Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 53: Phantom Sight

CH53 Phantom Sight

***

Alex exited the cave the same way he had entered. Along the way, he carefully sealed off the various access points leading to the Dragon Lair-turned-cave mine and the Stalactite Milk caverns.

It was a measure to ensure those natural resources had enough time to replenish themselves before another fortunate soul stumbled upon them.

Exiting from the lair of the fallen Overlord and returning to the valley, Alex was surprised to find the battle over the flesh of the deceased monsters still ongoing.

’More like it’s spread,’ Alex observed, activating his Spirit Sight to watch the carnage unfold.

From the chaotic tangle of energy signatures, he could tell that even creatures with no realistic hope of claiming a piece of Overlord flesh had joined the fray.

The battlefield had turned into a war of attrition—an endless brawl layered in blood and ambition. While the majority couldn’t obtain the prized meat of the Overlords, they were more than content with tearing apart weaker beasts who could. Even creatures just a tier below the Overlords had become prime targets.

For many, this was a golden opportunity.

A battlefield littered with corpses and weakened combatants offered more than enough sustenance. It had become a self-perpetuating meat grinder—where beasts driven by base hunger fought, died, and were consumed by others just a level lower.

’This won’t end until a new Overlord rises,’ Alex reasoned, ’or until one of the older overlord beasts steps in to put a stop to it.’

The overwhelming stench of blood had clouded their judgement. They were running on primal instinct now—no reason, no strategy. It would take an equally powerful instinct—like survival—to snap them out of this maddened cycle.

Alex shook his head in quiet frustration.

He made his way carefully through the region, navigating with precision to avoid encountering any of the frenzied beasts. Eventually, he reached the cave entrance that led through the mountain—a familiar path that once brought him to the Crimsonspine and Frostback wolf couple’s den.

As he moved through the tunnels, Alex reached the fork in the cave system that led to the wolves’ territory.

He was about to take the alternate path and avoid the den entirely when a thick, coppery scent hit him.

Blood.

And not just any blood.

Wolf blood.

There was far too much of it for it not to be alarming—it had seeped far enough through the cave system to reach his current position.

His instincts told him to walk away.

But something deeper compelled him to check.

’This is a bad idea, Alex. Every horror story starts with someone going to check out something they should’ve ignored.’

And yet, even as he scolded himself internally, he turned toward the wolf den.

The closer he got, the more overpowering the scent became.

And then came the sounds.

Growls.

Howls.

The unmistakable sounds of battle.

The wolves were fighting something.

Still, Alex pressed on, his pace quickening.

When he finally arrived, the den was... empty.

The five wolf cubs, their parents—gone.

Alex’s chest tightened. He didn’t know why he felt so anxious over their absence, but he did. Perhaps it was the memory of those small, curious eyes or the quiet moments spent watching them from afar.

He wanted to make sure they were safe—but rushing into a beast-on-beast skirmish was a good way to die.

”Looks like I get to try out the newest ability of the Truth-Seeker Eyes,” Alex muttered.

Thanks to the tempering of his Spiritual Force and bloodlines by the Stalactite Milk, his Truth-Seeker Eyes had evolved once again.

Just as the Death Perception ability had branched from Spirit Sight, a new extension had emerged.

Phantom Sight.

By analysing the energy residue left behind by a target, Phantom Sight allowed Alex to reconstruct the subject’s most recent movements.

In other words, using the lingering energy and physical imprints in the environment, Alex could manifest an afterimage—one that played out the target’s last known actions directly in his vision. It was a form of post-cognition, an echo of the past replaying before his eyes. (1)

”Phantom Sight!”

The moment the ability activated, the world around him shifted.

In his eyes, he saw the parent wolves watching their cubs mock-fighting near the den. The largest of the cubs—the one who had once claimed Alex’s head as a personal throne—emerged the victor, standing proudly over its siblings. But the playful scene was cut short when Papa Wolf stiffened and darted outside the den. Moments later, Mama Wolf followed, only to return swiftly and gather the cubs.

She led them away in a hurry.

’For the afterimages to be this vivid, this must’ve happened within the last half hour,’ Alex noted grimly.

He followed the trail of ghostly images, leaving the safety of the den behind. The phantoms of the wolves led him deeper into the Crimsonspine-Frostback pack’s mountainous territory.

Mama Wolf was leading the cubs to safety.

Papa Wolf, on the other hand, raced towards the source of danger—likely to take command as the Alpha in the pack’s defence.

Without hesitation, Alex followed the mother and her cubs.

It didn’t take long before he detected new energy signatures interspersed along the trail. Enemy beasts had intercepted the fleeing group.

A sense of urgency flared in his chest, but he forced himself to remain calm and hidden in the shadows.

Phantom Sight showed Mama Wolf confronting the attackers. He watched her battle fiercely before finally hurling one of the enemies off the cliffside.

’Efficient and savage,’ Alex thought, impressed.

He tried to decipher more about the attackers using their residual energy, but the signatures were unfamiliar—alien even.

Still, he pressed on.

The trail of afterimages led him higher up the mountain. The temperature dropped sharply as he climbed, each breath forming a fog in the air.

It was strange.

They hadn’t ascended high enough for such a dramatic temperature drop to occur naturally.

Eventually, the phantom trail led to a hollow in the mountainside—roughly two hundred metres above the den.

The moment Alex approached the hole, a pungent scent flooded his senses. It was a vile mix of blood and sulphur.

The entrance led into a lava-formed cave nestled within the mountain. Inside, bodies littered the path—dozens of them.

He recognised the fallen.

Many were female Crimsonspine and Frostback wolves, confirming what he had long suspected—both breeds had merged into a unified pack in this subspace ecosystem.

But scattered among the dead were the bodies of the attacking beasts.

When Alex finally identified them, his face darkened.

He clenched his jaw.

Ironspine Ravager Wolves. (2)

The same damned pack he’d gone out of his way to avoid during his initial exploration of the forest’s inner rim.

Individually, the Crimsonspine and Frostback wolves were far stronger than the Ironspines—but that wasn’t the problem.

The problem was that Ironspine Ravager Wolves were persistent.

Unrelentingly persistent.

And worse—infuriatingly annoying.

Alex seriously considered turning back. He weighed the risk, the cost, the sheer absurdity of walking into this mess.

But something tugged at him.

A quiet, unexplainable feeling—like an invisible thread pulling him forward.

With a weary sigh, he steeled himself and pushed deeper into the cave, following the phantom trail of Mama Wolf and her cubs.

There was no turning back now.