A small figure could be seen silently walking through the open field of the Azurefell Family.
It was a little lolita with black clothes and bright green hair that gently swayed behind her back as she moved through the soaring storm. She had not entered through the front gates, she had not climbed over the wall, and she had not been detected after entering! She had simply… appeared!
She was like a ghost, a traceless figure stepping out of the shadows, ethereal and incomprehensible, like a walking enigma that could not be caught.
-
Petra walked forward in silence…
She did not rush, nor did she hide, she simply moved without aim, and the night seemed to almost drift along with each of her footsteps.
A faint black haze coiled around her small figure, and within it drifted slow, twisting clouds of ethereal mist that curled through the air like strange spirits. The darkness naturally gathered around her feet, rippling out with each step, and blending with the surrounding world as her boots landed on the grass.
Around her, countless black butterflies filled the air.
The butterflies swirled around her small body, drifting past her figure as if orbiting a star.
They fluttered through the night like drifting petals formed from sharpened shadows, their wings catching the moonlight as they spread outwards and spilled through the surroundings. Each of their movements left faint trails of poison-like mist, turning the quiet estate into a suffocating sea of invisible and undetectable death.
Petra did not step loudly.
No, her stride could even be called soft in a strange sense—
Yet, with every step, the atmosphere became heavier, and the ground beneath her feet darkened as thin wisps of dark light spread through the grass like glass-like cracks. Her expression was unreadable beneath the brim of her hat, and her advance was unhurried. Despite taking her time, each step she took seemed to unconsciously change the world around her.
Petra looked up, and her black eyes flashed with an eerie green light!
Swoosh!
Without needing a signal, the black butterflies spread out, and everywhere they passed, the air grew thicker, heavier, and slowly changed, causing a variety of poisons to seep into the earth, into the wind, and into the surrounding stone and steel.
Grass wilted as trees withered! Everything died, distorted, or disintegrated!
It was not a chaotic attack, no, it was something far more unsettling! It was a silent flood, an unavoidable sea of a nearly undetectable number of poisons that slowly rose and mixed together from within the very heart of the Azurefell Family, consuming everything, spreading without end, sparing what was needed, and killing what was not! Each step she took carried a strange, unspoken authority, creating an unseen presence, as if what appeared was not what was actually there, only an echo, or a shadow left behind!
The world itself seemed to recoil from her presence! The air was distorted, spiritual energy was violently transformed, and everything around her became different! Although she had arrived unannounced, the moment she appeared, every living being within her range of thought had felt it!
A pressure, a warning, and a quiet declaration!
Although none of them understood the source of this feeling, they all paused at the same time!
Their instincts had silently warned them not to go outside! It was no different than the feeling of looking into the dark of night. You saw nothing, heard nothing, but your mind would unconsciously 'feel' something in the shadows, birthing an inexplicable fear…
Petra continued forward.
Her clothes fluttered in the wind as she drifted through the stormy, soaked field.
Around her, the endless streams of black butterflies wandered through the air like fragments of the night, causing the world to slowly be submerged beneath a spreading sea of black clouds!
Within that quiet storm, for the first time in the 'Cosmic Calendar'—
'Petra' moved forward like the living embodiment of [END]!
* * *
Within mere minutes, the land within the Azurefell Family had already begun to change drastically!
At first it was subtle, like a simple heaviness in the air…
But as time passed, the faint scent of damp soil slowly shifted into something more bitter, more metallic. Leaves curled inwards on the nearby trees, and the small creatures that had once chirped in the darkness suddenly fell silent. The lack of sound was subtle, especially within the storm, but as time passed and this phenomenon continued to grow, people began to feel uncomfortable.
Not long after, the first few guards arrived.
It was a small patrol team that followed the outer path, and they just happened to be passing through the area between the backyard and the housing area.
Each man was equipped with lanterns that swayed gently in their hands as they quietly spoke among themselves. They had been sent to investigate the strange disturbance, but because of the storm, they had taken their time, and because of this delay, things had already become inevitable.
One of them, finally feeling something, suddenly stopped in his steps…
"…Do you smell that?"
The others paused, but before anyone could answer, the lantern light revealed a small figure standing just ahead of them, blocking the path. It was a small girl, and they could only see her back, but that mere image was enough to make them feel a chill.
For a moment, the guards simply stared in stunned silence.
"…Who are you?" one of them finally demanded, his voice tearing through the night.
Petra did not answer him. She turned, her eyes swept across them briefly, determining their fates.
Her gaze was calm and indifferent, but she almost seemed uninterested to an unnatural degree. After all, these were just ordinary guards. In her eyes, they weren't even cannon fodder.
One look, and that was enough for her.
The butterflies around her shoulders fluttered as the wind shifted.
The guards inhaled.
Then—
Their bodies stiffened!
One of them staggered, "…Wh—"
Thud! He collapsed, unconscious, before finishing his words.
Another tried to draw his weapon, but his fingers trembled violently as poison spilled into his lungs. Thug-thud-thud! Within seconds, each guard in the patrol team had fallen. There were no screams, no struggle, they simply collapsed where they stood, their bodies sinking silently into the wet grass.
Petra stepped forward, not even looking back…
-
Time passed.
Soon, the disturbance reached the inner area, and several figures began appearing from different parts of the estate one after another, all members of the Azurefell Family!
The first to attack Petra was a tall man in dark blue robes.
He was a chain user, which was the most common weapon in the Azurefell Family. With a sharp flick of his arms, several thick silver chains tied to heavy weights shot through the air towards Petra, each one faintly glowing with runes meant to crush spiritual energy and push it to the side.
They wrapped around her body instantly, like heavy ropes that were meant to restrain a large beast.
It was quite comical…
For a brief moment, the chains tightened, trying to suppress Petra, but a moment later—
Psst!
The metal began to corrode at a speed visible to the naked eye!
The runes dimmed, surprising the burly man. He watched with horror as the silver links turned black before crumbling to dust!
The man's eyes widened.
"What—"
Swoosh—Bang! A single butterfly cut past his cheek, and—Bang! He collapsed a moment later…
Seeing this, the countless eyes hiding in the dark all realized that this was no small matter! Regardless of the origin of this little girl, she could not be underestimated!
Swoosh!
Another figure appeared above Petra's head!
He flashed in so fast that the burly man hadn't even had time to fully fall!
The Golden Core Realm assassin dropped from the rooftops, his dagger flashing towards Petra's neck with a gust of wind! He was fast, so fast that many of the onlookers couldn't even see him!
With the strength of a third-order practitioner, he tore down and—
Clang!
The blade stopped mid-strike!
The assassin's pupils dilated as his body froze.
The poison in the air had already entered his bloodstream, causing every inch of his skeleton to solidify and lock into place, crippling him from the inside. At the same time, he could feel that the dagger had passed through multiple layers of resistance, before eventually landing on an unbelievably thin veil of something that seemed to cling tightly to this small girl's body!
He fell before the dagger ever reached her sleeve, understanding that this was not a monster, it was a walking calamity, unlike the family had ever faced before!
In his dying breath, he only hoped that a big shot would take this opportunity to act, because he understood that if they didn't move soon, it would be too late!
Buzz!
Moments later, a third opponent appeared from the dark!
Petra looked around as the large circle that was forming around her feet illuminated the night.
This was a formation master?
She watched as runes ignited across the floor and sketched out a pattern as a sealing array activated beneath Petra's feet. Light mixed with spiritual energy surged upwards in an attempt to trap her! But the runes flickered, the formation trembled, and it shattered like an ethereal glass pane as the poison that had already completely saturated the ground eroded the spiritual energy maintaining it!
The formation master coughed violently as the backlash struck him hard!
Petra's eyes flickered past his location, then he collapsed.
She stepped forward, the last remnants of light dissipating in the wind around her as if they were as brittle as ash, then she continued walking. Her expression remained unchanged, no, perhaps she was even a bit disappointed. These people, they could not satiate her bloodlust…!
She frowned, deciding to switch things up!
With a flick of her mind, something was called out and moved near her shoulder.
Her emerald-green hair swayed, and with a shuffle, a large black frog appeared, crawling out of her hood one smooth black leg at a time, then propped itself up on her shoulder.
The Sky Strike Dart Frog!
This was a large black frog, around the size of a small head, with a black body and green spots, rounded toes, and a smooth, sleek, almost cute appearance. It shook, its fat frame trembling as its belly expanded before opening its mouth, and from deep within—
BOOM! A wave of 'something' spilled out, exploding like an unstoppable geyser as that 'something' was relentlessly ejected from its throat!
This mass of 'something' continued to build up for some time, and soon, Petra was surrounded by a wriggling mass of countless curled-up ants, all of which began to unfold themselves and stand upright, transforming from a 'special state' of hibernation into their 'true forms'.
The onlookers watched in horror as hundreds, no, thousands of ant-like creatures stood up one after another, completely dwarfing Petra, making it difficult to even find her small frame!
They ranged from palm-sized insects to towering behemoths, some of which were over ten meters tall!
All of them were different, even those that shared a species were unique, and they radiated an unstoppable pressure that ranged from second to fourth order, shaking the surrounding spiritual energy and unconsciously creating a resonance in the air!
Humm!
Swoosh!
Tock!
In an instant, they all seemed to have received a command at the same time, moving in unison! The ant army spread across the surroundings like a living tide, their massive bodies immediately spilling out into the surroundings and attacking the countless bystanders! Some split away to confront those hiding in the shadows, while others quickly vanished into the surrounding gardens, whaling walls, and fallen corridors, spreading across the Azurefell Family like an invading swarm set on destruction!
Seeing all this, the surrounding people were shocked!
Before they could even think, the speed of the ant army exceeded their expectations and was already upon them, attacking without a word!
Petra didn't even see the vast majority of them, as chaos began to sweep out uncontrollably, and by the time she continued, those hidden in the dark no longer had the time to worry about her.
* * *