Magical Soul Parade

Chapter 367: The Ossuary vs The Errant (IV)

She yelled the words with pride, but her statement caused a few of the newer Transcendents to become visibly uncomfortable. They shifted their weight, their eyes darting away as their brows furrowed in distaste.

They still despised the fact that they were being forced to work hand in hand with the Harvester Cult. They hated having to rely on the Chaos Transcendent’s volatile abilities to enhance their defensive barriers and stabilize their vanguard lines down on the plains.

The older Transcendents like Casmir, on the other hand, didn’t seem too bothered by the arrangement. They had lived in a time before the Harvester Cult even existed, so to them, it was not an unforgivable hatred. Even if they felt any discomfort with the situation, they kept it entirely hidden behind their masks of experience.

"...at his behest, the Soul Transcendent came out of the deep shadows and showed himself directly for the first time in ages," the priestess continued, her gaze sweeping over the cloaked figure.

"With his peerless insight, he devised a flawless method to ensure our perfect hold on the Error Bearer, using the very essence of the woman he once loved." As she spoke those specific words, everyone’s eyes moved in unison toward a silent figure standing directly behind Sue. The woman who bore a weird similarity to Elara.

Clad in simple, spotless white linen that flapped aggressively in the freezing wind, she stood with her head slightly bowed. Her face held a calm, serene expression that looked entirely detached from the grand declarations happening around her. She said nothing, standing as still as a marble statue.

On Sue’s face, a heavy, uncharacteristic conflict could be seen. Her jaw tightened, and she clenched her fists so hard by her sides that her knuckles turned white. She looked forward resolutely, forcing her eyes to remain locked on the horizon, deliberately unwilling to turn around and look at the woman she had once referred to as Mistress Elara.

It was as if the mere sight of the linen-clad figure was physically painful to endure. It was obvious to anyone watching that Sue knew the exact details of Mistress Elara’s role here, and was clearly unwilling to go through with it despite understanding the absolute necessity of the plot.

It was a rare first for the usually sadistic Harvester Cult Enforcer to show such genuine, vulnerable human emotion.

The dark-skinned, white-haired priestess continued to ramble on and on, ignoring the tension as she spoke of her Lord’s infinite might. She began listing the numbers, boasting about how the Great Sage had been able to gather a grand total of a hundred Transcendents for this singular battle.

Sue listened to the numbers and couldn’t help the internal scorn she felt. The vast majority of those hundred were newer Transcendents who possessed frankly forgettable abilities that offered little tactical value in a real high-tier clash like this one.

But hey, they are technically called Transcendents anyway, Sue thought with a heavy dose of her usual sadistic sarcasm.

The brief flash of emotion from looking at the Elara vessel still made her deeply uncomfortable, and she hated the feeling. She tried her best not to focus on the figure behind her, attempting instead to listen to the priestess’s grand speech, but it was an absolute struggle to actually care about the names of so many no-name fragment holders in the first place.

Even considering the grand numbers, there were only ten true Transcendents present on this specific peak. These ten were the apex of the entire Transcendent population, the elite force that possessed concepts capable of altering reality, on a grand scale, or were very specialized in doing one simple thing to the utmost impossible level.

The rest of the hundred Transcendents and their lesser fragment holders were currently scattered all over Feraxia, either stationed down below at the main showdown battlefield, or guarding the various minor anchor points spread across the continent.

Looking down at the formations below, Sue knew with absolute certainty that the vast majority of them would die the moment the Error Bearer arrived.

She shook her head, then turned her eyes to the side, where two of the newer Transcendents were standing on the mountain ledge with her. One of them, a woman, was watching a broad-shouldered figure at the forefront of the line with wide, completely star-struck eyes, her admiration entirely naked on her face.

The other, a younger man, was sending menacing, aggressive glances in Casmir’s direction, clearly trying to size up the legend to prove his own worth.

These clowns... what are their basic concepts again? The woman is gravity? And the man... healing, was it? Sue thought, a trace of heat rushing up her cheeks in sudden second-hand embarrassment.

She felt a strong urge to call out to them right then and there, to tell them to stop being so blatantly obvious in their reactions to the older generation. It was painful to watch.

These are exactly the kinds of people putting us modern Transcendents to shame, Sue hissed internally, grinding her teeth together as she kept her mouth shut.

Her wandering attention was finally drawn back to the present as the priestess reached the final leg of her grand speech. The dark-skinned woman was finally addressing the specific individuals whose introductions Sue had specifically been waiting for.

But before that, the priestess gestured toward a woman – Seer, the Precognition Transcendent whom Sue had completely outmaneuvered and defeated just a few days ago.

Sue let out a quiet snort as she and the three-eyed woman locked eyes across the snowy clearing. A sharp, mocking smirk played on Sue’s lips as she saw the exact same question written in Seer’s desperate eyes that she was asking herself:

Why was she even allowed to stand on this peak? Seer had failed terribly against the Error Bearer once already, so why the hell had she been given another chance to participate in another battle yet again?

Sue couldn’t wrap her head around it. But the answer probably lied in the person standing next to Seer.

"...in his infinite wisdom, our Lord also brought a true embodiment of ancient knowledge into his fold. A unique soul that had once been used as a vessel by a Great One. The Memory Bearer, Ailin, whose continued existence in this era is nothing short of a miracle performed by the Great Sage himself."

The formal introduction of Ailin was enough to finally draw the attention of the older Transcendents who had remained detached until now. Casmir glanced back over his shoulder, his stoic eyes holding her gaze for a long moment. Lyris did the same, her fiery aura flickering with interest, and even the large figure standing at the absolute forefront of the peak, who hadn’t been introduced yet, tilted his head in her direction.

The white-haired priestess took a deep breath, her arms spreading wide as her voice reached its absolute peak, drowning out the howling of the mountain winds.

"...and finally. The spear of this entire attack. The hand designated by the Great Sage Limitless himself to bring absolute ruin upon the heretic and end his ambitions once and for all."

She pointed a trembling, reverent finger toward the center of the ledge.

"The Transcendent of Glory, Himothy Thundercock..."