As John slowly crept from the building, he carefully looked both ways before scanning the surrounding rooftops. After five minutes, he took a deep breath. "So far, so good."

However, he still wasn't wholly convinced. Even though the sun was rapidly setting, and his instincts told him he needed to escape before then, he maintained his vigilance. After he moved to a couple of other positions in the street where he once again strained his senses to try and pick up any signs that something was watching him, John took another deep breath. "I... escaped a Void Lord. Just like that?"

Full of doubt, John slowly turned and started to jog towards the outskirts of town. As he moved, the fading light from the last setting sun made the decrepit buildings look like broken teeth marring the skyline. At the same time, the howling breeze and occasional echoey sound in the distance made the atmosphere seem completely reversed from earlier.

There was no longer the mental distortion created by the hot, warm sun and bright surroundings. Instead, the town now appeared extremely sinister and dangerous.

John continued to watch the surroundings with an emotionless face. He didn't know if it had been his recent experiences, or that he had just moved past the point of caring due to both mental and physical exhaustion, but the change in ambience didn't seem to affect him much.

A small smile briefly flashed across his face before the emotionless mask, one that seemed to look down on the entire world, returned.

As a small child, maybe because of his affinity, John had never feared the dark. Instead, throughout his life, he felt that it had been his ally. Something that always protected and watched over him. Thus, even though others might find the fading light daunting, John felt more positive as he silently made his way forward.

Strands of black essence wove around his body, mostly around his feet, as the opaque energy barrier surrounding him occasional shimmered with a mote of golden light. Like the town's atmosphere, John had changed his shields composition, from being formed from light essence to dark. It was far more effective than what he had displayed under the blistering sun, blurring his silhouette and dampening the sounds of his movement.

Earlier, he had seemed almost holy, radiating a golden light whereas John now looked more similar to a sinister demon made from mist and shadow.

"I wonder if she would have been amused?" John revealed a deep frown before forcing the thought from his mind. As he did, his pace picked up.

His speed was almost double what it had been earlier. This was mainly because while hiding in the ruined building, John had rested and readjusted the circulation of his energy to its most optimum state. Not only did it reveal how much his body had improved in a short amount of time, but enabled him to tweak his aura to suit the environment better.

John continued to speed up while making sure that it was sustainable, causing his body to appear as if it were flickering forward like a hazy spectre. The abundant essence, as well as the pressure to survive and improve, gave John a strange sense of belonging. It was as, even though it had been incredibly stressful and taxing, he had returned to where he truly belonged. Something he had often felt with his comrades and on the battlefield, but not this strongly.

"This place... why does it feel as it is where I am meant to be? It feels like... home?"

John pushed the distracting thoughts away as he continued onwards like a machine. He would release two short breaths before inhaling a sharp gasp of air before repeating the process. There was also a slight clicking in his neck with every step, an injury he had picked up during one of the hunts, that helped him maintain a steady pace.

While he knew it couldn't be heard, it sounded deafening in the eerie silence.

There hadn't been any loud noises since the upset Void Lord, who he assumed to be Akarhia, had destroyed a few buildings and vanished. However, the atmosphere wasn't comfortable. Instead, John felt it was more like the calm before the storm.

As he thought back, for some strange reason that bewildered him, John slightly regretted his actions. His mind kept travelling to ideas that seemed fantastical. That maybe he would have had a better chance of survival if he somehow won the Void Lord over. That, after he displayed some of his abilities and she lowered her hostility, they had a chance to communicate.

That wasn't the only reason. He felt a tinge of regret after sensing the genuine emotions that felt hurt, upset and slightly lonely. While he was mostly known as a man of few emotions, that was to his acquaintances, to his friends and family John was a big softy.

"The fuck am I thinking?" John shook his head slightly, momentarily throwing his agile movements off balance. "It's just because the emotions felt so innocent and naive. How can a bloodthirsty, immortal monster, one that fights against the allied races and our heroes, be like that? It must have been a ploy for me to lower my guard. That's right, a trick."

"But why?" John frowned, his mind wanting answers when he could only speculate. "Why would she need to trick me? For entertainment?"

Just as he paused to check his surroundings, John's skin prickled. Without thinking, he dove into a small gap under a nearby twisted wreck. Just as he pulled himself out of sight, the feeling of dread which had almost vanished as he hid, grew. However, even though he couldn't directly identify it, he sensed a trace amount of anxiety that wasn't his own.

After moving the essence blade close to his chest, John spotted a faint shadow flicker by. Glancing up, he was only able to locate a blur of blackness, supported by what could have been two flimsy wings, before it vanished behind the nearby buildings.

The prickly sensation rapidly faded as John carefully watched the sky and frowned. "Can Void Lords fly? But they don't have wings? A voidling with the bloodline of an angel? Some sort of flying beast?"

After waiting a short while, he crawled out and while keeping a careful watch on the sky. After making sure there were no silhouettes, he continued onwards.

In the distance, John heard a howl. Compared to earlier, it was pathetic, and John almost instantly dismissed it before realising it came from a husk.

"Come on, give me a break."

Glancing upwards, John started to move. While he wasn't sure what had flown over, if he could sense it before it appeared, John was confident he could find cover and escape its detection again. Yet despite his confidence, he travelled far more cautiously than he had been earlier, sticking close to buildings with openings or large debris that could hide him from above.

After a while, he came to a stop before kneeling down near a collapsed wall. In the distance, he could clearly see the sandy wasteland. It was two blocks away, a gap that seemed tantalisingly close. Even the amount of sand around him had built up to the point where he could no longer mask his trail by only moving across the asphalt.

Yet, even though he wanted to leave the ruined town as fast as possible, John felt his legs slightly shake as he hesitated. The sensation of dread had once again begun to build up. However, this time not only did it increase slower, as if he was the one who was approaching, but it felt different.

Compared to what he felt earlier, the sensation felt extraordinarily malicious and sinister. Not only that, but John also wasn't sure if the feeling was naturally growing, or he was just becoming more sensitive to it.

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His thoughts were distracted as the final rays of sunlight vanished beyond the horizon.

Within moments, it was like someone had suddenly turned out the lights, and John and his surroundings were plunged into darkness. Yet, even though he felt the fear gnawing away, he strangely felt more confident and bold.

"Keep moving. I need to get out of here before something finds me." Narrowing his eyes, John took a deep breath before slowly creeping forward. While it was dark, the glow from the planets and stars above was more than enough to navigate the hazardous surroundings.

However, even though he seemed calmer, his heartbeat was many times faster than when the creature had flown over. It got to the point where John felt as if a stampede of galloping horses were running across his chest. At the same time, his throat and mouth became incredibly dry and he found it had to swallow.

Pausing and looking at his shaking hand, John tried to calm himself.

"Shit."

While he wanted to deny it, from everything he had experienced today, John had a strong idea at to what was causing the sensation. In fact, now he had felt the third variation, John was able to subtly tell the difference between his previous two encounters. "If the forceful, overbearing sensation I felt earlier, what felt like a mountain about to crush me was Baros, and the uncontrollable, unpredictable and dangerous vibe was Akarhia..."

Even without the power of deduction, there was little doubt to who was nearby. The sinister, terrifying sensation almost perfectly fit the last Void Lord. The most infamous inhabitant of the Voidlands, Sillithias.

"Fuck."

For some reason, at an instinctual level, John really, really didn't want to run into whatever was generating the feeling. Though slightly weaker, it felt was multiple times worse than Baros and Akarhia. While he still felt danger and impending death from them, it seemed more natural.

What he was currently feeling, was the urge to kill himself rather than be found. John somehow felt that death would be the better option. This wasn't the fear of death, which he had got somewhat used to, but the terror of the one that brought it.

"He who fights and runs away lives to fight-" John's thoughts abruptly stopped as he turned around, fully intending on retreating. Behind him in the faint light, shuffling figures could be seen clumsily navigating the debris. Faintly glowing blue orbs, mostly in pairs, seemed to sway back and forth.

"I..." John didn't know what to think as he stared at the husks. At first they seemed to be moving randomly, as some vanished or reappeared from the buildings, but the more John watched the more he felt the terrifying notion that they were actually sweeping the area.

A couple of gunshots rang out in the distance, followed by multiple howls.

"Yes." John clutched his fists, believing that he had found life from another's misfortune. He felt slightly wrong, but if it was a choice between his life and an unknown, he wouldn't even hesitate. However, after the husks gazed in the direction the howls had come from, they ignored it and continued onwards.

John shook his head slightly, the hint of a smile that wasn't a smile on his lips, before scanning the buildings nearby. As long as there weren't possessed, he should be OK battling the husks, but it would create noise. Even assassinating them would be a risk, the stench of their blood potentially drawing more.

John turned back towards the dessert. The sickening sensation of dread assaulting his body, almost making the approaching husks seem welcoming.

"Fuck it. No guts, no glory." John crept towards the desert at a snail's pace, stopping every now and then and carefully inspecting his surroundings. He knew it was pointless as his senses should be far below those of the void. If he discovered them, they would have already found him, but after his earlier escape, he couldn't help but hope.

[Amusement]

John froze as the emotion washed over him. While it was similar to what he had previously felt, it was also completely different. Alongside the taste of bile, he felt as if he could almost smell the tangy iron of blood. The cruelty and bloodlust contained within the apparently joyful emotion seemingly wanted to turn the world red.

"Domains." Although John had briefly thought about it in passing earlier, now he truly believed that what he was experiencing was a domain. Something that had not appeared since Godsfall and the universes' energy had been crippled beyond repair. The ancient beings, old gods and heroes that were born before could still use the skill, but for everyone else, it was a divine ability out of their reach.

The problem was, the Void Lords had not been around for long in terms of time. The gods had already fallen, and the alliance of races, lead by Lucifer had conquered all habitable worlds long before the first sighting was reported. However, John didn't think about it long. The external emotions he felt seemed to be gnawing away at his mind and sanity, filling his head with terrifying ideas and thoughts.

John started to pant heavily but was able to circulate his essence and somehow reducing the amount the emotion seemed to impact him. However, he still struggled. Part of him wanted to find a living being, no matter what it was, and pull its arms and legs off. The other wanted to scream, curl into a ball before bashing his head against the floor in an attempt to pass out or smash his head in.

Red. The dark world under the soft starlight from above seemed to gain a red tint.

After what felt like an age, John losing all sense of time, a man's scream returned him to his senses. While he wasn't in the right frame of mind to know where it came from, it felt close.

Taking a deep breath, John tried to force down the unsettling thoughts that almost caused him to question his sanity and started to move.

"Escape."

The one word thought kept repeating in his mind as he crept onwards, pressing his body tightly to the wall. Luckily, the essence coating his body reduced the friction and no sound emerged. He wanted to turn around and see how close the husks had got, but he dared not to. Each step was already difficult enough.

As the reptilian part of his brain and common sense screamed at him to run, John continued on as he took shaky breaths. He almost gave in a couple of times, but every time he started to get into a sprinters pose, his training and willpower kicked in. "If they knew where I was, I'd be dead already. This... they are trying to flush me with the husks and their domains. Keep calm, keep low. Slow and steady. No sound, quiet. Quiet as a mouse."

Sliding against the wall as he approached the second from last junction, John's instincts and rational mind became almost hysterical, causing him to freeze as he took short breaths. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't reign in his spirling thoughts. He was almost certain, that he was going to die a dogs death if he took another step forward.

Due to his turbulent state of mind and body, the black essence around John seemed to boil and surge as his senses dulled. However, there was something else that was happening that might have worried him even more if he was in the right frame of mind.

He hadn't noticed the faint blue glow that had started emerging from his eyes. Unlike the dull blue of the husks, the colour was vivid and seemed to ripple like the reflection of light on water. What John assumed to be his vision narrowing due to fear was actually his pupils slightly pulling inwards horizontally.

Strangely, as the changes happened, the impact of foreign emotions drastically reduced and his energy started to settle. While not enough to bring John back completely, it enabled him to clear his mind enough to start rationally thinking again.

After gritting his teeth, trying to regain control of his body that seemed to have become paralysed, John fell to one knee. His thoughts were a mess but they all were aimed at trying to give him the courage to carry on. "Fear is death, fear is death. Control. Control. I am the master of my own fate."

As he persevered, the spark of anger and irritation that he had felt earlier once again appeared.

At the start, it was distant. However, before long, it felt as if a tsunami of emotions erupted from the depths of his soul. Anger, irritation, stubbornness, but there were two emotions that caused the others to pale in comparison. Control and pride.

While John couldn't put his finger on where these emotions came from, he didn't care. All he wanted to do was survive. To survive, he had to move.

"Stand up." John roared in his mind as the terror he felt from earlier receded to the recesses of his mind as if it had met a terrifying beast. As his sight and sense of hearing returned, though they had never left, John slowly stood and looked at the street corner.

Shuffling forward, as if he was reluctant to go, John moved forwards. At the same time, the grip on the essence sword caused his entire hand to shake.

Taking another deep breath, the feeling of control and pride gradually stabilising, John came to a halt. Though he had significantly calmed, the sense of terror was only a thought away.

"Check the coast is clear, cross the street, vanish in the desert." Sliding along the wall, John reached the corner and slowly turned his body so he was facing it. Slowly, as if he was dreading what he would find, he moved his head outwards while bringing up the essence sword.

However, no matter how much John had tried to prepare himself for what he might find, the moment John's eyes fell on the two figures in the middle of the street, his mind and body froze.

Slowly, the figure that had its head covered in what looked like thick, rolling black mist turned its incredibly bright, glowing blue orb-like eyes away from the man dangling from its tail and towards John.

The moment their eyes locked, the beings head slightly flinched before the mist that covered its face slightly pulled back and revealed a toothful smile full of razor-sharp teeth.

"Oh~ how interesting~." A sultry voice appeared in John's mind as feelings of amusement, shock and mild interest blurred into the terror that had once again paralysed his body. "Now~ I really want to know what you are."