Tenebrous Wolf
Chapter 103: Echoes of Victory

Chapter 103: Echoes of Victory

"Damnit. Why won’t this damn smell come off?" Klaus muttered, scrubbing furiously as he poured another stream of water from the limitless bottle over his head.

Ever since the battle with the Awakened Commander — where he’d been forced to crawl up the creature’s anus just to land a critical blow — the stench had clung to his body stubbornly. No matter how many times he rinsed, it lingered.

His comrades had nearly thrown him out of their hiding spot because of it. In desperation, he borrowed the limitless bottle from Seraphim and went to work, scrubbing away layers of filth, monster gunk, and god-knows-what else. But the damn smell refused to die out.

Which, understandably, left Klaus in a permanent state of barely-contained rage.

Who in their right mind goes around willingly reeking of filth? More than that, who the hell volunteers to crawl into a monster’s ass crack?!

Klaus grimaced. He understood they would’ve lost — maybe even died — if he hadn’t made that insane decision.

Still, the aftermath was unbearably unpleasant.

"Well, I’ll be damned. This is not working at all. Tch!"

Realizing the futility of his frantic scrubbing, Klaus frowned and let out a heavy, defeated sigh.

Seeing no point in continuing, he shifted his attention to the small island around them. Not far away, Adrian was busy dissecting the nightmare carapace corpses. With a sharp knife in hand, he carefully removed the internal waste before extracting usable meat.

The number of carcasses had dwindled significantly after the sudden arrival and swift departure of the flying monstrosities. Whether the creatures consumed the bodies or simply carried them off elsewhere, the result was the same.

Unfortunately, they had also taken the Transcendent shards that the nightmare carapaces had captured before being killed. It was a serious setback for the group, especially after battling an awakened ghoul capable of commanding lesser hollows because of one such shard.

Given the rarity of Transcendent shards, even if they had tried to absorb one quickly, defending it from other monsters would have been nearly impossible.

More importantly, they had still managed to collect the cores of the fallen beast commander and the remaining nightmare carapaces. In that sense, the loss wasn’t as great as it first appeared.

’In the end, we still lost those precious transcendent shards. Can I call this misfortune?’

Imagine earning a Transcendent shard through sweat and blood, only to stand by and watch as it was taken by towering predators.

This wasn’t misfortune. It was a simple truth: they were too weak to hold on to it.

Feeling a bit sluggish, Klaus sighed and let his gaze wander. Across the distance, he spotted Seraphim swinging her silver blade. On closer look, she appeared to be wearing armor, distinct from the advanced battlesuits developed by humanity.

Covering her porcelain form was a masterpiece of dark elegance; an obsidian black armor with a lacquered sheen that caught even the faintest light, like oil shimmering on water. At a glance, it appeared to be made from an unknown, resilient material, possibly on par with his own Purgatory’s Shroud.

Beyond the black armor plates layered over her grey bodysuit, Klaus noticed more intricate components: greaves and vambraces, articulated pauldrons and rerebraces, cuisses, and sabatons. Finally, his eyes finally settled on the smooth breastplate, which was angular in design and adorned with engravings of a sun and a moon.

The entire ensemble was both light and elegant. It balanced function and form, offering high levels of protection while emphasizing the graceful lines of Seraphim’s body. The stark contrast between black armor and white hair made for a breathtaking sight.

’That must be the Nightmare she gained from slaying the beast commander. Wait... didn’t she have a helmet?’

Klaus narrowed his eyes, trying to recall the moment she first donned the armor.

Yes, that’s right. She definitely had a helmet. He had only caught a glimpse of it, but the image was already etched clearly in his mind.

As the obsidian armor fully formed, the helmet materialized over her head. Two massive horns jutted from either side, arching down around her face before curving upward into sharp points near the front. It looked less like a traditional helmet and more like a demonic relic pulled from the pages of ancient legends.

Perhaps aware of this, Seraphim had dismissed the helmet, allowing her short, silvery hair to spill free and dance in the wind.

From there, she summoned her sword and executed a few tentative pirouettes, testing the weight and flexibility of her armor. She’d been doing that for the past few minutes.

In any case, this was undeniably a good development. Not only would the armor enhance her combat capabilities and personal defense, but it would also boost the team’s overall performance. With the exception of the succubus disguised as a human, all the Striders were now more or less properly armed and armored.

This was an important necessity to roam the Chaos Realm.

Klaus watched Sera in silence. Just as he felt the urge to return the limitless bottle, — and maybe use it as an excuse to spark a casual conversation — Morgan suddenly called out.

"Psst! Hey, come over!"

She waved him over with a quick hand gesture. Klaus tilted his head, puzzled by the sudden invitation, before finally moving toward her.

As he approached, he noticed something unusual. Standing next to her was a nightmare carapace. His protective instincts kicked in, and he instinctively summoned his nightmare gauntlets. But then he paused. The creature wasn’t attacking. In fact, it stood there calmly beside the smug demoness.

Was it one of her tamed monsters? Klaus frowned slightly, confused. He was sure all of her tamed servants had been killed during the monster raid.

To be sure, he stepped closer and asked,

"This thing... one of your tamed monsters survived?"

Morgan nodded enthusiastically, her grin only growing smugger.

"Yes, yes! I was surprised too. It’s a little roughed up, sure, but it’ll recover quickly once I take it into my Soul Valley."

Klaus blinked.

"What? Soul Valley? Do you mean the Soul Stream?"

Morgan caught the confusion in his voice and gave him a look that hovered somewhere between amusement and mild realization.

"Ah, right. I suppose you humans call it the Soul Stream. Anyway, as I was saying, judging by its injuries, it should only take a few minutes to recover."

’A few minutes you say?’

Still skeptical, Klaus gave the nightmare carapace a quick once-over. Within seconds, his doubt only deepened.

Even at a glance, it was clear those so-called "mild" injuries were anything but. One of its massive scythe-like forelimbs was bent at an unnatural angle, and several of its legs were twisted or fractured, some barely hanging on by strands of sinew and muscle. The armoured carapace of the creature was cracked in multiple places, leaking a faint, dark ichor that sizzled slightly when it hit the ground.

As expected, surviving that fall hadn’t been easy. In fact, it should have been fatal. For the creature to be the sole survivor among those cast aside, it was nothing short of rotten luck.

For a fleeting moment, Klaus almost felt sad for the ruined monster.

...Well, almost.

Within the next moment, he shifted his gaze from the pitiful night creature then fixed it on Morgan.

"You’re actually calling that a few minutes of healing?"

Morgan didn’t even flinch at his words. She placed a hand on the monster’s side, with her expression serene, almost reverent. A low hum pulsed from her palm, and for a brief second, Klaus thought he saw faint threads of light flicker around the wounded beast.

"Time flows differently in the Soul Valley," she said, her voice carrying an odd, echoing resonance. "A few minutes out here can stretch longer in there. Long enough for it to mend... assuming I pour enough of my essence into the process.

Klaus gave her a look.

"And how much of that essence do you have left? Don’t forget, you’re just a fiend at the moment. Well, that’s if we’re calculating based on Hollow standards. In any case, your rank is relatively low so how much essence do you have really?"

Morgan’s smile thinned.

"You’re sweet for worrying, my dear master. But I’m not that fragile." Her tone dipped into something colder. "Besides, this one’s worth keeping. After all, it survived what the others couldn’t."

Klaus licked his lips.

"Are you saying that because the Stalker died?"

Hearing that, Morgan frowned briefly, a flicker of annoyance crossing her face, before she suddenly remembered how to smile.

"What about it? Considering my mind controlling abilities, I can’t fight on my own so I need strong underlyings to compensate for that weakness."

Klaus raised another question.

"So you’re not a bit bothered about the Stalker’s death?"

The demoness shrugged, as if the question was hardly worth considering.

"Why would I be? It was just a stupid monster. Sure, I’m a little annoyed it died like that, but there’s nothing I can do, right? I’ll just control another one in its place. It’s not like this damned world is short on monsters."

’She’s definitely not wrong about that.’ Klaus thought with a wry smile.

At the very least, Klaus could say one thing for certain; Morgan, or rather, Briar, was undeniably a demoness. That cold willingness to discard subordinates as if they were mere pawns on a chessboard was a hallmark trait of the demon race. Then again, Night Creatures were little more than mindless beasts, hardly worth sentimental consideration.

Perhaps her attitude would change if her subordinate were a living being capable of thought and emotion. But Klaus had no idea how she would treat such an entity.

Speaking of which, he was technically supposed to be her subordinate. If not for the [Dominance] trait he possessed, that might have actually come to pass.

Unbidden, a shiver ran through his body.

What would’ve happened if that had actually come to pass?

That’s terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. Let’s not think about it.

Shaking the thought away, Klaus turned his attention back to Morgan, only to realize she had entered a half-cognition state. Her normally green eyes now glowed milky white. More notably, the wounded nightmare carapace had vanished.

She must’ve transferred her spirit into the Soul Stream, taking the tamed creature with her.

With nothing else to do and left alone, Klaus let out a sigh and summoned the chaos runes. He decided it was time to review the spoils of their harrowing battle.

[Ether Fragments: 319 / 1000]

Upon seeing the numbers, a slow smile crept onto his lips.

’Man, it’s good to be alive.’