Our path in life isn’t always in our control. It is easy to say that someone always has a choice, but are the alternatives better? That is fate’s bitter masterpiece.

~Morrigan, The Mysterious Goddess of Fate

The room he was in now was more like a ballroom, and he was sure that at night he’d be able to see the stars through those openings. The floor was a smooth, slick-looking stone, and the patterning was obviously not cheap.

Finding the exit took him a moment, since the walls looked seamless. Ironically, the hidden door was better preserved, so it stood out more from the surrounding walls. Pushing it open, he stepped out into a similar ballroom, only this one was pristine. The door shut behind him, blending back in with the wall as if it had never been there. Now to find out where he was.

As he approached a wooden door that led to the outside, he could hear voices approaching. The sounds of shouting and conflict ushered them closer to the doors he was currently behind.

“Shit,” Crow muttered under his breath and hid behind a pillar. A white-haired boy entered with three big goons behind him, dragging a girl along with them.

“L-let me GO!” the girl shouted, and one of the big goons punched her in the stomach. “My-my grandmother is Orenda, the grand elder of the Hex Witches. You harm me, and you are all as good as dead.”

The boys laughed and turned spectral while dancing around her. Every time they passed by, she had part of her clothes ripped off. Crow clenched his fists upon witnessing this scene but hesitated to take action because the woman mentioned Hex. Just hearing who she claimed to be, Crow involuntarily shuddered and had a sinking feeling in his gut. The following comments brought him to despair.

“Your grandmother ain’t in the sect at the moment. Unhulde is currently on lockdown until the Witchwood Haze draws back. Besides, do you think anyone would plot against me for you? They’d hand you over if I asked, but that isn’t fun, is it? It’s better when my prey runs and resists because, in the end, they always end up begging me to play with them.”

That fucking leprechaun scammed me! What goddamned luck is this shit!? Crow grumbled in his heart. If he guessed right, he just climbed out of hell only to end up in the one place he wanted to avoid. There was no force in existence that could explain how he could randomly backdoor his way into a powerful sect. Just the thought of it was ridiculous. Compounding it further, the sect was currently in lockdown, which meant he couldn’t even bluff his way out. He had to blend in and survive here for a while.

Lily tapped his nose and then pointed at the boys surrounding the girl. Her finger traced a line across her throat and pretended to loot the corpses while putting on their clothes. Crow gave her a weird look. It was one thing to don the attire of an Unhulde sect member to escape but an entirely different scenario if he wanted to assimilate for a time. But Lily wasn’t done because she was prancing around him as if she was his butler—

“Shit, I’m an idiot,” Crow muttered under his breath. He’d spent so many years inside Wistman’s Woods that he was used to only using Blood Vines and couldn’t access his Soul Butlers from the Myriad of the Dead. These four were using ghost-like abilities, too, which was something Crow could already mimic with his current skill set. Scanning their souls, he could pull their other techniques and combine them into his own.

Crow sighed, wondering when he’d become so callous with life. It really did come down to survival. Drawing his bow, he saw the white-haired boy was about to grope the girl’s now exposed chest and stopped hesitating. His breath was halfway out when he released the arrow, and the boy’s white robe suddenly had a blooming crimson rose as the arrow punched through his heart. The arrow went straight through and hit the boy behind in the throat. Not to mention the antagonists, Crow paused in shock, never expecting to take two of them at once. The reason he was surprised was the boy behind was much taller and looked more like a bull than a man. The arrow would have had to ricochet off the white-haired’s ribcage and fly upward. In other words, it was an impossible shot.

Crow was used to strange situations, so it only gave him a momentary pause before he fired two more arrows and ended the rest of the goons. On their deaths, he felt spiritual energy trying to imprint itself on his soul, but Soul Burn was still very active. Having nullified the spiritual imprints, Crow breathed easier.

As quickly as he could, he moved the bodies into his Soulscape world. The last person he killed, Crow made sure to send an arrow into his brain to prevent staining the white robe. He needed to blend in but wasn’t sure if the white robe differed from the girl’s black one. After all that, he used his heavenly flame to burn up the blood and other evidence. Within a few minutes, it was as if nothing had ever happened here.

The girl watched him without saying a word. Once Crow finished, he turned toward the girl and hesitated.

“Which of those boys that just died is the safest to impersonate?” Crow asked her. The girl didn’t say anything but pointed to where one corpse had been. “Why?”

“He’s a new lackey and only been with the sect for a few months. No one even knows his name,” the girl mumbled. “Are you going to kill me?”

“You’re a Witch?”

“Yes.”

“Elemental affinity?”

“Dark.”

Crow nodded. A Dark Witch was rare as they leaned toward the basic elements. His mother was a Dark Witch, and the most common aspect among their kind was Plant, which was a lower derivative of Wood.

“Is this the Unhulde Sect?”

The witch gave Crow a strange look. “It is…”

“The main sect? This isn’t some branch or subordinate sect?”

“It is the main sect. If y-you didn’t know that, then how did…?”

“I came from down there,” Crow pointed under him. “I’d never come to this place willingly.”

“You’re him, right?”

“Who?”

The girl pulled out a parchment, and Crow recognized the person depicted. Even if some details were wrong, it was a strong likeness. It even had quite a lot of details about his abilities. Whoever investigated him did a thorough job, and had it been a few years ago, it’d be pretty accurate.

“Do you want to turn me in?”

“No!” the girl shook her head adamantly.

“You’re a Hex Witch?”

“Y-yes, b-but not by choice.”

“Explain, and remember, be honest. Your life is on the line.”

“Because of the founder of Unhulde, all Witches are shunned and killed throughout the tower. Just like most nations, there are some evil people or intentions. Our clan’s covens had nowhere else to turn to for protection. We joined Unhulde to expand our power and gain influence. It was our only way to survive! My grandmother’s people have never practiced ritual sacrifice, including me.”

“Alright, on account of my mother, I’ll believe you,” Crow said while pointing at the wanted poster she held. It listed his mother and the fact she was a Witch.

“Th-thank you, but you should escape as soon as possible.”

“You think someone of my power can leave a locked-down sect? My skills aren’t lacking, but I’m still just a bug compared to those that run this place. I won’t kill you, but you must swear a binding oath for one year,” Crow said. Normally, he wouldn’t bother with these types of contracts because he detested them. However, a year indentured to him for saving her life and not killing her to protect his own was a fair agreement in his mind.

“Th-that… I can’t,” she whispered.

“Why?”

“I’m bound to my coven. Agreeing to your demand would break the coven. B-but anything else, I’ll do it!”

“Just make an oath or vow, one your people usually do. A year should be long enough, and you must help me assimilate until I can escape. What’s your name?”

“Zoe Featherswallow.”

“That surname is… unique,” Crow chuckled.

“Hey!” Zoe grumbled while her face turned red. Shortly after, she made her vow, and it was strong enough that he felt the machinations of karma. It was enough to let him know her intent was genuine.

“You are right. That is me on that parchment. You already know my name, but I am Crow, son of Maddox. I need to do something before we leave—don’t scream when I change my appearance.”

Crow entered his Soulverse and found his newest Soul Butlers. Scouring their memories, he focused heavily on their cultivation methods and backgrounds within Unhulde. The only one he spent extra time on was the boy he was about to replace.

The boy’s name was Sione, and he had no surname or backing, which meant the girl wasn’t lying. The branch of Unhulde that he was part of was Ai’aitu, which meant Ghost Eaters. Their cultivation methods were about capturing ghosts and literally devouring them. Their energy cycle refined their bodies with ghost essence, similar to his Ghost Visage ability. But Crow’s method only refined the Ghost Mana from graveyards, which achieved the same goal at a much slower rate. Not to mention Crow’s way wasn’t evil. Devouring a ghost damaged its soul and inhibited its ability to enter the cycle of rebirth. Not did this method impact the cultivator’s karma, but it corrupted their Source.

All that aside, he had to admit, their cultivation method was more on the mature side, and the number of skills they’ve developed over the years using this method wasn’t small. There was a large section of the Unhulde Library dedicated to ghost-related spells.

The Ghost Eaters were probably the Hex counterparts of the people that created Ghostly Visage. This gave him some confidence in blending in. Crow wasn’t even sure he needed to use any of their current abilities because his Ghosting ability looked very similar to theirs. The difference was he could actually phase through things, so it was more powerful, whereas they were mostly just camouflaging themselves.

Knowing all that, Crow was a little excited now. With every calamity, there was also the potential for great rewards. Since he had time, he could lay low and work on his Aura Cube here while expanding his Ghosting ability. Opening other circles within the technique was an ideal approach to maximizing the potential of his Ghostly Aura.

“Zoe? This kid’s name is Sione, so call me that when we leave. You may not know who he was, but he certainly knew you. Did you notice that he’d been stalking you? Even participated in all the sect obligations you did.”

“I didn’t,” Zoe said with a pale face. A lot had happened, and she couldn’t process everything as quickly as Crow.

Crow shook his head, wondering how a girl like her had remained pure while still being this oblivious. Sione was tall, muscular, tanned, and had short black hair. No matter how Crow looked at his new form, he found it handsome. It didn’t make sense that he was an unknown.

“You never noticed this face?” Crow asked, pointing to himself. Now that he’d transformed, even his voice emulated the boy, which was a rich baritone. As a loose cultivator that this sect picked up, it was more surprising that this kid hadn’t joined the dual-cultivation branch. He might not even have had to force women.

“I-I-I see it now, bu-but he really wasn’t noticed. Until you said something, I did not know he was there. Only a vague shadow existed in my memory, but now that I focus on it, I can see him.”

“Mind suppression? Aura? Something with ghosts? Can you tell what kind of ability he was using?” Crow asked, realizing he’d missed something. However, scouring through Sione’s memories provided nothing. There was only one small memory that surfaced that gave any sort of clue. Sione was standing in front of a calm lake, looking at his reflection, and asking himself why no one noticed him. It was shortly after he witnessed his adulterous mother having an affair with two servants. They went at it like the boy wasn’t even present, which was sad, messed up, and intriguing.

“I don’t know. But I’m sensitive toward mana fluctuations across dark places. At night, he shouldn’t have been able to maintain any spell without me noticing.”

“Physique…” Crow muttered, wondering if he was an anomaly like Hooligan and Nadia. If that was the case, he regretted killing the guy. Sione apparently had a thing for Zoe and wanted someone to notice him. Other than consuming ghosts, he hadn’t done anything evil. Even in this event with Zoe, the boy was conflicted and might have attacked Ku, the white-haired kid, if he had tried to violate the girl. The only reason Sione was with Ku was that the white-haired boy could see through Sione’s physique—Sione felt noticed.

It was a tragic story. Sighing, Crow shook away those morose thoughts and turned over several strategies for handling the Unhulde Sect situation he was in. Crow had methods to camouflage himself, but they used mana. He just hoped no one else noticed this kid’s physique previously, or it would be troublesome.

“Alright, guide me to the Ghost Eaters—err, change your clothes first,” Crow commanded. (AN: Kind of ironic he's telling her to put clothes on, haha)