The illusion shattered instantly.

  “I knew it,” she muttered.

  Another illusion rose up about fifteen paces away from her.

  “Why are you following me?”

  She shrugged.

  “You’re interesting and weak, but somehow strong as well.”

  “Well, I am trying to hunt and you’re getting in my way a bit.”

  Her smile fell as if she genuinely hadn’t thought of what I just said.

  “Oh, sorry.”

  I sighed. She was a scion, and she was one of the better ones when compared to all I had met before. She had probably never been socially rejected. Her life was probably filled with people seeking to make friends with her. Add that in with her wild dao, and her sense of society and individuals might have developed in a twisted way.

  Wild meant free for her, and maybe that meant free from social norms and instincts as well. Daos really could be all-consuming, but on the other hand, this probably gave her a natural defense against charm techniques and illusion as her mind was ‘wild’ and free from all influences.

  Unlike my dao and the definition of peace I had put into the array, wild here was a limited term. It obviously didn’t mean free from morals or duty. It had its limits and a definition of its own.

  It was refined, known, and unique. A dao was a path and the longer one stayed on that path, the further you’d get. At first, it would seem common, but every path had its own deviation, and given enough time, you’d find yourself in a lane all your own.

  “They don’t attack you because they know who you are and the trouble that would bring them. But I have to remain hidden, otherwise, as soon as they see and know the real me, they’ll strike.”

  She nodded.

  “Yes. I understand. Apologies… I was just curious about the illusion.”

  The illusion nodded and smiled.

  I understood. It was the same fascination rich kids had with homeless ones. They wanted to see how they lived, watch how they worked, and marvel at how little they needed to survive. And if a rich child saw some scrappy kid playing with a toy they didn’t already have, they might be inclined to explore it.

  What I was doing was unique but her sect could purchase an artifact with the same effects. My skills, my power and everything she found curious was a toy she had never seen before.

  If she wanted to really perceive me she could, like a child breaking a puzzle instead of solving it. But she was better than that, but this was the best you could expect of some scions. She was nice but did not understand boundaries very well.

  I sighed. I hoped she wouldn’t make a difference. Few beasts had been hurt up till now and one of them had died. But that was only one beast and that was an accident.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  They should have been nursing their wounds now, and the ones that hadn’t attacked should be working to try and see through the illusion. Fights between thirteenth ranks were rare, but out here in the jungle and hidden within their domain I was practically asking for death.

  It was one of the many appeals of the Cosmic Forest. Danger was common out there in the void, but battle was rare. What was common was death caused by a being that surpassed you, but danger within your own rank was rare, and danger from those only a step or two above you was even more so.

  But this was the Cosmic Forest where hungry beasts roamed. Instinct ruled the minds of beasts and death walked with life.

  I wondered about the life expectancy of beasts here. It was probably high, beasts still had to master laws after all and that couldn’t be done without time. But then again, they had bloodlines and could pass down their understanding through them.

  But still, they hungered for power. That was their nature.

  Some were different but most were the same. I could feel it even now, they needed to grow, to dominate.

  It was at the core of their being. Lust and hunger are so fundamental to their nature that they could do nothing but obey them. It was to them as empathy was to man.

  It was strange to think of it that way but it held true. A starving man would rarely kill another person and eat him, but a beast would. It wasn’t that beasts couldn’t feel love or kindness, it was that such things were secondary to their nature.

  In the same way a man could feel lust and hunger a beast could feel love and caring, but a man defined by lust and hunger was not a man, and a beast defined by love and kindness was not a beast.

  I studied the area around me.

  The light still surged from the array, and though few had been injured, the array had done its purpose.

  Light pierced through the darkness. The array did multiple things. First, it gathered. I couldn’t see the beasts cloaked in the dark, but I knew they’d gather just outside of the visible area. Second, it distracted them. I knew the beasts were trying to cut through to me more than anything else.

  I was the easy prey. For all my hiding, I couldn’t do a thing about the dark. I had no way to sense through it and they knew that. Once they broke my illusion, they could hunt me down.

  But like anything that was used to seeing through the dark, the light overwhelmed them. Light was pervasive, it shone through the darkness, heading forward until something stopped it.

  But they never touched it. They hated the light so they let it travel unbothered through their territory, tearing and tearing through the dark forest until it hit something, a tree or a rock, or a small hill.

  This was a game of hide and seek, one where the seekers could see and the hider couldn’t. One that would end in death or nothing.

  Anxiety came over me. This was it. This was real, a fight, a risk not even Dane would have taken. It was something quick and unreasonable, and I was fairly certain I could survive, but the chance of death was not zero.

  It suddenly hit me how stupid this was, how spontaneous and unplanned my attack really was. The reality of my own inability came down on me like a mountain.

  I could die. A part of me screamed. It wasn’t the mortal part, surprisingly. It came from Dane, from the part of him that had stayed alive through the countless years. It came from the careful man who had endured near eternity and killed himself during the process.

  But another part felt apathy at the thought. The small man known as Bill had always assumed that death would eventually come for him. He had faced it once, and he would be willing to face it again.

  And where the two met was where I started. An immortal mortal, a broken bundle of apathy.

  This was stupid. This was dangerous. This was an unnecessary risk on my part.

  And yet,

  “Drean was a good name for you,” the man suddenly spoke. “But I think prey would have been a better word.”

  The man’s words echoed in my mind. The ages of worry and fear filled with nothing but planning burst into my mind.

  Yes. Something is coming. The horizon of existence glows with new light. There is something on the way and I tell you this, Bill, do not be complacent. Grow.

  I remembered what the Tome had said. I couldn’t afford to sit still anymore. I couldn’t afford to be stagnant.

  This was practice. The risk was low and the danger was real. If I were to live, to truly cultivate again, I would have to grow and heal and-

  Fight.

  Opps, another Cliff.

  is 28 chapters ahead. They will be getting three new chapters this Thursday.

  Read my other fiction. Its Sci-Fi and on Rising Stars Sci Fi category. Its superhero, worldbuilding, science fiction, progression, super-minion inspired, good, great, buzzword, buzzword, story.

  It is something that's been bouncing around my head for a bit, a story where I try to make a power system for superheroes and fix all the things I hated about superhero stories. Like how do you hide your secret identity when you bleed all over the pavement. How do you get paid and why aren't you getting paid? If a supervillain kills multiple people, wouldn't the government want to put them down? The Joker is literally a domestic terrorist, how is he still alive?

  It is my attempt at an antidote to superheroes without removing all the things that makes them great. Secret identities, moral paragons, and all other tropes can be found here. But I try to make it as real as I can, even if we have caped crusaders who are somewhat confused about where the underwear goes.

  Give it a go!