Timeless Prominence

The reason for the corpse-man choosing to target Rein is obvious. Rein had been throwing his elemental bombs, constantly disrupting the aurae tendrils the corpse-man relied upon to control the wights. Without tight control over the wights, the corpse-man would only continue to be suppressed by the density of Chenhr’s aurae!

Rein instantly stopped suppressing the wights and scurried away, hoping this would dissipate the heat of attraction. The devil advancer was not stupid-- the corpse-man very much understood that unless Rein was dealt with, this bomb-lobbing young man was bound to return and hamper his control over the wights.

Part of Rein wanted to activate his teleportation origin ability to immediately move to safety, but he had been instructed to avoid using it unless truly necessary-- it would do well for him to be able to survive without over-relying on it.

Chenhr’s eerie words still echoed in Rein’s mind. “Do you wish to become hunted like me? Hiding in corners of every realm?” Rein had no wish to end up like Chenhr through recklessly revealing his origin ability.

Rein repeatedly changed direction, as grayish aurae hands popped out of the ground to slam down and squish whatever ended up under its palms. An wandering rabbit was the unfortunate victim of such a palm, its eyeballs and internal organs spurting out along with its crimson blood, its body nothing but a popped balloon.

At the same time, Rein gripped multiple bombs and chucked them backwards without even bothering to confirm the corpse-man’s location. He was not even sure if most of these low grade bombs were even useful against the corpse-man’s actual body.

Judging by his still-beating heart, he knew at the very least that the explosive element of these bombs was enough to stave off the aurae hands.

His hand then picked up a slightly larger bomb. The original bombs he had been throwing had the width of his finger. The one he now had in his hand was the size of his thumb. This larger bomb has the power crystal at its core, which provides a substantial amount of aurae to the blast.

Well. Rein figured this was as good a time as any to use these more limited powerful bombs. 

He weaved between trees in a frenzy, before desperately chucking a large sand bomb and an air bomb backwards. This dual effect created a small sandstorm that blanketed the surroundings and blocked all vision.

Rein was rewarded with a voice of anger and frustration.

“You little piece of shit!”

The number of grayish aurae hands’ movement grew increasingly chaotic as they swept across, knocked down countless trees and at the same time, attempted to clear the vision-obscuring sand blanket.

These trees offered zero resistance to the gray aurae hands; they were common ‘mortal’ trees that became easily corroded  by the gray aurae hands, which Rein could tell emitted a deathly aura now that the corpse-man had gotten so close to him.

Rein instinctively flattened himself onto the ground as a large grayish aurae hand hurtled right above his head.

Suddenly, Chenhr appeared right beside Rein, his body still completely enveloped by his yellow aurae cloud.

Chenhr lifted Rein into standing by the collar of his black jacket, and smirked while his gray hair billowed in the chaotic air flow in the zone. Then with an almighty sidekick, he blasted a yellow aurae block right into Rein's chest from the sole of his right foot.

Rein could only yell obscenities at Chenhr in his mind as he flew backwards like a kite with its string cut. Luckily, with nearly all the trees in the surrounding having been knocked down and corroded by the grayish aurae palms, he avoided the situation of colliding with a tough tree trunk.

As he braced himself for impact against the ground, the sand blanket was finally cleared away, and the corpse-man, upon seeing Rein flying through the air, assumed one of his gray palms had found their mark.

He also no longer saw the pursuing Chenhr, who had vanished once again after booting Rein under the veil of the sandstorm.

“The damned advancer with that odd skill.” He muttered to himself. “No doubt with his weaker realm, he will surely have emptied his aurae reserves by now chasing after me.”

That was his conclusion as to why he saw no sign of Chenhr.

With glee, he transformed into a shadowy form, and leapt toward Rein to collect his prize-- he had killed that important fake merchant, and needed to bring back some sort of information to his devilish organization in order to alleviate his punishment.

With this bomb-lobbing young lad dealt with, he would then be able manipulate the wights to body Chenhr.

As Rein skidded to a halt, he saw two large gray aurae hands, and with his bum still stuck to the ground, reflexively activated and flung out a few of the last bombs from the box.

With a frustrated cry from the corpse-man, the gray aurae hands once again lost form, and the corpse-man, now coated in layered gray aurae rushed in a straight line toward this weak, bomb-reliant Rein who, should not be able to do anything against his attacks from close-range. 

As an outer advancer, his aurae hands and tendrils became weaker the further away from his body they traveled. The closer the range, the stronger these aurae projections would be!

Like a shadow, the corpse-man appeared right before Rein, and Rein, in his panicked state, still glued to the ground, did what he only could do.

SSSkizzz

His hands formed a circle and he fizzed out from a black sphere a few kilofeet away!

The corpse-man opened his mouth wide in shock-- it was a second origin ability he had encountered today! He now regretted signing up to protect this fake merchant for the devilish organization-- in many ways, he felt that he was fated to fail! He raised his arms in preparation , his mind once again turning to escape, only to find that his movements had turned sluggish and slow.

He forcefully managed to tilt his head downwards, only to see a large inscription system on the ground, formed from three naturally positioned rocks, the roots of a remaining tree stump, and a small sapling that somehow avoided all the damage of the chaotic environment.

Luckily, Rein had teleported out of that area. Otherwise, he would also land inside that inscription system formed on the ground. He noticed Chenhr’s form right behind a tree beside the trap system.

What a fucking bastard! To him, it was obvious what Chenhr had done. Chenhr had used him as bait to lure the corpse-man to this hidden trap. After all, it was Chenhr’s almighty sidekick that sent him into the trap area!

What further enraged Rein was Chenhr’s next words.

“Now, now, my dear half-junior. These outer realm advancers are in general, quite observant. I needed you to look convincingly shocked, angered, and pained, such that this devil would fall for it!” That was Chnehr’s explanation as to why Rein was not informed of this plan.

Rein grumbled to himself in annoyance as he felt his chest to check if Chenhr had broken anything with that sidekick. At the very least, nothing's been broken… just some soreness that would remind him of this… maddening affair.

As he looked up, he saw Chenhr feed the formation by pouring out a yellow aurae from his left hand. The corpse-man’s struggle gradually diminished, as if ropes were tightening themselves around his body.

Then Chenhr raised a finger, and a pointy yellow aurae formed a needle, protruding from his index finger’s tip. That yellow needle became more and more solid, its density ever-increasingly.

Finally, Chenhr turned this yellow needle toward the frozen corpse-man’s who did not even have the freedom to make a fearful expression. He leisurely paced toward the corpse-man, and with a single thrust, the concentrated yellow needle pierced the corpse-man’s center forehead. So fell an outer devil advancer.

The crew now examined the remnants of the merchant caravan, yet they found nothing out of the ordinary: there were boxes of your typical spices, sacks of various types of grains in the main storage compartment of the caravan.

Rein himself was double checking the sacks, making sure that there was nothing buried underneath the appearance of grains. He felt rather spent. As an upper inner advancer, he could barely force enough aurae to the surface of his body to activate the mechanism of the bombs.

It is truly amazing that Chenhr could fight for so long with a constant use of such concentrated aurae… He wiped sweat from his brow as he gazed at the remnants of the battlefield, lost in contemplation regarding Chenhr’s unique ability. How would he negate the strength of Chenhr’s origin skill?

Anyhow, the wights had gone limp once Chenhr had stuck that concentrated yellow aurae needle into the corpse-man’s head. They had returned to being mercenary corpses.

Naturally, they had also killed the mercenaries that had previously pretended to be dead in order to save their own lives. It would be a disaster if news of what occurred here were to get out.

“So…” Chenhr appeared behind Rein. “Have you learnt a new trick?”

Rein was bewildered. He had mostly been thinking on Chenhr’s origin ability.

“Come one, half-junior,” sighed Chenhr. “You aren’t that incapable.”

After a short moment, Rein understood Chenhr’s question.

“My origin ability cannot be obstructed by any barrier or even most formations. So, if I position myself within one such formation, I can trap my opponents by drawing them into said formation.”

“Well done.” Chenhr firmly patted Rein’s back. “Not just that. You can even draw one enemy into another powerful advancer’s formation trap. Oh, the kinds of misunderstandings you can cause between two parties…”

The middle-aged man appeared whimsical, imagining what he would be able to do with Rein’s origin ability.

Chenhr’ gaze soon refocused, and his stern voice sounded over the now peaceful forest that was once again filled with the chirpings of larps. “Come! Leave no stone unturned! Destroy the whole caravan if you need to!”

A bandit that Rein occasionally saw around the hidden village had an expression of grief on his face. “If we chopped a few trees, we could repair the walls of this caravan and maybe…”

Thukk!

An axe had chopped into the remaining base-level of the caravan, and quite a few bandits looked at the broad-shouldered bandit that had done this.

“What? The man ordered us to destroy the caravan if needed, right?”

Under the stares of the other bandits, he once again raised his axe and cleaved downwards at the remaining base of the caravan, yet this time, it was not the sound of wood breaking, but rather that of metal against flesh!

“Ugh” The broad-shouldered bandit stumbled backward as his eyes were wetted by a spray of blood.

Rein strode forward in consternation and removed the axe, then he and the bandits, all wide-eyed stared into the gap. Squinting his eyes, Rein was shocked to discover a hidden compartment.

He saw bodies in there! The compartment was so flat that a body would only be able to be placed in here if they were flat on their backs!

“Open it up!” Rein was not seen as a leader for this group, but all the bandits instantly moved-- all of them were curious as to what was inside this compartment.

What happened with the broad-shouldered bandit ensured that the rest of the bandits opened this compartment with care.

Axes chopped down on specific spots, such that the wooden boards could be removed to access the compartment.

To this day, this would be one of the most disturbing scenes Rein would see. The removal of the boards revealed bodies of a number of children, each deathly still and barely breathing. All of them had a grayish dark devilish inscription plastered across their forehead.

The dull broad-shouldered bandit was first to take action again. “Wake up, kid!” He lightly slapped one of the kid’s faces. However, there was no response, no expression.

Upon finding the child that had been struck by the broad-shouldered bandit’s careless axe-strike, an unrelenting storm consumed Rein’s mind. The bleeding child did not even have an expression of pain.

These children… they have clearly been placed in a state of limbo, meant to be some kind of slave. Was thi also the unfortunate fate of his younger brother?

He stormed off towards the location where the corpse-man was suppressed, his limbs quaking with unbridled rage.

Upon seeing Chenhr peering into the corpse-man’s frozen eyes, Rein could not help but yank the corpse-man’s body onto the ground, and straddling chest, he rained fist upon fist onto the corpse-man’s head.

His fists bled with his hot blood, for the corpse-man had a significantly tougher body than he himself had. He was, unfortunately, hurting himself more than the corpse-man...

The other bandits that had followed quickly dragged Rein off the corpse-man who continued lying deathly still on the ground. This was, no doubt, an effect of Chenhr’s dense aurae needle.

Chenhr was wholly unperturbed by this episode. He had always had the impression that Rein had, well, a streak of occasional rashness…

He let out a dramatic big sigh. “Half-junior Rein. Is there really a need for this? I have already pierced the man’s brain in such a way, such that he would not be able to have any proper function over his body. All we need to do is calmly peer into his mind, before disposing of him properly.”

The broad-shouldered bandit whispered into Chenhr ears, and Chenhr immediately turned serious. Chenhr immediately dragged Rein onto his feet, and slung the limp corpse-man over his shoulder, before stepping quickly back to the caravan.

At the very instance his sight came across the pale and limp bodies of the children with the devilish inscriptions over their forehead, Chenhr already began shaking his head.

“These children are done… they have been under that spell for too long… Free them from their twisted fates!”

Rein woke up from his daze, but though he struggled, Chenhr held strong onto him through his black jacket collar. Though, this time, his words contained no mockery.

“Calm yourself, you fool! Look at this devil advancer we have captured. I have done the same to him as they have done the same to these children! His mind will never awaken and control his body ever again!”

Thus, Rein watched on, firmly in Chenhr’s grip, as the other bandits pierced the hearts of all these expressionless and unresponsive children. Some of the bandits closed their eyes, hoping to not see the result of their actions. However, they certainly felt it through the spears that they used. There were those who flinched, but they followed through courageously with what was necessary.

Rein watched in a stupor as the bandits set fire to wood and corpses, doing their best to erase as much evidence of this event as possible. No one blamed him for not contributing.

Chenhr’s voice temporarily alerted him on their meandering journey back to the hidden village in the Bleak Mountains.

“These devil advancers. One of their favorite methods is to advance through external means. Consume the energy of other beings. Enslave, then feed and cultivate ‘livestock’ before absorbing their aurae into their own. Be it humans, beastkins, plantkin or specters.”

“Those children, you know… they would have mindlessly grown, before one day, having their aurae sucked dry by a devil advancer. A being of sound mind would, of course, be able to resist such magical arts. But that is precisely why these devil advancers mostly enslave extremely weak beings in whom they could easily dominate the mind, before reaping their rewards many years later…”

Rein did not reply, and trudged along in his listless state. It was quite obvious to him that this was likely Jein’s fate. He had tried to ignore reality, but now, he realized that the tragic truth was always in front of him.

“Not only that,” Chenhr continued. “You remember that potion you drank for the aurae restraint skill? Children are undeveloped husks. The fallen devils also sometimes inject some advancer arts into these children’s bodies. For example, taking the heartblood of a beastkin that might have mastered, let’s say… an art to do with the shadows.”

“Although the child might not be able to fully use said skill with their undeveloped bodies, a child is filled with the world’s potential. The heartblood injected into their bodies might mutate into a unique variant of said shadow art through that potential hidden within their bodies. Then the child’s heartblood would be harvested, the variant skill absorbed by the devil advancer to add to his own repertoire of magic.”

“Such is the fate of those captured by the fallen devils…”