of its powers yet, Luna could still win this.

When she was close to the large crack, a golden arrow fell from the sky and destroyed the many tentacles coming at her with its bright light—saving her enough time.

“I will distract it!” Gail shouted from above. The flying archer quickly dismissed his bow and his entire body started to glow with golden brilliance. The tentacles shifted all their focus to the archer, forgetting the raven-haired girl who was now a few meters from the entrance to the creature's hiding spot.

Without hesitating, Luna ran into the darkness and disappeared instantly.

***

Meanwhile, the campsite fight was getting harder to win now that the tables had turned after Duncan’s easy death. It's like the wraith was no longer underestimating them and was using all of its powers to defend itself.

Adam, Monic, and Darkness were doing their best to hold back the second possessed who was still standing despite not having much of a body left.

The man was lacking an eye, a left arm, and a good portion of his stomach. The gaping wound was bleeding but he didn’t seem to mind any of that.

…His humanity was gone. This was what was left.

Darkness stepped back, her jian was filled with a net of cracks after she went all out against the abomination.

‘This isn’t the strength of a Cursed General.’

Monic was in a worse state, her hands were trembling along with her entire body. She was sweating after conjuring so much lightning to fight against the constant shadows that kept manifesting out of the possessed man. Aside from Darkness, she had burnt through her reserves the most.

Adam was also exhausted. The large man’s hands were dripping crimson after he abandoned his weapons to reserve his zenshi.

Darkness looked around. The soldiers they were fighting with were lying on the ground defeated. Most of the mundane soldiers were the first to die at the hands of the pilot’s shadow manifestation powers. The deadly power had come to them as a surprise, killing those who were not fast enough to dodge or sense the attacks coming from their shadows.

She narrowed her eyes and faced the smiling man. “Are you enjoying this?” she asked, angrily.

The man looked at her with one good eye and stopped smiling momentarily.

“Curse to the True Celestials….may all gods perish…immortal.”

The man let out a painful scream that should have destroyed his vocal cords. He then lunged at Darkness with a shadow sword. He was no swordsman but the strength behind his swings was terrifying.

She prepared to parry it again with her weak sword. But Monic hit it with the last of her lightning which surprisingly slowed it down.

With no time to waste, Monic reached for her spear and called out Darkness in a desperate and weak tone. The tall ascender turned and immediately received the spear.

"Use that. It's a forged weapon."

Darkness nodded and dismissed her damaged jian to recover some of her zenshi. There was no need for Monic to say more. They all have the same goal…

To defeat the Mind Wraith.

The man shook off Monic's nothing like it was nothing and continued approaching Darkness, the mad look in his one eye gave her the chills.

But before it reached, Adam suddenly jumped in front of him and wrapped his arms around his lower body like a wrestler. He channeled all his strength to his legs and created earth cuffs around his legs and feet to hold his position.

The man let out a scream as he struggled to free himself from Adam's iron hold. He struggled so much that he started summoning shadows. But Adam held on while Darkness opened her second gate to increase the spear’s weight.

Because her reserves were very low, her Aura was taking time to manifest into the real world even after dismissing the Jian.

Finally…the Aura manifested and her ability took form. Then, with a powerful roar Darkness threw Monic’s spear with all the strength she still had in her body. Its weight easily tore through the smiling man’s wall of shadows and then his head, ending him instantly.

They had defeated the Wraith's vessel.

Before Darkness could let out her ceremonial victory laugh, Adam slowly looked over his neck and smiled.

He released the lifeless body of the pilot before vomiting a great deal of blood.

Just then, Monic and Darkness realized what had happened and rushed to their teammate…