Chapter 269: Three Days Left

By the twenty-eighth day, the members of the Death Squad had grown accustomed to Ravian’s absence from their gatherings, though that did not stop them from discussing him whenever someone passed his tent.

Darius complained more than anyone else. He had been delivering food to Ravian more frequently than the other men, which meant he still interacted with him regularly, if only indirectly. Unfortunately, he found little satisfaction in talking to someone who used to be available for an argument whenever he pleased but had now become little more than a voice answering from behind a closed entrance.

“I swear I heard two different voices coming from his tent yesterday.”

He made the remark while sitting with Kael and Elias beside one of the smaller campfires.

Kael gave him a bored look. “Maybe he was talking to himself.”

“No, someone else was laughing in there!”

“Did you go inside to check?”

“Of course not!” Darius protested immediately. “Do you want me to be responsible for ruining his advancement?”

Elias, who was leaning lazily against a nearby wooden crate, smiled at the exchange.

“Then perhaps you should stop spreading rumors about strangers hiding in his tent. Ravian will hound you relentlessly once he advances, and he’ll be Ninth Rank by then, so…” He let the warning trail off, giving Darius a mischievous look.

“I’m not spreading rumors! I’m telling you what I heard!”

Darius shook his head vigorously, as though that alone should be enough to convince them.

Kael chuckled.

“It’s a good thing nobody put you in charge of reconnaissance. You’d come back every day to report that the trees were moving whenever the wind blew.”

Darius turned toward him, visibly irritated.

“Are you looking for trouble?”

“I’m just trying to help you understand what you’re hearing.”

Darius looked ready to argue further, but before he could respond, he noticed Claria approaching with Evelyne and Lysandra.

The healer carried a small bowl of food, and the displeasure on her face made it clear that she was growing increasingly frustrated with Ravian’s continued isolation.

“Has anyone seen Ravian today?” she asked, frowning.

Darius shook his head.

“No, but he answered when I went to his tent a little while ago.”

“And what did he say?”

“He told me to stop bothering him.”

The others stared at him.

Claria sighed.

“At least that means he’s still capable of behaving normally.”

Evelyne laughed.

“I’d be more worried if he suddenly started acting polite.”

Lysandra did not join their laughter. Her attention had shifted toward Ravian’s distant tent, and she remained silent for a moment before asking, “Has he told anyone when he intends to end his isolation?”

“Not that I know of,” Elias answered. “Even Lord Karius hasn’t been able to see him.”

A faint crease appeared between her brows.

“Not even his master?”

Elias nodded.

“Apparently, he’s going through a stage where he doesn’t want anyone interrupting him.”

Lysandra said nothing more, though her gaze lingered on the tent.

She had found it difficult to understand Ravian’s behavior since his return from the capital. Sometimes he behaved as though nothing deserved to be taken seriously, only to make a sudden decision that he refused to let anyone question.

His current isolation was one of the strangest examples.

Yet Lysandra had no sufficient reason to force him to come out, or even to… visit him.

Karius himself had chosen to leave his disciple alone. It would hardly make sense for the other squad members to insist on interfering when the young man’s own master had decided against it.

Whatever Ravian was doing, they would have to wait until he was willing to explain.

…

That evening, Karius stood outside Ravian’s tent for the second time since the isolation began.

His voice was noticeably more serious than during his previous visit.

“Ravian, it’s been almost a month.”

Inside, Ravian opened his right eye wearily and suppressed a cough.

“I know, Master.”

“Then tell me how much longer you intend to continue.”

Ravian considered the question.

In his current condition, even maintaining control over his own body required effort. His consciousness remained divided between two opposing wills, and although he had made significant progress in understanding the Law of Void, that progress had not yet provided him with a way to eliminate the intruder.

He still had not located the primary connection he was searching for.

Worse, the intruder had begun reclaiming some of the territory it had previously lost by establishing new routes through the occupied regions. Ravian understood how this was happening, but his current mental condition prevented him from monitoring every part of his consciousness simultaneously.

Whenever he concentrated on one area, the possibility remained that something elsewhere would escape his attention.

Under those circumstances, he had little choice but to admit that he needed more time.

“A few more days, probably.”

Karius sighed. The impatience in that sigh was unmistakable.

“You said something similar two weeks ago, Ravian.”

“I suppose I was more optimistic back then,” Ravian replied, forcing as much sarcasm into his exhausted voice as he could manage.

“I don’t find that amusing.”

Ravian stopped smiling.

He could tell that his master’s patience was nearing its limit.

After a moment, Karius spoke again.

“Three days. I’ll give you three more days, and after that, I’m entering that tent myself.”

Ravian wanted to object.

Three days were nowhere near enough for him to guarantee that he could master the technique he was developing, much less confront the consciousness occupying most of his soul. He had already spent nearly a month studying the problem, and the most important connection remained beyond his reach.

Unfortunately, Karius’s tone made it clear that further negotiations would accomplish nothing.

“Understood,” Ravian answered.

“And I sincerely hope you’ll be finished by then.”

Karius walked away, leaving Ravian with a deadline he could no longer avoid.

Three days.

Three damned days.

He had no guarantee they would be enough, but allowing his master to enter before the possession had ended was not an acceptable alternative.

Karius might be powerful enough to intervene, yet Ravian still had no reliable way of determining what the intruder could do if someone else came into contact with him. He had avoided that possibility from the beginning, and the danger had not diminished simply because he was running out of time.

‘Then I’ll have to finish this within three days, whether I’m ready or not.’

“Kekeke…”

The intruder’s laughter emerged from his mouth, sounding more delighted than usual.

“Looks like you’re running out of time, human.”

Ravian did not bother acknowledging it.

Instead, he closed his crimson eye and returned his attention to his consciousness.

The black gateways had grown larger, and the strange creatures emerging from them were now moving closer to the boundaries surrounding the center of his soul.

This time, however, he noticed something that had previously escaped him.

Whenever one of the creatures approached the boundary, the pressure on a particular group of connections increased. It was as though the intruder needed to direct a greater portion of its spiritual authority through those connections to maintain the creature’s presence.

That was important.

The creatures were not simply meaningless images appearing within his consciousness. They carried genuine spiritual traces that the invading consciousness was using to reinforce its control over the territory it had occupied.

And those traces were directly linked to the black network.

‘So they’re not completely separate from him.’

Ravian continued observing them for several hours, paying particular attention to the changes that occurred whenever another creature approached the center of his soul.

Each one possessed a different pattern of energy, making it difficult to compare them directly. Their appearances were just as varied, and nothing suggested that they all originated from the same kind of spiritual existence.

Yet despite those differences, they shared one important characteristic.

Every creature was connected to a deeper group of spiritual links that Ravian had previously been unable to reach.

The same underlying network appeared to support them, regardless of the differences in their individual spiritual traces.

Which meant they had an anchor.

For the first time, Ravian had obtained a meaningful clue about where the primary connection might be located.

If the creatures required access to the same deeper network, then observing how that network responded to their movements might allow him to follow those connections farther than he had managed before.

There was, however, a serious problem.

The clearest changes occurred when the creatures approached the center of his soul, precisely where he could least afford to let the invading force advance.

Following the connections far enough to identify their origin might require him to weaken his defenses and allow the enemy closer.

He had spent nearly a month preventing exactly that.

The center of his soul remained the only territory he could still protect reliably, and the pressure exerted by his Soul Crown was the main reason the intruder had not already overwhelmed him.

Deliberately exposing that territory would mean accepting a direct threat to the last part of his consciousness beyond the intruder’s control.

Ravian considered the problem for a long time.

Continuing his previous experiments would be safer in the immediate future, but there was no reason to believe he could achieve the understanding he needed within three days through those methods alone.

And waiting carried its own consequences. The intruder was recovering lost ground through alternative connections, while Ravian’s exhausted mind was becoming increasingly incapable of following every change.

He could not afford another month of cautious investigation.

Eventually, he made his decision.

It was dangerous, but he had no better option.

And worse still, he had no time.