Chapter 16: Unholy Discovery

Sora followed the traces of energy around the city. He passed some places that had a slightly higher concentration of such energies than others but only took note of them for now.

As he went on his search, the skill leveled up a handful of times as time went on, now sitting on level 7 at the moment.

[*Ding!*]

[Energy Sensing has leveled up!]

Just as the latest notification popped up, he felt the last traces of particles. It had been three hours since he started following the trail which grew fainter as time passed.

The only thing that allowed him to continue feeling it as time went on was the continuous increase in level but now the energy had fully dissipated.

'Damn! I lost it!' He thought as he no longer felt the energy in the air. At first it was easy to confuse it with the other roaming and flowing energies in the air.

He was misled for a short time before getting back on track after a few minutes of confusion. With it at level seven, he could differentiate the energies more easily than before.

It was far different from others, more tainted than everything else.

Another thing he had discovered during his sensing spree was that although the people in this world didn't posses chakra, they had another kind of energy in them.

He always wondered how his genjutsu worked if the people didn't have chakra but now he found his answer. It was much smaller and weaker than chakra but it was there.

From what he could conclude, it could either be bio electricity but he severely doubted it. He dubbed it as 'Life force'. The energy that kept them alive.

Chakra being much stronger and denser would easily dominate and control this life energy when he attempted to use a genjutsu.

Although knowing this didn't change the fact of whether it worked or not, the feeling of satisfaction at new knowledge was enough for him.

Back to the matter at hand, the trail ended but didn't point him in any specific direction so he was forced to search everywhere.

He sighed, knowing how exhausting it was going to be. He was already a bit tired from literally touring part of the city on foot.

As much as he wanted to take a bus while spreading his senses, he couldn't risk the bus going far in another direction. He couldn't exactly tell the bus driver to stop and listen to his instructions.

With the struggles for the day already filling his mind, he chose a direction and began his walk, all the while using [Energy Sense].

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sora couldn't express his satisfaction enough at finally having a chance to rest. He currently sat on a bench in a park to recover his energy.

He had gotten some food during his search to avoid him fainting or getting distracted due to hunger.

He had searched for anything that felt like the tainted energy he felt from the scene but found nothing. Six hours had passed and he had found nothing at all.

He looked at the phone that displayed the time as '10:07 PM' and sighed.

'I couldn't cover everywhere today. It seems like I'll have to come back tomorrow. If this mystery kidnapper tries again, a fresh trail will arise for me to follow.' He thought as he got off the bench and walked in the direction of the nearest bus stop.

It was impossible for him to know everywhere in Tokyo so he had to depend on the map on his phone to lead him.

He walked for some time before he froze in place. The air was tainted and it wasn't in small amount or concentration.

'This energy! It's just like it and it's much larger!'

[Energy Sensing] which had been on for a long time now had level up to the point that he could sense much more clearly and much further. With his increased range and senses, he easily picked up the foul energy.

He schooled his features and followed it towards the source. If he could feel it this strongly from where he was, how much stronger was the source?

He shivered at that thought and continued following the trail.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took him half an hour at walking speed but he finally reached the source but it wasn't what he was expecting.

'An abandon warehouse would have made more sense to me. Of all the places I would expect, never in my wildest dreams did I expect this.' He thought as he stood in front of entrance gate of a church.

'The Cathedral' the sign on the gate read to all who viewed it.

'This kind of vile energy…from here?' He thought as he made sure no one was watching before sneaking over the gate.

'I'm going in blind here. Everywhere is clouded.'

Now that he was on the church grounds, his senses from Energy sensing were clouded. The vile energy was everywhere, making it useless.

He had no choice but to go into the church itself to investigate for himself. By now, he had long since dropped the transformation and was in a black hoodie with the hood up.

Silently, he climbed up the outer walls of the cathedral to the upper window. Carefully peeking through the glass to make sure no one was inside, he gently pushed the glass open and let himself in.

He stood upside down on the ceiling as he inspected everything from a bird's eye view. The entire place was empty and silent like the night.

'The Cathedral. I remember that name. It was on the news a few years ago when it was shut down.'

'Apparently the priests all began experiencing weird things and left the church, leaving only one man who refused to leave no matter what. He was later declared clinically insane and the church was shut down.'

Still on the ceiling, he walked till he was above the pulpit. He then dropped down to ground level, his impact with the floor not making any noise.

The pulpit itself looked very well crafted and expensive. It was made out of wood but that didn't diminish its craftsmanship.

His eyes were then drawn to the marks on the body. They were more like large scars than marks.

'These are claw marks! Add that to the vague list of abilities to worry about.' He thought as he remembered the inhuman shadow from the video.

There were three deep claw marks on the side of the pulpit. They were clean and neat, meaning it had only taken one swing to cut through it. He looked forward to see the large golden cross in front of him.

'How didn't I notice this earlier.' He thought as he took in what he saw.

The head of the figure was missing, seemingly broken off violently. As he inspected this, his hair stood on ends and he leaped away into the air and stuck to a pillar just as a large claw smashed into his previous position.

He looked up in shock and almost slid off the surface at what he saw.

The upper half of the creature looked like a bipedal wolf with bull horns on it's head and sharp claws for fingers.

The lower body had a spectral look to it as it had a tail similar to that of a ghost. It's entire body was a black as night with only the eyes being red, making it look even scarier.

"RROAAARRRRRR!!!" It let out a beastly roar that shook the boy's internals.

'What the hell!?' He screamed internally as the creature rushed towards him.