Chapter 12 - 11. Inquiry
Reno and Hyde, the espers on sentry duty that day, were just on their way back to the outpost from the regular patrol when the detection device gave out a warning signal.
The device was made to detect miasmic beings, be they wraiths or beasts, up to a kilometer radius. It would send out an alarm and mark the location of the appearance. What made them temporarily freeze was that the warning signal beeped repeatedly.
Which meant there were multiple appearances of miasmic beings all at once.
"What, is it a horde? A stampede?" Reno took out the beeping device and they look at the screen closer, and felt goosebumps.
There were dozens of red dots on the screen, jumbled up so much that it painted the section where they gathered in a big glowing red circle. But what drained their blood was that those pulsing red dots were covering the area that was supposed to be their outpost.
They were so stunned that they stood rooted to the ground for a second, before immediately bolting to the outpost.
"Shit! What the hell is this? Do you receive any distress signals from Zen?" Hyde cursed. As much as they believed Zein had what it took to be considered an ability holder, there was no way he could face dozens of wraiths on his own, if even the two of them wouldn't be able to.
"No," Reno still stared at the device's screen even while they were running. "Should we send one—"
Suddenly, Reno stopped, which prompted Hyde to halt his step. He frowned at his partner, but upon looking at Reno's widened, astonished eyes, Hyde decided to save his scolding.
"What? Why are you stopping?"
Reno lifted his head, and answered with a confused voice. "It's gone," before Hyde could sound his own confusion, Reno showed him the screen. The red dots already vanished, leaving only a pulsing green—the mark of their outpost.