Blood Evolution System

The second hall of rose was eerily quiet and lit up with thousands of round light blobs. Each of these lights represented a monster. They were horrified to know that so many monsters surrounded them.

"Be on your guard."

Without thinking what these creatures might be, they summoned their weapons and grasped them in their hands vigilantly, ready to lash out at any creature that comes near them.

Some of them were about to brandish their weapons; however, Vincent held them back instantly.

"Why are you stopping us?" John said in a bewildered voice, unable to understand why Vincent had stopped them from attacking the monsters in their surroundings.

"We need to lessen their numbers before they start to attack us," Varth said, ready to pull the demon trigger at any time.

"Offense is the best defense. Let's attack!" Nevis said a bit too loud, signifying that habits were hard to kill.

Vincent shook his head and said, "Guys, stop panicking and look at them carefully. They are ignis fatuus. A type of creature that doesn't harm others unless first threatened. Moreover, if even a single one of them feels threatened, then they all group up to end the threat. And yeah, we will be fighting all of them if you guys don't lower your killing intent soon. So, hurry up and pull back your weapons."

The glowing blobs were the creatures mentioned only in elven myth and in the tales of the Avalon Empire. They were Will-O'-The-Wisp, creatures that are said to be the mindless manifestation of fallen souls. They aren't evil, but they are not good either. They don't help or harm others and are neutral to all kinds. However, once someone hurts their own, they do everything in their power to hunt down that person.

They can use their energy to attack others with attacks made out of energy. Nevertheless, as they are the manifestation of energy itself, they die once they end up using all their energy. Except for that, they have no weak points and a person can't kill them by magical or physical attacks.

Of course, Vincent came to find out about all this information by using his appraisal spell matrix, otherwise there's no way that he would have ever known that these monsters are basically harmless and also the clue to solve the second hall of rose.

"You… sure?" Leilani grabbed the back of his shirt and asked in a low and almost scared voice. For some reason, she felt scared to be in this place. The feeling of dread amplified when she looked at the blobs of lights. She didn't know what's wrong with her, but flashes of an unknown place with a similar surrounding popped up in her mind the moment she looked at the ignis fatuus.

Vincent, on the other hand, could see the sweat on her forehead, the fear in her eyes, and hear the thumping sound of her rapidly beating heart. She is horrified to be here. But what has scared her?

Vincent didn't know what has scared her to such a state, but he cared less about that and cared more about calming her down.

"Trust me on this." He pulled her closer to himself, providing her with the warmth and the self of security she needed the most right now to calm down.

The people around them looked at the two lovey-dovey couples with eyes twitching in annoyance. For god sake, this is not the time nor the place for public display of love! And why is this making us like they are feeding us vinegar and dog food?!

"Ahem! What should we do now?" Varth asked.

"We only need to move ahead without directing any ill will or killing intent towards them. They will naturally move out of the way and create a path for us. The way out of this place might very well be at the end of the path opened by these creatures." Vincent said before he moved ahead of the others with Leilani.

As they went ahead of the others and inched closer to the wisps of lights, they moved out of their way to make a path to the center of this place.

The eyes of his teammates opened wide in surprise as they saw that the wisps really did move out of their way, just as he said that would.

"It's just as you said. Wonderful!" Iris exclaimed in happiness.

"Guess we were panicking for no reason." Nevis rubbed the back of his head and felt anxiousness leaving his body.

"Be quiet and move ahead with vigilance. Don't step on them, otherwise we would need to fight all of them." Vincent said, telling them to move stealthily and silently.

Iris felt relaxed to see that the monster has moved out of their way without a fight. She didn't want to kill anyone, not even these creatures, and so it felt great to know that she didn't need to kill them. The only reason she attacked, hurt, and killed the monsters on the way here was John. She was willing to stain her hands with the blood of the living to help him get the fruit of life.

'After all, he means a lot to me, even though he had forgotten everything about me. It's all because of him! Well, no. I can't blame him for what happened. He sealed our memories for our own good. Our childhood would've been destroyed if we lived it with the memories of that event in our mind. Even the few glimpses I've seen scared me down to the bones and broke me mentally. It was good that grandma healed me back to my feet. Otherwise, I would have lived my life like a mentally ill person.'

Iris Twilight thought in her mind, recalling the flashes of the sealed memories she had seen with the help of her seniors. The tidbits of the memories that a powerful existence had sealed in the deepest corner of her mind showed a few unimaginable and horrifying things, and in that horror, her only ray of light was a demihuman boy called John.

John looked at her and saw that she was walking in a daze, and in her daze, she was about to step on a wisp!

He hurriedly yanked her away from it and pulled her towards himself. Iris yelped in shock as she crashed on his sturdy chest.

Iris felt as if her head has smashed on a rock and it felt painful enough to force tears into her eyes. She raised her head to look at him with teary eyes and said, "What was that for."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to, but you were about to almost step on a wisp," John said in a hurry, feeling bad to see the redness on her face and the tears in her eyes.

Realizing that he has saved her and the others from a lot of trouble, Iris felt apologetic and thanked him for stopping her.

"If you are feeling scared, you can grab my hand."

John offered her his hand, and Iris gladly accepted it while beaming a smile towards him.

The deeper they head inside into the endless second hall of rose, the more the unease in Leilani's heart grew. She felt as if something terrifying was trying to creep up into her mind. But she didn't know what it is. However, the mere presence of this feeling was forcing her to broke down in tears. She trembled and Vincent felt her shoulder twitching.

"We will get out of this place soon. I can already see the end." Vincent said to calm Leilani down and he also pushed her closer to him, placing his hand on the back of her head, and she buried her face in the crook of his neck, breathing in his familiar scent.

"Sorry for troubling you," she said in a low voice, but he could hear it because of his sharpened senses.

"No problem." Vincent knew that she has become his responsibility the moment she accepted to become his woman. So, he didn't mind looking after her and cared for her to the best of his abilities.

As they moved deeper into this place, the glows in their surroundings lessened. Soon, darkness enveloped their vision, and only a few round glowing lights could be seen flickering in and out of this darkness.

"Hey buddies, are you all still here?" Nevis asked in a shaky voice as he felt scared to be blinded by this darkness. He couldn't even see that the others were around him.

"Yeah, but I can't see anyone!" Varth replied, equally blinded by the darkness.

"Let's say our name and hold each other hands so that we know that all of us are together," Iris said her peace of mind, and everyone agreed.

Soon, they walked deeper into the darkness while holding each other hands.

"Are we on the right path?" John asked after a moment.

"Yes, I can see a portal that will lead us out of this place. It is only several meters away from us," Vincent replied in a calm voice.

"How can you even see in this darkness?" Nevis asked in a shocked voice.

Vincent replied with three words, "Innate racial trait."

His reply made sense to them but also forced Varth to wonder what kind of demihuman Vincent really is. He has never been such a rare demihuman in his life, so he couldn't tell his race. Vincent, on the other hand, could see in the dark, but his eyes weren't strong enough to see in complete darkness. He was able to project a map of this place by using his energy sense spell matrix though and that told him that there was a portal in the center of this darkness.