Silence met Cipher Nine's little outburst since he couldn't possibly see where Erebus was nor did he know that the Outworlder his superiors were looking for on orders of both Darth Marr and Vowrawn was inside the same chamber as him. It wasn't because of anything he desired of course, but of something else within the same chamber as them.
This mysterious stalker of Erebus' hadn't revealed itself to either of the two, but their focus lay solely on him despite the shadows hiding his presence from the imperial agent. They were far stronger than the current Sith Emperor and seemed to be able to weave with the Dark Side like it was nothing more than a mere toy other than a source of extreme power driven by extreme negative emotions.
They were even more powerful than Palpatine-who had not yet been born-but the reason for this mysterious entity to take an interest in a man like Erebus? It was due to curiosity.
They knew that the canon events of the Galaxy were not being changed by this outsider's influence as if they were extremely careful, but this person just couldn't exist at all. Normally, not even the prophesied "Chosen One" would be able to draw out this entity's attention, but somehow, it was Erebus who managed to do just that.
'Just who was this creature?' the entity thought to itself while observing Erebus' actions with the lightsaber. They knew that everything about him screamed "outsider," but they were clearly able to wield the Force without succumbing to either side fully. 'He is able to withstand both sides' corruption without any backlash and both sides seemed tame within his body. What kind of creature could do this?'
The entity knew it couldn't allow this creature-no, this man-to be tainted by the Empire or Jedi Order's ideals since it found itself drawn to Erebus by fate. However, it had to be quite cautious in its approach.
If it made too many moves, it would no doubt be detected by the Force wielders and hunted down as a threat. Normally, this wouldn't matter since he could wipe them all out easily, but these were precarious times. Events in this time period had to happen naturally without too much outsider intervention and the entity had no mastery in time manipulation-unlike the more powerful creatures which lived outside of the Galaxy.
'I'll make my move when he is not surrounded by the impures,' it thought to itself as it continued to observe. 'Only then will I finally gain an apprentice worthy of my knowledge and power. Someone who could never truly die.'
===+===
"..." Erebus was silent as he looked at the imperial agent like they were an idiot. He turned off his lightsaber while underneath his skill's effects and placed it on his belt while keeping an eye on the agent. He debated revealing himself to them, but due to his cautious nature, Erebus obviously didn't.
It was also clear that the agent was inoculated against the Dark Side by Darth Janus-the rebellious Darth who sided with the terrorists and was about to fake his death-but Erebus didn't care. He had done what he set out to do by killing the terrorists and saving the agent some valuable time returning to Kaas City.
'The only thing I should worry about now,' Erebus thought to himself. 'is to leave this place and find a secluded spot within the jungle to discover more about the rewards I got from the System. That includes trying to ditch both this agent and my mysterious stalker.'
Fortunately for Erebus, he could still evade the agent's detection while underneath his skill, but there was a possibility that his stalker could still find him. It did seem like his proficiency in the [Cloak of Shadows] skill was not yet powerful enough to evade higher forms of detection though something felt oddly comforting about being hidden in the shadows.
With that in mind, he activated his [Minimap] function and set a waypoint to just outside of the Dark Temple's reach. This allowed him to chart a safe route through the Temple's corridors like before and the route was visible only to him.
He quickly turned around and began walking away-sticking under the cover of the darkness within the temple. This made very little to no noise, but sadly, Erebus' luck made a small blip at this particular moment as his [Cloak of Shadows] dissipated-entering cooldown. This made Erebus disappointed as it was the only skill he had to evade detection and it wasn't usable for at least half an hour between uses.
With his physical self now visible to all and his sounds unmuffled, the agent had quickly spotted him-firing a shot to land right in front of Erebus with a small "pew" sound. Cipher Nine was extremely quick to recognize that this was the Outworlder his superiors were looking for as the physical signs were blatantly obvious.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
However, he would play dumb to his and secretly report this encounter to Imperial Intelligence. While holding the laser pistol at Erebus, he quickly spoke up.
"Not so fast! Who are you and how did you get in here?"
{A new language has been detected,} the System responded. {Galactic Basic (English) has been automatically selected. You can now understand, speak, read, and write in this language.}
Erebus quickly played cool and quietly dismissed the notification-pondering on how best to answer. He didn't want to arouse more suspicion on himself with the Empire since if they captured him, it would quickly become disastrous to his efforts of keeping a low profile in this time period-unless he managed to find the Black Codex before Imperial Intelligence does. That would be his only saving grace.
He quickly turned to face Cipher Nine with a light frown on his face and responded in fluent Basic: "Is this how you question your savior? By firing a gun and demanding answers? Didn't your parents teach you manners?"
(A/N: Yeah, the System doesn't track morality. After all, every choice he makes is usually morally gray.)
It quickly dawned on Cipher Nine that this man was reprimanding him lightly for his actions, but this wasn't Republic space. He still kept his nerve and gun trained on the Outworlder while repeating the same demand, but with a bit more force to his tone.
Unbeknownst to Erebus, his eyes were turning black while he felt a deep primal emotion threaten to overtake his mind. Whether it was due to Cipher Nine's demanding tone of voice or a slightly repressed emotion triggering it, he had no idea that there was indeed a cost to wielding both sides of the Force in such a stalemate. A cost which in the future will make all of his enemies flee in terror or feel like Death just brushed against them at the mere mention of his name.
He was starting to feel quite angry at the agent to the point of going mad from the rush of emotion flowing through his veins like lightning. The already cold and frightening atmosphere of the Dark Temple chamber where they currently resided turned into a suffocating oppressive one around the agent.
The agent could feel it even through his so-called inoculation against the Dark Side and felt every single cell in his body screaming at him to flee in terror. That this was someone he could not afford to anger further lest something apocalyptic happens with him at the center of it.
'Monster,' the agent thought for a moment as his body started to shake uncontrollably.
"Choose your next words very carefully, agent," Erebus said with a slight seething tone to his voice as his emotions were nearing a critical point. "I've always had very little patience towards those who demand things from others and I know about the Empire. I may have saved you, but that does not mean I forgive any of you cold-hearted and power-hungry bastards for your misdeeds. If I need to, I can eradicate your entire Empire."
What neither of the duo knew, both the mysterious stalker and all of the Force-sensitives within the area of the Temple felt the disturbance in the Force. It also included Marr, Vowrawn, and various other Sith Lords within the Citadel.
The emotions Erebus felt at that moment were just that powerful-even with his connection to the Force. It was why the System sent him back so far in Time instead of letting him stay within the Canon era.
So much power within the hands of someone who is unable to forget the sensations of death and knowing that everything he knew was destroyed by an extinction-level event is already an enormous task to undergo. Not even the Emperor of the Sith or the leader of the Jedi Order could understand his pain as it is essentially his eternal curse to bear until the End.
For the powers he will gain and already has-including the ability to return from Death-this was his cost. He must endure the pain and madness of the Immortals.
Silence blanketed over the duo as Cipher Nine was unable to speak due to Erebus' overbearing immortal presence and Erebus himself grew tired of it. He was tired, angry, frustrated, and still barely willing to stay within the dismal Dark Temple further.
After seeing that the agent was not going to speak, Erebus began to turn away and leave, but not before saying something to him with a glacial tone.
"Don't follow me. I want to be left alone for now."
It was all the agent could do to nod his head with such a vigor that it was threatening to break his neck from the intense primal fear he felt within his presence. Even though the skill was still in cooldown, Erebus simply used his stats alone to move frantically out of the Dark Temple-unaware that both Sith and Imperials were beginning to converge onto his location with extreme haste.
While he moved through the corridors-avoiding the Force Ghosts-his system detected he was not in combat and gave him a notification which detailed the progress he made.
==+==
[You have defeated 10 terrorists! You have been awarded +100 Experience.]
[You have completed the quest: Terror of the Dark. You have been awarded +100 EXP and progress has been made on the quest {Rise of the Outworlder I}.]
[You have been awarded +10 Reputation with the Sith/Imperial Faction! You are now Known. Any Sith or Imperial who has heard about you will be able to recognize you.]
[You have begun to learn the ancient secrets of the Dark Side. Progress: 0.1/1]
[Level 3: 200/400]
[You have 6 amount of Free AP left to assign!]
[Due to the extenuating circumstances made during your Quest, your location has been revealed. You have been issued a new Urgent quest: {A Safe Haven}.]
=-=
Quest: {A Safe Haven}
[You need to find a place where you can live without being observed by the forces who seek you out. For that reason, a safe haven is needed.]
- Find a place that is hidden from prying eyes: 0/1
- +200 EXP
- Fast Travel Unlock: [Home Base]
==+==