Chapter 37: Mayan

Having my means of returning destroyed, I decided to focus on finding Bastion for now.

I could probably learn how to conjure up another rift right now, but from what I noticed, it seemed to attract the residents of the Spiritual Plane. With that in mind, I'll refrain from trying it before finding Bastion. As for his whereabouts...

I turned to Adel, "About my friend. Would you still help me find him?"

She nodded meekly and reluctantly pointed towards the direction where the Hoppers went. Heh, figures. In games, encountering enemies means you're probably heading the right way..

I stared hard at where they went, steeling myself to take a step.

"You sure you want to head there, mister?

"Not really, but it's not like a have a choice."

"You're funny, mister. We always have a choice," she giggled. "Anyway, good luck!"

"Yeah, thanks. Huh? Wait-" I turned around. She was gone. "Hey, what about helping me?" I protested.

At least she didn't try to kill me. I slapped my cheeks with both of my palms twice and gave myself a pep talk "Whoo! You can do this Mike!" I stealthily headed to the direction where they went.

An hour later, I caught sight of a few of them. Standing there idly like inanimate objects. If it weren't for me seeing them moving back then, I would've assumed they were spooky statues meant to ward off intruders. I decided to circle around them to find another path deeper towards the woods where Bastion is, according to Adel. I turned to take a step but froze on the spot. One of them slowly approached me. I wanted to summon my soulblade so badly. The only reason I didn't yet is because it'll be as good as announcing my presence to the entire horde. And if I'm gonna do that, the least I can do is delay calling my soulblade until the very last moment before killing the Hopper in front of me. Even a split second is worth more than gold in terms of life and death. Four meters... Three meters… Steady… Two meters… It ignored me and walked past through my position, settling nearby its brethrens and stopped moving. Eh? Did it not see me? I scratched my head in a daze. The Miords were eyeless too, but that didn't stop them from locking down on me just fine, so I assumed the same for the Hoppers. But wait. Maybe they have acute hearing in order to make up for their blindness. I picked up a rock and reluctantly tossed it around them to test my hypothesis. No reaction. I did it a few more times. Still nothing. I grinned euphorically. Looks like they can only detect magic power after all. And since I don't have the capacity to use magic, I should be invisible to them as long as I didn't conjure up my soulblade. Anyway, I still decided to proceed with my original plan and circle through them. Ain't no way in hell I'm going to walk through those things just because they couldn't see me. Paranoid people tend to suffer from stress and live less healthier than the average person, but they make up for it with lifespan gained from being extra cautious.

I trekked through the static forest for another half-hour, meticulously maneuvering to avoid bumping into the Hoppers. As I got deeper, I encountered spirits of various morphology, similar to Miords. The only difference being their inverted color-scheme, the lack of embedded marbles - oh, and none of them actually tried to kill me. Which is nice. Makes me wonder what makes the Miords outside the Spiritual Plane so eager to see me dead.

Eventually, I arrived at what I presumed to be the place they held Bastion. There, a temple-like structure was guarded by dozens of Hoppers and a few spear-wielding humanoid spirits. How did they even managed to build one of those in the middle of the forest? I squinted my eyes and spotted Bastion held in the peak of the pyramid-like-temple, tied to a pole. A few humanoid spirits stood nearby him and seemed to be preparing some sort of ritual.

My expression turned grim. Circumstances had changed. I should rescue him as soon as possible. I searched frantically for a way to get to the top without alarming the entire horde of my presence but found none. There simply isn't enough cover and the area is heavily guarded.

I decided to abandon my plan to infiltrate the place stealthily and instead went Berserker on them.

Why? Because the structure looked exactly like a frickin' Mayan Pyramid no matter how I look at it. And you know what else the Mayans do aside from building pyramid temples? Human sacrifice. That's what.

I sprinted towards the closest humanoid spirit and made my soulblade appeared as I plunged it to it's chest. It let out an expression of incredulity before falling limply to the ground, shriveling up like a dessicated shrimp. My soulblade glowed faintly as I ran, heading to the steps of the pyramid screaming, butchering down a few unfortunate spirits along my path. Now the entire Spirit Plane knows I'm here.