Chapter 163: The Gathering (2)
His form morphed until it was just a charge of lightning. And with Aren’s proficiency over ether manipulation...he had turned Miu into a charge as well.
And before any of them knew it, they were gone.
The experience of traveling through a wire is a lot different than what Aren expected. It was almost instantaneous. One moment, he was outside, the next he appeared right above, popping onto a set of metal railings as he regained his body and physical form.
Aren landed on them, crouching as he braced himself after the transformation. Instantly, he saw a crowd of people underneath, all talking amongst themselves...and all suspiciously clothed.
Miu appeared a bit after, clearly distraught as she was about to open her mouth and say something. However, Aren barely managed to clamp her mouth with his hand before she gave them away.
That small action caused the metal railings above to shake a tiny bit, causing one of the voices under to question.
"What was that? Did you guys hear that?"
Aren held his breath, quickly pulling Aqua Veil over them, but it might’ve been too late.
One of the others shrugged before turning back to the group discussion. "Probably just the wind."
...That was close.
Aren glanced over to Miu, the ex-idol immediately knew what to do, as she spread her Domain over the two of them, softening their noise.
With the extra layer of protection, Aren felt it was safe enough to move forward. And when he did...he could see things more clearly.
Shen still had the bundle of rabbit carcasses slung over his shoulder before he dropped them on the floor.
"Here...eat up."
One of them pulled back her hood. She looked like a woman around her thirties, with unkempt brown hair and twitchy movements.
But worst of all, he noticed the strange sort of cracks on her skin along with her completely bloodshot eyes.
"Shen! You know that this much won’t be enough to feed all of us! Please! You have to get more!"
At this point, the woman was practically on the floor, throwing her hands over Shen’s legs as she begged.
Though the restaurant owner didn’t look particularly displeased or arrogant at his position of power...he simply looked tired.
"I’m sorry, Meredith...this was all I could do for now. Someone’s on my tail, and it’s likely the Ghoul Division."
"Ghoul Division?" Aren muttered.
He contemplated asking Stella through the earpiece for more information. But it wasn’t a complication that he should take right now.
With his last sentence, Shen dropped the bundle of carcasses on the floor in front of them. Almost immediately, the remaining figures dropped onto the floor, fighting over each other for the carcasses.
Each and every one of them did the exact same thing as Shen did in the forest, sinking their teeth into the rabbit’s body as they absorbed the blood...and ether from its corpse.
They didn’t spare any decency, as by the end of it all, the only thing left was a mess of blood and a desire for even more. Blood stained their hand, yet they did not care.
Miu gagged again, covering her mouth before coughing softly. "They’ve GOT to be some kind of vampire, right? Did we just stumble into a vampire den?!"
Aren didn’t reply, stuck in his own thought process.
There seems to be some kind of hierarchy here...Shen, and by extension, the others, aren’t demonic cultivators, I’m sure of it now.
Yet...their dependency on Shen’s hunting instead of going out to hunt on their own seems to tell more about the situation than on the surface.
As for Vampires...they don’t seem like it. Wait...is that what Ghoul Division is? Are these people...Ghouls?
The warehouse fell into a tense atmosphere as the last of the carcasses had been drained. The so-called Ghouls lingered where they were, breathing heavily now that their earlier frenzy had diminished.
Shen stood at the center of it all, bearing the stares of the others as they looked upon him for answers.
Meredith was the first to speak again. She pushed herself up from where she had been crouched. "If we don’t have enough...Shen, you need to go to Tigan."
"You need to call him...our savior. Only he can save us from this—"
"No," Shen outright refused.
"He’s not coming. We’ll handle this ourselves."
Yet, with his answer, someone from the edge of the group stepped forward. He pulled off his hood, revealing spiky blonde hair and a relatively young face.
A teenager? Aren noticed.
His eyes were worse than the others, almost completely bloodshot with only the smallest patch of white sclera visible. Unlike the rest, he seemed to stand more stable and less twitchy.
"Then when can we finally hunt ourselves?" the boy asked, voice loud and commanding, which caused the other ghouls to flinch a little. "The other districts aren’t holding back anymore, so why should we?!"
Shen’s gaze snapped toward him, a hint of anger had begun to surface under his calm exterior. "We’re not them, Manon."
"Ha!" the boy named Manon let out a laugh, completely humorless. "Not yet, we aren’t."
"You think this is enough?" he continued, gesturing loosely at the bloodstained floor. "Rabbits, scraps? Old man, we’re starving!"
"And you think turning to violence and exposing us fixes that?" Shen’s tone raised, meeting the kid in presence. "If you want to turn into that, do it somewhere else."
For a moment, the boy just stared at him. Then, slowly, he let out another small laugh before shaking his head and pulling his hood over again.
"Fine."
No one really moved to stop him, they simply watched as the kid disappeared off through the main entrance.
The silence he left behind was worse.
Meredith’s gaze followed him for a second longer before dropping. When she spoke again, her voice had lost whatever confidence it held before.
"...It’s not just him," her fingers curled slightly at her sides. "Everyone here is hungry."
"..."
"Including me, Shen."
"We can’t keep going like this," she continued, quieter now. "Not on scraps."
Her shoulders trembled faintly, whether from restraint or something else, it wasn’t clear. "Soon...they’re going to lose control. And when they do—"
"It won’t just stop at animals..."