Tome of Troubled Times - Chapter 614: The Last Breath Sustaining the Empire

A powerless woman’s worst nightmare is marrying someone against her will. When those who are supposed to protect her betray her in the vilest of ways, Leonor is forced to marry a Duke known for his cold nature and repulsive appearance. After a miserable childhood, it shouldn’t have been a surprise to her that her future was never truly in her hands in the first place.Duke Desmond de Montclair was nobody before the war. He garnered the King’s favor by doing the impossible in battle. Unfortunately, any achievement is eclipsed by his appearance and unbearable personality. In a kingdom that idolizes beauty, there is no room for someone like him.At first, Leonor finds life with the Duke to be what she’s used to - walking on eggshells and never speaking what’s truly in her heart. Eventually, things slowly start to change as the Duke learns about the horrors she faced while living with her family. His power becomes the key to her revenge.However, in a moment where she feels cornered, Leonor confesses to the Duke that she’s in love with someone else. The progress she has made with the Duke comes crashing down around her.Will her magic abilities be enough to convince the Duke not to throw her out? If she can make herself useful to him, perhaps she can gain his sympathy somehow…

“Stop following me!” Asher yelled, his patience running thin. He had let it slide for too long because she had done a lot for him. But now she was everywhere, suffocating him.“I’m only trying to protect you,” she responded.Asher sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I need some space, alright? I can take care of myself.”She didn’t budge, and just kept staring at him with that same obsessive look, like she had no intention of leaving.“Is it because you’re strong now? Are you going to leave me because I'm no use to you anymore?” Her voice had turned cold, sharp enough to cut through the silence.“Of course not, you know that’s not the reason…”“Then why do you want me to stop following you?”“I’m just going to the restroom, for God’s sake!” He massaged his temple, clearly at his wit’s end.“Oh, you should have said that earlier.” She giggled, the earlier tension melting away.“I did,” he sighed in defeat.

Hunger, poverty, and death are the inevitable fate of those who live within the mist, a territory dominated by monsters where sunlight never reaches. With only one eye and missing an arm, daily suffering was all Lily could expect. In a world where the strong rule over the weak, she faces aggression and abuse every day, learning in the harshest, most painful way that kindness doesn’t exist.However, everything changes when she encounters a sentient metamorph, a nameless monster, wounded and abandoned by its pack. Together, they discover that perhaps they don't have to face this cruel world alone. Now, with a companion willing to risk everything to protect this bond, Lily, the girl who had lost everything, finds a new reason to live and fight.

Bai Xiao descended, lifting his head to not only see the bizarre and magnificent world but also the professional modifier he had downloaded before crossing over.“Drain all experience from my sub-occupations, 'Biological Mecha Master', 'Mystic Explorer', 'Special Hypnotist', transforming it into one million potential points, all enhancing my main occupation, 'Fighter'!”“I... have obtained the golden ultimate occupation, 'God of Martial Combat'!”The largest urban agglomeration in the world, a night of torrential rain.On the ground, countless Killing Ghosts and Fighters fought to the death, while hordes of metal Mechas and Biological Armors exploded and self-destructed. Blood and flame intertwined, plunging everything into primordial violence and chaos.Atop a high tower, Bai Xiao stood silently amidst the rainy darkness, like a stiff and terrifying statue. His crimson eyes looked down below, restrained yet bloody, cold yet hiding madness.He leaped down with his trench coat wildly dancing.The God of Martial Combat descended upon the final battleground!A cold voice echoed across the city skyline.“Next, I will kill everyone present! If you have the ability, try to stop me...”A modern city of extravagant luxury, an era of entertainment and consumption supreme.Beneath seventy years of peaceful façade, lied another mad and bloody Inner World.Fighters, masters of their martial traditions, and Killing Ghosts, controlled by combat modes, engaged in a frightful, relentless slaughter.Metal Mechas with terrifying energy and Biological Armors extracted from monstrous cells commenced a brutal struggle between old and new technologies.In this era infested with machinery and altered by external entities, to proclaim the power unique to humans might be an unimaginable romance...