It was still there, slithering, pulsating.

Red closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

'It's merely an illusion... It's not real.'

The youth repeated the same sentence under his breath multiple times. It took the better part of a minute for the boy's heart rate and breathing to return to normal. When Red finally calmed down, he opened his eyes after a lot of hesitation.

His mind was shaken again. The thing was still there on the dark moon, and the boy could still feel its gaze upon him. This was no illusion - or at the very least, not one he could escape from. Out of an abundance of caution, Red decided to look away from the moon.

However, it didn't seem like averting his gaze worked in diverting the being's attention. The youth could feel it staring at him, no matter how much he tried to ignore it.

'Why is it still there? Why...'

Red felt fear grip his heart, making it hard for him to even move.

"Hey, Red! What are you doing here?" A boy's voice interrupted his thoughts.

The youth looked over and saw Allen approaching him with a curious gaze. The young master clearly found it strange to discover Red kneeling on the ground in the yard at this time of the night, and a worried expression came over him.

"Are you okay?" Allen asked.

"It's... It's fine. I just feel a bit dizzy from practice." The youth struggled to get the words out. Not even the appearance of a third party alleviated the feeling of being watched.

"Here, I'll help you up."

Without waiting for a response, Allen got close to Red and helped him to his feet. The boy didn't deny his assistance and managed to find his balance.

"Hang on, I'll call Eiwin!" Allen spoke once he saw the youth's pale expression.

"Don't..." Red held the boy back. "I've already recovered."

"Are you sure?" The young master didn't look convinced.

"Yes, I'm fine." He backed his own words by standing without assistance.

Allen still looked a little skeptical, but he pushed his worry to the back of his mind.

"Why were you training outside?" He asked.

"Just wanted a breath of fresh air." Red lied once more.

"Ah, I see." Allen nodded in understanding. "I also don't like spending too much time training behind closed doors, but the old man says that you need to be isolated to focus."

As the older boy started going on his tirade, the youth still felt the gaze upon him. It took a lot of his concentration to pay attention to Allen's words while resisting the horrible feeling in his gut. As his head began to ache, Red felt compelled to confirm something.

"Did you look at the moon tonight?" He asked, interrupting the young master's words.

"The moon?" Allen frowned, looking up. The boy squinted to try and observe something, but a few seconds later, he just shook his head. "It's a new moon today, so we can't see it that well."

"A new moon?" Red hadn't heard the term before.

"Yeah, the moon has phases." Allen looked all too happy to explain this to him. "Basically, it gets brighter at points and darker at others. When it's completely dark, we call it a new moon. When it's completely bright, we call it a full moon."

Red had observed this phenomenon before, but he had neglected to learn what it was called.

"Do you not see anything weird there?" He insisted on his line of questioning. The youth only felt comfortable making those kinds of questions because he knew Allen was too naive to suspect anything.

"Hmm..." Allen looked up again. "I don't see anything. Is there supposed to be something there?"

"No." Red shook his head. "I was just wondering."

The youth suspected that he was the only one seeing the strange being. That made the entire situation even more alarming.

"Thanks for your help." Red nodded to his companion. "I'll be going back to my room."

"Are you sure you're fine?" Allen asked.

The youth frowned at this question. It seemed that even though Allen was naive, he still wasn't entirely stupid. The boy could only imagine that his discomfort was very apparent.

"I am." Red nodded again. "I just need some rest to recover."

"Ah, alright." Allen smiled in understanding.

"Also..." The youth paused just as he was about to walk away. "Don't tell the others about this, alright? Much more so Eiwin. She worries too much."

This obviously wasn't the only reason Red wanted to keep it a secret.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Allen patted his chest as a sign of confidence. "Don't worry, I won't tell a soul about it."

The youth didn't feel very confident in the older boy's ability to keep a secret, but it was better than nothing. Red could only leave for his room after receiving Allen's assurance.

...

When Red returned to his room, he almost collapsed on the spot. His body felt completely normal, but the mental strain to keep composed under the strange gaze took a lot out of him. In fact, even with a roof over his head, the boy could still feel that same being watching him.

He knew that if he went outside, he would still be able to see it on the moon. This made it hard for the youth to concentrate on anything, but he could only try his best. Every time Red tried recalling the specifics of the incident, he could feel his mind trembling at the image of the being.

However, how could he possibly dismiss this, as he did with his other visions? This wasn't an illusion, and even if what he was seeing wasn't real, it still had an effect on his body.

First of all, there was the green energy leaving his veins. Red knew that it was likely the same moonstone energy the insectoid used in the mines, much more so since they came out of his special acupoints. However, this raised another issue: where had the energy come from?

As far as Red knew, one couldn't store Spiritual Energy inside their body without opening their Spiritual Sea. Yet, that energy had quite clearly left his body. Was this a feature of his special acupoints? Storing moonstone energy? The youth simply didn't know enough to come to a definite conclusion.

Then, there was also that being. Red shivered once he thought back to it, but he tried fighting through that feeling. The youth was almost instinctively able to guess that his energy was being absorbed by that thing.

His mind couldn't help but go through his conversations with Viran, the blob, and the insectoids. Was this the curse they had referred to? If this wasn't the worst of it, Red couldn't bear to imagine what came next.

Still, even under the strange gaze, the youth knew he had to confirm something. Under heavy strain, the boy went through his vein opening exercises until he felt the Spiritual Energy entering his body. Red concentrated and tried to direct the energy through his Spinal Vein, where one of his special acupoints was located.

It was a difficult task, but the strands followed the natural path towards his unopened veins and passed through the acupoint. As soon as they touched that area, though, the boy felt a shock travel up his body. His legs buckled, and he fell to the ground on his knees, the energy inside his body dissipating.

A dull pulsing pain spread through his spine, and soon it reached his upper arms. It didn't take much effort on Red's part to pinpoint the origin of the pain - his special acupoints.

Eventually, the feeling passed, but a strained sensation still remained in those areas. These acupoints were spent and weak, and moving Spiritual Energy through them almost sent Red into a shock. Was this the effect of the disappearance of the moonstone energy?

Red laid down on his bed and closed his eyes. He thought back to Viran's words, talking about how his special acupoints would help him escape the underground. Red also remembered how Viran had wanted to wait until the boy had opened three veins before trying to escape.

Did he know this would happen? Maybe he wanted to wait until the boy had opened more special acupoints because he knew just three acupoints weren't enough. Red tried connecting this to the pain he felt once his acupoints had run dry.

Midway through the earlier ordeal, the boy had run out of energy, and something else started to be taken from him. The youth still didn't know what the being had seized. However, he could feel that something important had been stolen from him. The pain was still clear in his mind, and it reminded him of what he had felt when he had awakened from the dream with the Azure being.

'What would have happened if I didn't have any moonstone energy in my body?'

Whatever it was, it couldn't mean anything good for him.

This was still all conjecture, but it was all Red had to go off of. Realizing these things, however, only raised another issue in the boy's mind.

What if this happened again? What if the being tried to drain whatever moonstone energy was still left in his body? Judging by the state of his special acupoints, Red could guess there was nothing left at all. Not to mention, even if they were still full of energy, his maximum was clearly not enough.

Could he even replenish what was taken?

As these doubts crossed his mind, the boy couldn't help but feel the weight of the gaze growing stronger. He shivered again but did his best to remain composed.

Taking deep breaths, Red tried to focus his thoughts again. What had prompted the transformation? Was it the new moon, as Allen claimed? It was the only thing he could think of, but it still didn't give him any assurance. Maybe this would only happen once the moon was completely dark, but how could Red bet his chances on that? The being was still there, after all.

The youth couldn't help but feel the grim reality settling upon him.

Red spent the whole night awake, pondering to himself under the unyielding gaze of the moon.

...

Only when the first signs of the sunrise appeared did the boy feel the pressure over him diminish. The gaze slowly disappeared, but for some reason he could still feel an unsettling presence in his mind. As if an after effect of what he had gone through was still there.

It took a lot of Red's willpower to not immediately fall asleep on his bed, but he knew there were certain things he needed to do. With a lot of effort, the youth got up from his bed and exited the room. He had spent a lot of time considering his options, and he had eventually, reluctantly arrived at an inevitable conclusion.

He needed moonstones. Red wasn't sure if they would solve his problem, but he knew he needed to prepare himself for the worst-case scenario. And now, there were only two ways to obtain them.

One was asking about them from someone in the guild. The other was by trekking out into the forest and finding his hidden stash. Each option presented its own problems.

Going to search for his stash by himself was indeed much riskier. Red had never wandered through the forest alone, and he didn't feel confident in fighting off bandits on his own. Not to mention this was at least a three day trip. At the same time, he also did not want to risk exposing his background by asking the Sect for help. He was at an impasse.

However, now that his life was potentially on the line, could he afford to maintain secrecy? Yet, what if this secrecy wasl the only thing keeping him alive? It was hard to say when the boy still knew so little about his general situation.

‘I need to think…’

“How long are you going to stand there?” A voice interrupted his train of thought.

Red looked up, and saw Domeron sitting on his rock chair not too far away.