Chapter 38: Twilight Order

I put my right hand into the pocket of my coat and wrapped my fingers around the handgrip of the revolver hidden inside.

I had been sitting on the bench opposite the clothing store for nearly five minutes now, watching the woman without making any attempt to approach her.

She had remained there the entire time, occasionally glancing toward the shop window or looking down the street as though waiting for someone. To an ordinary observer, there was nothing particularly strange about her.

She looked like any other noblewoman spending her morning in Kingsmere, dressed in an elegant yellow gown with white gloves and a matching hat. Yet my spiritual intuition had drawn my attention toward her for a reason, and until I understood what that reason was, I had no intention of simply walking away.

The revolver in my pocket was loaded with spiritual bullets.

They weren’t ordinary pieces of metal that could be stopped by mundane defenses, and if what I was sensing turned out to be a Wraith or Ghost, I would at least have a means of hurting it.

My spiritual intuition had already warned me that something was approaching, although it hadn’t told me exactly what. I continued watching the street while pretending to be nothing more than a young nobleman admiring nature, my hand still wrapped around the revolver as I waited for whatever was supposed to happen.

Then... my spiritual intuition suddenly erupted.

Something was coming.

My eyes immediately swept across the street, searching for whoever or whatever had triggered the warning, but there was absolutely nothing there.

The pedestrians continued walking as usual, carriages moved along the road, and not a single person appeared to have noticed anything unusual. Yet I could sense it clearly now. Something was moving toward the woman at an incredible speed, easily seventy kilometers per hour, perhaps even faster.

And the worst part was that I couldn’t see it.

I didn’t hesitate.

My hand moved from inside my coat with speed, drawing the revolver and raising it toward the space between the woman and the approaching presence.

Bang!

The gunshot exploded through the street.

Several pedestrians immediately screamed and ducked, while others turned around and began running without even understanding what had happened.

The invisible presence suddenly flickered, and for the first time, I could see the person I had fired at. My bullet had struck his left shoulder, forcing him to stagger slightly as his figure became visible.

He was a man with a round mustache and a long black cloak hanged from his shoulders.

His eyes were an unnatural red, and within those crimson irises, I could see what looked like tiny flames burning continuously. He glanced toward his wounded shoulder, raised his hand and swept it across the injury.

The wound closed in an instant, he had marvellous healing powers!

I narrowed my eyes as I determined that this was neither a Wraith nor a Ghost.

He was an Awakened.

And judging from the spiritual power I could sense from his body, he was most likely a Superior Awakened.

My heart sank slightly.

The difference between an Inferior Awakened and a Superior Awakened wasn’t something that could simply be ignored. Even with my abilities, fighting someone of this level head-on would be extremely dangerous.

I looked toward the clothing store.

The woman was gone.

She had disappeared during the brief moment I had spent dealing with the man.

’So she had been his target,’ I deduced.

The realization barely had time to settle before the man vanished again.

His entire body became invisible, leaving nothing behind for my ordinary eyes to follow.

I immediately focused my spiritual intuition and tried to locate him, but instead of sensing a single position, I suddenly felt several different traces moving around me. One was behind me, another seemed to be approaching from my left, and another appeared several meters away.

None of them felt completely real.

He was bluffing his location!

Every time I focused on one location, another sensation appeared somewhere else, making it almost impossible to determine where his actual body was.

I stood completely still.

My revolver remained raised.

Then I felt it... A sudden chill crawled across my back, as though someone had thrown a bucket of cold water over me.

I jumped in the air, rotating my body.

Bang!

The bullet connected.

The invisible figure flickered into existence for a moment, and I saw the man stagger as the spiritual bullet struck him directly in the chest. He hadn’t expected me to react that quickly. I landed several feet away and immediately brought my revolver back into position, watching as he lowered his gaze toward the fresh wound.

His hand moved toward his chest and I could see that he was going to heal himself again and I couldn’t allow that.

My spiritual power surged forward and entered his mind.

Thought Theft!

The system had already warned me that stealing the thoughts of a Superior Awakened was extremely difficult.

Against someone of his level, the ability normally had only around a thirty percent chance of succeeding if the target maintained their mental defenses, and even then I could only steal roughly three seconds of their most recent thoughts.

But this man had completely lowered his guard while concentrating on his wound. His attention wasn’t on me anymore, nor was he protecting his mind.

That changed everything.

My spiritual power slipped through the opening.

’Success!’

For an instant, his most recent thoughts appeared within my mind.

’Ugh, this motherf*cker’s bullet hurts... I have to heal the wound.’

The man’s expression suddenly became confused.

His hand stopped halfway toward his chest.

For a brief moment, he seemed unable to understand why he was even wounded. He had forgotten that I had shot him, his own thoughts started disappearing from his mind as though it had never existed.

That was all the opening I needed.

Bang!

The third bullet struck him directly in the forehead.

His head snapped backward, and his body stumbled from the impact. I didn’t wait to see whether he could recover. My hand immediately reached toward my inventory, and Voice of Death, the bell I got in Realm of The Evil, appeared in my palm.

I poured my spiritual power into the bell, feeling the strange power contained within it respond to my will. Then I threw it toward the Superior Awakened and mentally commanded it to activate.

The bell rang.

Ding!

The man’s face twisted as whispers invaded his mind. They weren’t ordinary sounds. They were the whispers of death itself, creeping through his consciousness and attacking him from within.

He stumbled backward.

I was just about to take advantage of the opening when my spiritual intuition suddenly screamed at me.

Something was descending from above.

I looked up and saw it: It was a Blazing Spear, surrounded by white flames so intense that the air around it seemed to distort. I could feel the heat even before it reached the ground, and I immediately realized that standing where I was would be an incredibly stupid decision.

I jumped backward.

Sizzle!

A wave of heat swept across the area as the blazing weapon pierced the ground. The temperature was so high that I could feel its warmth even from nearly five feet away. Smoke and dust erupted from the impact point, spreading across the street and obscuring everything within it.

I immediately recalled the Voice of Death.

The bell stopped ringing, flew back toward me, and disappeared into my inventory.

For a moment, I considered equipping the Breathing Fire Glove. Whatever had just attacked the cloaked man was clearly powerful, and I wasn’t about to stand around without preparing myself for another attack.

But then I heard hurried footsteps approaching from behind.

The City Police arrived first, several officers rushing into the street and attempting to control the panicking civilians. Three more people followed them, and unlike the police officers, these three immediately stood out to me.

Their clothes carried the insignia of the Twilight Order, the House of Lord’s official organization responsible for Awakened incidents in Kingsmere.

The spear that had just crashed into the street had apparently belonged to one of them.

The smoke began to clear as I looked toward where the cloaked man had been standing.

He was not there anymore!

The blue-haired Awakened stared at the empty street for a second before his expression twisted in frustration.

He raised one hand and slapped it against his forehead as he shouted, "Shit!"