“You really are an astonishing product of this realm…” Keith said as he watched Storm single-handedly crush a serpentine creature. Although small, Storm’s body was deceiving. It held a monstrous physical strength.
Nearly a week had passed. Nothing had occurred that was out of the norm…well… Lara contacted him once, but he didn’t have anything to say that he felt was worth sharing. Not even the battalion of Kysansha was something he felt like mentioning. That was a personal problem.
On the other hand, Elena said the people who sacrificed him were taken care of. Keith didn’t feel any joy or even a single emotion despite getting revenge. They were ants to him now, unworthy of his attention.
Aside from encountering the indigenous creatures of this realm, he and Storm were heading north at a steady pace. Within a month’s time, the two of them would arrive at the base of the Vahar’Gal Mountains.
The only thing that constantly plagued Keith’s mind was Elena. She had still not awoken. She was alive at least, he knew from their connection. But it was incredibly faint as if she was on the verge of dissipating, no matter how many souls he absorbed, it didn’t seem like it helped her at all, at this rate, she might be unconscious for much longer than he initially thought.
Aside from worrying about Elena’s situation, it had also caused him to feel abnormal. His body felt foreign to him ever since Elena fell into a deep slumber, it was as if a part of him was missing. Although he didn’t know when, Keith noticed he had unconsciously started to think it was normal for someone’s soul to be linked with his. To be able to perceive someone’s emotions and thoughts, their existence itself, to have it nearly be cut off abruptly felt uncomfortable.
Keith forced the worrying thoughts to the deep recesses of his mind. It would make no difference right now. There was nothing he could do. The only thing that was set in stone was his need to get stronger. If his soul grew in strength, Elena’s would to. This was the only method he could think of that would allow her to awaken quicker.
Keith quietly meditated as he and Storm headed towards a canyon. Ever since he learned the basics of Soul Manipulation, he had begun to pick up on a few things.
First and foremost, to his surprise flashes of Anthrus’s memories kept on appearing in his mind, specifically in regards to Soul Manipulation. He had no idea why this happened, and could only surmise that perhaps certain abilities would take longer for him to learn than others. This was the only reason he thought made sense. After all, a soul was something that was unable to be understood in an instant even if he inherited the memories of someone who reigned supreme over souls.
Within the past few days, he’d learned to sense the souls of the living and the dead. He’d felt a familiar sensation when he absorbed souls before he’d gained Soul Manipulation. Now, as long as he focused, he could always feel that coldness. However, it was in an extremely limited range. The only way to improve was through daily practice.
The final thing obtained from Anthrus’s memory of Soul Manipulation was precisely a method of practice. Within his mind appeared a mantra. Although he couldn’t understand it at all, instinctively he knew that it contained the power of law.
Any time he wasn’t fighting, Keith contemplated upon the mantra in his mind. Surprisingly, after a few hours of practice, there was a change. Although it was insignificant to the point it was barely noticeable, there was a qualitative change in his soul. If there was such a thing as soul impurities, then that was the best way to describe it. His soul was being purified. Although its size didn’t change, the quality did. It would be long and arduous, but perhaps this was another method to strengthen his soul until the day he comprehended Law.
As he focused upon comprehending the first sentence of the Mantra, suddenly Keith felt something. Deep in the canyon he was nearing, it felt like a pulsating heart. It was strange, it felt as if it was a soul, and yet at the same time it wasn’t. It wasn’t just one of them, there were well over fifty.
“Strange, there are so many abnormal things about this realm now. I never would’ve thought so many things could change.” Keith said to no one in particular.
He signaled with his hand for Storm who was walking next to him to stop moving. Then, Keith stood still. He calmed his mind, and focused upon guiding the power of his soul and mana.
A sky blue flame aura once again appeared around Keith’s eyes. However, the aura was fainter and more subdued. After they had activated of their own accord, he gained an understanding of how the ability worked after some experimentation. Although it was shallow, he did understand the basic concept.
While it was considered a passive ability, that wasn’t entirely true for his level of strength. The true first level of Yin Eyes was when he could naturally see the world in the incredible detail that he had seen before. When he could see the world in that way permanently, then the ability would be considered passive. Right now, although it wasn’t shown in his status the Yin Eyes were essentially level zero. To use their first level, he needed to call upon the power of his soul and mana.
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Since he never formally trained to use mana, it was quite difficult to move it through his body, especially when he had to use it to supplement his abilities that required the power of Law. The only way he could sense it was because of increasing his Spirituality attribute. With his instincts, and some practice, Keith managed to learn how to move the mana through is body, albeit a bit inefficiently.
Through trial and error, he managed to use a weaker version of the Yin Eyes. The strain on his eyes was considerably less because he was using an imperfect version of this power.
Observing carefully, Keith looked into the depths of the canyon. It was abnormally dark. Shadows were covering every inch of the place. Yet it was already noon, the light of the sun should have been enveloping the entirety of the canyon.
Although it was quite faint, he noticed a faint smell of blood in the air. Was there a fight here? Was someone ambushed? There were too many questions that could not be answered running through his mind.
Patiently waiting, Keith didn’t notice any movements, but the weird pulsating feeling was bothering him. He could’ve sworn that he heard screams of anguish and despair. Yet even after straining his ears, he heard nothing. It was eerily quiet.
Opening his status, Keith looked at his attributes and abilities. Then he checked his equipment. He didn’t know how to gauge his strength. Theoretically, he felt as if his power was on par with creatures that were nearing the realm of relatively strong in the realm of C-Rank. But his abilities were also at their beginning stages, they were far from being complete. He didn’t even know how to properly conceal his aura yet, there was no doubt his presence was probably already discovered.
Against his better judgement, Keith started searching for a way to descend into the canyon. He turned to Storm and said, “I don’t care what you do. Follow or leave, it doesn’t matter to me. You are free to do what you want.”
He then began to head down a rocky pathway into the depths of the ominously black canyon. He was slightly surprised that Storm didn’t even hesitate to follow him. Just what did Storm want to obtain by following him?
Either way, he felt reassured having Storm with him. There was doubt that he was a quick learner. After merely a few days of travelling, Storm had gone from being incredibly clumsy while engaged in battle to utterly annihilating his opponents with those massive fists of his. Were his primal instincts also heightened to a level surpassing his kin? Keith could only wonder.
As they traversed into the canyon, Keith held onto his curved iron sword, his fists were clenched so tight his hands began to shake. His grimacing frown deepened as he contemplated upon what the pulsating energy could be. The irritating feeling grew stronger the further he descended.
This feeling was precisely the reason he decided to explore even though it was most definitely a bad idea. Under normal circumstances, he would only take a risk if it was deemed necessary, but this was certainly a situation he shouldn’t gamble his life with. However, strangely enough his instincts urged him to investigate despite the risks. It was almost as if there was something that he had to do here, something that only he could do and no one else.
Reaching the depths of the canyon, he began to scan the surrounding area. The rocks and sand didn’t have any weird engravings of symbols upon them. However, there wasn’t a single living thing here, not even an insect. There was something wrong here, clearly, something had happened.
“Just what is going on, where are the screams coming from?”
There were still no audible cries. However, he couldn’t shake the feeling that there were people suffering here. The wails of agony and despair seemed to fill his body, yet he couldn’t hear anything. The further he traversed the stronger these emotions grew. He didn’t feel these emotions as if they were his own. He didn’t feel like he was in despair, but he was able to notice them pouring into his body like a torrential rain.
“Alright, fine. Let’s try this…” Keith focused upon his soul and mana and forced the power output of his Yin Eyes to increase. Almost immediately, the faint aura around his eyes grew stronger. The light was luminescent enough to light up the surrounding area slightly. Yet at the same time a splitting headache assaulted him. His eyes felt a stabbing sensation even though they were cold as ice.
After acclimating to the pain the best he could, Keith once again surveyed the area, however this time what he saw was completely different. Now, everything was seen in incredible detail. The shadows seemed to recede, and he saw this place for what it truly was.
“What is all of this… just what kind of person would do such a thing? How were they even able to hide the smell?” Keith said in shock.
In the canyon there was a pile of skeletons. They still had strips of flesh draping off of them. A pile of intestines, excrement, and other organs as well as a pool of blood was flowing from the pile of flesh and bone into a small stream of water, filling it with filth. It had become unsafe to drink from.
On some of the rocks of the canyon wall, there were runic symbols which he had never seen before. Just what was this language? Why did those symbols seem filled with power?
Once again, Keith’s senses of for danger rose to a new level. This place, it was filled with death; perhaps that was why he felt he had to come here. Something horrendous happened here, and perhaps the spirits of the dead were calling out to him.
Keith forced himself to calm down and steeled his nerves. It was his job to lay the dead to rest. Although Elena never told him what Anthrus had formally done as the Divine Monarch of Life and Death, he could easily guess that Anthrus probably had this as a part of his duties.
With one foot stepping after another, Keith traversed towards the rocks with the runes engraved on them. Storm followed behind, his instincts for danger were at their peak. But he still followed Keith, simply because his instincts told him it was the right thing to do.