NOVEL WEB Chapter 4: Phantomblood
The Phantom Knight charged—its massive blade cleaving through the air like thunder incarnate. Each footstep cracked the obsidian floor, echoing through the crypt like war drums from a forgotten age. Sparks of void-shadow burst from every impact, staining the air with flickers of unreality.
The ground trembled beneath its fury.
Matt sidestepped on instinct. The blade missed by inches, but the shockwave hurled him across the chamber. Stone fractured. Dust rose. He rolled to his feet, Shadowsidian Sword already pulsing.
His eyes glowed—not just with Voidlight now, but laced with veins of living red lightning.
The Whisper Rift hadn't just restored memories.
It had rewired him.
> "Reflexes from another lifetime…"
The blade throbbed in answer.
> Void Technique: Blink Slash
Time stuttered.
Matt vanished.
In the next instant—he reappeared mid-strike, behind the Knight. His blade carved deep into its molten armor, shadowfire spraying like blood. The Knight staggered—but didn't fall.
It spun. Fast. Too fast.
The greatblade lit up—not just flames, but molten Furnacefire. It radiated godbone heat.
Thermuz's signature.
The sword struck Matt dead-on. Armor cracked. Pain exploded. He crashed into the far wall, leaving a crater of shattered stone.
Agony lit up his nerves.
But beneath the pain—was rage.
Old. Coiled. Sacred.
> "Do you remember now?" the Knight hissed, voice like grinding steel. "Do you remember how they burned?"
Matt's vision blurred—
Then cleared.
He remembered.
> His mother's scream as lava swallowed their home.
His father's body shielding him.
The soldiers. The flames. The silence.
Thermuz's blades.
Blood dripping, Matt stood. Barefoot. Burned.
But upright.
> "I remember."
His voice echoed, layered, distorted—like a hundred versions of himself spoke at once.
The Void surged in his veins.
The Shadowsidian Blade screamed.
> Void Technique: Rift Counter
The Knight lunged again, blade descending like divine judgment.
Matt didn't flinch.
He disappeared.
No flash. No sound. Just absence.
Then—
He was inside the Knight's guard, sword driving straight into its chest. Through armor. Through steel. Through the heart of corrupted divinity.
No scream.
Only the sound of reality tearing.
The Knight spasmed. Its frame cracked. Dark light bled from every seam.
Then—implosion.
A Void pulse collapsed everything within ten meters inward, then blew it apart in a rush of ash and silence.
When the dust cleared—
Matt knelt at the center.
Sweat dripped. Breath heaved.
The floor glowed.
Ancient runes flickered beneath his palms—elegant, curved, terrifying in their age.
> NITINE SCRIPT
The symbols aligned into a burning sigil—one carved into his soul.
> New Memory Fragment Unlocked: Realm Gate – Nyuga Ruins
The Knight's ashes stirred. Wind spiraled into a vortex. From within, a whisper rose:
> "The Nayron Kings… awaken…"
Matt tightened his grip on the blade.
The Nayron Kings.
Not myth. Not legend.
Threats.
He rose, every nerve on fire—but his heart clear.
> Thermuz led the burning.
The Paladins betrayed him.
Amiya died for him.
This place wasn't a grave.
It was a gateway.
He turned to the altar—fractured and glowing. Behind it, buried beneath shifting stone, a sealed door stood. Obsidian and crystal twisted into a perfect circle. Glyphs glowed. The air pulsed—not just with magic—
But memory.
This wasn't a path to another world.
It was a path back to himself.
> Nyuga. His birthplace. The one place the gods never wanted him to return to.
But now—
He had the blade.
He had the memories.
And through the Rite of Whisper Rift, he had reignited a power the divine had tried to erase.
Matt stepped forward.
The runes flared.
The circle lit.
The gate opened.
Beyond it—light shimmered. Not divine. Not warm.
But real.
And waiting.
> "No more running," he whispered. "No more forgetting."
The Shadowsidian Blade pulsed.
The Void stirred.
The past was rising.
And war was coming with it.