Chapter 55: The Common Wish of 233 Skadis
Sheen felt his body sinking continuously, as if falling into an endless deep sea.
The icy water wrapped around him, the light above grew more distant, and the air in his lungs was squeezed out bit by bit. This drowning-like suffocation made him instinctively struggle, but he could only watch as the last trace of light disappeared at the edge of his vision.
When consciousness returned, he suddenly opened his eyes to find himself floating in a bizarre black space. There was no light source here, yet everything could be seen clearly.
Sheen instinctively touched his neck, and after confirming his breathing was normal, he began to survey his surroundings.
“Awake?”
A clear, cold voice came from not far away.
Sheen looked toward the sound and saw a petite figure with white hair standing quietly.
As fellow saints, Skadi’s attire was completely different from Heralis’s pristine uniform—a pure black battle outfit covered by a tattered cloak, her exposed legs and arms below the hem wrapped in yellowed bandages.
These bandages wound all the way up to her slender neck, yet couldn’t hide the dark purple crystals that had spread to half her face. At the boundary between crystal and skin, faint light could be seen flowing through tiny cracks.
“Where is this?”
Sheen asked warily, his fingers quietly reaching for the holster at his waist.
“Shadow space. My domain.”
Skadi’s hollow purple eyes didn’t blink.
Sheen noticed that when she spoke, the crystals at the corner of her mouth cracked slightly, seeping some black liquid, but her expression showed no change whatsoever.
“Why didn’t you kill me just now? With your assassination abilities, even Heralis didn’t notice…”
If this Erosion Saint had acted earlier, he would already be a corpse by now.
“Mission changed. Retrieve the mental pacification ability user.”
Skadi answered mechanically.
“Heh, whose orders? Those Holy Temple higher-ups who claim to be righteous and just while doing unspeakable things?”
Sheen sneered, his right hand already gripping the gun handle.
“You don’t need to know.”
Skadi tilted her head—a gesture that should have been cute but appeared particularly eerie on her.
“Do you think I’ll surrender without a fight?”
With a soft “click,” Sheen drew his modified pistol, the runes on the barrel immediately glowing blue.
He calculated the time in his mind—Heralis should have already discovered his disappearance. Now he just needed to stall as long as possible.
“It doesn’t matter. I will take you.”
As soon as Skadi finished speaking, a massive scythe almost as tall as herself appeared from thin air.
Dark purple crystals spread from her arm to the scythe handle, fusing the weapon with her palm. Sheen remembered her near-collapse state during their last encounter—the crystallization had clearly progressed much further now.
“Your body won’t last long enough to defeat me.”
Sheen recalled Skadi’s condition during their previous battle. She had already been at her limit then, and the crystallization was obviously much worse now.
“Going to flee in panic again like last time?”
“This time… I won’t hold back.”
Skadi’s voice suddenly wavered, and a flash of red light passed through her crystal-covered eyes.
“Even if I turn into a witch… I must complete the mission. This is… the final mission.”
Amid the shrieking sound of the scythe cutting through air, battle erupted suddenly.
Sheen pulled the trigger, magic bullets whistling out, but they were swallowed by darkness before reaching Skadi. She flashed like a phantom to Sheen’s left side, the scythe sweeping toward his waist.
He rolled awkwardly to dodge, but still had a lock of hair cut off. Against a prepared saint, his attack methods were still too limited.
The ensuing battle was like a dance of death.
Each of Skadi’s attacks was precise and lethal, the scythe carving purple trails through the darkness. But strangely, Sheen always managed to dodge at the last moment. After countless near-misses, he suddenly realized—this Erosion Saint’s attacks always left a thread of hope for survival.
Like now, when the scythe could have severed his right arm, it missed by just half an inch.
“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t hold back this time?”
Sheen questioned breathlessly, sweat already soaking his back.
Skadi didn’t answer.
Her condition was clearly deteriorating. The crystals began growing uncontrollably, continuous cracking sounds coming from within her body, but her offensive never slowed—in fact, it became even more frenzied.
Why hasn’t that woman found this place yet? I clearly left an opening.
Just as Sheen was about to reach his limit, the dark space suddenly tore open with a blinding crack.
“Sheen!”
Heralis’s voice poured in along with holy light.
Sheen’s heart leaped with joy as he was about to respond, but then Skadi’s speed suddenly increased. Shadows surged like a tide, and by the time he reacted, the cold scythe was already at his throat.
“Skadi, let him go!”
Heralis burst in holding a light sword, her brilliant golden hair dancing in the magical turbulence.
“Mission… must be completed.”
Skadi shook her head mechanically, then suddenly let out a pained whimper. She knelt on one knee, her left hand gripping her right arm tightly where crystals were spreading at a visible rate. Dark purple crystal clusters pierced through the bandages with tooth-aching “crack” sounds.
Even so, her left hand still condensed an unstable dark energy orb, causing the crystallization to accelerate further, already covering most of her face.
“Give Sheen back to me!”
Heralis stopped talking and raised her light sword, which blazed with dazzling holy radiance. Two completely opposite energies clashed violently in the space.
At the moment light and darkness confronted each other, Sheen suddenly noticed Skadi’s lips curving slightly upward—it was a smile of liberation.
“Stop! She’s seeking death!”
Sheen’s warning came too late. The holy light torrent had already surged forth, while Skadi’s energy orb suddenly dissipated—she had only been putting on a show to provoke Heralis into battle.
A brilliant light pillar shot from Heralis’s sword tip, striking directly at Skadi’s position. Yet facing this killing blow, Skadi’s hands dropped limply.
In that life-or-death instant, Sheen felt somewhat dazed. The figure of the girl before him seemed to overlap with the sister he’d once seen killed by saints in his phantom dreams.
His body moved before his thoughts could catch up. Just as the light pillar was about to engulf Skadi, he lunged forward and knocked her to the ground. The holy light grazed his back, the burning agony making his vision darken, but he held tight to the girl beneath him.
“Sheen! Have you lost your mind?!”
Heralis ran over in panic, her light sword clattering to the ground. She examined Sheen’s back with trembling hands—the area grazed by holy light was already charred black—and immediately began healing him.
“Sorry… my body moved on its own.”
Sheen managed a pained grin and looked down at Skadi in his arms.
“Why… did you stop me? If I were purified by holy light… this cycle could finally end…”
Black tears flowed from the girl’s hollow eye sockets, the sound of cracking crystals like weeping.
“Then why were you seeking death?”
Sheen gently wiped away the crystal fragments from her face.
Skadi’s pupils trembled slightly as 233 memory fragments flashed through her mind.
She opened her cracked lips, her voice as soft as a sigh:
“Because this is… the common wish of 233 Skadis…”