Autophagy

The nights in London were similar to that of any other city. Now that electricity was becoming widely used in the big city, the place was relatively bright including the help coming from the moon. The smog covered-city was the epitome of the industrial revolution. Factories were placed neatly, side by side. Most of the city folk were separated into two extreme social groups. One being dirt-poor and the other being like gods standing tall above them.

As all these thoughts kept running through Song Lei's mind, he slowly walked towards the couch. This was a dream space, however, it closely resembled the real city of London in these years. Knowing that so many people had to suffer this much made Song Lei feel slightly sad.

Throwing himself on the couch, Song Lei sighed deeply.

"It's getting late," Aston said as he kept drawing weird shapes on a piece of paper. "And we still haven't eaten."

"Didn't you pick up something on the way?" Song Lei asked.

"How can I buy things with this stuff running through all my skin?" Aston answered as he traced the soul circuits on his body. "People would try to burn me, thinking I'm a monster or something."

"Well..." Song Lei tried to make a snarky comment, however, not being able to come up with anything, he just stopped speaking.

They were now in their newly-rented house near the center of London. It was close enough to the palace that they could get there with ease all the while being far enough not to pick any attention from it. It was also on the opposite side of the orphanage, making it easier to not meet with anyone from there.

Being so near the center of the city, it had modern furniture and well-preserved walls. Although its general architectural style wasn't what Song Lei liked, it was the trend of the times. Of course, such a place wasn't cheap to buy.

"How did you even get the money to rent this place?" Song Lei asked. Before his memories were unlocked, Aston constantly acted in a covert manner, leaving Song Lei wondering.

"I once met with my brother. He gave me money so there's that..." Aston said as he thought about it. "I also did some mercenary job to get money."

"Why did you do such things?" Song Lei asked.

"I was thinking of putting up a fight against my brother by establishing an organization of myself," Aston answered. "That was such a foolish thought..."

"So you spent that money here?"

"Of course. It's not like it will be useful or anything. This is just a dream space," Aston said. "We can act as frivolous as we want."

As Aston finished speaking, Song Lei laid down on the couch to relax a little bit. Aston slowly walked to his side and hand him a relatively wide box.

"Here. This is a gift."

Song Lei thanked him as he took the box from his hands. If it was something Aston had prepared for him, it must've been something good.

Opening the box, an expression of amazement appeared on Song Lei's face. In the box was a sword with a long, purple blade laid on top of black fabric stylishly.

"This is a soulite sword?"

"Yes, it is. However, it has been improved," Aston said. "It is now much more effective and sturdy. As we'll have to fight with my brother, you will probably need it. Although I will be the one doing the main part of fighting, you will still have to help me out."

Song Lei nodded as he took the sword out. It would be hard to hide this thing anywhere as it was considerably long. Although Song Lei didn't know much about swords, from the length of this sword's hilt, he could guess that this sword was a two-handed one.

As he was busy viewing the sword from all the sides, he realized that there was something else in the box under the fabric.

"This..." Song Lei muttered. He lifted the fabric and took out a handgun from inside it.

"It's still a prototype," Aston started explaining. "The handgun itself is probably twenty to thirty years ahead of the current technology, however, the main focal point of it is the bullets."

Song Lei gulped loudly. He could guess what Aston meant. Ejecting the magazine, Song Lei pushed out a bullet from inside it. Compared to a normal bullet, its tip was made from a purple substance.

"As you must have guessed, I made it from soulite. Unfortunately, such small amounts of soulite are still not enough to cause reasonable disturbance in higher dimensions. Although it would be effective against low-level spirits or things that are similar to the soul worms, it will probably not be that good against the prince," Aston explained in one breath.

As Song Lei kept inspecting it, he asked, "Wouldn't it be better to make the whole thing from soulite?"

"It may be," Aston said. "However, soulite is a considerably heavy metal. It will be hard to hurt anyone with the small amount of ejection power this gun has."

"I see..." Song Lei muttered. "Well, it's still great. What will you fight with?"

"I'm a ghost, remember? I can just fight him directly," Aston said smugly.

Song Lei's mouth twitched.

'Well... I still had my own sword to use but...' He thought. Song Lei had acquired The Banisher in the remnant world in his bathroom. If compared, it would probably be slightly better than this one. 'Whatever, I will use it if I really need it.'

"We should depart now," Aston said. "Have you rested enough?"

"Yeah. Pretty much," Song Lei answered calmly. Jumping up from his lying position, Song Lei walked towards Aston. Aston opened the window next to him and jumped to the roof of a slightly shorter building next to them. Song Lei followed along.

It didn't take them long before they reached the palace's premises. The palace these days was really crowded. With the recent assassination of Hugh, they were alert more than ever. Song Lei and Aston could feel the ominous energy it was radiating.

"There are probably lots of soul-practitioners in there," Aston said. Song Lei frowned considering this. If they were as strong as the Secret Blood Order's soul-practitioner from the remnant world, Song Lei and Aston could only be considered dead. On the other hand, however, they were probably not. Considering that they were living in a normal world that the soul usage wasn't widespread they were probably not that good at it compared to someone from the New World.

Song Lei and Aston had scouted this place for a long time. Unfortunately, the guards around this place didn't have definitive shifts. Because they were in an alert state, they had erratic shifts that could catch any careless intruder unprepared.

However, for Song Lei and Aston who had gained their original powers back, this type of defense wasn't something that could threaten them. They had already spotted their place of entrance. This was a balcony that protruded out of the main building. It was relatively near to the outer walls of the garden.

Considering this, Song Lei and Aston picked the best spot for what they were about to do.

Song Lei could feel his body pump energy as he activated his skill 'Adrenal rush' for a second. He gathered all the energy in his body into his legs. This made his legs swell and become slightly red. His body was like a bow that had been pulled but not released. His legs were filled with energy, waiting to be used.

Aston was similar to Song Lei. The circuits running through his body gathered his energy on his legs.

At the exact same time, they both launched themselves forwards while leaving a huge cloud of dust behind them. Fortunately, they were far enough from the palace so that no one noticed it.

With precise calculations, Aston landed gracefully on the balcony. Song Lei, on the other hand, was about to make a loud crash with the wall. Fortunately, Aston managed to catch him mid-air before he could crash.

"Be careful," Aston muttered before helping Song Lei stand up. After they were both ready, they pushed the door of the balcony slightly and entered the room. From what they knew, this was a currently empty guest room.

The insides were relatively dark. Although the moon tried its best to illuminate the place, it wasn't enough. Of course, Song Lei and Aston both had their own versions of vision enhancement. Aston's mechanical eyes that were able to pick up light in a slightly wider spectrum allowed him to see his surroundings much better.

On the other hand, Song Lei's eyes were enhanced by his skill 'Ethereal Senses'. Besides helping him see the supernatural, they also enhanced his eyes quite a bit. The small grey ring inside his pupil emanated a slight glow in the dark, making him look like a demon of the night.

"Now...."