Chapter 142: Nyxveil
Aiden stepped closer to the table, resting both hands on it this time.
"There’s one more thing."
Vermis tilted her head, her smile returning, curious.
Aiden continued.
"We don’t want them to find our real base."
Graveknit’s eyes flickered.
Carrion didn’t move, but his posture grew more focused.
Vermis let out a soft laugh.
"So we hide... and let them search?"
Aiden looked at her.
"Not just hide."
A faint pause.
"We give them something to find."
That made all three of them go still.
Graveknit spoke first, low and steady.
"...A false base."
Aiden nodded.
"Yes."
Carrion exhaled slowly.
"That will draw their main force."
"And their strongest fighters," Aiden added.
His fingers tapped lightly against the table again.
"If we let them locate a base, they won’t hesitate. They’ll gather everything and strike hard. As of now, we don’t have the capabilities to fight them head on."
The air in the room shifted.
This wasn’t just defense anymore.
It was a trap.
Graveknit straightened slightly.
"Don’t worry, my lord. We’ll make it convincing. Enough to fool their scouts." he said.
Carrion added, "And strong enough to hold, at least for a while."
Aiden nodded.
"It doesn’t have to last forever."
His eyes darkened slightly.
"Just long enough."
Long enough for the enemy to commit.
Long enough to lock themselves in.
Vermis pushed herself off the pillar, her movements light.
"I like this plan more, my lord." she said. "They come to us thinking they’ve found the heart..."
Her smile sharpened.
"...and instead they walk into it."
Aiden didn’t respond, but the faintest hint of approval passed through his expression.
He looked at Carrion.
"Split the forces. The main group secures the town and builds the outer defense."
Carrion bowed his head.
"Yes, my lord."
Then to Graveknit.
"You handle the details. Make the fake base believable. I want scouts to see it and report it without doubt."
Graveknit placed a hand over his chest.
"It will be done."
Finally, Aiden looked at Vermis.
"You stay flexible. I want you to keep moving to pressure them."
Her eyes gleamed.
"I won’t disappoint."
Aiden straightened.
The plan was set.
"Move immediately," he said.
"No delays. The faster we build this, the sooner they react."
Carrion turned first.
"I’ll gather the units."
Graveknit followed.
"I’ll begin preparations."
Vermis lingered just a second longer, her gaze still fixed on Aiden, that same strange excitement flickering in her eyes.
"This will be fun," she said softly.
Then she turned and disappeared into the shadows.
One by one, they left the hall.
Their footsteps faded.
Their presence vanished.
Until Aiden was alone again.
He stood still for a moment, then let out a quiet breath.
The hall grew quiet again.
Only the faint crackle of blue flames and the distant echo of dripping water remained.
Aiden stood there for a moment, unmoving.
Then his gaze lowered slightly.
"...Time to prepare properly."
With a thought, a faint glow appeared in front of him.
A transparent screen.
Only he could see it. The gacha system.
Aiden’s eyes scanned it quickly.
"Gold coins... 3023."
He let out a quiet breath.
Not bad.
But not enough to waste.
His finger hovered slightly in the air, as if pressing something only he could touch.
"...I need something different this time."
Not brute force.
Not another frontline unit.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Something that can help with intel."
A faint glow pulsed across the screen as he made his choice.
High-tier summon.
Cost... 1800 gold coins.
Aiden didn’t hesitate.
"Do it."
The moment he confirmed it, the number dropped.
3023 to 1223
The gold coins vanished without a trace.
The hall dimmed, and the air shifted.
Then the sound came. Not loud and explosive.
A low, dragging whisper, like something being pulled from a place that didn’t want to let it go.
A dark circle formed on the ground in front of Aiden.
Not like Vermis’s swarm.
Not like Carrion’s presence.
This one felt... quiet.
Too quiet.
The kind of silence that made the back of your neck tighten.
Aiden didn’t move.
He just watched.
The circle deepened.
Shadows gathered, folding inward, layering over each other like thin sheets of darkness.
The shadows didn’t burst outward.
They sank.
Deeper and deeper, as if the ground itself had turned into a bottomless pit that swallowed light, until even the faint blue flames in the hall seemed to dim, their glow bending slightly toward that circle like something unseen was pulling at them.
Aiden’s eyes narrowed.
The whispering grew clearer.
Not voices.
Not quite.
More like fragments of breath, scattered and broken, overlapping in a way that never fully formed words, yet carried a strange sense of intent, like something aware was trying to remember how to exist again.
Then something moved inside the darkness.
A shape began to rise, not in a single motion, but in pieces, as if it was being assembled from fragments that didn’t fully belong together.
First came the outline of a hand.
Thin.
Too thin.
The fingers were long and uneven, the joints slightly twisted, as if they had been broken and healed the wrong way, and instead of skin, there was something like dried, darkened flesh stretched too tightly over bone, cracked in places where faint shadows leaked through.
The hand pressed against the edge of the circle.
Then the rest followed.
A body pulled itself out in silence, its movements smooth but unnatural, like something that had studied how living beings moved and copied it just well enough to pass at a glance.
Tall.
Lean.
Its frame was almost fragile in appearance, but there was a tension in it, a coiled stillness that didn’t belong to anything weak.
A tattered cloak of black hung from its shoulders, though it didn’t seem like cloth at all, but something formed from condensed shadows, shifting faintly as if it were alive.
Its face
Aiden’s gaze sharpened slightly.
There was no proper face.
Where features should have been, there was only a smooth, pale surface, cracked like old porcelain, with thin lines running across it, and from those cracks, darkness seeped out like mist.
Then the eyes opened.
Two narrow slits formed slowly, and within them, there was no white, no pupil.
Only a deep, endless black that seemed to swallow light.
The moment those eyes locked onto Aiden, the whispering stopped.
Complete silence.
The creature fully stepped out of the circle.
No sound.
Not even the faint scrape of its feet against the stone.
Aiden studied it carefully, his expression calm, but his mind already moving.
"I guess luck is on my side."
Not just from appearance.
From presence.
Or rather, the lack of it.
Even standing right in front of him, the creature felt distant, like it wasn’t fully there, like if he looked away for a second, it might disappear completely.
The system flickered faintly in his vision.
Information appeared.
[Name: Nyxveil
Race: Umbral Revenant
Type: High-Tier Undead Assassin
Rank: Body Tempering Realm
Growth Potential: High
Core Traits:
A being born from condensed shadow and fractured soul remnants, an Umbral Revenant does not exist fully in the physical world, its body constantly phasing between presence and absence, making it extremely difficult to detect, track, or strike with precision.
Innate Abilities:
Shadow Merge
Nyxveil can dissolve its entire form into surrounding shadows, allowing it to travel unseen across surfaces, walls, and even ceilings, moving without sound or trace while remaining immune to most physical detection unless directly observed during manifestation.
Presence Erasure
Its existence can fade from perception, weakening the instincts of those around it and dulling their awareness, making even trained fighters hesitate or overlook its presence unless they maintain constant focus.
Silent Execution
Every strike is optimized for lethality, targeting vital points with unnatural precision, allowing Nyxveil to kill or cripple opponents of similar rank in a single motion if they are unaware or distracted.
Residual Trace Tracking
Nyxveil can sense faint traces of life energy left behind by living beings, allowing it to follow targets over long distances even without direct sight, making escape nearly impossible once marked.]
Aiden’s eyes lingered where the text had been, his thoughts already moving, calculating how this piece would fit into everything he was building.
"...Nyxveil," he murmured.
A fitting name.
Without a sound, Nyxveil lowered itself to one knee, its motion smooth and controlled, its head bowing deeply despite its faceless form, as if the act of respect was etched into its very existence.
"My lord..."
Its voice was soft.
Hollow.
Like something speaking from the edge of nothingness.
Aiden turned slightly, looking down at it.
Even now, even this close, its presence felt faint, like it could disappear between one blink and the next.
"Rise," Aiden said calmly.
Nyxveil obeyed immediately, standing without a sound, its form steady but never fully solid, the edges of its body shifting faintly like smoke that refused to disperse.
Aiden studied it for another moment.
Then he spoke.
"Welcome."
No hesitation.
Nyxveil’s head inclined slightly.
"My life is yours, my lord."
Aiden took a few slow steps across the hall, his boots echoing faintly against the cold stone as the blue flames flickered behind him, stretching his shadow long across the ground.
Then he stopped.
"Your first mission," he said without turning, his voice calm but carrying weight.
Nyxveil remained still behind him, its presence barely there, like a thin layer of darkness clinging to the edge of the room.
Aiden turned his head slightly.
"I want you to infiltrate the Clear Water Sect."
The words settled heavily in the air. It’s a dangerous mission.