CHAPTER 32: THE NAMELESS CULPRIT

Just as Tina realized what was happening, her eyebrows furrowed in anger. She reached down to her waist and threw three of the daggers she had hidden there. The figure immediately noticed and slid to his side, dodging them.

Soren wasn’t as quick as Tina to react. His eyes were still focused on the dark mist covering the child. The Nameless Mist?!

The shadowy man glanced over at them. Soren could almost imagine a smile beneath the hood of his cloak, but he didn’t get enough time to look any deeper—his body simply started fading away like a ghost.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Tina had already activated the thing he’d seen her use before—something she called a Sacred Treasure. Liquid silver poured out of her gauntlets, forming into the shape of a crescent bow. Without even blinking, three arrows had already been shot toward the fleeting figure of the man.

Soren watched in horror as they simply passed through him—barreling through the alleyway and lighting it up for all to see. They exploded a second later. She frowned and clicked her tongue. “Activate [Eyes of the Fairy]!”

Soren didn’t hesitate—he immediately activated both his Soul Realm and his Soul Weapon. His Soul Realm expanded evenly in all directions, enveloping the entire alleyway. The Hermit’s Eye activated, letting him see The Beyond from multiple angles at once. It was already stressful enough to activate his Soul Weapon’s ability alone, but now, he was effectively activating hundreds of the same ability all around him at the same time—the mental strain, even with all his training, was still too much to bear.

He winced in pain as he scanned over the block. “To your left!” Soren aimed frantically before his ability was deactivated.

Tina wasted no time. She immediately activated her Soul Frame and added a boost of anima to her feet to jump really high. Like a skilled parkourist, she ran up the side of the alley and over the fence to chase after the shadowy figure. Soren decided to strain himself and try morphing the shape of his Soul Realm to elongate it past the wall blocking their view. He shouted to Tina again, “At your 2 O’ clock!”

Tina immediately manifested a new set of arrows, this time even faster. They whizzed through the sky, creating a howling noise for all to hear.

An explosion reverberated in the air. Tina hit him.

Just as she was about to shoot a few more arrows at the ghostly target, a rogue thought approached her mind.

No, it wasn’t just a thought. It was an entire dream.

Tina’s eyelids slowly closed. What the… Her mind flashed with visions. Pictures of her childhood at the orphanage. Another of her training to be a nun at the local village church. Other scenes like her eating happily with her new family, or chasing the dumb bullies from the playground for daring to go against her also flashed by.

But there was something strange about it all. These scenes only felt half real. They were a fabrication. She could tell something was off, but she couldn’t exactly point to what exactly was causing that feeling in the first place.

She felt her body fall—her Soul Frame had deactivated itself.

In her half-slumber state, she caught herself against a railing of one of the buildings. Moments later, the fleeting dreams plaguing her mind had ceased.

The shadowy figure had escaped.

Tina caught herself and organized her fleeting thoughts. She glanced back toward the now somewhat distant alleyway—Soren was kneeling before the child that had been touched by the corrupt anima they called The Nameless Mist.

Aside from the incident itself, what was more surprising was the fact that no one nearby had even realized the commotion. Their small fight was only a few steps away from the main street they were walking in. The alleyway was still as dark as ever, but the new rubble caused by Tina’s arrows made it even more dilapidated.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Jumping back down, she walked toward Soren. Even now, countless Yadrian nobles walked down the sidewalk as if the entire commotion they caused had never even existed.

Soren was flabbergasted—at first he assumed it might have been due to the magitech device they were using that created illusions, but he quickly dismissed that idea. There was no way it would have this much of an effect on not just their own disguises, but also the environment itself. And the nobles walking past them weren’t regular people either—all of them most certainly were either Sentinels or Magi themselves.

“Did he escape?” He asked plainly to Tina. She bit her lip in response.

“Yes, that fucker got away. I have no idea what he did, but he somehow messed with my thoughts—I started hallucinating mid fight. By the time I finished stabilizing my Heart’s Shroud and Echo of Mind, he was gone.”

Soren nodded, “I see.” He glanced at the child who was now covered in a dark mist. “What do we do about him? Is there a way to save him?”

Tina nodded, “Move aside.” She pulled out a small clear-glass bottle and flicked open the cork lid, pouring it above the child and onto The Nameless Mist.

Soren had seen this before. That bottle, according to Myrin, was filled with an alchemical property that reacted to anima—it was called a Spectralis Vial. It had the ability to change color depending on the quantity of anima a person held. The colors shifted through the entire spectrum of the rainbow—with red being the lowest reading and violet being the highest. On average, a human soul that had not awakened their Soul Realm typically held a color between orange and yellow. Yadrian children however were much more rich with anima—they tended to be born with the anima equivalent of green or blue, the latter being higher.

When testing the Malevolent Hexes, almost all of them scored deep red. Their amount of remaining anima was miniscule, if not, non-existent. The Nameless Mist truly made the person’s existence disappear.

Soren watched the liquid seep past the dark, oozy, black mist—pouring directly on the child’s body. It truly fascinated him—wouldn’t The Nameless Mist also affect the reading? However, that was not the case. Almost immediately, the color shifted from see-through to dark red. It was as if the liquid couldn’t even recognize the higher form of anima—it was alien to its own alchemical properties. The child however…

She sighed and shook her head. “Out of all of the people we’ve tested, no child has survived... May Her silver grace shine through the darkness and illuminate his path…”

Soren frowned.

Another innocent victim had been consumed by this insanity.

Soren never viewed himself to be a good person. He was selfish—a person who valued his own safety more than others. When his mother was beaten by his dad, he never spoke up for her, though she also never spoke up for him either. And as he grew up, that mentality stuck to him like a parasite, leeching off of whatever was left of his empathy for the world.

Even so, that didn’t mean he was completely heartless. If he had the ability to save someone and there was no risk involved to himself, he would most likely do it. With the case of The Nameless Mist however… That was a different story. This was something beyond the understanding of mortals. Even Myrin himself noted that its existence was completely unnatural to this world. He likened it to the sacred energy that poured out from the Dragon Vein, though this one had completely different properties.

There was no way Soren could fight against that—even touching the mist itself could cause him to be corrupted. The only way they were able to contain it was through magitech devices that Myrin had with him (that he still didn’t fully understand), and even then, that still didn’t solve the issue. Those devices themselves were being corrupted by the minute—it wouldn’t take long before they would degrade and start leaking the mist out.

This was the other reason Myrin and the others had come to Yadria. Local Aelloran villages that bordered the Feylith Forest had seen countless anomalies about strange creatures lurking in the woods. And according to the Magi scholars Aelloran officials had sent out, a strange anima was detected deep within the forest that they had never seen before.

“That bastard had a Staff of Saints.” Tina said while storming out of the alleyway.

Soren remembered it—a wooden staff with three bells attached at the top.

The same as the one Luvin had.

“We can’t be sure yet,” Tina reminded him. “There are 9 Saints in total in Yadria. It could be any one of them. And it could also be a replica or a fake to throw us off.”

Soren nodded. “But it is still really suspicious… What other saint do you know hates the unblessed this much?”

Tina stayed silent for a bit and sighed. “Let’s go back to the hotel. We need to inform Myrin when he comes back.”

Just as he was about to reply, words plastered across his Soul Weapon drew his attention.

New Entry Recorded: [Fragment of a Tablet] (Mystery)

New Entry Recorded: [Nameless Figure] (Miscellaneous)

Almost immediately, he commanded his soul weapon to turn the page.

Fragment of a Tablet (Mystery)

A stone fragment from some sort of strange, ancient tablet. It has unknown properties, but breaking it seems to cause the anima contained within to seep out.

Soren pondered over the words for a second before changing the page once again.

Nameless Culprit (Miscellaneous)

A strange, ghostly apparition that is hard to distinguish. It is unknown whether this is a form of magecraft or a mystery. Parts of its anima were compiled—he is fairly powerful.

Compiled? What does that mean?

As if responding to his thoughts, his Soul Weapon shifted pages once more, revealing a map of the Feylith Forest—more specifically, Yadria. A strange, colorful line shifted across the map, ending in a building only a few miles away from their current position.

Soren glanced up at Tina and smirked. “I think we have a lead.”