Huff. Huff.!!
Will's breath came out rough and uneven as his legs carried him forward through the dense, blackened forest.
Every step sent a dull pain shooting up from his right ankle, the wound there still raw and not fully healed despite the potions he had consumed earlier.
His lungs burned, not from lack of air, but from the constant tension that refused to leave his body even for a moment.
[Calm down, host. They cannot see you. They can only hear. Just stay silent.]
"You are not helping at all," Will muttered under his breath as he forced himself to slow down.
He crouched beside the thick roots of a twisted tree, pressing his back against the bark while trying to steady his breathing.
The bark felt rough and warm, still holding residual heat from the earlier fire he had unleashed. His chest rose and fell as he tried to suppress every unnecessary sound.
He was being chased.
Not by something he could clearly see, but by something that never let him go.
The cut on his ankle was proof enough that whatever hunted him did not need eyes to land a strike.
The pain flared again as he shifted his weight, and he clenched his teeth to keep from making a sound.
At first, he had fought back properly. He had relied on his sword, on sword intent, and on raw instinct.
Each sudden ambush had been met with quick reactions and brutal counterattacks. But time passed, and exhaustion piled up steadily. His reactions slowed, his mind dulled, and even his perception began to lag.
He had consumed too many potions in too short a time.
Mana recovery potions kept his reserves from drying up completely, while healing potions sealed wounds that would have otherwise ended him already.
However, each bottle left something behind. His head throbbed constantly, his thoughts felt heavy, and his emotions were frayed. He could feel the strain on his mind far more clearly than on his body.
The invisible figures never stopped.
They followed him through the burned forest, through the fog, and through the narrow paths between dead trees.
They never lost his trail. Whether it was the scent of blood or the lingering presence of stellar fire that drew them in, Will could not tell. He only knew that wherever he went, they followed.
And the Universal Tongue made it worse.
He could hear them.
Their voices did not come from a single direction. They overlapped, whispered, and echoed through the fog as if the forest itself was speaking.
Hunger.Stop this hunger.So hungry.It hurts.
The words clawed at his mind. They were not cries of rage or malice. They were cries of pain.
Endless, consuming hunger twisted into madness. Just listening made his stomach churn and his head ache.
He could not tell what they were.
They did not sound like beasts, nor like humans, nor like demons. Their voices carried suffering, but their intent was simple and terrifying.
They wanted to eat him.
"Damn it," Will muttered, pressing his palm against the ground as he steadied himself. "I should have reached it by now. Where is the damn temple?"
He had been moving toward it for days. Or maybe weeks. He had lost track of time completely. The fog and tress never changed, the sky remained the same blanketing this place from the sun.
Every direction felt the same, and the landmarks he tried to remember either crumbled away or shifted when he was not looking.
Slash.
Pain exploded across his shoulder before he could even react.
Will gasped as something sliced through his shoulder's side, sending him stumbling forward. His vision blurred for a split second as the shock traveled through his body. He did not know what hit him.
Without thinking, he released a burst of Stellar fire.
Golden flames erupted outward, spreading in a wide arc around him. The heat surged through the fog, and for the first time, a shape appeared within the fire.
A shrill scream pierced the air.
The flames outlined a humanoid figure, smaller than a human but distorted. Its head was too large for its body, its ears elongated and sharp, and its limbs bent at unnatural angles. It looked like a grotesque fusion of a goblin and a dwarf, twisted by something potentially worse.
Will did not hesitate.
He stepped forward and unleashed the first form of his god-rank heaven sundering divine sword art,Origin Severance.
Although he had not even reached the newbie rank of this technique, but just the partially mastered technique was destructive enough.
The slash moved faster than sound.
The figure burst apart instantly, its form collapsed into mangled but still invisible flesh as the blade passed through it. The moment the strike landed, a sharp headache stabbed into Will's skull, making him stagger.
"Argh!"
He clenched his teeth as his Aeon Bladeshimmered faintly in his hand. Something unseen flowed into the blade, like thick liquid drawn into metal.
it was drinking the blood of the invisible entity.
[ding!! Aeon Blade has acquired the trait 'Invisibility'.]
[Host, activate the trait immediately.]
Will tightened his grip on the sword and forced his breathing to steady. With a mental command, he activated the newly acquired trait.
The air shifted, as his figure disappeared from sight.
"Show me the description," he said quietly.
----------------
TRAIT – Invisibility
SOURCE – Nether Dwellers
Effects:
• Grants invisibility to the user while the Aeon Blade is held.
• Nether dwellers become visible to the host while the trait is active.
• Nether dwellers can also clearly see the host while the trait is active.
• The host remains invisible to all other beings.
-------------------
"What the hell?" Will muttered, rubbing the back of his head. "Was detecting me through breathing not enough? Now they can see me too?"
[Host, earlier they could already sense your breathing through their unique perception. You, on the other hand, lacked any divine sense at your F+ rank. Now the situation is balanced. They can see you, and you can see them.]
Will paused, considering that.
"You are right," he admitted. "But this even playground does not help me right now."
He glanced down at his trembling hands.
"I am not in shape to fight. Sword techniques drain mana, which I barely have. Sword intent and stellar fire require focus, and my mind is exhausted. I have been fighting, hiding, and running without rest for god knows how many days."
He looked ahead into the fog, frustration tightening his chest.
"That temple still feels impossibly far."
[At least you gained a new affinity.]
Will sighed and opened his status panel. A new line glowed faintly.
----
Affinity – Nether (Absolute)
When sin meets divinity, the nether is formed.It disrupts life and nurtures decay.
--------
[A/N: Initially the awakened nether affinity at lower level, the sun affinity started eating away nether affinity and the absolute adaptation elevated the rank.]
At first, the awakening of the affinity had felt like good news. His wounds stopped worsening, and the constant decay in this place no longer ate away at him. But that relief lasted only moments.
The nether dwellers sensed it immediately.
They were drawn to him like starving animals to meat. The more nether energy he released, the more frantic they became. Their hunger intensified rather than eased.
"These idiots do not even know that eating me will make it worse for them" Will muttered.
The nether dwellers were senseless creatures. They were trapped in an endless cycle of hunger and decay. Consuming nether energy did not satisfy them. It deepened their suffering.
"An affinity is useless if I cannot use it properly, I don't have a technique or spell to use it" Will said with a tired sigh.
[(┬┬﹏┬┬)]
He shook his head lightly.
"Oh well. Is the SATD ready?"
[Yes and no.]
"What do you mean?"
[The vehicle requires nether cores as an energy source in this environment.]
Will blinked. "Of course it does."
[Nether cores are expensive, you don't have enough SP to purchase them . You will need to hunt them yourself. C-rank nether dwellers, to be precise.]
Will leaned his head back against the tree, staring up into the fog-filled canopy.
(*￣︿￣)!
"Sigh.", "At this point, I do not expect anything to go my way in this wretched place."