Chapter 4: A Fated Intervention

The timeline rewound a few minutes.

“Hey…”

Mo Ya furrowed his brow, clearly disapproving of Blood Princess’s actions. Though he wasn’t familiar with the girl on the battlefield, Mo Ya was not inherently fond of slaughter.

He wanted to step forward and stop Blood Princess, who had completely lost her reason, but she gave him no such opportunity.

A turbulent wave of crimson energy surged, coalescing into a spherical object in Blood Princess’s hands. Mo Ya distinctly felt the immense power contained within it.

Blood Princess swayed her body excitedly, as if she had accomplished a momentous mission. Her eyes revealed an unprecedented thrill, and a crazed smile stretched across her lips.

“That’s right, all of you shall be buried here! All of you, just die! Only then can the King of my heart, that invincible King, return! My King, who belongs solely to Blood Princess, will finally return!”

As she spoke, she flung the concentrated energy wave from her hand.

Like a bullet discharged from a gun, the crimson wave shot forward with an astonishing tearing sound. The target of this power was none other than the Ice Witch on the battlefield, Shakia.

***

On the battlefield, a raised ice spear still impaled the corpse of an ‘Erosion’, and Shakia’s expression was utterly confident. To her, this battle was nothing more than a minor farce, incapable of disturbing her composure in the slightest.

Yet, fate seemed intent on playing a cruel joke. This composure was swiftly shattered.

Shakia sensed danger. As she flung the ‘Erosion’ from her ice spear, she saw the sudden crimson energy wave.

Her brain rapidly made an accurate judgment, but her feet refused to move. It wasn’t that she felt fear, but rather that the energy wave was simply too fast.

There was no escape now. She couldn’t dodge it.

The wave would undoubtedly pierce her body in the next instant, stealing her life before slowly fading into nothingness.

A trace of helplessness crossed Shakia’s face. To Mo Ya, her expression held a woman’s fragility and despair, but more profoundly, it showed shock and unwillingness. Mo Ya closed his eyes, no longer wanting to witness what was about to unfold.

‘Indeed, starting tomorrow, humanity will lose another future elite.’

Death always arrived abruptly; Mo Ya understood this deeply.

Engaging in constant combat on the true battlefield, he had continually evolved, eventually developing his own thoughts and wisdom.

Through his gradual growth, he had come to understand the existence and terror of death too well. The deaths of comrades occurred around him every single day.

Despite this, he could only press forward. As an ‘Erosion’, it was his sole path to advancement.

Ultimately, he survived, treading upon the countless corpses of friends and foes alike, and ascended to the throne of the Seven Kings of the Erosion Realm.

He became one of the revered Seven Kings.

Therefore, regarding the impending event, he chose silence, taking no action whatsoever.

The energy wave continued to close in, and Blood Princess’s laughter grew even louder and more frenzied beside him.

‘It’s almost here. Soon… she will disappear.’

‘Closing my eyes, let that be my final act of mercy.’

Mo Ya thought to himself, quietly clenching his fist.

At the same moment, however, her faint voice reached Mo Ya’s ears. Despite the chaotic environment, where the rushing wind and Blood Princess’s laughter were so grating, it was as if fate had ordained it. Mo Ya clearly heard her words.

“So, humans truly cannot escape fate after all?”

Mo Ya’s eyes snapped open. His gaze once again fixed on her position on the battlefield.

This time, Mo Ya saw it clearly. The emotion on the silver-armored girl’s face was not shock and unwillingness at all; his earlier perception had merely been his own subjective interpretation.

Only as the energy wave was about to cleave through her body did Mo Ya truly understand her.

Indeed, it was an expression of resignation. An expression devoid of any hope. And… an expression of utter helplessness.

The bones in Mo Ya’s clenched fist grated. Her words, as if enchanted, echoed persistently in his mind.

[So, humans truly cannot escape fate after all?]

***

“What a joke. How can one’s future be left to something as unrealistic as fate?”

Mo Ya lowered his voice, clenching his teeth tightly.

If everything were left to fate, if he hadn’t struggled against it, he might already be buried beneath the earth, a casualty on the path to becoming a King.

“That’s why I detest such words the most.”

He moved. Mo Ya, who had been observing until this instant, made up his mind and charged towards the girl on the battlefield.

‘If you intend to yield to fate, I will shatter it with every fiber of my being!’

White scales began to sprout from the sides of Mo Ya’s cheeks, rapidly increasing in number until they gradually covered his face.

It was as if he had donned a white mask, leaving only his deep, black eyes visible—this was the price Mo Ya paid for using his Erosion power.

Moving faster than the energy wave, he shimmered before the girl and caught the terrifying crimson wave with a single hand.

A tremendous explosion erupted around them, and the ground was ravaged by the escaping energy waves, scarred with countless ravines as if slashed by blades.

Only the area behind Mo Ya remained unscathed.

“Why…” Shakia’s trembling voice reached him.

“This is not your fated end.”

In the distance, Blood Princess, witnessing this phenomenon, collapsed to the ground, as if her soul had been ripped away.

“King… why… why help a human?”

Tears streamed down her face; she seemed unable to comprehend the reason.

And rightfully so.

To be honest, even Mo Ya himself didn’t understand why he had charged forward. His head had simply heated up in the moment, and he had stopped caring about anything else.

“Thank you.”

Shakia used her long spear for support, steadying herself so she wouldn’t suddenly fall and reveal her discomposure. Her emotions also stabilized. She composed herself and, in her usual tone, posed her first question to her savior.

“Could you tell me your name?”

“Me? Just call me Tie.”