The dense miasma at the foot of the nameless mountain fluttered like a curtain, a thick veil separating the land of Greater Evil from the lower abyss continent.
The obnoxious miasma swirled around as a group of three hundred strong advanced into its depths, led by a few men and women in traditional vulture clothing.
Plates of iron and ragged cloth, straps of ammunition belts, and old-fashioned large guns.
Aza'zel and Tu were walking at the rear of this group.
While lagging behind, Tu inched closer to his side and spoke in whispers, "I was only half-certain before we stepped into the miasma, but now I can say for certain that I'm getting this feeling."
Disorder claimed the frontmost array of the formation at this moment, as a wave of crazy howling and cursing crept toward them.
"Wake up you slouch! Damn it!"
How weak must one be to get infected by evil before they got through the veil of miasma? Aza'zel was astonished as he watched the three-hundred-man-strong descend into chaos.
Not many of them lost their minds, but the few who did have glaring red eyes and inhuman reflexes as though invisible hands in the miasma took control of their bodies.
Like puppets who didn't know pain or fear, they lunged at whoever was close with weapons drawn and blades hungry for blood.
"This doesn't look good," Tu murmured, dumbfounded as other than a slight sense of familiarity, the miasma didn't affect her mind at all.
Aza'zel furrowed his brows, his ears twitching as his world of echoes unfolded to envelop the crowd. As his physique grew stronger, so did his senses, to the point where his mind could process loads of information much better than in his earlier days.
Now, despite the hectic crowd all around, it didn't do much to hamper his world of echoes. Now, he could sense the leaders of the group pulling some distance from the group and standing to the side.
"The drug you've applied works wonders," one of them said, "We can fetch the survivors from the group and proceed even deeper than the last dive."
"That's not the point," another vulture said, "We received news that if enough people were killed and their blood congealed under the influence of the miasma, it can condense into evil blood, a wondrous medicine to test and amplify a person's psyche in terms of mental fortitude."
"Where did you obtain this information?"
"I have my resources," the vulture replied. "If we reach deep enough where powerful supernaturals from ancient times died, the evil blood condensed since then should be an absolute natural treasure at this point."
Another rolled his eyes. "What makes you think that ordinary people like us can reach that far? Stop dreaming and focus on what's within the limits of your capabilities."
Evil blood?
Aza'zel mulled over this information and asked Tu by his side, "Pay attention to their blood, do you notice anything weird about it? The ones who got killed, that is."
"Their blood?" Tu was a little surprised, as she didn't enjoy the supernatural sense of hearing like Aza'zel.
After hearing this reminder, she cast her gaze to the ground where blood flowed, and to her surprise, the substance moved as though driven by instincts to concentrate in a specific spot.
"It's gathering!" Tu exclaimed, though she didn't sense any fluctuations of source energy directing the flow of the red blood. As it flowed, wisps of black miasma sank into the blood, merging therein.
The little girl shuddered with goosebumps as she relayed the scene to Aza'zel in whispers.
"Are all of them displaying symptoms of irrationality and irritation?" Aza'zel asked another question.
Tu observed the crowd, replying, "No… Well, some of them look clear-headed, but they're even more ferocious with their killings than those displaying symptoms of insanity… Oh, some of them are looking over…"
Aza'zel also noticed a few silhouettes breaking from the main group and rushing over.
"They think we're easy to bully!"
Tu hissed in anger, taking a step forward to stand in front of Aza'zel.
"Don't make it look bloody," Aza'zel said, "I'm already finding it difficult to handle with all this blood in the vicinity."
He kneaded his forehead as he spoke, whispers in the millions disturbing his mind. If he weren't so cautious of drinking infected blood, he might have long lost self-control and gone over to try a sip or two of this blood.
It looked as nutritious as it looked evil.
"Got it!" Tu responded, firming her stance between the group of vultures and her lord.
"Who invented two children for this operation?" a vulture asked while rushing over, but he quickly dismissed the question as his only task was to gather blood. "Well, it doesn't matter! Just off with them!"
Tu's tensed muscles relaxed as she muttered silently, "Energy burst!"
The vulture had barely finished his sentence when his vision suddenly blurred, the silhouette in a gray raincoat standing before him splitting into three.
He blinked his eyes, and the three silhouettes were back to one as though whatever he had just witnessed was a misconception. Then, the silhouette in front of him slowly dissipated like sprinkling dust, shocking the man into pausing his advances.
"Halt!" he shouted, holding his arms horizontally to stop his comrades from rushing forward. However, he received no response from his comrades, prompting him to check his flanks in blank befuddlement.
"How weak!" Tu spat in disdain, stepping forth from the veil of miasma, a bit disappointed that she'd have wasted her stored energy in one burst on such weaklings.
If she knew it would be this simple, she'd have committed to a cost-efficient method instead.
The man stared in disbelief as the young child, presumably a young girl from the tone of voice, walked over while dragging two limp, grown men by the collars of their shirts.
"How?!"
This girl circumvented his position and attacked his lackeys before he could even react, much less issue a warning to them. Their heads dangled toward unnatural angles, necks apparently snapped out of shape, rendering them deader than dead.
It took the vulture a split second to comprehend his current situation, followed by a horrific scream as he turned tail and bolted away from this small fiend.
"Tsk," Tu clicked her tongue, feeling exasperated.
She had spent her accumulated tension, and no longer had the capabilities for yet another short energy burst unless she went through the martial forms once again.
She hesitated for a moment, reaching to feel out the outline of her throwing knives attached to her thigh.
A moment later, she sighed and shook her head, as she couldn't finish him off without spilling blood if she used cold weapons. She could only toss the bodies aside and rush after the man by jogging her way over with quick yet light footsteps.
"You can't escape death~" she hummed a tone, "And even if you could escape death, you can't escape me!"
With a splendid grin, she lowered her center of gravity and delegated more than 20% of her energy to each of her legs. Following, her footprints went an inch deeper while a propellant force launched her forward.
The man felt a rush of cold wind as the curtain of miasma behind him split apart and swirled around a gray silhouette. He looked back, finding a small knee zooming toward his face.
A painful collision and a pair of small hands held his head in place while the knee sunk into his skull.
An indentation cracked his bones, the fractures sinking into his brain for an instant death. Tu flipped over the man's shoulders with beautiful acrobatics, landing softly on the bloody ground with a cold grunt.
"Trash," she murmured to herself.