He sniffed, looking at me from head to toe. After giving me a weird look for a while, he laughed.
"Haa... ha... haa!"
"The one you just killed was at 'Feral' rank," he said with the hint of laugh
"Then it must be at least mid-rank, right?" I widened my eyes and leaned forward, expecting confirmation. Instead of the response I wanted, he laughed even harder.
"This one," he said, pointing his finger toward the fallen walker, "is the lowest rank of them all. Feral is the bottom tier."
He continued, "Among walkers, there are seven major ranks:
First and lowest is 'Feral,' followed by 'Grunt,' then 'Fiend.' After that comes 'Phantom,' then 'Specter,' followed by 'General,' and finally, the highest and mightiest of them all—'Leviathan.'"
"With your current strength, it would be difficult for you to even face a Grunt rank. And for your information, the serpent you need to kill to gain your freedom back is Phantom rank. You have a very long journey ahead. If you get overconfident with your current abilities, your end will come quickly before your freedom."
I looked at the dead walker. The energy flowing from it had stopped, and while there was no dramatic difference in my tai energy, I could feel a subtle change.
"Looking at the color of your tai energy, you're already far ahead of normal kids your age. You could even compare yourself to a well-known wanderer. If I had to rank you, you'd be around 'Nightborn' level."
"There's a significant gap between your starting point and there's. Your tai energy was already at High rank, as you know from its color. The key energy is categorized by color:
- Lowest rank: Yellow
- Mid rank: Green
- High rank: Red
- Mythical rank: Purple
- Divine rank: Golden
And the final two stages:
- Pure rank: Colorless
- Impure rank: White
Since your tai energy is red, it's considered high-ranking energy."
Suddenly, while everything seemed calm, Jaipa turned to face the sky. And his face paled, and I was a second late to react. Almost instantly, I too felt a strange change in the world around us.
It was hard to describe. The rustle of leaves suddenly felt quieter. The smell of azure blood seemed to vanish into thin air. The sound of air buzzing against trees grew louder. It was as though invisible pressure descended upon the world, making everything feel different.
The air became colder, and a dark shadow appeared above us.
The shadow grew slowly, moving and crawling over us. Shivers ran down my spine as I realized this wasn't simply the sun hiding behind clouds.
The sound of air changed, almost imperceptibly. When I tried to look at the sky—
"Don't... Don't!"
Suddenly, Jaipa pushed my head down with his large hands. His voice trembling with tension, he whispered, "Don't look up. No matter what happens, don't look at the sky. No matter what."
Curiosity was overwhelming me, but another feeling was crawling inside an instinctive sense of danger that made me listen obediently. My clothes suddenly felt cold, and I slowly realized it was raining. But not everywhere only where Jaipa and I stood !
"Don't!"
Fear wrapped itself around my heart. I had never heard Jaipa's voice sound like this before not when facing Rakta, not when confronting the seven stones. He increased the pressure on my head with his large hands. As minutes passed, the droplets began to feel heavy and sharp, like falling stones and blades.
Jaipa slowly removed his hand, again telling me not to look up. Hearing his trembling voice made the danger feel even more real.
Blinded, I could only rely on my hearing, but even that was useless. The rain had become heavy, like standing beneath a massive waterfall.
In that watery silence, I suddenly heard a familiar sound I could never forget...my grandfather's voice ! It came from above, as if he was somehow standing in the air above me. I knew it wasn't really my grandfather, but my body refused my will and protested against looking up.
"IF... YOU!" Jaipa's broken words were clear as day. "IF YOU LOOK UP... YOU WILL DIE!" His terrified voice somehow sounded even more terrified in this situation.
But my body was fighting my will.
"YOU WILL DIE... die... die... die... die!"
I gulped, feeling my wet hair stand on end. Jaipa's voice somehow echoed in the falling rain like he was speaking underwater. His words didn't stop there instead, they grew louder, overlapping themselves.
"Die... die... die... die... die... die... die!" Each time he muttered those words, I could feel his desperation and terror behind them.
When I thought his words would finally stop, his voice grew even louder, like blaring screams hitting against the rain falling on us.
"YOU DIE... YOU DIE... YOU DIE... YOU DIE !"
I stood in the same spot with wide eyes, looking at my trembling hands. My lips curled up, and a slow laugh escaped my mouth. The reason was simple all I could do was hold my ground against the increasing water pressure and sharp droplets. After enduring this for so long, my body was on the verge of collapse.
Then the rain slowed down, little by little, until I finally thought it had come to an end.
"Whatever happens, don't respond! Never respond to it!" Putting his right hand on my shoulder, his voice now held something different like a actual fear.
"DON'T RESPOND... EVER!"
A few seconds later, Jaipa came in front of me. Actually, I could only see his two legs, but they definitely belonged to my idiotic partner. He whispered, "Let's go. It's over."
I still couldn't turn or lift my head up. Looking at Jaipa's legs and hearing his clear voice with no trembling at all, I was about to do as he said. Until now, I had been following whatever he said without question, so I prepared to lift my head up. And now he was even standing in front of me now... But when I was about to left my head up. I stopped !
His clear voice was coming from the right direction where he stood in front of me. I could even feel his sarcastic tone, but there was something wrong his voice wasn't coming from his head. It was distant, like it was coming from those legs. I hadn't lifted my head up, so I couldn't see his whole body to confirm my theory, but something wasn't in the right place.
"Let's go... why aren't you lifting your head up?"
"What!... ahha..."
In this situation, I could only do one thing: keep my head down until everything felt right. Looking at the water below, I couldn't see anything reflected in it not just Jaipa's legs, but everything. The tree behind me, myself, everything. There was nothing, and that made my hands tremble like my legs were about to give up.
His clear, sarcastic voice repeated just like before distant but not distant at the same time.
"Why don't you look up... up?"
Now everything felt wrong. Even his perfect voice felt wrong.
"Look up... look at the beautiful sky... look... look up... look up... look up.. look up.. look..up.."
His voice exploded with a cold tone.
"LOOK UP.. LOOK UP... LOOK UP... LOOK... UPPPP!" His tone had become creepy as hell.
"SKY... SKY... SKY ! "
A second passed. Hearing his creepy voice, I wouldn't dare look up after this. As the second passed, those legs before my eyes walked away. Soon, I was able to hear the buzzing of air against my ears, and I could feel and hear Jaipa breathing heavily beside me. It seemed he had also seen those legs.
For a long moment, I kept my eyes shut. So did Jaipa. We were sane but couldn't talk to each other in terrified fear. I waited, looking at the grassland and leaves. After standing still for an hour, I stretched my trembling hands to the right side where Jaipa was standing.
When I grabbed onto him, he didn't respond right away. After a second, he called my name. Responding to him, it became clear it was indeed safe now. I let go of him and said, "I think it's okay for us to lift our heads up now."
Counting to three, we lifted our heads to see the bright sun hanging in the sky, trees dancing with the air, leaves falling. Looking at all this, I fell to my knees and turned to Jaipa. He was in even worse condition than me.
After a long sigh, we lay on the grass, looking at the sky. And it was indeed beautiful...