Chapter 446 - Days MDCCCLXXXVIII - MCMII, Part I

In the early morning, I shadow walked to the anchor left in front of my mother's apartment, then shadow walked again through the door. Since it was the middle of the night, I quietly walked deeper to check if she was asleep. She was, so I left all the stuff I bought for her during our trip in the kitchen, and quickly wrote a note, then left straight for Loistavadvaar.

I don't know if it was the silver light, the jade buildings, or the sense of incoming danger, but I felt revitalized and full of energy. Shivers went down my spine, as I looked through the gates at all those different worlds, searching for the one to hunt in.

There were many to choose from, and I found it hard to decide. In the end, I went with a familiar world. The one with the strange pyramid-shaped skyscrapers. Probably because I found this industrial world fascinating. There was so much strange technology still working there. I picked a random direction and started running, heading behind the far-away walls of this city I didn't even know the name of.

I ran throughout the whole day with only a few breaks for some food, or to explore something that picked my attention. I ended up collecting quite a bunch of Xuvi junk, to give it to the scientist. I have to admit, I only picked things that didn't look dangerous. I even took one of the strange drones, illuminating the streets with their blue light.

It was quite easy to catch it since now I could turn into a crow, and fly closer. I stored it all in the vault since there was plenty of space there.

I didn't encounter any ghosts, even despite the fact that I was quite loud during my travel and the exploration. Often causing quite a bit of mess, trying to pull some stuff from ruins, that couple of times made the clusters of metal and other, more strange materials, fell apart.

The second day was identical, and during its end, I managed to reach the city walls, but this didn't lead to much change. There were still no freaking ghosts in the vicinity. No matter how much noise did I make, or how far did I travel.

Since there were heavy clouds above me, blocking any sources of light, I had to walk with 'Eyes of the void' on all the time.

The first encounter happened on the sixth day. I spotted one of the ghosts, walking through the alien jungle of strange, very much alive forest filled with throbbing, and moving plants. They were deeply green in their coloration. Sometimes even black, and the fruits growing on them smelled terrible, with some kind of thick liquid dropping off.

He was similar to the one I fought in the city, with the black, dirty rags on him, and face hidden in the deep hood.

I immediately attacked, charging straight at the enemy, with my weapon in hand, and landed a powerful blow, that he barely managed to block with two big rings made out of bronze-like metal. This was just an opening, as I quickly activated the 'Shadow fusion' and flooded him in a barrage of cuts and thrusts, with all my strength behind them.

He blocked a couple, trying to stop me with his psychic attacks, but couldn't, and then one of the rings broke, and shortly after I landed a clean-cut, that led to a swift victory. The ghost turned to smoke, leaving a pale red crystal.

This indicated that he wasn't very strong, which combined with my ambush led to this quick victory. I threw the stone in the vault and continued looking around, but didn't find anything more than him.

This situation persisted until the ninth day. I managed to live in the disgusting forest and found myself in vast, rocky flatlands. Filled with annoying dust, that forced me to put a barrier over my face to filter the air.

It took almost a whole day for the enemy to, this time, spot me. As soon as he came in a range of my skill, I detected him, which led to avoiding his attack of fire and earth magic. I had to run for a couple of minutes, and wait for the opening, but as soon as I spotted one, I attacked with ice magic from distance, and once I got closer, I started swinging. He had barriers protecting him, but I smashed them one by one while repositioning all around him to avoid retaliation.

I found a similar pattern of ghosts living in this place. They all had to go through some shit since their clothes were in such a terrible state. All black rags.

This one was a bit different though, as I didn't detect any weapons on him, controlled through the psychic powers.

At some point, I blasted him in the face with a strong fireball, and then shadow walked behind, to land a strong hit from above. It worked, thanks to the fact that this enemy was actually weak. He left me with another pale red crystal.

Since it was already late, and I spent so much time searching, I decided to call it a day, drop the anchor, and return to Loistavadvaar, to resume the hunt on the next day.

When I returned, I quickly discovered that we made enough noise, to attract somebody. I didn't even need to engage to know that this enemy won't be as easy, as the previous one.

Golden robes, dirty, but still, suggested that he had to be somebody, at least a bit more important compared to the weaklings I faced before. He had a large metal staff in his hand, with blue crystal, tightly wrapped by the metal vines emerging from the top of it.

The tiara on his head, made of gold, and decorated with gems, was completing the picture. I immediately activated both 'Shadow fusion' and 'Void domain'. With the dust everywhere, it didn't have as devastating a visual effect as it did in normal circumstances.

I filled my body with Ki, and launched an attack.