‘I can finally get out of here,’ Alhen thought.

  He had spent about two cycles waiting for his body to recover enough so he could go out. Alhen had tried asking for the Luna Ius, but the nun had rejected his request.

  With nothing to do, he waited long before finally being able to move his body.

  He had been able to do it the previous cycle, but his body was sluggish, and moving was difficult.

  It would have been dangerous if he stepped outside in those conditions, considering that assassins could be lurking in the corner waiting for a moment of weakness to kill him.

  Now that he was feeling in good condition, he put on his washed clothes and grabbed his thuls and artifact before leaving the church.

  ‘Father Vincent told me to go meet him once I was out, but I don’t want to. Has it already been a week?’ he wondered.

  ‘I should meet up with Sloan and Sierra to see when we are going to do that contract they had been talking to me about,’ he thought.

  He was alone once again on the narrow streets; the feeling of being observed or the feeling of something appearing out of nowhere and attacking him was gone.

  Alhen smiled, thinking back at how much he’d grown over a short period of time.

  ‘I can finally be walking through the streets normally without worrying about another psychopath like Kalle to appear out of nowhere. The air sure feels nice, but I still should be careful like always,’ he thought.

  Just because he had gotten over his trauma of another Kalle situation from happening, it didn’t mean that he was going to relax.

  After a couple of minutes walking, he arrived at The Crying Halberd and entered.

  The bell from inside rang, announcing his presence to the whole establishment, and it didn’t take long for him to spot the siblings in their usual spot.

  They sat close to the wall, talking to each other about something in hushed voices. They looked serious, as if something had happened during his absence.

  Sloan and Sierra apparently hadn’t heard the bell, as they kept talking with each other.

  Alhen took a deep breath before approaching them from the side. Just when he was a few steps away from them, they turned to look at him.

  He could see in real time how their faces relaxed, and the tension in their bodies vanished into thin air.

  “Long time no see,” Alhen began talking. “Does someone mind sharing what happened during my absence? I know it has been quite some time, but I was busy.”

  A brief silence spread before it was broken by Sierra, who now had a faint smile on her face.

  “Alhen! You surprised us. We were just talking about you. This cycle is when the contract is to take place, and we were worried that you would not show up."

  "We thought that we would see you again in a few cycles after talking, but who would have thought that it would be this long?” she said.

  Alhen scratched the back of his head.

  These past few cycles have been a roller coaster of emotions.

  He had nearly died many times, and it was a miracle that he was standing in front of them right now.

  “Oh, I had no idea that the contract was this cycle. How long do we have to get to that graveyard?” Alhen asked.

  “We have to leave right now!” Sierra exclaimed, and her brother nodded from the side.

  “Very well, do we have enough supplies to last us a few cycles just in case? It’s never a downside to be more careful than you need in these types of situations,” Alhen commented.

  “Yes, we have everything packed right here,” Sierra said before taking something from under her seat and showing Alhen a backpack that looked filled with things.

  Alhen was about to say something, but Sloan beat him to it, “Alhen, we have everything. Let us head out now,” he said before standing from his chair.

  “Very well, I will follow from behind,” Alhen replied.

  They went out of the establishment and left the gates in a hurry.

  There was no one at the door, and they simply left the kingdom and entered the forest. The red leaves came into view again, and faint moans of pain could be heard in the distance.

  Sloan and Sierra looked at each other with frowns, and they turned to look at Alhen.

  “The graveyard is in the direction of the noise. Be careful and keep an eye out for hidden dangers,” Sloan warned.

  Alhen nodded and followed behind them.

  As he walked with them, the warning of that old woman echoed in his mind. It was a voice that refused to go away, no matter how much he tried to ignore it.

  ‘Could it be that the old woman was right? Can Sloan and Sierra truly be trusted?’ He wondered while looking at their backs.

  Alhen was distracted, and it took him a second to realize that a wiht being hidden by the flora was crouched just beside them.

  The darkness hid its figure enough that he couldn’t see its features, but he noticed it was facing away from them and didn’t seem to have a head.

  He touched Sierra’s shoulder, and she turned around in a flash but without making any sounds. He alerted her of the danger, and she alerted her brother as well.

  ‘That was close. I really can’t afford to get distracted right now. The only thing I can do is to keep my guard up and close to the siblings,’ Alhen thought.

  Before they left, Alhen saw the wiht turning to look beside it, and noticed its stomach had big, bulging eyes and a mouth with its tongue stuck out.

  It dripped blood continuously, and it looked dazed, staring into the distance.

  They resumed walking, and he remembered that the distance between the kingdom and the graveyard was about five hours in total.

  Thanks to his increase in rank, his senses were in top shape, and he was able to spot lower ranked wihts in a flash.

  Some of them escaped his senses from time to time, but Sloan and Sierra were there to cover him.

  They reached the outskirts of the graveyard in the blink of an eye.

  The soil turned darker and more oppressive the further they walked, emanating a stench of death.

  Rusted gates that looked ready to crumble appeared in their vision, and the silent night appeared to hide many monsters.

  Sloan and Sierra seemed to know their way around this place, as they walked with confident steps.

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  Walking further, they saw the entrance, a broken gate that led to a graveyard full of broken tombstones.

  “This should be the work of the wihts. From this point on, do not talk unless necessary and keep your guard up."

  "We will remain hidden as we navigate the place to locate the wihts and exterminate them once and for all,” Sloan said.

  Alhen had no problem with that, and he followed the siblings inside.

  As soon as he passed the gates, it was as if the air shifted around him, but he didn’t know if it was his imagination.

  The air seemed to have gotten colder, and he felt something staring at him from a distance. He had learned long ago that his senses were always on point, and he raised his caution.

  ‘It looks empty for now, and I can’t see what’s looking at me. Sloan and Sierra seem not to have noticed. Should I tell them?’ Alhen thought.

  He shook his head the next moment.

  He couldn’t distinguish if it was a human or wiht. If someone was watching, it could alert him, and he didn’t know if they had improved senses like hearing.

  ‘I should keep a low profile for now. If I feel that something is wrong, then I’ll warn them.’

  Looking around him, he saw holes in front of the tombstones that reached deep into the earth.

  With a glance, he could tell that it wasn’t made by humans; it looked like an animal had dug the holes with ferocity, leaving blood behind.

  The graveyard was huge, incredibly so.

  The unending tombstones stretched into the distance, but there was still no sight of the wihts.

  ‘Could they have left already?’ Alhen thought.

  They walked for minutes on end before reaching a massive tomb that looked abandoned.

  It was dark and gave off an oppressive feeling like the graveyard, as if the building was cursed and dead.

  It had the size of a two-story building, and the roof was circular and red with swirling patterns reaching the top.

  Beside the tomb was a small church, barely able to pass as a small house. It was completely made out of wood, and now looked rotten and on the verge of collapse.

  The siblings stood outside with a serious expression, gripping their thuls tightly. Alhen, seeing this reaction, took out his revolver and prepared himself for the worst.

  “Very well, we are going inside the tomb. The wihts should all have built a nest here. Our job is to take them out and clear the area.”

  “After the client confirms with his own eyes that the problem has been resolved, then we will have the other half of our payment,” Sloan whispered.

  The feeling of being observed only increased when he approached the tomb, and he looked at it with unsure eyes, deciding whether to enter or not.

  ‘There are just too many unknowns. I will take a look, and the moment I feel like the situation might get out of hand, then I will leave.’

  ‘This is just like when I went into that shady building with them, maybe at the end, nothing bad will happen,’ Alhen thought.

  He didn’t respond to Sloan, only following after him and keeping an eye out.

  As they approached the tomb, the building seemed to lengthen upwards, stretching into the distance.

  Now that they were closer, he saw a circular glass with a beautiful painting of a woman holding a child just above the entrance.

  ‘If this building has glass, then that must mean that it’s very old,’ Alhen thought.

  Sloan took the door handle and paused for a millisecond before opening the door.

  “CREAK!” As soon as it moved, a loud creak filled the area around them, and their eyes widened.

  ‘Damn it! If there are wihts here, then they would have definitely heard that,’ Alhen thought.

  Sloan had the same idea as him as he gestured for them to run with him.

  Alhen and Sierra didn’t stay idle, running after Sloan, who cornered the tomb and hid behind the corner.

  Sierra looked carefully around them, cautious of a wiht sneaking up on them. Alhen was tasked to look above them, and Sloan held his gaze firmly on the door.

  Nothing seemed to be coming from above, so he peeked around the corner with Sloan and saw a fat, greasy hand filled with many holes reach out from behind the door and take the backpack that Sierra had left behind.

  ‘Wait a second, what?’ He looked behind him, and sure enough, Sierra didn’t have the backpack.

  He couldn’t believe what he was seeing: all the extra safety and preparations for the travel were gone, and he didn’t even know why.

  ‘It was strapped to her. How did this happen?' Alhen thought.

  Sierra noticed his gaze, immediately knowing what he was thinking about, and gave him a sorry look.

  He took a deep breath and let it out as slowly as he could, being careful not to make any loud sounds.

  ‘These guys are supposed to have tons of experience in situations like these. I will ask what happened later when we are in the clear.’

  ‘Also, there are indeed wihts in here, and seeing that hand didn’t give me much comfort that this is going to be an easy contract,’ he thought.

  When he looked back at the door, the wiht was no longer there, but the door was fully open.

  Seeing that there was no danger from there, he looked up and widened his eyes when they landed on a wiht.

  Its tongue was out, and it expanded several centimeters, moving like a snake. It had no lips or teeth, and it held on to the building like a spider with the claws on its feet and hands.

  Its large, luscious hair dropped from his head, covering one eye and leaving the other exposed, looking straight at him.

  “Above!” Alhen said loud enough for them to hear and not alert any wihts that might be in the vicinity.

  The siblings’ gazes moved upwards, and when they saw the danger, they got into a fighting stance in a flash.

  Sloan gripped his sword tightly, waiting for the wiht to attack.

  It didn’t seem strong as it didn’t have a sign on its body, but the wiht Alhen had seen in the Shrill Forest also didn’t have one and managed to take out a blue sign holder.

  ‘So this is what had its eyes on me since I entered the graveyard. There are still many unknowns. If the wiht comes towards us, I will not attack it first unless it’s completely necessary.’

  ‘Also, I can’t use my revolver, it sure is handy, but will attract all the wihts inside the tomb.’

  As he finished his thoughts, he took out the axe on his back and waited for the wiht to come down.

  It was cautious, calculating the perfect moment to strike.

  Looking down at the humans with dangerous weapons in hand, a look of cunning appeared on the wiht’s eyes, something that deeply unsettled Alhen.

  The next second, it took a deep breath and raised his body to look at the sky.

  Alhen noticed what it was trying to do and covered his ears quickly. The wiht screamed, and this time, the sound traveled in all directions, even reaching the forest.

  His ears hurt, and he gritted his teeth from the pain.

  The sonic attack wasn’t the real problem; however, it was the sound that would attract all the wihts to them.

  “The situation has gotten out of control, run!” Sloan shouted before running away.

  Alhen didn’t need to be told twice; he placed his axe on his back and took out his revolver.

  The noise surely won’t matter now that they have been exposed.

  Alhen activated his blessing and shot at the wiht’s weak point, killing it in an instant.

  He clicked his tongue and followed after Sloan, annoyed that they’d been exposed by a low-ranking wiht.

  In just a few seconds, the sound of multiple screams combined reached their location.

  From the sheer quantity of them, Alhen guessed that there had to be hundreds of wihts rushing to where they were.

  His gaze landed on the sibling’s back, and he couldn’t help but curse them in his thoughts.

  ‘This contract is way out of our league! How will we be able to defeat hundreds of these creatures with only the three of us?’

  ‘Sloan and Sierra surely need to think thrice before picking a contract from outside The Crying Halberd!’ Alhen exclaimed in his mind.

  If they hadn’t run away from where they were, Alhen was sure that he would have been left deaf by then.

  The noises kept growing louder as they ran away, and when he looked back, he was not surprised to find a horde coming their way.

  Alhen gritted his teeth and ran faster than before, activating his sign in the process, catching up with the siblings and even surpassing them in speed.

  They looked surprised, but it wasn’t the time to be.

  They jumped and moved across tombstones as they escaped, as the area was filled with them.

  They were in an open area without many trees around, and that allowed the wihts never to lose sight of them.

  At the speed they were moving, Alhen was able to hold on due to his constant stamina training with his mentor, but the siblings were different.

  For sure, they had a higher resistance than most people, but they still only trained for traveling long distances.

  Running at full speed until you fainted was probably not on their training regimen, as they started to slow down considerably and gasp for air.

  They were being left behind, and Alhen wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

  ‘This is a problem. Should I help them out somehow? There’s still some distance that we have to travel to be able to leave the graveyard, considering that it’s massive.'

  'Eventually, the wihts will catch them if things don’t improve,’ he thought.

  Looking behind him, he noticed their expressions revealed everything he needed to know about the situation.

  There was a look of despair in their eyes that couldn’t be faked; they were in real distress.

  ‘Very well, if they die, I have less probabilities of survival, and if I lose my way, I won’t be able to return to the kingdom by myself unless some miracle happens.’

  He was contemplating the decision heavily, and then he thought about the cons.

  ‘If they survive, I will have to worry about them leaving me behind or using me as bait, which is something possible considering the world we live in.’

  He took a deep breath, and his mind stilled. He had made the decision mostly with his heart, something that he wasn’t used to doing.

  His steps slowed down, and eventually, the siblings caught up to him.

  “W-What’s wrong? A-Alhen?” Sierra asked while panting.

  “I noticed that both of you are falling behind. I will distract them, but for now, focus on running and waiting for me outside,” Alhen said.

  He didn’t wait to see their reactions or their answers, simply leaving them to run forward while he stayed behind.

  Alhen stopped running, stopped walking, and only stayed still and waited for the approaching crowd.

  He took a deep breath and thought about the training with his mentor in that cave.

  “To think that I would be subjected to this situation so soon, life is quite the jokester. This time, I don’t have a safety net, but I will succeed,” Alhen muttered under his breath.

  As the wihts approached, he stretched his body and focused on getting his breath back as soon as possible.

  When it was time, he took out his revolver, and his expression hardened.

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