Nexus Awakened (An Isekai LitRPG Gender Bender Story)

670. First Contact With Fear Itself

Gerina Aztra needed to be over level 80 to use Tier 5 elemental magic. Boney arrow tips snapped upon contact with the multi-layered barrier. Those that came through were cut down with extreme haste.

Projectiles like arrows were one of the worst weapons in Elysia, as any Skilled Adventurer worth their weight could easily cut them down.

[Enhance Body – Featherweight], [Enhance Body – Haste III], [Eagle Eye – Field of View IV], etc.

They were all standard body-strengthening magic that allowed her to react so quickly. Such magic was immensely useful to those that were weak, but useless to those that were already powerful.

Additionally, not all could use such magic or even maintain it.

Such was the unfairness of Elysia.

And unfortunately for Gerina Aztra, an arrow had slipped past her blade, stabbing her in her dominant shoulder.

“Ack! Run! Keep heading towards the forest! We… need to lose them!”

She hacked the shaft off, leaving the boney tip within. Its thorns and many twisted hooks minced its surroundings. The smallest movement caused her immense pain as she downed a green liquid; a painkiller.

“A Healer isn’t going to have fun clearing this out. Tch… I can feel it squirming. Bastards…”

Something wormed into her from the arrowhead. It temporarily took control of her hand as her veins turned black momentarily. One of the tactics that the Corpse Snatchers employed was to infect their targets with a foreign body, which was metallic in nature. Aside from the metal faces of the Corpse Snatchers, it had nothing in common with them.

“This is what she must have felt like too. That Wandering Healer and this rot...”

It was an infection. A rot that sought to make recovery impossible even in the hands of the greatest healers. She knew that her arm was a lost cause. She considered hacking it off to make her just the slightest bit faster.

“I can’t die here. Not here… Not now!”

She set her arm aside for now, twisting herself to face ahead as she began chanting another defensive spell in response to their drawn arrows.

Suddenly, her steed neighed with anguish. It tripped on its own legs, tumbling as she was thrown from its back. She rolled along the grass for meters, her blackened veins popping as crystal shards broke free, rupturing any hope of healing her shoulder.

“Gh… No…! Agh –!” She rolled onto her back, looking down to find that she was bleeding profusely.

Blood fed the grass beneath as she watched mangled hands drag her steed into the ground where it would transform into one of their skeletal horses.

This… can’t be how I die… The Bellum Empire… Can’t go down like this!

The knights in black armor approached her. Their pace slowed. One galloped ahead of the others, brandishing an enormous, three-meter-long blade in one hand like the severed wing of a raven.

It was clear what was going to happen next, but she did not close her eyes or turn away. The blade was clasped in her left hand, ready to fight till her last breath. The entity, which was a human like her, stared down at her as a foot was planted onto her chest.

“Argh – You… How could you… side with those monsters…?”

“The only monsters I know of are the ones that will whittle away what they’ve built. I’m appalled. Your family are too. You could have lived a lavish life.” He mocked, reveling in his power as he stabbed the blade next to her neck.

The handle dangled on his finger. The moment he released it, it would fall like a guillotine.

“To live eternally ever after is what they seek. How could you throw that away? But it’s ok. You’ll join us soon and breathe the same freedom of immortality. Death won’t do us apart. There will be no ashes to ashes, or dust to dust. We will be whole. Forever.”

“Do you… even understand what you’re saying…? You’re insane.” She spat, unwilling to budge even in the face of death. “Killing me… won’t change what you don’t know. Go ahead.”

“All you had to do was tell us where you hid them. You still have that chance. You are in the presence of a Knightmare. Appease them. Confess the truth, and you can live how you like. Under our… guidance, that is.”

The entity was fused with its horse like a centaur. It was easily five meters tall and carried a pair of scythes strapped to chains that wrapped all around its body. It wore metal armor like the others, with a black cloak and a grim hood made from an impossibly dark fabric like it was made from the void itself.

It stared at her from far behind him, judging her with soulless eyes that threatened to sap her sanity.

“Your guidance…?” She gargled before breaking into a laugh. “Mark my words… Grandis won’t be yours. Even if I die… you still have my loyalist soldiers to deal with. They’ll find a way to reach Inflow Direct. When they know what you tried to do to that Healer…”

Her laughter grew. Insanity dawned on her upon her final moments.

“… Then it’s over.”

“Inflow Direct is no longer watching the Healers.” A similar, hollow laugh came from the Knightmare, its voice causing her to stiffen in terror. “Therefore, there will be no repercussions… A shame. Your magic could have been elevated further under guidance. Immorality is but a teardrop away. Finish it. Her corpse will be useful as material for later.”

Her threat had no effect on them.

“… Inflow Direct… Are not overseeing the Healers…?” It was news to her, and she did not think they would lie to her moments before her death.

The Knightmare turned its back to her, laughing ominously to itself. It revealed in her terror as his teeth chattered.

“The Healers are in terrible hands. That is why they must fall into our hands.” Finally, he raised one of his dozen hands to click his fingers.

At that moment, the man above her released the blade, and a flash of light blinded her.

“… Sir…?”

“An attack!?”

“MAGIC!? IT’S CAME FROM THE FOREST –!”

That light was not because her life flashed before her eyes. It was the explosion of metal. Tiny shards barely missed her face as the blade just narrowly slashed the side of her throat, luckily not deep enough to be life threatening.

Something with tremendous force had not only punctured through the thick blade, but also their armor with so much power that it had ripped him in half. His upper half squirmed, for he could die under while under the influence of the Knightmare, his hoarse screams ignored by all.

Then, in the next moment – a thunderous boom caused every single one of them to freeze in place. There were no clouds in the skies, and the closest volcano was further inland.

Suddenly, their eyes fell onto two figures in the distance.

One was a woman dressed in black, nondescript clothing. And yet it felt like her apparel was a lie. It felt far more intimidating than it should’ve been. In her hands were a strange birdcage and a weapon reminiscent of a black Justica Arm.

The other figure was a wolf Demi-Human with red eyes, and sparks emanating from their fangs.

“Close your eyes, lady. Do not open them until I tell you to.” The woman in black warned with a voice that easily superseded the terror of the Knightmare.

Gerina Aztra did as she was told, and in the next moment, it sounded like everyone was prostrating before that voice. Howls of terror left their quivering lips, muffled by their helmets.

The Knightmare did not even utter a single sound in response to what they had seen.

“Cer. You too. You might’ve withstood her voice, but you will not withstand what’s inside of this cage.”

“Yeah. I heard about how fucked up that thing is.”

What was held in that woman’s hand was a pallid-blue birdcage.

And within was the dark glow of a terror beyond comprehension.

“Now then. I didn’t think I’d be meeting the Memento Mori so soon. Don’t even think about reviving. Don’t even attempt to flee this place. You are locked in here with me. If you wish to die comfortably, then it will be in your best interest to start answering my questions. Terrent.”

“Yes… Master…”

The voice within the Lantern spoke.

“Don’t break their minds yet. I need them to be responsive. Cross check with me. They were once your friends, no?”

“It will be done.”