Chapter 278
As the ashes of the serpent drifted around him, Oliver stood motionless, [Neglegentis] still clutched tightly in his hand.
His grip on the weapon was unyielding, knuckles white against the dark hilt.
Then—
He smiled.
A small, unnatural curve of his lips.
It lacked warmth.
It lacked joy.
It lacked humanity.
It was wrong.
Sera’s stomach churned violently, a twisting sickness unfurling in her gut.
His eyes—
No longer sharp, no longer calculating—
But something else entirely.
An eerie gleam.
Something dark.
Something that should not be.
Her breath hitched.
To anyone else, it was a slight, subtle smirk.
But to her—
It wasn’t a smile at all.
It was the grin of a devil.
One that had already claimed her soul.
Her blood turned cold.
Her body—motionless. It was as if she had frozen on the spot, paralyzed not by choice but by something deeper—something primal.
She was rooted in fear?
She?
An inquisitor?
Impossible.
And yet—her body refused to move.
As if every cell in her being had come to the same silent conclusion:
If you move, you die.
It wasn’t hesitation. It wasn’t willpower failing.
It was pure, unfiltered instinct.
A desperate attempt to play dead before an apex predator.
And yet—
He was already gone.
Just before she could realize it, a cold, fear-inducing sound came from behind her.
Soft. Unassuming.
Yet it shattered the silence like a gunshot in her ears.
Tap.
Her lungs seized.
The sound of a footstep—just behind her.
She did not turn. She dared not turn.
She already knew who it was.
He had bypassed everything.
Her perception. Her senses.
Reality itself had seemed to bend—one moment he was there, the next, he was behind her.
A hand touched her shoulder.
Cold. So unbearably cold.
Not like ice—but like the void itself, an absence of warmth, of life, of existence.
Her heart clenched violently, as if unseen fingers had wrapped around it.
Was this her end?
She closed her eyes.
She would be lying if she said she was not scared, but her body was too stiff for her to even react slightly.
Her mind was no longer working, as if it had also accepted the unseen fate.
It was blank.
No thoughts. No instincts.
Just acceptance.
As if fate had already been sealed.
___________
Her life unraveled before her—a flickering sequence of moments, memories slipping through her fingers.
And in that final glimpse of what she had been—
One regret rose above all.
‘In the end, I still could not meet the Death Witch again…’
A bitter weight crushed her chest.
She was unwilling.
Unwilling to die.
At least—
Not before she saw that woman one last time.
But what could she do?
Her fate no longer belonged to her.
It rested in the hands of the very human she had once hunted as prey.
‘Ah… how foolish I was… I was not ready.’
She slowly lowered her head, ready to meet the void.
But—
Something entirely unexpected happened.
The feeling of the hand on her shoulder disappeared.
The hand was gone.
The suffocating presence disappeared.
The air grew still, eerily empty.Her eyes snapped open, wide with disbelief.
She gritted her teeth, forcing herself to move.
It took minutes—agonizing, endless minutes—but she finally gathered enough courage to twist her body.
She slowly tried to look behind her.
Nothing.
No one!
There was nothing behind—neither the devil of a human nor the remains of her summoned serpent.
It was all clear, absolutely clear.
She looked around slowly, her eyes scanning over the entire battlefield.
Apart from the debris from their previous fight, there was nothing present.
No trace of the devil of a human boy.
He was not there.
He was gone.
Entirely.
_______
Her legs gave out.
Thud!
Her body slumped down to the ground, her legs feeling mushy. The world was spinning around her as she fell to the ground, her hair rolling in the dust as her head touched the ground.
“Ha.. Ha… Hahahahaha…”
She laughed, her laughter growing louder and louder with each passing second. It became so loud that it was no longer distinguishable whether she was laughing, crying, or screaming.
Only her shrill voice remained in that barren place.
_____________
Elsewhere, in the vast abyss of space, a lone figure floated in silent contemplation.
His white skin gleamed under the cosmic glow, his blue hair flowing like mist. He had an impeccable sense of fashion, his bizarre clothing both regal and alien.
A thick tail swayed behind him—an amphibian.
Then—
His eyes snapped open.
Not one. Not two.
But four pupils.
Each eye held two glowing white pupils, locked within deep, narrow sockets. His gaze was as if he could see through time itself.
He spoke.
“What was that sword intent?”
His deep voice rumbled through the void as he lifted his head, staring in a particular direction.
His expression darkened.
“To make my sword react after eons of wait… has someone worthy finally appeared?”
Excitement flickered across his face, but his voice remained low, contemplative.
“It is faint, but it’s there…”
He raised a hand and pressed it against the air before him.
The void trembled.
His fingers traced invisible lines.
“The negative energy is… excited?”
His four pupils glowed.
“Did they finally find their heir?”
He narrowed his gaze, looking toward a distant place unseen to all but him.
“Interesting… It seems the era of the Cosmic War is finally approaching…”
The space around him shuddered from his emotional fluctuations.
It took him a moment to calm down.
Then—
A small, almost imperceptible smirk.
“I can finally draw my sword again.”
He whispered, his voice barely above the hum of the universe.
His gaze sharpened.
“I can’t wait to meet you… O’ Heir of End.”
Then—
His eyes closed.
He returned to his meditation.
___________
Meanwhile…
Oliver reappeared in a remote corner and instantly crashed into the ground. He was back to normal but was utterly drained of energy, so much so that he was not even able to lift a single finger at this moment.
Even the weakest of demons could be disastrous to him in his current state.
However, he had a deep look in his eyes and smiled.