Chương 51: CHASE THROUGH THE FOREST

A man in ragged, patchwork clothes stumbled and ran, his chest heaving with exhaustion. His face was obscured by a heavy, unkempt grey beard, but his eyes—a striking, clear blue—glinted fiercely in the harsh afternoon sunlight as he desperately scanned his surroundings. His head was covered by a worn, floppy straw hat. What made his flight remarkable were his boots: oversized, scarred leather affairs that looked clumsy but, through a complex, Array inscribed on the soles, he covered ground with unnatural haste.

Close behind him, a group of six pursuers maintained an unnerving, relentless pace. They were clad in grey tunics with leather armour and hoods that cover thier heads. The first two assailants were the fastest. One, a man with a severe buzz cut and a tight, sleeveless crop top revealing lean, scarred abdominal muscles, hurled a volley of metal discs. These were not thrown by hand but propelled by Flow, acting as conduits for his Trait.

The disks immediatly accelerated without resistance or inertia and rotated with a lethal hiss, aiming to disable the old man's legs. The second man, a broad-shouldered individual, utilized his Cognitive Trait to mentally attack the target but he seemed to have either some form of resistance or an artifact that protected him from mind attacks. Seeing his efforts were futile, the second man threw the spear he was holding and barely missed the old man who at that moment, decided to make a hard right turn.

The old man looked back as one of his assailants retrived the spear and prepared to launch it again while the other one released more disks and, with a grunt of effort, pulled a handful of artifacts from a leather pouch on his belt. They were small, delicate contraptions, shaped exactly like reddragonflies, fashioned from glowing wire and thin layers of mica. He tossed them backward in a wide arc. As they flew, a powerful Replication Array activated.

The six original fireflies instantly doubled, then quadrupled, creating a swarm of, buzzing artifacts. They flew directly at the pursuers faces, not only impeding their vision but also emitting a low-frequency Flow pulse that interfered with their sensory input and stings that caused thier muscles to slowly slacken. The distraction was momentary but effective, as it held back most of the pursuers.

The two in front—the Cosmic Class inertia manipulator with the buzz cut and the broad shouldered one with the spear—broke through. Buzz cut threw his disks again, this time aiming for the old man's oversized boots. The old man quickly fumbled at his belt, where a curious, bone-white hoop was fastened: a Dream Catcher. He slammed his palm against the hoop's center. A vast, invisible Flow Array immediately expanded omni-directionally. The effect was immediate and overwhelming.

The world around the pursuers shimmered violently. The leaf covered path in the forest turned into a pit of writhing vipers, the trees twisted into screaming, skeletal figures, and the air filled with the sounds of their deepest, most personalized fears. They staggered, clutching their heads, their controlled pursuit instantly dissolving into confusion and panicked defense against non-existent threats. However, the spearman possessed a Cognitive Class Trait.

While the full force of the Dream Catcher's illusion hit him, he experienced it only as a brief, intense flicker—a horrifying mental image lasting less than a second—before his Cognitive Trait asserted brutal control, classifying the sensory input as false data and seemingly cancelled it out, forcing perception back to reality. The two men sped forward. The old man, seeing his most powerful evasive technique fail, tried one last trick.

He frantically pulled out a vial of thick, luminous green liquid, which he hurled at the ground behind him. The vial burst, releasing a wave of fluid that instantly expanded into a large, quivering jelly-like dome. The two pursuers were forced to detour, circling the obstacle and losing valuable seconds. The spearman however threw his spear which pierced the old man in the thigh and brough his advance to a halt as he fell and slided on the ground, groaning in pain.

The buzz cut man closed the distance in three swift strides, stopping instantly band directly over the fallen figure. The the other one arrived moments later and pulled his spear free, ignoring the old mans screams." You shouldn't be running around like that old man." The buzz cut man said with a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck were a tatoo of a rose being pierced through by a sword was." Its not good for your health. If only you'd just come with us instead of opting for a game of tag."

The old man glared up at him with a defiant look in his eyes waranting a powerful kick to his woulded leg that sent hijm flying into a tree some feet away.

"Now don't get any funny ideas. You either come with us willingly or we drag your corpse. It wouldn't matteer either way as we'll still get what we want so I 'encourage' you to advise yourself.'' The buzz cut man said, staring down at him with a face devoid of emotion. The old man lifted his head, and spat a stream of blood and phlegm onto the buzz cut man's boot." I see, you have chosen the latter then." The buzz cut man said with a nod, as if this act of defiance was an expected formality.

He didn't flinch or show anger. He simply kicked a small pebble at his feet which, without inertia, quickly accelerated like a bullet and pierced the mans forehead and causig it to explode.

"Torvin!" the spearman shouted, his voice laced with surprise and anger.

"You didn't have to kill him! We needed the—""Shut up, Jax," the buzz cut man, Torvin, snapped, already approaching to collect the headless corpse." Let's get the retrieval done before those Hunters show up." In the distance, the men whe were help up by the dragonflies ran toward them while Torvin knelt down on one knee and produced a body bag. He reached out and the moment his fingers brushed the rough fabric of the old man's ragged tunic. The world around them fractured.

With a sound like tearing parchment, the air violently rippled and burst, releasing a massive cloud of vibrant, choking blue smoke. The smoke obscured everything, rolling outward to cover a wide area. Jax immediatly slammed the spear into the ground creating a shockwave that dispelled the smoke. As the blue smoke dispersed, the truth was horrifyingly revealed. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Their men who had been approaching them were not men at all.

They were beasts a whole pack of them—a total of twelve towering, muscular wolf-like creatures with thick, obsidian-black hides, six eyes that glowed sickly yellow, and mouths full of razor-sharp, overlapping teeth. They were Awakened Beasts, their forms twisted by the proximity of the Iron Forest's Node.

"The illusion…" Jax said covering his left eye witha wince, his voice thin with realization.

"It was never dispelled, It only made me think it was."

"Meaning the old man got away and the illusion fell apart because we're out of range.'' Torvin concluded spitting in annoyance. He glanced down at the place where the old man's body had been. There was nothing but a pile of rags and a large, intricately carved wooden puppet with a timer that set to explode. Their target was gone. The nearest one lunged, its black claws extended. Torvin reacted with lethal, instant precision.

He applied his ability to the beats lower body causing it to stay still while the upper body moved foward causing it th get torn in two by its own movement. The rest of the pack let out growls and spread out to surround the two.

"The smoke is an attraction agent. That old bastard, he played us from the start! Damn it!" They began to fight, the two mercenaries cutting through the swarm with terrifying efficiency but more creatures just kept appearing.

"He's just an Artificer at the Vortary level!" Torvin yelled in frustration, slicing another beast.

"How could he give us this much trouble?"

"Because that man is the best Artificer on the continent," Jax reminded him, creating a sudden vacuum that slammed three beasts into the ground.

"He has been evading capture for a decade. Of course this would be difficult." He said as he threwhis spear and skewered three beasts and impaled them to a tree. Meanwhile, miles away, concealed within the chaotic depths of the Forest, the real old man staggered through the dense foliage. He burst out of a thicket and collapsed through the doorway of a beaten-down, wooden shack.

The shack was almost completely invisible, hidden by a series of, overlapping Sensory Arrays he had woven into the surrounding trees—a temporary, barely viable refuge. He dragged himself to a chair and collapsed onto the rough wood, his entire body shuddering with exhaustion. He threw the heavy sack he had been carrying onto the ground.

The sack landed with a muffled thud, and its contents spilled out: a collection of intricate, clockwork mechanisms, vials of glowing Flow reagents, several partially constructed metal bird artifacts, an obsidian leafblade dagger and a large, leather-bound schematic ledger. The old man let out a long, ragged sigh, resting his head back.

"That was close," he muttered, his blue eyes fluttering shut.

"They still won't let me rest, those ugly cunts. I'll have to lay low for at least another month before I even think of moving out. Damn them." <Diary Entry I'm back in my Spirit Domain, but even here, where nothing should exist but thought, my muscles still ache from Roric's ridiculous drills. I find a strange comfort in the pain, though; it's proof that I'm not entirely useless and that I'm finally grasping the world.

Turns out that the book Ortis gave me has Infinate pages and absorbs knowledge from other books into its pages. It also will appear blank to anyone other than me. I named it my 'Velvet Archive' and spent hours transferring information from my old diary into this one and burnt the old one. Now I have this, I can now plan out my way around Deus' curse on me and arrange my thoughts through writing.

I also drew blue prints for a number of machunes from my Earth and they actally work better with flow, I drew a few scematics for advanced machines and made up for the loopholes with Flow theory and they actually worked. This further emphasises my belief that Flow is the only way to break my immortality. Ijust recently found out avout resonants. Roric was shocked that i didn't know what they were and Aina made the excusen that she didm't tell me because I had no trait yet and so telling me would break my morale.

(Sigh) Anyway, Resonants are unique, powerful ability you unlock from your Trait's specific authority every time you break through a new stage of the Ladder Of Ascension. It's a targeted power-up. I went over the Tarot-named Traits again, still wondering if this naming system is some grand, cosmic joke. I had to put on my best perfromance in order to get Aina to teach me. She started with the Cosmic Class, the traits that governed physical laws, fusion, acceleration, deceleration, distance, force, mass, and weight.

'The Magician' presided over the law of Vectors, Direction and Distance.

'The Chariot', with its resourceful and focused personality, had authority over Acceleration and Deceleration.

'The Wheel Of Fortune' governed Time, a concept that still fascinated him.

'The Star' governed Forces of Attraction, the force that drew all things together. And finally,'The Sun', with its joyful and vibrant personality, presided over Energy, the transformation and flow of power between and into states. She moved on to the Cognitive Class, the traits that governed dreams, thoughts, memories, empathy, emotions, and perception.

'The High Priestess', secretive by nature, had authority over Memories and hidden truths.

'The Justice', objective and analytical, had authority over Empathy and emotions.

'The Hermit', introspective and wise, presided over Thoughts and the inner self.

'The Moon', with its mysterious nature, governed Dreams and illusions. And'The Tower', disruptive and revelatory, had authority over Perceptual Change, forcing new truths onto people's minds. Next came the Existential Class, the traits that governed fate, destiny, entropy, chaos, and causality.

'The Empress', had authority over Order and Permanence.

'The Emperor ', inversely had authority over Disorder and Change. The trend of these Authorities caused me to wonder, how Aina, whose secondary trait was The Emperor ended up with electromanetism. But then again, electromagnetism was as a result of the disorder between charged particles so it was fine. Moving on, Aina talked about the'The Hanged Man', philosophical and accepting, governed Fate and Destiny.

'Death', with its transformative nature, had authority over Causality, the cause and effect of all actions.

'Temperance', balanced and harmonious, governed Equilibrium, Harmony and Balance. Finally, she came to the Soulfire Class, the traits that governed souls, life, death, decay, rebirth, and oblivion.

'The Hierophant', traditional and spiritual, had authority over Souls and Spiritual energy.

'The Lovers', connective and passionate, presided over Bonds. The Strenght', with its courageous nature, had authority over Integration and power.

'The Devil', manipulative and controlling, had authority over Decay and Degeneration. And'The Judgement', with its reflective personality, had authority over Transfiguration. I did note that two traits, The Fool and The World, were anomalies and not part of the system and could be anything. If I Ascendhigher, I will get a new resonant that matches my approach to godhood. Mybe I can develop an ability that will counteract my immortality. But first I need to find out what my Trait is.

My first resonant whch enables me to manifest phenomena based on specific parameters doesn't seem to fit any of the Authorities mention and even goes against some whivh leads me to believe that i am an Anomaly. But which one? Theres no use thinking about it, Anyway, my reserch time compression experiment in the Domain worked—I fit a whole day of analysis into six real-world hours—but the exhaustion hit me like a wall this morning. I felt heavy, like I had stones in my bones.

I wanted to just lie there, but of course, Aina burst through the door the minute the sun touched the window, with her usual, "Rise and shine, lazy bones." I hate how demanding she is, but I knew better than to argue, so I dragged myself out of bed. Lets see what today has instore for me. >