Barrier

The cracks began at his pupils and spread outward, dividing his eyes into countless tiny fragments.

Every fragment reflected that streak of sword light.

They wanted to dodge.

But the instant the thought arose, the sword light had already slashed before them.

The elderly man at the front reacted the fastest.

He desperately drove the black mist around him, gathering it into layer upon layer of barriers before himself.

Three barriers overlapped, shielding him completely.

The moment the barriers formed, he relaxed slightly.

But only for an instant.

An instant later, the sword light struck the first barrier.

That barrier, formed from three layers of black mist, was as fragile as paper before the sword light.

At the lightest touch from the sword light, countless fine cracks surfaced across the barrier.

Starting from the point of impact, those cracks spread madly in every direction.

Wherever they passed, the twisted faces in the black mist burst apart one after another, vanishing into nothingness.

Then, the barrier shattered with a thunderous crash.

The sword light pressed onward and slashed into the second barrier.

The same cracks, the same shattering.

The second barrier did not even last a breath.

The sword light struck the third barrier.

The third barrier was made from ten layers of black mist. It was the thickest and the sturdiest.

When the sword light hit it, the barrier trembled violently.

The twisted faces within the black mist shrieked madly, desperately trying to resist the sword light's erosion.

Yet with every shriek, fresh sword light seeped in from the barrier's surface, purifying those faces one by one.

The third barrier was soon covered in cracks.

The sword light pierced through all three barriers and slashed into the elderly man.

In that instant, the old man's expression froze.

His mouth hung