[Check Out My P4treon For +50 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!! And get chapters before publishing them here for free on my p4treon][https://p4treon.com/roaverse]
===
As soon as the hatch of the starskiff opened, the weight of the silence hit the crew.
"Why is it so quiet here...?" March 7th whispered. Her bravado from the train had evaporated the moment her boots touched the jade-tiled floor. She instinctively shuffled behind Kenta, clutching the fabric of his sleeve with one hand while peeking over his shoulder like a nervous squirrel.
"A port with this much throughput should be teeming with life. To have not a single soul in sight... it's beyond eerie," she added, her voice trembling.
Kenta felt the girl's anxiety radiating through his arm. He reached back and gave her hand a comforting pat on the shoulder. March looked up, her eyes momentarily softening with emotion.
"Don't worry about me, Kenta. I'm not that timid! Also... since when did your hands get so soft? Hehe." She let out a small, shaky laugh, reaching up to grasp the hand on her shoulder to prove she was fine.
"Ah?" Kenta blinked, looking genuinely lost. He raised both of his own palms in front of him. "What hand? I haven't moved."
"..."
"AHHHH!"
March 7th shrieked, jumping three feet into the air. Her entire form seemed to blur as if her soul were trying to exit her body via her ears.
Stelle, who had actually been the one trying to comfort March from the other side, stood there with a blank expression. She slowly pointed to herself. "Do I look that scary? Should I leave?" Her golden eyes were full of genuine confusion. She actually thought she was having a "good hair day."
"Alright, little March, it's just Stelle," Welt said, his calm, baritone voice acting like an anchor for the group's frayed nerves.
March 7th finally stopped vibrating. She gave Stelle a playful, embarrassed swat and then shot a resentful glare at Kenta, who was visibly vibrating with the effort of not laughing out loud.
The journey into the Cloudford port continued. In the distance, the magnificent architecture of the Xianzhou rose like jade mountains, but the lack of ambient noise made every footstep sound like a drumbeat.
"Hey! Look at that!" March 7th pointed toward a heap of armor near a shipping container.
It was a soldier clad in the signature cloud-patterned plate of the Xianzhou. He was slumped against a crate, his breathing shallow and ragged.
"...Don't... mind me... ahead... go ahead..." he wheezed.
"He's a Cloud Knight," Kenta said, his voice dropping an octave. Since Dan Heng had mentioned Kenta's past might be tied to this place, he had spent the last several hours devouring every entry in the Express's database regarding Xianzhou military history.
"There was a fierce battle here very recently," Welt Yang noted, stooping to examine the scorched tiles and the tattered remains of other fallen soldiers nearby.
"Wait... do you hear that?" Stelle asked, her head tilting toward the inner docks.
The group went silent. Then, Kenta's eyes sharpened. "The sound of clashing steel! It's coming from deeper in the port!"
Welt's expression turned grim. "Let's go!"
They hadn't gone fifty yards before the path was obstructed. A humanoid creature lunged from behind a jade pillar. It was a horrific sight—its body was entwined with parasitic golden branches and leaves, its Cloud Knight uniform torn to shreds. It let out a guttural, mindless growl.
"We can't let this thing delay us," Welt adjusted his glasses. "Kenta, you're the fastest. Scout the source of the fighting and act as the situation demands. We'll handle this... thing and catch up."
Kenta didn't argue. He gave March and Stelle a reassuring nod, tapped into his Path energy, and shot forward. He was a blur of crimson light, vanishing into the maze of shipping containers in a heartbeat.
Deep Inside the Port
A small squad of Cloud Knights had formed a defensive circle around a young woman.
"Lady Tingyun, please stay back!" the lead knight shouted, parrying a strike from a plant-infested monster. "They've been consumed by Mara! They are no longer our brothers!"
The woman, Tingyun, took several steps back. She was a Foxian—her brown-black fox ears twitched nervously, and her long, bushy tail brushed against her elegant red and black skirt. Her emerald eyes were wide with a distress that managed to look graceful even in a war zone.
"Lady Tingyun, watch out!"
An archer among the Mara-struck raised a bow made of gnarled wood. A sharp, thorn-tipped arrow whistled through the air, aimed directly at the Foxian's heart. Tingyun instinctively squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the impact.
Clang!
The pain never came. She opened her eyes to see a tall, black-haired man standing before her. His back was to her, his cloak fluttering in the draft of the docks. The arrow had been sliced perfectly in half, its pieces clattering uselessly to the floor.
"Am I late?" Kenta asked, turning his head just enough to give her a glimpse of his handsome profile.
Tingyun's emerald eyes shimmered with relief. "My benefactor! You've saved this humble maiden from a terrible fate. These poor souls have fallen to the Mara-struck state... I beg of you, lend us your strength!"
Kenta had read about Mara—the "curse of immortality" that turned long-lived Xianzhou citizens into mindless monsters once their memories and regrets became too heavy to bear.
Her voice was soft, melodic, and had a subtle, alluring pull. Kenta, being a transmigrator who had grown up with legends of fox spirits like Su Daji, felt his resolve waver for a split second. As expected of a fox beauty. King Zhou, I finally understand why you let the empire burn.
He prepared to lunge into the fray, but a sudden thought stopped him. Wait. What if this is a 'honey trap'? What if they aren't actually Mara-struck? What if I hit one and they suddenly fall down and demand twenty million credits in damages? His survival instincts from years in the Underworld kicked in. He couldn't afford a cosmic-level scam. Calm down, Kenta. Don't let your 'big head' be led around by your 'little head' just because she called you 'benefactor.'
"Hmm? What is the matter, my benefactor?" Tingyun tilted her head, her tail swishing curiously.
Kenta took a breath. Fine. I'm a Trailblazer. It's my job to help. Besides, if he got scammed, he'd just ask Pom-Pom if he could borrow the train for a day to "trailblaze" over his problems.
"Mara-struck? I thought they were just target practice," Kenta muttered. He drew his blade, and in a flurry of Oronagi strikes, the monsters were reduced to heaps of smoldering ash before they could even regenerate.
Tingyun watched in awe, her hand covering her mouth. "Oh! My benefactor is truly peerless!" She fanned herself with an ornate folding fan, her eyes crinkling into a smile. "Such power... such grace!"
Kenta tried to act cool, but the emotional value she was providing was hitting him like a drug. "No, no... just average, really." He felt like a flattered emperor.
March 7th, who had just cleared the entrance and arrived on the scene: "..."
This girl does NOT like this fox, March thought, her brow twitching with a sudden, inexplicable jealousy.
===
Note: This story is currently available up to chapter 65 on my Patreon, go check it out.
exclusive 18+ character images, and early chapters, please visit my Patreon. Thanks for your support!
https://p4treon.com/roaverse
if you want more updates == supports with power stones
Every 20 Power Stones==Bonus Chapter
every three 5-star reviews == Bonus Chapter