Kael shot his hand up and stopped the falling tree.
A sharp crack echoed through the forest as the trunk snapped under the pressure and collapsed into two pieces, burying itself deep in the snow.
All around him, trees groaned, fighting the wind as it tried to wrench them apart.
His fingers dug deep into the bark as he seized the upper half and hurled it forward.
The trunk spun violently through the air, cutting through two Pale Ones before slamming into the trees beyond and coming to a dead stop.
He walked over to the corpses and tossed them into the stone coffin. Then he bent down and began pushing the snow aside with his hand.
After combing through the ground carefully, he finally gave up and continued deeper into the forest.
'Why can't the heavens bless me just once…'
He was walking along the far edge of Velthoria territory in search of refinement ingredients, but as expected, finding anything useful was just as troublesome as he remembered.
He paused and leaned against a tree.
"This was where mothgrass grew, right?" he murmured to himself. "Mothgrass tends to prefer dry areas, preferably in leaf forests with…"
His voice trailed off as he went over what he had read.
He scratched the back of his head and moved on. After a few more steps, he bent down again and pushed the snow aside.
'Wolf Tiger tooth, human heart, liquid from a withering pasque flower and finally, mothgrass.'
He went over the stone coffin recipe in his mind.
Each ingredient should theoretically function as food for the stone coffin, though the effects varied. The amount of law each ingredient contributed flowed into the mote in unequal portions. The more useful the ingredient, the greater its contribution.
If a mote for example was formed from two ingredients, and one provided sixty percent while the other only forty, the former would be far more effective as sustenance. And by choosing the right one it would take less food to remain a longer time in one's inner realm without it consuming Thoughts.
Even after studying his motes while staying at the Claymore estate, he still hadn't been able to determine how much each ingredient contributed to the Stone Coffin mote. In the end, he had chosen one at random, landing on mothgrass.
He had considered using human hearts, but after some thought, he decided against it.
While mortals were considered lesser humans by the Luminaires, they still possessed a connection, one that could be heard under the right circumstances. If he began harvesting human hearts, he would be noticed without a doubt. And while the Luminaires might not care about mortals, there was only one reason to farm human hearts.
Soul pathway cultivation.
That was something they would never ignore.
If he drew attention, they would immediately dispatch a group of high-ranking Luminaires to hunt him down. Because of that, he had ruled it out for now.
Unless, of course, someone happened to stumble into him far from the city.
Kael clamped his hands together and reached high, stretching from side to side.
'I guess I could go to the black market…'
He had been coming out here for days, searching, and still had no luck. While the cold did not bother him, the lack of progress did. It felt like wasted time.
And even though he could test his luck at the black market, he hesitated.
The city wanted him dead. His mindstone reserves were dangerously low. On top of that, there were too many unexpected variables with everything currently unfolding. And besides, he needed those mindstones for himself, to replenish the Thoughts within his body that were steadily declining.
"Hey, you there."
Kael glanced over his shoulder to look where the sound voice came from.
A bearded, middle-aged Luminaire emerged through the brush, accompanied by a woman. They pushed branches aside as they closed the distance.
"Can I help you?" Kael asked.
"Yes, actually."
The man snapped an irritating branch out of his way and flashed a friendly smile.
"Have you happened to stumble upon a woman named Melrose recently?"
Kael turned fully and studied the two of them.
"I can't say I have, no."
"Damn it," the man muttered under his breath.
"Then it's nothing," he said more loudly. "But please tell us if you do."
Kael nodded and watched them continue down the path.
'Have they finally caught her?'
He shook his head.
The thought of killing them crossed his mind, but it was unreasonable. These two were without a doubt part of Valthorne's patrols. Protocol demanded regular reports when they returned. If they disappeared, suspicion would follow.
'They'll relay meeting me too, though...'
He glanced at their retreating backs.
"I could be anyone," he murmured as he bent down and brushed snow aside once more.
By the time he changed direction and headed back toward Velthoria, the trees were casting long shadows across the forest floor.
'No luck today either.'
His thoughts drifted as he walked. It was only when a strangely shaped rock came into view that his steps slowed to a halt.
He scanned his surroundings carefully.
'Ah… there you are.'
Two small lights shone through the treeline as a massive silhouette stared at him with a predatory gaze.
Suddenly, the beast shuddered and spun around, bursting into a full sprint.
"Ah?" Kael stood dumbfounded for a moment. "It must have sensed my rank."
A cloud of snow exploded into the air as Kael launched forward in pursuit.
The beast was nimble, darting between trees and vaulting over rocks and shallow hills. Kael matched its speed easily, his stride steady and relentless.
Mid-sprint, Kael bent low and snatched a rock from the ground. His back muscles tensed as he hurled it forward at several times their speed.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
The stone tore through three trees before crashing into a fourth, stopping an arm's length from the fleeing beast.
"Tsk."
The moment the creature veered sharply to the side, Kael snickered and pushed himself harder, driving his body to its limits.
Small trees bent violently as he tore past them.
'I can't let it escape Velthorian territory.'
The wind howled as he shifted direction. Kael leapt from a cliff and dropped nearly twenty steps below, slamming into the ground. He staggered forward a few steps, before forcing himself back into a sprint.
'Not here. Not here.'
After roaming this area for nearly four days, he knew the terrain better than most. There were only a handful of paths the beast could take.
He vaulted over a rock large enough to hide his entire frame and slowed his breathing, every sense sharpened.
It would run out of options soon.
The moment he heard rhythmic galloping close in, Kael stepped out and faced the beast.
Unable to stop in time, it leapt at him instead, jaws opened wide.
Point Aegis flared as Kael shot his arm forward and drove it straight into its mouth. Snow piled behind his boots as the impact forced him backward. With his free hand, he reached to his belt and flipped out his knife.
When the beast tried to recoil, Kael spread his fingers and drove them deeper, easily piercing the soft flesh within.
Three black streaks carved through the air, followed by wet crunches as Kael thrust the blade faster than any mortal eye could track.
The beast collapsed onto its stomach for a heartbeat before forcing itself upright again, legs shaking as it tried to pull away, but Kael's hand remained buried in its throat, unmoving, like a monolith.
A low, broken growl slipped free.
Then the beast gave out completely, crashing into the snow and spilling into a widening pool of its own blood.
Kael ripped his hand loose and shook off the gore. He snapped his arm through the air in a sharp arc, sending blood spraying across the nearby trees.
He sheathed the knife and crouched down in front of the corpse.
'Turns out, I too can be lucky sometimes…'
He could hardly believe it. A Wolf Tiger had appeared right in front of him of its own accord. It had realized its mistake too late, but still.
Kael had never expected to stumble across a Tiger Wolf. That was why he had never gone searching for one. With so many Pale Ones infesting the area, it was unrealistic.
Not only would Tiger Wolves be far more cautious, but without the Titanwood Stalker mote, he would not even be able to get close enough to capture one. On top of that, the Pale Ones slaughtered everything in their path. Individually, they could not compare to a Wolf Tiger in strength, but they made up for it in numbers.
Their numbers felt endless once battle began. A Luminaire or a Wolf Tiger might cut down thirty on their own, but what happened when forty or fifty more followed immediately after?
He had assumed every Wolf Tiger was already dead, or had long since fled south.
Yet here one lay, bleeding out at his feet.