Aimless Ascension

Gale's eyes widened at the figure. A slender figure, but everything about her seemed to be hidden behind that black cloak she had on. No… that black cloak—it wasn't simply a simple cloth, but somehow a part of her.

Somehow it looked much like a Soul Cloak that only Gemheart experts could materialise. It was probably not a soul cloak. If it were, Gale wouldn't be in this situation currently.

Even though her figure seemed to have materialised out of nothing, and to naked eyes they seemed to have a physical form, Gale could sense her body was shivering, not in the cold. It's like an error in reality. She was somehow there, yet not present at the same time.

"Who… what are you?" Gale asked after finding the weird stalker wasn't proceeding to attack.

On second thought, Gale wasn't so sure if this person was a woman, or even a human. He could barely feel her on his spiritual radar.

Gale could only see her/their eyes. Clear like emerald, glowing in the dim light. Gale waited, but there was no reply. The stalker stood shoulder hunched, uninjured, though momentarily lost that Gale had found them.

"Are you a. . .ghost?" Gale asked after getting no reply. He still felt eerie with her presence. She did have a presence like a ghost, but more potent, more alive. "Evil spirit? Vengeful spirit?"

The figure shook their head.

At least he got something in reply. But if it's not an evil spirit or ghost, then what? But more importantly: "Why are you stalking me?"

Gale could swear he had this tingling feeling that someone was watching him, now on then, but he ignored them as there was no evident reason to be bothered.

Honestly, he never had been a person with overly spirited senses, and clearly this person was a unique existence—the only reason he managed to find them because they was sloppy and wasn't that stronger than him.

Well, from the look of things, this person seemed to follow on a unique system of advancement, like Vale. Definitely not human, nor were they near anywhere near equal to gold rank.

"You can't speak?"

"Commission," said the unique existence. Thier voice came out like a squeak, albeit clearly. That seemed like a woman's voice, albeit barely, though there was nothing for him to confirm. They pointed at him and uttered a word. "Threat."

"I am a threat?" Gale was momentarily taken aback. "To whom?"

There was no answer. Gale took a moment to reorganise his thoughts. Someone commissioned this person to stalk him to see how much of a threat he was to them.

The first person who came to his mind was Young Master Han. After all, he had a reason to hate Gale, no matter how small the reason was. However, if that was true, then this stalker should have plenty of opportunity to do something.

True, Vale had a keen awareness of threat and was close to him most of the time, leaving them fewer chances to do anything. Still . . .

"Your commission only told you to shadow me?"

The ghost shook their head. "Contingency."

Gale snorted. This conversation was really getting on his nerves. How in the hell would he get into it if all he got a single word in reply? Well, it was probably because they weren't adapted to human language.

He let out a breath and prepared himself. "Alright, enough conversation," he told them. "Let's get started."

Lightning rippled on his palms, his hair stood out as Gale proceeded to attack.

"No need," the stalker told him. "I have confirmed."

Well, well, they could form sentences with more words, it seemed. "What?"

"You are. . .not a threat."

"Oh, you got no idea what I'm capable of," Gale sneered. His legs worked like a bolt of lightning as he charged. In the next moment, he appeared right next to the ghost.

The spirit entity didn't engage in battle, but tried to withdraw using their unique spiritual nature. Gale understood this person could materialise in forms of physical and spiritual entity, which gave them an immense talent for stealth and spying. However, there should be a limit to their capability.

He needed to figure that out first, and to do that, his first intended to block their way of escape. If they shift to spiritual entity, there was a little he could do if they choose to escape.

Gale surrounded them with a charge of electricity using his third Fate-lock. As he assumed, they tried to escape by changing into a spiritual entity. Gale closed in before they could and rammed his fist to their midsection.

The attack connected during their shift. Thunder charged out of his fist, pulsing through their stomach and ceased the shift of nature.

But Gale wasn't done yet. Before the unique entity could muster any counterattack to his movement, Gale swung his leg against their feet. The ghostly cloaked figure fell, Gale on top of them as they rolled on the ground.

Gale released more of Stormsong, as lightning cracked out of him to attack the person. Then Gale forced his hold of Qi onto the entity and released the Void-lock, trying to imprison them into the void-lock.

Most things couldn't survive inside the airless pocket void, but this person could shift into a spiritual entity, so perhaps they could. Gale would find out soon.

First, he had to overcome their intent. Sadly, this person was no greenhorn. It didn't take them more than a second to understand something was wrong as a suction force pounced on their body.

They gathered all the will they could muster and transformed them into an intent. An intent of disregarding Gale and whatever Gale was working for.

The lightning surrounding them stopped, but the silent conflict of intent churned the air, as sparks of Qi glittered surrounding them. No one admitting defeat. After several seconds, the person managed to shift into spiritual nature, but Gale still had a hold of them.

If they couldn't win in the Intent contest, there was no escape.

Shifting into Spiritual nature seemed to give the Stalker more freedom to act, but they weren't free yet. They lurched up from Gale's grasp, phasing through him.

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Gale used 'They' instead of he/she to the stalker because he wasn't sure about their sex. Also, some spiritual entities were vague about their sex.