Chapter 181: Cheat!!

The platinum hued window manifested in front of his eyes… unlike the last time, nothing major happened.

He saw the window open in front of him without any problems and then heaved a sigh of relief. He read the whole thing and thought for a second before activating [Ghost Blade].

It was an attempt to see if he could use the system powers here or not.

The familiar sensation washed over him immediately.

His consciousness expanded outward in a sphere of perfect awareness. The soul space itself became visible in black and white in his mind. He could feel every single ethereal drop of rain that fell inside the area of 500 meters.

“It works,” Ishiki said, wonder coloring his voice. “Ghost Blade functions even here, in spiritual form.”

He deactivated the skill and felt his awareness contract back to normal limits.

He willed his spirit body that was made up of blue energy to change shape. The blue energy darkened, solidified, took on texture and weight. His hands went from translucent smoke to physical. His body gained definition—muscles, bones and skin made of spiritual essence.

Within moments, Ishiki’s spiritual form had hardened into something nearly indistinguishable from his physical body.

He flexed his fingers experimentally, feeling resistance.

“Incredible.” He breathed.

Then without waiting much he summoned Sorrow’s Edge.

The jian materialized in his grip.

It was exactly as he remembered from the fight in the cathedral. It was a Double-edged blade, perfectly balanced with elegant proportions. The metal gleamed with a faint purple luminescence—not bright enough to illuminate, but present enough to notice.

Two tassels hung from the pommel, burning with dark flames that didn’t give off any heat, they were moving with subtle independence as if alive.

The moment his fingers closed fully around the grip, Ishiki gasped.

His perception exploded outward in an overwhelming wave.

Suddenly he could sense everything with too much clarity. Every minute detail that existed in his sphere of awareness.

Even the outside world.

He heard something in the walls of the villa scratching at wood. The subtle creak of roof tiles settling as temperature shifted. The faint vibration of wind pressing against windows. A spider in the corner of the room above him, spinning web.

Information flooded his mind, threatening to drown him in sensory overload. It was opposite of when he used [Ghost Blade]

The skill collected the information and then projected it into his mind… but right now he felt as if his head would burst apart.

“Fuck—” Ishiki hissed, nearly dropping the blade.

Too much. It was too much all at once.

Ghost Blade did have almost the same kind of side effects but it at least didn’t fry the brain out.

Ishiki’s hands trembled as he gripped the jian tighter, forcing himself to focus. And suddenly when he opened his eyes he was looking at a young boy with long, unkempt black hair that fell to his face in bangs and cold blue eyes.

He was looking at himself!

’Holy cow… this is insane.’ He deliberately tried to calm his senses down and then slowly, he managed to gulp it all down.

He learned to let irrelevant details fade into background awareness.

“Okay,” Ishiki breathed, steadying himself. “Okay. I can work with this.”

It took several minutes of standing perfectly still, with his eyes closed and just feeling the world through supernatural senses. It was amazing and tiring at the same time… even a little bit overwhelming.

Doing this… Ishiki unconsciously thought of the cursed boy. What if this setback of this vestige had also come back from that boy… this weapon was ultimately made by his soul. It inherited all the qualities he had and so it did make sense.

He had to live with such high awareness of his surroundings all his life… Ishiki couldn’t help but feel a little sympathy towards the boy who was long gone.

But that was not of any important right now… the main thing was that he knew the moment he touched the jian that the amount of pain he would experience while holding this would be amplified as well.

“This blade has tree abilities,” Ishiki said slowly raising it and performing a slash. It left afterimages of purple flames in its wake. “All of these are essentially effective in right circumstances.”

He tried performing a few simple actions that he had learned about swordsmanship on his own and then dismissed the luxurious Jian with a look of satisfaction.

He looked at the boundless sky that continuously rained down… it had not stopped.

Feeling unusually silent and lonely… Ishiki let his thoughts drift.

“I miss you, Mom,” He said quietly to the rain. “I miss you so much it hurts…”

Amidst his memories he thought about Kaori.

The woman had found him when he stumbled back to earth from his trial. He suddenly felt ashamed and amused remembering their first meeting. But still she had helped him search for his mother and even bring him to the camp.

He appreciated her way of being brutally honest and telling him all that mattered.

Seriously, she was the one who made him meet Yuki, and led him to the innermost circle of that settlement despite having no real reason to trust him.

She didn’t know him, didn’t owe him anything… but she helped him anyways. In more than one way.

“I’m sorry,” Ishiki said. “Kaori. You deserved a lot better.”

The four chained souls watched in silence. The rain fell. And Ishiki stood alone in his inner world.

“But I promise you this,” he said, straightening despite the weight pressing down on him. “When I get back to Earth. I’ll find a cemetery and I’ll build you a beautiful Cenotaph.”

He sighed out and let himself calm down. His soul calmed down too… subsiding the rain and again turning the ground to a barren land as far as the eye could see.

The change was rather fast… and Ishiki was left speechless.

He didn’t dwell on it further and turned to the chained souls. He focused on each one of them and checked the prices of mimic for various skills. But he didn’t like any of them… and even if he did. He wouldn’t mimic them.

He had no idea how to get Spiritual Fragments and, he was not foolish enough to waste them on anything other than the skill called [Spatial Jump].

He clenched his fists and whispered to himself. “This is my Cheat!”

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