Kale's form arrived soft as feather, descending into the new realm without a stir or sound.
For a breath, all stood frozen. The atmosphere - if such emptiness could be called air - clung motionless, thick as burial shroud fog. Quiet gathered like floodwaters in a forgotten tomb. In that suspended instant, he was merely a ghost-smear drifting through eternity's uncharted vault.
Then something stirred like a pull, he floated onward, raising what might once have been hands towards where a face belonged, but his formless eyes burned. The light above was real, brighter than anything he had been familiar with in the Graylands.
'What is this place?' Kale wondered.
He looked up and tried to blink - an old habit of flesh but the motion never came. His form no longer obeyed it. The sensation left him off balance. Yet somehow, despite the lack of lids or pupils, the brightness faded just enough for shapes to emerge from the glare, sharpening slowly into focus.
Towers of glass with unnatural height and impossible materials, sparkled like diamonds, reaching far past any spires he had ever seen. Metal beasts roared past him on black stone roads, their wheels spinning fast, lights blinking like eyes. He reeled backward as one of them screamed, a sharp and angry noise as it left a streak of wind and confusion behind.
The one at edge of the road - Humans. He recognized them. Or things like humans. They moved as humans did, with skin and clothes and expressions. But they were not his humans. These ones carried glowing rectangles in their hands that shone with inner light. They spoke to no one, yet their mouths moved. Some smiled without warmth, laughed without cause, and walked faster than any battlefield march - all of them rushing yet seemingly with no destination.
Kale had never seen such a place. There were no swords here or relics, no banners. Perhaps no gods or no lords. Just glass, metal, noise and motion.
'This world is...madness. I hope having Mira here will turn out to be easier than any of the cursed realms I have been thrown into,' Kale thought.
He moved toward a nearby structure and pressed what he thought could be called fingers against a wall of glass only to pass through it.
Inside, the noise grew with voices, footsteps, and different creatures.
One of them moved briskly forward, tongue lolling, tail swaying, short brown fur shifting with each step. The creature stopped and sniffed the air. Then it turned right toward Kale.
A deep growl came from its throat, rough and full of warning.
'Impossible...Wait, does it see me' he wondered.
Then it charged with a louder growl.
Kale pulled back but stood his ground.
'I've faced warlords, monsters, even gods. You're nothing, little beast,' he thought.
Just before the jaws clamped down, Kale lashed out with his shapeless limb, only for it to phase through the beast's maw. The creature's teeth sank instead into the frayed edges of his formless form.
He felt something like pain through his form. He tried to fight back, but the creature only grew more aggressive. Until a voice called out from distance.
"Jacky!"
The creature stopped and turned toward the man.
That was all Kale needed. He weaved between legs and through walls, his form flickering with every panicked step.
Only once the noise fell behind did he pause in a narrow, unknown place. He had no heart, but still, something ached. He realized how weak he was in this realm.
'The great Ashblood,' he thought bitterly, 'Warlord of the Eastern Reach, Once called breaker of circles, slayer of gods, now running from barking things.'
He shook his head. 'I can't afford to stay this weak in this realm. If this realm allows beast to sense me, worse will follow. I need to solidify my form, and fast.'
Kale recalled the warden's words: to gain form, he needed to gather Sin Mana. He didn't understand how that worked, but he was ready to figure it out.
'if that's what it took to be with Mira then I wouldn't hesitate.' he thought
Kale turned his focus into the urban chaos. The noise, the constant movement, it was all too much. But amidst the disarray, something caught his attention.
Around him were anger from a man yelling, fear in a teenager glancing behind her, and joy bursting from a couple holding hands. Each of this emotion had a texture, a color only kale could see. Some were yellow and green, like guilt and shame. Others were pink, even purple, like love or pride. But it was the darker ones that pulled at him the most. They clung to him and stirred something inside.
He followed the pull of emotion into a building. In a quiet corner, two people were talking. A girl, her smile was forced, glancing down like she was hiding something. The man across from her, who seemed to be her boyfriend, didn't notice. But Kale did. He hovered closer.
Then she said it. "Of course I stayed home last night."
A lie. Small and harmless on the surface. But it struck like lightning. Her guilt bloomed instantly, yellow and thick like smoke in her chest. Kale felt it hit him. Not physically, but like energy rushing into his core. He didn't understand how, but it felt something clicked, like a drop in his core. But it faded just as swiftly as he absorbed it.
Kale felt his mana core empty, but he didn't budge. He needed to understand what was going on, so he did the calculation slowly. The girl had lied, and the effect was guilt, which appeared as the yellow thick smoke. Perhaps human falsehood and the emotional effect it caused transformed into Sin Mana, and that was what he needed to take form.
But he wasn't sure, so kale left the building, trailing behind the girl. Her guilt followed her like a shadow. She kept checking her phone, lips pressed tight, eyes full of regret. Kale could feel it all. That one small lie had unsettled her.
'Perhaps if I could make her lie again pushing her toward deeper guilt, could that generate a dark mana ?' He thought
Kale hovered close, planting doubts in her mind. She hesitated. Then, she sent a message she didn't mean.
Her:
Why would you even think I'm cheating on you? Or are you just projecting something you're doing yourself?
Boyfriend:
What? No, not at all. You know how much I care about you. It's just… I've been hearing things, and I needed to hear it from you to clear my mind.
Her:
I understand… you know how much I care about you... You just have to trust me.
Immediately after the last message dropped, guilt rose in her. It wasn't as strong this time, but it was there. Kale absorbed it, felt the same light spark inside.
'Guess, I was right' kale thought
Kale understood something critical now. He wasn't just here to feed on emotion. He had to influence it. Nudge people. Plant ideas. Stir their worst parts with whispered thoughts and subtle suggestions.
Kale stopped following her, thinking. His mana core felt like a vast container, and the guilt he had absorbed was just a drop. He needed to gain form faster.
There had to be other ways,' If I could push them towards greater consequences like deeper regret, embarrassment, despair, or even death, perhaps it could yield denser Sin mana' Kale thought
Thoughts like that felt like a cruel decision, but the warden's words were clear. So be it. If fate demanded cruelty, he would become its sharpest instrument. Kale made up his mind.
For the first few days, Kale didn't act. Instead, he watched and learned. He studied how this world worked, where its people were weak, and how easily things could fall apart.
Slowly fragments of the realm understanding began to sink into his form and he realised all it took was one argument, one mistake, or one secret being revealed. If he played his cards right, just a small push, whether by planting doubts, wrong subtle suggestions, it's enough to send someone over the edge. And when they fell, he could collect the Sin mana he needed.