It is baffling that the fusion which creates life itself could birth something so terrible; so vile. Forged within the icy grasp of Aether and the electric vitality of Origin, they roam the Multiverse, promoting dimensional instability and falling entire planets with their horrifying Curses. They are a festering disease. It’s a good thing that the Divine Court seeks to eradicate them.

The Multiversal Bestiary, Chapter 678.

**

And lead the way she did.

According to Mio, the shadow assassin that was currently leading Brock through the weaving streets, the city was known by its residents as ‘Meiyo Aru Machi’. He had found it quite a confusing and long-winded name before she revealed it was actually Japanese for ‘honorable city’, which he could confidently say was not a surprise.

The length of the name was certainly an issue she recognized though, and it was for that reason that many just opted to call it Meiyo. Name aside, the place was… well, it was amazing. Honestly, after witnessing all the poverty and starvation and desperation, Brock didn’t think having such beauty in a city was possible, at least not for a long while.

But here he was, speeding through the streets and alleyways, jumping over trickling streams and shingled rooftops, slowly edging toward the lush expanse of forest beyond. The whole city kind of reminded him of an anime he had seen his brother watching that one time about feudal Japan. All traditional houses and perfectly blended nature.

For the most part, he had to restrict his maximum movement speed, just so Mio could keep up to lead the way. Still, they weren’t moving slowly by any metric, and coupled with several quick, consecutive shadow jumps, she was keeping pace with him at around 100km per hour. It was oddly surreal how easy it was for people to outpace some vehicles now.

In between those bursts, she had managed to convey the full scoop of the situation to Brock, and it only made him even more restless to get to his sister. Apparently, she and her partner had went out on a response to an SOS call from one of their outpost towns in the border of their claimed territory, and that was the last anyone had heard of them.

She had said that the place was found to be in ruins when people came to check up on them the day after they failed to report in. No one found any sign of them, nor aura traces to track them by. They had just simply vanished, and Brock was determined to find them.

Finally, they exploded through the open gate of the wall and trotted into the forest surrounding them. It was mostly a mass of ferns and sprawling trees, though Brock did see a few woodlands creatures, the normal kind. Not the ones that were altered by the System. It was oddly relieving, in a way.

A cool wind lashed against his face as blurs of browns and greens obscured his vision to the left and right. The damp scent of loam and rain tickled his nostrils and soothed his overtaxed mind. Brock took a second to just appreciate the sensations of the ecosystem around him; the chirps of birds, the chilled breeze, the scents and smells. Even the taste of oak on his tongue. His senses had improved significantly since he had been thrust into the System, and it was finally time he enjoyed that.

Brock supposed he missed the simpler things in life. Relaxation was not something that came easy these days. Instead, his life was rife with danger and blood, and he was forced into combat no matter where he went, all just to find his family and help those who needed it. He had never really had time to think about it, but in the five months that he’d been Brock Carter, the powerful warrior, he’d never once had a break.

A snapping of fingers brought him out of his thoughts, “Oi. Stay focused.”

“What?” Brock glanced at Mio who was running alongside him, her brow cocked. He immediately realized his pace had been dropping and he sped up a bit, “Oh. Sorry.”

She narrowed her eyes in his direction, but ultimately chose to dip into the shadows and teleport forward. Brock let a small sigh escape his lips. If not for the fact that she had never even been to the outpost, they wouldn’t be forced to sprint through the countryside like this. The place was only said to be an hour’s drive from Meiyo, but still, he was already exhausted enough.

And while his ribs had healed up somewhat in the meantime, each step he took sent a streak of eye watering agony up his side. For Jane. Fuck… it really hurts though…

That aside, the strange berry Mio had given him had restored Brock’s aura at least to the point where he wouldn’t pass out flat on his face. It was still far from enough to utilize a Technique even a single time, whether it be his first, second, or mysterious third. The throbbing headache had yet to remove itself from his skull, and unfortunately, she didn’t have a weird fruit to fix that.

She did have some Nurofen capsules, although they were a shade of brown and looked like they had expired before his mother was born. Improved Vitality or not, he was not putting those pills inside of him.

Brock would be lying if he didn’t admit that he was worried about finding Jane and her partner. Sure, there was the very real fear that they weren’t even alive anymore, though he tried not to dwell on the thought too much. More so, however, was the fact that he was going in both blind on who the enemy even was and crippled in power, unable to use Techniques or Augments, only his own body.

His primary suspect for the kidnapping was obviously the Skin Walkers. The only issue with that was the fact that he doubted they’d be powerful enough to detain Jane, at least from the rough picture of strength Mio had painted for him. Which meant that also ruled out another human. In the scout’s own words, ‘she isn’t the young matriarch for nothing’.

The second option was something far more likely, he figured. The creator of the Skin Walkers themselves. It didn’t take much knowledge on the perpetrator for him to know that the upcoming fight was going to be a real tough one.

But Brock was used to that at this point.

Clicking his tongue, Brock once more scanned over his pathways as he leapt over a burly tree root, and finally was met with the sight of an expansive plain of lush grasses. The vessels of energy were in utter shambles, stretched out significantly in some places and entirely torn through in others. He was sure his initial prediction was correct.

If he tried to push any sort of energy through them right now, it’d be as good as trying to blow himself up. On a small scale, at least.

All he really had right now was the body that had seen him through thick and thin as well as the trusty blade his brother had created for him. It was an immense pity that the chain knife part had been shattered by Gor’eth Kung, but the asshole had gotten what he deserved in the end anyway. Hopefully, those two things would be enough.

If they’re not…

As plains slowly gave way to the remnants of a road fifty minutes later, Brock spotted the dark silhouettes of structures looming in the distance, disguised by the orange glow of the horizon as the sun began to recede to nighttime. It had only been midafternoon back in Sanctuary, but it seemed that if anything hadn’t changed, it was time zones.

Or at least hadn’t changed too much.

It was only a couple minutes later that the dire situation of the place revealed itself to him. Those structures he had seen were crumbling, barely a ruin and more a mound of rubble. It wasn’t that he hadn’t believed Mio, but the lack of movement he saw really cemented the idea of everyone being well and truly dead.

Their pace slowed as the road finally led them into the town proper, and he saw Mio don a grim expression. He followed suit.

It was a mess. Pieces of people and corpses were thrown everywhere, organs sloughing out and strung over rubble like streamers and decorations. Bloodied handprints littered almost anything one could grab onto, and many faces were locked in an eternal expression of despair and agony. From the wounds, he could tell most were eaten alive.

“Fucking hell…” Brock muttered.

Mio grunted in agreement.

The town was only small, no bigger than a few hundred meters in each direction, with enough houses to house maybe a five hundred people, not that there seemed to be even close to that amount left behind. Brock looked around, but there was no sign of life, not even the artificial kind in the form of Skin Walkers.

They continued through the carnage and turned off into a side street, making their way towards the town center. That was where Jane was reported to have been last traced and also dropped off. What they hadn’t expected was the sheer destruction he witnessed. Sure, there were corpses and the like, although many were now smeared across chunks of stone or crushed between them

The road itself had been torn to pieces, displacing stone and disgusting smells everywhere. Most of the debris had just tumbled back to the breach location and blocked it off, although there were a few gaps where smaller individuals could slip underneath. Brock had no clue where ‘underneath’ actually was, however.

Mio sucked in a breath, and Brock could see her eyes were actively avoiding the mutilated corpses of her fellow clansmen, though she didn’t seem to know any personally, “…this is…”

“Fucked? Yeah, I know mate.” Brock called over his shoulder as he dodged the bodies and walked up to the site of carnage. His aura was weakened, though he still possessed some semblance of his aura senses. It was drastically reduced in both range and effectiveness, but it was enough to verify Mio’s claims.

And sure enough, there was nothing. No traces or anything. Not even the carcasses had an aura trace to them, although they looked like they had been dead quite a while and that was probably why.

“You said they have no idea where she went?”

Mio finally snapped out of her stupor and warped to Brock’s side, gazing down at the mess of stones with him, “That’s what I was told, yes. Even our best couldn’t find anything. No trace, no nothing. Not even her blood.”

Nodding slowly, Brock fished out a crystalline crimson item stuck between the rocks. If not for the gleam of the sun on its lengths, he would have missed it. The item looked like a dagger, sleek and sharp. It had already begun melting, and a fluid of the same color was swiftly coating his hand. A quick sniffed revealed it be to smelling of iron, “…what if the kidnapper… could control blood?”

His companion went silent for a long few moments as she stared toward the blade, “then that would only explain the part about missing blood. Nothing else.”

Brock didn’t respond, instead he rose to his feet and backtracked over to a small glob of the mysterious green and brown fluid that had been splattered everywhere. He carefully dipped his finger in and gave it a whiff, placing the blood blade in his ring as he did so. Brock almost vomited.

That… is literal shit water.

“What? What did yo-” as Mio approached, Brock spun around and wiped his finger onto the cloth part of her combat armor. She froze mid step and met his eyes, “…what did you just wipe on me?”

Brock waved her off, “just liquified feces.”

“…do you want to die?”

The man ignored her and instead trekked a little further down the road, managing to find an area that wasn’t completely ruined. A manhole cover was placed over what he assumed was a manhole, right in the road’s center. He slipped his fingers underneath, and with a grunt, tugged it off and threw it to the side.

A ladder led right down into darkness, and the overpowering scent of sewerage attacked his nostrils.

There we go.

“Did your experts check the sewers?” He asked, keeping his gaze on the descent below.

“No, why?” Mio’s face was still impassive with silent fury, but she still responded.

She teleported over to him, this time wary of the movements of his fingers, and peered down the manhole. Her expression only portrayed bafflement for a moment before she realized, “You think that’s where they went?”

“Well, it’s the only place that wasn’t checked, right?”

Brock spread out his currently feeble aura senses, although he still couldn’t detect anything. Breathing some air out between his lips and snorting out the stench of shit, he took a step back and gestured grandly for Mio to enter, “Ladies first?”

She stared at him for a long while before clicking her tongue and making her way down the ladder, “I’ve known you for less than two hours and I already hate you.”

Brock followed her down, chuckling, “A friendship in the making.”