Chapter 187: Fear Without Sound or Shadow
Watcher 20's hands trembled as dark feathered blades shimmered into streaks of radiant arcs, cutting through the air with dazzling trails. He unleashed volley after volley in all directions, attempting to drive back the elusive, sweltering figure that seemed to flicker in and out of sight. Yet the twisted waves of heat, almost alive, moved across the battlefield like phantoms, each motion so swift it left the world gasping. It felt as if the air itself had ignited.
"Show yourself!" Watcher 20's roar was mingled with sharp, erratic breaths. His eyes, once filled with rage, now glistened with the sheen of creeping fear. Cold sweat trickled down his forehead, dripping onto the scorched ground below. Desperation coursed through him as he continued summoning stronger and more numerous feathered blades, but not a single one even grazed Yahageshii.
"I'll find you," he muttered, teeth clenched, though his voice lacked conviction, sounding more like an attempt to reassure himself. But as his words echoed, the surrounding air grew ominously still. The heat shimmer began to deepen, tainted with creeping darkness, spreading like black ink spilled into water. The mingling shadows consumed the brightness of the battlefield.
"More than one source?" His voice trembled as his gaze darted from one shadow to another. The shifting, intertwining tendrils of heat and shadow seemed intent on scattering his focus, obscuring the true threat.
"Where are you?" he snarled, furious. Feathered blades tore through the space once more, an unrelenting rain of darkness. But the inky void continued expanding, a silent cage that tightened with every breath he took. His attacks met only air, futile against the consuming void and suffocating heat.
His frustration mounted, each wild slash of his blade unraveling into chaotic desperation. The oppressive silence weighed heavier on him with every passing moment.
"This is impossible," he murmured, his breath quickening. Years of battles across countless fields had never left him so utterly outmatched. Each strike seemed to land on emptiness, yet the enemy's presence loomed over him—intangible but inescapable.
The black fog of his own dark domain quivered, thinning at its edges as his turmoil grew. The searing waves of heat flowed around him like a hunting predator, unseen yet palpable, watching as he flailed against its inevitable strike.
Watcher 20's movements faltered. His pupils contracted. He realized his onslaught of attacks had only revealed more vulnerabilities, feeding the hidden threat that waited, coiled and ready to strike. Yahageshii was simply... waiting.
"No... this unease... happening to me? The master of darkness?" he raged internally, though his hands had grown clumsy, his strikes erratic.
Suddenly, a wisp of heat, tinged with darkness, extinguished like smoke dissipating into the air—evidence of Yahageshii's power consuming an attack silently. This sequence played out repeatedly, each assault vanishing into nothingness, erased as if it had never existed.
"What is this monster?" Watcher 20's voice cracked, betraying his rising terror.
At that moment, Yahageshii's voice broke the suffocating quiet, low and cold like a blade of ice against flesh:
"I can lose a thousand times to Harutemi... be mocked and bested by my friends without hesitation... but you—"
The sentence paused, weighty as the moments before a storm.
"—you are not allowed."
Below the battlefield, Harutemi knelt, her trembling shoulders heaving with sobs as tears streamed freely down her face. Her hands clenched at the shattered earth beneath her, nails digging into fragments of stone, her knuckles pale from strain. Each reverberation of Yahageshii's words pounded in her chest like a hammer.
"Stop... Yahageshii, please stop... I lied to you. Don't take revenge—" Her voice broke, the fragmented plea spilling from her lips as the tears flowed unchecked.
Above, the distorted heat surged, converging on Watcher 20.
Boom!
A tidal wave of pressure crashed toward him, an unseen force as unyielding as an avalanche. Watcher 20's eyes widened in panic as he struggled to defend himself, reflexively raising his blade—but he was far too late. The searing, transparent surge enveloped him, suffocating and unavoidable.
"This... can't be..." he whispered, his voice trembling with disbelief.
He stared into the twisting haze of heat, confusion and terror etched into his features. The battlefield around him blurred as the oppressive waves of heat enveloped him entirely. The suffocating air seemed to thrum with an overwhelming presence—Yahageshii's presence.
Watcher 20's thoughts raced, grappling for clarity in the chaos. Was this searing tide Yahageshii's aura, or some elaborate ruse? Was it a distraction, a decoy, or a true harbinger of death?
No matter how he tried to rationalize, the weight in his chest only grew.
His heart screamed a conclusion that his mind resisted: this was no bluff. This was reality. Death loomed, not as a distant concept, but as a presence so near he could feel its breath on his neck.
His instincts took over, and Watcher 20 made a desperate decision. He pivoted, abandoning the swirling heat before him, and prepared to defend against what he believed was the true threat—coming from behind.