He moved even quicker than Justinian, his jade blade catching the wretch’s claws as it tried to cleave at her.
"Quick!"
Jiang Chen grunted, struggling to push it back.
[Lordworn Equipment]
SLASH!
Justinian swung at its side, causing the massive creature to back off and growl in pain.
Two swordsmen, one opponent, and a girl who was currently trying to save a soul.
"Pesky mortal..."
The wretch spoke telepathically, its words directly invading their minds.
"Prey shouldn’t speak."
Jiang Chen sheathed his sword, then lunged at the creature, and the moment he got close enough, he immediately swung it at lightning speed, catching the creature by surprise as he managed to cut a claw loose.
THUD!
But the wretch was no slough either, attacking back with its massive horned head as it brutally smashed through his ribcage.
"Shit!"
Jiang Chen flew past Justinian, and the sound of him crashing into a stone rock was audibly heard.
But he didn’t have time to look back right now; he needed to fight.
"Petrify!"
The leaves scattered all around them began to turn into stone, and with it came stone archers, all ready to fire.
"Go!"
FWISH!
FWISH!
FWISH!
Dozens of arrows impaled themselves onto the wretch’s hide, causing it to writhe in pain. It was clear that a beast of a void like that had never experienced pain before once in its life.
And now that it had felt it, its undeniably low pain tolerance was starting to take effect.
[Jade Reconstruction]
Jiang Chen returned to join in the fight, his injuries and wounds being temporarily replaced with living jade, acting like temporary ribs and skin to allow him to fight even in the most dire of situations.
He wasn’t an MC for nothing...
CLANG!
SLASH!
CLANG!
The two of them handled the beast, and as for Maria...
Something else was happening entirely.
"I got it!"
She smiled, managing to release the soul that was contained in the shrine, but it wasn’t just one... in fact, she had just accidentally released nearly a hundred trapped souls inside.
The wretch wasn’t just harvesting the souls... he was containing them, a ritual to allow it to unleash its true form in the mortal world.
But Justinian couldn’t help but think how this was even possible... why would a void creature appear now? It wasn’t even that part of the novel yet.
It was literally years early.
SLASH!
SLASH!
The two fought together in tandem, each one managing to slowly overwhelm the creature, without its stockpile of souls in the shrine it used as a home, it was now weak enough that the two of them could manage to deal considerable damage.
"Back off!"
Justinian yelled out to Jiang Chen as another volley of arrows was unleashed, once again hitting the creature, its huge form making it near impossible to miss.
’These... MORTALS!’
The wretch screamed, and just like what it did before, the scream pierced Justinian and Jiang Chen’s heads directly, enough to cause them both to bleed from their ears as they crumbled to their knees from the sound.
Even Maria was affected, clutching at her head as she tried to avoid the piercing frequency.
But the wretch suddenly stopped in its assault the moment it saw Maria’s amulet...
It was a divine one, a direct threat to its kind.
And what was worse... the more it looked like the girl was harmed... the more it started to glow.
It was terrified, turning into smoke that headed towards the town as it retreated for now.
"W-What...?" Maria looked around, confused at where the wretch had disappeared off to, but that concern was immediately gone the moment she remembered Justinian, who was currently incapacitated.
"Lord Justinian!"
She approached his kneeling form, his eyes slightly dazed. It was clear that while Justinian was a demi-god, he was still prone to attacks from the void.
He didn’t think they would appear so soon...
"I-Is he okay...?"
But surprisingly, the same couldn’t be said of Jiang Chen, who only managed to suffer minor hearing damage from the verbal attack.
"I-I’m not sure..."
***
Inside Justinian’s mind, meanwhile, was a different battle altogether.
Because he wasn’t just stunned, no, his soul itself had become a conduit for other void beasts.
He was quite literally fighting inside his own mind.
"If..."
CLANG!
"I knew this would have..."
CLANG!
"Happened, I would have prepared for it sooner!"
CLANG!
Justinian parried a flurry after flurry of attacks from the dark silhouettes that started to surround him. In his own mind, he couldn’t use his same powers...
In fact, he wasn’t even technically fighting back; this was just his willpower.
[What did you get yourself into this time?]
The book of war responded inside his mind, this time... taking the form of an actual book rather than a system panel, it now had full reign to talk to him while he was quite literally fighting inner demons.
"What do you think!?"
CLANG!
CLANG!
[The void, huh? How interesting...]
"Interesting...!?"
Justinian grunted, his left arm getting slashed by what looked like a huge, shadowy cleaver.
"F-Fuck!"
[Of course... because I don’t seem to remember allowing these... pests to interfere with my business.]
[You are my wielder. My apostle. The void does not get to touch what belongs to me.]
Justinian winced as another shadow lunged. He blocked it with pure instinct, no magic, no divine authority. Just will.
"That’s easy to say when you’re not getting torn apart!"
[Wrong.]
The pages stilled.
[I’m already here.]
Justinian stopped.
The silhouettes stopped.
The air... shifted.
He felt it, the moment something else stepped into his mind.
Not him.
Not the void.
Something older.
Something watching.
The shadows looked up, as if recognizing a far greater predator.
And then, they knelt.
Justinian stared, stunned.
"What—"
The Book of War said, tone disturbingly calm,
[You pests keep forgetting your place.]
The silhouettes trembled like prey.
The figure made of pages stepped forward.
It smiled without a face.
Justinian’s breath caught.
Because it wasn’t speaking to him.
It was speaking to the void.
[He was not supposed to be here, yet here he is.]
[He was not supposed to intervene now, yet he does.]
[He does not follow the sequence of fate.]
The shadows recoiled.
Like insects at dawn.
[He is out of order.]
Justinian looked around, slowly realizing—
The void wasn’t attacking him.
It was afraid of what he would become in the future.
The Book of War opened itself fully.
Pages turning into blades.
Words turning into weapons.
[Begone, find different prey]
The void creatures vanished.
Burned away like smoke in the sun.