The Ghost Shepherd

Hunting the Red Zone (Part 2)

The place was empty but there were traces indicating that a campfire had been put out several days before.  Steelforge looked around the place and then said, “I am heading out to check the ore deposits on the other side of the river.  Place the corpses into your Space Folders then i’ll come back every night and collect them from you and don’t do anything stupid like attacking several groups, 10 is the most you can tackle in my opinion...so Good Luck”

“HA HA HA… there goes your insurance Sly” said K.C watching the dwarf leave.

“No matter, I think the people here are trustworthy.  They all have blue auras around them and except for Gonzo that has a tiny bit of lingering resentment, they give me a nice vibe”

“Don’t be naive and doubt everything, you don’t know what they are thinking and for all you know they could be working with that Cryomancer”

Sly frowned at the comment from his chip but he couldn’t refute it, if men were angels then the universe would be a heavenly place but that was not the case.  

Gonzo was tasked with scouting while the rest of the team set up a perimeter and to everyone’s surprise, it was the Psychic who requested to be placed in charge of the defenses.  

Sly was curious about what a psychic could do, he thought that Alice was about to step up and set up some traps but she said nothing and all she did was talk about this and that with Anku that looked a little annoyed about all the yapping.

Allan quickly took out of his Space Folder a few little spires and placed them about 200 meters around the camp.  They were automated alarms that created a perimeter made out of light that sent a signal the moment the feed was interrupted.  

Sly almost fell backwards when he saw the gadgets, he was expecting some kind of ability to sense the vibrations of the earth that would tell him if somebody was approaching but it turned out to be the power of money.  It was not a bad way to spend 500 E.C, they were the best alarm systems they could buy in the equipment shop.  

Sly made a mental note to pick some up for those times when he needed to go out alone since the team’s contract was just for an outing once a week. During the other days, he was free to explore but if he felt the schedule was too constricting then he could always pay the fee of 5 dracos and get out of it.

There was nothing else to do around the camp but sit down quietly and keep himself occupied until Gonzo returned.  Sly started to connect to his core and wanted to make it change color with K.C’s help.  To Sly, it was just making his core change colors but if he thought about it a little more carefully, It was not difficult to see that the ‘color’ was linked to his emotions.

The resentment of the souls was ever present during the dark state and even if the feelings were at a subconscious level, negative feelings such as anger, fear, or contempt, triggered a response from the core that wanted to help him destroy the target of these negative feelings.  On the other hand, the other side of the spectrum was a state of calmness and a clear mind which would allow him to transcend the physical realm into the spiritual.  

It was the reason why the more spirits he absorbed, the more clear his mind became.   After being cleansed by the core and sent to the symbols in the middle of his eyebrows, the blue spirit energy was getting him one step closer to the spiritual plane.

Learning how to use the core was certainly like learning to write with your non dominant hand.  The feeling was awkward and the result was positive but it felt very clumsy, he could feel the little specks of darkness appeared and disappeared almost instantaneously in the sea of ethereal blue but the only feeling he had was frustration.

The other members of the team didn’t pay too much attention to what he was doing.  Sly looked like a statue on the outside and since there was no way of telling anything at all from his eyes thanks to the blindfold, they assumed that he was sleeping.  Sly had been extremely quiet the whole way there and the big question in everyone’s mind was if he was an asset or a burden to the team.  

The hours passed and the frustration caused by his inability to use the ‘dark mode’ turned into anger and when the feeling was at its peak, he screamed and punched a tree that was behind him. 

ARGHHH!... BOOM!

Everyone jumped from their spots and ready their weapons while the trunk of the tree bent backwards and landed on the other trees that stopped it from falling further.  The place of impact presented dark smoke that seemed to absorb the energy of the tree cells causing it to look porous and changed its color from a vibrant green to a very pale brown.  The change in the core was fast, and as he calmed down after looking at everyone's faces that had bewildered expressions, the dark gas surrounding his fist dissipated and the core returned back to normal.

The changes did not go unnoticed by K.C that was monitoring his bios in real time and was laughing like a small child that discovered a new toy.  Artificial Intelligence was marvelous and K.C was different to the others of her kind, she was able to learn and behave like an individual which had the power to reason.  Even in cases where morality was involved she seemed to be tinted by Sly’s personality as well as the human values that she acquired through the many databases she uploaded from the Mother AI.

“I GOT IT!!”

“Sorry guys, I had a bad dream” said Sly rubbing the back of his head.

“Damn it Sly, I think I peed a little” said Anku going back to meditating.

“It responds to your mental state.  When the mental change is able to produce physical effects such as an increased heart rate, increased blood pressure and increase in the levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline, the dark state is fully activated.  In other words, the emotional response you know as anger”  

“Hmm…I also feel a lot more calm than when I started the exercise, like it would be harder to get angry”

“Your Vital Signs are in excellent condition, Heart Rate and Blood Pressure are extremely stable as well and even your brain waves are unperturbed even when I stimulate them.  This is wonderful data”

"Stop messing with my brain"

"Never!! Now, try to punch another tree and see if you can move the spirit energy of the core for an extra effect”

BOOM

The others that tried to go back to what they were doing jumped again and ready their weapons expecting an attack before seeing Sly with his fist against another tree trunk but this time it didn’t break.

“What the f**k Sly, I am trying to train here”

“Sorry, I felt something crawling behind me but it was nothing”

Anku closed her eyes again but Clayton was laughing and Allan just kept quiet with a pensive expression like he was thinking about something.  

Sly sat down for the third time and then K.C started another experiment with the goal of inciting anger and resentment in order to change the state of the crystal.  

“Now think about that Cryomancer and try to channel the feelings you experienced the time you saw him at the bar”.

Sly started to visualised the smiling face that didn’t show any remorse for all the betrayal, murder, and theft.  After he visualised the face of the spirit, the face of desperation, anger, fear, he couldn’t control himself and even the people around the camp noticed the change in the flow of the energy in the space that was starting to turn gloomy.  

The Core turned Dark as night and for the first time, the team saw Sly’s weapon that manifested with a very ominous feeling and before Clayton could react the area of 10 ft around him started to produce dark smoke and he felt hands grabbing his ankles and pulling him towards the earth wanting to drag him with them towards the deepest parts of hell.

ARGHH… You Bastard!! What are you doing?  

Clayton grabbed his lance and threw it towards Sly in an act of self defense and as the lance traveled, all of the sudden Sly’s body turned ethereal and the lance went through his body and passed through the trunk of the tree that was standing behind him.

Sly’s state of mind shifted and was now very calm and the fact that a lance passed through his body didn’t disturbed him at all.  When he looked at Clayton he didn’t see his physical form, he saw the soul that was almost translucent but had a blue glow inside a protection layer.

The space no longer had trees, rocks or even grass, it was filled with emptiness.  It was an Abyss where the laws of gravity didn’t apply.  Sly hovered towards the soul of Clayton and was surprised at the speed in which he did it.  The laws of space were pretty loose causing him to almost crash into the soul and as he tried to touch it, the soul moved backwards and he reappeared in the physical plane. 

“What are you?”

The blindfold was extremely close to Clayton’s face that had a look of incredible fear.

 A couple of seconds before, Clayton felt extreme pain coming from his ankles and felt like his vitality was leaving him.  As he tried to defend himself, his lance passed through the person in front of him that became translucent and then moved extremely fast and one second after all that happened, he felt the ethereal hand go inside his body bringing with it a chill that made him think something ominous was about to take him away for good. It felt like death but different, it was a feeling that shocked him to the core.

The moment he jumped backwards, the person that had attacked him materialized and was very real.

I...I...I am so sorry Clayton, are you Ok?  I was trying to understand one of my abilities and it went out of control.  I meant you no harm… I am sorry”

Sly went to place his hand on Clayton’s shoulder and a shield came crashing against it.   

Clank!!

Sly was taken aback and became serious while staring at the Barak in full combat mode about to fight for his life that was standing in front of him.

“STOP!!! we got company”