A heavy night had fallen over the city.
Dark clouds covered the sky, and only the faint light of the moon passed through the narrow gaps between the clouds.
Lian walked through the empty streets without any hurry. A few minutes had passed since he had knocked out Cassian and Selina.
He felt no guilt. If those two had come with him, they would only be extra weight and would be of no use. Instead, they would just cause him trouble.
He knew this better than anyone.
The reason he was going alone and did not want to wait until tomorrow morning was that he had understood the real goal of the creature behind all of this.
That bastard was after him.
Everything started the day he showed his true power and killed a Red-Eyed Stalker so easily and without any problem.
That was the day he caught that creature’s attention.
At first, he thought the dream he had about that unknown white-eyed creature was just a normal nightmare. But now he realized it was not a nightmare. It was just a message from that creature.
He did not know how that creature had such power... but well.
The second message was the child’s voice they heard in the southern sector. At first, they thought it was the voice of a monster trying to lure them in.
But they were wrong. The child’s voice was actually a message to Lian from that same creature. In that dream, the creature told him it would take revenge for its child.
And the child’s voice was a child asking for help. That creature was showing that when Lian killed the Red-Eyed Stalker, it felt like its child had been killed. A child that was asking for help, and the father could not help.
And then the third and final message. The mist and the kidnapping of three of his teammates.
When the monsters attacked him in that mist, their only goal was to buy time. They wanted to buy time so the other monsters could steal his five teammates.
They succeeded in stealing three of them. But Lian dispersed the mist quickly, and the monsters did not have a chance to steal the other two.
"That bastard was after me from the beginning." He whispered mockingly.
That was why they had not seen any monsters in the city for the past three days. Because that creature had ordered all of them to retreat.
It did not want anyone to harm him and his teammates. That creature wanted to kill all six of them itself to avenge its child.
Especially him.
"Of course, this also shows that for that creature, the Stalkers are not subordinates. They are like its children."
The sound of his footsteps echoed in the empty street. But the closer he got to the city center, the more he noticed its difference from the other parts of the city.
This area... was too quiet. Even the wind seemed to avoid this part of the city.
Everything was silent. And this silence was scarier than any battlefield. According to the satellite images, hundreds and thousands of monsters should be here.
Lian frowned. He did not have a good feeling. All the time he had been in this city, there had always been some kind of chaos around.
But here... it seemed dead. Or perhaps... waiting for something. He was facing a creature that was very smart.
So he had to expect anything, so he would not fall into another trap.
A few minutes later, he suddenly stopped. He felt someone watching him. He slowly turned his head. Tall, dark buildings, broken windows, empty alleys. And nothing.
But that feeling did not go away. Lian started walking again. A few minutes later, the same feeling returned.
This time stronger.
As if dozens of eyes were following him from the darkness.
He suddenly turned around, but again there was nothing.
No sign of enemies. This was the first time he felt that he himself had become the prey, and he did not like this feeling.
He was sure that creatures were watching him. He did not doubt his senses. But if they wanted to play hide and seek... he had no problem with that.
After walking for a while, something finally caught his attention.
On the asphalt of the street, he found footprints. At first, he thought they were monster footprints. But when he got closer, his frown deepened.
These were human footprints. Dozens, hundreds, even thousands. Footprints that covered the entire street.
As if a massive crowd had passed through this path. Lian followed their direction for a few moments.
And he noticed something. All the footprints were going in only one direction. Toward the city center. Toward the central tower. Toward the place that, if he was not mistaken, was the city hall building.
But no footprints came back. Not even one. As if everyone who had gone there... had never returned.
A few minutes later, while passing between the tall buildings, he suddenly saw a vague movement in the distance.
"What? How is that possible?" His gaze sharpened.
Humans. Several humans. He saw a small number of humans.
He immediately slowed down.
Survivors? At this hour? In this area?
Lian quietly moved toward them. But the closer he got, the more uncomfortable he felt.
Something was wrong. They were walking, breathing, and some of them even moved their heads sometimes.
But... none of them were speaking. No emotion was on their faces. Their eyes were empty. Completely empty. Like puppets that were just following orders.
Like sleepwalkers, or dead people who were still walking.
Lian immediately remembered the security camera footage. The same humans moving behind the Red-Eyed Stalker.
Exactly the same state. Exactly the same look.
Then suddenly, something made his heart stop beating for a moment.
"That? Is it him?" Among the crowd, he saw a familiar face. Marcus.
A few meters ahead, he was walking quietly. His head was down. His eyes were empty. As if he could not see anything around him.
Lian quickly turned his gaze through the crowd.
And he found the second person. Claire. Her face was pale.
But she was alive. Alive!
And a few seconds later... he found Liana too. She was also visible among the crowd.
All three were alive. But they looked nothing like their former selves. Like people who had lost their will.
"Are you okay? Can you hear me?" Lian took a few steps forward and tried to talk to them, but there was no reaction.
None of them even raised their heads.
He called Marcus’s name. He received no response. He tried again.
Nothing.
As if his voice did not reach them at all. Or perhaps... nothing of them remained that could hear.
Lian stopped. Something had caught his attention. There were no chains, no cages, no guards, and no monsters.
They were free. Completely free. They could run away. But they did not run.
This meant the problem was much worse than physical captivity. Something was controlling their minds.
Or perhaps... they no longer made decisions themselves. This thought was scarier than death itself.
"If my guess is right, all the unsurvived people of this city must be these people." He looked at the crowd.
But why were they like this? Was this also part of the monster-making process?
His gaze passed over the crowd and fixed on a massive building in the city center. The city hall building. The same building Gareth had mentioned.
Where a large underground shelter had been built beneath it.
The commander had said that if there were any survivors, they would be there, and they had expected there really to be survivors there.
But now... Lian no longer believed that.
The more he looked at this city, the more sure he became that that shelter was no longer a shelter.
But... it had become the main lair of that unknown creature. The home of whatever had created this nightmare. The home of whatever made monsters from humans.
Lian took a deep breath and stepped forward. It was time to find the answers.
But at that moment... he stopped. His eyes narrowed. Because he had finally sensed something.
Not one enemy, not ten enemies, but... hundreds and maybe thousands.
He slowly turned his head.
On the rooftops, inside the dark buildings, behind the windows, inside the alleys. Shadows were moving.
Hundreds of hungry eyes glowed in the darkness.
Bloodfang Hounds.
Gravehide Brutes.
And other monsters he did not even recognize. They had not appeared from nowhere. They had been there from the beginning. They were just waiting.
Waiting for him.
"So you finally decided to show yourselves..." Lian sighed.
His frown suddenly deepened, because he realized a big problem. A very big one.
If he fought right now... if he used Earthbreaker, if he released even part of his true power...
All these humans would be caught in the middle of the battlefield. Marcus, Claire, Liana, and hundreds of others.
They could be killed even before the monsters reached them.