"What the fuck? Why is the moon red?"
Nox asked out loud, his voice echoing strangely. The question came out more frustrated than curious, tinged with the exhaustion of someone who'd had enough surprises for one day.
He turned to look at the other hunters, hoping someone had an explanation that made more sense than "cosmic horror nightmare fuel descending from the sky."
The expressions that greeted him weren't encouraging. Three blank stares and a collective sense of
"your guess is as good as mine."
Henry scratched his head, leaving small trails in the glass dust that still clung to his hair. His werewolf transformation always left him slightly disoriented, and the confusion showed in his slow movements.
"To be honest, I don't know." He squinted up at the displays showing the external view.
"In all my years hunting, I've never seen anything like this."
The middle-aged alchemist shook his head slowly, his face pale beneath the lighting. His hands trembled slightly.
The brown-haired knight just shrugged.
"Ha, so we'll be facing the unknown,"
Nox said with bitter amusement. He'd hoped for at least one person who might have some idea what they were dealing with, but apparently they were all equally lost.
Henry clapped his hands together to gain everyone's attention, the sound sharp in the tense silence.
"Okay, everyone. Let's draft out a plan. Right now we're out of luck, but we're not out of options."
His voice carried the forced confidence of someone trying to maintain group morale while privately wondering if they were all going to die horrible deaths.
"This is definitely not the gate we were assigned for," the knight muttered.
"Hey Henry," Nox said, a troubling thought occurring to him like a cold weight settling in his stomach.
"You didn't see that the gate was black when we were outside?"
Henry blinked, his brow furrowing in confusion.
"Huh? Of course not. Black gates only show their color when the first victim goes in."
He said it like it was common knowledge, the kind of basic hunter education everyone learned in their first year.
"What?!" Nox's voice cracked with surprise, loud enough to make the others flinch. The revelation hit him like a physical blow
all this time, he'd been seeing something the others couldn't.
"But I saw it! It was black from the start!"
Henry blinked in confusion.
"Huh? What? You saw it as a black gate from the start? Then why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't know that S-rank gates were supposed to be different colors!"
"Oh, that's right. Guild Master told me you lost your memories, right?"
The knight and alchemist's eyes widened in shock. Their gazes snapped to Nox, studying him with new interest and not a small amount of wariness.
"You moron," Nox groaned, pressing his palm against his forehead.
"Now everyone knows about it."
Henry's hand shot up to cover his mouth, his eyes going wide with horror at his mistake. He jumped to his feet and bowed his head deeply.
"Sorry! I didn't think about it before I talked!"
"Ha, I want to kick you in the balls right now,"
Nox said, though his tone was more tired than angry.
"But fuck it, we're gonna travel together from now on. I won't hold it against you."
He turned to address the knight and alchemist directly, his voice taking on a more serious tone.
"And now that you two know, keep it a secret, okay?" There was an edge to his words not quite a threat, but a clear indication that discretion would be appreciated.
Both hunters nodded quickly, still processing this revelation. The knight's grip on her sword loosened slightly, her stance shifting from wary to protective. The alchemist's scholarly curiosity was written all over his face, but he had the sense to keep his questions to himself for now.
"Now, if there are any common sense things that I don't know, please tell me."
Nox's voice carried the weight of recent embarrassment.
"We don't want to encounter things like this again."
The admission cost him something pride, maybe, or the illusion of competence he'd been trying to maintain.
"You seemed so confident, and your equipment is clearly high-grade. We assumed you were experienced." She gestured at his gatling gun and the quality of his gear. "Everything about you screamed 'veteran hunter.'"
Nox laughed, the sound hollow and slightly unhinged, echoing off the shelter walls in a way that made everyone uncomfortable.
"Experienced at surviving, maybe. Everything else is improvisation." The admission hung in the air like a confession.
Henry straightened up from his bow, his shoulders relaxing as the tension broke.
"Okay, now that we've got that cleared up, let's introduce ourselves properly. We have to work together in this small group after all."
He gestured around at their predicament with dark humor.
"Might as well know who we're dying with."
He placed a hand on his chest in a mock-formal gesture.
"My name is Henry. I'm a Phantom Stalker it's a ranger class. I can enter werewolf state at night, which enhances my physical power by about two times."
He flexed his fingers, and his nails briefly extended into claws before retracting.
"During the day, I'm limited to partial transformations, but I can still track and scout effectively. Heightened senses, enhanced reflexes, that sort of thing."
Nox nodded approvingly, then gestured to himself.
"Class: The Hollow Doctor. I can cure anything as long as the patient isn't dead. Maybe?"
He paused, considering how much to reveal.
"Mental cures are possible too. My class is closer to the horror element, so my powers are more inclined to involve... horror aspects." The words came out carefully measured, like he was testing how they would react.
The alchemist and knight felt chills run down their spines simultaneously. The sight of those sprouting tentacles was still burned into their minds—the way they'd moved with predatory grace, the casual violence they'd displayed against the spawn, the disturbing organic sounds they'd made. Horror aspects indeed. Both hunters unconsciously took half a step back, their bodies remembering the fear even as their minds tried to process Nox as an ally.