The sound of the door closing left a heavy silence in the room.
Lian stood in front of the commander’s desk for a few seconds.
The yellow light from the ceiling lamps shone on the scattered files and holographic maps.
Commander Gareth sat behind the desk.
And a woman also stood on his right, her arms crossed over her chest.
Tall, shiny black hair that reached down to her waist, dark green eyes, a black military uniform perfectly tailored to her body.
Her athletic and proportionate body shape was not hidden even under the uniform. She had an appearance that created a strange combination of beauty and danger.
A woman who clearly looked more like a hunter than an officer.
Gareth noticed Lian’s brief look.
"She is my deputy, Rina."
The woman just nodded, but her sharp gaze did not leave Lian for a moment.
Gareth pointed to the chair.
"Sit."
Lian sat down.
Unlike usual, the commander’s face looked more tired.
Gareth looked at Lian for a few moments.
"Before anything else... I am sorry about what happened to your team." He then said quietly.
The room fell silent for a moment.
Rina turned her head toward Gareth. Shock could be clearly seen in her eyes.
"Commander..."
But Gareth interrupted her without taking his gaze off Lian.
"Let me finish."
Then he looked at Lian again.
"I was in charge of this operation, so part of the responsibility for today’s events is also mine."
Lian was quiet for a few seconds.
Then he slowly shook his head.
"You don’t need to apologize to me. You need to apologize to Cassian."
"To Claire, to Marcus. They are the ones who lost their friends." For him, losing Sarah and Andreas was certainly a little sad.
But shock? Surprise? Mental trauma? Something that could change his view of the world? Of course not. For him, the death of those two was not such a big deal.
For a few seconds, no sound was heard.
Finally, Gareth sighed.
"I understand." His voice was quieter than before.
"And I will do that."
Then he was quiet for a few moments and suddenly changed the subject.
"There is something else too." He opened one of the files on the desk. Inside were several operation reports.
Gareth pulled out a page.
"According to Cassian’s report... you alone killed more than half of the monsters in that street."
Lian showed no reaction. Neither confirmation nor denial. He just remained silent. He knew he could not hide all his power forever.
Even when he had gone to the black market and sold those two corpses, he had already been noticed. Of course, he had no worries about that place, because the black market never allows its customers’ information and identity to be revealed.
No one there can truly find out his identity.
But now he seemed to have fallen into another trap.
Gareth continued.
"The power you showed is not less than a level 20 Awakened."
Rina’s eyes narrowed for a moment. She had previously considered Cassian the strongest member of the forward team, but it seemed she was wrong.
"While you are only level ten."
Again silence.
Lian did not even blink, as if this matter was of no importance to him.
Gareth looked at him for a few seconds, then closed the file.
"I don’t interfere in personal matters. Everyone has the right to keep their own secrets, as long as that secret does not become a threat to others."
Lian said nothing, but the invisible tension in the room decreased slightly.
Gareth leaned back in his chair.
"I know Aldric talked to you about that white-eyed creature."
"It was the professor’s decision." Lian shrugged.
Gareth gave a faint smile.
"I didn’t know why he gave you that information. Now I understand." Then he raised his hand, and the room’s light turned off.
A massive hologram appeared in the center of the room.
Lian frowned. It was a satellite image of the city center. A sky covered in clouds, ruined streets, half-collapsed towers.
And...
Thousands of monsters.
Thousands of monsters filled the massive central square of the city.
Bloodfang Hounds.
Gravehide Brutes.
And a very small number of Red-Eyed Stalkers. There were also one or two other species, but their numbers were not large either, like the Cornegons they had killed.
But the strangest part of the image was something else.
All the monsters were kneeling.
In silence, motionless, like followers of a ritual, like soldiers bowing before their king.
And in the center of that square... nothing could be seen. Or perhaps it would be better to say something existed that could not be seen.
In the middle of the image, there was a white blur. Unclear, vague, as if the camera could not focus on that point.
As if the image itself was incapable of recording it.
"This image was taken thirty minutes ago." Gareth said.
"That creature with the white eyes must be in the middle, right?" Lian frowned.
Gareth shook his head.
"We don’t know. The cameras can’t record it. Even the satellites can’t."
A heavy silence took over the room. Lian stared at the image for a few seconds.
Thousands of monsters, thousands of deadly creatures, all kneeling, before something that could not even be seen.
Besides, the claim that there were not many monsters left in this city had been proven complete nonsense. Just this image alone showed at least thousands of monsters.
"Your guess was right." Gareth spoke again.
Lian did not take his gaze off the hologram.
"Which guess?" He had many guesses.
"The monsters are moving all the bodies to the city center."
"To eat?"
"No. If it was just for eating, we should have found signs. Bone remains, feeding traces, anything." Gareth immediately shook his head.
But there was nothing.
"They are storing the bodies and taking them to an underground area." He then continued with a quieter voice.
The room suddenly felt colder. Lian looked at the image again.
Thousands of monsters, thousands of bodies, the city center, and something that no one could see.
This was much scarier than eating, because no one knew the reason.
Gareth was quiet for a few seconds.
"This is not the first time." He then said.
Lian turned his gaze back to him.
Gareth sighed.
"Twenty years ago, East Asia." The hologram changed, and another image appeared.
A much larger city.
"The population of this city was about eight hundred thousand. Three days after the incident, communication was cut off."
Images appeared one after another. Burned buildings, empty streets, and ruins.
"Two weeks later, the city was almost empty. All humans had disappeared, and nothing remained."
Gareth paused for a moment.
Another image appeared. An old satellite image, lower quality, but something could still be seen.
A vague creature, with two completely white eyes.
Lian’s heart stopped beating for a moment. It was the same creature! Or at least something very similar to it.
"The Federation sent some of its best forces. Three Awakened who had each gone through three evolutions."
Rina was also staring at the image.
Gareth continued.
"But when they entered, there was nothing there. The creature had disappeared. As if it had understood beforehand." As if it had sensed danger.
"And now we have found the same creature, or at least the same species, again in this border city. And we don’t want to let it escape this time."
"We need to find out what it is really doing with the bodies—both human and monster."
"So send stronger Awakened, not a few students." Lian said in a serious tone.
Gareth gave a bitter smile.
"We can’t. We don’t want that creature to sense danger and run away. If it escapes, finding it will be almost impossible. We are dealing with a creature or species that might be the smartest among all the monsters we have seen."
"And more importantly, all our analysts and information show that whatever that thing is, it is not a monster. It is not classified among monsters."
"We have no knowledge of it. Its species has not been seen in any of the previous eight Ruined Realms. It only appeared through the ninth realm, and now it seems to have come to this world through the tenth realm."
"That is why the Federation ordered us not to use overly powerful forces. At least until the area is completely sealed."
Then he looked directly into Lian’s eyes.
"That is why we sent you. At least until we can spatially and dimensionally seal this entire region, so that creature thinks we are still trying to save the city, but we do nothing that would make it feel threatened."
Silence.
This time, Lian said nothing, but he understood the meaning. They were practically bait. Not to fight, not to win, but to gather information, so that creature would not feel threatened.
He had felt from the beginning that something was wrong, and now he finally understood.
A few minutes passed. Finally, Lian let out a quiet breath. He had not believed everything, but he did not see lies in them either.
It seemed more like an incomplete truth.
"How long will it take to completely seal the area?" He then asked.
"Three days. The Federation’s mages are already working to complete it." Gareth answered.
Lian thought for a moment.
"So for the next three days, we are still going into the city?"
"If you don’t want to... you don’t have to."
"You should say that to Cassian. I am not the team leader." A few seconds later, Lian said.
"Right." Gareth quietly nodded.
Lian stood up.
"At least thank you for telling me part of the truth."
Then he walked toward the door. Before leaving, he paused.
"Anything else?"
Gareth was quiet for a few seconds.
"No." He then said.
Lian opened the door and left the room. The sound of the door closing echoed in the room.
Rina stared at the door.
"What now?" A few moments later, she asked.
Gareth looked at the door for a few seconds, then let out a deep sigh. The exhaustion of twenty years of war could be heard in that sigh.
"Now..."
He stood up.
"I have to go talk to three other kids."