Extra Borne: Transmigrated Into A System Apocalypse Soulsborne Novel-Chapter 64 - 62: Birthing War (3)

Clang!

Steel sang against claws and something indescribable, a sharp, echoing cry that rang out across the desolate battlefield.

Slash!

A void creature shrieked, its monstrous, shifting form unraveling as a Forsaken Knight’s blade tore through it. A pulse of ash-dark energy flared from the strike, searing the beast into a collapsing heap of pitch black ichor.

Boom!

Lightning erupted overhead in jagged streaks, red and yellow veins splitting the ashen sky. Each crackling flash illuminated the chaos below for a heartbeat before the battlefield was plunged back into ashen darkness.

The Forsaken Knights moved like shadows through the storm, their battered armor catching fleeting glints of light. Their movements were calculated, intentional, with none of the sluggishness one might expect from the cursed. Each swing of their weapons, each step, spoke of discipline honed over lifetimes. Around them, ash-dark auras twisted and flickered, coating their blades in shimmering ash-dark energy that burned the void creatures like fire touching dry leaves.

From my vantage point on the ridge, I watched the scene unfold, the cold wind carrying the acrid stench of blood and decay. I was still. Too still. My calmness was a facade, a brittle mask threatening to crack.

Below, the Forsaken fought with a braveness that defied grief. They did not shout, nor did they issue commands. Their silence was deafening, their only voices the clash of steel and the anguished roars of the beasts they felled.

"They’re Forsaken," I murmured, the words tasting strange on my tongue.

Beside me, Geralda stood with her arms crossed, her golden-flecked eyes fixed on the battlefield. She was silent for a long moment, her gaze heavy with something I couldn’t name.

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"Yes," she said finally, her voice quiet, almost too calm. "They are."

I waited, knowing there was more. Her expression was as calm as always, even though the words she was about to speak carried a weight too great to bear.

"After everyone in Ithelvaire succumbed to Yadred’s grieving blight, their fates were sealed," she began, her tone low and steady. "Yadred’s grief... it’s not just a curse.... It’s a devourer. It consumed everything... people, memories, even the land. Most were taken, some trapped, while others turned into fuel for his grief." Her voice wavered, just barely, almost undetectable, if not for my hyper senses I wouldn’t have even noticed,

She pressed on. "But a few resisted. A few endured. These Knights... they’re all that’s left of those who could."

I turned back to the battle, my gaze lingering on the Knights.

A pair of them stood side by side, their massive crossbows crackling with ash-dark energy. In perfect unison, they fired, the bolts streaking through the sky to strike down wyverns that swooped low, their screams cutting through the thick air. The monstrous creatures crashed into the horde below, their vast, broken forms crushing dozens of void beasts beneath them.

One of the Knights, larger than the rest, stepped forward to meet a charging monstrosity... a towering, gorilla-like beast with arms thicker than tree trunks. The creature roared, the sound reverberating like a tremor, but the Knight didn’t flinch. With a single, fluid motion, he brought his greatsword down in an arc, cleaving the beast from shoulder to hip. Pitch black ichor sprayed across the battlefield as the creature crumbled, its massive form twitching before it fell still.

The smaller monsters surged forward to fill the gap... serpentine creatures with glowing, molten-gold eyes and dagger-like fangs. They slithered with unnatural speed, their forms flickering as though they existed half in another dimension. A Forsaken Knight spun to meet them, his spear cutting through the air in sharp, precise thrusts. Each strike burned the creatures into ash, their cries swallowed by the chaos around them.

Above, wyverns circled, their wings casting vast, rippling shadows across the battlefield. Void goblins scurried below, their crude weapons dripping with black ichor as they swarmed the Knights, only to be struck down in waves.

The Forsaken were not remnants or echoes of what they had once been. They were warriors, carrying the weight of a world that had cursed them.

"They fight because there’s nothing else left," I said quietly. "No home. No hope. Just this..."

Geralda didn’t answer, but I caught the faintest nod out of the corner of my eye.

The battlefield stretched endlessly before us, a roiling sea of writhing forms and ash-gray skies. The air was thick... so thick it felt like I could drown in it, laden with the metallic tang of blood and the acrid stench of decay.

Then, the atmosphere shifted.

It wasn’t subtle.

The already oppressive air grew heavier, pressing down on my chest like an invisible weight. Each breath was a struggle, every inhale a labor.

The sky darkened further, the faint, sickly dark light that had seeped through the clouds disappearing entirely. Above, the heavens churned violently, twisting as though they were alive.

And then, it began.

Thump!

The first footstep sent a shudder through the earth, a deep, resonant sound that echoed across the battlefield like distant thunder.

Thump!

The second footstep followed, louder, heavier, the impact splintering the blood-soaked ground.

I couldn’t see it yet, but I felt it, I detected it.... a presence, ancient and overwhelming, radiating a rage so intense it made the air vibrate.

A low, guttural growl rolled across the battlefield, deep and raw, the sound of something that had crawled out of the darkest pits of creation.

Then it stepped into view.

From the seething crimson glow of the portal below the Tower of Rebirth, the figure emerged. It was a monstrous thing, a towering abomination that defied sanity and reason.

Its body was a twisted mockery of life, its flesh a chaotic patchwork of scars and grotesque protrusions. Its dog-like face was warped, its snarling maw filled with jagged teeth, and from the center of its face, a single, massive eye glared out with burning malice.

It wasn’t just monstrous. It wasn’t just powerful. It was wrong.

The system confirmed it before I could even process what I was seeing.

[SYSTEM]

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NULL ORC HAS DESCENDED

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The battlefield seemed to fall silent,

I stood frozen, staring at the monstrosity as it took another step forward, its growl rumbling like thunder.

The war had been horrifying before. But now... now it felt like we had only been playing at war.

This was something else. Something far worse....

and it has just descended.....