Chapter 601: The original Sin
As the thing turned around abruptly, Alith appeared right in front of it, and started running away, in the opposite direction from Sofia and Pareth.
The squirming creature wasted no time chasing after Alith, floating a few centimeters above the ground as if held up by the tether linking it to the sky, and Sofia soon lost sight of them both.
“Lords…” Alith whispered, reappearing next to Sofia, “It’s good that my reaction time’s improved this much, because I did NOT want to see that thing from up close.”
Sofia nodded, her mana senses following the [Lady Double] and its pursuer from afar. “And good to learn that this thing isn’t particularly clever nor fast, we could easily outrun that. Also weren’t your doubles supposed to appear where you are?”
“I’ve had plenty of time to alter the skill, it’s quite versatile now. But these things… Should we try killing one?” Alith suggested.
“I’d rather not unless we have no other choice, I’m a bit worried about whatever it is that these things are connected to.”
Alith nodded and stood up, “Then let’s move. After you.”
Sofia opened Bookie to summon a Guardian Kidjikkik, and started making her way through the ruins, staying as far as possible from the newly named ‘Tethered’, and using the Kidjikkik as bait to drive them away when there was no other option. The Kidjikkik could easily slither through the ruins and lose his pursuers, crawling through window holes being an especially good tactic as the tethered would try to follow through and get entangled. The tethers were not particularly flexible, it seemed, which in turn made any of the rare ruins with a still-standing upper floor or roof completely safe from them, giving the group some breathing room, despite the increasing number of Tethered as they advanced into the city.
After several hours, the guardian Kidjikkik expired and was unsummoned just as Sofia stepped into a church through a hole in the walls. “Let’s stop here, my head hurts,” she told the others, keeping her voice low as the church was almost completely surrounded by more than twenty tethered that they had just bypassed.