Sylas stumbled forward, catching Lorien before she fell to the ground completely. His gaze was sharp and he seemed prepared for battle already. But…
The surroundings were eerily quiet.
He found himself in a familiar room of white. This was the very same room he had entered on his way to the Beast Master Tower the first time. But this time, there weren't the pedestals around, nor was there anyone manning the podium ahead.
It was completely empty.
'Something is wrong.'
Lorien groggily shook awake, her body shuddering with pain. She couldn't help but wince when she felt Sylas' hand tighten on her, but she understood why immediately.
They were no longer in the Quest realm, which meant that her stats had returned to normal. Sylas knew that the person he had fought in the Quest realm wasn't the same woman at all. She was exponentially more powerful right now.
That said… she also didn't have control over the world in this place either. However, if Lorien had to choose… she would much rather control over her own body.
Quite quickly though, she too realized the problem with this place.
'Leave.'
Sylas made a decision. Standing here wasn't going to fix anything.
He exited, moving not toward the Beast Master Tower, but instead in the opposite direction. The hope was to return to the dust roads of the bazaar.
The city was nice, but it was also the place with the highest concentration of powerhouses. Going back to where the common people were would hopefully help him out rather than harm him. Then he could find a way to do what he needed to do.
…
The commotion reached Sylas' ears first. Now that he was off of Earth and the Quest world, he didn't dare to use the full range of his visualization. So rather than his usual two-kilometer radius, he had instead restricted things to about five meters or so around him.
He exited the elevator, looking for a path out of the city, only to hear screams and the rushing noise of Aether.
Sylas took a strong, sudden step back, causing Lorien to wince in silent pain.
An arrow whizzed right by him.
He had only just taken the step back when he took one forward. He might not be able to see stats, but he could read the stats of the flying arrow just by judging its speed alone. Judging by Earth's standards, whoever fired it barely had stats above 5000 or so.
The fact that he had run into such a person at random was its own story, especially since no one on Earth he knew of, other than some King Beasts, had stats like that.
But it hardly mattered.
The instant he stepped out, without even gazing at it, he turned a palm toward the wall the arrow had embedded itself into. An illusory hand gripped around it, ripping it out of the wall.
Sylas brought his hand back around and across his body in a sharp whipping motion. The arrow whizzed back in the direction it came even faster than it had come, whistling through the air.
There was no sound when it collided, ripping right through the forehead of the archer. Any sound it would have made was drowned out by the distance it crossed the commotion of the rest of the battlefield.
Lorien's eyes twitched.
How could telekinesis possibly be strong enough to rip an arrow of that caliber out from such a solid wall? That was absolutely impossible.
Could she easily rip it out with her hand? Yes. But it wouldn't even be worth it between running over there and doing the actual motion. She would much rather use her own weapon.
But with her telekinesis?
She could obviously lift the arrow itself, but the power needed to rip it out of the wall…
'Monster…'
Lorien was so stunned that she forgot to even consider why such a battle was happening in the first place. For Sylas, however, this was all he was thinking about.
His kill caught quite some attention, but at first glance, it wasn't even obvious who was fighting on which side.
Races of all shapes and sizes were locked in a chaotic moshpit, battling it out.
'Scavengers?'
This was the first thought that came to mind.
Lorien hurriedly lowered her head, a pink mist covering her up. Though he noticed this, Sylas didn't bother to say anything. Not only did he not care, but three figures had suddenly rushed him.
There was a man with low-hanging earlobes pierced with numerous semi-circular golden earrings.
Another had the claws and feet of wolves, but the face of a man that just had particular fierce sideburns and sharp canines. His eyes glowed an eerie grin and Sylas could feel something slimy slithering up against his Will.
The last had a tail that could only be said to be from a slug. The coat that covered it might have been beautiful if it wasn't covered in an oozing slime that not only smelled terrible but had the consistency of runny boogers.
Sylas' Will twitched.
The eyes of the wolf man went dim and he collapsed mid-stride, his face hitting the marbled ground so hard his skull shattered. At first glance, it wasn't obvious what happened at all. Only Lorien seemed to sense that Sylas used his telekinesis to accelerate the fall.
The earlobe man's mouth unhinged as though there were latches in his jaw. He unleashed a howl, but Sylas only waved out a backhand.
An illusory hand of emerald manifested, smashing his face in half.
But by this point, the slug man had closed the last of the distance, his mouth pursing in a spitting motion while his tail swept out from the back from what he thought was Sylas' blindspot… until he froze in place.
His tail was locked by a mysterious power while his throat was already in Sylas' palm.
Crack.
A sickening sound echoed as his windpipe was crushed in Sylas' hand.
Sylas tossed him to the side, prepared to simply move on when his eyes narrowed.
His body flickered and he vanished from the spot as a heavy bolt manifested from what felt like thin air.
When he appeared again, he was already standing outside the tower, facing off against the tall city walls and the chaos around it.
But his gaze was instead focused on a group of women riding a cloud through the skies.
Petals of the Seeing Thorn.