NOVEL WEB Chapter 16: Lord's Presence - 16
The battlefield lay in ruin.
The once-proud warriors, covered in blood and dust, lay motionless beneath the cold night sky. Their weapons, shattered. Their bodies, broken. Their will, crushed.
The Hollow Revenant walked among them, slow, deliberate, savoring the sight of its victory.
Its voice slithered through the silence.
"What a pathetic display."
It stepped over Lucian's body, his sword still clenched in his unconscious grip.
"The chosen warrior of the Dominion? Reduced to nothing."
It turned its gaze to Seraphina, her once-radiant Divine Ethrion now a dim flicker, her body trembling from sheer exhaustion.
"And the priestess… oh, how you burned so brightly, only to fade just as fast."
It laughed, deep and hollow, the sound echoing through the ruins of the battlefield.
Seric and Lira, collapsed beside each other, barely breathing. Dain, motionless where he had fallen, still bearing the wounds of Abyssal Perdition.
None could fight. None could resist.
None could stop it.
And then, its eyes fell upon him.
Elias.
Blood pooled beneath him. His breath came ragged, uneven. He was barely clinging to consciousness.
The Hollow Revenant paused, as if considering. Then, with an air of utter boredom, it spoke.
"And you, little swordsman? Have you accepted death yet?"
Silence.
Then—
A cough.
Elias's fingers twitched. His breath steadied.
And then—he moved.
Slowly, painfully, he pushed himself up, his arms shaking under the weight of his own body. His head pounded, his vision blurred, but he stood.
The Hollow Revenant let out an amused chuckle.
"Ah… still standing? How adorable."
Elias barely heard it. Something was different. His body shouldn't be moving. He shouldn't be awake.
So why was he?
His breath was heavy, ragged, but something beneath that exhaustion felt foreign.
Was it rage? No… not quite.
Was it the sting of failure?
Perhaps.
Or was it something else?
Something deeper.
Something older.
The Hollow Revenant stepped forward, looming over him.
"Shall I end this little act of defiance?"
Elias wiped the blood from his mouth, blinking at the feeling in his chest.
He should be terrified.
He wasn't.
Something about this moment felt… off. Different.
"Why…" Elias murmured. His own voice sounded strange. "Why do I feel like this?"
The Hollow Revenant reached forward—its clawed hand wrapping around Elias's throat before he could even react.
"Enough."
With a single movement, it lifted him like a ragdoll and hurled him into the air.
The world spun.
The sky blurred.
And then—impact.
Elias's body crashed through the treeline, smashing through thick branches before hitting the ground with a force that rattled his bones.
Pain flared in every nerve, but—he was still awake.
Back on the battlefield, the Hollow Revenant created another clone, its form twisting into being.
"Guard them."
The new clone wordlessly obeyed, standing over the fallen warriors, ensuring that none would interfere.
The original turned, stepping toward the trees.
It had thrown Elias far—but not far enough to let him escape.
It would finish this personally.
The forest was silent.
Elias stood.
Blood dripped from his chin, his vision blurred, his body screaming in agony.
And yet—he stood.
A breath.
Another.
Then—the air changed.
It was not magic.
Not Ethrion.
Not even something physical.
It was a shift in existence itself.
Something old. Something absolute.
Something that should not belong to any mortal.
Elias's head lifted, his eyes unfocused. He did not move, but the world around him reacted.
The trees bent away.
The air grew heavier, suffocating the space around him.
The ground quivered, as if recoiling from something unnatural.
And then—
He screamed.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
The night shattered.
An unseen force erupted from within him, an unseen pressure so vast, so absolute, that the very air trembled beneath its weight.
It was not just power.
It was authority.
A force that did not just exist—it commanded existence itself.
The Hollow Revenant stopped walking.
For the first time—it hesitated.
It was not confusion.
It was fear.
Something primal crawled up its spine—something it had no words for.
Its Abyssal instincts screamed—RUN.
But it could not.
Its body refused to move.
Something was holding it down.
And then, back on the battlefield, the fallen warriors stirred.
Lucian, barely able to lift his head, felt the shift in the air. A weight pressed down on his body, unlike anything he had ever known.
Seraphina, still collapsed, barely managed to whisper, "What… is this…?"
Dain groaned, his vision swimming. "That's… not Divine Ethrion…"
Seric and Lira, too weak to stand, felt it—a presence beyond comprehension.
And the clone guarding them let out a dry, hollow laugh.
"Ah… so it finally awakens."
Lucian, through sheer effort, turned his head. "What… are you talking about…?"
The clone tilted its head toward the forest, where a golden glow began to mix with suffocating darkness.
"It is Lord's Presence."
Back in the forest, Elias's eyes snapped open.
And the Abyss remembered.