Gates of Penance

Chapter 42: Uncharted path

Nacht stood still with an uncomfortable look on his face as a very unusual feeling permeated his core. The orren that had just entered him wasn’t his own purified abyssal black orren that was used to activate his rune. Instead, it was the orren of an abstract.

Since the abstracts were manifestations of sin, their orren naturally carried the infectious plague of sin as well. This meant that this was the second time that the infection had entered his body.

Nacht’s face turned pale.

’I’m not going to suffer another agonizing episode of pain am I?’

However, this dilemma also posed another question. How did the infection manage to enter his core in the first place? Usually when an enlightened killed an abstract they would only hear the voice announce the kill in their ear and that would be it.

Otherwise, if what was happening to him happened to every other enlightened, they would immediately die and be sent to penance. Their soul which was already infected with sin would be unable to resist the abnormal dose they would receive upon entering penance. This meant their soul would be destroyed or they would turn into an abstract and neither option was ideal.

It took Nacht only a moment to realize how the infectious orren managed to enter his spectral core.

’...My sword.’

Nacht had almost forgotten that his sword was basically an extension of himself. His soul was bound to the abyssal saber so if he were to kill an abstract with it...well he was currently experiencing the side effects so he didn’t have to guess.

The infectious orren that entered his core didn’t replenish his reserves of orren and it didn’t strengthen him in any way either. Instead, when the abstracts corrupted orren entered his spectral core, it was turned into something else and was used for something else as well. He couldn’t tell what it was used for, but he could tell that something inside of him changed slightly. He felt a small pressure in his core that wasn’t there before.

His focus turned to his core and the engravings on it. He then translated the engravings pertaining to his spectral core.

—----

Spectral core: Unsealed (2%)

Rank: Tier I Sinner

—----

Nacht looked at the engravings with a conflicted look on his face.

’...like an abstract.’

Both the percentage beside his spectral core and the tier besides his rank was new. It also only meant one thing, that he was a lot more similar to the abstracts than he previously thought. He had no doubt that if he managed to reach one hundred percent on his core, he would be able to become a tier II sinner.

However, he was conflicted because while this was a new path to power that wasn’t previously known to the enlightened, it still went against his human nature. He also didn’t believe he was completely immune to the infection either since he wasn’t an abstract, but he definately had some sort of affinity to it.

Nacht looked at his torn clothes as well as the gash on his arm that the abstract had left during their short battle. The damage was still there despite him having to conjure another avatar and it would be there until he healed from his injuries. Apparently, the damage his avatar body took still carried over into his spectral body. However, he could still repair his clothes with a bit of his orren. Upon repairing his clothes, he heard Magi and Mirad walking up to him.

Mirad patted him on the shoulder with a smile on his face.

"Well done Nacht, that wasn’t too hard was it?"

Nacht shook his head.

"It wasn’t. I would have been in more trouble if I was alone."

If he was fighting the abstract alone, he believed he would have won but it would have been an extremely close fight. That little trick he pulled was only possible since the blight had been distracted by one of Mirad’s throwing axes. The abstract still had twice the physical might he currently possessed as a tier I sinner.

On the flip side, if he was alone he never would have gotten in a fight in the first place. There was no need to fight the abstract since he could simply slip away with the multitude of escape options he possessed and it was pretty hard to track him in general thanks to his traits.

The fight was quick and relatively easy since he had two other sinners with him. In a fight, it was often more beneficial to have your power split into two coordinated forces rather than one concentrated place. This was because it was more efficient and it opened up a lot more options and ways to attack as a result.

In his fight against the abstract, the odds were even more in his favour since there were three sinners against a single abstract. However, in the higher tiers the advantage in numbers most likely became obsolete.

This was because the tiers for the abstracts weren’t linear but rather exponential. A tier V blight held the power of sixteen sinners, meaning that to take an abstract of that strength down then they would need to mobilize a relatively large but very powerful force to take down a single abstract of the first rank.

This was exactly what troubled him when they mentioned a tier IV dreg and his role in the escape.

Magi smirked.

’Well, I guess you’re lucky to have Magi to give you a helping hand."

Nacht looked up at the sky.

"It’s getting dark."

Mirad nodded.

"The nights are longer in the land of the dead. So you should probably get used to it."

Mirad’s eyes darkened for a moment.

"This is why the journey will take us so long. We can only move forward during the day, at night that is when most dangerous abstracts become active."

Nacht smiled faintly. This was actually good news for him. He was much stronger in the dark anyway.

"Then we better find a safe place to stay the night."