Hunter of the Evernight
Chapter 373 - 3000 dead

Chapter 373: 3000 dead

"Ma’am, this is where the distress signal from the Royal Blue regiment came from." An Enforcer reported while gesturing at the silent town several meters away.

Even from the distance they were at, it was easy for Natasha to quickly decipher that something was wrong judging by how empty the place looked.

Currently flanked by six Enforcers, she remarked. "Have there been any other distress calls?"

"None." The Enforcer that spoke earlier replied before adding. "We also tried establishing contact but no response."

Nodding, she approached the town with the Enforcers moving alongside her.

On getting to the town gates, Natasha ordered the Enforcers to inspect the town for potential survivors, an order they quickly adhered to as they scattered into different streets.

Natasha meanwhile, continued down the main road, her gaze sweeping across everything she came across.

From the buildings to the streets, one could quickly guess that the town was mostly populated by the middle class who didn’t care much for the aesthetics of the big cities.... Well, that and they didn’t exactly have the funds required to carry out such projects.

She’d read up on the files related to the town on her way here and so she was abreast with most of the information available about it.

With a population of roughly 3000 which surely would have increased due to the influx of refugees from BoneHaven, Steelerborough was more comparable to a border town of the empire than an actual city.

Its most important industry being animal husbandry, one could understand why there were no factories or the like around.

At such a time when the Lightbringer was at its brightest point, one would expect people to be up and about but such wasn’t the case as Natasha continued her stroll.

She hadn’t detected any signs of life in any of the buildings she’d passed so far and though she wished to enter, she found herself unwilling to do so.

Her sharp gaze had already caught what looked to be dried blood on some of the buildings and that was enough to give her the information she needed.

Taking a deep breath, she sought to calm her nerves as she soon arrived at the town square which had a fountain at the center.

Though crude, the fountain was still quite eye-catching with its design.

Unfortunately, Natasha didn’t have the privilege to admire the design as the grounds around the town square were also covered in dried blood.

Soon enough, the Enforcers she’d sent out returned, each one with a solemn expression on their face.

"Any luck?" Natasha asked though she was already privy to the answer they would give.

The Enforcers shook their heads before one went ahead to explain further. "It’s clear that the townspeople were attacked judging by the amount of dried blood we saw but that’s it. No bodies, no nothing. It’s almost like whatever attacked, devoured the bodies but couldn’t be bothered to clean up after themselves."

"Any signs of a rift?"

"None."

"Which means it’s either a mutant, a Cryptid... or a Mystic." Natasha’s gaze quickly swept across the town square once more before she ultimately decided to scan the residual aura.

Once as an Apprentice, she would have only been restricted to the area around the town square but having upgraded to a Martial Artist, her aura search range had received a qualitative as well as quantitative boost.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and released her aura, a silvery glow erupting from her body before quickly enveloping the town square and some more.

It took only a second for the search to end, Natasha’s eyebrows peppered with sweat as her breathing turned ragged.

The incident was reminiscent of the first time she’d detected Alex’s presence.

Though the presence she detected here was quite tame compared to the one in Evergarden, it still gave her a deep sense of danger that left her incredibly worried for the future.

"Captain..."

"It’s a Mystic. A Devil Wheel Mystic with divinity."

"A Godspawn, captain?" The other Enforcers immediately grew apprehensive.

"No, most likely a Daemon. Inform HQ of the situation here and request for backup. We’ll continue the search for the murderous bastard responsible for this."

"But ma’am..."

"Move out!"

Not giving them a chance to speak, Natasha made her way out of the town.

Even if she couldn’t do anything, she’d be damned if she allowed another 3000 Innocents to bite the dust just like that.

***

"We did it!" Albus exclaimed excitedly as he used a pair of tongs to hold onto a vial with bubbling black liquid within.

Standing beside him was Alex, who upon laying eyes on the vial, remarked. "Congratulations."

"Congratulations to you too, my friend," Albus remarked as he moved to set the vial down on a stand before taking his seat.

Alex came to sit beside him, both wiping off the perspiration from their foreheads with Albus breaking the silence a few seconds later.

"I should thank you. If not for you and the Black Water of Evernight, we’d have never been able to make this."

"And I thank you for your help. Half the time, I hardly understood what was happening."

Albus chuckled before once again setting eyes on the vial which might just hold the cure to his wife’s suffering. "If this works, it would be a discovery that would change human history. The Blight has claimed many lives since its advent a few hundred years ago. This will ensure that Razans afflicted with it would have a chance to live once again."

Alex pursed his lips, the statement ’if only there was such a miracle drug on Earth’, dancing on the tip of his tongue.

Letting out a sigh, he decided to sate his curiosity about a different matter. "You make it sound like the Blight hasn’t always been there."

"Of course not. The first occurrence of the Blight was roughly 300 years ago. Just a year after the unfortunate incident that rendered the south a barren wasteland."

Alex was quick to catch the last part of Albus’s statement as he inquired further. "You mean the disaster that led to a First Class Otherworldly nearly creeping into Eventide?"

"Indeed. Before then, the Southern Ruins was a beautiful prairie that supplied the best wine and grains for the Empire. Millions died on that day, many more after due to the potent corruption that rendered the land contaminated and the water a poison to whoever drank it. Only those crazy Warrior Wheel Mystics with the help of the fanatics from the Church could hope to purify the land and even then, the corruption persists, making the land uninhabitable for normal people."

Alex furrowed his brows, quickly realizing that Ana hadn’t given this much detail about the incident that made the Abyss her worst nightmare.

Perhaps it was in a bid to prevent herself from breaking down.

The thought of being the cause of such an event would surely weigh heavily on his mind if he were to be in her shoes.

Shaking his head to get rid of the melancholy, Alex quickly came up with a conjecture. "What if the Blight was caused by the disaster?"

"We did consider that but the disaster happened in the south and the first occurrence of the Blight was in the North. The distance alone was enough to shut down any further arguments about the relationship between the two."

Alex remained silent, his gaze trailing across the papers that he and Albus had documented in their two weeks of research into a cure for the Blight.

As silence fell upon the laboratory, he couldn’t help but wonder... was distance of any consequence when considering the workings of the supernatural world?

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