Chromie snuck into the room, found a few books and lightly sniffed them with his nose.
He couldn't smell anything, but something else was extracted by his actions and soon entered his mind.
Images were appearing in Chromie's head one after another, from the time it was still a tree, saw dust, ink, each process was appropriately laid out until the entire book was finished.
From the printing press to a bookstore, then passed around hand after hand until Chromie saw someone he recognized: the man called Horton that he had only seen as a corpse, who received the book from his servant's hand, then left it on the shelf without touching it ever again.
Horton never bought this book to read it in the first place, it was only a decoration.
It wasn't until another hand appeared on the shelf that this book was taken off of it, the owner of which now appeared in Chromie's vision.
He was carefully reading through every page with extreme focus, displaying his respect of knowledge. Even though Chromie was a man, or rather, even if he was a woman, after seeing that person, anyone would have to admit the other party's extreme charisma and charm that transcended human beings.
Holding the book in his hand, that person appeared to be the most perfect picture in existence, yet he also roused a sense of dread in the mind of every witness, as if they were observing something highly dangerous.
Standing in front of this person, no, this entity, Chromie felt as if he was standing next to the abyss itself; this entity carried a strange presence of danger, omen, dread, yet at the same time had an indescribable characteristic that drew people in.
Right at the very next moment, the entity in the image abruptly turned towards him.
An ominous sensation emerged in Chromie's mind.
The entity within his Spirit Vision seemed to have come to life, the mere gaze of the other party made Chromie feel like he had touched upon something he shouldn't have.
In the Spirit Vision image, there shouldn't be anything next to this man, so why did he suddenly turn to me?
〖 Should I consider this our informal first meeting, Chromie? 〗immediately after that, the dangerous entity smiled and slowly spoke those words that sent a chill down Chromie's entire being.
…
At this point, Negary was sitting at another location, he put the book in his hand down and simply stared forward, as if observing something.
〖 What an interesting state this is. If I hadn't learnt something today, I would have only felt an unclear sense of omen 〗
Negary had already recognized this and quickly understood what was going on.
After moving his base, Negary put in some time studying his senses of perception and the aspects of the world, then went back to reading.
However, he was able to sense something observing him just now, clearly recognizing that it did not come from his vicinity but rather a different aspect.
This wasn't the same as the aspect of silence from before, but an entirely different one.
With his experience in the silent aspect, coupled with his wealth of Mysticism knowledge, Negary soon discovered a trace of it. This aspect of the world seemed to be one that could only be observed through exerting one's spirit sense to a certain degree, so Negary simply pursued the trace he had noticed, fully exerting his spirit sense and found the little one observing him.
〖 You are observing me through spirit vision, or perhaps something else? 〗within Chromie's Spirit Vision, Negary looked at the book in his hand and smiled: 〖 Using this book as the catalyst, huh? 〗
〖 Yet another aspect, from the sense of 'insight', perhaps? 〗Negary observed the changes in this different aspect, then turned his gaze to Chromie: 〖 If you want to ask something, make it quick. I believe we don't have much time 〗
This was unlike the silent aspect, where it appeared as another version of this same world with the only difference being the switch between living and unliving beings.
While the world itself was altered in this aspect of 'insight'. It embodied a different aspect of living beings as well as unliving beings, the aspect that most people did not even notice, the 'spiritual' aspect of all things.
'Spirituality' was the connection between all things, a kind of residual information that humans would find hard to observe.
By reading this book, Negary left his 'spirit' on it, and since it hadn't been very long since that happened, that 'spirit' still remained, which left the possibility for it to be recognized and read. The majority of divination techniques also relied on 'spirit' in order to obtain the information they wanted.
This place was nothing but a spiritual location comprised of all the 'spirituality' ever left on the book, and since 'spirituality' did not exist forever but constantly dissipating as time passed, it wouldn't be too long until this spiritual location disappeared as well, that was why Negary had said that they didn't have much time.
Chromie was trembling without stopping. In his 'spiritual' state, a portion of Negary's true nature was also on open display. Chromie felt that he was nothing but a fresh and delectable apple in front of the other party, and that he could be easily consumed at any moment.
Their surroundings slowly became transparent, which meant that the 'spirituality' that made up this space was dissipating, after all, even if Negary had read this book, he didn't take a lot of time to do so.
If Negary hadn't managed to notice this 'spirituality' and actively observed this aspect, this spiritual location would have collapsed already.
Naturally, Negary could infuse more 'spirituality' of his own into this spiritual location and allow it to exist longer, but that wasn't necessary; not even if Chromie actually had something that he needed like the will of the world had claimed.
If Negary needed something, he'd come to take it himself. To give up one's benefit and wait for others to make their decision was to give up the initiative, which was nothing less than extreme foolishness in Negary's view.
"Please give me clues regarding the Soundless cult, I will pay the appropriate price" in the end, Chromie still managed to win against his fear. At this point, the only meaning of his life was revenge, and as long as he could achieve revenge, conducting a transaction with such a terrifying entity wasn't a big deal.
〖 Heh, I'll consider that a decent degree of resolution 〗
Negary understood just how much pressure he exerted on a normal human being with his true nature being revealed. The majority of humans would either completely break under their fear and try to attack Negary; or surrender to their fear, bow down at Negary's feet and pledge themselves to him.
And yet Chromie managed to remain calm and negotiate with Negary in this state. Although he had placed himself extremely low on their bargaining table, it was still a display of him not allowing fear to overcome his rationality.
〖 If that's the case, I'll give you a small present. After this, someone will bring what you need to you, while I will take what I need from you at the appropriate moment in time 〗Negary's figure slowly faded away, followed by the collapse of this spiritual space.
Chromie fell out from his Spirit Vision while soaked in sweat, his body subconsciously convulsing as he threw the book in his hand away.
…
On the other side, Negary pulled his gaze back with a smile on his face. Once again picking up his book, he lightly ordered: 〖 Take what I brought back and bring it to Chromie 〗
The shadow behind him writhed just a bit, then returned to normal.
