Hunter of the Evernight
Chapter 211: Shadows

Chapter 211: Shadows

Watson made his way up the stairs, finally able to breathe properly after escaping those dangerous streets.

He took no notice of the anomalous movements of his shadow as he soon arrived at his door, his apartment located on the top floor.

Occupying the floor alongside his own were four other rooms but from all indications, they seemed to be devoid of inhabitants.

Watson promptly opened his door and stepped into a scattered apartment with the pungent smell of refuse and alcohol, as well as a faint but unmistakable scent of dead flesh permeating the atmosphere.

Already used to the smell, Watson didn’t even react as he closed the door and the bag he was carrying on the only couch in the living room that was currently filled up with dirty clothes and empty bottles.

He took off his jacket and hat before haphazardly hanging them on a rack placed behind the door.

With that, he quickly made his way to the kitchen and after a bit of searching, returned to the living room with a small bottle.

He opened the cap and downed a bit of the substance in the bottle before slowly making his way to the bedroom.

Hesitating whether to enter, he soon decided to do so as he placed his hand on the doorknob and turned it.

Hearing a faint click, he pushed the door open after which the faint smell of dead flesh grew worse, assaulting his senses and leaving him disoriented for a moment.

Quickly regaining himself, Watson flicked on the gas lamp in the room.

He glanced at the bed where a body wrapped in white material lay still.

Staring at it for some time, Watson soon sauntered over and sat at the edge of the bed.

He took another swill of the bottle he was carrying as he remarked. "I was called by Rebecca today. She wanted me to help save some new guy that Gerald found. He’s a pretty strong guy, managed to recover from a bad injury in a couple of days..."

Trailing off, his expression shifted briefly before he quickly took another swill out of his bottle.

"..." As he swallowed the hot liquid, Watson glanced at the ceiling before closing his eyes at which point, a single tear slid down his cheek.

***

"What about the other 2?" Alex inquired.

Gerald raised a brow. "Hmm?"

"You said there were 3 important events. So far, you’ve only mentioned 1."

"Ah... that’s right," Gerald muttered while nodding. "Well, the 2nd is the emergence of shadows."

"Huh?"

"It suddenly happened one day. A person died in their sleep. At that time, it was passed off as asphyxiation while sleeping but imagine what happened after the building the man stayed in was locked down exactly a month after because every single tenant died in the same way."

"... A supernatural incident?"

"Mn, at first, we thought it might have to do with a Ghoul but after searching repeatedly, we didn’t find anything. After that, it began to spread. People would die of asphyxiation and no one would be able to figure out the reason. It wasn’t until the Church of Angelica and the D.O.D. joined hands that traces were found."

"Traces?"

"Of a creature. It has no discernible features apart from a sick smile on its face. Nothing can harm it apart from light and depending on the power of the light, the damage you can deal to it varies."

"Hmm."

"We call them Shadows."

"Them?... So they are more than one?" Alex inquired with a frown.

Gerald shrugged. "We don’t know. All we do know is that we have tried to deal with it but all we got was a city on lockdown with no means to grow any longer with a death rate that’s amongst the highest in the entire continent."

"... Is that the reason for the empty streets?"

"Most people believe that the Shadows can’t enter a house unless it attaches itself to a person staying in the building, so they prefer to stay indoors only going out for the bare essentials."

"But that would mean..."

"Yeah, no work is being done. What’s the point if one could die the next day?" Gerald remarked before adding. "Of course, that makes it that most people end up dying from starvation or end up having to kill themselves for food. At this point, Popolis is a mad city, one that has no reason to be a part of the civilized world."

"..." Alex revealed a complicated expression as he pondered the situation.

The description of the Shadows shared an uncanny resemblance to Nyx’s appearance which caused him to wonder if they were similar.

But then again, if such a powerful entity was in Popolis, would it still be standing?

Just as Alex began to ponder his thoughts, Gerald spoke up. "The third event is basically when the dark clouds appeared in the sky. It just turned up one day and since then, Popolis is now in perpetual darkness which makes it even easier for the Shadows to hunt for prey."

"How is this city still standing?" Alex couldn’t help but ask.

Gerald chuckled. "I could reply and say that it’s because we are strong enough to resist but of course, that would be a lie so it’s more apt to say that the Shadows don’t want to destroy us... they’d rather watch us cower in fear than end our lives."

"What about the D.O.D?... Haven’t they tried to find out the cause?"

"Heh, a collaboration between the mercenaries, Enforcers, and Church personnel only managed to come up with two things; the Shadows are susceptible to light and their emergence might be a sign that a second coming of the Dark Ages is upon us."

"Hmm."

"Anyway, I need to rest now. We’ll talk more on this later." Gerald remarked as he got to his feet, leaving Alex to ponder his thoughts.

Of course, hardly had he left the living room when he paused and said. "Oh yes, there’s something."

"There’s a fourth?"

"Well, it’s still connected to the latter 2 but then again, I guess it qualifies as a major event."

"What is it?"

"A cult that claims to serve some being they call the Black King arose a few weeks after the Shadows appeared."

"The Black King?"

"Mn, when they first arrived, we thought them to be remnants of the Evil Eye brotherhood we’d dealt with two years ago but it turned out to be way different."

"Hmm."

"We carried out an investigation of historical records concerning divine beings to see if the Evil Eye had connections to the Black King but there was nothing of that sort and none had any original mentions of such a deity prompting the church branch here to make a hypothesis."

"Tell me."

"That the Black King hasn’t been born yet."

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