Chapter 167: Ghoul Division (1)
The two of them slipped out from the corner, keeping low as the crowd surged past in blind panic. He cut across the wave, weaving through the chaos, his eyes constantly scanning the hall.
The figures in white ignored most of the stragglers, which further cemented his hypothesis.
Aren let out a breath, pulling Miu along as they ducked behind an overturned table, using it as cover while another body crashed into the floor not too far from them.
"...Aren," Miu’s voice came out faint.
"I know," he replied, taking a peek from behind their hiding spot. "Just stay with me. We’re not the targets, so we should be okay."
Once the coast was somewhat clear, they moved again. Step by step, they finally opened one of the side doors and out into the hall. Dozens of doors leading to other venues lay ahead, all opened from the escaping guests.
It didn’t take long before a familiar splash of red caught his attention. Stella stood near one of the pillars, a small gun in her hand as her eyes scanned the room.
The moment she spotted them, she pushed off the wall and closed the distance quickly. "What the hell is going on?"
"...Ghouls," Aren replied almost immediately. "But they don’t seem to be from Shen’s group."
"They’re organized," he continued, glancing past her as another figure in white dropped a man just beyond them. "Targeting specific people not for the purposes of feeding."
"Then what—?"
"Vengeance, probably."
Stella clicked her tongue softly, her gaze sharpening as she tracked the movement of one of the attackers. "...Then we should step in. We can’t just let innocents die—"
"No," Aren shook his head. "We don’t know how deep this goes. We’ll blow our cover or accidentally make an enemy we don’t want."
Something caught his eye just as he finished the sentence. "Though it doesn’t look like we’ll have to."
At the front of the room, the two bodyguards he’d seen before had already sprung into action.
The man jumped into the air as ether gathered around his hand. It took form, materializing into a golden and intricate spear. He landed on one of the figures, plunging it straight into their chest and dropping them instantly.
Beside him, the woman stood straight as she raised her left hand forward. Instantly, a crystalline-like bow appeared in her grip.
She pulled it back with ease, as an arrow made out of pure ice ether formed on the string before she let it loose.
The ghoul didn’t even get a chance to react before the impact froze its leg solid. Frost spread rapidly from the point of contact, climbing up its body in seconds before locking him in place entirely.
Another group of ghouls threw itself toward the man, faster and more aggressive this time, trying to catch him off guard. But with just a single sweep, their bodies split apart, the slice so clean it took a second for the blood to follow.
"Is that—?" Miu started.
"Yeah, Weapon-type Bloodlines."
"I heard from Professor Voss that they exist, but are apparently super rare?"
"Mmm," Aren replied, watching the man plunge his spear into another Ghoul. "Weapons don’t have blood... so they shouldn’t pass anything down."
Aren’s gaze flicked briefly toward the man’s spear, watching how naturally it disappeared and rematerialized in his hand.
"But some weapons of the Divine Realm were said to be so strong that their pure ether was enough to mutate a compatible Bloodline—"
He watched as the woman shot a barrage of arrows from her bow, all hitting their mark and dropping five Ghouls in the span of a few seconds.
"Creating the Weapon Bloodline’s ancestors."
Miu swallowed. "That’s insane."
But with the tide turning, the remaining figures in white no longer pressed forward. They grouped together before someone stepped forward, the same girl that had stood before Aren only moments ago.
Even through the distance, Aren recognized her.
Is she...the leader of this group?
"Pull back!" she said simply.
One by one, the figures disengaged, stepping away from their targets without hesitation, almost like they were trained soldiers following orders. The moment the command was given, the attack ended as cleanly as it had begun.
The man launched forward instantly, spear pointed as he tried to chase after the retreating group. The woman did the same, her bow already drawn as another arrow of ice formed on her taut string.
Yet the girl didn’t waver. She crouched down low before slamming her palms into the ground.
"Wall of Force."
Instantly, a translucent wall surged upward between the retreating group and the pursuing body guards. Its surface fractured like glass under pressure, creating small patterns in the barrier.
That...the Space Element!
The man’s spear struck it head-on, the impact ringing out across the hall. But the barrier held. The woman’s arrow followed a fraction later, slamming into the same point.
KRAKKK!
The barrier shattered into a dozen pieces before disappearing right in front of their eyes. But by the time they all tried to look for the group in white...
They were gone.
The man lowered his arm first, the golden spear in his grasp flickered once before unraveling into strands of light. The woman followed suit, the crystalline bow in her hand breaking apart into shards of frost that scattered into nothing as she relaxed her stance.
Now that the panic had settled, the reality started to set in.
Bodies. Everywhere.
The once pristine white floors were now dyed crimson red. Tables lay overturned and glass crunched underfoot. What was once an elegant hall had been reduced to something completely unrecognizable.
Aren exhaled slowly. "Damn... I’m never going to events again."
Stella, from his right, had swept her eyes across the carnage. Then, without a word, she crouched beside one of the fallen figures in white.
But before she could reach a hand out, somebody grabbed it.
"Darius Kade and Alysa Evon, from the Ghoul Division," the man introduced themselves quickly.
"Please step away from the body and do not touch anything."