I Hate Systems

"Believe me when I say that I haven't killed any of them!" Runka shouted, straining as he pressed upon Pilkan's arms, forcing the knife closer to his neck, "They are my comrades! Why would I kill them, huh?"

"For Mental Fragments, what else?" Pilkan gritted his teeth, "I saw you absorbing them from my sister's corpse!"

"Are you insane?" Runka retorted in response, "Even ten of me wouldn't make a dent on her. I won't be able to kill her even if I ambush her, you dumbass!"

"I don't care, die!" Pilkan shouted, suddenly bursting with enough strength that he pried the knife from the deadlock and stabbed it towards Runka.

But when faced with this crisis, Runka brought out his Invoked Spirit, causing its hand to pinch the knife casually and pry it out of his hands as Runka said in anger, "Listen to me, or I wouldn't even care about your sister's orders and…"

He couldn't finish speaking, for a spear had pierced through his head and stabbed into the ground behind, at the same time mist billowed out of Pilkan in a hurry, wrapping around Runka's Invoked Spirit before he died.

Staring at the blood leaking on him from the large hole in Runka's head, Pilkan—Compass Carburettor—sighed in response, pushing him aside as he focused on absorbing the Mental Fragments from the trapped Invoked Spirit.

To fool Runka, he had been running all along at the side, exhausting himself to the limit, truly bringing his body to the brink of exhaustion. He also applied Heela's blood on his clothes, for her blood hadn't coagulated as only her neck had been crushed. It was safer to use her blood in comparison to Fowma's, whose came into contact with the air long ago and had mostly spilled out by now.

To fool your enemy, you must first fool yourself!

Compass Carburettor got into his role to such an extent that he himself believed whatever he had uttered. This was why his performance was so convincing to an expert like Runka.

And now that he had completed his task, Compass Carburettor sighed in relief, not having the strength to even get up as he focused on absorbing the Superior Human Invoked Spirit after Runka's Mental Fragments.

He had to focus all his attention on absorbing it, for his mist was getting expended at an alarming pace. Trapping a Superior Invoked Spirit was pretty strenuous as his mist reserves were almost drained now.

It took more than an hour before he managed to absorb it all, gasping by the end as he simply lay on the ground, forcing himself to stay awake. He had used up all his mist now, barely managing to finish things up, on the verge of fainting any second.

Left with no strength, he could only roll to the side and move towards a bush where he had hid the group's belongings, drinking a bottle of medicine before falling asleep right there.

It surely wasn't comfortable sleeping on uneven ground, out in the open like this as he didn't have a comfortable sleep. Within two hours, he woke up, feeling pain all over his body as he was still tired. But at least, he was now able to move now.

Compass Carburettor got up and began to pack everything, muttering to himself, "They truly only brought in the minimum most necessities."

He ate some rations and cleaned himself up in a stream nearby, bringing all the luggage with him as he saddled them to his horse, the only one that was still alive. The remaining three had been killed by him right at the start to prevent Runka and group from using them to escape.

That was why the situation played out as he wished. Now that he killed the three, his next goal was Duketace, one that had escaped while all this happened.

It was best to get rid of all evidence that was privy to what happened to him.

Pilkan's sister knew that he had returned alive. But, she was an Ascender, nothing he could do about it for the time being. He could only hope that she wouldn't make a move personally after learning about his disappearance.

It would still happen, whether or not he liked it. As Heela had displayed, there existed tracking methods possessed by some Invokers. Therefore, Peika would definitely come to learn that he was alive while the team dispatched to guard him died.

And, if she personally were to track the Duketace and his family of four, they would be captured sooner or later.

Until now, she wasn't aware that Pilkan had fallen into the Bottomless Mist Valley. It was something only Duketace knew. He witnessed Pilkan falling through it while his eagle was so injured that it wasn't able to even fly. So, his death had been assured.

And the fact that he had survived through something like that, and even became strong invoked a lot of suspicions. Once Duketace gives her all the details regarding the incident, she might suspect foul play.

Ascenders were capable of taking control of someone's Dreamland forcefully and even live there. So, she might suspect that her little brother wasn't actually alive but replaced by the ghost of an old monster.

Compass Carburettor didn't know of this detail, but he was sure of one fact: Allowing Peika to meet Duketace was troublesome to his plans. Through what he perceived from the changes to Pilkan's Luck and Fate, he came to this conclusion.

So, before Peika finds him or Duketace, he had to get rid of Duketace and his family. There was a possibility that Duketace discussed about Pilkan with at least one of his family members during their run.

After all, their predicament arose from his failure in capturing the Superior Grade Human Invoker Crystal that Pilkan had stolen in the first place.

'I have taken over the body of this world's protagonist. And now, I have to survive the massive upheavals that result from this.' Compass Carburettor sighed. He didn't have a choice back then, for taking control of Pilkan was his surest way to getting back at Conjurer.

And, his Lore had led him directly towards Pilkan, for only through him, did there exist a possibility of him leaving this world in three years.

His wordings—in the Lore—were like a search result for potential candidates in this world to take over. And, the search narrowed to Pilkan, and him alone.

"Of course, it wouldn't be easy." Thinking as such, Compass Carburettor began to chase after Duketace.