Chapter 70: When Fear Changes Sides
Rachel glanced at him without reacting. This time, her confusion was genuine.
"A dragon doesn’t stay in one place," Leopard continued calmly. "It roams, attacks, and destroys. If we divide our forces and focus on capturing outposts, we’ll end up fighting among each other. In return, Silas’ team might simply reclaim the destroyed ones and rebuild their merit record."
"We can set a few rules to not fight hard among each other," Rachel didn’t fall for his obvious play, "also, we can leave a few teams behind to deal with them."
"Not enough," Leopard interrupted. "In my opinion, the best approach is to track them down, locate them, and attack directly."
Rachel narrowed her eyes.
For some reason, she felt that Leopard was trying to steer her toward a confrontation with Cher, perhaps even provoke a situation that could end with her death. Rachel hated Cher enough to wish for exactly that outcome, but she also understood the consequences such an act would bring.
Not to mention, when she recalled the advice she received before coming here, she had to be extremely vigilant and overly cautious.
Then she thought of something else.
If Leopard wanted to push her into acting, she could just as easily turn the situation against him. As for whatever he was scheming and hiding from her, she would take her time to slowly peel the truth out.
"Fine. Then we’ll move together."
The discussion continued as they refined their plans and exchanged tactical suggestions, while the distant dragon carried on with its relentless rampage.
***
Silas entered the Time Mind World and found Shadowheart exactly as expected, floating silently in the darkness with its eyes closed.
Not long ago, seeing it asleep would have filled him with relief. Now, however, he no longer feared it as much.
’Hey. Wake up.’
He reached out and shook the sleeping beast. Two scarlet eyes opened immediately, and Silas nearly recoiled.
’Shit. Even knowing it’s using my own Fear Element against me doesn’t make it any less terrifying.’
Suppressing the instinctive fear rising within him, he stood his ground while Shadowheart slowly straightened and drifted forward until it was floating directly before him.
’Look, I know you used my Fear Element to scare me. It sounds ridiculous, but I need you to teach me how to do that.’
Silas had no idea whether Shadowheart could hear his thoughts, let alone understand them. After several attempts, however, all he received was a silent stare and a strange grin.
The creature did nothing else.
’I had a feeling this wouldn’t work.’
Scratching his head, Silas looked away.
’If it won’t help me, then I’ll figure it out myself.’
Abandoning the idea of communicating with Shadowheart, he moved farther away and began testing different theories. He intended to imagine various scenarios and watch the shadows react to his thoughts, hoping to discover something useful through observation.
It was the same method he had used while learning the Raven ability.
The difference was that, back then, inspiration had come naturally before he entered this special world. Now, he could do little more than blindly guess how the Fear Element was supposed to function.
A shadow formed before him.
Silas decided to combine his Raven ability with the Fear Element and observe the result. The moment the thought appeared in his mind, several shadow daggers materialised around the figure, hovering in preparation for the test.
Then something completely unexpected happened. Far in the distance, Shadowheart suddenly moved.
It vanished in a blur and crossed the space between them almost instantly before slamming into the shadow with terrifying force.
The shadow shattered on impact and dissolved into black smoke. Silas stared at the scene in disbelief before frustration quickly took over.
’If you don’t want to help, then at least stop causing problems.’
He shot Shadowheart a warning glare before turning away and walking even farther from it, determined to continue his experiments alone.
The strange situation repeated itself over and over again.
Silas continued testing the ideas he had in mind. Each time a shadow manifested, the Shadowheart would immediately react. Sometimes it flashed forward and merged with the shadow before it could do anything. Other times, it smashed directly into it, shattering the fragile construct into wisps of black smoke.
The first few times, Silas was merely annoyed.
After ten attempts, annoyance turned into frustration. By the thirtieth, he was seething with endless rage and bloodlust.
Every time the Shadowheart ruined his experiment, he cursed it in his mind. At some point, it even began displaying a smug smile on his face, as though it found his irritation amusing.
That only made his anger worse. And eventually, Silas lost his temper.
Ignoring the instinctive dread the Shadowheart inspired, he glared at it with bottomless hostility. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to tear the Shadowheart apart.
’I will rip you to pieces, you bastard.’
His thoughts churned like molten lava beneath a volcano on the verge of eruption. Yet instead of answering with that infuriating smile, the Shadowheart did something totally unexpected...
It retreated.
The Shadowheart darted away and stopped several steps from him, staring at Silas with an expression he had never seen before, filled with dread and fear.
’It’s afraid of me?’
’No... that’s impossible.’
Silas froze. Throughout all their encounters, he had always been the one to retreat; he had been the one who was frightened.
’I always backed away because I was terrified of it.’
’Then what made it fear me?’
’What changed?’
A spark of excitement pierced through his anger.
It felt as though he had stumbled upon something important, something he had been searching for all along. Unfortunately, he had been too consumed by rage to understand what had changed.
So he resumed his experiments.
He focused once more on incorporating the Fear Element into his Raven ability, and soon another shadow appeared.
As though its earlier retreat had never happened, the Shadowheart instantly flashed forward and destroyed the shadow. The moment that happened, he stared at the entity, only to be welcomed with an evil snort.
Silas frowned.
’This isn’t getting me anywhere.’
’Then what made it fear me before?’
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