Chapter 87: The Last of Them

Footsteps echoed through the underground tunnel as the two Exterminators ran toward the source of their investigation.

The passage had grown narrower the farther they traveled, forcing Arlen and Rhos to keep close to one another while their boots struck the concrete with loud steps.

Dim emergency lights flickered overhead, occasionally plunging entire sections into darkness before buzzing back to life, while cracks along the walls spilled dirt from somewhere above.

The evidence of the locust infestation had become increasingly severe as well, but that wasn’t their main concern right now.

Within the Exterminators, the difference between the two was obvious. Arlen was Rhos’s senior. He possessed more experience, knew standard procedures better and had authority over the younger Exterminators in the field.

Spiritually, however, their positions were reversed.

Arlen was an Epsilon, while Rhos stood slightly higher at Delta Class, hardly impressive compared to the higher Classes. For all the prestige surrounding the Adler name, its current scion had not awakened his Patron Spirit.

Since Rhos had awakened, it made him the better scout in an environment like this. So he took the lead.

His red deer Patron Spirit provided him with senses Arlen didn’t possess, allowing Rhos to track sounds and smells from much farther away while maintaining an awareness of his surroundings.

Through these senses, he was able to pick up the spiritual signatures of people, a lot of people.

“They’re still ahead of us. Same direction as before, but there are more signatures than I thought…”

Rhos said without slowing his pace, raising his voice enough for Arlen to hear over their footsteps.

“They’re concentrated in one place, maybe another chamber farther down”

“I can feel enough to know you’re right…”

Arlen replied from behind him with his spiritech rifle gripped in both hands as he ran.

“I’m not getting anything nearly as clear as you are, but it’s strange. Why are there people here? I thought the entire district was evacuated”

It was indeed strange, it got even stranger when one realized those weren’t people a moment ago.

His brow furrowed. This bothered him.

When they had first entered this part of the tunnel, the signatures ahead unmistakably belonged to the locusts.

Rhos had spent the entire morning around the Wild Beasts so he knew what their spiritual energy felt like by now.

Then something changed. The spiritual signatures of locusts suddenly became that of humans.

Rhos considered the obvious explanation first.

Maybe there had always been people among the swarm and he failed to distinguish them through the overlapping signatures. It wasn’t impossible.

Spiritual perception wasn’t sight nor did it replace it. Enough presences clustered together could make identifying individuals difficult.

Also, there were techniques, equipment and unusual spiritual characteristics capable of interfering with another person’s perception. Morri herself was practically impossible to detect spiritually.

But changing one spiritual signature into something completely different? Was that possible?

“….”

No, wait, it was possible. Jack Ripley had already proven that much. But still, could dozens of Wild Beasts somehow be disguising themselves as humans?

Rhos shook his head. The thought itself was too ridiculous to entertain.

Immediately, one of the signatures disappeared, snapping his head toward the darkness ahead.

“Arlen”

“I noticed”

As another one disappeared like a candle flame being extinguished, the two Exterminators began to increase their pace.

Their boots struck the ground as the number of human signatures ahead began dropping with frightening speed.

’23…20…17…14′

Rhos countered automatically in his mind. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t slowing down.

“They’re disappearing. I can’t tell what’s happening from here, but I’m losing them one after another”

If those really are people, then either somebody was suppressing their spiritual energy one at a time or all of them are dying.

“Assume the worst possibility until we know otherwise. If someone’s alive when we get there, extraction comes first.”

The scion’s voice had lost the casual warmth he spoke with earlier and his face had hardened. This was serious.

Rhos pushed harder, his legs blurring beneath him as he rounded a corner. This sudden burst in speed forced Arlen to increase his own pace behind him, but he was barely keeping up.

‘9..7, 5…Damn it!’

“What the hell is happening up there?”

The spiritual signatures dwindled until there was one. Only one was left now.

Rhos’s jaw tightened as they reached the end of the passage and entered a much wider section of the underground structure.

He stopped so suddenly that Arlen almost ran into him.

The tunnel ahead was dark. A lot of the lights had been destroyed completely, leaving a stretch where their torches would’ve been necessary if they had not turned them off before sprinting.

The two had reached the place where the crowd was, but found nothing. There was nothing suggesting there was a massacre here.

Instead, the tunnel was eerily quiet.

“Very strange…uck!”

As soon as Rhos took a cautious step, he was brought to a halt by a sudden sensation that crawled over his skin.

“Rhos, what’s wrong?”

Asked Arlen, stepping over to help before getting paralysed by the same sensation.

There was no doubt about it. This was bloodlust. A sinister bloodlust saturated the darkness, flooding the passage without warning.

Rhos had been exposed to killing intent before, multiple times actually, but none of them felt like this. This one felt different.

There was something disturbingly casual about it.

The pressure didn’t crash against him like an animal preparing to attack. It settled over the tunnel almost playfully, as though whatever produced it was a well of bottomless malice.

It was hard to breathe but Rhos forced his body to move. His fingers shook as they drifted toward the dagger at his waist.

Beside him, Arlen brought Longwing slightly higher.

Tap, tap, tap… loud footsteps emerged from the darkness. Someone was walking toward them at a casual pace.

This was the spiritual signature that didn’t get snuffed out like the rest. It didn’t seem to be agitated, if anything, it felt rather calm.

A silhouette stepped beneath one of the dim lights….