Herald of death

Ethan lifts his chest off the bed, supporting his weight with his left arm while wiping the memory of blood off his face. He is sweating, something that didn't happen since he became a high-human. His dream, or rather his memories, made his sleep restless, but he feels that it's no use trying to fall back asleep.

Russ stirs at Ethan's feet and jumps on him to bury his head against Ethan's.

"I'm awake, I'm awake," Ethan pleads. He pushes Russ away while giving him pets and rolls to sit on the bed's edge. After realizing that he was dreaming, he immediately woke up, leaving him with no time to experiment. But he could feel that some of the dream followed him – pain from wounds that had long healed. 'I wonder if there is a trick to staying asleep while knowing I'm dreaming.'

The ritual Ethan drew around the bed is still active but weakening. The coal markings look like they are consumed by a slow flame eating away at the edges.

'At least it can last a night,' Ethan thinks. He doesn't have any way of knowing the time, but he feels as if six or seven hours have passed. The light piercing the shutters is as dull as before, indicating that clouds must be veiling the sun. He resumes his combination of Debilitating Hex and Strengthening and exits the ritual.

After disarming his trap, Ethan steps through the locked door's shadow and exits the building, reentering the streets. It is then that he realizes that the sun isn't hidden by clouds but just isn't there. The moons moved, showing the passage of time, but the sun didn't rise.

'That's going to play tricks on my mind,' Ethan thinks. Knowing his phone would eventually run out of battery if he kept it out, he decides to go buy a watch.

On his way to the shops, Ethan walks past a woman pushing a stroller. Hunger and fear echo in his soul, knotting his stomach and setting his mind on edge. He glances at the crying kid and moves on, getting far enough to ignore the feelings.

Then, he stops. He did not realize it because it is still new to him, but he doesn't feel anything from the bystanders' souls. In the peaks of the Realm of Ascension, even if adults had a good hold of their emotions, he could feel everyone's presence. He could sense the pride of every Ork and the suspicion of Cedric's men. Here, he feels nothing but the newborn's raging emotions.

Ethan narrows his eyes. He exhales and focuses on his soul, trying to sense the bystanders' nature. At first, he feels only emptiness. Then, a faint trace hidden from him, a hunger that creeps on the walls, on the ground, and in the people around him.

The world trembles under Ethan's scrutiny. The clean walls peel back to reveal blackened stone fused with oozing sinews. The people around him wither to show starved, bony limbs and hollow stares. The ground cracks and dots with patches of black moss spewing spores in the air.

Every figure – the woman pushing her stroller, men leaning against walls, the merchants behind stalls – freezes. Ethan triggers Insight on several of them but sees that they all appear human, not hollows or other sorts of monsters. They stand still, empty inside.

Looking at himself, Ethan sees black tar marring his clothes where he sat and lay. A horrid smell comes from it, that of rotten fish and spoiled meat. 'How did I not smell that before?'

"Spirituality leveled up," the system announces. The voice is different from before; it is depressed and sad.

Steps come running towards Ethan's position – a dozen people moving through the streets and across rooftops. The metallic clangs of their sheathed weapons tell Ethan that they all bear swords, spears, halberds, bows, and crossbows.

'They all stopped moving at once. Whatever controls them realized I escaped.' Ethan places his hood over his head and darts towards the city wall. 'Without Alaric's training, I might never have realized.'

Humanoid shapes dart from roof to roof, circling Ethan's location. It seems as if they know where he is. They appear as hooded men wearing dark leather and black steel armor. The weapons they bear look mundane, but Ethan can sense dark Ether in their metal. They unsheathe them and leap down into the streets.

'Invite,' Ethan commands. He leaps into a building's wall and emerges inside, rushing towards the stairs to exit from the second floor onto the next building's roof. Leaping up the floors through the staircase, he notices that five of his pursuers deduced his path and moved to the roof he aims for. Another crashes through a window on the opposite side of the floor Ethan is on. Many enter the ground floor to rush into the staircase. On adjacent roofs, Ethan spots archers aiming at his exit point. 'I've seen special forces less coordinated than that.'

Ethan backtracks with a burst of Strengthening and descends on the pursuers climbing the stairs. His sword dances through them, unhindered by their weak armor, and he cleaves five before reaching the ground floor. A last one slashes at Ethan, but Stormshard cuts through the blade and through the man's neck.

'Weaker than I thought,' Ethan comments to himself, already moving to the other side of the building.

Shadows pool on the ceiling in front of Ethan and drop like a splash of tar. A large figure appears from it – an inflated man in rusted armor. Eyes open from behind holes in his armor on his arms, legs, and torso. His weapon – a great sword hefted at his side – growls from fangs layered at the base of the blade.

The enemy leader, whatever it is, expects him to fight this thing and lose seconds during which reinforcements will surround them. Ethan melts into a wall and emerges in the room beyond, repeating the operation until he traverses the entire building.

Outside, Ethan cancels his debilitating hex and closes himself to outside Ether. He pushes Strengthening to its maximum and shoots through the streets. In moments, he finds the city wall and enters its shadow. He flies through the air as he exits them and lands far from the wall, halfway to the forest.

A predatory soul echoes in Ethan's mind, and he turns to see a figure landing atop the wall. The hooded man stares straight at Ethan, tapping a great sword on his shoulder. Two more figures rise from the shadows at his sides – empty armors inhabited by dark mist.

'I've seen these before,' Ethan comments to himself, remembering the ones he saw in the Catacombs. 'Were they all undead created by the same person? That may explain why they seemed to communicate so well.'

"Where are you going?" the staring man asks in accented Eldorian. He swings his sword in a circle before lowering it to his side. "You can't reject our lord and expect to live, can you? I honestly don't get it. Why so many would choose to become such hideous creatures?"

'What is he talking about? If anything, he's the hideous one with his bloodless skin and veined eyes. I wouldn't be surprised if he was hiding fangs.' Ethan relaxes to extend the reach of his soul and senses genuine disgust in the man alongside pride and hatred. It puzzles Ethan, and he ponders for a moment. What if the man is also affected by this place, seeing it as a normal, lively city? "What is it you see? What kind of monster does this place make me out to be?"

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"If mindless roars are all you can muster, you are truly lost," the man answers. He turns to go back inside the city, giving Ethan a final glance. "Do like the others and run off. I wish you a quick death at the forest's hand. But if you return, I'll personally hunt you down."

The animated armors drop into the ground as the man leaves. It seems they won't chase outside the city.

'Looks like it fits the 'kingdom in name only' description.' Ethan moves into the dead forest to hide from the city's towers. 'When he asked why so many would turn into monsters, did he mean that others rejected the illusion? Given how little time it took them to find me, I wouldn't expect civilians to survive. But he did say that others ran off. Until I find how to shield myself from being tracked, that might be my best chance to get some information.'

A twig cracks in the distance from where Ethan was a minute ago. He focuses on the sound and realizes that one of the mindless guards did follow him. He also spots a figure watching him from the shadows of a cliff, a tall woman whose powerful heart beats languidly.

Ethan moves further into the forest. Through Predator's Sight, he notices that six more guards follow the first, keeping a healthy distance between them. The first guard looks like he lost Ethan and is only aimlessly walking into the forest. 'Too bad the monsters are ignoring them.'

Several forms appear in Predator's Sight. Humans, their hearts racing, exit from tunnels to spread through the forest, searching for something. Their souls reek of fear and apprehension that make Ethan's heart race. But they seem to know what they are doing, avoiding the monsters waiting in the darkness while remaining hidden.

Ethan moves to place himself above the stranger closest to the guard. As he travels, he notices that the woman that was watching him is also approaching, moving from one hiding spot to the next.

The guard tracking Ethan enters a small clearing in which the stranger lies, hiding behind a small rock formation. The guard quickly looks around and decides to continue down a narrow path, exposing his back to the stranger.

The prowling stranger draws in Ether to feed his muscles. He pushes what appears to be Strengthening to his limits and lurks closer. The stranger rushes the guard and plunges his blade into the guard's back. Before his target can react, the stranger wrenches his sword out through the side. It kills his target, but the stranger comes back down on his victim's head, stabbing his brain.

The six hidden guards stay immobile, waiting for something else to happen.

'If I were a hivemind losing captives on the regular, what would I do to make sure they don't free others?' Ethan ponders. He guesses that the six guards aren't here to fight but to follow the strangers when they go back to their hideout. Looking back at where the woman has moved, he ponders, 'But what of you? Are you the backup of either group? Or a third party?'

The stranger wipes the blood covering his blade with his victim's gambeson and resumes moving stealthily. The hidden guards begin to move as well, following the man from afar.

'That also means that the city's omniscient perception doesn't extend far away from the city,' Ethan comments to himself. He stretches his neck and jumps down from his perch into the open.

The guards freeze and stare at him from their concealed spots. Ethan glances back at where the stranger hides. "You might want to stay back until I deal with them."

"What?" the stranger stammers.

Ethan flicks his fingers, and a Lightning Bolt strikes one of the hidden guards in the chest, sending him to the ground.

The other guards rush out, blade in hand, except for one archer that jumps behind cover.

Ethan deflects their attacks with ease but refrains from counterattacking, making it look like he's stuck in an even fight.

With Predator's Sight, Ethan notices the woman as she comes closer, still hidden by a few dead trees. She watches the fight and has drawn a weapon – a spear, or perhaps a halberd. It's Ethan's opportunity to see whose side she is on.

Rotating himself mid-parry, Ethan moves one of the guards to his back and towards the man that is staring at the fight. Ethan readies himself to command Russ to kill the guard, but he hopes he won't have to.

The thrown-off guard does exactly what Ethan hoped and lunges at the stunned stranger with his short sword.

With a crash, a halberd sections the guard from top to bottom. Her owner moves over the weapon with the weight of her attack. Touching the ground, she propels herself at Ethan's opponents and severs two heads in one swing.

Ethan backhands one of the two remaining opponents, breaking his skull and spreading his brain.

"You put him in danger on purpose," the woman says as she swings at the last enemy in range. Her voice is devoid of exertion and carries the scholarly accent of nobles and priests.

"I needed to see whose side you were on," Ethan retorts. "He was never in real danger."

On Ethan's command, Russ surfaces in his enlarged form to drag the archer into the shadows.

"Had you not helped, my bond would have killed the guard," Ethan continues.

She places the shaft of her weapon on her shoulder as her last victim falls down, cut at the waist. "I didn't know what to think of you either."

While the stranger's companions converge on their position, Ethan finally takes the time to gauge the woman. She looks in her thirties with wavy black hair, dark eyes, and slightly tanned skin. It bothers him, as the inhabitants of the region, like the man beside them, seem to be alien to sunlight. But above all, what bugs him most is the attire she wears. Her long crimson coat, cut like a duelist's and fastened at the ribs by interlaced buckles, shimmers with countless hues depending on the light angle, like velvet. Beneath it, her fitted jerkin bears the sheen of scales, dyed the same crimson but with a matte finish. Her armored boots, vambraces, and belt are much the same, but with silver highlights. It looks like a designer set of light armor.

"Do you like it?" she asks as she catches Ethan looking at her. It sounded like a genuine question and not sarcasm meant to make him look away in shame. She poses to show off her outfit. Even the straps of cloth over the handle of her silver halberd are made to melt into her velvet gloved hand. Her posture highlights her wrestler-like physique that is amplified by the shoulder pads she wears under her coat.

"Too pretty for this place," Ethan praises. "I wouldn't expect to find anything like it around here. Where do you come from?"

"Far away," she answers. "You don't look like a local either."

The other strangers that spread into the forest finally reach them. One of them, a bald, older man with a scar over his left eye, comes over. "I guess I have to thank both of you for dealing with our pursuers. We'll take what we can from them and bring you to safety in a moment."

"I swear he has some kind of beast in his shadow," the man that watched the fight stammers to a companion.

Amongst the tumult of emotions, of fear, stress, and urgency, Ethan senses a void. The woman doesn't leak any emotion. Ethan triggers Insight on her; the resulting window paints her as a level eighteen Warrior with a few extra abilities. According to her titles, she conquered dungeons up to C rank, and her name is Azriah, no last name.

"Rude," Azriah comments. She must have realized that Ethan's hearing is abnormal, as she only whispered it. A window appears before her as she returns the insult; Insight is one of her listed abilities. She smirks at Ethan as she reads it, realizing it is a lie.

"We are going back to camp," the leader announces, pointing back with his thumb.

"Not yet," Ethan denies, still staring at her. His supposition that the city's mind would send a spy fits. A hivemind would have had no trouble sacrificing its men to achieve its goals. He hefts Stormshard to his side, filling it with Ether. "I only realized I was in an illusion because the souls of the people inside were silent. As were those of the guards that followed outside."

"What are you talking about?" the man asks. "What's a soul?"

Azriah's polite façade breaks for a single moment, showing fear.

"She knows," Ethan continues. Her reaction tells him that she isn't shielding her soul with an ability or item, furthering his doubts. He stares at her with Predator's Sight, making it obvious that he's reading her reactions. "How is it I can't feel yours?"

"I don't have one," Azriah answers without missing a beat.

"How?" Ethan pushes.

"I was born without one," she answers. The rhythm of her heart and the lack of tells incline Ethan to think she's telling the truth. "Once I die, this is it for me. But it immunizes me to whatever took hold of you while you were in the city."

"That's a hard thing to prove; maybe you're telling the truth, but those under the city's control might also lack their souls," Ethan theorizes.

"If you are skilled in spirituality, you should be able to sense the presence of theirs before they depart," Azriah says. She extends her gloved hand to indicate the bodies of their victims.

'Or you hope I'll focus on my soul, so I don't see your attack coming,' Ethan ponders. He stares at her for a few seconds before shutting down Predator's sight. The safe play would be to send her away, but her knowledge might help him in his quest. He closes his eyes to find the sea of souls and commands, 'Guard.'

Russ swirls at the surface of Ethan's shadow, forcing the man that had approached to take a few steps back.

Ethan finds the presence of the men around him and a void where Azriah stands. He also senses the dwindling souls of the three corpses. He opens his eyes back up and unsummons his blade. "I'll believe you, for now."