Chasing the shadows

The closer Asato got to the fire, the more he realised that the darkness had given him an illusion of the blackness of the smoke. Reflecting the sun on its surface, the smoke was closer to Prussian blue and the red inside was shining in orange light.

The place where they collide, they merged to give rise to a blend which he had never seen, however, it was not brown too.

It was an entirely unique colour which should not theoretically be possible. It made Asato reconsider his approach toward the smoke. Seeing him stop, Nate stopped his approach too but not before passing him a look which he ignored.

“Nate, what do you see in the smoke? What can you see?” Asato asked, just to get a second opinion. Although his senses could not find anything different about the situation, his instincts screamed on him to reconsider.

“Ashy black smoke by fire?” was that what his eyes saw. That proved to be totally different from what he had seen on both sides. It made Asato consider getting a third and even a fourth opinion on the smoke.

It didn’t seem natural and did it appear different for different people?

“Nate, we’ll approach it carefully but I need you to tell me anything you feel is wrong. Even the littlest of thing can be important” the child nodded and the party approached the smoke carefully.

The place was almost deserted, only a few soldiers surrounded the smoke. Due to the density of it, no one could make out how many people were actually caught inside it.

“Situation?” Nate asked, voice as emotionless as ever and the addressed soldier flinched before he turned to face the child.

“It happened all of a sudden. We have a hunch that there are almost 5 people who are trapped inside the smoke. We did not approach it since we have never seen such ashy coloured smoke before” that confirmed at least one thingAsato.

That he saw the smoke in a different colour than the demons at least, irrespective of their species. Was it a visual illusion or the capability of his eyes?

He desperately wanted a human opinion on this thing to see if this was a non-human thing or something unique to himself since he was not of this world.

Mostly because such colours were not to exist naturally and normal eye saw them under normal conditions due to their nerve intervention. But Asato was wired differently and maybe that made a lot of difference.

The smoke felt alive to his eyes which was an unnerving thing to think about. It pulsed and seemed to eat away t the area it came in contact with.

The soldiers had really amazing instincts to stay away from it till they understood more.

“I’ll take care of it for now. Get people to vacate the area for some days at least. We don’t know if it will affect them the same way as humans” Nate nodded as he took the lead of the surrounding soldiers.

In no time the place was emptied of everyone but Asato and Nate. However, they could still not take any risks. The smoke had been passive-aggressive till now but that could change at any time.

But the first priority should be to get Erin here. He was a reliable backup and this provided them with the best opportunity for now before more authorities arrived.

Once the authorities arrive, the opportunity would diminish a great deal.

Thankfully, Asato had his bag with him which obtained all his supplies. Taking out everything, he arranged it in a systematic manner.

The deeper he dug inside it, the more he got a feeling as if his bag missed something. But it was just a feeling and nothing felt missing.

Once all the supplies were out Asato arranged it into the desired arrangement, the wind causing a little interference once in a while.

Asato extended his hand to take a jar full of white once the basic shape was done but he turned toward all the jars again.

He was sure he had packed 6 empty ones which were treated to hold the herbs and yet he could only find 5 in his vicinity. Was he mistaken or had the collision earlier not been his imagination.

Had someone stolen one of his jars? But what for? These were not really priceless, just a little tedious and no one should be aware that he had them except the guards and the higher-ups.

Deciding to look more into that later, Asato took a deep breath and concentrated on the job he had to performs. Summons took extreme concentration even after having the required blood to not mess up.

Higher demons were seldom, but not so rare that he could not pull a wrong one by accident.

Diverting the energy in the area much more difficult though, there was hardly any left due to the passive black smoke. Whatever was being channelled was in a constant war with the smoke and it irked Asato a lot.

Generally, the spells worked as a way of changing energy into another form to have it conserved. Very much following the common law of energy conversion.

A spell stored energy and when it was cast, it was released back into nature. It was a balance that never changed.

But not so much for the smoke which was engulfing the power as a vacuum without an end. The power that was being engulfed never replenished itself.

A small amount won’t really matter but when the loss began to accumulate over time it would turn problematic. Drop by drop, it would become an ocean of depravity which would just anguish everyone.

“Nate, step back. The connection is made” the child took a few steps back as the design on the ground glew and burst out into flames.

The flames melded to form a very familiar shape and then dosed away as ashes. Erin stood in the circle fully intact.

“That was early. Now can you let me out? Hey, Asato what happened to your eyes? W-What is that?” Asato ignored the man for some time, the babbling not helping much here. But he did keep the things he said in his mind to answer once he got Erin out.

“It’s as you see. Looks like the human world is not the only one having this problem and we have the proof right here. Also, what about my eyes you find weird?” Asato broke the lines which connected the circle and Erin stepped out at once.

“What do you mean what I find weird about your eyes?” Erin acted as if a shiver was passing through him and ducked the punch Asato threw at his head. Asato’s height was not enough so the duck actually helps connect the fist with the chest area.

Nate just looked at them with curious eyes but didn’t say much at all.

“Black eyes” that was the only reply Asato got and a sigh passed his lips. His eyes generally indicated the magic in an area. Since his current body was made up of magic itself, it presented itself differently in different situations.

Too much magic made him almost high and too low made his eyes and the whole persona changed to match it. But that always happened when no one was around.

Was this really his first time in the company? Looked like it and he still didn’t like the odds here.

“Side effects of magic depletion” Asato offered but didn’t say much else. Erin took a quick look around at his words, a winch passing through his body.

“It’s awfully low here. Is it the smoke?” Erin was not asking but confirming something he already knew. Asato’s silence was an effective answer to his question.

“Erin, what does it look like to you?” Asato asked as he gestured toward the smoke with his thumb. While Asato was not fully human, his senses in this form were close enough to give Asato the basis for his hypotheses.

“Now that I see it in light, it’s actually Asy grey instead of black. And I thought the flames were red, but who uses brown flames? Or are they redder? Wow, how did I miss that?” Asato paid rapid attention to the answer.

It narrowed his choices down a lot. The specific colour shade was related to him and was likely a result of having a different optic nerve system which made him see that colour that could not naturally be seen.

The orange and blue mixed in the natural eye to give rise to brown. Since most of the creatures were a result of similar ancestry and evolution process, it was not a surprising result. People could have different senses but they were still bound by limitations on their senses.

But not Asato who was no longer anything from this world. Did this change anything? A lot and yet not a lot.

“We need to get rid of this before it gets violent. Take preventions though, it had never been so dense before” Asato called out and both his companions nodded.

While there was no way for others to stop this smoke, it was entirely possible to save oneself by taking preventive medicine. But it had a very short effective span, at most an hour or two and had too many side effects with prolonged exposure.

But they will have to take the risk. Taking a few pills Asato had condensed beforehand because of all the irregularities that were happening he passed it along to his two companions who gulped it instantly.

Now came the tough part of the whole deal, his scythe would not work. While he preferred it, it was not his strongest point as it provided too much restriction due to his size.

The best weapon for him would be a katana, that katana that every architect inherited. It was difficult to control and moody, very tricky to use.

But it had immense power and would be the fastest thing that could purify this space with the least casualty. Since Erin and Nate were already taking a risk by being his backup, he owned it to them to keep them as safe as possible.

There was a vibration near his hand and then he had the katana in his hand which vibrated, not happy at all to be called upon.

Suddenly, things were beginning to look a lot more difficult than before.

(Sorry, the site was down today so there was no update yesterday. But here is one today for you)