Hunter of the Evernight-Chapter 833: The Thing

"What do you want?" Demetrius asked as he knelt on one knee across from his opponent, the dark-haired maniac who had decided to kill his men without mercy.

His armor was broken and several scars lined his body, all a result of trying and failing to stop the bastard from killing more of his men.

He’d watched the man... no, there was no way the thing before him was a man.

It was best to call it a thing, a thing wearing flesh, and the flesh couldn’t be considered to be human, not with how it was able to remain intact despite receiving quite a few blows from his spear.

The thing before him had already killed fifty men, men he had led for several years.

If he could, he would rip the bastard to shreds and use its body parts to pay homage to his fallen soldiers.

But he couldn’t and so, he was forced to do what he didn’t wish to do.

Talk.

The thing stood across from him, its right hand still holding on tightly to a bloodied spear made of some unknown material.

Despite being surrounded by musket-wielding soldiers, he did not flinch a bit, hence adding to Demetrius’ anger as this meant that there was no stopping the bastard if they chose to keep on fighting.

"Commander!"

Two soldiers rushed to his aid but he pushed them away and got back on his feet.

"I asked a question," Demetrius remarked as he glared at the thing. "What do you want?"

"For your men to leave, there is no longer a need for you all to remain here."

"And once we are gone?" Demetrius asked. "What do you intend to do?"

"That should not concern you, Commander." The thing calmly replied. "I can see you are just like me."

"We are nothing alike."

"We both wish to protect our allies. So it is in your best interest to leave."

"And what if I don’t want to?"

"I admit that there is no chance I will manage to win against your entire army. But I am more than willing to ensure that your victory would not be one to celebrate, so make the right choice, retreat. You may return when you are sure you can win with minimal losses."

"And why would I return?"

"Because I can see it in your eyes, you are not one to accept defeat so easily, just like me."

"You will regret this." Demetrius coldly remarked to which the thing responded.

"I know, but I do not have a choice."

Gritting his teeth, Demetrius glared at the thing for a little while longer before ultimately making his decision at which point he remarked. "Fall back!"

"Fall back!"

"Fall back!"

His retainers echoed his words, ensuring that everyone heard it, at which point, though reluctant, the others began to lower their weapons.

Then, Demetrius turned and left, making his way back to his camp to pack up with the others moving to do the same.

Back in Demetrius’ camp, his retainers gathered around him.

"Commander, are we really going to leave like this?"

"No, but we are facing off against an opponent we know little about. Quillion doesn’t seem to work on him which means most of what he did was done with pure physicality."

"But that can’t be, right?... He’s just a human."

Demetrius immediately turned to glare at the retainer who spoke, causing the latter to go silent. "That thing is not human."

"But he looks like us, speaks like us... knows our language."

"Cryptids can also do all that but they aren’t humans now, are they?"

"So what is he?" Another retainer asked, just as perplexed as the others.

"I don’t know." Demetrius sincerely replied. "It’s clear he isn’t a Cryptid or Mutant or Mystic, perhaps some sort of new breed of man."

"According to reports from the others, it seems the man... I mean, thing, stepped out of the Wound."

Demetrius pursed his lips. "Send word back to Pellasus. Let the Emperor know what’s happened here and ask for reinforcement."

"Understood."

Meanwhile, the thing, the one Demetrius refused to believe was human, made his back towards the area around the Wound which was now devoid of presence.

He regarded the phenomenon briefly before muttering in a language quite foreign to any other languages in Eventide.

Alākum.

The Wound rippled and the aether stirred after which five figures emerged from the Wound, each one a featureless humanoid with nothing of note.

They tried to speak, but their words came out as gibberish, and then, almost immediately, the aether began to ripple aggressively, almost like it was trying to send these entities back into the Wound.

Before that could happen, though, the one wielding the spear conjured arcane forces with a simple wave of his hands, after which the five figures took on human forms, causing the aether to settle down.

Of the five, two were male and three were female, with all stunned out of their minds by the sudden transformation.

"It worked?" one of the women remarked while staring at her arms.

"Where are we, Gil?" Another of the women asked as she stepped forward. "Also, what happened?... You are covered in blood."

"Let’s leave this place for now. We can discuss further when we are in a safe space."

"Alright."

Then, one took a breath after which a beam of light left her body before forming into a large white tiger with stripes.

Then, they all got on and the tiger began to move, crossing large distances in seconds before ultimately disappearing from view.

Once they were gone, Nadia and Victoria pulled away, both clearly perplexed by what they’d seen.

"What do you think?" Nadia asked after several seconds of silence.

"I think that those guys won’t be able to help us find master, which means it’s pointless thinking about them."

"True, but still... Did you see that?"

"I did, Nadia and it doesn’t concern us. We have bigger things to worry about, let others take care of those things... whatever they are."

"Alright then. So what do you suggest?"

"You and I both know there’s only one way to figure out what happened with Alex and the others."

"But..."

"Put aside your differences and just focus on what’s important."

Letting out a sigh, Nadia replied. "Fine then. Come on, we need to prepare for the summoning."