Home / Urban / BENEATH THE MASK: REVENGE OF SAMUEL HAYES / 258

258

2025-06-08 22:28:53

The battlefield still smoldered from Veil’s latest onslaught. Black ash covered the ground like snowfall, and the sky, ever dimmer, felt like a curtain closing too soon. Survivors gathered in the remnants of the central hall, eyes hollow, hearts heavier than steel. Samuel sat quietly on the stone steps, his breathing shallow, aura flickering—light pulsing from his skin like an old lantern, unsteady and dim.

Then the air changed.

A sharp breeze twisted through the scorched trees, and with it came a sudden hush, as if the world paused to listen.

Out of the shadows walked a figure draped in robes stitched from starlight and ash. His face was obscured by a hood, but his presence radiated raw, ancient power—older than the Veil itself. The wind seemed to bow before him.

“Who—” Joey stood, fists clenched. “Who the hell are you?”

The figure lifted his hand slowly, palm glowing with swirling runes. “Call me Eron,” he said, voice like echoing thunder in a cave. “I’ve come to offer you a chance—

Continue to read this book for free

Scan the code to download the app

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

274
The battlefield trembled beneath their feet, scorched and cracked from the weight of two dimensions colliding. Shards of energy pulsed in the sky like torn fabric struggling to stitch itself whole. At the center of it all stood Samuel—his body a fragile silhouette wrapped in blinding light and devouring shadow.He extended his arms, the trembling of his fingertips betraying the pain lacing through every nerve. Two opposing forces—Light and Veil—coursed violently through his veins, threatening to tear him apart. But still, he stood. Still, he tried."He's not going to make it!" someone shouted behind the barrier.Joey clenched his fists. “Shut up and trust him.”The others fell silent, eyes fixed on Samuel as a sphere of unstable brilliance formed around him. Veins of gold and ink slithered through the air, twisting together—never merging, always resisting. But there was a moment, a flicker, where they pulsed in unison."The fracture..." Marie breathed, watching from the edge of the ru
273
The sky split into two colors above the battlefield—blinding gold on one side, pulsing violet on the other. Samuel stood at the center, his arms outstretched, his breath shallow, his soul torn.He had made his decision.“I will be the bridge,” Samuel whispered, voice laced with pain and defiance. “Between Light and Veil. Between what was and what must be.”Around him, the land shuddered, caught between realms. The fractured barrier separating Light from Veil trembled, veins of shadow snaking through the air, stitched only by threads of his light. Every heartbeat cost him.Joey screamed from the ridge above, “Samuel, don’t do this! You’ll destroy yourself!”But Samuel didn’t flinch. He turned slightly, his eyes glowing with mirrored pupils—one golden, one pitch black. “There’s no other way. The fracture was never meant to be sealed. It was meant to be… harmonized.”Marie, her loyalty now proven despite past betrayal, stood beside Joey, disbelief painted across her face. “You’re binding
272
The ground quaked before anyone saw them.Then—like a great tide tearing through the seams of reality—the sky split open above the northern ridge, and from the breach poured an unending torrent of shadows.They came in waves.Some crawled with elongated limbs and glowing, lidless eyes. Others hovered—shifting masses of tendrils and mouths, whispering in the tongue of the Veil. Above them soared titanic beasts with wings of torn obsidian, dripping with dark mist that scorched the earth below.Samuel stood on the cliffside, watching the world unravel.The breath caught in his lungs. He could feel the pulse of the Veil deep inside his bones, calling him. Pleading. No—commanding. Yet the light within him pulsed brighter in defiance.Joey’s voice cut through the chaos.“They’re breaking formation—we need all awakened at the southern flank, now!”“Marie! Take group Delta to the east wall!” someone shouted.Explosions of spectral fire lit up the battlefield as veterans wielded their unstable
271
The air vibrated with tension, thick with the scent of scorched earth and flickering traces of corrupted mana. Above the shattered hills where the veterans had gathered, clouds churned unnaturally—no wind, just the raw pulse of power building toward the inevitable. They all felt it: the end was coming.Joey stood atop the makeshift tower, scanning the camp sprawled below him. He watched as lines of awakened veterans trained relentlessly, their sweat mixing with dust, their war cries echoing across the fractured terrain. Since the last attack, no one rested easily. They knew Veil would not wait long to strike again.Down below, sparks of power danced in the air as two veterans collided mid-combat. One of them, Marcus, had developed the ability to ripple time in short bursts—his form stuttered like a broken frame as he dodged an incoming strike and countered with a precise blow. His opponent, Elira, blinked with teleportation magic, her movements erratic and dangerous.Joey’s jaw clench
270
The sky was cracked—literally. Shattered like glass, pieces of reality shimmered in jagged fractures above the burning horizon. The remains of the safe zone, once fortified by sigils and barriers, were now reduced to smoldering rubble. Bodies lay scattered, both friend and foe, while the screams of the wounded echoed beneath the hollow sky.Samuel stood at the center of it all, his legs trembling, a golden light flickering unsteadily from his cracked fingertips. His aura, once a beacon of hope, now sparked and pulsed erratically, like a dying star in an endless void.Joey knelt beside a wounded veteran, pressing cloth against a gash. “Samuel,” he called out, voice barely audible over the distant thunder. “We need a regroup point—somewhere we can stabilize. Can you still feel the leyline beneath this ground?”“I can’t feel anything,” Samuel muttered, voice hoarse. “The Light… it’s fading.”That’s when he appeared.No footsteps announced his arrival. No sound, no wind—only a sudden stil
269
The scent of burning earth was thick in the air.Crimson dusk blanketed the horizon, but the red wasn't just the sky — it was blood, smoke, and despair. The community that once buzzed with the laughter of survivors and the camaraderie of warriors now echoed with screams, fire, and shattering hopes.Veil had returned — not as a whisper, not as a presence, but as a wrathful god tearing through the seams of reality.From the skies, he descended in a veil of black mist that swallowed light itself. His form was shifting, featureless, yet horrifying in its vastness. Behind him, rifts split the sky, spewing grotesque creatures made of fractured shadows and bone-light — the Eclipsed Ones.They didn’t just kill.They consumed.The first to fall was Commander Elric.He had stood by Joey and Samuel since the earliest days, leading the Western Resistance front. The shadow beast that struck him down didn't even pause to celebrate. Elric's body collapsed into ash, but his scream lingered — a scream

You may also like

Drakon of the Seven Armies

The Heir of the Family

Rise From Prison: Married To A Beautiful CEO

Rise of Power: Return of The Pathetic Commoner

ANTHONY MARCELLUS, THE SECRET BILLIONAIRE HEIR

The Greatest Dominance

The Astonishing Rise Of Hector Henderson

Return Of The Great Mafia's Heir

Latest Chapter

274

273

272

271

270

269