Chapter 142: The Voice of Night (Part One)

  Cassius flew through the castle, pursuing the bck mist.

  He saw the runes ihe iron cages flickering as tless blood thralls wailed before exploding into ghostly bck mist, surging toward a specific destination.

  "These blood thralls were all sacrificed."

  "Their destination must be the outside world."

  With this realization, Cassius ceased his chase, fpped his wings, and soared upward. His massive dragon body relentlessly smashed through stone walls and ceilings, tearing through the underground fortress.

  Soon, amid the colpsing structures behind him, Cassius burst into the outside world.

  However, the se before him had drastically ged pared to earlier.

  There was no moon or stars in the sky now.

  This was a night devoid of light.

  The sky above was shrouded in dense shadows, resembling a deep, be.

  The surrounding colors seemed drained, reduced to dull shades of bd white, and a t bck mountain loomed in the distance.

  Above the Twilight Forest, clusters of shadowy essence coalesced into a vortex of bck mist, spinning tinuously.

  Staring at the bed sky, Cassius muttered to himself:

  "This is the proje of the Shadowfell."

  "No, that old bat has breached the veil between the Shadow Pne and the Material Pne."

  The Shadowfell, also known as the Pne of Shadow, was a dark and foreboding dimension that mirrored the Material P was a realm of toxic shadow and enigmatic power, desote and distant, filled with shadowy entities born of essence.

  The swirling bck mist in the sky was clearly an interpnar vortex, linking the Shadow Po the Material Pne, summoning unknown shadowy entities from that realm.

  "I must stop this."

  Cassius finally uood the meaning of the vampire's dying curse—"You will all die."

  If the Shadowfell's curse of shadow invaded, Northwind Fortress would bee a dead city overrun by shadow creatures, ed by endless, all-dev darkness. Even Cassius himself might be transformed into an undying shadon.

  Encased in a shimmering barrier, Cassius boldly charged into the vortex, attempting to sever the e breag the pnar boundary.

  【Anti-Magic Field】

  Yet this had no effect. The vortex henomenon far beyond the fifth tier, immuo Cassius's otherwise reliable spell-nullifying field, which could only smooth the most superficial disruptions.

  Cassius unleashed a torrent of fiery breath.

  Bzing fmes engulfed shadowy entities, elig shrill, anguished wails.

  But the vortex, now spanning nearly a hundred meters in diameter, had amassed too many shadowy beings. Even the red dragon's endless fire could not burn it all away.

  "Sutense magic weave fluctuations."

  "This scale…"

  "What in the Nine Hells did that old bat summon?"

  A bone-deep chill crept through Cassius as he realized that whatever emerged from the vortex into the Material Pne was far beyond his ability to defeat.

  Determined, he began flinging fireballs, walls of fire, and lightning bolts into the vortex without restraint.

  Fire, lightning, and radiant energy cshed and roared within the vortex, yet they failed to stop the bck mist from amassing and expanding, obsg the sky.

  "This 't drag on."

  Cassius thought grimly.

  A dreadful pressure emanated from the vortex, making even the red dragon shudder.

  As a naturally powerful creature, Cassius rarely experiehis kind of primal fear. But now, he felt it deeply—and it was overwhelming.

  "Roar—"

  A low growl apahe emergence of a dragon-shaped proje from the swirling mist, its form visibly solidifying.

  A powerful entity from the Shadowfell was gradually maing ierial Pne.

  Its twenty-meter-long body was covered in dull, charcoal-like scales, its wings transparent and ghostly, resembling spiritual membranes.

  Most terrifying were its eyes—bleak gray and devoid of pupils ht, like an abyss that could e souls.

  Those gray eyes locked onto Cassius, and a raspy voice echoed:

  "A fellonkin?"

  "A young red dragon? I was w who drove my poor tractor to such desperate measures."

  "But I must thank you."

  The massive dragon—no, the shadon—licked its intangible lips, bck mist dripping like spectral saliva.

  "Soon, I'll return to the Material Phis feels wonderful."

  Cassius straio maintain his airboraaring up at the far rger and more menag shadon proje.

  【Based on your abilities, the following information is avaible.】

  【Voice of Night - Mortifer】

  Basic Abilities: ???

  Challeing: 21 (33,000 XP)

  Description: Mortifer has resided in the Shadowfell for seveuries, relishing its desotion and bitterness, cursing all light and life, and yearning to spread the darkness and corruption of his realm.

  Often assuming the guise of a "Voice of Night," Mortifer would fe tracts with humanoids, luring them into darkness. Entire vilges and towns were reduced to haunted wastends, their souls harvested to fuel his power.

  "A legendary foe…"

  Cassius's expression darkened.

  Challeing 21—an uionably legendary-tier entity.

  And due to the nature ons, Mortifer's actual strength would likely exceed the numbers on paper.

  In essence, only a fully prepared legendary adventurer party could hope to face su oppo—perhaps even triggering a pne-wide catastrophe!

  Since arriving in Erezaghe, Cassius had never faced a foe of this magnitude.

  Mortifer, the Voice of Night—Cassius recalled hearing this name in his past life. It was the final boss of the high-difficulty side quest "Dragonshadow City" in the 4.0 expansion of 【Pnes Expedition】.

  But Cassius had never imagined entering su enemy now. To him, the Aa Wastend was a barren frontier unworthy of such attention.

  Clearly, his assumption was wrong.

  This shadon had great i in sowing darkness ah across the wastend, turning it into a lifeless expanse.

  In his past life, after Duke Brad's assion ceremony failed catastrophically, he vanished without a trace—likely ed by Mortifer.

  "I 't let him fully ma ierial Pne!"

  This was Cassius's sole thought at that moment.

  FAL