(Time-Stilled World, Tree Perch Overlooking Castle Bravo, Leo's POV)
Over the next two days, Leo observed two bizarre phenomena occur within the castle walls, as he constantly monitored the ancient castle from his makeshift perch for any unusual activities.
On the first day, about a few hours after he began observing the castle, he saw movement within it for the first time.
It had to be dawn, based on how the sky had started to brighten up just slightly, when a spectre emerged from the heart of the central fortress, garbed in pristine white robes.
The hem of the spectre's dress trailed against the floor without resistance, as though gravity itself dared not pull at the being's attire, as it moved across the castle slowly, but not aimlessly.
In one hand, it held a long, silver incense stick, unlit, yet somehow leaving behind a trail of translucent blue smoke that curled through the courtyard like steam rising from hot coals.
Its presence was not overly hostile, but it did not feel harmless either.
As the spectre made a single circuit of the courtyard, its translucent feet floating inches above the fractured tiles, Leo noticed how the corrupted mana surrounding the walls recoiled slightly wherever it passed, as though afraid to taint the being's path.
Then, exactly fifteen minutes after its appearance, the spectre returned to the fortress and vanished behind its sealed doors, leaving the courtyard once again untouched by life or motion.
Leo didn't blink or speak, he simply stared at the smoke trail, which lingered for nearly an hour after the spectre's departure, before being slowly absorbed into the castle walls.
Twelve hours later, precisely at what Leo assumed was sunset in this time-stilled world, the spectre reappeared with the same unlit incense stick in hand, as it performed the same tranquil orbit of the courtyard, like clockwork.
"It's a priest…" Leo muttered under his breath, piecing together the ritualistic pattern, "Or a relic performing a priest's duty… still walking the Castle's grounds and praying to a dead God."
The fact that it moved without hesitation or variation suggested programming, or madness.
But the sheer aura it emitted said otherwise.
Because even from afar, Leo could feel the pressure shift every time the being passed near the part of the wall he was closest to.
As although it did not shift to look at him, Leo still felt his breath being stifled, when he saw the priest pass by.
'The priest is at least a monarch tier being…. The pressure it exudes is too strong to be just a transcendent grade spectre!' Leo concluded internally, as he realized just how dangerous it was to enter the central building, where the priest allegedly lived for the remaining 24 hours.
—-----------
Although the first day was shocking, it was the second one when the castle revealed something far more disturbing. Something that made Leo's heart lurch and his instincts scream louder than before.
It began when a group of four beasts emerged from the western edge of the corrupted forest.
From his perch, Leo recognized them as Grandmaster-tier Ash Wolves, their silver-black pelts rippling with unstable mana, as they looked like feral hounds chasing an instinct rather than a prey.
They moved cautiously, sniffing the boundary around the castle wall, before slowly circling it until they found a small hole about two feet wide and four feet tall, which they used to enter.
'Here we go—' Leo thought, as he nervously watched for any signs of alarm or any exaggerated reaction from within the castle walls, however, nothing of the sort happened.
The priest with the incense stick did not appear, nor did the threat he could sense residing inside the barracks, as although the wolves sniffed around the stone tiles of the courtyard and walked with reckless abandon, they were not harmed.
Then, after ten minutes of sniffing and pacing across the cracked courtyard with the kind of arrogant abandon that only beasts possess, the wolves growled low and departed the same way they came, leaving Leo uncertain, about whether his fear over the castle's hidden danger was exaggerated, or real?
But then… something else happened that made his heart jump out of his chest.
As roughly an hour later, another shape approached from the northern slope, this one an armored spectre, that seemed to charge towards the castle with vengeance in its eyes.
The armored spectre radiated the aura of a Transcendent-tier combatant and it seemed to be headed straight towards the central building, for it made a beeline towards it after entering the Castle's borders.
'Here we go!' Leo thought again, his grip unconsciously tightening around his dagger, as he expected this to be the real test of the dangers lurking inside the castle!
And it proved to be exactly that, as the moment it made its way across the common courtyard and towards the central building, the spirit inside the barracks stirred.
A ghost in silver armor, tall and regal, wielding a peculiar blade that looked almost like a broken tuning fork appeared before the transcendent tier challenger, and then, in a single instant, neutralized the threat.
*BOOM*
The air twisted. The stone cracked. The very light inside the courtyard warped, as though pulled into a black hole centered around that silver knight.
And just like that— the Transcendent tier spectre that had come to attack the castle was defeated and erased from existence forever.
"The fuck was that attack?" Leo whispered in shock, his breath being caught in his throat, as every single thing inside the courtyard—including an unlucky tainted crow perched on the wall—were sliced in half.
The attack wasn't just a simple strike.
It was a domain.
A killing field wrapped in precision, cast by a being that didn't even seem fully awake.
Leo's mouth went dry, as the implications began to weigh heavier than the binoculars in his hand.
"This isn't just a castle… it's a fortress with automated monarch level security," he whispered, as he leaned his back against the tree trunk, pulling the binoculars away slowly, his mind reeling from shock.
"Just how the fuck am I supposed to breach that place, let alone steal from it?" He mused, as let alone the dangers that lurked inside the central building, simply the ones that were visible outside made this seem like an impossible mission to even attempt.