Chapter 25 - More Threads

As Ashe walked around the outer city he started thinking about how to acquire threads.

He already planned to bait out people's nefarious intentions with his gang uniform, but what after that?

'I'm supposed to just think about the emotions right? So I'll think about angering people when I walk. I also need to show off that I have a stage 2 mutation without showing enough to get myself tracked on the registry.'

'Do I even have any physical mutation? I haven't noticed anything… Whatever I'll just show off my strength, as long as I keep all of my demon energy inside it should be enough for a threat.'

With that plan sorted he went to a small convenience store and bought a facemask. He also checked the inside of his body for threads. His trap sigil was located near his heart and along with it a new thread.

he decided to quickly check it out so he looked for a nearby desolate alleyway for some privacy.

After a couple of minutes of walking down the street, he found one. In it, he found a dumpster and a couple of closed metal doors. He quickly sat behind the dumpster so as to not be seen from the main street, then Ashe took out the thread and started feeling it.

It was fear from one of the thugs in the sewers. It was a fear of isolation, the fear of being in a place far removed from any help.

'That's weird… but I guess I can't blame anyone for what they think in their last moments. Did the other guy not even realize he was in danger? I must have knocked him out too fast.'

While Ashe lost himself in the thread and didn't even realize that someone was walking into the alleyway.

Only when they got close did he finally hear multiple footsteps.

The three people walked past him, walking further down the alley. their backs had a large symbol of a star, similar to a sheriff's badge. Only when they realized that the alley was a dead end did one of them speak up.

"I swear he went here!" A frustrated female voice shouted.

"Whatever… he must have gotten scared and ran away." The tallest of the figures responded.

"What could Azel be doing this far into our turf?" The third one asked.

"I don't know but we should definitely report this." The girl responded before turning around.

To her surprise, the lone Azel member was standing right behind them.

"Oh, you didn't run away?" She exclaimed out of surprise.

"He must have wanted to beg for forgiveness." The tall man added with a smirk.

"Let's just get this dog to the branch leader. I'm sure he would appreciate our gift." The last said and stepped forward.

'Is everyone in a gang this cold-hearted? It's like a whole different world.' Ashe thought as the man approached him.

He had already planned out what he wanted to do. He wanted to scare them without them knowing why they were scared. This would hopefully result in their mind coming up with irrational and exaggerated fears, which would make for better threads.

Ashe quickly reached his right hand into his back pocket.

The man hesitated for a second before taking out a knife and walking closer. Ashe kept his hand behind his back up until the man was about to swing his knife.

He then dashed forward at a surprising speed, up until he was almost hugging his opponent.

The man didn't even have time to react before Ashe's right fist slammed into his chest.

The other two only saw that the masked Azel member had used the previously hidden arm, and now their comrade was screaming in pain on the ground.

'I definitely heard something crack... I hope it's not serious."

Ashe's hand was behind his back again and he previously used his opponent's body to make sure it wasn't seen.

"Get that fucker!" The man screamed from the ground while trying to get up.

The two other thugs snapped out of their confusion and took out their weapons. The tall man took out two small push knives while the woman took out a close-quarters taser.

The two of them rushed at Ashe, while he stayed still with an arm behind his back.

The first one that got in range was the man with push knives. As soon as he did Ashe rushed to his side as to get the man between himself and the woman. His speed was uncanny, only after paying close attention would one realize it wasn't achievable without a mutation.

The man realized what was happening too late. He felt a sharp pain in his stomach without even stealing a glance at his attacker's weapon.

The second man fell to the ground with a muffled scream and Ashe quickly took back his fist and hid it from sight.

The woman stopped when she saw this.

"What the fuck?! What is that thing?!" She screamed at the men on the ground.

"I don't know! I didn't see." The one that just fell shouted back.

Hearing this, the woman was about to run away.

"It's just a fist! He's a mutant." yelled the thug still laying in the back.

For a brief moment, this brought the woman some elation before the realization of the words hit her. What was she going to do against a mutant?

But before she could take her first step Ashe took his.

He approached quickly and with a single punch to the stomach, she fell to the ground as well.

'Hm… it seems I need around 60% of my energy concentrated in my arm to knock them down in a single punch. I should probably scare them a bit more while they're down.'

Ashe looked at the woman next to him before gazing at the two men further down the alley.

'Shit!'

Ashe only noticed this now but one of them was trying to hide a phone under their hand.

'They said we're in their territory… not just that, we're deep within their territory. If they called for back up…'

Ashe didn't even finish his thought before running away, he knew that these thugs didn't have any firearms, but that couldn't be said for their superiors.

He ran further out of the city and once he thought he was a safe distance away he took off his hoodie and face mask to be more discreet. He continued to run for almost an hour after that.

He was at the very edge of the city when he stopped. This far out there were very few buildings and only a dirt path.

A large grass plain covers a large distance between the final city wall and the rest of the outer city. This large plain currently occupies one-fourth of the outer city, and it's only here to house future construction.

The plain itself is fairly safe. There are no beasts living there, and the only risk it poses is if an animal that lives there awakens a mutation and becomes a beast. However, the only animals that do live there are insects and small rodents.

Ashe had never been here before in person. He had only driven by this area a few times in a car or a trolley.

'I should be safe here.'

He sighed before sitting down on the ground. He checked his phone only to see some missed calls from his mom and Emily.

'I'll answer those later I'm too tired right now.'

Ashe closed his eyes and recollected on his actions.

'Today was such a mess, I don't like beating people up yet I keep getting into fights lately… all because a literal demon tells me to. I want to go home but…'

'I feel like I'm not making any progress. Sap said I could get Josh back but can I even trust that thing?'

'Maybe my brother is gone for good.'

Tears began to fill Ashe's eyes and demon energy began to course wildly in his body.

Normally Ashe would try to control himself, burn the excess energy, and think of a solution rather than the problem.

But he was too tired to do that. He just let the emotions flow.

Soon he began to feel light-headed and his skin started to flare up. The tears flowing from his eyes shone a subtle crimson.

Then a headache appeared, at first it was light but soon it got larger and larger.

Ashe had to lay down next to the tall grass but that only helped temporarily. His vision got blurry and Ashe didn't resist in the slightest.

_______

Yet again Ashe awoke on a pile of dimly glowing souls. He reached out to the lid of the basket and slid it off.

He watched as a feathery figure rose until it reached the ceiling before it turned its head 180 degrees and looked him in the eyes.

"Your early," Sap spoke in its usual raspy monotone voice.

"If we go too fast your body won't have time to acclimate and… we wouldn't want that."

Ashe continued to stare at the demon with puzzled eyes. Then he looked around the cave, noticing that it was almost triple the size since when they started.

The tunnels looked more like a mineshaft than naturally formed caves. It even had small lanterns spread out conservatively on the ceiling.

The rock also looked bizarre, with flowing red patterns rarely scattered around its surface.

"You've noticed the change? We're on the main path already and we'll soon reach the halfway point now." Sap continued.

Ashe jumped out of the basket and inspected himself. He still had the clothes from the day he first entered here, and they were quite dirty. But ignoring that he felt fine.

"My body feels fine so it should be fine if we go right?"

Sap nodded in response before picking up the basket and leading the way forward.

While walking Ashe checked up on his threads and to his surprise there were 3 more.

He took out all the threads he got from this day and began to look through them.

In total, he only got 4, which was a bit disappointing.

Three of them were threads of fear and the last was a thread of anger.

Firstly, he looked at the thread of anger.

He saw a figure casually walking while emitting an infuriating feeling of false pride. As if the figure didn't even realize how much danger they were in, yet they dared to treat the situation so lightheartedly.

'I guess a simple hoodie really can piss people off huh.'

Ashe slowly turned his attention to the new threads of fear.

The threads of fear were similar to an extent.

The first showed a figure making and hiding a mysterious poison behind its back. While the third showed an empty-handed figure who magically manifests a small weapon when they strike.

'These could be really useful. Of the four, the thread of anger could be great at distracting beasts.'

'While the last fear thread could hopefully be made into an ability to automatically make a weapon for me.'

'The second fear thread could allow me to make poison, but I don't know how useful that could be.'

'And the first fear will be probably made into the foundation of another.'

After collecting his thoughts Ashe looked over to Sap, only to find it staring at him. Or more precisely, his threads.

"I was hoping you could help me with these," Ashe spoke up.

"And what would you like to make with these?" Sap asked without stopping.

"Could I make some sort of bait with the anger thread?"

"No..." Sap answered after a short pause.

"Why not? this thread definitely makes me want to attack the figure."

"This is simply not something anger or fear can do alone. Each emotion has a specific use in a craft and only by combining them can you blur the line between specificity. Fear is used for the autonomy of a craft, for example, it's responsible for your trap sigil's tracking and forming capabilities."

"While Anger is used as a venom, it's usually used to add toxic properties to your demon energy. Your thread could be used to make an attack that dulls the survival instincts of your opponent. If I could suggest, I would combine your thread of anger with this one." Sap pointed to the second thread of fear.

'The second thread is the one of a person creating a poison, do I use that to make literal poison?'

Seeing Ashe's confusion Sap spoke again. "You could use this thread to efficiently create toxic demon energy. With how flexible demon energy is, I'm sure you can see its value."

"So how do I do that?" Ashe asked.

"The shape of a craft can be highly abstract, and since you know how to use one try and make one. It's a very simple craft." Sap responded and stopped the walk.

'Make one? When I use my sigil I put my demon energy into the craft and then when I take it out it's complete. So do the crafts act like a mold to imprint the thread's effect onto the demon energy? So I should put the anger thread as the source that imprints and use the fear thread to make it more efficient.'

"I should also add, that you should probably meld down another fear thread to add to the one you're using."

Sap's words added two variables to the mix. Firstly, Ashe completely forgot about the properties of threads. And secondly, the fact he should use another thread.

After thinking for a while he felt like he could only ask for a hint or two.

"What would happen if I put my demon energy into a natural thread?"

"See for yourself," Sap responded,

Ashe let demon energy flow into the thread of anger. The energy slowly went from the thicker end of the thread to the thinner end. As it traveled through Ashe could feel it slowly change, and eventually float out of the other end with a subtle color change.

He stopped and took out the thread of fear. Unlike the anger thread, this one vacuumed energy with great speed, and at the other end, the energy formed into a vague figure made of liquid, holding a liquid orb.

'I think I get it! Now I just need to connect the threads with a shape...'

After a while of thinking Ashe had finally made a prototype in his head. He even confirmed it with Sap so the last thing he had to do was make it.

Firstly, he made some tools. A thin sheet of solidified energy for a table, and a small scalpel as well.

the first step was to cut out all the unnecessary details from the thread of fear. Most of a thread's information is stored at the thinnest part so this was the most difficult task. But with slow and precise slices, the figure that made the poison got removed.

Then Ashe cut off the tip of the fear thread. this way he kept only the most important information. then he took the scraps of the thread and another fear thread and put them over a flame.

the boiling threads slowly mesh together like metal and lose most of the information within, making them a clean slate. once they were clean and melted, Ashe used demon energy to mold them into shape.

He slowly made the shape of a very thin and hollow pipe that slowly narrowed along its length. When the shape was ready he put the previously cut-off tip into the still liquidy meld of threads. the informationless meld quickly reformed its shape to mimic the very detailed tip. spreading the tip's information across the entire shape.

Right as the metal was cooling down Ashe put the anger thread down the middle of the pipe. the two threads slowly connected but no information was exchanged, they were completely different types after all.

With that, the craft was finished. It was no longer than a palm and no thicker than a finger. it looked like a large and plain pen.

Ashe put it back inside his body and made energy flow through it. The results were spectacular, while before he would have to wait almost a minute for a dozen droplets, now he could make around an eyeball's worth of volume in seconds.

"Well done, I hope you learned from this," Sap said before standing up and continuing to walk.

Ashe was unfazed by the lackluster praise and was quite pleased with himself. he continued to walk along Sap while testing out his craft.

About half an hour later Ashe began to feel his body struggling. He then continued to struggle on this edge for ten more minutes before passing out.