After lighting the cigarette, it released a pale blue smoke with a drowsy fragrance. Shade held his breath and waited for the sleeping Earl's reaction. Just over ten seconds later, Shade subconsciously yawned—and discovered that the Earl before him had vanished into thin air.
He hadn't vanished. Look carefully.
"She" gently reminded him. Shade concentrated, and only then did he finally see the Earl's figure again. He was not invisible; it was more like his sense of presence had been severely diminished. Shade immediately thought of the coins at Black Mist Camp, but the two were clearly unrelated.
As Shade focused on observing the Earl, the Earl opened his eyes, though his gaze was quite dazed and sleepy. He was clearly not fully awake. He rose from the sofa and walked toward the wall he had pointed out earlier, the one with the "Crack to the Paradise of Bliss."
Shade watched closely, then looked on in astonishment as the Earl really did walk into the wall. When his skin touched the wall, ripples like water spread across both his skin and its surface, and then the Earl disappeared.
"What was that?"
Shade had been standing beside the Earl all along and had reacted the moment he interacted with the wall. Worried about hurting Earl Petrarch, Shade did not pull him back. Instead, he used his senses to investigate the entire process. But once the Earl vanished, Shade touched the wall himself. It was completely solid, and even illuminating it with the Spacetime Spirit Rune produced no reaction.
He had lost Earl Petrarch's trail and, unbelievably, had seen nothing clearly. This greatly exceeded Shade's expectations. According to the Earl, this was not his first time using mushroom powder for "Deep Meditation," so he should return soon. Even so, Shade felt it