"Troublesome." With a curse, Azrael immediately woke up, startled by the sudden agonizing screams echoing outside.
In a flash, he dispelled Maiden Skin and called forth Truth Seeker. His fingers had wrapped tightly around his scythe, ready to fight at any moment.
’Can’t I get a few hours of peace?’ Suppressing another curse, he quickly exited the old village house he had been sleeping in, taking caution to not be too loud.
His eyes swept over the area. The sun was beginning to show itself from the horizon, and in turn, the swaying golden grass was beginning to reflect the light off it.
’There is no way I imagined it. I can be insane, but not that much.’ He thought, climbing upon the roof of the house, gaze searching for the source of the screaming.
At last, he witnessed the culprit—a man was running for his life. The color of his face was flushed red, veins all over it bulging as he ran with everything he had.
With a frown, Azrael looked around. Taking into account the Chosen’s desperation, he expected to see a towering monster that was hunting him for his life...
But there was nothing, no matter how hard he squinted, not a form flying or running, not a shadow, not any kind of indicator that the Chosen was being chased by anything.
’Is he an illusion being cast by a monster, or has he just gone insane?’ Curious to see the power of the madman, Azrael used [Inspect].
Name: [Rock Wavecrest]
Ascension Level: [Proven]
Purity Rank: [Blessed]
His eyes nearly bulged out.
"Proven?!" With that, he knew his theory was correct; more than one Rift had opened, leading to this planet. There was no other explanation for how a system user with a Proven Ascension Level could be here.
"Rock Wavecrest, so he is a member of one of the three major clans." Azrael noted, wondering how he should approach the situation.
"Even if the guy is screwed in the head, he could know where other Proven reside."
After a brief consideration, Azrael decided to see how things were going to play out. The Proven were meant to be more powerful and experienced than him, after all. If one was running from something, there could be a legitimate reason.
"Or he has gone fully mad."
It seemed the latter was more likely, as the man halted momentarily before making a complete turn and running back in the exact direction he had just come from.
"What are you doing... running from ghosts?"
Rock continued to run, tripped, and fell—only to get up and continue his sprint to God knows where.
Azrael was uncertain if he should approach, since the more time passed, the desperation on the man’s face deepened. Tears streamed down his face, knees buckling, hands trembling.
With a sigh, Azrael stood up. "I changed my mind. This man doesn’t look sane enough to lead anywhere. It would be more beneficial to kill him to advance my Purity."
Moving toward the edge of the roof, he was about to jump off, intending to go and ambush the Chosen—only to halt temporarily.
Rock, the man that had been running and screaming frantically all this time, was frozen on the spot. His gaze was locked upward, as if looking at something no one was able to perceive.
Beginning to doubt his eyes, or if he was the mad one, Azrael blinked, making sure he wasn’t missing anything.
Once he opened his eyes, Rock was no more.
His figure still stood, but devoid of any of his equipment. His skin was gone, as if torn off in one smooth motion that left nothing more than a skinless husk.
The dead Chosen stood without any indication of being alive. His eyes had enlarged, blood was seeping from his mouth, and his chest was neither rising nor falling.
No movement. No purpose. Only a haunting message.
Azrael took a deep breath, blinking several times, making sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him.
Calming his nerves, he called forth Cinder. The silver bird appeared next to him a moment later, its crimson eyes observing the vast area.
"Do you sense a living being, an enemy—anything?"
Cinder tilted its head, then surveyed the area for several long seconds. Once the beast was done, it met Azrael’s gaze.
With a motion of its head, the bird pointed to the bottomless well.
This was new information for Azrael, but not what he was hoping for.
"No, I meant something on our level."
With a screech, Cinder replied that he didn’t feel anything else.
Azrael nodded, then shifted his gaze to Rock... or more accurately, the scarecrow. Then he took a glance at the ground.
"I’m definitely not going back down."
Without hesitation, he climbed onto Cinder’s back and soared high into the skies. It wasn’t that he didn’t fear being shot down by a lurking Nightfletch; it just felt better than being forced to face whatever had managed to kill the Proven.
If the Chosen’s speculation at the camp was correct, that escaping this place meant venturing into the deeper territories of the Ruined Kingdom, then they would need Proven at their side. A lot of them, considering how easily one of them bit the dust.
He wasn’t someone who usually concerned himself with others, but this... this mattered to him personally. To return to the human realm, someone had to slay the abomination that had created the connection between the two worlds by opening the Rift.
This wasn’t going to happen by itself; someone had to do the work. And since he was most likely among the few who could fly freely, it meant he had to help the others if he ever wanted to set foot on his home planet again.
Not eager to stay in the area longer than necessary, he guided Cinder as fast as humanly possible through the air, passing over the edge of the Ruined Kingdom’s territory.
Slowly, the edges of his hair began to harden, his breathing became visible, and Cinder began to struggle, clearly finding it difficult to fly any longer.
With the threat of the unknown entity that had skinned a Proven without any difficulties behind, he commanded the beast to descend.
Stepping off, he glanced at the freezing cold that seemed to stretch as far as his eyes could see.
"There better be Proven here... a lot of them. Otherwise, we’re all doomed."
He squinted his eyes and put a hand over his mouth to warm the air he was breathing.
And with one step, he vanished into the blizzard, toward whatever waited.