Chapter 79: Warning from Gio

In Kevin’s room, silence reigned for more than a dozen minutes. The window curtains fluttered in the breeze coming from the distant mountains and nearby forests.

To tell the truth, none of them—or anyone else in the group—understood why Gio had been invited to the ceremony.

Who exactly is Gio? Why invite him? What did they see, or what did he do?

It wasn’t just the invitation; they saw the clothes he was dressed in, and they looked like the clothes of a believer, though he didn’t wear their slogans. If it weren’t for that mask he always wears, he might even look like a learned believer of the Seventh Night.

"Did you get to talk to that girl?" Finn asked Martin. After learning that Gio and Alice might be together, he stopped trying to get close to her.

Martin nodded. "She’s surprised too, but since Gio was invited, she got the invitation as well, so I couldn’t say much. She didn’t give me any more information... Just..." He frowned.

"Just what?" Finn quickly pressed for an answer to his sudden doubt at the end.

"I mean, they left me in charge of something."

"Taking care of something? What exactly? their luggage?"

"Well..." Martin scratched the back of his neck and smiled. "Can you call it that?"

"Be specific!"

"Sigh. Okay, they left me to take care of a cat... well, a female cat. Apparently, Gio told Alice to tell me not to let her get too far away from me, since she might be important."

Finn and Kevin blinked a couple of times. "A female cat?" they asked in unison.

Martin shifted slightly away from the strange position Finn had been in for a while, wondering why he was in that position. Then he pointed to a cat he’d been covering the whole time.

She was quietly bathing when she sensed several people watching her. She looked up and met their eyes...

Finn and Kevin were speechless...

"I understand. I felt the same way when I was asked to take care of her," Martin sighed. "I think I’ve let her take advantage of my goodwill," he exclaimed.

"Sigh. Forget it. I guess they don’t allow cats in those sacred places—there’s not much we can do. It’s your turn to be good at taking care of a cat, Martin," Finn joked.

"Tsk, you jerk. I thought you’d offer to help... Though he is a calm cat." Martin was grateful that he was.

"Stop arguing about nonsense!" Kevin scolded them immediately. "We’re dealing with a serious situation."

Martin let out a sigh. "Isn’t it possible that what you’re seeing is just a result of excitement? It’s been building all day."

"Yeah, it really was on the rise. The problem is that both things grew at the same time, but some of them grew all at once. It’s weird, Martin!"

Martin had no doubt about Kevin’s abilities. If he had to believe in someone who was good at "sensing" things, it would be this guy. Even though he wasn’t genuinely strong, the truth is that he’s amazingly sensitive.

He can’t forget the first time they met... that guy is really dangerous when it comes to that.

However, what could he do or think?

"Sigh..."

"Well, let’s not dwell on it too much. We can come up with a better plan, just in case we need to do something for Gio—though I don’t think it’ll be necessary, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry."

"Good idea." Martin nodded at his suggestion.

Kevin also felt a bit helpless. He really sensed that something was wrong and that something could happen at any moment, but then again, what could he do?

He nodded in agreement with the suggestion, and they drew up a plan of action...

Afterward, they chatted idly until the sun set and trumpets sounded from the protective walls of the three villages...

A series of more than 72 trumpets blared out with a thunderous roar. The city fell silent at once, and the windows of the Strangers’ rooms were shut.

For a moment, the city was plunged into silence after that great roar.

Then, thousands of believers poured out of their homes.

The last ray of sunlight disappeared behind the mountains, and for a moment, the entire city was shrouded in darkness. Not a single light was on in any of the houses or rooms.

The power had gone out.

And tonight, the moon was completely hidden by a large cloud. It didn’t look like it was going to rain, but the cloud was there, blocking its glow from reaching the city.

Kevin, Finn, and Martin looked at each other in the darkness, lighting a candle with a lighter. Kevin felt a growing unease because he could sense that something was brewing in the darkness.

He couldn’t figure out what it was... but it unsettled him.

Just then, the cat Gio had left with them shook herself off, having finished grooming, and jumped several times between the armchair and a small table until she was positioned right in the middle of the room.

Despite the darkness in the room, they all turned to look at her.

She looked at them one by one with eyes full of a clarity that a cat shouldn’t possess.

"I have a message for you from my master," Valia said in an extremely peculiar and seductive tone of voice.

Kevin, Finn, and Martin shuddered.

"D-Did she speak?" Martin stammered; the other two weren’t any better off than he was.

"Of course I spoke." Valia raised a paw in a gentle gesture to indicate this. "But you don’t need to worry about how I did it. My master just sent me a message."

"A cat spoke?!"

"Stop paying attention to that!" Valia growled; although she wanted the growl to sound like a tiger’s—one that would strike fear—it actually came across as endearing. Moreover, her seductive voice struck a chord with these three men, whose minds were filled with surprise or fear.

"My master—I mean, Gio, as you call him—has said: Something strange is happening. I can’t go into much detail because they’ve used a variety of powerful items to prevent the information from spreading, but please tell Lord Khan to help those who were working!"

Her voice seemed to blend with Gio’s, to the point that they thought he was speaking directly to them. It was too strange. A chill ran down their spines.

But when they came to their senses, the cat was no longer standing in front of them; instead, she was lying quietly on the couch, as if none of this had happened.

They wondered if they were hallucinating or if they had really just heard a cat speak... in Gio’s voice.

"That guy... Is his talent speaking through other beings? His pets? Maybe through those he’s marked..." Martin was perplexed, and since he was the first to react, he was able to quickly reach a conclusion.

He remembered hearing something like that several times before.

"He’s a Puppeteer... right? A Spiritual Puppeteer."

"Damn, that’s amazing. There are only two like that in the country... no, is it three now?"

Kevin, on the other hand, was in shock as he recalled Gio’s words... "Those who were working are in danger; it’s no wonder they haven’t come back... Lord Khan is on the loose today... Gio said there was danger..."

Kevin went over all the information he had.

Although it’s strange to believe the words of an F-Rank, Kevin believed him because he’d been feeling for a while that something was wrong with this city. Besides, even though he was an F-Rank, he wasn’t just any F-Rank.

The Spiritual Puppeteers are amazingly good at sensing things—even better than he is. He couldn’t turn a blind eye when one of them was warning them.

Martin and Finn reacted to Kevin’s words and murmurs.

The most important thing was what was right in front of them—something that could endanger their lives.

"Run downstairs!" The candle fell to the floor just as the three of them started running.

It went out immediately; there was no danger of fire.

Through the darkness, Valia watched intently as the three ran outside.

’Since the Master said so, I shouldn’t get involved in this. It’s better this way,’ she thought, and vanished; her work had already been completed, so she returned to Zaid’s spiritual sea.

-

As they ran through the hallways, Kevin raised his hands to stop them. "People are coming." He frowned.

"Mr. Khan and the others?" Finn asked.

"No... It’s not Mr. Khan. Nor are they..." He hadn’t finished speaking when several soldiers leaped over their heads like beasts stalking their prey.

They moved as fast as small birds, but they were quite large and had an unusually large amount of hair on their arms and parts of their faces. They wore the city guard’s uniform, but their appearances weren’t entirely human.

Their appearance resembled that of a wolf... a werewolf. Only they were less imposing, yet still looked more terrifying.

The three mercenaries shuddered in surprise. The bestial energy they could sense from these strange guards bore no resemblance whatsoever to that of the beasts of the forest. It carried a hint of madness.

"We found the little ones coming out of their dens. Time to act, brothers—they’re Strangers, so show no mercy. It’s time for them to become truly useful servants to our goddess," one of the wolf-like men exclaimed.