Sitting on a mound of rat corpses, Aries twirled a pair of feathered earrings in his hands. Staring at the pair of earrings, he took in every inch of it and committed it to memory.
He had gained these earrings from the body of the owl. After dealing with the swarm of rats that had come from the rotting tree, he had gone back to check on the owl to be completely sure that it had died, and to look if something like these earrings had appeared, and to his delight, they did.
When a being of a supernatural nature dies, they have a chance of leaving behind an object imbued with their abilities. These kinds of objects were referred to as spiritual relics, as they contain a fragment of the individual's soul. Spiritual relics are separated into three states: The enchanted state, where the relic is enchanted with the ability to enhance properties based on its origin; the imbued state, where the relic fully awakens the abilities left behind from its origin; and the awakened state, where the relic taps into the dormant soul within it, allowing it to develop its own consciousness and transform between an item state and a familiar state.
These three spiritual relic states are ordered starting from enchanted relics, then imbued relics, and finally, awakened relics. While a spiritual relic can be left behind in any state, it can also advance in state with the help of its user.
When Aries had returned to the body of the owl, he had seen the process of the relic being created. The owl's chest had opened up, allowing its crimson blood to spill out, before gathering together and coagulating into a pair of feathered earrings.
After collecting the earrings, he had gone back to the pile of rats to check if any of them had also left behind a relic, but no more had appeared. Aries had expected this, as spiritual relics were rare, especially in the early stages.
Since he had not found any more relics, he decided to use the mound of rats as a seat, leading back to the present.
As he studied the relic in his hand, Aries wondered what state of relic the earrings were, and what their abilities were.
'Only one way to find out.'
Biting his thumb, a bead of blood formed. He then pressed the blood on the pair of earrings, causing a mystical sensation to envelope his being as a special connection was formed with him and the spiritual relic, making him its master.
Using the newly formed connection with the earrings, Aries delved into the depths of the relic and soon found out all that he needed to know.
The relic was of the Null rank, which was obvious to him, as the creature it originated from was also of the Null rank. If it had been a higher-ranked creature, then there might have been some debate before he officially found out.
For what he truly wanted to know, it came soon after. It was a spiritual relic of the enchanted state. Its enchantment enhanced his spatial awareness and his dodging ability.
'Seems simple, but definitely useful.' Unlike a lot of enchanted relics, this one was useful in most situations.
'Now to test it.'
Aries pinned the earrings to his ears and fed them a bit of chi to allow them to activate. Now that they had been activated, he did not need to feed his Chi to the enchanted spiritual relic.
As the relic activated, Aries felt his senses expand, and he suddenly became much more aware of the things around him. If Aries had been a normal individual, he would have been disoriented, but having experienced something like this already, on a much larger scale no less, he was perfectly fine.
'So this is it… It's much weaker than I expected, but it is sufficient for now. I am only Null after all.'
This is what Aries thought, but for any normal person, they would have long been overwhelmed by the increased information intake. This was more than sufficient for someone of his level. As for the other enchantment, he would need to wait to test it out.
'Now that I've gotten this, one of the requirements has been fulfilled.'
Aries leaped off the mound of rats and checked his surroundings to make sure he hadn't missed anything. With this side of things taken care of, there would likely be no more rats being born.
'The mist is clearing too.'
Even so, with this problem handled, he still had quite a bit of cleaning up to do. There were still many of the mutated rats roaming around Lios.
'And there is that problem with Arthur as well…'
He was someone as close as family and was someone dear to the younger Aries. As much as he did not understand emotions and human feelings, he was still someone who repaid his debts and protected his own, so he wouldn't let Arthur succumb to what was afflicting him. Not without trying at least.
With the mist fully cleared, he was now ready to return to town.
First, he gathered his Chi into his legs to enhance them, in turn boosting his speed. If he were of a higher rank— such as Awakened or higher— he would have been able to simply rely on his physical ability to quickly traverse to the town, but as a Null— a rank where one would be barely better than a mundane human other than their ability to utilize Chi— he had to rely on his chi to get such speeds.
At least, that is how it would have been if he were a normal Null, but as a mythical creature, his physical abilities were much greater than those of a regular Null. Even in his disguised state, he could utilize slightly greater strength than normal, though not much more.
He still utilized his Chi despite this due to the fact that his ability to control his Chi was subpar while disguised, so he would use every chance he had to practice. Another reason was that he wanted to get back as fast as he could.
With his legs saturated with Chi, Aries launched himself forward, moving through the forest with an unnatural swiftness.
He quickly reached the outer sections of Lios, which were near the park. As his eyes landed upon the town, he could immediately tell something was wrong. A light mist flowed through the outer ridges of the town, thickening into an opaque fog deeper in. His nose picked up a faint prickly scent emanating from the town as well.
Wasting no time, Aries activated [Bright Eyes] and peered into the fog. With the fog no longer blocking his vision, his eyes locked onto a giant blood-red tree spanning many meters high, with fleshy sacks with vague shapes within serving as its fruits. Its crimson roots coiled around the entire expanse of Lios, encompassing every building and structure in its disgusting embrace.
The tree resembled the rotting tree which he had dealt with before, only this time the tree was much larger and not rotting. Most importantly, however, Aries saw its fruits constantly forming and ripening, releasing more rats into the town.
As he laid his eyes upon the appalling sight, Aries' face grew dark.
'It was only a sapling…'