Blood gushed from my mouth, my vision swam, and a piercing ringing filled my ears.
"Tak, tak, tak—"
Despite the distortion in my hearing, the pale man's footsteps pounded like a heartbeat.
"Tak, ta—"
Abruptly, the sound vanished. So did the ringing.
As if sensing something, the pale man halted his steps.
He tilted his head slightly, and his gaze drifted upward.
I followed his gaze.
All I saw was a demolished house, nothing else.
Yet, my heart skipped a beat. My eyes started shaking, and my head lowered on its own.
I stared at the pale man; he was still staring at 'it'.
I clearly felt my pulse slowing down, and the hair in my neck sprang up.
A few seconds later, the pale man lowered his head and knelt on one knee.
Suddenly, every bit of my bones weakened, and my thoughts turned disarrayed; I felt the oppression clearly.
My mind was slowing down, and my eyelids began to close. Unbeknownst to me, a portion of my memories was slowly being chipped out.
It continued, it felt like an eternity, when all of a sudden, a static noise woke me up.
"Krhhh—"
My eyes open wide, searching for the source of the sound.
"Uhh... Captain?"
From above, a voice rang out. I jerked my gaze upward to find a bearded man, a walkie-talkie at his lips, descending elegantly like a feather.
"One of the Priests of Absence has appeared... and a survivor is still alive." His voice was rough.
"..." The walkie-talkie went silent for a moment, and so did the bearded man.
"Stall—"
The person on the walkie-talkie only said one word, and yet, it fully expressed the coldness of the person.
"Sigh..."
The bearded man sighed and stared at me. He then fixed his sight on where the pale man was looking before.
"Do take care of yourself. Shit like this is dangerous." He said while grinning.
A sword appeared in his hand, while at the same time, a crest on the back of his hand brightly lit.
He flicked his finger slightly, and I felt a gust of wind covering me gently, then my body started floating away from the scene.
In only a few minutes, I was sent a kilometer away. It continued a bit till I went as far as three kilometers.
Like a gentleman, the wind lightly dropped me off the ground. Dumbfounded, I stayed frozen. Good thing I was dropped off in a remote place. Otherwise, I would've attracted attention.
Before I could recover from my frozen state, a blast of shockwave suddenly hit my body, resulting in me getting sent flying again.
Most wooden houses near me started falling apart, while some were shaking furiously.
A shaking in the ground then followed, thinking quick, I forced my body to work, looking for a bit of shelter to hide in.
After a moment, I found a concrete structure to hide in.
As if on cue, another blow of shockwave rang out. The shockwave came from the place I was in, where the bearded man was.
"Hoo..."
Finally able to deeply breathe, I took the chance. I fell into a deep contemplation as I gathered my thoughts.
"So abilities can be cancelled forcefully."
Earlier, Blood Surge deactivated when 'it' appeared; 'it' forcefully slowed down my pulse, cancelling Blood Surge completely.
It even felt like my mind was being plundered. It was a good thing that the bearded man came.
"Those monsters..." My mind relaxed for a brief period of time, and all of a sudden, my Perception picked up on something in the environment.
"Hm?" Leaves, after leaves began to hover, starting to drift.
I looked up and noticed something, the cloud above was moving rapidly, unlike normal, it seemed to be heading to where those monsters are.
The clouds then started rotating, creating a vortex, not just one, but multiple vortices.
"Hsss—" A hiss came out from my mouth.
Then, a towering beam of shadow that blocked out any light pierced into this vortex. Half of the vortex vanished, while the other half descended.
The descent of the vortexes was instantaneous. From a distance, the area where the battle was, a large vortex was rapidly rotating in the ground.
Structures scattered like dust, houses started levitating upward in a rotating manner, as if the wind was threatening to form a cyclone of debris.
Even from this distance, I can still feel a violent gust.
The shaking of the ground worsens, and without warning, a pillar of darkness so dark it feels empty, appeared.
My eyesight started to wane as my vision distorted. I desperately closed my eyes and faced the other direction.
A moment later, another resounding shockwave hit, this time, much worse.
"What the hell are thes—!" My voice was abruptly cut off by another shockwave.
Feeling my eyesight recovering, I opened them to register what had happened.
Around the area, corpses lay. Their eyes were wide open, yet blanked also.
Feeling like I might die, a sudden change occurred. I look at where the battle was.
A dozen kilometers away from the battle, a large glowing golden spear was flying quickly to the place where the battle was taking place.
I almost couldn't make out the shape; it was blurry due to its speed.
In awe, my eyes wouldn't let me look away for even a moment from the spear.
In a matter of seconds, the spear arrived at the scene of the battle. As if a snake, the spear, changed direction below in mid-air.
The spear hit the ground, and an even more intense shaking took place.
I felt my consciousness waver, staring at the large spear. I kept gazing at it until my mind went blank.