The Whispering Plains lived up to their name. The long, silver grass hissed as Arlan's Shadow Army marched across the landscape. Three thousand phantom soldiers moved in haunting synchronization, their violet eyes glowing like embers in the twilight. Arlan rode at the front on Fenris, his silhouette now radiating an aura so thick it distorted the air around him.
[Main Quest: The Path to Valoria]
[Objective: Defeat the First Saint - Lord Kaelen of the Storms]
[Current Location: The Whispering Plains]
"He's here," Lyra whispered from her horse, her silver hair whipping in the sudden, violent wind. "The Saint of Storms. He was always the fastest. In the time it takes you to blink, he has already cut a hundred throats."
The sky turned a bruised purple. A bolt of blue lightning struck the earth fifty yards ahead, shattering the ground and sending chunks of dirt flying. From the crater emerged a man in sky-blue plate armor, crackling with static electricity.
[Warning: High-Level Entity Detected!]
[Name: Lord Kaelen (Level 38)]
[Class: Storm Knight / Saint of the Empire]
[Danger Level: Fatal]
"Arlan!" Kaelen's voice boomed, carrying the weight of a thunderclap. "You destroyed the Iron Gate with tricks and rot. But here, under the open sky, there is nowhere for your shadows to hide!"
"I am the shadow that the sun cannot erase, Kaelen," Arlan replied, dismounting Fenris. He drew the Eclipse Blade, its new green-and-black runes humming with anticipation.
[Combat Mode: Activated]
[Sovereign's Domain vs. Storm Aura - Clashing!]
Kaelen didn't run; he became lightning. A blue streak blurred across the field. Before Arlan's shadow soldiers could even raise their shields, fifty of them were vaporized into black mist. Kaelen appeared behind Arlan, his rapier—The Thunderbolt—lunging for Arlan's heart.
CLANG!
Arlan didn't turn. He used Abyssal Blink to shift two inches to the left, letting the blade graze his shoulder.
[HP: 2,800 / 3,200]
[Status: Paralyzed (Minor) - Speed reduced by 10%]
"You're fast," Arlan muttered, tasting blood. "But speed is just movement through space. What happens when I remove the space?"
Arlan slammed his blade into the ground. "Void Entrapment: Zero Gravity!"
The air was sucked out of a fifty-meter radius. The wind stopped. The lightning on Kaelen's armor flickered and died, unable to find a medium to travel through. Kaelen, caught mid-dash, began to float helplessly, his momentum stripped by the vacuum Arlan had created.
"What... is this magic?" Kaelen gasped, his lungs burning for air.
"This isn't magic," Arlan said, walking toward him through the gravity-free zone as if it were a normal stroll. "This is a System Error. I am the glitch you can't fix."
Arlan grabbed Kaelen by the throat, the Chaos Core in his chest pulsing. He didn't just kill him; he activated Soul Devour.
[Saint Slain!]
[Exp Gained: 25,000]
[Level Up! Level 24 -> Level 28]
[New Skill Stolen: 'Lightning Reflexes' (Passive) - Increases reaction speed by 200%.]
Kaelen's body crumbled into blue sparks, which were immediately absorbed into Arlan's blade. The first Saint had fallen. Arlan looked toward the horizon where the spires of the Capital, Valoria, were finally visible.
[System Update: 568 Witnesses to your legend recorded.]
[Fear Multiplier Active: X2 Exp for the next 24 hours.]
"Eleven more to go," Arlan whispered.