Chapter 1967 - 1056: Another Shadow

Chapter 1967: Chapter 1056: Another Shadow

In Jonas City,

from the mouth of the alley to its depths, Cole moved forward step by step, squatting at each pace, feeling the ground inch by inch.

The grime of brick and stone gradually smeared his palms, and a thin sheen of sweat seeped out at his temples, drawn tight in concentration.

Even the chill of this overcast day was partially dispelled by such ruthless focus.

The alley was terrifyingly silent; only the faint sound of his fingertips rubbing over brick and stone drifted and echoed in the empty stillness.

At this moment, the whole of Jonas City lay deathly quiet; even the usual raucous birdsong had vanished without a trace.

As though this sudden upheaval had dragged the entire city into a soundless cage.

Cole’s heart felt leaden; Yor’s unexplained disappearance was anything but accidental.

This alley that seemed so ordinary must surely conceal some still-undiscovered strangeness.

He lifted his gaze over the mottled walls, raised his hand and lightly tapped each brick, tilting his head to listen for the sounds within, judging whether there were any signs of hollowness.

Or he bent down to inspect the soil on the ground, brushing aside the accumulated Dust to tell whether there were traces of dragging or struggling.

A clammy wind swept Dust and haze through the alley, stirring the hem of Cole’s coat, yet he remained oblivious, still burying himself among the cold bricks.

He had long since prepared himself for the worst.

If a naked-eye search yielded nothing, he would immediately take out his tools and pry up every single brick in the alley to examine it.

Even if it meant dismantling the entire alley, he would still find Yor’s trail.

No dazzling Magic light, no frantic probing motions—only a stubborn persistence, knocking bit by bit at the truth of Yor’s disappearance in these shadow-laden streets.

He was convinced that the subtle traces Spells could not capture were often hidden in the most inconspicuous corners, in these rough bricks and the cold ground, waiting for him to seek them out one by one.

...

The long search had already stretched on for several hours.

Cole maintained an extreme patience throughout, without the slightest hint of impatience.

He examined this remote alley area with meticulous care.

Every corner of every wall, every Shadowed blind spot, he had inspected with painstaking thoroughness, not daring to overlook the slightest abnormality.

As dusk approached, the atmosphere of the entire city quietly shifted.

The sky that had been so oppressive and dull suddenly grew a little clearer; the thick, leaden clouds piled high over the firmament had, at some unknown point, dispersed by more than half.

The warm, molten orange of the setting sun pierced the gaps in the clouds, pouring down like shards of gold, flooding Jonas City.

The mottled brick walls were all gilded with a layer of warm halo by the afterglow of the setting sun, as though it had driven away the gloom and oppression that had shrouded the city for days on end.

Cole slowly straightened his tense frame, lifting his hand to stretch his shoulders and limbs, long since stiff and numb.

The long hours of bending to inspect had drawn every muscle in his body taut, sending waves of sore fatigue through his tendons and bones.

The evening breeze brushed gently through the streets and alleys, carrying the faint coolness unique to twilight, somewhat soothing the anxious frustration of his fruitless search.

Yet in the instant he relaxed his body and mind, he suddenly froze in place.

Every hair on his body stood on end; a bone-deep, uncanny chill shot up his spine and speared into his skull.

He had sensed something wrong!

Just moments ago, the setting sun had clearly hung, slanting, over the western sky, its light spilling in from the front of the alley.

The bright afterglow sharply outlined his figure, a long Shadow cast steadily upon the mottled wall ahead.

The silhouette was clear, its edges clean—no more ordinary a human Shadow could be.

Yet the bizarre crux lay upon that very wall!

Beside his own Shadow, another blurred humanoid silhouette had appeared out of thin air!

This Shadow was too strange, utterly defying common sense.

Its outline barely suggested a human form, yet its edges remained forever hazy and diffuse, clinging weightlessly to the wall, utterly at odds with Cole’s cleanly defined, normal Shadow.

The scene resembled two completely overlapping, mutually independent images, exuding a surreal, eerie sense of Slicing disjunction.

More alarming still, this uncanny Shadow was not motionless.

It was writhing, in movements so faint and slow, its outline sometimes stretching slightly, sometimes curling inward.

And faintly, Cole could see that something seemed to be wrapped within the depths of the Shadow; there was a weak, abnormal pulsation stirring in that pitch-black silhouette, though he could never quite make it out.

Compared to the shallow black Shadow cast by the sunset behind him, this Shadow that had appeared out of nowhere was so deep it verged on absolute.

It was a blackness taken to the extreme, like a congealed Abyss.

The radiant evening light spilling around it was quietly Devoured away at its boundary.

As though no trace of light could trespass within, a dead, uncanny aura surged outward from it.

Cole’s heart clenched hard; he forced down the sudden, surging jolt of dread in his chest.

He held his breath and turned his body with extreme slowness.

His gaze swept sharply over the entire length of the alley behind him.

Within his field of view, there was nothing—no figures, no clutter that might block the light, certainly no object that could cast such a Shadow.

The empty street and alley lay clean and bare, the only sound the soft rustle of the breeze brushing past fallen leaves.

Yet that eerie, human-shaped Shadow remained fixed on the wall, causeless and abrupt, unsettling to the extreme.

In an instant, countless clues from his search and the premonitions buried in his heart linked together; a single, adamant thought crashed into Cole’s mind.

Here!

This must be Yor!

The worries, anxiety, and fragile joy that had been pent up in his heart fused in a rush; a scalding heat surged violently up into Cole’s chest.

It made his fingertips burn faintly; without thinking, he wanted to stride forward at once and probe to the bottom of this mystery.