Then like a drowning man remembering how to swim, a piece clicked at the right place in the grand puzzle of everything that was happening around.
If his thought was correct then there might be a way.
Kaori said that they got the armors and weapons from the system. And they could be summoned willingly, couldn't they? There were two things in the whole system screen that Ishiki didn't know about.
The Vestiges and and the Relics, at the end of the screen. Relics was something he hadn't yet touched, but there were two names written in the section called Vestiges. And hadn't the system called the spear and the bladeless tachi—as vestiges.
So they were stored somewhere maybe. He could call them forth if he willed to, just like they had disappeared when he wanted to.
Calming himself down, he focused on thinking and gave a mental command. It was the only name that he remembered right now.
[Black Tether]
Suddenly, as soon as he thought about the name, a familiar weight materialized in his hands—The obsidian spear carved out of a single piece of obsidian appeared in his hand. It was completely invisible in the darkness but its surface was cool to the touch.
A grin appeared on his face as he peered into the darkness. Wasn't he already familiar with looking at the void inside his NEXUS Chamber, this darkness was nothing compared to that emptiness.
"Come on," Ishiki whispered to the darkness. "Bastards, you think you will have an easy dinner?"
'Uh... wait, why would they have dinner at all? Screw it.'
The first Xenon jumped from the right—he heard it coming, the displacement of air and the scrape of claws launching from tile.
Ishiki swung the spear blindly, feeling it connect with something. The spear's sharp edge slashed against flesh, carving a straight line on the chest of the said Xenon. A few drops of blood fell on the tiled but it didn't kill the bastard.
The Xenon jumped back.
'Damn it! too shallow. It should be more sharp!'
Not Giving him any time to think or act, the other Xenon from the left attacked too.
It closed the distance and swiped at him. Ishiki moved just in time, but still, the claws raked across his shoulder, tearing through fabric and skin. Pain blossomed in his already injured shoulder from the glass shard.
He stumbled back, nearly tripping over the fallen objects from the racks. The second Xenon was moving in from behind. It shrieked and attacked again.
'I can't fight like this. I can't see them, and they can perceive me somehow.'
He gritted his teeth, and prepared for the next unseen attack when the lines describing the skill [Ghost Blade] came to his mind.
"The wielder may shroud their presence, becoming difficult to detect by both mundane and supernatural senses. Additionally, any weapon touched by the wielder gains unnatural sharpness"
Wasn't this exactly what he needed. They way to fulfill his needs was always with him. And in this desperate situation, it became more clear. Ishiki saw the importance of the skill and its uses from a whole new perspective.
'Activate Ghost Blade.'
He gave the mental command without thinking and without analyzing what would happen or what would not.
Then, something inside him... shifted.
The world didn't change at all, yet it was changed completely. The darkness remained absolute, but suddenly, Ishiki saw it in an entirely different way.
He could sense everything around him as if looking everything from a different point of view.
He could not see them—not exactly. It was like his consciousness expanded outward, touching the space around him, creating a mental map of everything around. He felt the contours of the floor, the shape of fallen food packets, the position of support pillars.
And the Xenons.
They appeared in his mind as hollow silhouettes—negative space carved from darkness. One crouched ten feet ahead. The other circling to his left, trying to flank.
It was like... he was a ghost.
'This is Ghost Blade. This is how it works.' This feeling was ethereal, superior and somehow a little disturbing.
The spear in his hands felt different now. Lighter and sharper than it had felt before. Of course he still didn't know how to use a spear much less killing something with it. But it felt like he can do it.
The first Xenon with the injury, lunged again.
This time, Ishiki saw it coming. Not with his eyes, but with that strange supernatural sense that mapped its trajectory through the dark.
He sidestepped smoothly, letting its momentum carry it past. And just when it was at the right place, he drove the spear through its spine.
The resistance was nothing—less than cutting grass. The spear slid through flesh, bone, and vital organs like they were made of paper.
[You have slain a Xenon]
[You have received 50 Data Fragments]
[Kill Count: 1/5]
The notification burned in his mind as the Xenon's corpse collapsed, dead and still.
The second Xenon shrieked—rage mixed with fear. It charged from behind, fast and desperate.
Ishiki spun, and pulled the spear free, and in one smooth motion that felt choreographed by instinct rather than thought, he swept it horizontally at head height.
The blade caught the Xenon mid-leap. Cut clean through its neck and severed its head with ease. The body continued forward on momentum, headless, before crashing into a display case.
[You have slain a Xenon]
[You have received 50 Data Fragments]
[Kill Count: 2/5]
Silence fell once again.
Ishiki stood in the absolute darkness, breathing hard, spear held tightly in his hand.
His shoulder burned where the claws had caught him. His hands were slick with blood—some his and mostly the green putrid blood of the abominations.
He was alive. And he'd killed two Xenons in complete darkness.
"Ishiki?" Kaori's voice rang from the stairs, tight with worry. "Answer me!"
He opened his mouth to respond—
And the entire mall's power surged back on with a mechanical hum.
Lights blazed to life. Emergency systems rebooted. The security shutters began grinding open, flooding the space with afternoon sunlight.
Ishiki squinted against the sudden brightness, eyes burning after so long in darkness.
Kaori and Akari stood at the stairs, staring at the young man, looking at them with his blue eyes. Their expressions were caught between shock and awe.
Ishiki stood in between the carnage. Two large, green bodies lay dead at his feet, killed with precision of some seasonal warrior.