Bonus Chapters at 300 Power Stones.
"Normal Dialogue"
'Inner thoughts'
[Year X787]
~ With Shisui ~
"I am," Shisui answered without hesitation. "Just because I have little information doesn't mean I can sit around idly and do nothing." His eyes darkened slightly. "There are some things that I have to confirm myself."
Something in his tone and the way he asnwered made it clear that his motivation went beyond mere altruism—there was a personal element to his quest that he had no intention of revealing.
Warrod studied him for a long moment, then nodded slowly. "Very well," he said, reaching into his robes. "In that case, please take this."
He withdrew a piece of paper—a mission poster—and pressed a wooden stamp against it before handing it to Shisui. Looking down, Shisui realized it was the S-rank investigation mission created by the Magic Council.
Shisui's eyes widened in genuine surprise as he took the paper. Warrod caught his expression and smiled slightly.
"I can tell that you have the strength to look after yourself," the Wizard Saint explained. "Moreover, you possess abilities that might be able to save your life should you find yourself in danger."
A knowing smile spread across Shisui's face. "I knew I was being watched."
Warrod's laughter filled the room, warm and genuine despite the serious conversation that preceded it. "The mission will at least provide additional funds for your travels," he said after his laughter subsided. "If you're determined to investigate regardless, you might as well receive some compensation for your trouble."
"Thank you," Shisui said, carefully folding the mission paper and tucking it inside his vest.
He rose to leave, sensing that their conversation had reached its natural conclusion. Warrod walked him to the door, his expression once again serious as Shisui stepped outside.
"Good luck, young Shisui," Warrod said quietly. "You may be powerful, but you are walking into the unknown. Return safe."
Shisui nodded once in acknowledgment, then gathered his chakra. In the blink of an eye, he vanished from the doorstep, leaving only a slight disturbance in the air to mark his passing.
~ A few days later ~
A few days after his meeting with Warrod, Shisui walked through the silent cobblestone paths of a village that should have been bustling with life. His footsteps echoed off empty houses, their doors hanging open as if the inhabitants had simply walked away mid-afternoon. Market stalls still displayed goods, now covered in a thin layer of dust. A child's toy lay abandoned in the middle of the street, a wooden horse frozen mid-gallop. Everything was perfectly preserved, as if the village had been trapped in time at the moment of abandonment.
Shisui knelt to examine a half-filled cup of tea on an outdoor table. The liquid had evaporated, leaving only a ring of residue at the bottom. Nearby, a cat dish still contained dried food, untouched by the strays that would normally scavenge in an abandoned settlement.
"This doesn't match the rumours at all," he murmured, standing to survey the empty village once more.
Every account he had gathered during his travels spoke of destruction—villages reduced to rubble, structures collapsed, evidence of violence everywhere. Yet here stood buildings intact, possessions undisturbed, as if the entire population had vanished in the middle of ordinary activities. Most disturbing of all was the absence of blood or bodies—no sign of struggle or resistance whatsoever.
He moved systematically through the village, checking homes and community buildings. Inside, he found meals half-prepared, beds made, clothes hung to dry. In what appeared to be the village elder's home, he discovered an open ledger, the quill beside it dry but placed as if the writer had merely stepped away momentarily.
"No signs of panic," Shisui noted, committing each unusual detail to memory. The pattern continued in each village he visited throughout the day—all deserted, all intact, all devoid of the chaos that typically accompanied violent incidents.
By late afternoon, he had confirmed the same conditions in three neighboring settlements. Each stood like a perfect museum exhibit of everyday life, frozen in the moment of abandonment. The pattern was too consistent to be coincidence, yet its meaning remained elusive.
As the sun began its descent toward the mountains in the distance, Shisui made his decision. The mountain zone that Warrod had mentioned must hold answers that the villages could not provide. He would begin his ascent at dawn, searching for traces of the villagers or the Rune Knights who had disappeared while investigating.
He was preparing to leave the final village when a sensation prickled along his spine—the unmistakable feeling of being observed. Unlike Warrod's forest, where the observation had felt curious but benign, this gaze carried malevolence that made his instincts flare in warning.
Outwardly, Shisui gave no indication that he had detected anything amiss. He continued walking at the same pace, his posture relaxed, his movements casual. Inwardly, his senses expanded outward, searching for the source of the hostile attention.
The village's central square opened before him, a wide cobblestone space likely used for markets and festivals in happier times. Shisui walked to its center and stopped, allowing the silence to stretch for several long moments.
"Show yourself," he finally called, his voice carrying across the empty square. "I know you're out there."
The words hung in the air, seemingly absorbed by the unnatural stillness. For several seconds, nothing happened. Then Shisui's heightened senses detected movement to his right—a presence materializing where none had been moments before.
Turning to face it, Shisui found himself confronted by a sight that defied his expectations. Despite all his preparation, all his experience with the strange and deadly, he felt a genuine shock at what emerged into view.
The entity had no distinct features—no face, no limbs as humans would understand them. It appeared as a humanoid silhouette composed entirely of darkness, as if someone had cut a person-shaped hole in reality.
"Human, what are you? You hold no magic in you."
The voice came not from the figure itself but from all around Shisui, as if the air itself had gained the ability to speak. The sound was neither male nor female, neither young nor old, yet carried an ancient quality that raised the hairs on the back of his neck.
Rather than answer, Shisui channeled chakra to his eyes, activating his Sharingan and then his Mangekyo as he asked his own question. "I should be asking you that question instead. I have never seen anything quite like you before."
The shadow-figure tilted what might have been its head, the movement unnaturally fluid, as if bound by different physical laws than those governing ordinary matter.
"Interesting. Those eyes..." the voice said, emanating from everywhere and nowhere at once.
Shisui's hand moved automatically, a kunai appearing between his fingers as he shifted into a combat stance. "I'm guessing you're the one responsible for the disappearance of the villagers around this mountain zone," he said, raising the weapon in preparation to strike.
The figure remained motionless, yet Shisui could feel its attention intensify, focusing on him with an almost physical pressure.
"I am Nihilora, the Lord of Silent Dominion," the voice announced, the words carrying a weight that seemed to press against Shisui's consciousness.
Shisui made no reply, but internally, warning signals flared. In all his research on this world's threats—all the books he had read, all the tales he had gathered from travelers and scholars—he had never encountered this name. More concerning was what his Mangekyo revealed: the being before him was not composed of ordinary matter or energy, but of pure, concentrated Ethernano, swirling in patterns unlike anything he had observed in natural magical phenomena.
The closest comparison in his experience was the chakra composition of the Tailed Beasts from his home world. Yet even that analogy failed to capture the wrongness he sensed in Nihilora's existence.
"What have you done with the villagers?" Shisui demanded, his voice sharp. "And the Rune Knights who were sent to investigate? Where are they?"
Nihilora gave no immediate answer. Instead, Shisui observed with alarm that the figure had begun to lose definition, its edges blurring as if it were struggling to maintain corporeal form. The concentrated Ethernano was dispersing, particles drifting apart even as they fought to maintain cohesion.
"Dead. Sacrificed," the voice finally responded, now sounding more distant despite still surrounding him. "My seal is weakening, yet it is strong enough to prevent me from remaining outside for any much longer."
"Seal?" Shisui's eyebrows rose in surprise. "What seal?"
The demon continued to fade, its form becoming increasingly transparent as the Ethernano dispersed further. Shisui's question went unanswered as the entity struggled to maintain even this tenuous manifestation.
As the last visible traces of the shadow-figure dissipated into the air, the voice spoke once more—fainter now, but carrying a promise that chilled Shisui more than any threat he had faced since arriving in this world.
"I shall return."
Then it was gone, leaving Shisui alone in the empty village square with the setting sun casting long shadows across the abandoned homes around him. The silence that followed felt heavier than before, filled with the implications he had only begun to process.
Shisui stood motionless in the empty village square, his mind racing to process what had just transpired. The encounter with Nihilora left him with more questions than answers, each more troubling than the last. The demon had claimed the villagers and Rune Knights were dead, sacrificed—but for what purpose? And what was this seal it had mentioned, apparently strong enough to contain such a being yet somehow weakening? Most concerning was the casual certainty with which it had promised to return, as if its eventual freedom was simply a matter of time.
'This makes no sense.' he pondered, his Mangekyo fading back to normal as he surveyed the abandoned village once more. 'If the villagers were sacrificed, where are the bodies? Why leave the villages intact?'
He had encountered many enemies throughout his two lives—shinobi opponents in his original world and various magical threats in this one. But Nihilora was something different entirely. Its composition of pure Ethernano, its lack of physical features, the way its voice seemed to emanate from the surrounding air rather than any specific source—all pointed to an entity unlike anything described in the texts he had studied about this world's magical creatures.
The demon had answered his questions in such a roundabout manner that Shisui could only be certain of three things: the villagers and Rune Knights were dead, the demon was somehow sealed, and that seal was gradually failing. Everything else remained frustratingly obscure.
As he turned to leave, intending to continue his investigation at the mountain that Warrod had mentioned, a voice suddenly cut through the silence.
White Dragon's Roar!
~ End of Chapter 19 ~
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