Illusions on the Frontier of Death

A fox tail condensed from spiritual power erupted into a dazzling azure flame in space. The "Living Saint," wielding a greatsword with wings growing from its back, tore through the flames blocking its path, only to see the "invader" already slam into a force-field generator on the Main Ring of the star gate like a cannonball.

In the silent void, a tiny spray of blood bloomed soundlessly. The bright red color swiftly boiled in the vacuum, then turned into a spreading mist that slowly seeped into the star gate.

The energy life-form known as the "Living Saint" still stood quietly in space, frozen in the final pose of tearing through the sea of flames with its greatsword raised, as though it had been locked in place.

Then, after another two or three seconds, the glowing figure suddenly "flickered" for an instant. It was as if the energy circulation inside its body had restarted. Its form rapidly dimmed and reassembled once before it began moving again.

Its enormous wings of light gently flapped. It was a meaningless motion in the vacuum, but layers of illusory ripples appeared around the "Living Saint" all the same. It flew toward the spot where the invader had just "fallen," then slowly circled a few meters above the force-field generator.

What was it looking for? What was here?

What had just happened?

Its memories were rapidly fading. Unexplainable contradictions had appeared in its action commands, while its spiritual intuition seemed to contain noise that was difficult to parse. Something was changing in the environment, but it lay beyond the boundaries of its perception.

The "Living Saint" landed beside the force-field generator. A strange smear of red on its armor caught its attention. It bent down and wiped the suspicious mark with fingers condensed from light, only