Chapter 387: The Gray Creature
Third Person’s POV
It was none other than the dark fortress of the Sanctum’s castle.
A cold heaviness settled in his chest.
The parasite had retreated for now... but it was not destroyed.
And the fact that it dared to flee into the dominion of the Sanctum’s Astral stronghold made the unease in his heart grow all the heavier.
Lucy’s eyes slowly regained clarity, and the vacant fog clouding her eyes faded away until recognition finally dawned in her gaze.
The moment she saw Ethan standing before her, her body stiffened in shock, but almost immediately, delight burst across her face, and tears pooled in the corners of her eyes.
Like a storm breaking through a dam, she rushed forward and threw herself into his arms and her small frame started trembling as muffled sobs escaped her throat.
"You... you are here... thank the Demon God," she whispered, her voice breaking between uneven breaths.
"I-I was so scared..."
Ethan frowned faintly at the strange choice of words, the ’Demon God’?, but he swallowed the question as this was not the time.
Instead, he let out a quiet sigh and placed a steady hand on her head, and patted her gently.
Her golden hair brushed against his fingers, and the sensation of her soft form pressed against his chest, and her bountiful chest warm against the hardness of his body eased the coldness that had taken root in him since earlier.
For a fleeting moment, his mood calmed.
Then, remembering the situation, his crimson eyes sharpened.
He reached out and grasped Velcy’s slender hand as he pulled both girls with him into the shadow of a pillar, away from prying eyes.
The din of hushed voices from the crowd became muffled here, as though they had stepped into a quieter pocket of space.
Velcy, without hesitation, wrapped her arms around him as well and buried her cheek against his shoulder in silent relief.
For the first time in hours, Ethan allowed himself a small breath of respite.
Yet his thoughts were anything but still.
The image of the young man standing beneath the Abyssal Dominion’s banner gnawed at his mind, as did the memory of the soul leech writhing within Lucy’s body.
And then, his relief froze as, from the corner of his vision, within the dark corridors of the castle walls, he noticed a stir in the dark that would not have been visible to anyone if they were not proficient and close to the darkness like him.
A gate opened with a faint groan, and long, spindly gray claws slid across the stone floor.
Slowly, unnaturally, a blurry bald gray head emerged.
Its skin was slick, and almost wet, and its strangely beady black eyes shimmered with an unnatural darkness that devoured the torchlight.
Meeting its eyes and realizing that it was looking at the three of them, Ethan’s blood ran cold.
His eyes froze, but he did not dare show it.
A primal fear stirred in him.
This fear was not born of weakness, but of the unknown.
With a lot of effort, he forced his breathing steady and masked his reaction with the ease of a seasoned predator hiding from another lurking beast.
Instead of acknowledging the abomination, he shifted his focus and, tightening his arms around Lucy, who still clung to him with desperate force, he lowered his voice into a calm and natural tone.
"Lucy," he murmured, his tone casual, almost comforting, "do you remember anything... anything at all... about the one who attacked you?"
Her horns pricked faintly against his chest with each small movement, and caused a discomfort so minor it barely registered to him compared to the chill crawling along his spine.
At his question, Lucy seemed to suddenly realize what she was doing.
She froze, and her face instantly started to flush with a scarlet glow.
With trembling hesitation, she pulled back just slightly and lowered her gaze as if ashamed.
As she answered his query, her voice wavered in a soft and uncertain manner.
"N-No... I... I don’t remember.
One moment, we were eating that barbecue together, and... and the next, I was somewhere else, in a dark cave filled with a cold and suffocating darkness.
But now... now it feels like it was just a bad dream. Because... because you are here, Sir..."
Her last word was almost a whisper and laced with fragile relief.
Ethan’s brows furrowed, and his hand instinctively rose to his chin.
As he analysed her statement, he realized that the fragments of her memory, vague and fractured as they were, pointed toward one conclusion.
And it was that someone or perhaps that gray thing he had glimpsed had wrapped her in some sort of spell, an illusion or soul manipulation, and warped her mind into believing that she was stuck in some dark cave.
But why would it do something like this, and what was it anyway?
The confusion and the mystery caused his mood to turn for the worse, and his thoughts darkened, but when he glanced back at the corridor, the creature was gone as if it had never been there.
The gate at the end of the corridor still stood shut, and only silence remained.
He let out a faint breath of relief, though the goosebumps on his skin lingered stubbornly.
Looking back at Lucy, he spoke gently, and his tone softened even as the edge of command hid beneath it.
"You can call me Ethan. No need for ’sir.’
But you have to listen carefully to what I am going to say now.
Do not speak to anyone about what happened tonight, not a single soul.
Tonight, I will ask you again and try to remember more clearly who it was that attacked you.
Remember that even the smallest detail could matter for us to uncover the truth. Do you understand?"
As he spoke, he reached down and clasped her delicate hand within his own.
Their fingers intertwined naturally, and his thumb brushed softly against her palm in a grounding motion, which he did deliberately while his crimson eyes carried a hidden meaning.