Chapter 224: Salvation (1/2)

“Uh, did you get that prompt at well?” Zac said and turned over to Thea who had paled a bit.

“Yes…” was all she said as she vigilantly looked around, trying to pierce the darkness with her gaze. She also moved a bit closer to Zac and his lantern.

It looked like the System had something planned after all. People killing each other for treasure wasn’t enough it appeared, the System also felt the need to remove their safety net at an inopportune time. If he knew the system it had orchestrated some sort of trial that would either kill them or help them get stronger.

“Feels like we’re in some horror movie,” Zac muttered as he kept looking around for anything to pop out from the darkness.

Nothing happened as the minutes passed, but that did nothing to calm Zac’s fraying nerves. It still felt like something was brewing, and the Darkness kept going stronger. Soon the lantern only reached half the distance compared to before, creating a small circle of light with just him and Thea inside.

The few stars in the sky had long winked out of existence, and it felt like it was only the two of them set adrift in the void. At first it almost felt like the odd space he found himself when he rolled for survival, but this darkness was different.

There was something sinister and oppressive about the gloom that surrounded them, whereas that odd space was completely sterile. If Zac turned off the lantern in his hand they would be completely swallowed by the dark, whereas the other space had some odd unseen source of light.

Any idea of heading to the next mountain to look for treasure was completely forgotten, and now Zac was only focused on survival. He was extremely happy he’d decided to keep going with Thea, as sitting alone in this environment would have been way more nerve-wracking.

He quickly glanced over at his companion, and she returned a look that told that she felt the same way. Neither of them spoke though, afraid of drawing the attention of whatever was lurking out in the dark.

Suddenly Zac thought he heard something, and he hesitantly glanced over to his right. But of course, only darkness met his gaze. However, the sound kept growing clearer, and soon Zac could make out some incessant whispering.

Zac’s neck hair stood right on edge, and he couldn’t help but speak up.

“Do you hear those whispers?” Zac said with as low a voice he could.

A nod from a deathly pale Thea was all the confirmation he needed.

When he saw the prompt he had assumed that the system would unleash a horde of beasts upon him, just like with the beast hordes. But perhaps that wasn’t exactly the case. He nervously fiddled with the bangle on his arm as he took active control of his mental defense skill.

The minutes passed as the whispers grew more intense, and Zac was starting to feel the strain. He couldn’t tell exactly what the voices were, but he assumed it was something like evil spirits. Their whispers were a pervasive mental attack, and it almost felt like they tried to burrow themselves into his head.

“Some sort of wraiths,” Thea said, seeming to be under an equal amount of pressure. “They are trying to possess us.”

Zac grunted in affirmation as he kept rebuffing the insidious murmurs. A few minutes later it seemed the whispers had reached a peak, and thankfully the intensity didn’t keep increasing. Zac felt a bit relieved since he felt confident that he would be able to bear the mental burden through the night if needed.

A glance over at Thea showed that she seemed to be mostly fine as well, and she was currently holding on to an inscribed rock that looked like an ostrich egg. It probably was some mental protection tool she had attained somewhere.

Suddenly a piercing wail with enough force to cause undulations in the air hit Zac with enough force to make him completely blank out for a brief moment, losing control over [Mental Fortress]. Instantly he felt a chill in his mind, followed by a chaotic jumble of disorienting thoughts.

Hatred.

Thea had leeched off him for a whole day, stealing the treasures that were rightfully his. Using him as a shield to brave the dangers of the arrays, laughing behind his back. Insidious, treacherous.

Something needed to be done.

An all-consuming killing intent as he turned his murky eyes toward her lithe neck, his fingers itching. He could just reach out, and with a snap he would be vindicated.

Suddenly a tomahawk was in his hand, taken out from his Cosmos Sack. Thea looked over with surprise, only to see him swing it down to gore his own thigh. The next moment a thick vibrant aura of life exuded from Zac, after having activated his Dao Field for his Dao of Trees.

“What are you doing?” Thea asked as she cautiously looked at Zac like he had become a lunatic.

Zac panted for a few seconds, his forehead covered in a sheen of perspiration before he looked up with clear eyes once again.

“I think I got possessed, but the pain woke me up enough to release my Dao Field. The Dao of trees had been effective against ghosts before so I thought it might help,” Zac said.

That was a close one. It had been extremely disconcerting to feel a bunch of consciousness in his mind, urging him to perform unspeakable acts. It was like he had been afflicted with schizophrenia, unable to discern what was real and not.

Luckily Zac had some experience of his mind being flooded with violent impulses thanks to his [Hatchetman’s Rage] skill, and it allowed him to perform two last-ditch efforts. Wounding himself wasn’t optimal, but the pain cut through the chaotic jumble in his mind and allowed him to unleash his Dao.

For a split second his mind had been flooded with pained wails as the Dao purged the specters or whatever the whispering things were, and they unhesitantly fled out of his head, away from the vibrant Dao.

He also noticed that the effect of the Dao of Trees was great, silencing the penetrating whispers to a low murmur. However, the response was almost immediate as a claw stretched out of the darkness, heading straight for his throat.

Zac immediately swung his tomahawk, but it went straight through the incoming attack. Zac frowned as he gathered some Cosmic energy while he took out [Verun’s Bite], swinging it before the claw managed to reach him.

Luckily the hand was cut, and to Zac’s surprise something that looked like black ichor dripped down the edge of his axe before it turned into a black haze that drifted away. These things perhaps weren't actual ghosts, but some nefarious creation that just looked similar. But before Zac had time to sigh in relief tens of claws reached out of the darkness, and a few ghastly faces emerged as well.

They were humanoid but without any facial features, apart from a huge maw that seemed to contain a black hole. The hair was standing straight out on Zack’s whole body by now, but there was nothing to do except start swinging like a madman.

He summoned a huge fractal edge and with a growl let it rip through the crowd of humanoids, shredding them to pieces. However, he wasn’t happy with the result. The things were clearly destroyed into motes of darkness, but he didn’t gain a smidgeon of Cosmic Energy from the kills.

That kills rewarded Cosmic Energy was one of the most fundamental aspects of the multiverse, and not gaining anything should mean that these things didn’t die when they were destroyed.