For a while after that, Ryuji decided to rest and let his wounds heal. He had already cut up all 3 of the remaining Cactuses and tied them to a cloth with a short loop at it's end.

At some point, Ryuji decided to use the clothes he was wearing as a rope to carry the Cactuses easily. Though ofcourse, he wouldn't want to wander naked around the desert, so he was going to wear the [One's Resolve] at all times.

He had learned a bitter truth after encountering The Scheming Cabalist. He needed an armour at all times, One could never be sure when they were gonna be ambushed here.

He expected Elysium to be free of Abyssals. He wasn't sure why there were Abyssals even here. It didn't seem any different from Hell. The only difference was that he could see a bright sun here, while he couldn't see one in Hell.

**

After a long rest, he was bound to get bored. There was still some time until night would descend. He decided to practice with his sword some more.

Ryuji summoned the [Maroon Blade] and started swinging it. He practiced a number of different strikes. But the most important thing he tried to practice was the flow of essence through his body and the way he used it with his sword.

He didn't want to slack off in this region. He could need it anytime in battle.

A few hours passed and Ryuji made sure to replenish himself from time to time. The food was not a proper meal. It was just kind of a paste that he could eat and replenish his energy from time to time. He didn't even feel full no matter how much he ate, so he just decided to trust his intuition.

Though ofcourse, He was craving Solid food a lot.

The sun was about to almost disappear from the visible-horizon cut out by the tall dunes.

His surroundings were enveloped in dim Twilight... He didn't feel safe sleeping there...

There was simply no place where he could sleep.

He was aware that this would happen. Walking a bit more for the remaining day was gonna get him somewhere perhaps. But he couldn't see anything as far as he could see.

The reason for his decision to stay here was also affected by the fact that he hadn't been attacked by any Abyssal other than the Cabalist. This region was probably supposed to be barren. He wasn't sure why though.

After some time, The Sun disappeared behind the Horizon, or the dunes, because that was the only Horizon he could see now. It made him feel like he was in a small circular utensil in which the children of his village used to play with colorful spinning tops. What were they called? Ah... May Blades? Tsk, doesn't matter anyways.

It just made him feel he was constantly missing out on a lot of important information. Ryuji wasn't sure what kind of things would lurk out at night, so he quickly went back to the rock that lay some distance away from him and hid himself in the embrace of it's hot sides that were slowly turning cold.

The temperature was dropping rapidly.

Ryuji hid himself behind the outler layers of the cactus that he had cut a while ago and tried to occupy as little space as possible. It wasn't comfortable, but it made him feel slightly safer.

Ofcourse, he left a small opening directly in front of his eyes so he could observe the outside in case something terrible found him using his scent. But he hoped that nothing would.

Ryuji kept the [Maroon Blade] with himself at all times and grabbed it's hilt tightly. Occasionally, he'd hear a faint rustle or the sound of the sand shifting which would bring Ryuji back to his senses again, and he'd stare outside with his eyes open wide until the sound subsided.

Though faintly, he felt small tremors running occasionally through the ground. It almost felt like someone walking. He wasn't even sure that he felt it actually. It could probably be a construct of his own mind, or perhaps something else.

Occasionally, he even felt something staring at him. He could always swear he saw something staring at him through the corner of his eye. But as soon as he turned his head to glance at it, the eye disappeared. That feeling made Ryuji especially more disturbed.

It was as if the whole Desert had suddenly transformed into something much more sinister than it was during the day.

**

Fortunately, the night was mostly uneventful.

The sun rose once again, a new day was upon him.

Now that Ryuji got out of his hiding place he realised just how stupid he looked hiding behind that thing.

Anything could've ambushed him easily and turned him into food. Either he was extremely lucky to have not been found, or the dangers lurking around were not that insidious.

But he seriously couldn't afford to sleep like that for another night...

Tying the remaining Cactuses back to himself, he started advancing further.

The weight of the Cactuses was a bit hard to pull all the time, but he wasn't sure if he was even going to get another chance to eat, or even more, a chance to replenish his water again.

Since the Cactuses had plenty of it inside them, they were a valuable resource.

The tall dune he was aiming for was still a bit further than his current position, but he was going to get there regardless. If not today, then tomorrow at least, but he was sure he was going to start scaling it under that time frame.

**

The slope got a little steeper, and the heat of the sun started burning him up. The rays felt so sharp that he regretted his decision to tear up his clothes and use them as a rope.

It'd have been much better if he used it as a cloak or a veil to protect him from the sun.

But there was no time to regret anything since his decision was based on an obvious fact. Carrying any source of nourishment was important.

He had to survive to get out of here somehow.

Soon, he had scaled another dune. Reaching the top of it and admiring the vast expanse of... Sand... And ofcourse that one single dune that stretched so high that it felt like it was trying to hide the horizon.

'It'd be funny if i climbed it and looked past, only to realise that there is another dune far into the distance that is as high as that one... Or higher.'

He thought of resting for a while on the top, but decided against it. He preferred to cover a lot of distance as soon as possible.

As soon as he got up, he felt a slight rustle in the sand behind him.

But as soon as he turned his head back, sound of fast steps approached him from his front and something hard and tough rammed into him.

Ryuji was thrown back and he immediately felt a deep slash on the back, making him bleed with a stinging pain enveloping his back. Luckily, he was wearing [One's Resolve] and the cut wasn't too deep.

He wanted to get back to his feet, but before he could, he felt something scrapping against his Gauntlets. Whatever the thing was, it had tried to slash him through his gauntlet.

That was it's last mistake. Ryuji immediately grabbed it with a quick reaction speed and gripped it tightly.

He spun and stood back on his feet and slammed the invisible foe against a stone kept nearby.

[You have defeated a Veiled Echo, Glass Arachnid.]

[Your Soul devours a part of their Soul.]

The creature wasn't invisible anymore. It had shattered in a few pieces. It was almost 2 and a half feet long Glass-like Scorpio creature. It had two sharp glass pincers with a long glass tail for it's stinger. They probably had abilities related to being invisible.

He wasn't sure how many of them there were.

All he could do was try to keep a distance while fighting them and striking at the right moment.

Right now, he could see the sand in front of him slowly displacing in two different places each in a pair of six.

He enveloped his sword in the black flames and tried to glace at his surroundings.

The glass scorpions were smart though. As soon as he looked away, he heard something shoot forward and the sand below flew up.

Thankfully, Ryuji wasn't an amateur. He blocked one of the scorpions successfully. He was successful in predicting where the first one would be, but he couldn't have possibly known about the whereabouts of the second one. Still, he managed to sufficiently protect his face from the second one. The rest was done by the [One's Resolve].

And... ofcourse... How could've he left such an opportunity go?

The invisible body of the Scorpion was now in his hand. Without wasting any time, he gripped it tightly and crushed it's body in his palm.

The runes announced once again.

[You have defeated a Veiled Echo, Glass Arachnid.]

[Your Soul devours a part of their Soul.]

Ryuji felt a slight amount of power entering his body everytime the runes roared in his ears.

'Collecting Soul Fragments makes me stronger eh?'

But as soon as Ryuji finished the thought, he could feel a deep sense of fear suddenly assault his mind.

Something big and wide slashed at him, Tearing the leather of [One's Resolve] in one go. The Leather Armour still stood, but he felt some warm blood flowing out of his wound.

There was another creature among the swarm... And it was much, much more powerful in comparison to these simple Scorpions.

Ryuji jumped back immediately and tried to make as much distance as he could between the invisible opponents and himself.

As soon as he did though, he felt a deep piercing pain in his leg. He was probably hit by the scorpion's stinger. Without wasting another second, He landed a punch deep in the ground.

... But it hit nothing but the hot sand.

Immediately, he felt two pincers holding his hand down. A lot of smaller cuts appeared above his Gauntlet.

Sensing the larger scorpion rushing at him to take advantage of the situation the smaller ones had created, he immediately shifted his body weight and jumped back.

But being that high on the dune... And on a narrow end at that, Ryuji lost his balance and slipped, he felt the Scorpion's pincers slash him trying to grab his arm, but all it grabbed was the sleeve of his armour.

Ryuji didn't waste the single second and put all his strength into picking it up and smashing it on the ground to his side.

He was sure it didn't kill the larger Scorpion... Or whatever creature that larger invisible thing was- but he successfully managed to destroy another of the invisible scorpions.

[You have defeated a Veiled Echo, Glass Arachnid.]

[Your Soul devours a part of their Soul.]

He suddenly spun and stood up again, smashing the larger scorpion into another one of it's other helper that was trying to hold his hand.

It didn't kill them, but he felt that he had damaged them to some extent.

The only reason he could fight them properly was because of the sand they displaced whenever they walked. He probably would've been dead already if he tried to fight these creatures standing on concrete floor or stone.

... The sand was not so bad anymore.

But his happiness was short lived. The larger Scorpion was no idiot. It grabbed Ryuji's arm using it's Pincer and twisted it.

It couldn't grab his wrist because of The [Spirit Of Thorns]. If it did, he could've lost a lot of blood already.

In the next second, He felt a stinger enter his arm.

He felt an extreme amount of pain as the creature stabbed him with it's large stinger.

'I hope I'm not poisoned... Ah...'

He felt himself getting weaker. Was this bastard drinking his blood too?

Why did everyone in this damned place want his blood?!

Ryuji felt the other two Scorpions join in on the feast on his other hand.

'Bastards... I'm not letting you drink my precious blood!'

He suddenly dismissed the [Maroon Blade] and grabbed the larger Scorpion's invisible tail with his other hand that was currently held tightly by it's soldiers.

He spun the hand that was supposed to be a feast for the leader of these creatures and grabbed it's upper body with it.

... He pulled.

Ryuji pulled with all his strength. He felt the larger Scorpion's pincer tense up and it stopped drinking his blood.

It suddenly pulled it's stinger back and started stabbing Ryuji's arm again and again.

But Ryuji was pissed off.

Ryuji pulled with all this might. The stinger was lodged out of his arm now, and he still kept pulling, stretching the larger creature. At one point, The Black Flames enveloped his arms and his muscles, and his strength increased.

He felt the other smaller Scorpions suddenly tense up on his arm, shaking slowly.

He could've burnt then all right now... But he didn't want to.

'Oh bastards... Wait for your turn.'

Suddenly, both of his arms were free. The larger Scorpion was visible again, with it's tail in his right hand and it's body in his left.

He gripped it's still-convulsing body with his palm. It's body was too big for his hand to just squash, but he could still shatter it. 

Suddenly, Thin cracks appeared around the Scorpion's body... And then it shattered...

[You have defeated a Veiled Wrath, Glass Scorpion.]

[Your Soul devours a part of their Soul.]

[You have acquired a Complete Soul.]

He was a bit confused by the sudden new announcement. But...

The three scorpions that were trying to feast on him were visible again.

Upon the death of their leader, all of them lost all confidence and jumped off his body.

Ryuji immediately shattered one of them by punching it in the ground.

[You have defeated a...]

And the other two were immediately grabbed by him. He augmented both of his gauntlets with his flames.

The black on his gauntlets turned darker and the green neon danced happily on them, as if it was delighted to help him destroy these beasts.

The beasts screamed in pain and then suddenly shattered...

He felt a number of Soul Fragments enter his Cores again...

After having so much blood sucked out of him, he felt strangely light-headed. But he also knew very well that he had gotten stronger.