The four Iron Jackal gang members were completely surprised.
Their eyes widened as they stared at the tall figure who had appeared out of nowhere.
They had been in the room for more than an hour and had never once sensed his presence.
It was both impressive and deeply unsettling...
Arthur was the first to regain his composure.
His large frame shifted as he studied Seth with a new, cautious respect.
"Quite a useful ability..."
He murmured, his low voice rumbling through the quiet room
Seth had been standing there from the very beginning, listening to every word, without any of them noticing...
Sophia, her squinting eyes sharp with suspicion, was the next to speak.
"To which organization do you belong to?"
She asked, her tone implying she thought he was a spy from a rival group.
Seth shook his head calmly.
"None," he stated simply.
"I belong to the Iron Jackals now."
His voice was firm, leaving no room for argument.
A sly smile crept onto Sophia's face.
"You have quite the good looks," she mocked, trying to get a reaction from him.
"If the boss saw you, he might force you to be a bartender at his business to attract more customers..."
Seth simply smiled at the odd compliment, neither accepting nor rejecting it. He knew she was just teasing him.
After a few more tense exchanges and pleasantries, the group finally refocused and discussed the plan in detail, with Seth now fully included.
...
It did not take long for the team to arrive at the warehouse area.
The building was a giant, dark shape looming against the night sky.
It was made of old, stained concrete and corrugated metal, with several windows set high up on the walls, most of them broken.
The whole place had a silent, abandoned feeling that set everyone's nerves on edge.
Following the plan, Seth was tasked with going in first to scout.
He spotted a short opening by a window where a piece of metal siding had bent away from the wall.
It was a tight squeeze, but Seth was slim.
He slipped through the gap as quietly as he could, dropping silently onto the concrete floor inside.
The warehouse was vast and cavernous.
The air was cold and smelled of dust, oil, and something else... something metallic and sour.
Moonlight streamed through the broken windows, creating long, eerie shadows across piles of forgotten crates and machinery.
Seth moved like a ghost, his feet making no sound as he scouted the first floor, checking for any signs of people.
After exploring for a few minutes, he saw them: two guards.
They were standing apart from each other, one near a large stack of boxes and the other closer to a doorway leading deeper into the warehouse.
They looked bored and tired, which worked to Seth's advantage.
Sneaking up from behind was easy.
The hum of a distant generator covered any tiny noise he might have made.
He approached the first guard near the boxes, moving with practiced silence.
In one quick motion, he pressed a cloth filled with sleep-inducing drugs over the man's nose and mouth.
The guard struggled for a brief second before his body went limp.
Seth carefully lowered him to the ground.
There was a good distance between the two guards, so the other one noticed nothing.
Seth repeated the process, taking down the second man just as easily.
With both guards unconscious, the path was clear.
Seth explored deeper into the warehouse, his senses on high alert.
He moved past more crates and into a more open space.
And that was when he saw it.... What he saw made him stand still for a moment.
There, in the middle of a cleared area, was a small child.
The kid was quietly chained to a metal post, head hanging low.
It was deeply disturbing.
A cold feeling settled in Seth's stomach.
Fear and caution screamed in his mind.
This kid, in a place like this, could be a trap.
He could be the demon in disguise or a witch waiting to unleash a spell.
Rushing in to try and save the boy could possibly get him killed...
Suppressing the urge to run to the child, Seth turned and quietly slipped back the way he came.
He exited through the same window opening and found Reymond and the others hiding in the shadows outside.
"There are no more guards," Seth reported, his voice low.
"But there seems to be a kid tied up inside..."
Confusion spread among the members.
A kid? In a demon's den? It didn't make sense.
But they trusted Seth's report as he had no reason to lie about it.
Without another word, they all moved, following Seth back into the warehouse as stealthily as they could.
According to the information they had received, Fredero Tangen was a witch from the Sin of Filth.
This aligned perfectly with what Seth already knew about the man.
The entire warehouse had a subtle, unclean feeling to it, like a sickness in the air.
Since Sophia was also a witch who followed the Sin of Filth, she was their best guide.
She could sense the subtle currents of decay and corruption.
She closed her squinting eyes for a moment, focusing.
"I can vaguely sense it," she murmured, her nose wrinkling.
"A deep corruption... it's at its strongest coming from below us... It's underground."
She led them through the maze of crates, and they soon found themselves back in the open area where the child was chained.
Seeing him up close was even worse.
The boy, who looked no older than eight or nine, wore only a thin, ripped shirt and a pair of tattered shorts.
In the freezing cold of the warehouse, his small body shivered uncontrollably, his lips tinged with a faint blue.
Reymond held up a hand, signaling for everyone to stop.
He fell silent, his eyes fixed on the child.
He was using his own abilities to check for any hidden dangers.
After a tense moment, he lowered his hand.
"He's clean," Reymond stated.
"He's neither a witch nor a demon. It's safe."
At his word, Arthur stepped forward.
The big man's muscles bulged as he grabbed the heavy chains in his powerful hands.
With a sharp, metallic groan, the chains snapped apart, clattering loudly on the concrete floor.
The child was free.
But then, an awkward silence fell over the group.
The boy just stood there, rubbing his sore wrists and looking at the ground.
The gang members—Reymond, Arthur, Philip, Riko, and Sophia—simply stared back.
They shifted on their feet, looking uncomfortable.
None of them seemed to know what to say or do...
Seth watched the scene, and his lips twitched in a mixture of pity and amusement.
'These gang members... do they not know how to talk to children?' he thought.
He stepped forward, moving slowly so he wouldn't scare the boy.
Seth knelt down, bringing himself to the child's eye level.
His voice was soft and calm.
"Hey there. My name is Seth. What's your name?"
The boy hesitated, his big eyes wide with fear and confusion.
He just shook his head, refusing to speak.
"That's okay," Seth said gently.
"Can you tell me why you were here? What were you supposed to do?"
The child swallowed hard, his voice barely a whisper.
"I'm... I'm the one next in line..."
Seth kept his expression kind.
"Next in line for what?"
"As food..." The boy whispered, his voice trembling.
"Food for the demon."
A cold chill, colder than the warehouse air, went down Seth's spine.
He heard Sophia suck in a sharp breath behind him.
Reymond stepped closer, his voice firm but not unkind.
"Son, can you show us where the den of this demon is? Where it sleeps?"
The boy hesitated, looking fearfully towards a dark corner of the room.
Finally, he gave a small, quick nod.
"There's a hallway over there... you'll find big boxes there, and behind them is a door with stairs that go down to a small dungeon... That's where it is. I was... I was the meal for tomorrow."
Reymond nodded grimly.
He gestured to his team, and they all moved toward the hidden hallway, their weapons ready.
Seth, however, paused.
He looked back at the shivering child.
"Wait for me for a moment," he said to the others.
He knelt down again.
"Do you have any parents? A family?"
The boy nodded, his eyes filling with tears.
"Yes... they were paid to bring me here. They said... they said because I am not that useful to them."
His voice broke.
"I cannot do anything right..."
Seth fell silent.
He didn't reply with empty words like "that's not true."
He knew that wouldn't help.
Instead, he was silent for a moment, thinking.
Then, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of candy, wrapped in a simple plastic wrapper.
It was free candy that he got while celebrating the Sunfall Festival earlier.
He also took off his own jacket and gently draped it over the boy's thin shoulders.
The jacket was far too big, swallowing the child whole, but it was warm.
"It's not good to think so poorly of yourself."
Seth said softly.
"During moments when you feel like that, it's best to just take a deep breath. Just focus on getting through the next minute. And try to do one good thing, even if it's small."
He gave the boy a warm smile.
"It's too dangerous for you to go back alone. Can you hide and wait here for us? We'll make sure you get to a safe place after we're done."
The child looked at the candy in his hand, then up at Seth's face.
He was silent for a few seconds, then he gave a slow, definite nod, clutching the jacket tightly around himself.
Seth patted his shoulder gently before turning to follow the others down into the darkness.