Sins - Phantom Swords

Chapter XIV: Dead Winds

Quiet but heavy footsteps. Massive feet pressed down into the earth and left behind massive prints—clawed, bestial. There was no doubt that, in time, the footprints would eventually fade away as the dirt get displaced and the game takes control in returning the state of the environment to its natural beginnings.

But there was no time to ponder on that. Not when it was still far too close for comfort.

The creature was massive. Larger than any other beast on this floor. An inorganic one, which made it all the more unique—dangerous, more like, for its body that glimmered silver promised a hard exterior that could repel any physical strikes. With how its body was serpentine in its movement's fluidity, there was no room to doubt how agile it might be.

Pausing, it sniffed the air, turning its head to scan its surroundings. A small, tinny hiss escaped its throat. Something alive walked these grounds mere moments ago, and that was all the sign it needed to begin focusing once more.

The world around it was rather silent, not much life that gave it any opportunity to feed. The creature growled, dulling out sounds in its area to focus on anything living—heartbeats, breathing, footsteps. Whatever that could give away its hiding place and finally give it something to tear apart with its claws. What made it all the more impressive, however, was its innate ability to zero in on anything living. To be able to sense a soul and track down any minute essence of life, making it such a perfect predator.

Absolutely nothing.

The world was dead around it, and with its disappointment of there being nothing else around (perhaps whatever was here had left quickly enough upon noticing its imminent presence) giving it no reason to linger, the Shadow departed from the area, foregoing sneakiness in favour of skulking away.

It was much time later, possibly two minutes more, did a figure finally drop from the trees. His boots struck the ground with little noise. He peered over the edge of the tree to make sure that the Shadow had finally disappeared before finally releasing a deep sigh.

'That was so fucking close...' Scratching the back of his head, he looked once more to where the Shadow had disappeared to. 'Kirito, you lucky, unlucky bastard. How the hell did you come across another Fafnir? Third time in just these two days.'

It said a lot when he'd managed to encounter a powerful Shadow the first time. It went beyond possibilities when he'd somehow managed to find more in record time. Getting chased by one the first and second times was not fun.

With no reason of his own to linger around here anymore, Kirito promptly fled the scene as he made his way in a direction. A straight path forwards that would lead him to his destination, which was engrained in his head partly from muscle memory and from the thin line of smoke that puffed occasionally into the air.

It wasn't much later before he eventually arrived at his temporary base, turning back just to make sure he hadn't been pursued by anything else before eventually letting out his umpteenth sigh of relief for the day, happy that he was finally out of the deep waters.

"Home sweet home," his lips quirked bitterly, scoffing. "Calling a rundown castle my home. I must be growing more egoistic with each passing day."

Kirito didn't let the thought linger for too long, making his way forwards. There were no towns surrounding the castle as Castle Yofel and some others did, though he knew that was because this was only the castle, and that the settlements were scattered across the floor. It made for a rather unique design in terms of telling the world that this place belonged only to the royalty.

A muted grey, with a lack for other colours. He doubted this was the true colour of the castle, for everything about it was a colour between grey, white and black. Vines crept up the sides and holes punctured in the castle walls made it easy to look inside and see just how bad the damage done to the structure was. The inside was no better, with much loose tiles, debris and broken bricks making it easy to trip over them. Dust particles swimming in the air, highlighted by the beams of sunlight that poked through the cracks or holes in the walls.