The land of Ifrinn

"This is the beast of the statue." Looking at the beast in the middle of the air, Aiden mumbled.

There was too much wrinkle on the beast's red skin, giving the feeling that it was made of old, cracked redwood. The beast in front of him, however, was flying with an unclaimed hand in its mouth.

"That was the statute." Aiden cried and turned to Kaiser, "That was the creature that I saw ... nooooooo." Aiden ran to Kaiser. He shouted, "Run," with his voice masked in fear.

Kaiser looked at him with a shocking expression, not understanding what Aiden was trying to say. But he understood that something was wrong.

'Can there be something behind me?' Kaiser wielded the essence of the beast inside his body as he turned to look back, but ... 'Something's wrong. Why is my line of vision going down?'

The first thing that came into his view was the bony legs wrapped in tattered leather and the blood-dyed shamshir beside it. And something hit his head.

'Is that my body?' He wasn't sure whether or not the crumbling headless body was his. However, as his head rolled across the ground, he could see the reason behind his fall.

The skull was covered in the hood as the eyes burned in the blue flame. It held four different weapons in its four fleshless hands, including a shamshir that had cut off Kaiser 's head. And that was the last thing that Kaiser saw before his consciousness faded into darkness.

'Kaiser is dead.' Aiden had a hard time believing what he saw in front of him, but it was the truth. Then Aiden stopped for a moment, turned around and ran in the other direction.

'I can't beat them.' Aiden had no confusion about the current situation, a beast that could fly, a four-handed skeleton, and an arm-less monster that was slaughtering people with a smokey grey claw made of pure mana.

Even if he could fight one of them, there was no way he could fight three at the same time. On top of that, Kaiser wasn't here anymore.

'I need to survive that. I've got to get away first.' That was the only thought inside his head. He was sad at Kaiser's death. The suddenness came as a shock to him, but he didn't have time to think about it.

[Skill [Reduce Drag] activated. Mana used:1/ 20 min. Remaining Mana: 12]

[Skill [Wind Burst] activated. Mana used:2. Remaining Mana: 95]

[The host has activated innate skill [Light Foot]]

Aiden accelerated towards the cave entrance, ignoring all the slaughter that was going on around him. The surrounding situation did not look good. With Kaiser gone, they don't have the strength to resist. They were like pigs for slaughter.

It wasn't that Aiden was unwilling to save them, but he had no intention of saving them by jumping in front of the monster. He would have if ...

Aiden had found one right in front of him. He stood in the middle of the cave, looking at the beast in the sky. As he couldn't see his face, Aiden wasn't sure if he was under some kind of spell, or if he was too scared to move.

Aiden stopped beside him, grabbed his head and cried, "If you want to live, you should run." Aiden wasn't willing to spend too much time here, and he dragged the slave with him. Or at least he tried, but the slave didn't budge.

'Shit! 'Aiden cursed in his heart as soon as he realized that the slave's body was too cold to be human. He didn't even look back, and...

[The host has activated innate skill [Zone]]

[3.8725]

[The host has activated innate skill [Blink]]

With 100 stats in his agility, Aiden had no problem escaping from anything he had ever met. But, um ...

As soon as the notification appeared, everything around him slowed down. All but a simple human hand. And the next moment, a shiver ran down his spine.

'It's the same feeling as that time.' It was a bit too late when Aiden realized it.

The hand was stretching at such a speed that Aiden could not follow it with his [Zone]. Even if Aiden tried to move away, the hand clasped onto his neck and slammed him to the ground.

[Due to external interference innate skill [Blink] is forcefully deactivated.]

[Due to external interference innate skill [Zone] is forcefully deactivated.]

[The host suffered serious internal injuries.]

Even if the ESS had not notified him, Aiden would have known about it. The blood that came out of his nose and mouth would have been enough. He felt that all his internal organs had been beaten by sledgehammers.

Yet he didn't have the time to think about it. As his vision cleared, he could see a pair of iris-less black eyes were staring straight at him.

"@#@#@#@@! #" It said something in a calming voice that Aiden had ever heard before, but those are not the words that Aiden could understand.

The man looked up at the other monsters and said, "# # @####@"

And the flying monster stopped feasting on the heap of human bodies and flew toward them. The four-armed skeleton and the arm-less mana-clawed monster came with it.

Beaks dyed with blood, the flying monster cast a shadow over Aiden. Few drops fell on Aiden's face as it nodded.

"@@##@@" Aiden still couldn't understand those words, but looking at the smile on that black-eyed human face, Aiden understood that the man had found what he was looking for.

'That was real. The land was real.' That was the thought inside his head. The presence of all these beasts just proved that what he saw was real.

Aiden, however, did not dare to dwell on the matter. As soon as the grip on him loosened, he looked for a chance to escape, but they had no intention of letting him go.

As soon as the man had moved away, a foot had come down on Aiden's chest. A foot without any flesh or skin, but the life of Aiden was almost crushed.

"@#@" with a senseless, angry shout from a soothing voice, the pressure on his chest was reduced, and Aiden could breathe again.

'They don't want to kill me, huh? Would they like to take me with them?' Aiden wasn't sure about their intention, but with the heavy-weight skeleton on his chest, Aiden had no chance of standing up, much less escaping.

While trying to devise a way to escape, Aiden looked at the black-eyed man who was walking toward the pile of dead bodies. He took hold of the body with the intestines spilling out of the deep wounds of the claw.

With one hand, he raised the body in the air as it weighed nothing. But soon the dead body began to rot as the dark mana continued to invade the dead body. And a moment later, there was nothing left but dust.

'Did he devour the body?' That was Aiden's obvious conclusion, but he was surprised by what he heard next.

"@A-#-I!-U-O." Aiden wasn't sure whether or not these were common words in both languages, but the strange practice continued for a moment before the man said, "A-E-I-O-U."

"Hey, do you understand me?" asked the man before Aiden could understand what had just happened.

Looking at the dumbfounded Aiden, the man frowned. "I think I say it correctly, but ... can't you understand me?" the man looked a little unhappy with Aiden 's reaction. "How could this primitive language be so difficult?"

"Primitive?" Aiden was surprised by the word, but his reaction put a smile on the face of the black-eyed man.

"You understand me, don't you? You just answered." The man was very excited.

Aiden let out that word in a moment of surprise. Now he wasn't too sure whether he should talk or not. Alas! He had no other choice.

"Kuk" Aiden winced in pain as the skeleton put more pressure on his chest. "I understand." That was all he could squeeze out of his throat.

Soon the leg came out of his chest, and the man said, "Stand up." And Aiden had no other way than to obey the order.

"What are you?" the man said.

"A human." He dared not speak anything but the truth, but the man did not seem satisfied.

"How can you touch me?" The man asked again. But those words didn't make sense to Aiden.

'Is he something like the devil?' But the realization came a little too late. A giant black fireball formed right above Aiden's head, and before Aiden could say anything or move, his body drowned under the giant fireball.

"Ahhh." The scream escaped his throat out of instinct, but there was no pain. Soon the flame vanished, and Aiden was greeted by the curious black eyes.

"Why didn't you die?" asked the man, not caring about now-naked Aiden.

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" his voice made it clear that he was losing patience.

"I don't know the reason but the death mana doesn't affect me." Although Aiden wasn't sure whether or not that black flame that man used was death mana, Aiden thought it was similar.

"Death mana?" he even copied Aiden's tone before his hand attacked Aiden.

"I really don't know?" Aiden said, but the intended words never came out. His hand clasped on Aiden's mouth, and…

[Foreign mana is invading the host's body.]

The robotic voice stated the obvious. Even without it, Aiden could feel that the black mana was running amok inside his body. The pain of burning mana channel wasn't something a sane human could endure, yet Aiden couldn't even cry out in pain.

But as soon as the black mana reached his heart, it happened again. His mana core devoured the black mana flame again.

The man's seemingly curious face was now veiled with a smile. "No wonder."

As the man let Aiden go, he stumbled and fell to the ground. He was naked again; he felt something clenching his heart, but he was more worried about the smiling man in front of him.

"You are a vessel of Ordog, aren't you?" Aiden felt that his smile was much more cordial now, "No wonder you were able to reach the land of Ifrinn."