Chapter 5: March of the Screaming Mist (Final Arc – "The Whisper Beyond the Howl")
The battlefield was shrouded in a violet haze, lingering from the aftermath of Sonic Cataclysm Howl. The wind carried a sharp metallic scent—of blood, dust, and fractured bone. Lord Decibaal stood still, breathing deep, his black cloak tattered, eyes glowing with residual energy. The air itself trembled as if afraid to touch him.
From within the cracked mist, a chilling presence arose—Morghulis, the Dreadbone Commander. Part wyvern, part ancient warlord, its skeletal wings stretched across the moonlight like a nightmare given flesh. It let out a bellow so deep, even the echoes trembled.
Kael’Aer’s voice rang in Decibaal’s mind:
“Brace yourself. That beast… it's not bound to the ground like the others. You’ll need more than brute force.”
Decibaal grinned. “Good. I was getting bored.”
Morghulis dove, claws like serrated scythes, aiming to tear him apart. Decibaal rolled, mid-air twist powered by Sonido Boots, and slashed his fingers through the air—
“Echo Tempest!”
A barrage of air blades shot forward, tearing at the wyvern’s wings. It shrieked, but only staggered.
Suddenly—
A flash of glinting metal in the bushes.
Kael’Aer immediately flapped high, screeching a warning. “Assassins! Three of them!”
Indeed, hidden in the thicket, two daggers gleamed and a silent engineer’s drone locked on. An assassin, a sage, and a tech-hunter were ready to take the weakened Decibaal down. But Kael’Aer’s warning wasn’t late.
Decibaal spun, echo shell flaring like a storm around him.
He muttered, “You really thought that would work?”
The shockwave from the resonating shell blasted the assassins backward. One broke a rib, the sage fainted from sonic backlash, and the drone fried instantly from frequency disruption.
Morghulis roared again, now bloodied.
Decibaal snarled. “You’re in my way.”
He charged, this time in spiral trajectory, echo blades forming rings around him. With a leaping sonic revolver elbow, then mid-air whirlwind kick, then Shotgun Palm, he landed a triple combo. The final Echo Tempest burst from his clawed fingers, decapitating Morghulis mid-screech.
The flying corpse fell like a broken comet.
Back at the Guild
The town’s guildhall buzzed with nervous voices. Behind closed doors, a few elite members whispered to the Guild Master:
"He’s dangerous."
"He’s corrupting the artifact’s purpose."
"He must be exiled."
But Lord Decibaal already felt it. He didn’t need Kael’Aer to confirm. These weren’t comrades—they were pawns of fear.
He smirked coldly.
> “I never planned to stay,” he muttered as he stepped outside, holding a small pouch of coins—his reward.
Kael’Aer landed beside him.
“Are you sure?”
Decibaal looked up at the peaks beyond the valley. “This town is a tutorial zone. I’ve outgrown it.”
> “I only needed this place to earn a little coin. Now we head for the northern ridges—food, medicine, and the unknown.”
> “Because the world,” he whispered with a wicked grin,
“is just waiting to become my castle.”
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