Hunter of the Evernight
Chapter 366: Ghoul

Chapter 366: Ghoul

With its usual hustle and bustle, the imperial city of Cance now stood eerily silent with nary a sound escaping from any corner.

Under the radiant glow of the Nighteye stood a tall tree with a single blooming flower, its trunk thicker than most city walls and its roots burrowed deep underground.

Currently, the tree had several branches just underneath its single flower which had thousands of pods hanging from them, each throbbing rhythmically like a heartbeat.

The streets below were empty with those that once walked them disappearing without a trace.

It remained this way for quite some time before a strange fog began to spread out, starting from Farfouth and reaching the ends of the city.

The reason this fog was strange wasn’t because it could move so quickly, neither was it the unnatural chill it carried with it.

Nay, it was simply because it had a pale green shade.

From the fog seemed to emerge whispers before finally, a being took form.

Her skin was incredibly pale, sharing similarities with a corpse that had been soaked in water for too long.

Her hair looked more like wet seaweed and her sole clothing was a white robe reminiscent of those worn by the mentally challenged in asylums.

Devoid of irises, her pallid eyes scanned her surroundings before she zeroed in on the towering tree standing at the center of the academy.

She moved, or was it better to say she disappeared, as her material form blended with the green fog, moving at a speed incomparable to whatever humans could accomplish before finally arriving before the tree.

There was only a few meters now between her and the large tree, allowing her a better view of what secrets it held.

The pods that hung on the tree branches weren’t fruits but instead were the very citizens of Cance, students and workers alike, all forced into a deep slumber.

Others might not be able to see it but she could see that the tree, albeit minuscule, seemed to be draining the life force of those rich in it.

The pale woman reached out and squeezed, causing a pod to instantly show cracks on its surface before finally breaking apart causing the human trapped within to fall.

Controlling the wind, she ensured the body didn’t drop unceremoniously to the ground, arriving before her safely.

A simple inspection showed that the human she freed was the Mouthpiece of the Supreme Order.

She took her mask off her face before reaching in to wake her up.

Unfortunately, her attempt was rendered futile as the Mouthpiece remained asleep, and soon, the tree moved to reclaim its quarry, its inky black vines moving like tentacles to ensnare the blonde Mouthpiece.

The pale woman seemed intent on preventing this but realizing that her attacks would be rendered impotent, decided to let them take back the Mouthpiece, once again wrapping her up before moving to hang her back on the branch she was on.

Having watched this till the end, the pale woman moved around the tree until she stopped at a certain location, her gaze zeroed in on the root network underneath the tree.

There, a dark-haired man lay, similarly covered in a pod like the rest but there was a difference.

Instead of taking away, the tree seemed to supply him with potent amounts of life force, rejuvenating his rather weak condition.

She reached out her arm to strike as hard as she could to end this troublemaker once and for all but hardly had she considered this when a powerful arm grabbed her wrist.

The pale woman glanced to find that the one daring enough to stop her was the vampire lady who had offered to sell them a miracle elixir.

"I’m afraid I can’t let you do that." Victoria calmly remarked, her previous appearance all but gone now, replaced by a healthy and injury-free one.

The pale woman seemed incapable of speech as she only stared at Victoria before moving her gaze back to the center of the root network.

She tried to attack her again but Victoria remained resolute in her desire to prevent her from acting and this... caused the pale woman to once again glance in her direction and this time, she did not remain silent.

Ahh!!!

The screech assaulted Victoria’s senses, leaving her disoriented and incapable of mounting a resistance as the pale woman released her captured wrist and sent her flying with a casual wave of her hand.

Having dealt with the disturbance, she shifted her attention yet again to the root network, and immediately a green flame emerged around it, seeking to burn away the pod protecting Alex’s unconscious body and in extension, him as well.

However, hardly had the flame begun its task when the pale woman was forced to shift her attention just in time to watch as a black cat rushed at her, immediately entrapping her figure with an expert use of black threads that seemed adept at binding esoteric concepts.

"I’d guess that considering you now have a physical form, you would be a 6th Advancement Mystic of the Undead Wheel, otherwise known as a Ghoul," Victoria remarked as she wiped off the little blood trailing down the edge of her lip.

The pale woman, now identified as a Ghoul, remained eerily calm despite her unfortunate circumstance, her gaze trained on Victoria’s approaching figure.

Then she looked down at the threads pressing against her skin.

Seemingly noticing what she had in mind, Victoria immediately spoke up. "You should forget about escaping those threads. The very space around you has been sealed. You won’t leave unless you plan on..."

She didn’t finish her statement though or rather, the Ghoul didn’t allow her to finish as it decisively moved forward despite the threads, allowing it to turn her to mincemeat but that wasn’t the end as as quickly as she died, the pale woman reconstituted, this time free of the black threads.

Victoria found herself momentarily lost for words.

Then for the first time, the pale woman spoke, each word sounding incredibly hoarse while filled with endless malice. "You will die."