Chapter 3 - The Sun Disk Towers.
After Levi was done with his daily workout routine, he went to take a quick shower, uncaring that a crowd of monstrous nightmares was seeing his private parts.
As for what happened earlier? He was already used to it.
Levi wasn't given the creeps by Ash'kral for no reason...He had seen him do unspeakable things to nightcrawlers provoking him quite often until he built a reputation around him.
Unfortunately for the Eggplant nightcrawler, he knew no better...
On the other hand, while Ash'kral always teased and bothered Levi, he had never invaded his dreams or assaulted him.
When Levi was done with his shower, he walked to the closet with one hand stretched forward, counting as always.
His hand touched the automatic closet and with a press of a button, it opened to a specific set of clothes that were identical to each other. Black pants and a white T-shirt with a baggy hoodie.
It was like he had no interest in fashion and just wanted to be as comfortable as possible.
After putting on his clothes, he wore standardized white sneakers, which had become somewhat dirty. Then, he put on black sunglasses with a circular design and closed the closet.
As he reached the door, he slid his hand to the side and picked up an average white cane.
However, the moment he unlocked the door, Arthur was already next to him in the same outfit and a half-eaten banana stuffed in his mouth.
"Wher...ar we goin..?" Arthur asked with his mouth full, seemingly uncaring about hijacking his brother's alone time.
"Seeking a recommendation letter for the Contract Ritual Assembly." Levi answered calmly.
"This again, ahh, aight."
Arthur wasn't in the mood to argue about this subject again. He had already said and did everything to stop his brother from participating in the Contract Ritual Assembly with him.
It wasn't that he didn't believe in him, but he knew that one of the main prerequisites of becoming a Daywalker was to have eyes that possessed a great resistance to sunlight.
There was a fine line between having great resistance to light and being completely immune to it.
In Levi's case, the only way to absorb light was through his skin or by eating Growth Totems. Both methods were quite inconsistent compared to using one's eyes to stare directly into the sunlight.
For humans, light was just well, light, but for Nightcrawlers? It was their main source of growth and evolution...It was everything to them.
However, they were cursed to desire it but have no resistance to it directly. In other words, if they wanted to feed on light, they had to do it in four ways: Feed the light absorbed by plants, feed on humans or animals directly, or sign a contract with a human to possess his body.
While the first parts were self-explanatory, the last one was where it got tricky as nightcrawlers could either sign a beneficial contract for both parties or a one-sided contract in favor of each party.
Of course, it was almost impossible for a nightcrawler to sign a contract that disadvantaged it.
This left us with nightcrawlers attempting to seduce the mentally weak humans to hand over their bodies for a cheap price of either quick revenge, destruction, or such evil desires.
Those sorts of contracts gave birth to Sleepwalkers, humanoid monsters with the ability to shapeshift and move in both light and darkness.
But, when a beneficial contract for both parties was signed, a Daywalker was born.
In Levi's case, he was considered a muggle just like every other blind person in the world, having the worst possible 'talent' to grow as a Daywalker.
"Brother, even by some miracle we obtained a recommendation letter from an established agency and you were allowed into the ceremony, what are you going to do at the last part of the ritual?" Arthur smiled wryly, "You know that at the end of the day, it's the nightcrawlers who are choosing their potential partners, not us, at least, for the less talented. In your case, the nightcrawlers won't see much value in the amount of light you absorb daily. I would hate to see you get rejected by those ugly f*ckers in front of everyone."
"If I get rejected, so be it, but one step at a time, one step at a time..."
Levi seemed unbothered by this many odds stacking against him...Odds were enough to break even a normal citizen down and force him to quit before starting.
But not Levi...For him, he would never rest in peace until he met the two nightcrawlers of his nightmare.
"By the way, shouldn't you be in school by now?" Levi's voice suddenly turned stern, sending shivers down Arthur's spine.
He might be 6,6 inches tall and built like a tower, but before Levi, he was always the little brother even when there was a mere one-year difference.
"Come on Levi, we have only one month left before the semester ends, and also the Contract Ritual Assembly is in two months. With my sexy physique, I am bound to pass the trials and become a certified Daywalker." Arthur tried to appease his brother, "School will be useless then as I will be joining the Grand Daywalkers Training Center."
Levi went silent, knowing that his brother was speaking tons of sense. For normal commoners, high school and college were still a must to secure some resemblance of a good future.
But, for those aiming to become daywalkers? They got trained from birth on almost everything; sometimes, it still wouldn't be enough to become one.
One would wonder why was a Daywalker's occupation so coveted.
It was simple, Daywalkers were the heroes of today's age, the guardians of humanity, the only ones slowing down the encroachment of darkness, and most importantly, the most authoritative beings in the entire world.
Almost all the Holy Regions' Governers were powerful Daywalkers capable of creating miracles with a snap of a finger.
In this age, there was no such thing as a commoner politician.
Thus, becoming a Daywalker would set anyone apart from the herd. Yet, the biggest upside of becoming a Daywalker was their ability to sleep whenever they needed to since the contracted nightcrawler would protect them from others' invasion.
While Arthur's words made sense, Levi still said with a lowered voice, "Arthy, don't argue with me. I don't want you to stay in school for a grade, I just want you to gain knowledge."
"Don't forget, there is also a trial for intelligence in your precious plan."
"Are you insulting my intelligence? Huh?" Arthur seemed annoyed, "Just because I have big muscles doesn't mean I am dumb..."
"What's seven multiplied by eight?" Levi asked with a serene tone.
"This...Cough, one hundred and..."
"Maybe you should stop hitting weights and start hitting'em books. You will bring shame to our family name during the assembly." Levi interrupted with a vexed sigh.
"Not if you were there." Arthur roasted back with a wide grin.
"Asshole, you know it frowned upon to abuse the disabled?" Levi chuckled, "So be it, go wear something else, we might be out for a while."
"Hmm? Where are we going?"
"Borders."
"Borders?" Arthur laughed, "Smart, we have already gotten kicked out of every private agency in the settlement. We might as well visit their Daywalkers at the borders."
"But, how are we going to enter the outposts?"
"Don't worry, I have it covered."
"Aight."
...
As Arthur walked outside of the apartment complex, feasting his eyes on the breathtaking scenery of Tamara's settlement, Levi was met with a sea of nightcrawlers floating all over the place, hunting down new traumatized victims and waiting for any Stygian Gates to open up.
Unfortunately for them, there wasn't an ounce of darkness in the settlement as it was entirely built to limit the nightcrawlers' access.
That's because portals linked to the Shadow dimension opened up only after fifteen minutes passed in an area completely pitch-dark.
This pushed all the holy regions to design the cities with glass roofs on buildings and place synthetic protective light in every nook and cranny.
This ensured that during the day, it was nearly impossible for any stygian gate to open up and cause an invasion right at the heart of the settlements and capital cities unless there was some foul play.
Of course, there was an entire department responsible for supervising the quality of the synthetic light network across each city.
As for the night and underground's darkness? For now, let's say humans were protected by divine intervention.
Meanwhile, Levi and Arthur rode on an electric dirt bike and drove towards the borders, skiving off cars and pedestrians, unbothered by their curses at Arthur's reckless driving.
After driving for a short while, they reached the outskirts of Tamara's settlement, traveling on top of beautiful yellow wheat fields while the sunlight shone brightly on their skin.
A few people were sitting on top of trees or the center of the fields in a meditation position while having their eyes affixed on the radiant sun.
Levi and Arthur paid them no attention as it was a common occurrence for Daywalkers to absorb direct sunlight in open natural fields.
The peace, the wind, the smell, and the lack of buildings helped them be more attuned to their bodies and their Shadowlife Seed.
"It must be a clear sky today."
Feeling the warm light, Levi couldn't help but raise his head, seemingly wanting nothing more but to gaze at the breathtaking blue sky.
But, all that was reflected was eternal darkness and the ugliness of the nightcrawlers crowding the skies...
Although the noise buried Levi's voice, Arthur held Levi's hand and pointed his finger at specific places in the sky.
Then, he started describing with a foolish happy smile, "There is a cloud there that looks just like a massive sword. Right next to it, another cloud resembled a headless turtle. The other one, it looks, wait, it looks like that thing we use to unclog toilets and sinks...What is called..."
"Plunger." Levi smiled.
"Plunger! Yes, it totally escaped my mind."
Arthur laughed and continued describing anything interesting that he saw on the way. While his vocabulary was weak, his brother always guessed what he meant, seemingly reading his thoughts.
Levi might have gone blind at seven years old, but this didn't stop him from reading and knowing about the world...In fact, it made him focus on nothing but reading, knowing that it was the only way for him to draw the world in his mind.
...
After a short while, the Larson brothers arrived at the borders of the Holy Heliodor Region.
Tamara's settlement was one of the few settlements in the region situated extremely close to the borders.
That's why it was populated with many branches of high-tiered Daywalkers' Agencies in the capital.
"We are getting close to the Sun Disk Towers." Arthur shared as he gazed at tens of tall towers, reaching up to two hundred meters each.
Each tower was separated from the other at a great distance, surpassing many kilometers. Levi and Arthur knew that those towers surrounded the borders of the Holy Heliodor Region in a massive circle, mirroring the movement of the Holy Pillar.
Those towers were powered by sunlight and possessed gigantic mirrors able to reflect concentrated beams of sunlight in 360 degrees, turning them into killing machines for nightcrawlers at the borders.
Arthur drove to the nearest tower and was forced to stop at the heavily guarded gates of the outpost surrounding the tower.
There was already a long queue, awaiting their turn to be checked by the guards, as no one was allowed entries to those outposts unless they were certified Daywalkers or approved citizens.
Levi and Arthur were neither, leaving them to park their dirtbike at the side of the outpost walls and watch the moving queue.
While Arthur was scanning the daywalkers from the citizens, Levi was eyeing the contracted nightcrawlers, each hovering in a small radius, staying near their partners.
Before long, Levi's presence attracted the majority of the nightcrawlers and they all switched their attention to him.
A rocky hog with gleaming green cracks, piercing blue eyes, and two thick tails moved towards Levi and wondered with a hint of scorn, "Is this the infamous Soulless Gaze? He doesn't look the part, were the rumors inflated?"
"Doubtful, there is only one infamous blind kid in this area."
A hulking insect-like beast with a hardened exoskeleton and amber eyes commentated calmly as he kept floating around Levi.
While Levi was surrounded on both sides, he didn't bother to glance at these two nightcrawlers.
He kept his indifferent sockets affixed on a hazy serpent-manta hybrid with shimmering red scales and a long tail seeping with blood.
"Soulless Gaze, a child with an unbreakable mental and a gaze as hallow as an abyss." The serpentine nightcrawler uttered near Levi's ears, "I heard you were begging for any nightcrawler to make you a Daywalker...Is that still the case?"
"Why are you asking? Are you planning to refer me to your friends?" Levi whispered with a faint smile.
Arthur saw his brother talking to himself and knew immediately that he was conversing with nightcrawlers.
Although his brother didn't tell him what he planned on doing, he trusted that he had it covered.
It was for a simple reason, Arthur had never met with someone as shrewd and smart as his big brother.
That's why he respected him and listened to whatever he told him to do, knowing that it would always be for his good sake even if he didn't understand it at the time.
Meanwhile, Levi's comment left the three nightcrawlers to chuckle in amusement.
"The rumors told no lies, you have no shame when it comes to securing a contract."
"Shame doesn't pay the bills." Levi still had the same smile, "Shame won't get me my peace and vision back. So, how about we drop this meaningless shakedown and get to business."
"Business?" Blee'der narrowed his eyes menacingly but with a hidden hint of intrigue, "What does a hairless child know about business?''
"I know that your partner is trying to help you evolve to Tier 3 through a Remarkable Evolution." Levi's tone became serene as he gazed straight into Blee'der's eyes.
The chuckles died off and the amused expressions melted away.
The three nightcrawlers all stared at each other with a tint of surprise before finally looking back at Levi...This time with penetrative cold gazes.