~I need to erase my being... I need to not exist,~ she thought to herself.
What Ghost lacked in thinking capacity, she made up for with imagination. As Lucius and the others began moving, she began imagining different ways that radiant energy could mask her presence.
~These unseen eyes... I mean, radiant observation doesn't just see things normally, they sort of see the... energy within things,~ she realized.
~So if I want to hide from them, I need to erase that first... though I don't think that's possible,~ she thought to herself, keeping a good distance away from Lucius and the others.
~Wait, the trees give off this energy too, don't they,~ she thought to herself, realizing that the only difference between Lucius and the trees was the amount of energy they were giving off.
Lucius was like a walking sun, while everything else around him, including even the chieftains, were like dimly lit stars.
~If I want to hide from the unseen eyes, then perhaps I should use the surroundings... just like Lucius taught me,~ she thought, before attempting to lower the amount of radiant energy in her body to match that of the trees around her.
However, that was easier said than done, as even breathing caused an increase in radiant flux. What's more, thinking also seemed to cause a slight change. Of course, this was almost unnoticeable, though she was sure even this much would be enough for Lucius to spot her.
~So I need to stop breathing and thinking?~ she thought to herself after several failed attempts at erasing her presence.
She started again, this time putting what she had discovered into motion. All the while, she imagined that she was blending into the surroundings, not just becoming invisible but in fact becoming one with everything around her.
She had to stop moving in order to even attempt this. However, even then after several more attempts she found that there were still slight pulses of radiant energy being released at regular intervals.
~What are these things?~ she thought to herself. Once she had brought her radiant energy to match that of the surrounding area, there were a few spots in her body that seemed out of phase with everything else.
~Why won't it stop?~
As she tried to bring the radiant energy in one of those areas to a halt, she felt her entire body go limp, as if she had died for a split second.
~What was that?~ she thought after quickly casting radiant healing.
These troublesome spots seemed to cause some sort of reaction whenever she tried to forcibly manipulate them. So she decided to take it slower, changing the flow of radiant energy little by little.
As she experimented to find the limit to which she could play around with them without completely disabling herself, she felt the entire forest around her shift. Almost as if it were alive, it was a disgusting sort of feeling.
~What is this place?~ she wondered, staring at the outskirts of the oncoming Dark Forest. Even as she spied on Lucius with her radiant observation, it felt like the entire forest was staring at her. Like her eyes were massive lights attracting attention.
~No... they aren't watching me... they're watching him,~ she realized, looking towards Lucius. Though from the way Lucius was behaving, she was certain he knew this as well. Whatever this place was, she didn't like it.
While the group marched on, Ghost continued attempting to blend in with the surrounding forest. However, this was made exponentially more complicated due to the fact that the trees in this area had close to no radiant energy at all. And even then, the energy here moved... oddly. Like all the trees were somehow interlinked.
Usually, the patterns that Ghost could see with her radiant observation were individualistic, and could only be noticed on a tree-to-tree basis. But now, she had to look at a whole group of trees to see a pattern.
~We're actually going in there?~ she thought, noticing that Lucius and the others were already heading deeper in.
Luckily enough, her body was more adapted to hiding in the Dark Forest anyway. Her purple exterior mixed in quite well with the purple-brown bark of the twisted trees. However, that's not to say that it made her feel any more comfortable getting close to them.
As they continued, Ghost noticed that the group seemed to move in a sort of curved arc instead of a straight line. Almost as if they were avoiding something.
~It's in this general direction,~ she thought to herself, before casting radiant observation in the direction.
~This... this is the army we're about to go up against?~
Ghost had thought that the shrooms on the outskirts of the camp were a lot, but these... they were at least 800, and that was just in this direction alone. To add onto that, most of them were creatures the same size as Lucius.
~Radiant observation can't see any further... I have to get closer,~ she thought to herself. After looking towards Lucius and the others one last time, she headed off in the direction of the necromancer camp.
The closer she got, the worse it became. What was first 800 units, became close to 2000. And it seemed the deeper she saw, the larger the creatures became.
Eventually, she was on the outskirts of the necromancer camp, and her vision allowed her to see the temple at the center.
~I-I don't think we can win against this,~ she thought to herself. It wasn't just the size of the creatures, it was the energy they gave off. Surrounding the temple were around 600 creatures, each of them giving off energy readings close to Lucius's.
~I-I have to warn Lucius,~ she thought, however just as she was about to leave, her vision picked up something with a massive reading coming out of the temple. The energy it was giving off was a million times more malicious than that of the forest, it was... unnatural, even for this evil place.
In fact, the feeling of being watched instantly disappeared the moment it came out. The entire forest now seemed to have its attention on that specific creature.
~T-There's no way we can win against this,~ she thought. Even if the strongest individuals in the commune united to fight against this thing, there was no way they were going to beat it.
It was a 2-meter-tall creature that stood on two legs. It had greyish-green skin, and a massive shell-like shield on its back, encompassing its entire torso. Its maw had two sharp blade-like mouthpieces, Ghost could imagine it snapping her in half quite easily. And in its hand was a staff, with a green orb floating above it.
~This must be the necromancer,~ she thought to herself. However, nothing would have prepared her for what happened next.
Three other creatures, nearly identical to the first came out. The only difference between them was the color of the orbs that floated above their staves.
~T-These are just subordinates?~ she thought, and just like that she was a leafling again. She had thought that by evolving her feeling of helplessness would subside, but this...
If these were just servants, creatures the necromancer created, then what chance did anyone stand against the necromancer itself?
Her body screamed at her to run, even with her radiant observation, there was no telling whether or not they could see her.
~No... there might be more. Lucius never mentioned these creatures... and there's no telling whether he is aware of their power levels either. I-I need to stay and continue gathering information,~ she thought, though she felt that she would regret this decision.
The four creatures, all began walking in opposite directions. From what she could tell, they were walking towards the uncompleted temples, perhaps for security.
With each one of them, four large armored creatures followed. Though based on the lower energy readings they were giving out, she was uncertain who was protecting who.
After about 30 minutes had passed there wasn't much more movement.
For some reason, it seemed as if almost no energy was being given out from within the temples. Though Ghost knew for a fact that there had to be some trick to it. There was no way that these many creatures were protecting an empty structure.
~This is enough for now... I have to warn Lucius,~ she decided. There wasn't much more she could do without putting the mission in jeopardy, so she headed back in the general direction that Lucius and the others were heading towards.
