The air in Parachenko Village.... seemed different than it was before.
A couple weeks had passed since the caravan left the territory of the Kovacs Clan and a certain.... tension had started to waft over the skies above Parachenko Village. It was.... strange, in the way that one couldn't place what this sensation was.
Only that those Fae Masters whom participated in the two beast tide battles felt their skin crawl for some strange reason. It wasn't like the tension in the Village during the days leading up to the first beast tide either.
In those days, constant amounts of preparation and planning had been done in order to prevent the attack from the spirit beasts and Beast Kings. It was almost as if there was something already inside the Village, something lurking, hidden in the shadows where no-one could see it clearly.
Arthur had been feeling it lately too, causing him to frown as he gazed at the dark, cloudy skies above.
In the past few days he had become a solid ruby origin essence Fae Master. The connection between him and the Boundless Forest Yearning had become even stronger having attained the first level of Wood Laws as well as awakening his own unique innate ability.
The potential and amount of abilities that Sovereign Boundary Physiques possessed were astounding in comparison to even the strongest of Boundary Physiques. It wasn't just jack-of-all-trades qualitative increase, but a complete mark up on all stats and abilities across the board.
The ease at which Arthur comprehended Laws as well, was significantly higher with a Sovereign Boundary Physique as well. Arthur never had a Physique in his previous life, however he was sure that no Boundary Physique could match a Sovereign Boundary Physique.
His train of thought interrupted as he turned his head and noticed Iryna and Parvan looking at him worriedly.
They too had experienced the beast tides, and even if they didn't know exactly what was going on, they still felt as though someone was watching them, no matter where they were in the Village.
Only when they were around Arthur, did that painfully annoying sensation go away.
Whenever they were around Arthur, all the eyes that were on them had suddenly moved towards him. The hairs on the back of Arthur's neck raised slightly and he let out an annoyed sigh before glancing at the slightly younger boy and girl.
"I don't know what has been going on in the Village as of late.... but just be on your guard. Try not to go off on your own either....".
The other nine nodded at his words, with Dagen even staying at Parvan's house for the last few days. Dagen was a mortal born Fae Master who didn't have any direct relatives so he had been living alone even since before the beast tide.
He could feel himself being watched even after he had fallen asleep and often woke up completely covered in sweat and grime. For a second there he had thought he had suddenly wet himself during his sleep, but after looking at himself in the mirror, Dagen had noticed the paleness of his expression, and the thick, black bags underneath his eyes.
Urinating yourself in your sleep, doesn't cause that, he thought.
Arthur initially thought that his ghosts were the cause of the lack of sleep in Dagen and some of the other residents of Parachenko Village. They absorbed the ambient Thoughts, Emotions and Desires of the living creatures around them, and overexposure to ghosts or other Yin Attributed creatures would cause paleness, shortness of breath and lack of sleep.
But with only six ghosts, and considering Arthur had only had them for a few weeks, it was impossible for someone to affect the entirety of Parachenko Village. Such responses would take months, perhaps even years to physically affect someone so badly.
Arthur closed his eyes, placing his hands together which showing a thoughtful expression.
'..... Something.... is watching Parachenko Village. Considering how well it can hide, it is at least Rank 3 or above. It can cause paleness, as if it can absorb blood essence even without someone watching. Disturb sleep with just its presence, not needing nightmares or to feed of the dreams of its victims. It's range is immense, being able to cover the vast majority of Parachenko Village without too much trouble.
'And on top of all that, it seems to have quite the eyes for me..... The amount of goddamn traces it has in the areas that I frequent means that the cause of this has definitely been watching me for the past few months at least. Is it some sort of ghost? If it is then it must be at least a Wraith-class ghost. A Revenant-class Ghost, even one that has been nurtured for a few years shouldn't be able to reach this kind of range.
Arthur's breath paused for a moment before a small chuckle escaped his lips.
'Don't tell me its a Nightmare-class Ghost. Surely I haven't screwed up the timeline that badly that I could produce a ghost with the potential of a Fae Immortal..... Although.... considering that this never happened in my previous life, something like that wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. It's just that-'.
The chances of that happening, were lower than a Immortal Fae being nurtured.
Considering that ghosts need the sacrifice of living creatures, in addition to the sacrifice of Fae, in order to create a Nightmare-class Ghost, one would need to sacrifice and Immortal Fae. There wouldn't be a Fae Master alive who would willingly give up such a thing in order to nurture a ghost unless they specialized in Ghosts themselves.....
There wasn't any other Ghost specialists within Parachenko Village. Arthur was the only one, considering how rare Ghost Attributed and Ghost Imprint type Fae were within the Winter Rain Mountains.
Arthur had suspected that the owner of that Ghost Attributed store from the caravan had stayed behind, but his problem wasn't with the entirety of Parachenko Village, but Arthur himself. And a single month wasn't enough time to calculate Arthur's entire route, or daily visitations within the Village.
Someone had placed traces all over the Village.
Everywhere except the Clan Leaders house.
'There are two possible explanations for this. The first being that someone from the Clan Leaders residence is causing this, while the other being that they were afraid of getting caught by a Rank 4 Fae Master. Disproving why this is the work of a Nightmare-class Ghost..... If they had one, they could just kill me and leave, or just level the entire Village and then disappear. There isn't any need for subterfuge or planning, they could just kill me and be done with it....'.
Since there was so much planning involved, it meant that the cause of all these traces being placed around the Village didn't want to be found out. They had also placed quite a bit of time and effort into watching Arthur's movements.
Arthur was sure that he was a target, but couldn't be sure he was the only target.
The thousand year old demon narrowed his eyes, lifting his head once more to the dark and cloudy skies above.
He was so close to completing his goal of destroying Parachenko Village, and yet something like this was happening.
His long hair hid his eyes and nose, but even from a distance, one could see the faint smile on Arthur's face.
Things were getting slightly interesting.