Chapter 314: The News And Social Media In Chaos! Enigma’s Reputation Continues To Grow

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Riven walked away, not before checking the TV, noticing some news about the two Gates that disappeared and also the incident with one of the gates having a Mana Reactor and a Blood Crystal and Mana Stone Processing Factory which all disappeared along with it, the tragedy of Elias loss, and his crying mother, Rose, alongside Guinevere, all doing their own interviews.

The volume was already on, so the reports reached him clearly as he paused in the doorway.

Riven paused in the living-room doorway, one hand still on the remote he had just picked up. The large wall-mounted screen flickered to life, already tuned to the global hunter-network feed. The morning anchor’s voice was tight with controlled urgency.

He stayed there for a moment longer instead of heading straight to the bath.

"—breaking developments out of the Crimson Marsh Gate, designated D-to-C rank, located on the outskirts of Central City industrial sector. Approximately forty minutes ago the entire dimensional aperture sealed itself and vanished from every satellite and mana-radar system. This is the fourth confirmed gate disappearance in the last seventy-two hours. Authorities are calling it the most catastrophic single-day loss of corporate assets in recent memory." The screen switched between different camera angles while the anchor continued speaking.

The feed cut to a split-screen. On the left stood Guinevere Claymore, still in her white-and-gold Valkyrie armor, the empty spear-harness on her back painfully obvious. Her golden hair was slightly disheveled, a single streak of dried blood across one cheek. Cameras flashed around her.

Reporters pushed closer from every side, microphones extended as they tried to get the first clear statement.

"Lady Guinevere," a reporter shouted, "can you confirm the reports that your personal relic, the Divine Golden Lance Cagliostro, was lost inside the collapsing gate?"

Guinevere’s blue eyes were glacial. She waited a full second before answering, as if measuring every word.

"The weapon is temporarily unavailable. That is all the public needs to know. What matters is that a coordinated terrorist cell of unknown origin infiltrated a co-owned Claymore–Bloodmoon facility, murdered an A-rank executive, destroyed a prototype psionic-frame valued at over two billion credits, and somehow triggered the complete dimensional collapse of the gate itself. This was not random vandalism. This was an act of war against the companies that keep this city powered. A new terrorist group larger than even Avalanche might have appeared, and we won’t stop until we find them and make them pay."

She finished the statement without raising her voice, then stepped back from the microphones as more questions started flying.

The right side of the screen showed Rose Bloodmoon. The Countess’s crimson dress was torn at the shoulder; her white hair hung in wild strands around a face twisted by raw, unfiltered grief. She clutched a small velvet box that, according to the chyron, contained the only recovered fragments of her son’s Blood Core.

Cameras focused tightly on the box in her hands while she struggled to keep her composure.

"My Elias..." Her voice cracked, then rose into a snarl. "They tore him apart like animals! I smelled his blood in the air; I dug through the rubble with my own hands—there was nothing left but crystal shards and an eyeball! Guinevere Claymore failed to protect the facility. Claymore Enterprises failed my family. I demand blood. I demand the heads of every single one of those terrorists on a silver platter before the week is out!" She held the velvet box tighter against her chest as the reporters continued shouting questions she did not answer.

A third feed cut in: shaky helmet-cam footage recovered from a surviving Claymore private. The image showed the moment the communication tower erupted into a white-hot blossom of compressed ki, followed by a red werewolf tearing through armored ranks and a black-armored figure whose silhouette blurred into shadows and dragon-scale. The video froze on the masked face, abyssal crystal and scales shaped into a furious dragon’s visage, before the feed dissolved into static.

The frozen frame stayed on screen for several seconds while the analysts tried to enhance it further.

The anchor returned, face pale. "Military analysts estimate the attackers’ combat output briefly exceeded high S-rank thresholds. No confirmed identities have been released. The Bloodmoon Conglomerate has already declared a private bounty of fifty million credits for any information leading to the capture of the masked man and the red werewolf. Claymore Enterprises has matched it."

The numbers appeared in large text at the bottom of the screen as the report continued.

Riven muted the television. Elisa, still in her sleep shirt, had come up behind him and rested her chin on his shoulder.

She watched the silent screen for a moment before speaking.

"That’s... a lot," she murmured. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." He kissed the top of her head. "I’m going to shower. Then breakfast. Then I need to check something."

He set the remote down and headed toward the bathroom without saying more about the news.

Twenty minutes later, clean and dressed in a simple black hoodie, Riven sat on the kitchen island with a plate of eggs and toast in front of him. Carlos had already left for the training yard. Daniela was curled up on the couch with Noir’s head in her lap, both of them half asleep. Vladimir had claimed the guestroom shower and Elisa was enjoying breakfast with him, eating while looking half asleep, it was a lazy day for her it seemed.

The house felt quieter than usual with only the two of them still at the table.

Riven opened his personal terminal and logged into the Hunter Forums under one of his cleaner aliases, an unremarkable C-rank account he used for quiet reconnaissance.

The login screen loaded without any delay.

The front page was pure chaos.

[HOT] Crimson Marsh Gate GONE – Fourth Disappearance This Week

Views: 1.2 million | Comments: 48,391

Top thread:

"Anyone else think the ’terrorists’ are the same group behind the other missing gates?"

Poster "GateWatcher99": Timing is too clean. Tower blown, reactor core vaporized, gate collapses, and the attackers vanish like smoke. Same MO as the Yakuza warehouse and the Label incident last month. Somebody’s farming entire gates.

The thread already had thousands of replies arguing over the pattern the people had found.

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