Above the skies of Lirath, an elderly man dressed in a black tunic appeared, suspended in midair as he stared down at the city below with a furrowed brow.
He was the same person who had been at the Langthon manor, the one tasked with watching over the city.
For a brief instant, he had sensed a strange trace of energy, something different from usual, something he did not recognize, yet for some reason it gave him a bad feeling. He had decided to investigate, but before he could act, that trace vanished, along with any clue of its origin.
Still, he did not panic. He simply lowered his gaze toward the city, analyzing everything he could see.
He had already determined the area from which that energy had originated. Now all he had to do was locate any anomaly within that zone, and it didn't take him long to do so.
In the next moment, he disappeared from his position, only to reappear within the city itself, in the very alley that led to Luna's house.
The moment he arrived, a strange scene unfolded before him.
The alley itself was in rough shape, with clear signs of a struggle, but that wasn't what caught his attention. What did was the blood staining the ground in front of a small, extremely modest-looking house.
And there wasn't just a little of it, there was a lot. It was still fresh, scattered everywhere. It was clear that something terrible had happened here, but there was a problem.
There were no bodies, nor anything else that could explain the source of all that blood.
The only thing left was the house in front of him.
He stepped forward and reached the entrance. The door was gone, as if it had been torn from its hinges along with part of the wooden frame.
Inside, everything was in disarray, and here too there was a large amount of blood, yet once again, no bodies or any other clue that could explain what had happened.
All of this only made the old man's frown deepen further.
'First that strange energy, and now this… just what is happening in this damn city?' he wondered, already sensing that a great deal of work was about to fall onto his shoulders.
He was a B-Rank assigned to this border city to keep watch over it and intervene in case of danger. It was a remote town within a distant barony, a place that rarely encountered serious problems, perfect for living in peace, wasn't it?
Apparently not.
Not even two months after his arrival, and he was already facing problems of an unknown nature.
The only lead here was the house. Aside from that, there was no clue as to what had happened.
He shook his head, tired, before turning and disappearing from the spot, ready to send someone to investigate further.
Meanwhile, a few blocks away, in an inn located on a quiet side street away from the city's main roads, Evan's clone sat near the window, seemingly lost in his thoughts.
The room was small, but sufficient for one person.
There wasn't much inside, a single bed, a small wardrobe, and a small table.
Aside from that, the rest of the room was empty.
On the bed lay a girl with long black hair, asleep, her face peaceful, as if the suffering of the world were too distant to reach her.
Even so, Evan could sense that her inner state was anything but calm, it was turbulent, deeply so, as if she were facing something difficult even in sleep.
And how could she not be, after everything she had just been through.
He looked out the window for a moment before turning his gaze back to the status screen in front of him.
---
[Name: Luna Ravencrest (Half-Hollow)]
[Age: 20]
[Rank: E (S)]
[Void Corruption: 8%]
[Bloodline: Aurora Couatl → Abyssal Couatl ]
[Skills]: 3
---
He had already examined it earlier, yet even now, as he looked at it again, he wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at the girl's situation.
The system had warned him that the energy it called void energy could alert others, which was why it had advised him not to remain in that place for too long.
He was confused about the whole matter, but he understood that the system wouldn't rush him like this for no reason, so he chose to follow its advice and leave.
Before doing so, however, he decided to clean up the place to avoid leaving behind unnecessary traces.
He stored all the bodies in his storage, as he could sense that strange energy beginning to corrupt the corpses of those people, something that piqued his curiosity, though he didn't have time to examine it carefully at that moment. Then he made a quick visit inside the house, where he found three more bodies, one of which was most likely the leader of the group, judging by his refined clothing.
Evan wasn't sure who those people were or why all of this had happened, but this wasn't the time to dwell on it, so he took Luna and left.
He then rented a room at a secluded inn on the outskirts of the city and brought Luna in through the back window, slipping in unnoticed.
He certainly couldn't carry her openly over his shoulder in her condition, and he couldn't put her into his storage either since she was a living organism, so this was his only option for the time being.
Only after doing all of this did he finally have the chance to properly examine the situation,
starting with what had happened to her.
A Hollow, that was what the system had called her.
He didn't know what that meant, but after witnessing her display of strength and her unusual traits, he understood that it was far from something simple.
And indeed, it wasn't.
[Hollows are creatures of the Abyss, beings born with their souls corrupted by void energy, which resides within the Abyss itself.
They are creatures that are born from it and return to it upon death, only to be reborn in another form. They are a part of the Abyss itself.]
That was what the system had told him, yet instead of clarifying things, it only made Evan even more confused, because something in that explanation didn't add up.
The Abyss, he knew what that was. How could he not?
It was the greatest calamity the world had ever faced,
The very reason the world was the way it was.