Secrets of the Universe

Current time.

The Teglyca bounty hunters had just jumped into the gap.

Immediately they entered the town, they were shocked beyond understanding.

"What in Heaven's name?!" cursed Archer.

The moment he found himself in the town, he already his recurve bow on alert as he scouted his surrounding, but it turned out that just seeing his current scenery could weaken his hands.

It was the same for the others, who had been also on alert but were shocked by the appearance of the town.

If there was a word to describe it, it was dead. The town was dead!

The vibrant blue clouds that were present all over the planet, well, were not here. Instead, standing in their place were dark black clouds that whistled a disturbing sound.

"Weeeee!"

The previously beautiful town buildings were dilapidated and were invaded by rotten plants that swallowed them up. No matter how many times they looked, they could see the particles of the earthen materials used to make the buildings constantly spill away, floating in the air.

There wasn't an ounce of bright color in the town. They were only wails that came from nowhere in particular and dried corpses fixed into the ground due by the hands of time, some were even fixed into building walls.

The only one who didn't react to what they saw was Jake. Yet, he had his own dilemma to understand.

Sweat dripped down his skin as he tried to snuff out his emotion. In truth, he couldn't see what the others were seeing.

However, what he saw was much worse!

His two eyes, particularly his [Akashic Eye], trembled as they watched their vision overlap without another one.

The other scenery looked the same as the Weeping Town except everything was dead grey with different shades.

The wind that blew on his face carried the faces of ghosts, wailing in front of him. Somehow, his soul was freezing just by looking at them 

Not just that, there was a constant song playing in the air that was, in its right, beautiful to hear, but Jake knew it was actually ugly. The worst kind of ugly. The ugly that came directly from the pit of hell! 

Every note of the song bit at his heart and he was left to wonder how it was possible. 

Every time he blinked, he saw the normal Weeping Town, but the next succeeding blink shifted his vision back to the horrendous version of Weeping Town.

Every time, the [Akashic Eye] got increasingly hot, to the point he thought it would melt.

"Jake," a voice called to him.

He recognized it. It was the voice of Eden.

He looked to his left, but couldn't find the man. He looked to his right…..it was the same thing.

Yet, he could still hear the voice calling him, "Jake…."

*Blink* *Blink*

Jake blinked rapidly, trying to force the vision out of his head. Yes, it could all be in his head. 

There was no way there were two Weeping Town. It would be interesting, but Jake had no time for interesting stuffs.

"Jake."

The voice still addressed him. 

"Jake. Jake."

"Jake. Jake. Jake" 

It was getting louder, clouding his thoughts.

"Jake. Jake. Jake. Jake."

Now, it felt like it was getting closer to him, but he couldn't see it.

"JAKE!"

It was then he felt it…...a warm object dropped on his shoulder.

The next time he blinked, he found his vision back to normal. When he looked at his side, he saw Eden shaking his shoulders.

"Are you okay, mate?" asked Eden.

'Yes, I was just......just shocked,' whispered Jake, adjusting to his new sight.

Of course, Eden could not decipher the inaudible sound.

To Jake's surprise, every time he blinked, he couldn't see the grey world.

"Good. The one before us has gone to hiding. Let's make sure no one catches up to us," hurried Eden.

He didn't give Jake any time to recalibrate. He led his team into what seemed like would cause his death.

Even though he had been here before, he still got his fair share of shock.

He remembered. The last time he was here it was only he and Alyssa that escaped. He had sworn to never come back, but here he was, repeating the cycle.

This meant they had time to plan.

At least it was better this time, the streets were clear, they weren't surrounded by a massive army of Netherans.

Using the tactic he had employed the last time he was in the town, Eden found a broken building and hid inside, along with the rest of the group.

They hid in a room that resembled the large great chamber, or what some others might call the living room, for the family that lived here.

'What is this smell?' asked a sensitive River.

She was the first to detect the stench of decayed matter, and when the group checked, they found the source of it.

They were from corpses hidden behind the chairs.

River wrinkled her nose at the sight, "Are the--they the family members that lived here?"

"Yes," replied Eden.

He had seen similar things the last time he was in this town.

"How exactly did they die?" asked a confused Sea.

From the way they appeared to be no bones in the corpses and excessively dry skin, the people clearly had a special death.

"Sucked. Their lives were sucked," murmured Eden.

Curious, Jake conducted his own inspection.

He extended his gloved hands and touched the skin of a particular corpse.

Just with one touch, the skin dispersed into ashes. It lost its posture and all that was left was a bag of ash that floated with the wild wind.

It was possibly waiting for someone to touch so it can be free again.

'[Life Drain]......' eyed Jake. 

Just like the normal Netheran that possessed the common ability to petrify anything they gaze on. The ghost-like sub race of the Netherans possessed their unique trait.

It was the ability to drain 'life energy' from their targets!

In terms of effectiveness, this subrace was more special than the other Netherans like zombies, ghouls.

Seeing the effect face-to-face, Jake was sure he wouldn't want to be targeted by one.

Meanwhile, Eden didn't want to draw attention. So, he dusted the only available table in the room and placed a map on it.

He whispered loudly, "Gather up!"