Chapter 83 An Icy Meeting

"Are you sure you want to go back to Pandora's realm alone?"

"Yes I want to be stronger, if that means going to a place of danger alone then so be it"

~resolve~

I projected all the resolve that I could muster out onto Darwin.

Seeing my resolve, Darwin sighed and gave me a pat on the head then made to leave. Though before he left I dashed over to him and stole a kiss.

My last sight of my Darling was of his smile and the small shake of his head at my attitude.

…

The world went dark again, the vision that I had worked to obtain with Darwin gone as a realms distance separated us.

Gone was the world of colors that I had grown so used to in that short amount of time and back was the creeping darkness that showed nothing but the souls of the damned.

Even now I could see the fading souls approaching me.

It seemed like I was in a hotspot of veiled guards as five of them approached me.

I dashed towards them knife in hand as I searched their souls for their origin.

"Eep"

An ungraceful sound left my mount as I tripped on something, knocking myself to the ground.

I had grown so used to my sight that I had forgotten how hard it was to move when I had no vision.

Luckily the guards were not expecting me to fall to the ground so their attacks flew over my head.

However, that also gave me an opportunity, I might not be able to dash around without falling but I could at the very least attack the soul that had been gracious enough to overextend itself over my body.

With one hand I pushed my body off the ground, the other holding my dagger.

I had pushed with enough force that it would spin my body leaving me face to face with the veiled guard.

Of course I could not see the guard but I could see his soul and more importantly his origin which I was aiming for.

*SLASH*

With a slash to the origin the soul disintegrated and with it the body it had.

[You have killed a remnant of the veiled guard.]

[You have gained comprehension and a fragment of the veil(1/1000)]

Seeing the notification I smiled, this was my whole goal in coming here.

We had left the realm before we could find out what the veil was, however now that I was stronger I could return and hunt the fragments of the veil.

Darwin had offered to join me but I wanted to blow off some steam, not only was I angry at the elves but I was angry at myself.

I knew logically that it was not my fault and there was nothing I could have done to change the result but I just… I just couldn't help but blame myself.

Standing up I listen to the surroundings, it was unusually quiet l, even if the guards were silent they would usually make some noise that I could perceive. But there was nothing that I could hear except the normal sounds of the forest.

I smiled looking around. It seemed like they wanted me to believe they had left but I knew the truth.

They had not left, I could still see their souls. Though the weird thing was that they were faint, flickering like they were trying to hide. To anyone else it may seem like they actually had left but not to me.

They had picked the wrong opponent to try and deceive with their petty tricks.

I called upon my bonded armor, the leg armor appearing on my legs and lowering the surrounding temperature.

While I could not use them to boost my speed like I had done previously, I could instead use them to manipulate the fog that they emanated just by existing.

With a push of my will I spread my aether through the fog around me and shaped them into spears.

*WOOSH*

Tens of spears were sent at each veiled guard all aimed at their origin.

…

[You have killed a remnant of the veiled guard.]

[You have gained comprehension and a fragment of the veil(5/1000)]

Was that a bit of overkill, maybe but I still was blowing off steam.

Either way it had not dipped into my aether reserves at all so there was no problem in wasting that amount of energy as it had regenerated the moment I had expended it.

Though while I was basking in the carnage that I had created I saw more souls approaching me, at first glance I thought they were just more veiled guards but when I went to take a second look after creating more spears aimed towards them I realized that their souls were not faded, instead they were glowing.

The most notable one of them was an ice cold soul the color of ice.

"You d-" before the soul could begin berating me another intervened.

"Enough, Naomi"

The one that had intervened was the one with the soul the color of ice.

"I'm sorry for my subordinates disrespect, I am Gabriel and my subordinate's name is Naomi."

"It is fine, I am Aoif."

The emotions of the souls around me all fluctuated, some in surprise while others in confirmation.

I could see that none of them held any ill will.

Though just because I felt nothing bad coming from them didn't mean I let my defenses down.

I had already found their origins and was ready to attack if they gave me a reason.

"We would like to invite you to join our little alliance, Aoif"

Before I could reply with a no Gabriel continued on.

"We humans have been invaded, we of this alliance are dedicated to protecting our fellow humans, it would be a great help if you could join us."

I could feel the shock coming from the one named Naomi. It was likely that she had never seen Gabriel ever act so politely to someone else.