A Welcoming Welcome

"Will you be leaving now? For the...carnival? You must know there is a reason why, even now and without those armored vehicles, I am not moving towards the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect, right?" It was all that Kinski could say before somewhat losing breath, but that one stop truly interrupted the rest of his words. Ciemnosc, on the other hand, repeated a little bit himself. "Come on, get your trace of Spirit Sense in this again."

“Oh,” Kinski obeyed and took the small rock in his hand once again, letting it be bathed of his Spirit Sense while his arm was still under Katherine’s knees. However, as soon as he bathed it with such, Kinski was surprised, yet again, as he immediately felt he had once again regained the connection with the small rock and the 3 corpses, but many more times faster and quicker.

“!” Taking only over a second for his Spirit Sense to have become the ‘owner’ of these things once again, instead of even minutes without an end as it had been before, he couldn’t help feeling a bit more shocked despite being already so tired over feeling like so over and over again during the last couple hours.

“This is…Ciemnosc, you really…really should reconsider not going.” Kinski repeated himself, as well, he gave Ciemnosc a good set of honest words while storing his small rock back again. At the same time, the 3 corpses had begun to hide themselves back under the water once again. But Ciemnosc said the following words with Kinski becoming very annoyed because of it. “There is a self-destruction ‘button’, the function is very easy to find, you don’t need to study these things right away.”

“As for…” But then, just as Kinski felt like rolling his eyes for the first time in his life towards someone that wasn’t his younger sister, Ciemnosc finally stopped acting dumb. “Whether or not something happens, I don’t think it would be that drastic right away. It might not be like before where I can just trade off some things, but I’ll just show my better image and wait for those who can give me shelter to produce some jealousy.”

“...That might not be enough.” Commented Kinski once more, his face stern as he accommodated the young sleeping beauty in his arms to a more comfy position. Ciemnosc simply shrugged his shoulders and looked back at him, “I’ll deal with it then.”

“...” Kinski fell silent, his eyes dropping. After the 3 corpses went back into the water, Ciemnosc retrieved his Steel Array Snakes, turned to look towards the dark woods, and remained like that for a few moments.

“I’m leaving then, I don’t have my ride with me, good luck with your people.” Saying those words with a neutral tone, Ciemnosc then fully gave his back towards them, before suddenly kicking against the ground with both his feet yet making no sound whatsoever as he had so obviously and easily done before.

“Sigh…” From under his chin towards his left, a tiny little sound was heard, and Katherine, who was soundlessly sleeping drowsily opened her beautiful eyes, glancing at the direction that Ciemnosc suddenly disappeared as if becoming a blurred, dark shadow and then the night.

“Ey, go back to sleep.” Feeling her squirming body getting comfy all she wanted, Kinski lightly berated the young beauty. But the young beauty was fierce, as she responded right away, her fangs bearing towards him from time to time as she sleepily responded, “I am already sleeping, I’m with my Elder Brother together in a warm, fuzzy embrwass…zzZzZzZzZzZzz…”

“:..” All Kinski could do, with things considered, was to also look in the direction that Ciemnosc left, waiting until the night breezes of cool and warmth hit him until Katherine fell asleep once again in his arms like a little, cute, and actually big ass doll.

. . .

A few kilometers to the east of the lake where Kinski and Katherine were left alone. About 9 PM.

Fwuush, swoop- whoos whoosh~.

Ciemnosc went through leaves on top of trees, bushes, and grass and even slid through large boulders and sometimes on trees with crooked or bent trunks until he hit the ground or fell enough amount to jump and continue the speedy retreat towards his commanding vehicle, which was parked at the ‘aka’ point 6.

After a few minutes of traveling in this dark and using the terrain to his advantage, as much as he possibly could since he was still a newbie, Ciemnosc finally came across a place that he could see with his own eyes where his commanding vehicle was camouflaging amongst the leaves, some rocks and even a fallen tree trunk.

Stamp, step- tep.

“Mosto, open up, I’m here.” Calling out right after landing before the entrance of the commanding vehicle, Ciemnosc then saw the door opening in a hurry before quick steps sounded within the commanding vehicle. He didn’t need to use his Spirit Sense to know that a sleepy Mosto was just woken up by the sounds Ciemnosc made and was angrily returning to his sleep right after opening the door for himself.

‘Well, I guess I gotta drive all the way then?’ Not minding the darkness of the time today and even looking forward to driving in the whole night and up to the morning, Ciemnosc entered the car and, without bothering poor ol’ Mosto anymore, he began driving the commanding vehicle at full speed without a care for the poor animals he ran over until he broke away from the forest.

Continuing with the same maximum speed, Ciemnosc’s commanding vehicle quickly zoomed into the distance. There might have been many words, some sudden and some others already expected. But all of them were wearing a warning to themselves as they spoke to Ciemnosc for his own sake.

However, when considering those whom Ciemnosc still had to at least have a bit of proper talk with, in what the wrong mind would he not go back to when they are there? Even if it was all alright, he wasn’t going to wait until something happened to know more about them; besides, the carnival lasted very little, and he had to give the best of himself in these only 2 days’ worth of the grand event.

Unlike before, when Ciemnosc bid farewell to Aola and Samina, Ciemnosc saw himself as powerful enough, and there was no way he was going to draw back because of possibilities. Even though he himself knew it was stupid, even though he himself was annoyed by such acts, but when being so close together to the strength of those at the apex of this world and that by simply breaking through the next realm would give him the ability to be one inch closer to even being able to deal with such upper echelons of the 4 major organizations…he just had to wait for a little bit more of time!...

Beep- bop!

Pressing a few buttons, Ciemnosc stood up from the driver’s seat of his commanding vehicle and stood a few steps away while watching the windows to see if the road deviated. After all, he had put it on automatic and traced a pathway for going directly forwards, ignoring all possible roads and even going through quite some large lakes and a few rivers.

After seeing that everything was fine, Ciemnosc satisfyingly moved to the back of the driver’s seat and entered the small cubicle where the engineers and logistics team would be if the commanding vehicle had any. Mosto was all the way to the back, it wasn’t the less bumpy part of the commanding vehicle, but it was farthest from its motor, so that was enough.

Slide, slide.

Closing the doors to both sides of the small room, Ciemnosc gained a bit of privacy, and before any more time could be wasted for the next hours until arriving at the sect’s territory, he sat down while taking another 6 Supreme grade Powerful Stones and threw them all around himself.

“...” His eyes opened, not fully nor wide. Ciemnosc held 2 in his hands at the same time and closed his eyes slowly. His face was serious, to a normal degree, but his body within the total darkness of the little room bathed him in the most intrinsic ways of nature.

‘From hereon… I won’t stop until I reach the 10th stage.’

. . .

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

At the western gates of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect’s territory, it was just 6:30 pm, and there were sounds bouncing from deep within the middle of the sect’s territory while the walls were flooded with cultivators trying to enter it; there were the occasional ‘mortals’ trying to get admitted with their families, or what was left from them accompanying their children/young men/women.

…trckrr~.

As there were tens of thousands of people around the gates, all trying to and waiting to enter the sect’s territory for the carnival, or with ‘whatever’s the cost’ to and thousands more all around the walls and making long lines projecting directly from each of the 4 gates of the sect’s territory. Suddenly, a rather powerful motor sounded that made most heads turn, and their eyes feel amazed.

“Look! Isn’t that one of the armored vehicles from the borders?!” - “Yeah! But this one’s different, eh? This one even has 3 cannons. I thought that the most they could have were 2?” - “It’s so large too, wow!” - “Gaaaay~!” - “...”

Ciemnosc drove his commanding vehicle while not wearing any shirt. He was looking mighty charming with his bare skin as he lazily drove his commanding vehicle towards the western gate. After almost a whole day of driving. And without being ‘slowed’ by even the other armored cars, he could go at maximum speed without waiting for anything at all.

It was an amazing sensation to finally go all out. And it was even more so welcome when the situation all around him seemed to turn darker and more anxious by the days that passed and the hours that continue to go on.

“...All of you, move away for one of our commanders to arrive! Piss off to the side!!” Suddenly, there was a person floating in the air that yelled, damn loudly, at everyone below on the ground. Be it mortal or cultivator, the former had some with their ears bleeding and falling unconscious right after, causing panic…as some were trampled down to death without care after just 1 second of everyone moving away from the gates…

“Hm?” On his driver’s seat, Ciemnosc looked at the sky, and…his face became peculiar as he looked up into the sky. Meanwhile, the elder floating in the air turned around and sped up towards the gate with a pelican appearing from below to help increase his speed. The elder began to do the same to the rest of the lines formed across the road leading to the western gates.

…After a few more minutes, Ciemnosc was already in front of the gates; on his way there, he saw many corpses. Some represented obvious images in his head, with the children stamped into the ground being pulled or pushed forward so that they wouldn’t definitely die, or at least for their corpses to remain mostly complete.

But in the end, what remained was one or more adult bodies surrounding most of those children’s bodies, while some others were from young couples and old men and women who were probably sold the wrong information that even though anyone can cultivate and at any age - that anyone would accept them; such people.

Most were mortals, of course, but there were still some cultivators here and there. There was no doubt about it…

“Heh, is that Ciemnosc? Commander Ciemnosc was it? Welcome~,” the elder that had been the cause of all that said, trying to look through the lateral side of the driver’s seat, which Ciemnosc rolled down after the elder didn’t move his ugly face away after a good while, and the gates weren’t opening.

Sliiiiiide.

Rolling his eyes while rolling down the window, a familiar face appeared outside of his commanding vehicle. Semi-barbaric, muscular, brown skin, black eyes of murder, and bald. And according to what he first exchanged words with the grand elder Jing Zhu back then, this man was…

“Elder Risgash, was it?” Ciemnosc stuck out his head slightly, giving the already suspicious elder who had been ‘playing’ with his Spirit Sense all over the inside of Ciemnosc’s commanding vehicle without a second thought a neat surprise.

“Hahahaha,” Risgash laughed all in happiness while slapping his ribs below his left chest over and over again. His smile was wide and opened, revealing the joy in his eyes, and from the sound of his laughter, it was schadenfreude. “I can’t believe it, I really can’t- oh. Ahahaha, this is soooo fit, just when I thought I wouldn’t get another chance before it…”

“Aah,” sighing out in relaxation as if everything in the world was peaceful and love and pink, elder Risgash leaned over the window and placed his arms on top of the door through the damn window. “Welcome back, commander. Please do not be held back by anything anymore. Go on and get in there. Before it is too late~.”

“...Okay,” Ciemnosc looked at Risgash before simply responding in a cute, brief way. He then turned the engine, a ‘Trckrrr’ sounding right away, and Risgash, whose Power Energy was beginning to act up, was suddenly left behind without being able to hold onto anything, let alone stop it from moving. His whole body even jumped, and, if it wasn’t because of his timely response to fly back against the ground, he would’ve been not only sent flying into the air but spinning nonstop as well…

…vroooom~...

“...!” Watching the armored vehicle leave him far behind in just a few seconds, the gates already opened and with its driver not slowing down in the slightest, Risgash actually wasn’t mad nor agitated. Only he felt a bit humiliated, but considering the facts…he could just wait until an opportunity for him arrived. Then that kid wouldn’t even be able to scream if he wanted to.

…Ciemnosc kept on driving, directly towards the Inner Sect Disciple’s enclave, with Mosto having already been awake for a long but being rather lethargic lately. Amidst their road there, Ciemnosc noticed that some mobile bridges were assembled here and there and that most of the vehicles going at least 300 km/h speed were buses filled with people on them.

On the other hand, there were not only fewer ‘mortals’ around, some of the stalls, restaurants, and even houses that some mortals used to have were either obviously broken in and destroyed partially or had disappeared altogether.

When finally arriving at the Inner Sect Disciple’s enclave, Ciemnosc turned around just before coming down the commanding vehicle and reminded Mosto, who was dazing around. “Hey Mosto, we are here already. If you have anything to pick up then come down. If not, just wait for me here, I won’t be participating today, but I will tomorrow anyway. So, I’ll be leaving first.”

With that, Ciemnosc went out of his commanding vehicle and left Mosto inside, who seemed not to care about what he had to say. Though it was normal considering that their bedroom really had nothing important as he never really had anything that was important.

After a few minutes more of walking, Ciemnosc arrived at his bedroom, entered it, and saw both the surroundings completely left untouched and the arrays never having been activated. He then took some time to sit and relax for a bit.

The carnival wasn’t that big of a deal like the yearly tournaments were. The Self-Mutilating Honores Sect alone made sure to make it happen that way for sure while the other major organizations followed.

But still, the yearly carnivals were where the Craftspeople could end up showing their individual worth. As for teams of Craftspeople, those would have already been privatized by the major organizations without letting anyone else have a look at them. They were treated like animal talents whose even image being slightly known by others was a kind of taboo.

Taboo for the rich, that is…

While the tournaments were for what the major organizations focused on, the carnivals were for the solitary Craftspeople who are just not deemed to be capable enough by the major organizations to enter their ranks and could show off their brains. And for some, just their beauty or handsomeness was enough.

…After a few minutes, Ciemnosc gave the entire bedroom a last sweep with his Spirit Sense before deactivating all of the array formations he placed around. They were too shabby now and were so easy to go through. Ciemnosc couldn’t imagine what elder Apegos would think once he showed these new discoveries to him - but for now, there was no time for such.

Hence, Ciemnosc walked out of his bedroom in a non-lackadaisical manner to return to his commanding vehicle. His pace was at ease and slow even when he crossed over the gates of the Inner Sect Disciple's enclave. He was all alright still. Until he found out that his commanding vehicle was without anyone inside of it anymore.

“...Mosto?” After scanning over and over again, his Spirit Sense just couldn’t find anything that could be hidden or traces of some kind of fighting. It was also not the first time, and it was quite similar to the last time that happened, though it had been only once that it had happened. “...”

Shrugging his shoulders, Ciemnosc then went into his commanding vehicle, took the driver seat once again, and looked at the soon darkening sky of the world. Its dark, deep blue was returning for the umpteenth time in the last couple of days that Ciemnosc had been mostly driving it himself, he looked a few seconds at it before starting to drive through the city-like sect’s territory.

First, he went to the mortals’ stalls that were the farthest away from the center of the sect’s territory and slightly less far away from the stadiums where the whole carnival was going on and on.

When he arrived before such stalls, some of them were recognized by him as some of those who were closer to the center of the sect’s territory. They had their faces and bodies somewhat dirtied, seemingly recent or that couldn’t be washed off. Some even looked like their blood was burned and frozen at the same time outside of their skin, charred yet stiff in place.

After eating some delicacies from the ‘mortals’, Ciemnosc then drove all over the perimeter of the sect’s territory. He traversed every part of the walls without missing a single meter. He would stop every few kilometers, from 9 PM all the way until he finished driving in circles for the third time. He took about enough time for the second and last round of showing off in the carnival to end.

It wasn’t like, in a tournament in the slightest, the carnival, and anyone that was capable enough of standing on the stage would have at least 3 attempts to show off their worth. After those 3 tries, they could be given more changes, but that was up to the crowd - indeed, treated like animals with talents for those who lack more animals with the same or distinctive talents.

However, without having any clear communications with neither Mosto, Fu Lan, or Valeria, going around in circles seemingly was all that Ciemnosc could do to spend time without becoming engrossed in more little knowledge that he has ‘left to uncover’ within the basement of the mountain-rock building.

Finally, though, it was already 12 PM, and the next and final round of show-offs was beginning; close to the western gate, in a stadium that was just the same as before, Ciemnosc walked through the crowd seemingly unrecognizable despite his obvious and clear fame. And even more so after killing off the previous top best alchemist in the world.

His face calm, his eyes serene but somehow lifeless, he made his way through them towards his own designated position.

…