Chapter 21: The Great Shift Part 8

The Death of the Sentinel Warden!

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BEYOND THE

VEIL: THE

GREAT SHIFT

CHAPTER 21:

THE GREAT

SHIFT PART 8

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Smiling, Auden could only grin to hide his rage and nervousness - while far from his prime, these Sentinel Wardens were sent to kill Envoys of the Martyrs levels.

Auden is only an Order Sequence 6 of House Hadō who reigns over the temporal realm. As the Sentinel Warden left the shadows into the light, it opened its mouth.

The moon hung low in the night sky, casting a pallid glow over the desolate landscape where Auden Sato confronted the Sentinel Warden. The air, thick with tension, whispered of unknown sorrows and words etched in the very fabric of Auden's soul and mind - these memories that toured him for decades.

Perhaps tonight is the night when he could free himself from these nightmares.

"Auden Sato, you... hate us," rumbled the Sentinel Warden, its voice slow and choppy, a macabre melody of the abyss. Auden wasn't surprised about this - he was one of the few who knew that all of the Sentinel Wardens shared a hive-mind connection. And back in his prime, after the 'incident' - Auden hunted down Sentinel Wardens and killed close to 100 of them. But that's the problem when you fight artificially created chaos - it learns and adapts.

Shaken by ethereal goodbyes and shouts of pain resounded within the head of Auden - his eyes were haunted by memories of loss, as Auden met the creature's gaze.

"Hate? No, I despise you! You souls bound, purpose unchanged freaks. You're the embodiment, no, the purpose of death and despair!"

"Innocence... irrelevant," responded the Sentinel Warden, its hollow eyes fixated on Auden. "Purpose transcends. Nameless Sect, eternal. Father Azeroth, god!"

"Eternal? God?" Auden's voice carried the weight of grief and fury. "I'll ensure your eternity ends. I'll make sure your God will fall as well. My wife, my friends—the innocents you stole. Their souls cry for justice. And I am the executioner!"

A gust of wind whispered through the abandoned side of the city, carrying the echoes of sorrow and the promise of an impending reckoning. Auden's eyes blazed with determination.

Auden didn't realize that his spirituality had nearly tripled in strength by the mysterious benefactor that had put his gaze over him. Suddenly, Auden disappeared from space, time, and light as he reappeared right in front of the Sentinel Warden - landing a powerful kick to its torso.

At that moment - Auden Sato had unknowingly broken through the barriers of light speed and passively transcended the speed of light. Looking down at his feet, he saw dark red guts, flesh, and thin translucent skin covering his boot.

Auden could only look at the boot in disgust—he had unknowingly stepped on shit known as Sentinel Wardens. As Auden wiped the artificially created material from his boot, he saw a silhouette forming the dust cloud created.

He didn't even wait as Auden rushed through the dust cloud with another kick, he felt flesh being kicked and then pierced. As they passed through the dust cloud - Auden was able to perfectly see the Sentinel Warden as its entire right side was missing.

As they hit the wall and stopped, Auden stood over the Sentinel Warden - a face of fury and disgust evident on his face.

It slowly raised its head to meet eye-to-eye with Auden - suddenly, Auden felt a usual amount of energy flow through his eyes to his body. On his left hand, Auden's hand began to bloat which spread to his arm.

Before it could spread even further, Auden did the best logical thing he could do - Auden manipulated the spirituality around him to sharpen his right hand and chop off his left arm.

As the arm fell limb to the ground, it was bloated completely as it exploded. Unintentionally creating distance between the Sentinel Warden and Auden.

Backing away slowly, Auden watched the Sentinel Warden's teeth pointed downwards as it frowned. Suddenly, Auden watched as liquid-like substances came from the Sentinel's body and they began to form other Sentinel Warden.

Ten copies had formed with the original among the others, rubbing his forehead—Auden heard a familiar yet ethereal voice echo in his head.

'Let the lover within you die! Let your wrath prevail over your mercy! Let him die! Only then, will you mercilessly destroy all of these wretched Wardens!'

An ethereal red energy surrounded Auden's conceptual existence—the Sentinel Warden, beings created from lost souls and grafted flesh are naturally intuted with Cursed Energy, half of the source within Envoys.

Because of this, these Sentinel Wardens saw the flow of Curse Energy heavily outweigh the flow of Blessed Energy. Normally speaking, most people would give into their madness and lose control completely—turning into monsters with human flesh.

However, the man chosen by the golden eyes did not have this outcome. He surged with the power, so much power to crack the ground and shake the world!

Suddenly, Auden disappeared—throwing a punch forward, the Sentinel Warden managed to successfully predict where Auden would appear. Unfortunately for it, Auden saw this and caught his fist—throwing his punch.

This caused the entire upper half of the Sentinel Warden's body to instantly disappear—vaporized from existence as the bottom half still smoked with power. Feeling someone behind him, Auden tried to see the other copies still operating after the original's death.

Smirking, Auden continued his rampage.

—••••••••••—

Matthew and his companions ran through the empty streets, loud sounds of crashing, yells and more destruction reverberated through the crowdless streets.

"What the hell is happening?!" Matthew could only say as they followed the pregnant Aryanna. They all turned towards the destination as it was towards the sounds of destruction.

"Where exactly is the Twilight Church?!" Elijah questioned, his tone evident as Daemon could only sigh. "It's probably where all that noise is coming from…" This only served to tense the nerves of everyone.

Many possibilities ran through their heads, most of them assumed the Twilight Church was being attacked by more, while others like Augustus, Daamon, and Aryanna felt extreme pressure coming.

The type of pressure that one might have if they had lost control and went berserk. Berserkers were the official term for these types of people who lost all forms of rationality and logic and gave in the power, corruption, or other types of forms of damage.

Eventually, they made it to the Twilight Cathedral.

The Cathedral was exactly what one might think of. A colossal building with intricate designs that were beautifully designed stone for stone. To each side of the massive double-ended door leading to the Cathedral were two openings that led to the opposite street.

To their left and right were other streets as they used the main road to get to the Cathedral—and about four blocks forward was the massive forest they needed to enter to escape the city of nightmares.

However, what caught everyone's attention was what happened below—even Matthew who made this mistake before saw what was happening.

What they saw and felt was beyond this world, extraordinary—it almost felt like they were seeing one true deity at work against the heretics.

They saw an elderly man, or at least what they assumed was an elderly man based on his gray hair. His hair was long—not as long as Daemon, but still long. With deep blue eyes, a dark robe flowed to his shoulders, which perfectly complemented his long black pants. His face was adorned with a thick crown of hair and a matching full beard. In his hands, he held a gleaming curved black blade, while a golden revolver rested in his left hand.

Of course, that was him at his best—but he wasn't.

His gray hair and full beard were messy, dirty, and covered in deep crimson blood. His dark robes which were nice and fashionable were stained with blood and guts with some parts missing. His dark blade was merely covered from top to bottom in blood—it almost looked like a river of blood was flowing within the blade. The golden revolver was stained with blood with the grip was covered in guts. His blue eyes were deep like an ocean reflecting a lake of blood in its wake.

He was a monster.

The monster looked at them after slaying the unfortunate skeleton. Suddenly, Daemon's cane was wrapped around with this thin brown whip—on closer examination, Daemon realized what this was: "Copper!"

Letting go, Daemon saw his cane be grabbed away into the left street of the Cathedral. This was so silent that no one noticed—until Kinder hissed angrily. Turning their heads in unison, an unconscious shiver flowed through Selena's spine as her eyes and hands began to shake uncontrollably.

A large brute of a man with slight curly chin-length brown hair deep brown eyes and blood-stained black armor adjacent to a massive broadsword.

Next to him was a smaller man with white hair, and icy blue eyes holding the copper whip with a small sword in his other hand. He wore casual gentlemen's clothes with long black trousers, a baggy white button-up shirt—which was covered in blood, and black shoes. Slightly behind the two gentlemen taking guard were three people.

A beautiful woman with fair, smooth skin and long flowing raven hair which oddly matched her crimson-red eyes. She exuded an air of maturity and grace that went beyond her years. Her attire consisted of a black top that covered her neck, adorned with a golden amulet and five dangling golden rings. A light crimson corset dress encircled her waist, featuring an alluring cutout that exposed her stomach. To balance the ensemble, she wore a lightweight yet substantial metal waistband and a sweeping crimson red coat that cascaded down to her shoes.

Slightly beneath the beautiful woman was a young boy. He held the woman's hands in fright. The boy had fluffy blonde hair with deep blue eyes—he adorned casual clothes. To their left was another beautiful woman. She was beautiful with small freckles that adorned her face starting from each end of her cheekbones and bridging across her nose.

Her hair cascaded down to the nape of her neck, but from there, it was cut shorter, reaching just above her sharp jawline. The hair near her eyes was trimmed even shorter, stopping at her eyebrows.

This unique haircut resembled a hush cut in many aspects, but it still differed. She possessed captivating eyes—each of her eyes her an amber-hazel color, however, her right eye was significantly brighter than her left eye. Another aspect of her beauty was her gloomy lips and common fashion.

She opted for basic shoes paired with smooth brown trousers that, despite their cheap appearance, were expensive with soft fabric—Aryanna knew this because she also owned a pair of these trousers. She completed her outfit with an oversized white long-sleeve shirt, featuring a large V-shaped neckline that would have exposed her chest if not for the addition of stitched large-brown cloth strands.

Slightly behind them to their left was a man and a female. A man was tall and thin with slightly slicked-back hair with a receding hairline—matched with his gray eyes, he was quite handsome. He sported a light blue vest, black trousers, and a black long shirt layered over his vest. His shoes had a subtle blue tint, with his eyes holding this sharp glimmer to them—reminiscent of the eyes of war veterans, he had faint bags under his eyes, along with a hint of stubble on his defined jawline.

Next to the well-defined man covered in small stains of blood was a small timid woman who hid behind the man slightly.

Her long messy blonde hair framed her soft, delicate facial features, accentuating her twin amber-hazel eyes and light red lips. She was very short compared to the man. Her attire consisted of a brown long-sleeve shirt paired with a brown leather belt, complemented by brown straight trousers and a belt. As for footwear, she opted for regular black shoes.

Behind them was clearly a mother and son. The mother was short with brown eyes, black tied-up hair, and a well-defined face. She was beautiful, but not to the extent of the supermodels to her right. In her arms was another young boy, he had black hair, gray eyes, and casual clothes—he kinda resembled the berserker in front of them.

"Cassian…" Yves was surprised when the tall and muscular man whom he had taken his cane from called out his surname. "You know me?" He replied slightly nervously, the large man with black robes with golden edges shifted to fully look at him.

"You're not the only one cursed with knowledge. Isn't that right, Cassian? Knowledge of what happened 6 years ago." His casual tone with sharp eyes made him intimidating, but the most intimidating thing about him was his knowledge of Yves.

So much so that Yves unknowingly began to shake uncontrollably, "Then you know what I did right?" Yves replied half-heartedly, Daemon nodded to his threat. "I do. But what you don't know is that the reason you're still here and not behind bars or six feet under is because I'd willed it."

Gulping as sweat dripped, Yves smiled—"Is that so? Then congratulations are in order. Thank you very much!" Daemon didn't seem assumed as an unimaginable aura surrounded him. In Yves' vision, it seemed like Daemon was a giant about to step on him—an ant.

"I'd willed your life before and deemed you innocent of your crimes—now, I willed your death!"