Chapter 75
The air around them felt suffocating, the night wind blowing hard against their faces and making their coats flutter like ships in the midst of a violent sea storm.
Although Zuhen and Felina had agreed to this plan from the beginning, they had yet to do what was supposed to be done the previous afternoon.
Placing explosive triggers in various locations.
On the other hand, curiosity took over Zuhen's mind as he had just realized the arrival of a newcomer named Aaron, and knew absolutely nothing about him.
After thinking for a moment, he finally voiced his thoughts before losing the moment.
"Your name is Aaron, right?" Zuhen asked to confirm.
He saw Aaron nod, and Zuhen quickly added:
"I don't know where you come from, but one thing's certain—you're being hunted by various organizations, including underworld groups? I didn't expect to find your hideout this easily."
Aaron remained silent, but deep inside, an unavoidable fear lingered as he heard that fact.
"Yeah, how do you know that?" Aaron asked curiously.
Zuhen held the cigarette between his lips, took a drag, and exhaled white smoke that lingered briefly above before being carried away by the night wind.
"All of us… are fugitives," he replied while taking another drag.
Aaron didn't show any sign of surprise. "That, I already know." He looked at Zuhen with an expression that was hard to read.
"What?" Zuhen couldn't hide his surprise, then quickly turned his head toward Felina standing beside him.
Seeing that, Felina simply looked away toward the house on her right, her chest beating irregularly.
Meanwhile, memories before he ended up at this moment, in this place, and in the middle of this situation flashed through Zavi's mind.
He fell into thought for a moment, considering two things.
'Losing Moreira isn't just an ordinary loss, I know that. But where should I look for her… and in the meantime, I'll search for the woman who keeps haunting my mind.'
Realizing that what happened to him when he first arrived in this world and this very moment were connected to the mysterious woman who rambled incoherently when they met, Zavi had once been certain that Aurora was the one behind all of this.
"Alright then," he whispered softly. "This destruction might benefit me… and as for those demon horses, I'll leave them to the two of them."
Those who heard Zavi whispering to himself stared at him with puzzled expressions, even briefly thinking he had gone mad.
'Weirdo,' Aaron grumbled inwardly.
'A stalker really does have strange habits,' Felina thought, frowning.
'I think he's thinking about something weird again,' Zuhen thought while taking another drag from his cigarette.
After Tell returned from the roundabout and her female form faded, Zuhen's soul, consciousness, and mind returned to normal as before.
Although his physical and mental condition was still unstable due to the influence of Aaron's exorcist abilities, Tell's spiritual energy, which should have been channeled by Zuhen had been reduced to half of its usual amount.
Zavi didn't realize people were staring at him with strange expressions, but one thing was certain this time, he was truly going to do it.
"Hey," Aaron finally broke the silence. "How long are you planning to just stand here?" he asked, making sure. The longer he stayed in a place with minimal light, his ability kept feeding him the coordinates of ghosts roaming nearby, causing a slight throbbing in his head and increasing his stress.
Although Moran's condition was clearly questionable, people from outside the city didn't care at all. Even knowing about its condition, they didn't truly understand it—let alone the rulers out there who continued doing strange things for their own amusement and enrichment on top of the suffering of people struggling to survive in a cruel world like this.
Once again, that strengthened his resolve to carry out this action. To destroy all districts in Moran, including Forgenate which was still intact, in order to bring the remaining survivors to a more livable place outside the city, so they wouldn't have to worry about lacking facilities compared to other cities in the same province.
The Kingdom of Yessaka, Solaria where the two of them had stayed, and Tafox in Vinohoshi where Aaron had stayed before eventually moving to Havanuheta province to escape from the underworld groups and secret organizations chasing him.
Realizing that without understanding the language used by the Kingdom of Norn and the provinces or cities in Talazze Lirei or Vana, they would definitely struggle and be forced to abandon the Noren language used by Zuhen and Felina, as well as the Wana language used by Aaron.
Zavi let out a breath and answered flatly, "Next year… just relax, why?"
Aaron clicked his tongue. "That's not the problem, but… ah, forget it. I'll leave first." He could no longer hold back the anger burning in his chest.
Seeing that, Zavi could only frown as he watched Aaron walk farther away and calmly turn left.
"So," Zuhen finally spoke while taking one last drag of his cigarette. "About the person we were trying to find earlier… it seems he really is here."
"How do you know?" Zavi couldn't hold back his curiosity upon hearing that statement.
Zuhen dropped the cigarette and crushed the ember under his heel before speaking in his deep, hoarse voice:
"About that… did you just realize it now?"
Zavi stayed silent and chose to listen, as did Felina who held her breath while Zuhen tried to explain what happened when he fought the ten demon horses.
"An unknown group, and one of them is a Receiver of Prisoner at the second level, Motivation, who I believe controlled those demon horses alone.
"You should already know—Prisoner finds it very difficult to control something if the controller is moving, right?"
Zavi nodded, as Zuhen's statement was indeed a factual aspect of that ability.
"When I—well, the three of us—defeated one demon horse because it showed strange behavior and was clearly out of that person's control, it can be concluded that one of them is a Receiver of Prisoner, and another is a Receiver of The Coffin, at the first level, Butcher."
Although Zavi didn't know what had happened behind that invisible barrier, he placed half his trust in that information, while the other half left his mind feeling stuck trying to process it.
Then suddenly, Zuhen continued in a voice like roaring thunder:
"And they're suspected to be from the underworld group 'Black Cage' and the secret organization 'Intersection Society', though I don't know their motives."
'What the hell is that? First time I've heard of it. It's true—ordinary people, not nobles, would have a hard time obtaining information hidden by the authorities. Otherwise, it could spark unrest that might actually benefit them.'
Zavi fully processed his thoughts. He didn't know—none of the three of them did—whether the two groups they were searching for were still inside the city, lurking like cockroaches among the ruins in Niki. Or perhaps, they were right in the middle of a crowd that hadn't even crossed their minds?
They were so absorbed in their thoughts that they didn't realize a strange light streaked quickly across their vision.
Zavi tapped his forehead twice before speaking in a low voice, "How did you know?"
"It's just instinct… Sir Actitus," Zuhen replied with a clearly forced smile.
A few seconds after silence settled in the narrow alley, Aaron returned from the direction he had turned earlier, his expression different from before.
They immediately turned, and Felina, confused, was the first to ask what had actually happened to him.
"What happened?" Her faintly glowing pale blue eyes locked onto Aaron.
As Aaron walked closer, his body repeatedly split into shadows and returned to normal again and again.
Felina, already familiar with that, looked at both of them with fear that instantly rooted itself in her mind.
"Sir," she said uncertainly. "He… was hit by an attack that made him like this." Her gaze shifted to Zavi, whose face mirrored her own—shock mixed with confusion at what he was seeing above.
"It looks like," Zavi said, his hands trembling violently, his lips shaking, "this city is about to end."
Both of them immediately lifted their heads. The moment their eyes caught what was in the sky, their expressions became identical to Zavi's—but this time with their mouths agape.
A tailed star, its light illuminating the street—including their faces—was moving rapidly, heading straight not far from where they stood, their bodies frozen stiff.
Their minds went blank as they saw it, not knowing what to do next.
His body kept breaking apart without a single pause; he had to stay still and concentrate to restore his spiritual energy to perform wound exchange, aided by the shadows always beneath his feet.
"Damn it. Hurry and get out of here."
There was no response. But Aaron managed to help them regain composure, and they quickly left the place, carrying him, before the tailed star fully struck the ground and destroyed everything around it.
That light tore through the sky—a comet arriving without warning. Within seconds, its fiery trail drew closer to the earth, turning the horizon into a blazing red. Before they could prepare, as they were still trying to run, a massive explosion shook the ground.
Blarr!
The heatwave created by atmospheric friction exploded upon impact with the ground. The surrounding air instantly shifted, generating immense pressure that swept through everything within hundreds of meters. Buildings and trees were torn apart, vanishing into the raging flames.
Although the impact point was to the northeast, precisely on Street Number Niki, its destructive force spread rapidly toward their escape route.
People in the village near the Northern Forest, who had initially stood in awe, now realized that the beauty was a harbinger of death. Awe turned into hysteria. Screams erupted as they ran blindly, trying to escape death descending from the sky.
From afar, the residents of the refugee camp stood frozen. Thick black smoke rose high, covering the moonlight. That sight became a turning point for them; their will to stay there vanished, replaced by a firm determination to leave as far as possible from this cursed land.
In the main tent, people from the previous meeting group stood frozen after witnessing the wrath of the sky, as if it had grown weary of the destruction caused by humanity.
"What exactly just happened?" Fererra couldn't hide her shock.
"A comet," Zaharon replied, eyes wide.
Was this a punishment that would continue into the future, or was there something hidden behind the fall of that comet?