Chapter 1665: He Called Himself…
“Your father?” the Earl looked at Shara, taking a moment to think. “No, I did not know your father. Girl, you wouldn’t be in this state if I knew your father in any way.”
“Then… then how do you know what I am if you don’t know my father?” Shara asked.
The Earl harrumphed. “Girl, you do not understand the crime of your own lineage. Unless you have—” He turned at the last moment, bringing his sword up to block the incoming attack.
Ning’s spear was en route for the back of the man’s head, but the parry deflected it off course. He hit the side of the earl’s shoulders, the armor blocking the entire attack. Ning could do nothing at all.
He moved past the Earl, rolling on the ground before he came to a stop with his spear pointed toward the Earl. His energy was running low. A shield or two more and he would run out completely.
That wasn’t good.
He spared a glance behind him. The corpses were moving away, either due to the Earl’s orders or because of their natural aversion toward whatever Shara was. Ning didn’t believe it was the second possibility.
Shara was standing awkwardly, her face a mixture of fear and surprise. She had just been told something that had gotten her mind reeling. Ning couldn’t let that be the thing that she focused on at the moment.
“Shara, freeze him. We need to leave right away,” Ning said out loud, not caring that the man could hear him.
“Ning, I—”
“Do you think you can run away from me?” the man asked. “Do you think I will let you get away when you have wounded me this much? You have put a wound on an Earl, the son of a Marques of the Golhlog Empire.”
Ning prepared for the attack. “Shara, freeze!” They had no time. There were more people coming, and there was no choice here but to run away.
Ning was already feeling his body getting weaker, the blood loss beginning to affect him more than he wished it did at the moment.
The Earl swung back his sword in preparation and attacked. Ning created two slanted barriers once again to protect himself, but to his surprise, nothing slammed onto him.
“No…” he realized what the Earl was doing. “Shara!”
He turned around in a hurry as he realized the Earl must’ve gone for her.
Shara had her arms over her face, seemingly trying to hide from the attack.
Ning looked to the side and saw the Earl far to Shara’s left, completely missing her. He stopped, shaking his head wildly.
Ning frowned. ‘He missed?’ he thought. He hadn’t expected that to happen. Was he feeling the effects of the blood loss as well? Or was this a side effect of his losing depth perception?
“Shara! Open your eyes. Freeze him!” Ning shouted at her from where he was at.
Shara put down her hand and looked at Ning before scanning for the Earl. The Earl looked toward her and came running toward her.
Ning was too far away to make it there in time.
“Freeze him! Now!” Ning shouted and moved, but he wasn’t going to reach there before the Earl swung down his sword.
Shara put her hands over her head once again and screamed, doing nothing to block the attack at all.
Ning could only watch as the sword swing came down cleaving toward Shara and cut right through her.
Ning’s heart sank that very second as he realized what had happened. He could hear several gasps from all around him, but they all drowned out in the deafening hollowness that rang around in his ears at that very moment.
How could he have let this happen? Shara had been cut right thro—
Shara looked up, pulling her hands down. She looked around for a moment and quickly ran away from the Earl.
Ning remained frozen when he saw her move. It wasn’t just him that was frozen, but the Earl as well. He had just cut her and yet… she wasn’t hurt.
He looked down at his sword and then at the girl that ran away from him. “How…?”
Shara arrived next to Ning. “What? How… what happened?” he asked her.
“I… I don’t know,” she said. “I really don’t know.”
Ning wasn’t sure what had happened either. “Were you… not cut? Did he miss?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I didn’t feel anything,” she said.
Ning didn’t know what was happening, but he wasn’t going to question his good luck. “Thank god you’re alive,” he said. “Why didn’t you freeze him?”
“I couldn’t,” she said. “I used up all my powers.”
“Huh?” Ning didn’t understand at first, but then he saw the massive ice spike that grew around the house.
“You… you used all your energy on that single ice?” he asked.
“I… I was scared. That man… he came to the room and was going to attack me,” she said and only now noticed the missing arm. “Ning! Your arm!”
“Don’t worry about my arm,” he said. “We need to leave for now.”
“You’re not going anywhere with her,” the Earl shouted, the eyeless corpses slowly gathering around him. “Now that I have confirmed what she is, the only way she is getting out of here is as a reanimated corpse of mine.”
Ning frowned. He had barely any powers left. This was bad.
“What… what am I?” Shara asked. “Tell me.”
“I…” a voice spoke up in there, stepping forward. The old woman Usha walked away from the crowd. “I know what you are. I remember.”
The Earl frowned. “Do not say anything. I command you to—”
The old woman’s eyes contained a look of awe. “The man I met so many years ago had this very same power. The power to take away from others regardless of if they were Spirit or Humans. He called himself the end of all things, the one who brings death.”
“DO NOT SAY IT!” the Earl shouted.
“He called himself… a Reaper.”
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