Turning-Chapter 852

“I know what that is. I’ve been hit by it too.”

He’d felt the same when Naham had attacked him once. That endless, dragging eternity packed into a single blink of the eye—the sense of being trapped in time, reliving all your pain endlessly.

Yuder had endured it. Duke Hern had not.

As a result, the Duke had exploded from the inside, as if he’d swallowed a bomb—his body reduced to a mangled heap of flesh and blood. From the outside, his death had lasted a single moment, but for him, it had likely been as Kanna described: the infinite repetition of fear and agony spanning what felt like centuries.

It was the most horrifying revenge only Naham could have enacted.

Yuder looked past the mangled pool of flesh that had once been a man, his eyes shifting toward where Naham had lain. The faint white mist that had signaled he was still alive had vanished.

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His body didn’t move.

“.......”

Yuder remained silent for a moment, then turned his gaze back to Kanna. She was also drenched in the blood that had splattered from Duke Hern, her appearance a mess—but in the reflection of her blue eyes, Yuder saw something far worse.

“...This isn’t your fault. What’s important now is to stabilize the situation, so you should—”

Boom.

At that moment, the air shook again.

It felt similar to the surge of power when Duke Hern had died, but it wasn’t quite the same. This new vibration was coming from above—from the rift in the sky.

The instincts of prey standing before a predator screamed danger. As people staggered, lifting their eyes, they saw three rifts slowly opening like the eyes of a monstrous demon, and within them, something unknown churned like swarming insects.

“What... what the hell is that?!”

“Dear god...!”

Still reeling from the recent events, people began to scream in shock. Some clutched their heads and fled in panic; others fell into complete hysteria, unable to breathe.

Yuder bit his lip as he watched them. How long had it been since he’d hoped this might all be handled if only he and Kishiar worked together—only for the rift to open now?

Damn you, Duke Hern...

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

He was already dead, but if he somehow came back to life, Yuder would’ve gladly punched him again and buried him with his own hands. That man had refused to come to the capital, treating his life as precious—yet somehow, he’d marched himself right to the place he would die. What the hell was he thinking?

Even if he wasn’t helpful, he should have at least protected his own life.

No matter how close to death Naham had seemed, he was still an Awakener. That meant strength and danger far beyond a normal human. And it had been a long time since Yuder had felt so acutely how little people of this era truly understood what that meant. The divine power that had steadied his mind moments ago now seemed to falter.

For now... the monsters haven’t come through yet. If there’s a way to close the rift like this... And then...

Boom!

Another impact, again. The rift widened, and hail began to strike their shoulders and backs with brutal force.

What? Naham’s dead, Duke Hern’s dead—so why is the rift still opening?

“Yuder. Behind you!”

A man’s voice—instantly recognizable no matter where he heard it—called out to him. Whipping his head around, Yuder froze.

In the midst of falling ice, crouched like a tombstone in the storm, was a twisted shadow.

“.......”

A withered man, hunched and trembling, bloodied tears dripping from hollow eyes—wrapped in an ominous, unsteady aura.

The last person Yuder wanted to see right now: Hosanra.

“—Aaah...”

Hosanra’s sunken, lifeless eyes stared at the wide pool of blood and the corpse of Naham submerged in it. He didn’t blink. His flickering body, distorted and frayed, kept phasing in and out like a damaged image.

As Yuder saw the Cavalry members rushing from afar, he realized that Hosanra must have used his powers to come here.

Shit.

The worst possible timing. Naham kills Duke Hern, and Hosanra shows up now, of all times—what the hell is this?

“Aaaaah...”

The endless, mindless screaming suddenly began to intensify. A sense of impending disaster prickled along Yuder’s skin. He knew—Hosanra was about to lose control.

Like a flickering lightbulb on the verge of exploding, the ominous energy twisted through the air, raising goosebumps on instinct.

“Ah... Aaaah... AAAAAHHH!!”

The scream exploded into the air like a bomb, its agony so raw it sounded like his body was being torn apart. The falling hail blasted outward with a shockwave, as if detonated.

Yuder reacted on instinct, summoning wind to shield the area.

“Ugh...”

Pop pop pop! The hail slammed into the wind barrier with violent force. Yuder swallowed the blood that rose in his throat. The storm of spinning ice around Hosanra was so intense, a single shard could seriously wound any non-Awakener.

“Yuder!”

“Don’t come to me—evacuate them, fast!”

Even under normal circumstances, he couldn’t guarantee how long the shield would hold. He signaled Kanna, who had started to approach him, to stay back and pointed at Mayra, who still sat stunned on the ground. Gritting her teeth, Kanna retreated.

“...Lady Mayra!”

Yuder watched Kanna retreat, then winced as another impact rocked the shield. Just holding off the hail was taking all his focus—he couldn’t even look up at the ever-widening rift anymore.

Damn it.

To make things worse, a hailstone the size of a fist slammed into his forehead. Stumbling, cursing, Yuder was about to fall when a large hand reached out and shielded both his shoulder and head.

“You alright?”

Kishiar, wiping blood from Yuder’s forehead, asked with a blank expression. His face and body were also scratched and bruised from the worsening hailstorm, but he didn’t seem to care about his own wounds—only shielding Yuder.

That thought stirred something hot and painful inside Yuder’s chest.

He swallowed it down and answered.

“...Yes. I’m alright.”

“How long can you keep this up?”

“To be honest... I think killing him fast might be better than trying to hold the barrier...”

Before he could finish, another wave of hail spun out from Hosanra and pounded the shield like a mad storm. Even as Yuder flung out his hand to reinforce it, the barrier looked °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° ready to collapse.

Gritting his teeth, he pushed his powers harder—until Kishiar grasped his hand.

At that moment, an invisible force enveloped Yuder’s wind shield. The barrier, once flickering under the pressure, grew sturdier as if fortified from the outside. It felt like Kishiar’s power was acting as a wall behind his, pushing back the storm’s force.

Only then did Yuder finally exhale.

His body felt lighter—but that only made the guilt worse. For every bit of ease he gained, Kishiar’s burden increased.

“I’m fine. The rift is opening—we should head that way.”

“...Not yet. Nathan’s there.”

Kishiar’s reply was calm. His gaze wasn’t on Yuder, but on Hosanra, crawling across the ground at the center of the hailstorm.