The interior of the building was dark, with one source of light from an oil lamp. When the calm wind whistles in the hall, a creak follows. By the time the door opened and closed, Victor saw the interior of the building with extreme clarity.

  There were three people inside, counting the crazed man they followed. They wore similar attire—plain shirt under a dark green or blue coat.

  One of the men inhaled a mouthful of smoke, then turned to face Dulvis Mallevan,” What’s the matter with you?”

  Dulvis Mallevan looked distraught, his mouth chattered and clicked, almost like a rabid dog.

  “Probably inhaled a bit too much ‘snow’ during duty again,” The other man laughed, slamming his hand on the table. The oil lamp light was almost extinguished, yet too unwilling to be put out.

  “Hahaha! Come on, fill us in, since you’re back, it must meant that your patrol is over. Did you find any rats lurking at the dock?”

  Dulvis Mallevan didn’t answer immediately.

  His eyes flickered left and right, as though to process the environment. Due to the dim light, the two men didn’t see the gaping bone protruding from his ankle.

  However, the scent of blood cannot be disguised as it slowly mixes with the atmosphere.

  It was quiet. Silence. Chilling and nerve-taunting.

  After about ten second, they frowned, their hand instinctively reached toward the counter, where two revolver rested.

  Something is wrong… They thought.

  At this moment, Dulvis Mallevan smiled, then shook his head,“ No, there’s no one. It looks like we’ll be paid a bonus this time.”

  The two men didn’t response, but instead, exchange glances with one another.

  Their hand still rested on the table, but a slight smile appeared on their face as they agreed,” That’s right!”

  “After this last job, we will finally be done with this mess. If not for the pay, I wouldn’t dare to do this…” Just thinking about it caused him to shiver.

  “What do you think they are doing with these children?” Dulvis Mallevan asked. He was still standing there, leaning against the door with no intention on stepping inside the room.

  “Why does that matter? They’re probably sold to those fellows on Star Isle, or Chime’s Valley.”

  “We’re probably not the only ones doing this… The client is indeed meticulous and cautious. I tried to investigate their background, but failed.”

  These people.. They are just hired hands. Which people in Belham are capable of possessing such capabilities?

  Within the gap of the hall, a strange wind lingered, moving as though it were alive. This strange wind was Victor, who listened to their conversation with great attention.

  While Victor was in this state, countless ‘noises’, whispers, as well as murmurs called out to him. He was like a tiny ship sailing the stormy sea. Only through relentless effort was he able to maintain a clarity of mind and not get pulled away.

  By the time he managed to quell the raging sounds in his mind, his ‘eyes’ widened at the scene before him.

  What… happened?!

  The revolvers disappeared, not on the table.

  There was no light, only darkness and followed by the creaks of the floorboard.

  When the broken street lamp flickered, it was like a thunder strike during a dark storm.

  Two ‘figure’, two bodies lay cold on the floor.

  A crimson flood of red stained the wood—It pooled and moved oddly.

  On top of one of the bodies was Dulvis Mallevan, who was crouching on the floor with his back turned.

  His face was turned slightly, revealing his cheek, which was moving up and down.

  It was as if he was ‘chewing’ on something. However, what is there to chew on the floor?

  Abominations! Victor hissed with a chilling revelation.

  In his state, he physically cannot make a sound, yet strangely, he could hear his throat swallowing loudly.

  Immediately, Dulvis Mallevan stopped. Still and silent, not a sound, not even wood creaking or breathing, or wind humming.

  Then, ‘he’ turned his head to the door.

  Without saying a word, ‘he’ smiled, an exaggerated smile, one so large his cheek tore apart.

  His hand held onto a yet still-beating heart, and a hoard of flesh hung on the tip of his teeth.

  Victor faltered, but his eyes rested on the horrifying smile that was not ‘human’, drowned in blood and flesh.

  Then, Dulvis' lip moved, it whispered, or muttered, or both— Three simple words.

  “I see you.”

  “I see you.”

  “I see you.”

  These three words hung in the air like a guillotine on an executioner's platform, aiming at the empty hallway.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Without hesitation, Victor snapped back into his physical body. Ulrich noticed that Victor had snapped back as his body ‘jolted’.

  “Anything?” He asked, his expression was bored and disengaged.

  What’s with him?

  Victor's face was crunched, and his body was trembling, almost like that time he used the ‘chains’ spell.

  The moment Victor regained control, the first word that came out of his mouth was,” Run!”

  What? Did something happen? Ulrich didn’t have the time to process this bizarre behavior, but he trusted Victor's judgment.

  Immediately, he stuffed the coin back into his pocket and followed behind Victor.

  “What are we running from? A loan shark? I have never seen anyone as frightened as you.” He mused in passing.

  “An abomination! That man we chased, he mutated.”

  Abominations? Isn’t that what Captain mentioned about Weavers going insane?

  Before he could speak, a strange black, distorted ‘creature’ leaped from the rooftop of the building, landing in front of both of them.

  This thing… so ugly! Ulrich exclaimed, his hand tightened on the revolver.

  The creature stood at least twelve feet tall, its hunched posture doing little to diminish its grotesque presence.

  At this moment, Ulrich turned to Victor, whose eyes remained closed when blood started rolling down his cheek.

  Victor seemed to notice Ulrich's concerned gaze and said wryly, ”A side effect of the ritual, it’s only temporary. In my current state, it’s impossible to deal with this thing.”

  Hearing this, Ulrich was speechless.

  Brother, you’re the expert and senior! If you’re handicapped, what am I supposed to do with this ugly thing?!

  The ‘ugly thing’ had a section of human ribcage protruding through a translucent, mucus-slicked skin. Its bones warped and spread apart like the bars of a broken cage, revealing its innards.

  “Our goal now is to contain and, if possible, kill this creature, or else, innocent lives will be involved. Just help me stall for time!” Victor solemnly shook his head, then reached his hand toward his neck and pulled the necklace out of his shirt.

  It was a silver whistle pendant, so tiny that it only came to half of Victor’s finger.

  At the same time, ‘Dulvis Mallevan’ seemed to sense something as it chattered its teeth, then charged at both of them. Seeing this, they both separated, hoping that it would slow down its movement and make it hesitate.

  However, it ignored Ulrich entirely and chased after the blind Victor.

  Why is it only chasing him? Is it the pendant?

  Bang! Bang!

  Ulrich fired two shots, hoping to attract its attention. With Victor's current condition, he wasn’t sure the man could hold out on his own. If he were to die now, then Ulrich would be left helpless, unable to do anything against this thing.

  As such, he was willing to ‘aggro’ the monster toward him if possible. Anyhow, this attempt was a failure. The bullet simply left a hole in its body, which was quickly sealed.

  Seeing this, his breath dropped. It felt like shooting gel, a living and moving gel.

  At the same time, a strong wind arrived, forming an invisible blade as it slashed at the abominations.

  “Whaarr!”

  Sharp!

  The wind blade sliced right through its body, cutting the bone, yet just as quickly, its ‘flesh’ began regenerating, filling the missing chunk. In that short window of time, Victor blew hard on the silver whistle. There was no sound, nothing happened.

  Ulrich didn’t question it and attempted to get closer to become a distraction. His goal in this battle was simple—assistance.

  Nothing more and nothing less.

  After Victor blew on the silver whistle, he put it away and took out that same green pendant, then raised it to swipe toward his bloodied cheek and recited:

  “The Great Mother beyond the sky, I pray for your loving grace, eternal blessing, and great blessings!”

  “In my name! I sacrifice my ‘eyes’ to open the “Shadow Door”!”

  Right after he finished speaking, his eyes were set ablaze, not with red fire, but with a raging black flame. Ulrich hissed with cold breath; however, what happened next shook him to the core.

  The shadow around them flickered strangely, as though they had become alive. Then, from Victor’s own ‘shadow’, a figure emerges.

  It was that girl, the receptionist of Cartwright Security.

  “Victor!” She cried out, then looked around.

  Before she could adjust to her surroundings, the giant abomination shot a flurry of ‘bones’ at them and leaped at their direction.

  “Rising Shadow!”

  The shadow below her took form and came off the ground, forming a thin sheet blocking the path of the projectile.

  At the same time, she pulled Victor back. At this point, he had already weakened, barely maintaining his consciousness.

  Rosaline frowned and let him on the ground, then took out a brown ring on her finger and tossed it in the air.

  “Iron Needles!”

  The ring distorted, then transformed into a giant spiky ball, stopping the abomination in its tracks.

  In that same instant, Ulrich fired two more shots; however, his gun was useless as it only annoyed ‘Dulvis’. Still, seeing it stopped, Ulrich smirked.

  Aren’t you a good-looking fella?

  It turned its head, wanting to ravage the pest that had been harassing its back. And when it did, Rosaline smiled with a whisper, ”Night Chain.”

  A handful of long, black chains appear from the ground where the ‘shadow’ rested, binding all four limbs. And in response, it attempted to yank the chain apart, only to face failure.

  At this moment, it was as though time had frozen—all movement seemed to have stopped with only the sharp sound of the chain clanging.

  That brief distraction from Ulrich had interrupted its movement momentarily, which allowed her to use the Night Chain.

  She turned to Ulrich, with a nod and a gentle smile on her rosy face, ”Watch over Victor, I’ll handle this one.”

  “Alright.”

  This is the first time he had seen her in action, or even learned that she was a Weaver, but similar to Victor, he trusted her.

  If Victor was willing to go through this length to ‘summon’ her, then he, too, must have believed she could handle it.

  Rosaline's eyes were sharp like daggers. She walked to pick up the brown ring, which had returned to its original form, then made her way to the trapped abominations.

  “You poor, wretched soul without the grace of the Great Mother,” She whispered, her gaze locked onto the ‘eyes’ of Dulvis, whose mind has gone beyond insanity.

  Fear? Or perhaps cravings? Excitement? She didn't see any of these qualities in the thing in front of her.

  It was a soulless husk beyond human, a thing that shouldn’t exist, yet does exist.

  Then, she raised her hand and used the chain to pried its mouth, feeding it the ring. After doing so, she knelt and performed the final prayer, a sacrament.

  “The Great Mother beyond the sky, I pray for your loving grace, eternal blessing, and the acceptance of this mindless abomination.”

  When she finally finished her sentence, she uttered," Iron Needles".

  "..."