Demonic Skeleton God

Anyway, Flain immediately recognized that the guy earlier was a noble. Since no ME could be sensed from him.

Behind him stood a large stone golem, watching them.

"What is a noble doing in such a position?" Flain asked.

"Well, before I became a noble, I worked in this position, so I wanted to recall it." He said.

"Anyway, just because you have strange mana doesn't mean you're a noble's child. Cultists and other strange people have that too. That's why give me your spatial ring for inspection." Said the guard.

Flain calmly showed his hands. "I don't have any." He said.

The guard stared at him piercingly for a few moments. "You are not lying, I didn't find in your body any resonance similar to what a spatial ring has." He said.

"You may go." He said.

Flain entered the territory of the Golems. He didn't waste time and ran straight towards the marked location on the map.

He also passed through several golem villages. The houses were made purely of stone, and the average house was about 3 times larger than a human one.

When Flain passed through the villages, the golems would turn after him, and some were even ready to attack. It looked like people usually didn't run so fast through their villages.

Another 6 days passed, and Flain reached the end of the Golem territory where his two targets should be.

Originally, he thought that their tribe would be beyond the golem territory and he would have to pass another border control, but it seemed it was still within their territory.

Flain pulled out a small container with black liquid and dripped it all over his body.

The notes said that White Wolf Ikari perceive ME through smell, and this liquid should neutralize Flain's scent.

He walked further and saw wooden walls and a gate guarded by two sentries. They looked like humans, only their skin was too white, they had long white hair, and most importantly, they had white wolf ears and a tail.

Flain was sure he had arrived at the right place. Now he only had to wait until two White Wolf Ikari left the tribe together. Theoretically, it could even be more since Flain would kill them and only take 2 corpses.

According to what he saw, the average Stage in the tribe was 2, so it shouldn't be such a big problem.

A day passed and Flain, sitting on a branch, constantly observed the exit, but so far no one came out.

Morning came, and Flain saw a good opportunity. Three Ikari left the tribe. Flain jumped down from the tree and followed them through the dense forest.

They had very good hearing, so going any closer was out of the question. Flain was neither a trained rogue nor an assassin, and on top of that, he wore heavy armor. So there was a high chance they might notice him.

Further from the tribe, one of the Ikari suddenly stopped. The other two looked at him in confusion. Flain moved a little closer, since this was a good opportunity to attack.

[Phantom energy has been detected.]

[Your eyes have adapted to be able to see it.]

Around the Ikari who had stopped, a dark aura suddenly became visible. That dark aura was very similar to dark mana, but at the same time quite different. Flain guessed that since it had phantom energy around it, it must be a phantom, even though he didn't know what phantom was.

This was probably the first time the system somehow helped him instead of harming him.

The phantom tore his shirt; on his chest was a large dark tumor, and veins spread across his entire torso.

When the Ikari saw it, they tried to run away, but two large hands emerged from the phantom's body and grabbed them.

Flain was deciding whether to fight against it or not. That dark aura emanating from its body was not similar to ME, and Flain couldn't determine what Stage it was.

The phantom squeezed one Ikari so hard that his whole body was crushed, and he quickly died. The second body he pulled towards himself.

The aura of the phantom that surrounded his body suddenly disappeared and appeared on the body the phantom had pulled in. The phantom's original body fell limply to the ground.

Flain understood what that phantom was doing; it was like some parasite that switched bodies it controlled.

Flain decided not to risk it and was preparing to leave. If he knew approximately how strong it could be, he might reconsider, but since he didn't know at all, it could be as weak as Stage 1 or as strong as Stage 10.

That energy around it was clearly radiating and not hidden, so it might be under Stage 6. But that wasn't certain, since it wasn't magic energy and the same rules might not apply to it.

Flain turned, but suddenly felt murderous intent behind him. He turned back, and the phantom was looking directly at him.

It looked like Flain had no choice. If he ran and the phantom was stronger than him, it would definitely catch him, even though Flain focused on speed.

"Poison Layer"

Flain coated a layer onto his sword and ran toward the phantom. To Flain's surprise, the phantom just stood there calmly, not even taking a battle stance or anything similar. That was a huge red flag—either it was much stronger than Flain, or it wanted him to attack.

Flain stopped and looked it straight in the eyes.

"Oh, you can see me? So you must have the eyes of an exorcist. That's quite a rarity." It said.

"Why don't you do it?" It asked Flain.

"I could ask you the same." The phantom replied.

"Anyway, I really like your body." The phantom said with a grin.

A huge dark hand emerged beneath Flain and grabbed him.

The phantom frowned at him. "Why do you have two souls in your body, and in one soul you have another two souls?"

"Anyway, I'll focus on the one that controls your body." It added.

---

The hands around Flain's body dissolved, just like the space around him. Above him, darkness appeared, just as it did everywhere around.

Flain's feet were submerged in a dark red liquid similar to blood, and occasionally bones, teeth, and hair floated in it.

Someone behind him placed a hand on his shoulder…