ONLINE: Blades of Eternity-Chapter 323: PURE DREAD

The Leech loomed like a nightmare twisted into flesh, its tendrils writhing in sync with every heartbeat of the mist-choked cavern. Its featureless, smiling maw glowed faintly with corrupt light, echoing with a chorus of silenced screams—souls devoured, identities erased. The crimson core inside its mist-flesh pulsed in growing rhythm, as though feeding on the tension in the air.

Before it stood Kaelen, radiant and absolute in his glory, his form now draped in the fully awakened Sacred Guardian armor—its plates now forged from luminous gold and royal blue due to the Qi which he has some level of mastery on while carved with symbols of forgotten light. His eyes blazed with mana and purpose, and the Blade of Eternity in his hand burned with sacred wrath, humming as if eager to strike down the aberration before him.

"Mana Domain: Unending Darkness: Blood Void"

Beside him, Kelvin exhaled slowly as the air around him distorted. From his body seeped a swirling mass of black vapor, thick and devouring, shaped like a bleeding void. His mana domain—Unending Darkness: Blood Void—had activated. Yet unlike its usual spectral form, this time it pulsed with faint veins of red and black Qi, an evolution of chaos and battle-tested resilience.

As the domain expanded, mist and light alike were consumed, leaving only darkness and death in its wake.

Kaelen’s voice rang out like thunder, his armor gleaming like the sun within Kelvin’s abyss.

"Let’s end this... together!"

"Glad you said it," Kelvin growled, his scythe glistening like an obsidian fang, coalescing into his grip. "No holding back."

The Leech let out a screech—like glass being torn apart by serrated blades—and lunged.

CRASH!

A dozen tendrils slammed toward them like spears of corruption, each one warping space with its passage. Kaelen met them head-on, his sword a streak of blue-gold fire as he severed one, two, then three with effortless precision, his Sacred Guardian armor deflecting the shockwaves of impact. Each blow cracked the ground, turning the battlefield into splintered chaos.

Kelvin vanished into the Blood Void, his figure flickering between shadows. He reappeared at the Leech’s flank, his scythe cleaving three tendrils in half, before launching a shockwave of corrupted mist imbued with his Qi.

"Fall into the dark—!" he shouted.

But the Leech was too fast.

A new tendril erupted from its core and snared Kelvin mid-motion, hurling him across the cave with bone-crushing force.

"Kelvin!" Kaelen shouted, only to be forced back by another volley of writhing limbs.

The monster adapted. Its wounds sealed with each blow. Its body morphed, thickened, regrew tendrils even more grotesque. Some of the severed limbs turned into slithering leech-like hounds that lunged toward Kaelen, jaws wide and screeching.

Kaelen spun, cleaving a trio of them into mist with a cross-shaped wave of radiant mana. The Blade of Eternity unleashed a piercing howl, and arcane script danced in the air around him as he invoked one of his most potent System Boons he has in footwork:

[Quick Steps (Mythic Level) - Active]

All speed increased by 300% for 30 seconds.

Kaelen blurred, disappearing and reappearing behind the Leech, slashing upward with such speed that space itself fractured.

But instead of being cleaved in half, the Leech’s body absorbed the impact, rippling like liquid nightmare and snapping around to catch Kaelen with its core tendrils.

The sacred armor cracked.

Kaelen grunted, coughing blood as he was driven into a pillar of stone, the impact cracking it into ruin.

Kelvin, blood trailing from his mouth, pulled himself to his feet, his scythe dragging across the stone.

"We’re not winning this... not like this."

Even Eirana, fighting to protect her grandmother and the last few Nullcarvers, could feel it—the dread that even mana couldn’t suppress. The Leech wasn’t just powerful. It was inevitable.

From the shadows, Aron and Selene, still injured, had reappeared and watched in horror. Selene’s hands trembled, her breath caught in her throat.

"He’s... too strong."

Aron clenched his fists.

"If we jump in, we’ll die."

And then, in the moment before Kaelen could rise again—

The Pandora pulsed.

It had been dormant. Quiet. Sleeping in the depths of Kaelen’s soul.

But now... it awoke.

A shockwave of pure, crystalline mana blasted outward from Kaelen’s chest, forming a luminous barrier of celestial white. The Leech shrieked, recoiling as the barrier cut off its advance, trapping it on the other side in a distorted haze of shattered light.

Kelvin staggered toward Kaelen, eyes wide.

"Did the Pandora just... protected us?"

Eirana helped Naena rise as the air cleared, blinking in astonishment.

"What in the name of all sacred forces..."

Naena gasped. "That thing... the Pandora... it’s not just magic. It’s also will. It’s resisting the Leech."

Kaelen stood fully, breathing heavily, the golden-blue light of his armor flickering.

Naena turned to the group.

"We need to leave. Now. That thing will break through."

And as if to confirm her words, cracks began to form in the barrier.

Kaelen and Kelvin didn’t wait.

"Go!" Kaelen shouted, scooping Pandora into his arm and dashing after the others.

They all turned and ran—Eirana guiding her tribe members, Kelvin creating pockets of void mist behind them to slow the Leech’s sense.

But the moment they made it past the threshold of the settlement—

BOOOOM!!!

The barrier shattered.

And the Leech, now more feral than ever, exploded through the wall of light, tendrils stretching toward Kaelen, sensing the Pandora’s radiance.

Its red core pulsed violently.

And it chased.

The cavern echoed with its screech as it surged forward like a god of oblivion, and Kaelen gritted his teeth, leading the escape with the Pandora glowing in his arms.

"Don’t look back!" he shouted.

Behind them, the mist raged.

The Leech was coming.

–––––

Rumble!! Rumble!!

The tunnel trembled violently. Fragments of stone broke loose and cascaded from the high ceiling as Kaelen sprinted ahead, his grip tightening on the Pandora, its strange weight pulsating like a living heart in his arms. Behind them, the Leech roared again—a hollow, unnatural sound that made even the air around them quiver with despair.

Its body—half liquid, half shadow—snaked along the ceiling and walls with terrifying speed. Kaelen’s lungs burned, his legs ached, but he never slowed. Beside him, Kelvin’s Blood Void pulsed like a living storm, and Eirana struggled to hold up her grandmother, Naena, whose breath was now a thin rasp.

"We can’t keep running like this!" Kelvin growled. "She’s slowing us down!"

Eirana nearly stumbled, shouting back, "She’s all I have left!"

Kaelen didn’t speak. He couldn’t. The Leech was getting closer. He could feel it.

Then—

BOOM!!

A sudden, violent blast of misty silver force slammed into the Leech from behind, hurling it backwards with shocking force. The creature shrieked—louder than ever—and smashed against the cave wall, momentarily disoriented.

Everyone froze. Kaelen spun around in disbelief.

From the haze near the tunnel entrance, a figure emerged with twin sabers glowing pale silver and cloaked in thick, ever-churning mist. His stance was low, aggressive, and confident.

Ethan.

"I was hoping I wasn’t too late," he said with a cocky grin, lowering his sabers into a ready stance, the mist swirling tighter around his arms like loyal serpents.

Behind him came Morris Grey, his limpid yellow eyes sharp and radiant. His yellow hair was a bit longer, messier than before, and in his right hand was a golden scepter, glowing faintly with multiple elemental sigils. Though not yet at full inheritance, the raw potential in him was now undeniable.

At Morris’s side strode Guinevere, her fiery red hair cascading behind her, and her crimson eyes burning with excitement. Her arms were alight with flame, dancing up to her shoulders like living fire. She gave Kelvin a smirk.

"Thought I smelled your gloomy aura all the way outside the forest."

And then—

Lila.

She approached slower than the others. Her hazel nut hair was longer now, her light brown eyes wide as they locked onto Kaelen.

"Kaelen...?"

She didn’t wait. She dropped her icy spear to the ground and rushed forward, arms outstretched. Kaelen barely had time to brace before she threw herself at him, clutching him tightly.

"I thought you were gone forever..." she whispered, her breath hitching. "All this time..."

Kaelen hesitated, overwhelmed. Her scent, her voice... it all felt like home.

"...Lila," he murmured.

Behind them, the others were already on alert. Eirana was half-speechless, glancing at the newcomers with bewildered awe.

"Who are they...?"

Kaelen gently pulled back from Lila, his gaze steeling again.

"They’re why we still have a chance."

Suddenly, a pulse of dread filled the air.

The Leech stirred.

It howled, twisting its monstrous form into a rising position. Its red core pulsed furiously as thick tendrils began to lash out again, this time more erratic... more furious.

No more running.

Lila stepped beside Kaelen, icy mana crackling across her palms.

"No more tears. We kill it now."

Kaelen ignited his Sacred Guardian Armor, now blazing with golden and royal blue radiance, matching the glory of the Blade of Eternity in his hand.

Ethan moved forward, both mist-forged sabers spinning, encircling him in a phantom haze.

"I’ve been itching to dissect something this nasty."

Morris raised his scepter high. Lightning, fire, water and wind gathered at its tip, pulsing with an unstable but wild potential.

"I’ll bind its limbs. Kelvin, Kaelen—you know what to do."

Guinevere’s entire body surged with fire, her hands glowing white-hot.

"I’ll burn anything that tries to get past us."

The Leech charged, a cacophony of screams and shrill howls.

But this time, they met it head-on.

Ethan dashed forward, the mists parting for him as he weaved between its flailing limbs, both sabers slicing across its flesh with blistering speed, causing wounds that hissed with steam.

Morris shouted, thrusting his scepter forward—pillars of molten stone, crackling lightning, and rushing torrents of wind and water slammed down onto the Leech’s appendages, pinning them for crucial seconds.

Kaelen shot forth like a comet, the Blade of Eternity cleaving through the air, golden-blue arcs trailing behind.

Kelvin’s scythe swirled into a black cyclone, the Blood Void mutating mid-air, strengthened by his Qi, now eating through even the Leech’s corrupted flesh.

Guinevere unleashed an inferno, and Lila called forth shards of frozen mana, spearing the mist creatures that tried to flank the group.

Eirana stood by her grandmother and kin, watching with wide, trembling eyes.

"This... this is what power looks like," she whispered.

The Leech flailed, howled, and resisted with everything it had.

But for the first time—it wasn’t enough.

Kaelen and his allies stood united. Stronger. Fiercer. And ready to do what must be done.

The real battle... had just begun.

New novel 𝓬hapters are published on (f)re𝒆web(n)ovel.com