Chapter 124: Abandon Town

The town had been abandoned for years, at least according to the Association’s records.

From the hill overlooking it, Reinhard could see rows of old stone buildings stretching across the valley, their roofs weathered and their wooden signs hanging crookedly above empty streets. An old church stood near the center with part of its bell tower collapsed, while the remains of a marketplace occupied the district below it.

There should have been no one here, yet the moment the team entered the first street, Maki noticed fresh scratches across the dust.

Seraphine crouched beside them and examined the Mana residue clinging to the ground. "This wasn’t here long ago."

Mara looked down the empty street before turning toward the rest of the team. "Everyone stay alert."

They moved deeper into the town, passing broken windows, boarded houses, and abandoned shops. A child’s wooden toy sat in the middle of one street, strangely untouched despite the dust surrounding it, and Lily slowed when she noticed it.

"Someone was here," she said.

Maki nodded. "Recently."

Reinhard looked over the surrounding buildings before continuing forward. "Then let’s hope they’re still here."

Mara opened the mission file as they reached an intersection. "The missing Awakener team entered this town three days ago while investigating abnormal Mana activity. Their communication stopped shortly afterward, and their final transmission contained one word."

Yuna glanced at her. "What word?"

"Children."

The mood immediately changed, and Mara continued speaking while the team moved farther into the town. "The Association believes civilians may be trapped somewhere inside. Our priority is the missing personnel and any civilians we find."

Yuna looked toward the abandoned buildings. "Then we don’t leave until they’re out."

Nobody disagreed.

As they advanced, Maki studied the streets more carefully. Several roads branched away from the main street, but most eventually curved toward the center, and the Mana currents seemed to follow the same pattern.

"The streets aren’t random," she said.

Mara looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"The Mana flow follows the town’s layout. Something is using the existing streets to control where we move."

Seraphine examined the surrounding buildings before nodding. "The Abnormality is guiding us toward the center."

Mara immediately adjusted the formation. "Maki, keep mapping it. Seraphine, watch the Mana."

They had barely moved another street when something crashed through a second-floor window. Lily reacted first, knocking the Abnormality out of the air, and Rhea followed by slamming it into the ground before it could recover.

Rhea straightened with a grin. "See? Easy."

Mara gave her a flat look. "Don’t say that."

Rhea blinked. "Why?"

"Because every time someone says that, something goes wrong."

Reinhard glanced at Mara and nodded. "She’s right."

Rhea looked between them with clear annoyance. "You’re both ruining the mood."

Lily stepped over the defeated creature. "Maybe don’t tempt fate."

They continued until Maki suddenly stopped and stared at the building beside them.

"That building was on our left before."

Rhea looked around. "It looks like it’s still on our left."

"No, we already passed it." Maki closed her eyes and reconstructed their route in her head. "We turned left at the pharmacy, passed the fountain, then turned right. That building should be behind us."

Seraphine examined the Mana surrounding them. "She’s right. Our perception is being distorted."

Mara immediately pulled the team away from the street, and moments later the false road shimmered before disappearing entirely.

Mara looked at Maki. "Good catch."

Maki smiled before returning her attention to the map.

They reached another intersection shortly afterward, where three roads appeared to lead safely toward the center. Seraphine crouched to study the Mana beneath them before shaking her head.

"None of them."

Rhea frowned. "Back?"

"The town is pushing us toward the center," Seraphine explained. "We need to go the other way."

Mara understood immediately. "It’s funneling us."

They turned around, and seconds later the road ahead collapsed into a pile of stone.

Rhea stared at the rubble before looking at Seraphine. "I officially like her."

Seraphine didn’t look up from the Mana readings. "Good."

The team reached the marketplace soon afterward, and this time the Abnormalities came from every direction. Maki called enemy positions while Seraphine predicted their movements, Mara directed the formation, and Yuna took the strongest target as Emily and Rika covered the left side. Rhea and Lily handled the right while Kael and Adrian protected the rear.

Nobody needed to repeat an order because the formation moved as though they had been working together for months.

One of the larger Abnormalities broke through the formation and charged toward Emily. She recognized its movement immediately and called out, "Rika, left."

Rika moved without waiting for another command, slipping beneath its arm before striking the exposed side of its body. Emily followed a moment later and drove her weapon into the same opening, bringing the creature down.

Emily looked toward her. "You saw it."

Rika nodded. "You would’ve."

Emily smiled faintly. "That’s not the same thing."

"It is now," Rika replied.

Before Emily could answer, the ground behind them exploded, sending chunks of stone through the marketplace as a much larger Abnormality emerged from beneath the rubble and charged toward Maki.

Mara turned toward it, but there wasn’t enough time.

Reinhard moved first.

Mana surged through his body as the enhanced Demon God Tyrant Body activated, and the Tyrant Tower manifested around him just as the creature’s attack crashed into his position. The impact shook the street, but the defensive layer absorbed the force before it could reach Maki.

Reinhard looked over his shoulder. "You okay?"

Maki nodded. "Yes."

"Good."

His Mana surged again as Demon God Awakening activated, pushing his physical strength and speed even higher. At the same time, a massive crimson hand appeared beside his right arm, its invisible body outlined only by the dark claws extending from its fingers.

Mara stared at it. "What’s that?"

"Oh? You can see it?"

"My eyes are special. What. Is. That."

"Congrulating on being the first to be able to." Reinhard glanced toward the hand. "It’s my right hand."

Rhea pointed at it. "That’s not a hand."

"It works."

Several Abnormalities rushed him at once, but the crimson hand moved before Reinhard even raised his arm. It smashed the first creature into the ground, struck another the instant it entered its range, and intercepted a third attack before it could reach Reinhard.

Maki watched the hand block the attack. "It protects you automatically?"

"Apparently."

Another Abnormality attempted to flee across the marketplace and climbed onto a distant rooftop. Reinhard looked toward it, and the crimson hand vanished before appearing beside the creature an instant later, striking it hard enough to send it crashing into the street below.

Rhea stared at the crater. "Okay, that’s definitely cheating."

"You’re repeating yourself."

A second creature tried to escape down a side street, but Reinhard raised one hand and an enormous pillar of ice erupted beneath it, launching the Abnormality upward before pinning it against the side of a building.

Lily glanced toward him. "You can do that too?"

"Yes."

"Since when?"

"A while."

Rhea shook her head. "He really just keeps things hidden."

Reinhard smiled. "It makes missions more interesting."

The remaining Abnormalities suddenly rushed the formation together, but Reinhard took a breath and released an enhanced Demon Roar. The shockwave swept across the marketplace, stunning the nearby enemies for several seconds while disrupting the projectiles and attacks moving through its range.

Mara immediately recognized the opening. "Move."

The team advanced through the stunned enemies, cutting them down before they could recover.

One massive Abnormality remained at the far end of the marketplace and began gathering Mana for another attack. Reinhard drew Heavenpiercer and threw it toward the target, the legendary weapon locking onto the creature as lightning and fire wrapped around its body.

The Abnormality attempted to dodge, but Heavenpiercer adjusted its trajectory, curved around a stone building, and struck it from behind before returning to Reinhard’s hand.

Rhea stared at him. "You didn’t even aim."

Reinhard caught the weapon. "That’s the point."

The marketplace finally fell silent.

Reinhard allowed the transformation to fade before returning to the formation, and Maki looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and understanding.

"You could have done that from the beginning."

Reinhard glanced at her. "Then you wouldn’t have gotten to fight."

Maki paused before nodding. "Fair."

The team continued toward the center of town and eventually reached an old building that was far more intact than the structures surrounding it. A faded wooden sign hung above the entrance.

GRAYHAVEN ORPHANAGE.

Everyone stopped.

The windows were boarded from the inside, and the front door was partially open. Maki checked the surrounding Mana before frowning.

"They’re inside."

Yuna looked toward her. "How many?"

"I can’t tell. There are too many signatures overlapping."

Seraphine studied the readings before quietly saying, "Then we move carefully."

Mara opened the door.

The interior was covered in dust, with rows of small beds, broken toys, children’s drawings, and names written across several walls. The building looked abandoned, but several details suggested otherwise: a cup of water still sat on a table, fresh footprints crossed the floor, and one of the blankets had clearly been moved recently.

Lily stopped when she noticed a drawing pinned to the wall.

It showed a large black moon hanging above the town.

Emily walked past it, but after taking another step she stopped. Her hand tightened around her weapon, and her body trembled for the briefest moment before she forced herself forward.

Reinhard noticed the reaction but said nothing.

Instead, he looked back at the drawing and frowned slightly.

A Black Moon...

He followed Emily deeper into the orphanage while the question remained in his mind.

Don’t tell me it’s connected to the Black Moon Incident?

They eventually entered a courtyard where hundreds of children’s names had been written across the walls. Some had faded with time, while others had been crossed out repeatedly.

One name immediately caught Reinhard’s attention.

Selene.

He stared at it for another moment before continuing. The missing Awakener was eventually found in a reinforced room beneath the orphanage. She was badly injured and barely conscious, but several children were hiding around her.

Yuna immediately knelt beside her. "We’re getting you out."

The woman tried to speak, but her voice barely came out.

"The children..."

"We know," Yuna assured her. "We’re bringing everyone back."

Mara nodded and began organizing the evacuation while the rest of the team gathered the children.

One small girl refused to move, hugging a worn stuffed animal tightly against her chest.

Lily crouched in front of her. "We need to leave."

The girl shook her head. "I can’t."

"Why?"

"I can’t leave it."

Rhea crouched beside Lily and looked at the stuffed animal. "We’ll bring it with you."

The girl shook her head again. "It’s too big."

Reinhard looked at the toy before opening his inventory. He pulled out several small wooden shape relics from the spending spree he and Lily had gone on in Marvello and placed them in front of the child.

Lily immediately recognized them. "Reinhard..."

He ignored her and looked at the girl. "You can have these."

The girl’s eyes widened. "Really?"

"Of course."

She still looked uncertainly at the stuffed animal, so Reinhard picked it up himself. "I’ll carry this one."

"You will?"

"Yes. I’ve carried worse things."

Rhea looked at him. "That’s not reassuring."

"It wasn’t supposed to be."

The girl finally let go of the toy and accepted the wooden figures, allowing Lily to lead her toward the exit.

They had barely taken a few steps when Maki suddenly looked toward the entrance.

"The Mana stopped."

Mara turned toward her. "What stopped?"

"Everything outside."

The team fell silent as they listened.

There were no Abnormalities moving through the streets, no distant impacts, and no fluctuations from the Mana surrounding the town.

Seraphine’s expression tightened. "Blood Mana."

A thin red vein appeared across the pavement outside the orphanage, followed by another as Blood Mana slowly spread through the surrounding streets.

Figures emerged between the buildings.

Bloodkin.

Their leader stepped into view and looked directly toward Reinhard.

"You returned."

Reinhard sighed. "I was hoping you’d forget."

The Bloodkin’s gaze shifted toward the orphanage and the children gathered inside.

"You enter our territory again."

Reinhard’s expression remained calm, but before he could answer, Maki suddenly looked down.

"The Mana beneath us is moving."

Seraphine turned toward her. "What is it?"

Maki’s face tightened as she tried to understand the readings. "I don’t know."

The entire building suddenly trembled.

Cracks spread across the walls as something enormous shifted beneath the orphanage, and Seraphine’s expression changed when she finally understood what she was sensing.

"The Abnormality isn’t outside."

Mara looked at her. "What?"

"It’s underneath the town."

The ground violently shook, forcing everyone to move at once as the orphanage began sinking. Yuna grabbed the injured Awakener, Mara shouted for everyone to evacuate, and Emily, Rika, Lily, and Reinhard pulled the children away from the collapsing floor.

Then the town itself began to change.

The streets twisted as buildings distorted around them, while the old church bent toward the center and enormous waves of Mana surged upward from beneath the ground.

The Abnormality had finally awakened.

As the battlefield transformed around him, Reinhard’s perception caught several unfamiliar Mana signatures approaching from the eastern side of town. At first he assumed they were more Bloodkin, but the signatures moved differently, and the Mana they carried was unmistakably human.

There was one.

Then another.

Then several more.

Reinhard’s eyes narrowed as he recognized the pattern.

Someone else had entered the battlefield, and judging from the direction they were coming from, they weren’t here to help.

Mara noticed his expression. "Who is it?"

Reinhard looked toward the distant street, where several silhouettes were beginning to appear through the distorted Mana.

Heavenpiercer appeared in his hand.

"We’re about to have company."

The Bloodkin turned toward the newcomers while the Abnormality roared beneath the town, and around them the orphanage continued collapsing as the mission that had gone almost perfectly finally became something else entirely.