A cold, hollow glare pierced the darkness from beneath a wide-brimmed witch hat. Shadows veiled most of his face, but his eyes—those dark, luminous blue eyes—glowed like icy stars in a black sea. Silent. Fierce. Unrelenting.
The Night Crawler screeched in response, its gurgling, monstrous howl echoing across the burning ruins. But instead of charging forward, it staggered back.
Step.
The sound of his boot against the stone was slow… deliberate.
Step.
With every step, an unseen weight seemed to fall upon the world. The ground almost whimpered beneath him. Aiyan and the knight both felt it—like pressure crawling along their spines, suffocating their lungs.
"It's… r-really… h-him," Aiyan whispered, her voice trembling. "That bastard… the one who slammed the door on me…!"
Her body quivered. Not just from fear—exhaustion, confusion, awe.
The knight beside her, barely conscious, gasped as a strange, choking aura pressed against his chest. His hand clutched his side, not in pain—but in reaction to something ancient and heavy that now ruled the battlefield.
Step.
The Night Crawler hissed and stumbled farther away, more terrified of the man than anything else. Its grotesque limbs scraped the stone as it retreated.
Aiyan's knees hit the ground.
She was drained.
Every breath felt like inhaling through ice.
Then—
Step.
He stood before her.
Her heart stopped. Her lips parted in silent shock.
The shadows of the hat couldn't hide his face now.
He was—beautiful.
A cruel, celestial beauty. Pale skin under dark windswept hair. A face sculpted like a forgotten statue, framed in mystery.
But it was those eyes—deep, cold, endless.
They glowed not with kindness, but with terrible knowledge.
Aiyan blinked.
Her wounds—gone. Her aching limbs—light. The knight's trembling hand stopped shaking.
"Healing…?" the knight muttered.
"No…" Aiyan whispered. "Something else… something darker…"
Then the Night Crawler shrieked—a deafening, distorted sound that could rupture bone. Aiyan screamed, her ears splitting—
But then…
Silence.
The scream didn't touch her. Or the knight.
Some kind of invisible barrier enveloped them. A shield against the monster's voice. A gift? A warning?
Step.
The Mysterious Witch Hat Man advanced.
Gravity bent.
The Night Crawler convulsed, dragged into the ground by an unseen force. Its limbs thrashed, claws digging at the earth—but it couldn't move.
The knight gasped. "Th-that's… That's no magic I've ever seen."
The man raised his hand. Power coiled at his fingertips, silent and ancient.
The Night Crawler lunged in a desperate morph, launching an attack with all it had left—
Aiyan grabbed her pistol. "WATCH OUT!"
But before the trigger could be pulled, the monster's attack shattered against an invisible force. A barrier? No… willpower.
The Mysterious Witch Hat Man slowly turned his head toward the beast.
He opened his mouth.
The world held its breath.
And from the heart of the city to the far reaches of the kingdom, people froze.
Even the King—high in his shadow-drenched castle—stood at his window, watching the city burn beneath moonlight.
He said nothing.
His face, hidden in darkness, did not move.
But he felt it too.
The weight of ancient power.
The Mysterious Witch Hat Man spoke one word.
"Disappear."
The command wasn't loud—but it echoed like thunder in the soul.
The Night Crawler screamed.
It writhed and twisted, its limbs deforming, mouth splitting open in unnatural ways as it was dragged into a swirling black vortex that grew beneath it.
Aiyan's eyes widened.
"A black hole…?!" she gasped. "This is… real…!"
The knight muttered, stunned: "The Black Hole Pathway…"
Then, silence.
The creature was gone—devoured by the void. And in its absence, a violent burst of wind exploded outward. The man's cloak snapped and whipped in the air, waves of pressure slamming through the wreckage.
Aiyan and the knight shielded their eyes.
This wasn't magic.
This was something worse.
When the wind faded, Aiyan forced herself to speak.
"H-Hey… Who… Who are you…?"
The man turned.
His eyes glowed in the shadow of his hat.
A faint smile flickered on his lips—eerie, like the calm before a storm.
Then—rustling.
Crawling.
More of them.
Dozens of Night Crawlers emerged from every shadow. From the buildings. The sewers. The night itself.
Aiyan and the knight raised their weapons, trembling.
They were surrounded.
But the Mysterious Man simply lifted his hand---
Snap.
Silence.
Each Night Crawler burst into shadow, swallowed by pinprick black holes that flickered in and out of existence.
The air filled with their shrieking wails as they were erased from the world.
And then—
Nothing.
Not a sound.
Not a breath.
Not a monster left standing.
Only one man remained.
One man, glowing with power.
One man who was more terrifying than all the monsters combined.
The true monster was never them.
It was the Mysterious Witch Hat Man.
Chapter 6 has Ended