Chapter Forty-Four
"That troublesome fellow almost caused a huge commotion." Shadow looked at the blurry mass on the ground. "But thankfully, it went smoothly."
He nodded at twelve o'clock and pulled off the bandage wrapped around his mouth. He needed to eat, but getting food was a hassle, and this guy was a good option.
He's such a troublemaker. If he hadn't made the first move, this would have been a fight that could have been avoided.
Thinking this way, Twelve finally laughed helplessly at herself.
Honestly, who am I kidding? I was clearly waiting here specifically for him to arrive, just so I could hunt him down without alerting anyone else.
How do you feel about your abilities?
"At least it can save lives," Twelve said softly, "but such an ability is really too weak."
......
Yak sighed softly and stood there listening to the report.
It's been a truly disastrous week.
This week has been increasingly quiet on the surface. The chaos in the city has subsided, and it seems rather quiet, too quiet, giving one the feeling that there is blood lurking beneath the surface.
From the perspective of those on the dark side, things haven't been good lately.
Because there are reports of witchers being hunted in various places.
These guys, who should have been the hunters, seem to have become the prey overnight.
Especially now that Evan is dead, his abilities were always a headache. To fight him, you had to be able to withstand his initial storm-like attacks.
Logically speaking, very few people could defeat him, but the good news is that the guy is dead and can no longer be a problem.
But now, everyone understands the saying "when the rabbit dies, the fox grieves."
Every day brings new bad news; whenever someone goes out to gather information, they always return one person short.
These guys, who should have been hunters, are being hunted, while someone is hiding in an even more clandestine place, preparing to dismantle them.
Perhaps it was the church; after all, if they were dealt with quietly, the city would be at peace, allowing them to focus on dealing with the demons.
But it's more likely that the demon himself is involved.
Nina's condition has stabilized; she didn't die, which is good news. Once she recovers, she will become a valuable asset to their forces.
This is the news everyone has been waiting for, because every day they've only received bad news.
If this situation continues, the Witcher may eventually be forced to set up defenses in this hotel.
But what's the point? They didn't come here to survive; they came here to obtain the head that lies in the deeper darkness.
Coincidentally, the guy who's hiding is probably thinking the same thing.
Even now, these witchers are still unwilling to act together. They're scattered like magnetic sand of the same sex, always gathering together no matter what.
Today is the most complete gathering of the Ark team; everyone's here. Oh, and there's also Hack and Raven, plus Nina and those two red oni. And there's a robot from Daedra.
Oh, I almost forgot about the Ghost Lord in the corner, and the cat too.
As for the others? Who knows? They're probably off searching for traces of the demon again.
These guys seem to firmly believe that as long as it makes a move, it will leave a trace, and you can find it by following the trace.
They don't even consider whether their actions might actually lead to their deaths. But these are creatures accustomed to living on the edge, indifferent to their own lives, and probably not much concerned about the lives of others either.
Yak sat there, watching Ghost Duke in the corner.
That guy has been quiet lately for some reason.
But simply calming down wasn't enough to make Ark feel strange; the main thing was that this guy seemed very happy, to an odd degree.
It was as if they had found their sense of mission.
“We need to find out who’s doing this first,” said Hack, who was standing nearby. “Otherwise, going out rashly will only result in losses.”
“It’s highly likely to be a demon,” Dedeline said casually. “After all, if I were in that situation, I would definitely think of killing off those who might threaten me one by one first. That would greatly reduce my own danger.”
“It’s hard to say, because there are no inexplicable traces at the scene.” Hark offered a counterargument: “The biggest characteristic of demons is that they possess abilities that we cannot explain. This power, directly bestowed by demons, overrides the rules of the world. But until now, the deceased has been cut open with a knife.”
“It’s Bo Ming, that’s Ivan’s weapon,” Ark said from the side. “He was the first to be killed, and his knife wasn’t found next to the body. It must have been taken.”
"How about that weapon?"
“I’ve been eyeing it for a long time, but no matter what I offer, Karl won’t give it to me.” Ark hesitated for a moment and said, “There are quite a few oddballs like that, but I really admire that weapon. As a sword, it’s hard to find one better than it.”
Then the room returned to silence, with only the sound of Christon crawling remaining.
He was busy reinforcing the building with spider webs to prevent the stronghold from being damaged by some exaggerated, large-scale attack.
Lady turned to look at Ark, remaining silent for a long time.
About half an hour later, Ark got up to leave the room, and no one asked him where he was going. Because he didn't say, asking wouldn't make a difference.
“It must be that thing.” After Ark went outside, he said to the cat that jumped out of the window, “Including the attack on Nina before, it can be seen that it is indeed trying to eliminate dangerous factors from the city.”
The cat didn't reply; it simply landed on its shoulder.
Just moments ago, another battle broke out somewhere in the city.
Yak plans to go to the site and see if he can find anything there.
But this time he didn't go alone, because Lady followed him out.
I never expected this guy to be so skilled in stealth, able to easily suppress his movements.
Using this ability, she decided to follow Ark.
Ark's behavior has been getting stranger lately. Ever since he got the cat, he seems to have stopped going out with the others for a long time.
Lady felt uneasy, as if she were still being kept in the dark. She couldn't figure out what had happened recently, only that many people had died.
She felt she should at least do something.
Lady sensed faint footsteps behind her. She turned around and saw the abandoned child secretly following her.
This guy actually followed us out too, probably because he was worried something might happen to Lady.
Lady hesitated for a moment, then pretended not to see it.
It seems to be quite good at hiding itself, although such a body always causes some unnecessary noise. But it must be said that this guy does a great job of minimizing the noise he makes.
Lady followed Ark into the city. The surroundings were unusually calm lately. Perhaps it was a temporary calm after the Blood Sun; in any case, the sky was a pale yellow with rolling waves of clouds. Something seemed to be hidden within them.
She followed Yak through the streets for nearly half an hour until she suddenly realized she couldn't find him anymore.
Lady thought she was following him very well, going wherever he went and always maintaining a safe distance.
Logically speaking, he shouldn't have been discovered no matter what, but now he has disappeared from sight. He must have used some method to evade tracking.
Just a moment ago, that guy was walking right in front of me, but now, he's vanished without a trace, leaving nothing behind, simply disappearing into thin air.
Lady then realized that she had followed him to a completely unfamiliar place, where there was no one else around.
It was eerily quiet.
Lady didn't realize there were still living creatures around until the cawing of crows began.
She looked up at the things that had fallen onto the roof.
Those are crows, and these crows are watching her... No!
Lady instinctively covered her mouth and slowly backed away, her whole body trembling with fear.
Because the eyes of these crows had been gouged out, leaving empty holes where the eyeballs should have been.
It looked as if blood was flowing out of the cavity.
In the deserted corridor, he saw crows suddenly covering the rooftops, these eyeless crows all staring at him.
Lady told herself to stay calm, but she couldn't. That eerie feeling made her want to run away.
And that's exactly what she did; she ran wildly towards the end of the corridor, trying to escape this place.
When she stepped onto the street, she suddenly felt her blood slowly cooling down.
The streets were still deserted; there were only ruins and the crow that had landed on the roof.
The streets were littered only with crows' eyes, eyes that had been gouged out and discarded. They were everywhere, and stepping on them would cause them to shatter.
Why were there so many crows here? Lady didn't know, but she knew she had followed someone into an extraordinary place.
"Ark!" she cried out, no longer caring about hiding. Now that she was all alone, she was overwhelmed by fear.
It would be so much better if someone were by her side now, but she's all alone now, as if she's been abandoned.
Even the abandoned pawn has disappeared without a trace; that guy is nowhere to be found either.
The world was so vast and empty, it felt as if I were the only one left.
The crows let out a strange laugh, and Lady was absolutely certain that these creatures were laughing, their laughter so eerie, like the joy of having caught their prey.
Lady covered her ears and gasped for breath.
After a few seconds, she realized what kind of place she had entered.
She closed her eyes, forcibly switching her thought process. A moment later, the world appeared in a different way.
If this place is only meant to disgust outsiders with its horrific scenes, then it's targeting the wrong audience.
The guy standing here now can completely erase his emotions once he switches his mindset, with rational thinking replacing his original feelings.
Once her emotions no longer influenced her judgment, all the bizarre sights around her seemed utterly foolish.
"My immediate task is to figure out where I am," Lady thought. She really didn't remember this place in the city; no human settlement ever looked like this.
She walked down the street, wary of her surroundings. She jogged forward, maintaining a constant movement. If someone wanted to ambush her, her slow advance would only give them more opportunities.
In fact, she could see nothing here except for the crows.
But the street seemed to have no end. After a full ten minutes, she stopped and looked at the ground.
It was a bloody path; she had stepped on the eyes of crows the whole way. When the blood trail left behind her appeared before her, she realized that this space was an endless cycle of beginnings and endings.
The space here is complete chaos; the endpoint is distorted from reality and connects to the entrance, forming a strange ring. This structure is like a trap; once someone from the outside enters, they can never get out.
But is that really the case?
Lady flicked her wrist, leaping high into the air, the musket already in her hand. Mid-air, she assumed an aiming stance and pulled the trigger.
The specially designed projectile had an extremely high initial velocity at the moment of launch, and the ground was dented by the falling bullets, forcing the approaching shadows back.
Lady landed slowly, drew her dagger, and once again aimed her musket at the man's head.
The bullets were reloaded mid-air, and after a short while, a new round of firing rang out. Amidst the sparks and explosions, the bullets pierced the air and hurtled straight toward the enemy.
Lady didn't even bother to think about what it was. The thing that appeared in front of her couldn't possibly be anything good. She slashed her wrist across her waist, and the finger-sized soft tubes were thrown into the air and exploded one after another.
White smoke instantly filled the surroundings, concealing the explosive devices as they scattered in all directions. Moments later, a deafening roar erupted from within the smoke. A series of explosions followed, sending the earth hurtling with the speed of bullets.
But the target was finally found in the next moment. With a clang of metal on metal, Lady and the creature clashed. The long sword struck the short blade with a crisp sound, and through the dissipating smoke, Lady and the creature's weapons collided. Even the slightest movement revealed sparks from the friction of their weapons.
"I don't want to lay a hand on a girl, but you've come to the wrong place." The guy's hoarse voice reached Lady's ears, and before she could react, she was grabbed by the neck and lifted high into the air.
Lady didn't have Evan's explosive speed; she was powerless against pure high speed.
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