Under the terrace's canopy of trees two figures were jumping across branches, one a jackal the size of a bear chasing the lanky human who turned out to be none other than YuJu, more precisely, the parasite taking his form

'What the hell is Master waiting for!!'

After running for hours on ends, easily going over a day and a half, the parasite was utterly exhausted, what's worse was that YuJu was already here as it could feel him through their bond, only he did not lend a hand in any way at all for the entire three hours that he'd been watching

'Even if he wants to switch with me without anyone noticing it's impossible for me to do something about it, I'm already at my wit's end just trying to survive'

At this point it just wanted to throw itself at the beast to end the darned chase and have him give rescue, and considering how valuable their bond was it took the thought seriously

'Oh? Master is coming close! Guess he finally decided to intervene'

Inwardly sighing in relief it slowed slightly, just enough for the beat to come closer for a bite, something not to Fret about with YuJu near

"??"

Something, not visible to the eyes, tripped it, with YuJu being right next to it means it must be his foot! At which point the parasite wondered whether it really was that disposable to him, perhaps he could replace it anytime?

Munch!

A maw proved it right, teeth sinking into both sides of its body as mercilessly as its master had let it be bitten

'That little!'

Tsssss

Were its last thoughts before a beam of gray fire tore away its lower body, the rest being shoved into the remained of the also burnt away creature by the unseen YuJu

What it felt next was the body shoving it in being blown away by the fire too, crashing straight into the large tower like a cannonball while it was hidden inside the dead beast

Boom!

The tower didn't even shake as YuJu was blasted into it, sliding down leaving a trail of flesh on it from the friction

"Finally, took all that to lure you out, I almost thought you actually didn't exit for a moment there"

YuJu smiled as he wiped the trail of blood next to his mouth, speaking toward the Witness disappearing under the gray flames, but truly intending for the two factions watching to hear his 'reasoning' for being chased around like a weakling

"Come on, trying to hide away like before?"

He spoke to empty air, eyes following the hidden Witness like a magnet

"Perhaps if you've remained hidden I would never be able to find you, now that you've shown me your energy however…"

His body shimmered with every word, slowly fading out of existence just like the other

"You can never hide again"

That was the spark of a horrifying battle, one where neither side could clearly be seen, only explosions meeting flying daggers appeared without notice, scaring the inhabitants of the terrace to run to other regions only to still get mixed in the crossfire of the unknown enemies

Under Aminta' and her general's eyes as well as the secretly watching Genus Insania the terrace which they were so proud of as the first line of defence was quarter burned to the ground by flames that spread fast but disappeared just as quickly, smoking patches of land into barren earth

"Tell me I did not just witness a, well, Witness"

"No my friend, what you saw was no ordinary Witness, whatever flames that creature bears must have been found through beholding a true treasure, otherwise it wouldn't be able to help it disappear from even our very own eyes"

Verbrand grimly answered Latvia who was paler than a vampire, something that could not be located having such great power was truly a nightmare for people like her who soly depended on vision

'Wasnt the real reason for his absence supposed to be that mist? Actually, isnt he supposed to be absent?! Then what the hell is going on??'

Her mind was filled with questions, many of which could only be suppressed as YuJU was undoubtedly fighting something of horrible caliber right now, something only he could fight with his special ability to track things

'DId he say that he could track it just because he felt its energy once?....That man is the real monster here'

Her mind, like everyone else, keys on that phrase rather quickly, finally getting a clue to how he actually did things

'Or he could be misleading us? Wouldnt put it past him'

She knew him too well to take those words at face value, considering the possibility of him wanting to confuse their enemy, perhaps this clue was far from the truth, she could only know after trying to ask once he was done battling, hopefully coming out uninjured

Her belief in him, doubtful as it may be, was actually more than he deserved, especially with how all this 'fighting' was actually a show too

'There, and here and there, a few more there'

Throwing his knives out carefully YuJu tried to avoid areas where some useful beasts live, decimating the otherwise useless beast's nests by having the Witness blast it as soon as the knife appeared while they had a slow walk around

'Okay, I think this is enough'

Once enough damage was caused to the land he turned to the follower who was tagging along quietly, moving his eyes then toward the WItness

"Blast it from the back, leave a hole tearing through where the center eye should be, make sure to cover the land with your camouflaging fire so no one can see you doing this"

He spoke to it, making all the eyes turn red in anger as it had to kill its own follower like it was putting down a dog, but what could it do other than follow the command like a dog itself

Thus with some guilt, it flew behind its follower, charging up for an attack that would inevitably show its form, which it countered by detonating a smaller explosion around to cover both it and the smaller devolved Witness who was stabbed in the back, or blasted to be more accurate, without even realizing that its commander was the one who betrayed it

The flames of the first explosion died down quickly, revealing no trace of the WItness but instead YuJu standing above a dead one with a hole bore through its middle, ragged his breath and burnt his skin, burnt as he bore the explosion fire for some make believe wounds

"That was, disappointing, to say the least, thought there would be more of a fight from you"

His tone was condensing, looking unbothered even as his very flesh was burnt charcoal, lifting his had and

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