Chapter 2696 — 2696: Cog in the Machine

'What the hell? Why is it raining?'

A heavy downpour was descending on the ruins of the Eternal City. The drops of water seemed to move slowly as Jet staggered back, barely keeping her balance. Her face was smeared with blood, and her body was broken — and yet, she was still full of fight.

Now that the Mist Blade had assumed the form of a khopesh, she did not have the advantage of reach anymore. The Cursed Wanderer was still avoiding letting their blades cross, which held him back, but he had managed to land far more blows with his fists and feet now… as well as his elbows, knees, shoulders, and forehead.

The bastard really knew his hand-to-hand combat. It was as if he had spent thousands of years doing nothing but participating in fistfights.

'How come?'

Groaning quietly, Jet turned her torso to avoid the ghostly cutlass and counterattacked, trying to sink her sword into the ethereal body of the great wraith.

The rain made it harder to see.

In front of her, the Flesh of Kanakht had already reached the Palace Lake and stepped into it. The water barely reached its knees, and the enormous monstrosity waded through it, painting the lake red. Now that it was not slowed down by the Crushing anymore, it was advancing faster.

Around Jet, the Shadow Legion was being pushed back by the endless tide of wraiths. Worse than that, the army of silent shadows was also shrinking — there were barely half of them left, by now.

Behind Jet, meanwhile…

Was she imagining things, or were the walls of the Palace slightly bending inward?

'What did he do?'

She could not be sure, but was pretty much convinced that the Lord of Shadows had done something crazy.

Not that it mattered to her, at the moment.

All that mattered was defeating the Soul of Kanakht and its master.

Jet forced out a smile as she dove under the whistling cutlass and tried to strike it with the Mist Blade from below. The Cursed Wanderer pulled his sword back with impossible speed, easily avoiding her trap, and slammed his palm into her abdomen.

"Argh…"

This time, something vital ruptured inside of her.

A torrent of blood flowed from her mouth, and Jet staggered back once again.

"Can you… can you give me a moment?"

She grinned through the pain.

The sinister apparition did not wait until she recovered, of course. He moved forward, intending to use her wounded state and finish her off…

If one thought about it, getting beaten that badly but somehow failing to die was quite an achievement.

Then again, she had been dead this whole time.

The Cursed Wanderer was making a mistake if he thought he could cut her down that easily, though.

He must have made a judgment about the power of his enemies based on what the silent shadows and the champions of the Shadow Legion could do… but Jet was neither.

Jet was a proud subject of the Human Domain.

So, just as her body was about to fail her, a soft glow suffused her skin, and a pleasant warmth permeated her body.

Embraced by Neph's purifying flames, Jet was healed and mended, restored to flawless health.

That was the blessing of the Human Domain and its brilliant, distant ruler. That was the power of the Immortal Flame, of the unquenchable Longing.

Of course, Neph's power was not absolute — she had to be paying attention to heal those who served her, and even her boundless supply of soul essence was not really inexhaustible.

However, Jet was one of the special few who always enjoyed her attention. That was her privilege as a former member of Changing Star's cohort and an irreplaceable cog in the great machine of humanity.

The Cursed Wanderer did not expect his enemy to suddenly be healed, so he fell into a momentary disadvantage. That was Jet's chance to end this fight, or at least lay the foundation of his defeat…

Sadly, she failed.

No matter how unexpected her recovery was, the great wraith was simply too powerful to be taken down. He easily avoided the Mist Blade, then unleashed a flurry of blows upon Jet. Deadly attacks rained on her from all sides, as if the bastard was in several places at the same time.

By the time severed drops of rain fell to the ground, Jet was bruised and battered once again, and white radiance enveloped her figure once more.

'Damn it…'

She threw a calculating gaze at the approaching colossus of mangled flesh.

Time was running out. In fact, there was almost no time left at all.

Which meant that she had to do something drastic.

The hilt of the black khopesh lay comfortably in her hand. This was the form of the Mist Blade that contained the soul of the Heart of Kanakht — the most powerful soul in her possession.

Because of that one soul, the Mist Blade was akin to a Supreme weapon of the Fourth Tier instead of being equal to Jet's own Rank and Class.

It also infused the Mist Blade with a special ability — all souls it bound did, but the Heart of Kanakht granted Jet an especially potent one.

It was the ability to stop the flow of time for everyone except herself for one heartbeat.

Needless to say, such an ability was incredibly deadly. However, it was not without drawbacks — the main being that it consumed pretty much all of her essence. For somebody else, that might have been merely inconvenient, but for Jet, it was fatally dangerous.

It meant that she had to be certain that she would be able to kill something in that single heartbeat. If she did, their death would nourish her arid soul. If not… she would die instead.

The risk was real and palpable.

The situation, however, was similarly desperate. And since Jet had known that it would become desperate, she transformed the Mist Blade into a khopesh in advance.

'Can I kill that fiend instantly?'

Jet wasn't sure.

But…

She was willing to find out.