A bitter chill came suddenly. 

One moment, the air was still, the next, a current of dread swept through the circular chamber. 

The girls froze.

A heavy, disembodied voice echoed not in their ears, but inside their minds.

“Well done… on defeating my Knights. Many have tried over the years, but none had prevailed.”

A figure emerged from the miasma gathering in the chamber’s far corner. 

Clad in jagged onyx armor, a black cape trailing behind him, the figure moved with ominous grace. 

He unsheathed his katana with a slow deliberate click, and the darkness dispersed like the wind.

System Notification
Threat Detection: LEVEL CRITICAL
Combat Survival Rate: 0.01%
Halveth, The Obsidian Oathbreaker
LVL 50 – Forsaken Knight

With a snap of his gauntleted fingers, the world around them shattered like glass.

Aeris blinked, and in an instant, they were standing beneath a blood-red moon.

 A vast ocean of crimson water stretched in all directions, rusted swords jutting up from beneath the surface like gravestones. 

The Forsaken Knight surveyed them, displeased.

“This just won’t do,” he murmured. 

With a simple gesture, a verdant field of light enveloped the girls, restoring their HP, MP, and SP.

System Update
Status Effect: Oathbreaker’s Circle of Restoration

 Heals all within a set radius and grants 

+10% stat boost to all stats for 10 minutes.
(Healing and boost do not affect Halveth.)

“Come at me!,” he commanded.

 “Hit me with everything you have or die, here and now”

Aeris rose shakily, pulling up her system interface.

Aeris Garland
LVL 29 Necromancer
HP: 4500/4500 | MP: 100/100 | SP: 50/50

She glanced at Talia and Zarena. 

“This is bad,” she muttered. “He’s level 50.”

Talia blinked. “How do you..”

“Later!” Aeris cut in.

 The last thing she wanted was a conversation about her System now.

Before the trio could coordinate, Zarena stepped forward, tail ignited in violet flame.

Her voice was strong and deadly.

“Ringtail Secret Arts: Fourth Form: Volcanic Dragon Lariat!”

In a flash, she became a blur of fast movements, hammering into Halveth with blistering speed.

 Shockwaves tore through the bloody sea, flames lashing at the forsaken knight. 

For a moment, it looked like she might have dealt some damage

Then Halveth vanished.

He reappeared before Aeris and Talia, towering and still.

“Too slow, girl.”

In the blink of an eye, dozens of wounds opened across Zarena’s body.

She collapsed, face-first into the bloodied water.

“Fuck!” Aeris cried, spinning toward her, but it was too late. 

Halveth advanced again, this time shattering Talia’s sword with a clean slash.

The warrior girl was flung across the water like a skipping stone.

“One To Go,” he said.

Aeris shook with rage. “Bastard!”

Her sickle and dagger appeared in twin flashes of shadow. 

“I’ll tear you apart!”

Her Ghouls rose around her. She cast Glacial Blast, encasing Halveth in ice.

 But with a shrug, the knight shattered it.

She barely managed to dodge his retaliatory strike with Shadowstep, countering with a swift Sanguine Slash only to be met with another brutal flurry of slashes.

Pain rippled across her chest and arms.

Breathless, she sent a Spectral Swarm of screaming skulls, which Halveth carved through like tissue paper.

 Her undead fell to his blade one by one.

“Melina!” Aeris called in desperation.

The undead Drider appeared, bursting from a black portal with shrieking spiderlings. 

Her whip cracked sending waves across the bloody sea.

Halveth met her charge, dodging and parrying her serrated legs, and countering with a devastating Slash of dark magic. 

The blow was fierce enough that even Melina staggered.

Aeris, gasping, watched her spiderlings fall, slaughtered mercilessly. 

Until only she and Melina remained standing

Melina trembled. “How dare you kill my children!”

She screamed in anguish and lunged at the knight.

But before the blow landed, Halveth paused,  sheathing his sword as he seemed to be lost in thought.

“That voice…” he murmured. “Is that you, Velissa?”

Melina froze. 

“How do you know that name? Answer me mongrel.” Melina hissed her words laced with malice

Aeris dropped to her knees, her body too weak to even lift her arms. 

The healing might have restored her, but for whatever reason the fatigue remained.

 Halveth removed his helmet slowly, revealing a scarred dark elf face, one violet eye glimmering in the moonlight, the other covered in stone-like scales.

Recognition flashed through Melina’s expression. “Orvelin?”

He nodded.

And with that, the world around them dissolved, returning them to the circular stone chamber. 

Talia and Zarena lay unconscious, but healed.

“I… apologize,” Halveth said, voice softer now.

 “Her wretched curse compels me. I try to resist but her compulsions are vexingly willful these days..”

“Melina, what the hell is going on?” Aeris asked sluggishly.

The Drider lowered her gaze.

 “Orvelin and I were Dark Elves once, From the same region of Noctharis before everything changed.”

Halveth coughed violently. 

“She sinks her claws ever deeper, Soon I will become her flesh puppet and slaughter you all without hesitation.  You must kill me before that happens.’

‘What curse?’ Aeris asked raising her gaze to meet Melina's 

“The Matriarch’s Curse,” Melina whispered.

Halveth nodded. 

“I cannot leave this place. Not until someone kills me, Only then… will her curse be lifted.”

Aeris stood slowly. 

“What if… I raised you as my thrall?  Giving you a second chance relatively speaking’ Aeris proposed 

He hesitated, then slowly nodded. 

“Can't hurt to try I suppose”

Halveth knelt, offering his katana. 

“Aim for the nape. Make it swift.”

Aeris glanced at Melina. “You’re okay with this?”

Melina smiled sadly.

 “Having his strength… His companionship… would be a great comfort. For me…For our children.”

Taking a deep breath, Aeris raised the blade and struck.

One clean swing. His head fell. And the body remained still.

She stepped forward, placing a hand on the armored shoulder.

“Raise Thralls”

Emerald light surged, blinding and cold. 

The knight’s body rose anew reborn with a spider-themed helmet, his armor blackened obsidian, his cape a glowing jade web. 

Ten armored knights emerged behind him, their souls tethered to his

System Notification
 

New Thralls Acquired
LVL 37 Death Knight
LVL 30 Phantasm Knights x10

Halveth summoned a new weapon: a bone katana pulsing with necrotic energy.

He knelt. “Name us, Mistress.”

Aeris grinned, voice hoarse. “Arise Vergil.”

The death knight stood at attention sheathing his bone katana.

" As for the rest of your knights…they'll be named by their stones.”

The undead knights bowed. Emerald light sealing the undying pact.

Vergil stood. “Orders?”

“Make us an exit”

With one slash, he opened a shimmering rift to the surface.

Aeris looked at Melina. 

“Thank you. Both of you.”

She dismissed all her thralls except two Phantasm Knights, who gently lifted Talia and Zarena.

They stepped through the rift and emerged back by the pillar where it all began.

As Aeris collapsed to her knees, the knights laid the girls beside her and vanished into black mist.

They had survived the ordeal somehow

And that, Aeris thought, was enough for now.

Her curiosity could wait to be indulged.

_________________________________

Hey cuties!

I just want to extend my deepest apologies for the long waits between chapters and the general lack of updates.

Thank you for reading MVS and for your patience and support.

I hope you all like the chapter.

Sia.