Night had fallen. The night in this city belonged to everyone, yet it also belonged to almost no one. Some walked through the darkness like the living dead, brushing past the reaper, never knowing when they might take that final step into the abyss of death.
They remained silent, and in the end, there was no grand finale. They simply closed their eyes in a daze, imagining the sunrise of the next morning, and then... there was nothing more.
The way the world ends is not with a bang, but a whimper.
Does death have a physical form? Some say the reaper is a skeleton wielding a scythe; others say he is a knight atop a warhorse, with green flames burning beneath his steed, bringing plague and demise.
In truth, the manifestation of death is not so singular. What kills you is what death is—perhaps a person, perhaps time, or perhaps fate.
But people still have their stereotypes. If you were to see a blood-red figure in the snow one day, carrying an intent to exterminate all life, then perhaps your impression of death would be frozen in that very moment.
“One, two... twenty-three,” Li Yue said to Lane, who stood beside her in the wind.
“Can we bypass them all?” a low male voice asked.
“We must take out at least two or three to slip in without being detected.” Li Yue watched the flickering lights and the deep shadows; as long as there was life, she could perceive it clearly.
“Let’s move together.”
Two figures darted across the snow. Though they moved with extreme speed, they made almost no sound. Blood threads gathered in Li Yue’s palm. Two men stood before them, looking exhausted, seemingly not yet having time to react.
Li Yue was about to strike when a figure flashed past, swiftly knocking both men unconscious. Li Yue paused, her blood-red fingertips pointing at the two, as if asking whether she should let them sleep forever.
Lane, his hand not on his sword hilt, gave a small wave. He held a gunblade, its silver edge shimmering faintly in the dim moonlight. Li Yue narrowed her eyes; she felt a slight sense of threat from it.
“There are three hours until the next shift change. We need to be quick,” Lane said softly. “Split up. Remember, don’t get too carried away.”
Li Yue nodded, though she didn't quite understand Lane’s mercy, much like his previous prayer and that quiet little poem. She didn't understand it, and for now, she had no desire to.
She tucked away the knives in her sleeves; she likely wouldn't need those items in a moment. Lane didn't want any unnecessary killing, though she suspected it wasn't entirely out of mercy. More likely, he was considering whether the consequences of their actions would implicate Aestherin.
The higher the death toll, the more serious the incident would become. After all, if guards at the Energy Tower were killed, it would be classified as a terrorist attack. But if it were merely a theft of documents, the corrupt nobles would likely try to downplay it, turning a major issue into a minor one and a minor one into nothing at all.
Thinking this, Li Yue reduced the flight speed and sharpness of the blood blades in the air so they wouldn't slice through flesh. If they hit the neck, they would only cause a long period of unconsciousness.
Of course, if she didn't control her strength well, it would be easy to snap someone's spine.
The patrolling guards fell one after another. The result of this approach was that no one died, but the cost was that Li Yue consumed more magic.
She casually stepped into an archive room. It didn't seem to hold any particularly important data. As she looked around, she saw mostly delivery reports from the mines—nothing of significant value.
Although the smooth progress made her feel a sense of relaxation, she inexplicably felt a wave of discomfort, an indescribable sense of revulsion.
Aside from that, it felt much colder here than it had during the day. It wasn't just physical cold; it was a chill that seeped into the soul, a series of shudders that even made her feel a bit nauseous.
Almost instinctively, she dodged a slash from the darkness. Raising her right hand slightly, she knocked her attacker back several meters.
She scrutinized the enemy that had attacked her. This moving object had no heartbeat, yet it possessed a faint trace of life. His body was slightly larger than a human's, standing about two meters tall, wrapped in a heavy black coat. A metallic disc-shaped object was embedded in his chest, emitting a faint yellow glow.
A robot? Li Yue wondered silently.
No, the opponent had the aura of life, but there was no heartbeat to be felt, nor the sound of blood flowing. It was something between the living and the dead, a true monster that was neither human nor ghost.
Am I becoming too dependent on my perception of heartbeats and blood? So much so that I didn't even notice the faint lights in the darkness.
Li Yue reflected on herself as the undead creature’s attacks continued. Its body was exceptionally tough, even possessing a natural resistance to the slashes of Li Yue’s blood blades.
Muscle and steel were fused together. The density of the muscle felt as if it had been forcibly compressed, and it carried a familiar scent. This familiarity, yet complete discordance, made Li Yue feel sick.
I can’t just knock this thing out, can I?
Points of starlight lit up in the dark room, followed by a series of strange sounds, like machinery churning through flesh, repeatedly twisting and twitching.
Li Yue was certain that the spots where the starlight glowed were the weak points, because those positions happened to be on the left chests of these undead things, glowing faintly within those metallic discs.
She acted simply and directly, tearing through their hearts with her hands. There was no expected spray of blood; instead, she brutally ripped out a core, then a second, then a third...
A few minutes later, Li Yue was panting, and once again, she was the only one standing in the room.
She tore open the outer garments of these tall entities. Dense muscle was exposed to the air. Li Yue ripped off an arm and saw bones made of metal, as well as highly flexible metal strands that acted like veins, covering the surface of the muscle and serving as conduits.
These bodies had been forcibly modified with metal. The internal organs had been hollowed out, and the empty spaces were filled with various items. Some parts even began to float upward, as if their original purpose was to reduce weight.
As for the body strength and muscle density, Li Yue was all too familiar with them. These were blood demons, or rather, ordinary humans turned into blood demons.
She stepped out of the archive room. The recent battle had drained some of her stamina. The feeling of almost killing but not quite left her with a sense of frustration, and a bloody desire began to bubble up in her heart, faintly threatening to break past her control.
“Boom!” A violent explosion rang out, startling Li Yue back to her senses just as she was nearly overwhelmed by her bloodlust. She could faintly hear someone shouting.
“The furnace exploded! Quick! Someone, come quickly!”
What exactly happened?
Rate on N.U.
