The storm was raging. Rain fell in cold sheets, driven sideways by howling winds that screamed through the cliffs, making Zachary shiver. The Dark Sea crashed in waves against the rock face, and darkness had begun to reign over the grey sky, pierced only by jagged spears of lightning that tore across the heavens, illuminating the world in stark, violent flashes. Each bolt was followed by a thunderclap that made the very air tremble.
Water pooled in every crack and crevice, the rocky ground slick and treacherous beneath their feet. Gusts slammed into them with brutal force, threatening to tear loose anything not bolted to the world. The sky churned above like a living thing—black clouds swirling in chaos, the storm's fury mounting with every breathless moment.
But Zachary's attention was elsewhere.
"What's happening, Zach—" Nephis's words were cut short as Zachary gently placed a finger over her lips. Even though the day had dimmed, there was still enough light for Nephis to barely see—especially with the frequent bursts of lightning streaking across the sky.
After a few moments, Zachary calmed himself and spoke in a low voice. "Listen, I've got good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?" he asked, trying to lighten the mood awkwardly.
Nephis only frowned slightly, but it was Cassie who answered, leaning in so her voice was barely a whisper. "The bad news first."
"Well... it seems we're surrounded by Scavengers," he said under his breath.
The girls flinched. Nephis's expression grew dark, her face betraying a heavy worry. Cassie was less guarded—her reaction openly anxious.
"Th-Then what's the good news?" she asked, her voice trembling.
"Well... I've always liked stormy weather," Zachary said with an awkward chuckle.
The randomness of the statement threw the girls off balance. Cassie frowned deeply, clearly caught off guard. Even Nephis's impassive face shifted slightly as she glared at him. Before either could respond, Zachary coughed into his hand and continued quickly.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I tend to say dumb things when I'm nervous. What I meant to say is yes, we're surrounded by Scavengers—but they're dead."
The girls exchanged looks, processing his words. Zachary went on.
"But the thing is, my Danger Sense is warning me that there's something else on this cliff. And judging by the intensity of the warning, I'd say it might be one of the things we saw yesterday... the ones carrying the Soul Shards. Thankfully, it seems to be far away—at least for now. It hasn't noticed me."
He fell quiet, considering the situation.
Based on what he remembered from the novel, the Carapace Centurion was the one that killed the Scavengers. It was currently resting nearby... but exactly how nearby, he didn't know. Given that it hadn't reacted to his [Blasphemer] Attribute, it had to be at least ten meters away—probably more, depending on the monster's detection range. He knew the next step had to be taking the initiative. Once daylight broke, the monster would awaken—and they would lose the element of surprise.
"We have to kill it," Nephis said in a clear, calm voice, as if her statement were the most natural thing in the world.
Zachary exhaled shakily and nodded. "Yeah... you're right. Once the sun rises, we'll be exposed. But..."
But how would they do it? They didn't even know where the monster was. He didn't have Sunny's stealth to slip through shadows and scout the area. Worse, if he stepped in the wrong direction and got too close, the monster could detect him—and then it would be over. Nephis knew that too.
"It's just an Awakened monster," she said, raising her sword. Then she turned to glance at Zachary. "And... we're not exactly ordinary Sleepers, are we?"
Zachary raised an eyebrow and let out a curious hum. Nephis sighed and faced him fully.
"Don't try to deny it. An ordinary Sleeper wouldn't have survived out here. You, me, that Awakened Echo, plus the advantage of surprise... I'm not saying it'll be easy. We might die. But there's a good chance we won't."
Zachary sighed, then answered, "That still doesn't change the fact that we don't know its position. The moment I step too close, we lose the element of surprise."
Nephis opened her mouth, but he cut her off. "But I have an idea to fix that."
Her eyebrow arched as Zachary paused to think. During their escape from the storm, he had sensed something—how Danger Sense had flared just as he was about to be detected by the Scavengers. Back then, it hadn't been much help since they were just trying to outrun the danger. But now?
Now, it was exactly what he needed. He didn't know the Centurion's exact location or direction... but he could feel its awareness. If he moved carefully—measuring how close he could get before the threat spiked...
"I'll triangulate the monster's position," Zachary said at last, just as a jagged bolt of lightning struck the sea in the distance, casting ghostly shadows across their storm-lashed cliff.
Nephis arched an eyebrow. She didn't fully understand Zachary, but he was already on the move. "Wait here. I won't take long."
Zachary began walking along the edge of the cliff, crouching slightly, shoulders tense. As he moved, he made sure to collect the Soul Shards of the fallen Scavengers. Meanwhile, his mind was spinning.
'Calm down, man. Everything's going well. I just lack the monster's exact location. Once I have that, I can use the same strategy as in the novel. Sunny pulled aggro using his Silver Bell… my role is the same. Only this time, the aggro stays on me.'
Zachary counted each step, keeping track of the distance. When he felt he'd gone far enough, he started walking inward. One, two… six steps later, he felt it—a low buzz at the back of his head. One more step, and it would all go downhill. Swallowing hard, he marked the position in his mind and backtracked.
Once back at the cliff's edge, he began circling farther north, collecting the remaining Soul Shards in silence. 'If I remember right, in the original novel there were only eight Scavengers on the cliff. Now there are twice as many. Could my presence really have caused such a small change?'
He sighed, finding no answer, and repeated the process. Again, once the buzz came, he stopped, made a mental note, and returned to the edge. A third time, he did the same. Once all points were triangulated, he returned to the girls.
"Okay, look closely." He wiped his forehead, slick with cold sweat. Summoning Ender's Solace, he knelt and began scratching marks into the stone. They needed to move quickly—night was falling, and Nephis couldn't see in the dark.
"We're here," Zachary said, pointing at a circle carved into the rock. "I think he can feel my Attribute from about thirteen or fifteen meters away."
"I started walking from these directions," he added, pointing to the remaining circles. "Considering the radius of detection, the monster must be right here—about a hundred meters that way." He ended his explanation with his sword pointing toward a jagged formation of rocks.
Nephis studied the scratches and then turned to Zachary, eyes sharp. "Good. I think I have a plan."
Zachary gave a nod and handed her the Soul Shards. One by one, Nephis crushed them, absorbing their essence. Once she was done, she turned to Cassie.
Cassie tried to put on a brave face. She turned to Nephis and forced a smile. "Go kill that thing. Maybe you'll finally get something decent to wear and stop making me feel so guilty."
Nephis chuckled, then turned to Zachary.
He just nodded. "Let's go."
***
The plan remained the same: Zachary would draw the Centurion's attention and make it collapse using the rope trap. He sighed and looked down. His left hand, gripping Ender's Solace, was trembling. Danger Sense buzzed in the back of his head—he was a single step away from deadly danger. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, forced his body to obey, and stepped forward.
A furious screech tore through the storm, momentarily silencing even the rain. Zachary spun and sprinted in the opposite direction, shoes slamming against slick stone. The wet cliffside threatened to send him tumbling, but the grip of the Witness's Trust shoes and his precise body control kept him upright. A deafening crash sounded behind him—boulders shattered as the Centurion barreled through the ridge. Rocks rained down from above. Zachary didn't look back. Trusting his Danger Sense, he veered away from the larger chunks of falling debris and pushed forward.
Then he saw it—a faint glimmer through the downpour: the rope.
His heart jumped. Zachary surged forward, water splashing with every step, and slid beneath the rope. The slick stone helped him pass under smoothly. A few meters ahead, he finally turned around.
The Centurion came crashing through the storm behind him, completely blind with rage. It didn't even see the rope. Its leg caught on it, and the momentum threw it off-balance. The boulders anchoring the trap shattered under the force, but the rope held firm.
'Yes!' Zachary cheered internally—only for the triumph to die in his chest a second later.
Even while falling, the Centurion didn't stop. It crashed face-first into the stone, but didn't flinch. Driven by mindless hatred, it continued crawling toward him—one massive scythe after another dragging its heavy frame forward. Its fixation on him was absolute. It didn't care about pain, position, or anything else.
It just wanted him dead.
A sudden realization dawned on him. 'It's not going to work.'
Zachary instinctively stepped back—and at that moment the Echo dashed forward, abandoning its hiding place among the dead Scavengers. The summoned beast slammed into the Centurion's back and pinned it down with brutal force. With surprising agility, it locked its pincers around the creature's arm, just below the jagged bone scythes.
Still, the Centurion didn't stop. Even with the Echo's weight holding it down, it clawed forward—unstoppable. Zachary stared in disbelief. Then, from the corner of his eye, he saw movement.
Nephis.
She emerged like a ghost, darting through the rain straight at the monster. Slipping between its scythes, she leaned in and delivered a devastating thrust with her longsword, driving it with her entire weight. The blade sank deep, vanishing up to the hilt in the Centurion's chitin.
It did nothing though.
A moment later, the monster twisted violently, flinging the Echo off its back. Then, rising to its feet, it ignored Changing Star completely and charged straight for Zachary.
"Bring it on, bastard!" Zachary shouted, raising Ender's Solace. Despite the terror, despite the storm, despite the abomination bearing down on him, his mind was calm. His body moved without hesitation—precise, practiced, and ready.
Zachary dove under the scythe, Danger Sense and Cinder Eyes working in perfect harmony, complementing each other's strengths. The path forward was clear. Even though their situation differed from the novel, it was arguably better. They had Nephis, the Echo, and unlike Sunny—who had his chest caved in—Zachary was still in the fight. He just needed to chip away at the Centurion's strengths, one by one.
'I'll begin with your mobility.' Zachary thought with venom as he slashed at the joint of its leg—only for the blade to bounce off harmlessly.
'Shit.' He rolled across the slick floor, the Centurion hot on his heels. But glancing back, he saw Nephis unsummoning her sword and calling it back to her hand, ready to intercept. Not far away, the Echo was rising to its feet, prepared to rejoin the brawl.
'Damn it... Ender's Solace has the power of an Awakened weapon, but this thing's carapace is Awakened too—and worse, it's built solely for defense.' Zachary's thoughts raced as he barely ducked under another scythe aimed at his head. The Centurion was terrifyingly fast for its size, but that size was also a disadvantage: its attacks were broad and easy to read for him.
His soaked hair clung to his face as sparks began forming in his hand. 'Thankfully, I have something that's good against defense.' The sparks solidified into the shape of Antlered Wrath. Dodging a downward scythe to his left, Zachary planted his feet firmly and swung the warhammer at the Centurion's leg.
He missed the joint, but the hammer's pointed end had enough force to shatter part of the carapace. The Centurion faltered with a screech, just in time for the Echo to bash into its side. Zachary finally caught his breath—and then blinked in surprise as Nephis used the Echo's back as a springboard, leaping at the Centurion's face to deliver a blinding strike to one of its eyes.
Dark blood joined the falling rain. Nephis landed in a graceful roll as the Centurion trembled with fury—but instead of retaliating, it ignored her and the Echo completely, charging straight for Zachary once more.
But this time, he was ready.
Clenching Ender's Solace in his teeth, he gripped the warhammer in both hands and dove under a flurry of strikes, landing a crushing blow to the already damaged leg. He immediately unsummoned the Memory and, before the Centurion could counter, drove the sword into the cracked armor.
Then he leapt back, using his left hand to spring into a backflip with the agility of an Olympic gymnast. Even mid-air, he couldn't help but marvel at his reflexes. 'Thank you, Aspect Ability... but now's not the time to lampoon.' Sparks surged in his hand again as he began resummoning the hammer.
This was his plan—break the armor with Antlered Wrath, strike the vulnerable spots with Ender's Solace. It required extreme precision. He had to dodge the Centurion's frenzied attacks, all while perfectly timing the summoning and unsummoning of his weapons to the millisecond. Thankfully, his mind and body obeyed his will without hesitation.
Suddenly, the Centurion swung its scythe in a wide arc, cleaving off the Echo's pincer cleanly. Even though its focus remained on Zachary, it was clearly smart enough to eliminate nearby threats.
Nephis took the opening. She dove beneath the scythe and, with flawless precision, drove her blade into the joint where the scythe met the torso—the exposed gap in the armor.
"Well done, Neph!" Zachary shouted, sprinting forward.
The scythe faltered. With one more mighty swing, Zachary slammed the hammer into the weakened leg—and it finally snapped. And in that moment, as the carapace gave way, something deeper stirred in him. He felt it.
The insight of the Heavy Sword.
It wasn't something monumental, as if the Akashic Records had been presented to him. It was just the realization of the path forward—the breaking of the limit the Simple Sword had. He understood it completely.
The Heavy Sword relied on heavy footwork, a precise and firm hold on the ground to anchor its weighty style. Everything else was secondary. The strength behind every attack came from the power born in the lower body.
{_^_}
Danger Sense interrupted his new insight. Without even registering the danger, Zachary reflexively twisted the warhammer in front of him, blocking the incoming scythe with the shaft of the weapon. The metal groaned under the pressure, but thankfully, it held.
Zachary didn't, though.
He was blown back by the sheer force of the blow, but he was intact. Just as relief bloomed in his chest, Danger Sense screamed again—this time, the threat wasn't in front of him, but behind.
He was about to crash into something.
No time to curse. No time to think.
Zachary clenched every muscle in his body to the limit. It was a response born from instinct—but it was the right one. By instantaneously tensing all of his muscles at the moment of impact, he increased the solidity and density of his body, dampening the blow.
With a painful scream, he smashed into the stone, and it shattered in a rain of debris. Zachary's body was hurting like hell, but for the most part, he was unharmed. His mind, however, wasn't in the right place—the shock of the crash had given him a concussion. Thankfully, his Ability allowed him to regain control in an instant.
Suddenly another sound pierced the chaos—sharp, high-pitched, and terrifying.
Cassie's scream.
He had crashed into the very rock the blind seer was using as cover. And now, the Centurion was charging in their direction, blinded by rage and drawn like a predator to the feeling of [Blasphemer].
Zachary's perception slowed. He didn't know if this was something born from Cinder Eyes, or simply the desperation of the situation—maybe both. But suddenly, he was able to see everything around him moving in slow motion.
The Centurion was dashing awkwardly in his direction, its broken leg making the charge unbalanced—but not any less fast. Behind it was Nephis, following closely, but still too far to buy them even a second. To his left, the Echo was missing a pincer, its carapace cracked and broken in several places. It was heading toward the Centurion, clearly intending to bash into its side.
This would've been a welcome move, were it not for one thing—just within arm's reach, right beside Zachary, was Cassie. She'd been thrown off balance by his crash into her cover, and combined with her blindness, the girl was now in the most perilous position of all.
Without thinking, he shouted at the Echo: "Take her away!"
The Echo turned sharply and dashed toward Cassie. Zachary stood up and brandished Ender's Solace. His body was in hellish pain—but it still listened. And if it listened, Balance Control would move it with precision.
Grabbing Cassie's tunic with its pincer, the Echo raised her with a gentleness that didn't match its massive frame. But Zachary had no time to lampoon—the Centurion was already upon him. Trusting Danger Sense and Eddard's teachings, he envisioned the Attack Path and dodged the damaged scythe, only to parry a second strike with a heavy blow.
He began to move with millimetric precision between attacks, dodging carefully and parrying those he couldn't avoid. With each deflection, he felt his strength returning—not some dramatic surge like a protagonist might feel at the climax of a battle, but more like a rusty veteran slowly regaining the edge he'd spent years sharpening.
His balance was increasing.
[49%]
Zachary parried a scythe, then in the same motion struck the Centurion's leg using the insight he had just discovered. His focus was at its peak—he was claiming each second of the battle as his own.
[50%]
More than that, he was revisiting Eddard's teachings. Pushing the basics to their utmost was his path forward.
[51%]
He wasn't just envisioning the Attack Lines. He was feeling them. Danger Sense was mapping the trajectory of each attack, while his enhanced senses filled in the missing details.
[52%]
He remembered the mistakes he made fighting the Scavengers—errors born from inexperience. That gap was now being filled.
[53%]
And in that moment, he reached a breakthrough. Not the kind of radiant clarity Nephis spoke of in the novel—but a deeper clarity within his Innate Ability.
He wasn't just envisioning the Attack Path anymore. He was watching the Attack Lines.
A new sight had been opened to him.
Blood began flowing from his mouth. The increase in Balance was welcome, but such a drastic surge was dangerous. Yes, a sword became stronger by being hammered, but too many strikes could shatter it. Zachary's body was no different. Regaining its balance needed to be gradual—not sudden like it was happening now.
He parried another attack, and his eyes began to bleed. A splitting headache hit him like a bell being rung inside his skull.
His mind was in overdrive. All the computations, added to his new sight, were taking their toll. Even though his Ability let him operate at peak efficiency, his mind was still human. It had limits.
But Zachary didn't care. His thoughts were elsewhere: He was locked in a stalemate with the Centurion, despite its size and frenzied strikes, the Centurion couldn't land a hit. But Zachary couldn't pierce its carapace either.
Still, he longed for more. Deep within his Soul, he yearned for strength.
And Ender's Solace answered.
The sword began trembling in his hand, growing hotter and hotter. Something inside it had changed. He couldn't tell what exactly, but he could feel it—feel it through their linked souls.
It only took a second, just a second of distraction. But the Centurion didn't miss it.
Zachary sensed the scythe inches from his left side, ready to cleave him in half. And yet… he wasn't worried, because he felt something else.
Nephis appeared at his side in a flash, blocking the descending scythe with divine grace.
Zachary looked at her. They exchanged a single glance, and it was enough.
"Go," she said with quiet command, white sparks dancing in her eyes.
Without hesitation, Zachary dove beneath the second scythe and slid under the Centurion's towering frame. The underbelly—one of the few weak points in a carapace—was nearly impossible to exploit. Simply lowering their bodies was enough for most of these monsters to protect it and crush anyone mad enough to dive there.
But Zachary didn't care. He only needed a moment.
And he bet everything on it.
Fortune favors the bold.
His focus peaked. His nose began to bleed. His brain felt like it was aflame. But he endured.
And through the pain and strain, he put every ounce of weight into the blade. He only needed a moment.
And a moment was all it took.
He thrust.
The sword entered the Centurion's underbelly without resistance, he felt it—before the sound even reached him. The monster let out a piercing, inhuman shriek and began thrashing wildly. But it was already too late. Ender's Solace had struck true.
Zachary gripped the sword with every bit of strength he had, hands clenched around the blood-slick hilt, trying to anchor himself against the Centurion's final spasms.
And then, just a second later… it stopped. Only silence.
Until he heard the Spell whispered in his ear.
[You have slain an awakened monster, Carapace Centurion.]
[You have received a Memory: Starlight Legion Armor.]
Zachary sighed in relief, he was battered, injured and in a hellish pain. But he was alive.
The storm had ended.