After a few days of travel, Vicente had covered most of the distance between his previous position and the Cataclysmic Order post to which Torne was taking him.
That place was on the southeastern coast of the Kenyth Empire, just four days away from the state's border with the Seidel Kingdom.
Vicente had traveled there for most of his journey without encountering any high-level problems, and until the previous day, he had only fought against early 4th-stage beings.
But today, as he approached The Vile Altar that Torne had taken him to, he encountered a late 4th-stage magical creature.
It wasn't just a 4th-stage creature; it was a special magical being from the Dark Path!
The strength of this shadow creature was not just limited to its level!
Vicente was currently fighting against this creature, a kind of dark bird that looked very similar to a giant crow, with four eyes and a pointed horn on top of its head.
However, this creature had special powers. When it fought Vicente, it would occasionally use its element of darkness to create a black mist in the area, camouflaging its movements and reducing its target's visibility.
This bird's scream was terrible. Every time it opened its mouth to scream, Vicente had to protect himself from the ultrasonic noise, which could injure even someone with his qualities.
...
'Damn it! That's an annoying animal!' Vicente said to Torne as he moved through this mountainous area of the empire's coast.
Several shields hovered near him, lessening the power of the bird's ultrasonic attacks while preventing any attempt by the bird to attack him directly.
With its beak open, this bird was dangerous, but with its beak closed, it was even more so. Its beak was as long and sharp as a dagger!
'That is a good challenge for you, master.' Torne said, not surprised by the presence of this negative creature in this area. 'Other abandoned places in my old organization will probably have beings similar to this bird.
Negative entities are attracted to places like The Viel Altar. Places like that have a higher density of negative elements than other ordinary places.'
Vicente moved against the bird, not holding back after just over a minute of being attacked by the creature.
His other two pentagrams appeared as the darkness around him suddenly diminished in the presence of these two essences.
The bird that flew to attack Vicente's body then changed the look in its eyes as it not only felt the electromagnetic fields in the area change perceptibly but also felt a negative sensation coming from Vice.
That was the kind of feeling that only assassins or Dark Path magicians emitted, so this beast immediately understood the kind of opponent it had chosen.
As it tried to change its trajectory, this bird encountered Vicente, who flew toward it and quickly closed in on it while several metallic weapons followed him against the bird.
Swooish!
The bird narrowly dodged one of Vicente's blades, but soon after it felt its wings flapping without changing its position.
It had escaped a deadly attack aimed at its heart but had fallen into Vicente's trap!
As its electromagnetic field was drawn towards Vicente, the creature had no choice but to try to dodge.
One of Vicente's hands reached for the bird's large neck while he controlled the metals in the creature's body to make it more vulnerable to him.
"I will not kill you, beast. You'll serve me better as a mount!" Vicente's three pentagrams moved from his body as he began the traditional method of taming beasts when one was not a professional tamer.
By using his pentagrams to leave a mark on the giant crow, Vicente made it scream in agony and rage as the bird tried to break free and run away.
As strong and impressive as it was, this creature had nowhere to run, being so close to Vice. As soon as he began the process of marking it as his mount, the beast realized that its free fate was over.
But when Torne left his body and showed this young man was not of the Light Path, the bird didn't feel so bad, feeling that at least it wouldn't be dominated by an individual who would weaken it with a path different from its original one.
Dark and light path beings could live together and work for the same purpose. But the kind of environment that was positive for one was usually harmful for the other. Not only that, but if there was some kind of master-animal, master-slave relationship between the parties, entering certain locations could be positive for one and negative for the other.
Not every special place worked this way, but there were places where the elements associated with light would attack those associated with darkness, which could work as medicine for some but as poison for others.
If two beings were connected, like Vicente and Torne or Vice and Bart, when one of the parties entered such a place, the other being would be affected in some way.
Usually, the master's side, being the dominant side, would never be harmed, so the ones who usually lost out in such relationships were the beings in that bird's position.
Seeing Torne was a relief for it because, unlike Vicente, this creature knew that not just any being would agree to give a ghost a home!
Only someone with an even stronger affinity to negative elements than a ghost would accept such an existence.
The bird stopped resisting, and after two minutes, the relationship between the master and mount was established between them.
"Master." The bird lowered its head, feeling a bizarre sensation coming from Vicente that made it want to lower its head even more.
It hadn't felt that before. Otherwise, it would have run away in fear. It understood that it had made a mistake and underestimated the great being that would now be its master.
Vicente looked at the bird with interest and asked. "Crow, from now on, you will be called Onyx."
"Onyx is at the disposal of the master." It readily accepted Vicente's decision and gave up its old name to accept the new one.
"What have you been doing in this area, Onyx? Did you find any interesting places for your elemental affinities nearby?" Vice asked, for although Torne knew that there was a post of his religion in this area, he did not know the exact location, as the terrain was different from the last time he had been there.
