Chapter320 – Devourer Talent
Finnegan frowned. “That’s not right. They were stationed in this very village—they should’ve been here long before us.”
“They were closer to Valerie too,” Vince muttered. “Even if they didn’t find her, they’d have heard the explosions.”
Finnegan steadied himself, glancing down the narrow path leading deeper into the fog-draped village. “Maybe they’re assisting Dale with another capture. There was talk of a Stormhold spy still loose in the area.”
Axel rose from beside Valerie’s body, feeling the faint pulse of energy coming from his pocket. He smiled faintly.
The Life Crystal.
And his Essence and Soul Stones hadn’t been consumed in the dream after all. Relief washed over him.
Dream resources might vanish from perception, but they didn’t actually burn out. Which meant Valerie’s death wasn’t just a victory—it was a profit.
“Fine by me,” Axel said, standing. “Let’s go see what the hell those guys are up to.”
Millers groaned, rubbing at his ribs. “Yeah, I swear, if they’re napping after all that, I’m gonna throw them into the nearest pit.”
The group followed Finnegan down the quiet street.
The village was small—too small for this much silence.
After a few minutes of walking, Finnegan pointed toward a nearby house. “There. That’s where they were posted. Strange… there’s no sound at all.”
Seeing how drained the others were, Finnegan stepped forward. “I’ll go check—”
“Wait.”
Axel’s voice cut through the air.
Finnegan turned, brow furrowed. “What’s wrong?”
Axel didn’t answer immediately. His gaze was fixed on the building ahead—an unremarkable wooden house, about three hundred meters away.
His eyelid twitched. Every instinct in him screamed danger.
Then, faintly, from within the darkness—a green light flickered.
“Mr. Finnegan,” Axel said quietly, “didn’t you mention someone from the Havoc Division was assigned to protect Team Embercrag? Call him.”
Hearing the absolute seriousness in Axel’s voice, everyone halted.
Finnegan didn’t really understand Axel’s standing in the group. Seeing the others follow the young man’s lead so readily, he couldn’t help feeling a little amused.
“Alright, alright—hold on.”
He had just lifted his communicator when the wooden cabin door creaked open.
A woman hurried out, her face full of panic.
“Mr. Vince! Mr. Finnegan! You’re finally here! The rest of our team is in bad shape—you have to come quickly!”
It was Mackenzie.
A collective sigh of relief passed through the group. Finnegan slipped his phone back into his pocket with a laugh.
“See? False alarm. Axel, you damn near gave me a heart attack. Let’s go—they’re probably just suffering aftereffects from the dream.”
He leaned closer to Vince and whispered with a grin, “You Obsidian guys are really something.”
Vince smiled back faintly. Charles, meanwhile, had already linked everyone’s minds in silence.
Axel’s voice echoed inside their heads.
After hearing his instructions, they all kept their expressions neutral and followed Finnegan forward as if nothing were wrong—but inside, their nerves were on fire.
“Axel… are you sure?”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“This could be a disaster…”
Only one reply came back through the mental channel:
“Trust me.”
Mackenzie walked toward them, visibly anxious. “Why are you all moving so slowly? Hurry!”
Finnegan waved cheerfully. “Relax. Valerie’s already been taken care of. Even if your people are injured, we can find a healer in Ebonveil—”
BOOM!
Before his smile could fade, a violent surge of Force exploded behind him. A flash tore across his peripheral vision—and terror slammed into his chest.
Vince’s sword arc.
Rosaline’s ice barrage.
Millers’ cannon fire.
Axel’s Red Flame Blade.
Every single one of them unleashed their strongest attacks at once.
The edges of the blast brushed past Finnegan’s shoulder while the full storm swallowed Mackenzie whole.
A thunderous explosion shook the village.
Smoke and flame devoured the cabin. Several nearby wooden houses collapsed into splinters and rubble.
Finnegan staggered, trembling. “This… this is insane. Mr. Vince, it can’t be this bad! I know Embercrag and Obsidian don’t get along, but killing her outright?!”
His blood ran cold when he saw the grim faces of the Obsidian team.
A horrifying thought took hold.
Are they going to silence me too?
The smoke thinned.
Finnegan swallowed and slowly turned back.
“You…?!”
The figure standing where Mackenzie had been was no longer a woman.
The clothes were still hers—but the face was now unmistakably male.
Fragments of shattered rock armor littered the ground around him, broken apart by the attack.
He was bleeding. His clothes were scorched black.
And yet—
He was smiling.
A slow, satisfied grin twisted across his face.
“As expected of the fruit I chose,” he said softly. “You actually managed to find me.”
The voice sent needles of ice down Finnegan’s spine.
It didn’t match his body at all.
The tone… was unmistakably feminine. Seductive. Cold.
“Mr. Vince… what the hell is going on?! Where’s Mackenzie?!” Finnegan’s mind collapsed into chaos.
Vince and the others were equally shaken. On one hand, Axel’s judgment had been flawless.
On the other—
This thing had taken their full opening salvo and was still standing.
“Mackenzie is dead,” Axel said coldly. “This thing is impersonating her.”
He recognized that face now. The instant clarity struck him, all his lingering doubts snapped into place.
“Vernon…” Charles whispered, staring in disbelief, breathing hard.
“More accurately,” Axel said, eyes locked on the impostor, “Vernon was killed by her. So was Mackenzie.”
For the first time, a faint instinct to retreat stirred in Axel’s chest.
Back in the shallow dream, they had sensed someone who had escaped its influence. He hadn’t known who it was then—but the spiritual aura had felt eerily familiar.
The same aura as the woman who murdered Vernon.
Then Mackenzie appeared—throwing everything into confusion. Their appearances hadn’t matched at all.
Axel wasn’t certain whether she possessed a face-altering awakening like Zane’s, so he had stayed wary.
Now it all made sense.
The green light in the cabin.
“Mackenzie” emerging at the worst possible moment.
The borrowed defensive talent.
Everything clicked.
“Sequence Eighteen… Devourer Talent,” Finnegan whispered hoarsely.
The Devourer could absorb another person’s awakened ability—and perfectly assume their appearance.
According to Whisper Syndicate records, it had only ever appeared once before, in the hands of a Level Three Awakener.
That man later became an assassin. And the Syndicate had executed him.
This was the first time Obsidian had ever faced another Devourer.
“Who the hell are you?” Vince demanded.
Their ambush had failed. No one rushed in again.
Instead, Vince, Rosaline, and the rest silently sent out a distress signal for reinforcements while gripping their Primogems, drawing in Force to recover what little strength they had left.
Axel’s earlier command—to concentrate everything into a single killing blow—had nearly drained their last reserves.
Charles extended the mental channel to include Finnegan.
“If we can’t bring it down,” he said grimly, “we fall back and wait for backup.”
“I agree,” Finnegan said immediately.
Retreat had suddenly become the most rational choice.
Since entering Skyfleet Town, everything that had happened—from his men being dragged into a sudden dream to the brutal battle with Valerie—had gone far beyond anything Finnegan had anticipated.
“Mr. Vince, what the hell is going on? Who is this guy? Where are my men? And why did you blow everything up?!”
Dale came charging in from behind the former “Mackenzie,” his breathing ragged, his clothes torn and scorched. It was obvious he’d just fought his way through something nasty.
Questions poured out of him in a frantic rush.
Vince opened his mouth to tell Dale to retreat—then a shrill, bone-rattling roar split the air.
“What the hell is that?!”
Before Dale could react, a massive shadow burst through a nearby cabin wall. He was slammed backward like a ragdoll. Instinctively, he raised an arm to block—bloody holes instantly tore through his upper arm. A fraction lower and his chest would’ve been ripped open.
“Damn it…”
Gritting his teeth, Dale charged right back in.
“An Infected…” he managed to growl.
The creature that stood before them was nearly four meters tall, its entire body wrapped in dense, layered scales. The scales along its arms were pitch-black, bristling with vicious barbs. Its gaping maw was packed with serrated teeth, foul saliva dripping onto the ground in sizzling strands.
“Level Five Infected…”