The sky above was a vast, ink-black void, untouched by clouds or color, where the stars appeared still, distant and unmoving. They were the only source of light in this dark, desolate landscape, with no air to make them shimmer, no wind to blow away the fine gray dust that covered the barren, lifeless desert all around. The ground was uneven and scarred, covered in craters that stretched far beyond the horizon. Some distance away, a massive slanted rock jutted out of the ground, with intricate carvings all over its surface. It released a faint dark mist that spread all around the surroundings, assimilating with the ground.
A few feet above the ground near the carved rock, a dark shadow appeared as golden light burst out from within. The disturbance sent fine gray dust swirling around in weightless arcs as it floated in the air, slowly moving back toward the ground. The burst of light warped and twisted with energy as two figures materialized within.
Xander fell on his feet and tightened his grip on Susan’s hand, supporting her as she stumbled. The same golden light as the explosion was released from Xander’s skin, giving him an ethereal and unapproachable aura. A frown of guilt, mixed with hints of dread, appeared on his face as he turned to look at Susan beside him.
Her eyes were bulging, with bloody veins forming in the whites of her sclera that turned entirely red as her vessels exploded. Her mouth was wide open in a failed gasp as all of the air in her lungs was ripped away, not allowing her to release a single sound. Particles of frost formed on her skin as it glistened under the faint starlight. Moisture was the first to be sucked out, leaving her skin cracked and dry. Her blood boiled due to the intense pressure difference, rupturing her veins and escaping through her cracked skin. It froze the moment it was exposed to the vacuum. Her entire body froze within seconds as the heat within was sucked away by the relentless void. Her last action was a faint twitch of her fingers that were still tightly grabbing Xander’s hand as she turned into a frozen sculpture on the moon.
The silence was oppressive to the single survivor of the vacuum of the moon as he was forced to watch the woman he had brought here die in such a horrific manner without him being able to do anything.
Xander didn’t process the events until the hand he was holding turned as hard as rock, making it impossible for him to free himself without breaking Susan’s fingers. He was unresponsive as the woman he was supposed to protect from the monster was killed because of something that he did.
Soon, his face hardened as he freed himself from the grip of the frozen woman, breaking her fingers in the process. He couldn’t do anything for her by staying here.
‘How was I supposed to know that we would be teleported to the moon… I just wanted to shift the coordinates by a hundred or so meters.’
Suppressing his guilt about failing to protect the woman, Xander looked at the massive slanted rock with intricate carvings all over its surface. As he focused on it, he noticed waves emanating from it that occasionally hid the stars around it, making them glimmer. The tower intermittently released dark energy in bursts that spread all around it.
‘Damnatī’s tower… As much as I hate to say it, my decision to interfere with the coordinates was correct. If we had landed inside that tower, I wouldn’t have any way to take care of the perpetrator behind all this.’
Xander didn’t turn back to look at the girl’s frozen form and made his way toward the slanted rock structure.
His sword was already drawn as he approached the tower, and the golden glow that covered him also spread his sword, slowly condensing, making his implement brighter and brighter. With each step he took, his sword’s glow started illuminating the moon’s surface. It made the spreading darkness visible to the naked eye as it imbued itself into the gray ground.
‘If anything, I can at least avenge this innocent soul by killing the perpetrator behind all this… If only things could’ve been that simple. The best case scenario is to cut a deal with him and have him send me back to Antoianne, or at the very least the Alfian Realm.’
As the glow of Xander’s sword intensified, it started condensing further into the spine of the sword, making the glow somewhat subtle as the spine turned from metallic silver to pure gold. The color spread further, looking like cracks were forming on the sword’s surface.
Xander stood before the rock in less than a minute despite his slow pace.
There were no visible entrances or trapdoors in his vision that he could use to get inside the place. It was nothing more than a massive rock, more than a hundred meters tall, jutting out of the ground with countless carvings all over its surface.
He raised his sword higher and gripped it with both hands as a look of intense concentration appeared on his face. The golden glow surrounding the sword intensified as Xander’s expression turned furious. His mouth opened wide, and he released a loud scream, completely inaudible in the vacuum of the moon, yet his sword was what expressed his thoughts as it glowed bright enough to appear as a small sun on the dark side of the moon that had no illumination.
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Xander looked like he was pouring everything into the sword as he raised it high above his head and jumped. He swung it down just as he was about to touch the surface of the rock. A massive arc of golden light was released from the sword that went through the rock formation, cleaving it in half and even cutting through a chunk of the moon’s surface as well. The half closer to the ground collapsed completely, while a chunk broke out of what remained and also fell, leaving merely a quarter of the rock standing.
“Holy fuck…” A soft, almost otherworldly voice reached Xander’s ears directly as if a woman was speaking right beside him. “You Hallowed don’t joke, huh? To destroy my Magic Tower with a single slash like that. Thankfully, you haven’t yet fully matured. Otherwise, I would’ve been toast.”
A sudden wind was produced from the center of the cleaved rock formation that suddenly blew away all of the dust and rocks, clearing up Xander’s vision. In the middle, with a shimmering barrier surrounding him, stood his target. A woman with inky black hair and black irides in her eyes, wearing a long robe that went down to her feet as a dark shadow slithered around her.
‘The damnatī. She looks nothing like the previous Castellan—he was a man, for one—the last victim, perhaps?’
Xander’s eyes narrowed predatorily as he located his target. Still, he didn’t attack the woman and descended slowly after destroying the massive structure.
He didn’t look out of breath after such a move, but hints of fatigue were naturally visible on his face.
“Smart, you don’t want to come into my domain, somewhere you think I’m prepared,” the woman said calmly, yet hints of condensention were easily discernable from her tone.
With his words, dark shadows shot out of the woman’s figure, intent on capturing Xander, who rapidly swung his sword, accurately locating the shadows with his golden eyes as he sliced through them.
Each slice from his gold sword cut an approaching shadow off entirely, making it dissipate away with no traces. His movements were fluid and swift as he kept cutting through endless shadows that were intent on capturing him.
“It should be an honor for me to be able to witness the sword of a Hallowed in action. Yet all I can think about is what I would do when I possess you.”
The change in Xander’s gaze was captured by the woman.
“Oh, yes. You were the target of this, Xander the Hallowed. While I planned to switch to that poor girl whom you left to die, my real target has been you since the moment you appeared in my city. To think I could have the chance to possess a Hallowed just filled me with giddiness.”
The shadows shooting out suddenly started circling him, gathering before they shot toward him, intent on capturing him by overwhelming him with numbers, yet the Hallowed didn’t relent and continuously sliced through them like butter.
As the seconds passed in the stalemate, Xander slowly looked to have the upper hand as the shadows started dwindling, yet the woman had no expression of panic on her face.
Almost a minute passed before Xander noticed that the woman wasn’t in her previous position anymore. Instead, she was much closer to him. Her hands were extended toward him as she mouthed something mysterious. He couldn’t understand what she was saying, but he knew that he had to interrupt her.
With a furious shout, he released a powerful arc from his sword, eradicating all of the shadows that were surrounding him. More of them quickly started approaching him from the remnants of the destroyed magic tower, yet he got the moment that he needed to approach the woman. Without hesitation, he slashed at her. A barrier appeared in the path of his sword as she continued chanting. It shimmered from his attack before breaking completely as the darkness surrounding the woman acted up and gathered in the path of his sword, slowing his slash even further.
Without a moment’s delay, he pulled his sword back and slashed again, cutting through the darkness.
Suddenly, he was yanked back as the shadows caught up to him, preventing him from decapitating the woman. Before he could cut away the shadows surrounding him, they pulled him closer to the remains of the tower. He released his aura in a burst and slashed down the shadows that were entangling him before they pulled him into the tower. The shadows continued relentlessly pursuing him with a much greater vigor as he pushed himself to slash through them.
Getting a glimpse of the woman, he saw a deep horizontal gash across her chest that bled black blood, yet she looked undaunted as she slowly approached him while continuing her chanting.
Suddenly, her chant started reaching his ears, similar to how she was transmitting her voice to him before.
“Usurpatio Vitae, Invasio Animae, Raptus Corporis!”
A sudden burst of darkness erupted from her as Xander went on for a final stand, releasing all of the aura contained within his body as he exploded with a golden light, driving away the approaching shadows. He didn’t hesitate and shot toward the woman, driving his sword through her heart. He didn’t stop and pulled out out before slashing again, chopping her head off immediately.
The backlash to Xander was almost instantaneous as his legs buckled, almost causing him to fall down as the golden light that protected him from the vacuum flickered, causing frost to appear on parts of his skin. He had a look of intense pain on his face as he pushed himself beyond his limits to maintain his protection.
As he struggled to survive, he noticed countless black lines slithering out of the woman’s dead body, spreading through the moon’s surface around him. Even turning his head made him groan, but he could see the black lines creating a formation around him. The woman was the source, and he was the target of this formation.
‘I was too late, huh…’
Xander lost all strength and finally fell down on his knees, slouching as he barely kept himself alive.
He had no energy to escape the magic circle and no more cards to play that could keep him from being possessed.
With effort, he fished something out from the pouch that was connected to his leather armor.
‘I should’ve listened when he told me to go home…’
The thought came to his mind naturally as he looked at a cylindrical seal in his hand. It was a wax seal, one that was used by his father on official documents that required the man’s identification. That stamp displayed the crest of his family on it, the side profile of a lion roaring at the heavens, and under it, an open book; both those things were encased within a hexagram, which was the boundary of the crest.
The dark circle was completed, with Xander completely helpless against it, unable to do anything.
Soon, he lost consciousness, allowing the dark energies to consume him.