Chapter 142: Whisper of the Night (1)
Kai Xiusu followed the creeping black mist through the castle’s labyrinthine halls.
He watched as the Rune Array within the Iron Cage pulsed with eerie light, and countless Blood Slaves erupted in screams before disintegrating into ghostly wisps of dark vapor—flowing like a tide toward some unseen destination.
"These Blood Slaves have all been Sacrificed."
"Their destination... must be the outside world."
Realizing this, Kai Xiusu halted his pursuit. Instead, he unfurled his wings and surged upward, the massive dragon form smashing through stone walls and ceilings with brutal force, tearing a chaotic path through the Underground Bastion.
Before long, the thunderous collapse of structures echoed behind him as he burst into the open air.
But the scene before him was nothing short of transformed—utterly unrecognizable from what it had been moments ago.
There was no Mingyue. No stars.
Only the endless Night.
The sky above was shrouded in thick, oppressive shadows, a vast dome of ink-black darkness pressing down like a suffocating canopy. The world around him had been drained of color, its hues reduced to a monotonous palette of black and white. In the distance, towering black peaks loomed like sentinels of death.
Above the Twilight Forest, a massive vortex of Shadowstuff coalesced—thousands of swirling fog-like masses spinning in a relentless, churning whirlpool of darkness.
Kai Xiusu stared upward, his voice barely a whisper.
"This is a Projection of the Shadowmire Abyss."
"No... it's not a projection. That old bat has torn through the barrier between the Shadow Realm and the Prime Material Plane."
Shadowmire Abyss—also known as the Shadow Realm—was a realm of eternal twilight, intertwined with the Prime Material Plane yet fundamentally alien. It was a land of haunting stillness, where darkness reigned supreme, and life was a distant memory. The air was thick with sentient mist—shadow-born creatures that drifted like ghosts through endless desolation.
The vortex above was no mere storm. It was a Union of Body and Spirit, a rift between worlds, and it would soon summon something ancient and terrible from beyond.
"No. I must stop it."
Only then did Kai Xiusu fully grasp the meaning behind the vampire’s dying curse—"You will all die."
If the Shadowmire Abyss’s curse took root, Northwind Keep would become a corpse-city, overrun by soulless shadow creatures, devoured by endless darkness. And worse—Kai Xiusu himself might be transformed into a soulless, immortal Shadow Red Dragon.
With a shimmer of light, he enveloped himself in a radiant barrier and charged into the vortex, determined to sever the rift.
[Spell Nullification Barrier]
But the barrier did nothing.
The rift’s power far exceeded the fifth tier. Even his most reliable spell, capable of nullifying arcane disturbances, could only dampen the surface ripples—unable to touch the deeper, more complex reality of the dimensional breach.
The Red Dragon opened his maw and unleashed a torrent of searing Fire Breath.
Flames roared across the sky, igniting the shadow creatures within the vortex. Their wails echoed like the screams of the damned.
Yet the vortex was too vast—thousands of shadow forms forming a spiral nearly a hundred meters wide. Even with his full dragonfire, Kai Xiusu could not burn it away.
"This level of Arcane Web Disturbance..."
"Such scale..."
"What in the name of all that’s cursed has that old bat summoned?"
A chill ran through Kai Xiusu’s bones. Whatever was emerging through that rift was beyond his power to defeat.
Driven by desperation, he unleashed every area-effect spell he could muster—Fireball, Wall of Fire, Lightning Beam—flinging them into the vortex like a madman.
Fire, lightning, and radiant light clashed violently within the swirling darkness, but the vortex only grew stronger, swallowing the light, expanding, consuming the sky.
"I can’t hold out much longer."
A crushing pressure emanated from the vortex. Even Kai Xiusu, a natural-born Red Dragon, felt his muscles tremble, his spirit falter. He had never known such primal dread—such instinctive oppression.
"Roar—!"
From within the vortex, a shadowy Dragon Projection emerged—slowly taking form, solidifying like ink poured into a mold.
The arrival of such a being from the Shadowmire Abyss required time. But now, it was manifesting.
A creature over twenty meters long, its body covered in dull, lifeless scales—black as cooled ash. Its wings were not membranes, but translucent, spectral forms, like a spirit given physical shape.
The most terrifying feature was its eyes—two pale, ashen-white orbs devoid of pupils, devoid of any clarity. They were like empty wells, sucking in light, drawing in souls.
And now, those eyes fixed upon Kai Xiusu.
A dry, rasping voice slithered from the darkness.
"So... a former kin?"
"A young Red Dragon? No wonder. I was wondering who had driven my poor contractee to sacrifice everything."
"Still... I must thank you."
The shadow dragon licked its lips, a stream of inky mist—its drool—trickling from its jaws.
"I’ll finally return to the Prime Material Plane. The feeling... is exquisite."
Kai Xiusu strained his wings, barely maintaining his hover, eyes locked on the monstrous, spectral form before him. He was on edge, trembling not from fear—but from the sheer weight of the threat.
[Based on your current strength, you can perceive the following:]
【Whisper of the Night – Mortifer】
Basic Abilities: ???
Challenge Rating: 21 (33,000 experience points)
Assessment: Mortifer arrived in the Shadowmire Abyss seven hundred years ago and has since made it his home. He revels in the desolation, curses all light and life, and longs to spread the darkness and evil beyond. He often disguises himself as the mage known as Whisper of the Night, forging pacts with humanoid creatures—each one laced with hidden traps. He leads them to ruin, turning villages, even entire towns, into graveyards of shadowy spirits, draining their strength for his own hunger.
"Legendary."
Kai Xiusu’s expression hardened.
A Challenge Rating of 21 meant this was a Legendary-tier entity—unquestionably. And because of the unique nature of dragons, his actual power was likely even greater than the numbers suggested.
In short, this was an opponent that could only be matched by an entire Legendary Adventurer Party.
Even more terrifying—such a being had the potential to trigger a full-scale planar catastrophe.
Since arriving in Ailezegai, Kai Xiusu had never faced an opponent of this magnitude.
Whisper of the Night—Mortifer. The name had echoed through his past life’s memories—back when the world was still in the 4.0 Planar Experience Points Edition. In those days, Mortifer was the final boss of Dragonshadow City, one of the most brutal side quests in the Underdark.
Yet Kai Xiusu had never imagined he’d face such a force here—now.
In his mind, the Anzeta Great Wasteland was just a barren, forgotten backwater. Not worth the attention of such a being.
But he was wrong.
Clearly, Mortifer had chosen this desolate land as a new breeding ground for darkness and death. A place to turn into another necropolis of shadows.
And now, Kai Xiusu realized—Duke Brad, the man who vanished after the Ascension Rite explosion, was likely consumed by this very entity.
"I cannot let him fully manifest!"
That was the only thought that remained in Kai Xiusu’s mind.
(End of Chapter)
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