Chapter 552 - 548: Haunted Forest

Janus went from city to city searching for the Lord of Space, but he didn't find him anywhere. Let alone finding him, even his aura wasn't visible anywhere. According to the envoy, the Lord of Space was here at least once, so his aura should have been here. But it wasn't, which was strange. 

In any case, he had finished searching Germany, and now it was going to change the place, and the next place he selected was... Britain. 

He believed that even though the other Gods had sent him here, they wouldn't give him a free rein. They'll be watching him at the start to see if he was actually trying to find the Lord of Space or just messing around. 

He knew that at least for the next few days, he needed to physically be as far away from Ryder as he could be, only helping in the old ways. 

This was good, too, since this gave Ryder the freedom to handle things his own way. So far, he was doing pretty good. 

Janus had initially assumed that it was going to be hard for Ryder to defeat so many kinds, but as it turned out, it was extremely easy, barely an inconvenience. 

He had already killed all the Kings, and now it was the turn of Aluren. Fortunately, Ryder wasn't going in blind, and instead, he was taking some time to practice his newly gained strength. 

...

While Janus had started searching Britain, one man had appeared in the United States, who was none other than the Lord of Space himself.

He stepped out of a spatial portal that disappeared after he left like it was never there.

"I was right. This is the place," the Lord of Space said as soon as he landed in America. Fortunately, the state he landed in was far away from where Ryder actually was.

"I would never have expected that when I would come out of my seclusion, I would find him missing. I made a special spatial domain for him to seclude himself, and no one should've known where it was. As long as he himself didn't leave, no one should have been able to do anything."

"The realm was also perfectly fine and not destroyed, so no battle took place, I believe. Time left of his own volition, but where did he go? I feel a bit of his aura coming from this planet. He should have gone here. Unfortunately, that aura is too faint and spread everywhere now. But he should be here. I'll find him," he said to himself as he started walking on the streets. 

As he walked, a lot of people looked at him, amused at his clothing. His clothes seemed so strange. He was completely bare-chested, but his pants were the real deal, seeming like he was coming from a fancy dress competition where he made a completely original cartoon character costume for himself. 

The Lord of Space didn't bother about these gazes. When he was in Germany, he had also seen gazes like it. These mortals were really strange. Wherever he went, they were looking at him. 

"I guess they're really awestruck by my heavenly aura. I can't blame them. Even though I'm controlling my charm, the heavenly aura is just too powerful inside me. Even after all that, these people can feel it," he said as he sighed. 

....

Ryder spent his entire day practicing. Even though he had started the practice in the building, he soon realized that it wasn't feasible for him. 

The strength of his was too much for this place. In a single punch, he has blown up the entire top most floor of the building. Fortunately, no one noticed as of yet since on the top most floor, there was only one room for stairs; otherwise, the destruction would have been much worse.

Seeing that sight, Ryder realized that he had made a mistake by practicing here. Unlike before, his strength was too much now. Practicing in a building was no better than destroying the whole thing and attracting attention from everywhere. 

He decided to go somewhere even more isolated.

Since there were not many places like those, he chose a large forest inside the city. The first was said to be a haunted forest. Once a person went inside, he never returned. That saying was tested again and again as many lost souls entered the forest, believing it to be a rumor, but even they couldn't return. 

Slowly, people actually started fearing the first, and no one entered the place. 

This was the perfect thing that Ryder was thinking about? What Haunted? He always carried a personal ghost with him. As for other ghosts, they were the least concerning for him.

As Ryder walked inside the forest, he straight aimed to go the deepest into the forest. The deeper he went into the forest, the darker it became. Some strange sounds of footsteps could be heard everywhere, but no one was seen. 

Ryder looked back as he frowned. 

"Footsteps? Since when do ghosts have footsteps? Don't tell me these are the filmy ghosts that play more tricks than they actually kill?" He said as he chuckled. 

He stopped walking as he raised both his arms. "You don't need to hide anymore. I'm pretty deep inside the forest already. You can come out."

"Hehehe, kid. Don't call your death yourself. Even after all those stories about this forest, you still came here. Since you're looking for death, let us help you."

A laughter echoed in the forest as a man stepped out of the trees, coming straight before Ryder. It was a bearded man that seemed to have a scar on his forehead. The man seemed like he was forty years old. 

"These annoying kids, they never learn," Another man stepped out, cackling. 

"Let me guess; you are the ghosts of this forest that are still alive. Don't worry; I'll help you in becoming real ghosts by killing you," Ryder said, laughing. 

"Kid! Do you even know what you've walked yourself into?" One of the men asked Ryder. 

"I think I already do. I already had this assumption, but I'm more sure now. These ghost stories, they're your work. You spread them, and you also kept killing the people that came inside the forest," Ryder said. 

"As for the cops, you escaped every time they arrived to investigate. Am I right?" He asked. 

"Oh? Not bad. Since you know that, you just already know why we did that?" One of the men asked. 

"Of course, I have a hunch. You wanted to prove this place as a haunted place, and once it became a forbidden place in the eyes of the whole world, no one was going to step inside. And even if someone stepped inside, you could kill them, and cops wouldn't come since the reputation of this place would already be proven when cops doesn't find anything in the first few tries," Ryder replied. 

"And once this once became actually forbidden, you can do your illegal harvesting right within the city, under everyone's nose," he added.

"So, which illegal thing are you growing here?" He asked, smirking.

"Kid, you really know more than you would. Did you come here to test if your theory was right? Didn't you hear, curiosity killed the cat? Today, you're going to be that cat," the dark-clothed man said. 

"And even if you know everything, so what? Dead men can't talk," he further added before he gestured to everyone to attack. 

"Bad decision..." Ryder said softly as he cracked his knuckles. "For you. But for me, this is good since I finally get to test my strength. And I don't need to control either. Don't complain to the devil about me when you reach hell, but do tell him that I said hi."

 ...

Three minutes, three minutes was all it took for all the men to die. Let alone their bodies being left intact; it was barely left. The sight of battle seemed really gruesome as Ryder actually did what he said. 

He actually attacked these people with his entire strength, which was enough to blow them to smithereens. 

"Cheh, my clothes got bloodied," Ryder muttered as he glanced at his clothes that were covered in blood splashes. 

He removed his clothes, washed his arms, legs, and face before he wore different clothes. 

He continued walking inside, and as soon as he reached the center of the first, he realized why these men had done these things. He was right; they were actually growing the drug called Cloud Touch. 

It was a new drug that was said to be very harmful for the human body. Most of the people who took these drugs suffered paralysis after just ten years of taking them, but it wasn't as if they could leave it since it was addicting from the first time use itself. 

Moreover, even if someone dared to stop taking these drugs after taking them for a few days, the withdrawal effects were even worse than the actual side effects.