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The graveyard still trembled from Arthur's sudden appearance, headstones shattered and trees cracked in half as the dust swirled in thick clouds. The clawed shadow hand kept Black Hand pinned, its talons digging into the dirt and his chest, holding him like a broken insect beneath a boot. He spat earth from his mouth, coughing, his gaunt face twisting in fury and panic as he tried to wriggle free.
A dark violet glow washed over the shattered ground. Arthur descended slowly, almost lazily, boots touching the ruined stone as though the chaos beneath him was beneath notice. In one hand, Kamish's twinblade burned with a red glow, even the air rippled around it. Arthur walked forward, his violet eyes fixed on the Herald with a calm look.
"Black Hand… Herald of Nekron." His voice was even, yet it carried weight, each word settling over his soul. "So it is you. I thought it would be someone different."
Black Hand's head snapped up, grimy fingers clawing at the shadow pressing him down. "What?" His voice cracked with disbelief. "You.. how do you know of me when we have never met before?"
Arthur tilted his head slightly, a faint smirk ghosting across his lips. "It doesn't matter now does it."
He flicked his fingers, and the shadow construct rumbled, its weight doubled, then tripled, the ground beneath Black Hand's back groaning as the dirt sank deeper. Bones cracked beneath the soil as the Herald let out a sharp gasp, his ribs compressing under the added pressure.
"You think..." Black Hand wheezed, hand snapping up as a black construct formed a massive pillar, born of the ring's dark energy. It lunged toward Arthur's chest like a rocket.
Arthur didn't move. Kamish's blade swept once a whisper through the air and the construct shattered into nothing, scattering like brittle glass under a hammer.
He stepped closer, the twinblade's edge tilted, catching what little light the sky offered, now hovering a hair's breadth from Black Hand's neck.
"Let us finish this charade, shall we?" Arthur murmured, his voice low, almost gentle yet it was a promise of death.
Black Hand's eyes went wide, his calm façade finally cracking as he thrashed against the immovable weight. "Wait...NO! NO! Nekron will..!" His scream tore out of him, shrill and desperate, hands clawing at the earth as the blade inched down.
Then the sky split.
A massive construct, blazing orange and shaped like a colossal weird alien, crashed into Arthur with the force of a meteor. The ground convulsed as he was hurled backward, the impact tearing a gouge through the cemetery and flinging fragments of stone and bone in all directions. Dust billowed in a choking storm.
Black Hand coughed violently, half-buried but alive, his heart pounding in his ears as he stared at the crater where Arthur had stood moments ago. His breath came in ragged pulls, mind racing, terror mingling with relief yet he knew this wasn't over.
Arthur pushed himself up from the shattered ground, his coat torn and dust rolling off his shoulders. Fractured tombstones lay in ruin around him, the twinblade still in his grip. His jaw tightened as he rose to his feet, the faint violet aura around him flickering back to life.
He exhaled slowly, wiping the dust from his lips. "What… the hell was that?" he muttered, scanning the fractured horizon.
Then he looked up.
Above the broken graveyard hovered a figure swathed inorange, a crooked grin stretching his gaunt features. Behind him, no, spilling from him an impossible tide of orange constructs: beasts with slavering maws, warriors with twisted forms, winged serpents, mechanized giants, all forged from avarice's flame. They shifted and writhed like a living ocean, each claw and blade aimed at the earth below.
Arthur's eyes narrowed. "So that's what hit me."
Larfleeze threw his head back and laughed, the sound manic and grating, carrying a hunger that scraped against the soul. "Shadow Lantern! Such power!" His voice cracked with greedy obsession for power. "It took me a while to find you! I hear you are the reason why I'm free! And now… I've come to thank you."
His grin stretched unnaturally wide as he bared his jagged teeth. "…By taking your ring for myself!"
Arthur's grip tightened on Kamish's twinblade. He rested it lazily across his shoulder, the casualness of the gesture belying the coiled strength in his stance. The violet glow in his eyes sharpened. "Larfleeze, I assume," he said evenly, his tone carrying more disdain than recognition. "It seems you are even more of an idiot than I thought you'd be."
His gaze slid briefly toward the struggling Black Hand, still pinned and gasping beneath the crushing shadow weight. "Coming after me in these circumstances… Greed truly is one ridiculous emotion."
Larfleeze's grin twitched into a snarl. "You are talking about the Blackest Night aren't you? I couldn't care less!" His claws flexed, and the constructs behind him surged like a tide about to break its dam. "All I care about… is power!"
The sky roared as his army descended a thousand orange lights flying through the air like a storm of predators unleashed. They struck with a force that made the earth convulse talons, blades, massive constructs shaped like serpents, and dragons of greed all crashing toward the lone violet glow in the ruins.
Arthur moved.
His ring flared, a shield of deep violet energy snapping into place as the first wave struck, its edges sparking and hissing under the relentless assault. He stepped into the gaps, weaving through lunging constructs with cold precision, twinblade sweeping arcs that cut swathes through their ranks. Each strike unraveled them into dissipating amber dust, but for every one he cut down, two more surged forward.
"Tch..This idiot! Is attacking me with the entire of the orange lantern corps!" Arthur snarled, catching a clawed construct on his gauntlet and twisting, using its weight to pivot as another lunged past him. His blade lashed out, severing its head before he vaulted back, shadows coiling beneath his boots to soften his landing.
Larfleeze dived into the chaos himself, greed burning in his orange eyes, claws outstretched to rip the ring from Arthur's hand. His laugh echoed over the battlefield, wild and hungry. "Everything you have… will be mine!"
Arthur's violet aura flared brighter, his gaze locking with the mad creature's as their surroundings became a storm of orange and shadow.
Larfleeze's orange constructs flickered and howled like maddened beasts as they lunged for Arthur, tearing at the shadows that rippled around him. Each clash sent a shudder through the broken cemetery, every impact threatening to turn the place into little more than rubble.
Through the chaos, Black Hand stirred beneath the fractured headstone debris, his fingers twitching as his dark aura rippled outward. His sunken eyes darted to Larfleeze and Arthur locked in their ferocious exchange. 'This is my chance.'
His lips curled in a grim smile, teeth glinting. Slowly, quietly,his form flickering, phasing, preparing to vanish from the area.
Arthur's head snapped toward him mid-deflection of another massive orange construct, violet eyes narrowing with predatory sharpness. "Are you trying to run away?"
Before Black Hand could complete his shift, the ground beneath his feet erupted and black shadowy hands surged up like the talons of the grave itself, coiling around his limbs and chest, slamming him back against the earth. Dust fragments exploded outward in a violent hiss.
He screamed, coughing black ichor, clawing at the shadow bind. "Damn you! Shadow Lantern!"
Arthur's ring pulsed once, and in that heartbeat a sliver of darkness detached a shadow soldier, formless, slipping like living ink across the ground and into the dark silhouette cast beneath Black Hand. Silent. Invisible. A parasite waiting.
But before Arthur could press further, the world lit up orange once more, Larfleeze's constructs literal orange lanterns, screeching, slammed between them with a deafening roar, forcing Arthur back as claws the size of buses raked across his shadow shield.
Black Hand's grin turned into a manic laugh as the gap widened, the pressure around him weakening just enough. "Hah! Fortune favors the damned!" he rasped, and in a swirl of necrotic mist, his form vanished into the night, leaving only a shallow impression of his presence behind.
Arthur straightened,.his Kamish twinblade rose lazily to rest upon his shoulder, his gaze still fixed on where Black Hand had fled. A slow smile tugged at his lips not out of defeat, it was more of a calculated victory smile.
"No matter where you go now," he murmured, voice low, edged with the certainty of a predator that had just tagged its prey. "I can still find you idiot."
His violet eyes shifted, locking on the orange maelstrom before him. "And as for you… The Lantern consumed by greed." His tone deepened, darkened, every syllable dripping with restrained wrath.
Bloodlust seeped from him like a living aura, heavy, suffocating and oppressive. Larfleeze's felt his own constructs cracking from the pressure alone, his swarm of orange constructs faltering for a flicker of a second as the primal instinct to flee gnawed at him.
Arthur floated forward, twinblade in hand, his voice calm despite his overwhelming oppressive aura "The grave you dug for your own Corps… has one place left."
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If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want