Chapter Twenty-Four: Not from this World. [Bonus Chapter]
The soft breeze drifted in the surroundings carrying with it the unnerving stench of blood that lingered in the surroundings. Lillian's expression rapidly shifted as realization and understanding dawned upon her.
Dusken's smile deepened while silently observing the troubled Lillian with a deep gaze.
What he had said earlier wasn't just mere words, as they might seem.
Hidden beneath what was spoken, layered a threat with deep meaning. The beastman's evil plan to kill him had backfired, resulting in its gruesome death.
And now, the same outcome would await Lillian if she turned on him in their temporary alliance to escape the forest.
'It seems she gets it, but we can't waste more time.' Dusken thought as his lips parted.
"Let's get going; the beastmen are chasing down everyone, and the sooner we leave, the better." He urged with a calm expression like he wasn't the one who had just thrown a threat earlier.
Lillian didn't seem surprised about the revelation of the chase; she simply shook her head slightly, as if to snap out of her thoughts.
"You're right; I know the way out of the forest, and if we leave in time, the guards from the Starlian family can help us deal with the pursuing beastmen." She let out a deep sigh. "We both know they're a prominent family in society and dealing with a bunch of those beastmen would be easy for them, which is why we must hurry."
'Oh,'
Dusken thought, his eyes flashing with a calculating light as he sank into deep contemplation. This was a trial set up by the god of darkness for candidates aiming for his legacy.
The lifeforms inside the trial wouldn't know that some people were seekers who sought out the legacy of a god, so it made sense why Lillian had misunderstood. As for these living entities in the trial, whether they were an illusion or not… he didn't know; no one knew, to be exact.
This was a question raging on in society, and there was only one agreed-upon answer to it. Only the gods knew.
Dusken understood that his aim was to find the tablet hidden in the trial.
Acquainting himself with a high-standing family would be beneficial, especially since he wasn't the only one seeking the ancient tablet of Nothing - the god of darkness.
Sometime later, after taking the core shard of the other beastman, he was ready to move, as delaying any further would mean betting his life on luck.
And so, he and Lillian set off to leave the forest.
***
The walk was uneventful; but luckily, no beastmen chased after them. Dusken had released one of his claimed shadows and sent it ahead to scout.
He had also tried controlling and sensing the perception of two shadows at once, but it took a heavy strain on his mind, which made him cough out blood, making Lillian look at him weirdly.
The reason was that his limit right now was sensing through two perspectives: his own and the shadow he sent forward.
If he wanted, he could stop and control two shadows while perceiving what they sensed, but that would leave him immobilized.
He also discovered something shocking: his shadow control limit was no longer fifty meters but had increased.
This meant that those Abysmal points he received after slaying the two beastmen were the cause of this improvement.
'Now I've gotten the hang of this weird ability of mine. Though I feel like this isn't meant for me… darkness is.'
This was his sincere thought, whenever he manipulated the shadows, it felt foreign and outside of him, but the feeling he had received when in darkness embrace during the night of the battle with Ashahell still lingered.
'Maybe shadows aren't what's made for me. Let night descend and then I'll be able to manipulate darkness.' Dusken thought with a deep sigh.
The sun was beginning to lose its radiance, but there was still a considerable time away from sunset. With nothing to do, he decided to strike up a conversation with Lillian.
"Hey Lillian, about that Starlian family, how powerful are they?" He asked the first question that was troubling him.
While walking, Lillian suddenly stopped and stared at him, suspicion rippling in the depths of her dark brown eyes.
"Are you playing with me?" she asked coldly with a chilly light flashing through her brown pupils.
Dusken was utterly speechless at this sight. He had a weird premonition like the air had become stiff as soon as Lillian became angry, causing breathing to be a bit hard.
'Could her side ability have something to do with the air?' He wondered, inwardly noting this.
But he displayed a perplexed expression on his face.
"What do you mean? Why would I be messing around in this serious situation?" those were the only words that he could come up with.
Lillian's gaze scanned him with cold indifference and detachment, as well as
… curiosity.
"Have you been living under a rock then? Or are you not from this world?" Her words were striking, holding a deep sense of ridicule.
'What the…' Dusken thought, gritting his teeth internally.
'Who does she think she is? Acting all mighty?' He once again thought as his eyes became cold.
"So what? If that's what you seek to know, then…" Before he could complete his words, however, Lillian waved her hands, cutting him off.
"Enough with your high sense of superiority, Dusken. In this alliance, we are both equals so don't act like you're the boss of me. I am not obliged to answer any of your questions, more so when you're trying to mock me with them." Lillian's words were uttered through gritted teeth, rage was spewing from her eyes like flames.
Dusken stared at this as calmness slowly returned to him, he had acted too rashly, as someone who had been reborn with more than 20 years of experience from his past, acting like a child was condescending to him.
He decided to calm down and began analyzing things more perceptively.
'It seems she's angry because she thinks I'm lying, while I'm annoyed because she's acting rude,' he thought, inhaling sharply before responding.
"You wanted to know the truth right?" His next words were like a hammer that stomped heavily on Lillian's heart, making her take a step back while pointing at him in horror. "Well, here it is. I, Dusken, is not from this world."
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A/N: I wish to inform you all that I'll be doing a mass release on the weekend. The number of chapters that I'll release will increase if we're able to get to enter the ranking of power stones. They will also increase the more you gift the story.