With one leg stretched over the other YuJu was having a leisurely time in his ice bath

'What to do today, making some experiments on the thralls seems like a bad idea, cant fil their numbers as easily with most of our race gone with the mist, no use training my followers since each is walking a path of their own already, no major happenings are near, not with the mist barring anything from occurring anyway'

His busy schedule was freeing up over time, leaving him with little choice but to consider secondary plans

'Can't help it since everything is so peaceful, been a week since the last raid and I have not seen a trace of wraiths all this time, guess I could check out the couple from before? That mean seemed interesting enough to spend a bit of time searching for'

Once he made his mind he got up, ready to dry himself when a sense of danger came over him like a bolt from the sky

'That was….that parasite's direction wasn't it?'

It reminded him that the thing had yet to receive a name, as was his newest follower, the Witness, something he thought about while getting properly clothed, as for the parasite? It should manage to last until he arrived one way or another

'I wanted to go back to Hortus and solve the 'mysterious infiltrator' before humanity cleared its danger anyway, else he would be further suspected to be one of the few unknown people helping out, or maybe helping from the shadows, either way not a good thing for the weak race to currently suffer for

"Ellis, hold the forte, tell Ika to inform Mia that I will be out for a bit"

"Yes Master"

"Yes my Lord"

Ellis, and surprisingly Ika who came out of hiding, answered watching him leave, somewhat puzzled why he did not address Ika directly since he was supposed to know she's there

'What a blunder, almost made them realize that I could not sense her when she doesn't look at me, I would have to pay extra attention and find a way to remedy the situation later'

After outing himself he learned not to be careless when referring to her, or talking aloud about things she was not supposed to hear

With that in mind he made way toward the underground lava labyrinth, coming before the bright liquid from which arose a many eyed floating octopus with its mow wide open, the large pupil inside staring at him in annoyance

"Time to go do your first task…?"

As the creature approached with its smoldering heat, getting within very close proximity of him YuJu's eyes quickie turned to the rock held in one of its limbs, information of the otherwise unknown object filling up his mind like when one artificially leveled up a skill

Forgotten Tinders: The remains of the Forgotten Flame that could not be erased from the world's memory due to outside interference, forever trapped as a testimony to the flame's exitance

"What were you planning to do with this?"

YuJu asked, seeing as it might be a useful item, the Witness responded to his question by giving a quick demonstration

Munch munch~

"..."

Watching the thig eat those precious minerals made him frown, until he saw the other devolved creatures come out with a similar stone each

"Gather those things and don't eat them, I have uses for their special property, in the meantime grab that follower of yours and have the others make some noise in the mist without exposing themselves while we go finish off your first task, which should be mostly a breeze"

Not liking being given orders the Witness increased the temperature around in defiance, its actions however complied with the orders given, it wasn't like it knew not the limit of what could be done like Ellis who understood little of the soul's working, one wrong move might result in getting forced under the pressure of its own will to do what it was supposed to anyway

Taking the Witness and the follower he saw holding the biggest tinder after storing the rest of the precious mineral in his spatial storage, YuJu made way into the dreadful mist

"Go into hiding, keep your eyes on me and don't get lost in this place"

Though he said so his body disappeared before his servant and its follower, forcing the former to try tracking his general location down through their connection while burning itself with gray flames that tore its existence from the perception of anything that sought finding it, and so did its follower

'Good, its keeping up'

With them hidden nothing could be a bother, and since the Witness kept its eyes strained in his direction trying to locate him he could easily tell its own location, easing him to know that it was still following

Before long the group got to a somewhat unique area in this dead land, where tree fret of leaves stood, something not seen anywhere else for trees survived not the Haunting mist, and if they did then the wraiths would make sure to uproot them dead for such blasphemy

'Gotta get rid of these guys first'

Seeing the few wispy wraiths overpopulating the withered forest he brandished his sickles, taking them by surprise one after the other without so much as a sound, before a call for help could be sent every single wraith perished, becoming food for his continuously growing power

"I've taken all the enemies out for the time being, you need not keep the illusion ground erect"

He spoke to the dead trees, his figure coming out of hiding

"Good sir! It is great to finally meet you, you've no idea how troublesome these wraiths have been, I couldn't escape the disaster overfilling this land, stuck here to fend for myself against their mere deadly presence, I-"

"It's okay, your forest needs all types of energy to grow, even deathly energy, thus I blame you not for staying here and leeching off the disaster brought upon the human lands"

"...Please do not be offended, Sir"

"Beleive me when I say I'm not, rather, you leeching off their energy helped tide the war to the human side, small as your contribution may be in the grand scheme of things"

He assured quickly, sensing a few eyes peering from the distance, coming their way in cautious strides

"Since we are so short on time I just wanted you to be ready for some corpses being delivered soon enough, high rank ones at that so it is a good idea to gather as little wraiths for nourishment as possible, your illusion grounds won't hold on much if all the fruit start focusing on absorbing new energy after all"

Finishing his piece he vanished once more, following which the trees sent out a wave of colorless energy that hid the place from normal senses, fooling the approaching wraiths to think it was as barren as any other place, maybe a somewhat quieter and relaxing than the rest, suggesting they rest here, just for a tiny little while….

Managing to fool the new wraiths into staying brought an aged sigh from the centermost tree with a pool hidden under its earthly ground, leafless branches rattling both in relief and excitement

"Hehehe, new prey finally coming, a taste to yearn for"

Thinking of the suggestion of lessening the wraiths numbers however it considered keeping them around for longer, couldn't be too late to get rid of them when the new meal really came right?

Far away from the greedy forest YuJu was already making quick progress through the mist toward Hortus's direction, passing by one wave of army after the other, each large enough for a raid on their own

'Looks like the war is coming to an end soon'

This many armies in one place only meant the other fronts were given up, opening places in the mist for the stranded groups of humans to make a run for it while the wraiths mounted their last attack on the strongest settlement, victory or defeat determined in the next battle

'With the Witness and its followers we cant lose anyway, what matters is whether or not we can without exposing them, and how much can we kill off the wraiths before they retreat'

He knew winning didn't meant the enemy would be annihilated, in fact the true leaders would not easily show themselves, why would they when they could just move to another weaker location where they reap away lives to gather up numbers once more, readying up for another raid on the human race once numbers were enough, that's why it was called Haunting Mist, as it haunts you to extinction

'Troublesome as they may be to others they truly are a boon to us'

One thing about humanity was, it only grew stronger with time, no bars holding the valiant race, problematic as they may be

With such thoughts he sped toward Hortus, not even bothering much about answering the parasite's incessant calls for rescue