Chapter 116: Disappeared

[A dragon? Are you sure? Did you see its body.] The system asked carefully.

'I couldn't see the skin with the dark smoke floating around, but I think it is a dragon. It breathes fire pillars so hot it almost melted my body even though I was several meters away from the attack.'

[ I'm coming in, you get back to a safe distance. You just wanted to know the origins right? It's time to get back.]

'But..'

Hauuf!

[ You there! Keith? ]

The system shouted continuously but there was no response. Thinking the worst had happened it entered the subconscious mind immediately. Inside the space, there was pitch black darkness wherever it looked.

Using its powers the system created a flash of light to see in the darkness and a large tail the size of a train stretched beyond her visible range. The tail moved and a blinding light was fired from the other side.

At that moment the darkness was completely erased and the system could see the full body of the monster. Keith closed his eyes in the blinding light but the system was not affected by it. The majestic body was right in front of it in full display.

An obsidian skin with two large membranous wings large enough to cover the entire Ennes castle. The head was the size of a small port. Its eyes glowing bright red, staring right at the system.

The mouth was partially open and the residue of the strange fire slowly went inside. Bright white teeth with fangs long enough to resemble a small building. In short, the dragon was massive.

The skin was pitch black and absorbed the light around it like a sponge. The system quickly looked around for Keith's presence but it was nowhere to be found.

[Where did he go? Did the dragon eat him?] 

Looking at the closing mouth of the dragon, the system panicked. As soon as the pillar of light made from the strange substance disappeared, the space turned dark again. The system moved around maintaining his distance and searching for Keith's presence.

[I did warn him though. Still, I don't think he's dead. There was no backlash and I'm still alive, so it's safe to assume he's also alive. But if the dragon consumed him, what was its purpose?]

The dragon turned around and stared at the system fully projecting its killing intent. 

[ This is troublesome. I can't suppress it from inside. The tendrils are outside, so without their power, I can't touch the dragon. Ah! I have to go out and think of a plan. Hopefully, you can stay alive till then.]

Before the dragon could shoot another fire pillar the system left the subconscious.

Outside the mental projection of the demon already vanished and Keith was in a frozen state.  The system sighed and pulled Keith outside the mental plane. As soon as the mental plane was broken, the system entered the conscious mind of Keith which was the reflection of his vampiric origins.

[So this is what it looks like. It's not that bad. I can finally control this body. Maybe if he stays inside the belly of the dragon. I can be free… Hmmm. Stupid kid!]

The system shook Keith's mental projection. 

[ You are so dumb and full of yourself. I warned you not to stay there, but why would you listen to a mere slave, huh? Now, spend eternity inside your pet dragon while I rule the world.]

Sigh!

The system sighed and created a small bed inside the conscious mind. Then she carefully laid down Keith's body on the bed. 

[Guess I have to control the body now.]

The system tried to wake Keith's physical body inside the pool of water. Little by little, the body moved and the system looked around the clear water.

The lump of flesh where the demon's soul was dissolved in the water. There was no life energy signature in it. An ancient demon had perished so discreetly. 

Rubble that was blocking the top of the pool was slowly coming down as the heavy weight of the stone was collapsing on itself.

[I need to find the exit the demon was talking about.]

Although the demon was dead, the afterglow of the place was still present. The bottom of the pool was pulsating with a fading light. The system guessed it might've been the exit so it started swimming in that direction.

[This looks like a rune formation. How am I going to crack it without the demon's help?]

The light was fading after each pulse and soon it would be completely gone. Analyzing the runes was more difficult than the system thought. Not being able to find any solutions for this precarious situation was making the system paranoid.

[ The demon's remnants! If I can find the rune that was holding his soul, it might fit inside the formation.]

Going back to the spot where the lump of flesh dissolved in the water, the system looked for the remnants of the rune. The remnants might've dissolved but the runes carried the life energy of the demon so they would take more time to fade away.

Just as the system predicted, small layers of flesh thinner than hair was floating in a circular manner. They were so tiny and thin, they were basically invisible. The system carefully used Keith's blood-qi to catch the floating pieces and attached them to his palm.

Slowly swimming down to the rune formation, the system tried to link the runes to the formation. 

[ Somewhere! There has to be a spot somewhere.]

Moving above the rune formation, the system tried to locate a resonance. Much to the system's surprise, the resonance was exactly at the center of the rune formation. Taking the runes closer to the center, the formation started to change and a small shape opened up in the middle.

It was exactly like the rune on Keith's hand. As the system placed the rune above the open space the formation started to glow brighter.

[ I can sense the life energy. The rune formation is asking for a command.]

The system interfered with the rune and with the help of the demon flesh, it was able to communicate with the formation. Even though it was beyond the expertise of the system, the life energy was something it could understand. The overall direction of the life energy and how it resonated with the demon's core rune was giving it hints.

Carefully analyzing the formation that was asking for a command, the system randomly gave commands that would best fit in this situation. This was a gamble as there was no definitive and known command to the system.

[ Cancel Travel Escape Move …]

Of course, all the commands were given through the demon flesh connecting the runes. In the end, none of the commands really worked. The runes glowed but soon dimmed down.

[What did that demon put here? He was obsessed with the sacrificial chamber. Yes!]

As soon as the command was given, the runes lit up and Keith's body disappeared along with the light. The light stayed illuminated for some moments before the water turned dark again. There was no sign of Keith over the rune formation.

In a large open space, many ghouls roamed freely as a big viscount level ghoul sat on a large rock overlooking the lower level ghouls. Three baron-level ghouls were hanging backward from the ceiling above the viscount ghoul. It was clear that the viscount ghoul didn't want the baron ghouls to rest beside it.

Suddenly a large splashing sound was heard and water started pouring from the back of the viscount level ghoul. Keith emerged from a pool of water and fell to the ground. It was the exact type of runes that brought him here that was present under him.

Right now, the system was in control of Keith's body. It sensed the entire chamber and found several hundred ghouls just swarming around. Also, the viscount level ghoul was not gone unnoticed. Its huge presence was just in front of Keith.

"It's that same viscount ghoul I found on the entrance." The system scanned the ghoul with its enhanced senses.

Undoubtedly the system was more efficient in implementing the blood-qi techniques and after the upgrade, it could enhance Keith's senses to a significant degree. Taking advantage of the situation, the system wanted to test out some new methods.

The ghouls were alerted as soon as Keith appeared inside the chamber out of nowhere. The baron-level ghouls were the first to see him as they were on the ceiling and could easily identify him. 

The viscount ghoul was behind a giant rock, so it could only sense Keith's blood-qi. The rest of the ghouls could somewhat sense something but among all the ghouls it was hard for them to distinguish as they were low-level ghouls and their senses were not good.

Still, that didn't stop them from mindlessly running towards the anomaly. Their instincts could feel that something good had appeared.

Screeech!

Graaaah!

The horde of ghouls ran towards Keith's position like ants.