I Awakened My Game System! Now Three Great Houses Want Me Dead!-Chapter 97: Lost
Now that everything else was behind him, literally in a sense, Xenos was finally ready to prepare the conditions of becoming a Shepherd.
’Experience,’ he could get on the way, but the Rune he wanted?
He’d likely only get it from Tartaros itself.
Of course, even if he did find it and got the ’experience’ for it, he’d still need to learn Synaxis.
Xenos wasn’t particularly worried. If anything, he was excited.
His kind of ’excited,’ which usually meant trouble for everyone else.
The path was clear in his mind: find the Rune, get stronger, and learn Synaxis, the one technique that separated normal Runebearers from upcoming powerhouses.
Again, that was the biggest bottleneck in the lower classes.
A technique of using, or rather, embodying all Runes simultaneously.
Letting them all breathe together until they painted themselves across the body.
The state that allowed for a partial transformation, a mini internal Rune Domain.
He could already imagine it... or so he wished he could.
’I wonder how I’d look...’
That was all he could think.
There wasn’t an idea in his mind.
Perhaps that was one of the first steps in learning Synaxis.
Anyhow, without wasting time, he had broken into a sprint after leaving the manor.
Husband, Stranger, Wise Fool, and chosen of a Goddess, heading straight back into the place he loved most, chaos.
More accurately, his destination was the same place where he’d fallen before.
If it hadn’t been blocked up yet, that was his way back down.
Only Inquisitors were allowed to physically Dive into Tartaros, so for Xenos, this was as illegal as it was perfect.
’What could possibly go wrong~?’
...
Two days later, he had his answer.
He had met Calamity before he’d even gotten there.
Reaching a forest, Xenos had switched up the way he moved.
No longer running, he stepped around, using his quick acceleration with the Light Element to easily weave in between trees, finding optimal routes that sent him further and further.
His body flashed, vanished, only to appear many dozen steps ahead, and then once more, a flash of momentum too fast to trace, scaring many a bird from branches as his light form zipped past, where every flash left a faint ripple of heat behind.
It was obvious that he was enjoying himself, but the moment he reappeared on a boulder...
"Damn."
That grin of his faded quick.
After each appearance, he’d quickly scan the dense treeline.
Something he had to do when routing out the path ahead.
And that meant that he could also see what was there.
...or rather ’who’ was there.
The ’who’ that stood before him was a walking graveyard.
A big, pale, hairless, and hunched ape-like corpse, its flesh sagging off with each drag of its body, its long fangs tearing through the dirt beneath.
Behind it came dozens more, all twisted and rotting.
—
Name: Vrykolakas
Rank: Brephos
Runes: -
—
"Vrykolakases..."
Xenos sighed, knowing what that meant.
"Great."
Indeed, their presence meant only one thing.
’A Daemon’s here.’
His face looked grim.
’Death ones are the worst.’
He crouched lower, his eyes narrowing.
Daemons were of Corruption, and they, like Runebearers, could hold many an Element.
In all their Elements, Daemons were annoying and damned exhausting to fight.
But of them all, Death was the most disgusting and the most dangerous.
Oh, those of Death were bastards.
Since Daemons would become stronger the more they spread terror, Death was perfect for them, allowing them to efficiently terrorize the realm, even without them doing anything.
The name ’Death’ was already enough for it to be strong.
Yes, they had to just exist and be strong. The concept alone gave them strength, because nearly everyone, mortal, divine, or otherwise, feared Death itself.
Even Runebearers who managed to obtain the Death Rune were naturally strong.
Though despite that, or rather, because of it, they’d be considered cursed, treated even worse than those with Runes like Xenos’s, simply too unlucky, as most Runebearers broke the very moment their Souls touched a Death Root Rune.
The unlucky ones who didn’t... well, they’d ended up looking like a zombie.
And no, they wouldn’t be like the ones currently before Xenos.
Those Vrykolakases were summoned by a Daemon.
The zombie a Runebear turned to would be much like that Daemon, only way weaker.
Because truly, those Daemons were much more terrifying, as they too bore Death without a mind, unable to bear the burden of the Element, making them literal walking natural disasters.
After all, they acted the part of necromancers, summoning many a Vrykolakas, an infinite army of corpses that never tired, while walking around aimlessly, chasing after Runes wherever they went.
No wonder most people avoided them.
You couldn’t fight something that didn’t stop.
Villagers and towns usually didn’t have anyone strong enough to kill the Daemon summoning them, and they couldn’t handle fighting a war against one that had nearly infinite soldiers, so they let them do as they wanted.
But if you accidentally killed even a single Vrykolakas?
Congratulations. You now had a horde coming to avenge it.
Worse yet, one couldn’t get any stronger from killing them.
Because again, ’experience’ was only what remained of the Soul.
And those things? Well, they didn’t have any Soul, and so, no ’experience.’
So yeah, it was a lost cause.
If Xenos were to target the Daemon and assassinate it, that’d be just as dangerous.
Though it had no mind, or basically none, it could still fight back.
One touch was all that it took for mortals to join it in Death.
Runebearers as strong as him could be done in a few.
And no, he likely couldn’t escape the horde, as the Daemon and its kin were tireless.
Sure, perhaps he could have a go at finding someone to help him, but if he did, and they actually agreed to help him, then they’d most likely hold it over him with a Rune Oath, making him no different than a Debt of Oath, so no way he could risk that.
He’d rather die than be someone’s slave.
Freedom and dignity were above all.
