Night fell upon Lunaris like velvet ink spilled across the sky, stars piercing through the darkness like watchful eyes.
Adrien had long since left the city walls, his robes brushing quietly through overgrown grass and the crooked trail that twisted toward the outskirts, a region few ventured into after dusk.
The mission scroll was tucked in his sash.
{Target: Night Wraith
Location: Western Outskirts near Hollow Willow Ridge
Rank: High-Tier Spirit-Class Aberration
Traits: Shadow Affinity, Corpse Consumption, Silence Veil}
His own memories filled in the rest, arcane bestiaries and from the notes he had read. The Night Wraith, once a human soul twisted by death and obsession, became a creature of veiled hunger and silent stalking.
It preferred isolation and darkness and feasted on carrion to sustain its cursed existence. Most telling of its presence was the unnatural quiet it imposed on its surroundings.
And there it was.
As Adrien crossed a narrow ridge flanked by pale-barked trees, all sound simply… vanished.
Even his boots made no noise against the stone. The wind halted mid-gust. The chirp of crickets and the distant rustle of woodland creatures ceased entirely.
His breath was the only sound he could still hear.
He crouched low behind a patch of brush, his eyes narrowing.
Just ahead, in a shallow clearing, lay a corpse, bloated, half-rotted, and clearly left to the elements. But the flesh hadn't decayed naturally.
It had been chewed away, piece by piece, with a cruel patience that spoke of something far worse than a wild animal.
And there it was.
A figure hunched over the corpse. Emaciated. Humanoid, but stretched unnaturally, like shadow given form.
Its ribs moved with every crunching, wet chew, the sound a slow, rhythmic gnawing that made Adrien's skin crawl.
Chomp.Crunch.Gluuurk.
The sounds echoed louder in the unnatural stillness. Each bite stretched on too long, as if the creature was savouring the meat of its feast.
Adrien stepped forward, slow and deliberate. He channeled a small current of mana through his legs, letting it reinforce his movement without sound.
But it noticed him anyway.
The Wraith stopped chewing.
Its head snapped up in a jerk, as if yanked by invisible threads. The face was gaunt, sunken, and mostly obscured by a veil of black mist that trailed behind it like wisps of ink in water.
It let out a long, inhuman screech that tore through the silence like shattered glass.
SKREEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!
The force of it rattled Adrien's ears and cracked several branches nearby.
Without wasting another second, the Wraith lunged, its limbs elongating unnaturally as it soared across the clearing in a blur of darkness.
Adrien's body responded before thought.
He rolled sideways, the Wraith's claw missing him by inches and carving a furrow in the earth. Spinning upright, Adrien gathered mana into his core, letting the flow surge to his limbs.
Utilising one of Selyra's movement techniques, he made his move.
"Astral Veil: Fractured Step."
The world blurred around him. His body vanished and reappeared a few feet behind the Wraith, already mid-motion.
THWACK!
His leg lashed out in a crescent kick, imbued with reinforced speed and precision. It struck the Wraith square in the back.
Instead of a shriek, the creature hissed, its body melting into shadow as it tumbled forward.
It hit the ground and rebounded in an instant, flinging tendrils of mist toward him like hungry tongues.
Adrien thrust out both palms.
"Cosmic Awareness: Temporal Pulse."
A sphere of soft light erupted from his core, not in attack, but perception.
For a moment, time slowed around him. The trajectories of every mist tendril became visible, luminous threads outlining their future paths.
He stepped between them effortlessly, each movement precise, avoiding every strand with the ease of a seasoned duelist.
The Wraith shrieked in frustration. It flickered again, vanishing into the shadows at his feet.
"There."
Adrien dropped low and drove his palm into the ground.
"Genesis Spark: Pulse Lance!"
Aether surged from the earth, spiking upward in a jagged arc of blue-white energy.
SHRAAAAAK!
The Wraith screamed as the lance impaled its shoulder, pinning it mid-transition.
Now fully revealed, the creature's true form trembled, limbs shivering like smoke caught in a storm.
Adrien didn't give it the chance to recover.
He drew his energy inward.
Mana and will entwined.
"Astral Void: Collapse."
A miniature black hole formed at his fingertips—small, but devastating. He hurled it with precision, and it slammed into the Wraith's core.
With a violent implosion, the creature convulsed and folded inward, devoured by its own condensed shadow.
For a few heartbeats, nothing remained.
Then, with a faint hiss of dark mist, the Night Wraith crumbled into dust.
Only its robes remained, an eerie garment of deep black silk interwoven with shadowy runes that pulsed faintly with residual energy.
Adrien stepped forward and picked them up.
Despite their ominous appearance, they felt strangely cold and dry, enchanted, likely, bound to the Wraith's form in life and now released in death.
A suitable trophy. And proof of the kill.
He exhaled slowly.
The silence lifted.
The wind rustled the trees again. A distant owl called in the night.
Adrien stood alone in the clearing, robes draped over his arm, the corpse now untouched and still.
"Not bad," he murmured, his eyes glinting with the thrill of victory.
One step closer to the inner court.
"I could get used to living like this. It's thrilling."
He could not explain the feeling he got each time he utilised his abilities. It felt oddly ethereal, a year ago, he could not have guessed this is what his life would become.
On the other hand, it felt like danger was lurking in every corner. As Ilyra had said, people dying everyday was the norm in this world.
And he would be lying of he said he had not settled into the dynamic quite easily. With the laws on earth emphasizing the importance of human life.
And even the worst of criminals being given the right to live. He felt that it was quite odd, the way in which he settled in quite easily in a world filled with violence and bloodthirsty brutes everywhere.
But maybe, because he spent so much of his time on earth in his lab, he never really had the chance to engrave what was normal on earth into his psyche.
Coupled with his cold and calculative personality, everything fit. Shaking off his dark thoughts, Adrien made his way back towards the city.
Using a route different from the one he used to exit, he found himself in a place in never thought he would see in a place such as Lunaris.
The Slums.
Particularly, he seemed to have walked into what looked like the Red light district of the slums. HE stopped in his tracks to look at the area more clearly
"Even a city that looks as prosperous as Lunaris has a place such as this? I guess wherever you go, there will always be those that are suffering and struggling to live. After all, the only way the privileged can exist is if there is a concept of social classes, and that classification requires that there be a group of The Rich, and the Poor."
Sighing audibly, he paced himself and continued walking.
Adrien stepped into the dimly lit streets of the red-light district, instantly enveloped by a heady concoction that assaulted his senses.
The air was thick with a pungent blend of scents, decay, smoke, and an overwhelming medley of aphrodisiacs that swirled together with spilled alcohol, creating a disorienting haze.
It was both intoxicating and repulsive, a perfume of desperation that lingered like a specter in the shadows, promising excitement but hinting at danger.
He found it hard to breathe without catching a strong whiff full of the substance, soliciting a strong urge to cough from the depths of his lungs. But he held it down.
He moved deeper into the district, the scent of cheap cologne and exotic oils intertwined with the sharper notes of spilled liquor and stale sweat, clinging to him like an unwelcome embrace.
The crumbling buildings loomed overhead, their stained facades bearing witness to countless nights filled with both pleasure and pain, while the haunting air bore the echoes of forgotten desires and lost hopes.
It was quite a sad sight, seeing that even a place governed by the great sect, fell victim to the normal patterns of any society or group.
But if he had to say, because they were people so powerful in the ascension society, the weaker peasants were treated even worse.
Hell, he wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow someone told him that slavery was commonplace in these parts, though that would depend on just how far deeply this rot went.
The narrow alleys, littered with garbage and debris, created makeshift barriers that Adrien carefully navigated.
Each step brought him closer to the chaos, where laughter and shouted propositions reverberated off the walls, harmonizing with the distant clanging of metal.
It was this discordant symphony that depicted the reality of life in the red light district, where survival was a constant battle.