Back in the Animus Hub, the weight of Erwin's explanation settled over them.
"Do you think we should expand our operations to the Theocracy?" Zero asked, breaking the grim silence.
Erwin and Sebas looked at each other, then at Zero. "Where did this come from?" Erwin asked.
"I don't know," Zero said, shrugging. "I just don't want to be chained to the URA forever. If we're going to build something, we should be prepared for all possibilities."
"And who would we send?" Soma asked, ever the pragmatist when it came to manpower. "We're all a bit busy."
"You're right," Zero conceded. "There's no use planning it all out. The Gacha is the one leading our path, anyway. Even looking at Legolas... his path doesn't make logical sense, but here we are."
"Hey," Legolas said, his voice a smooth, melodic line. "I 'raw nîn, maer anann."
Soma stared at him blankly. "Alright, Tolkien, no one here can understand you."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Legolas replied, a hint of elven condescension in his tone. "Some people actually know how to speak other languages."
Soma's eyes narrowed. 「日本語なら話せるぞ,こら!」 he shot back.
「私も.」Sebas, Erwin, and Legolas said in near-perfect unison.
Zero threw his hands up in the air. "Well, I can't! Aarrggh! You guys are making me jealous."
"What's there to be jealous about?" Erwin asked reasonably. "There's no one else in this entire world who speaks Japanese or Legolas's... elvish."
"Sindarin," Legolas corrected smoothly.
"Yeah, whatever," Erwin said.
"Master Zero," Sebas interjected, changing the subject. "Do you think you could explore more of your own demon magic?"
"That's a good idea," Erwin agreed. "I can go to the Royal Library tomorrow if you like. See what they have on demonology. Maybe there's something I missed the first time I went there."
"No need," Zero said, a decision forming in his mind. "I'll go there myself. It's been a while since I've been out."
They all paused, staring at him.
"What?" Zero asked.
Sebas sighed, the overprotective butler mode activating instantly. "I will ready the rune-car and another two escorts with my most trusted subordinates inside."
"I'll contact Sergeant Lomare for a favor," Erwin added. "He can send a discreet unit to guard you from behind."
"I will ready my bow," Legolas said, his eyes sharp. "I can provide reconnaissance from the rooftops."
Zero stared at them, then burst out laughing. "Whoa, whoa! Calm down, everyone! I'm just going to the library, not challenging the Silent Night to a fistfight."
"I'll guard the café with Gusteau!" Soma added, a second too late.
"I really don't need all that," Zero said, his laughter subsiding. "It's a chill walk. I need to face the music, and a little taste of the outside world every now and then will be good for me."
"At the very least," Sebas insisted, "allow me to send Liane and Ren as a shadow guard. They will be unseen."
"I'll ask Céline to–" Erwin started.
"Alright," Zero cut him off firmly. "Liane and Ren are enough. I don't need the Watchers escorting me to check out a book." He then looked at Legolas, who was still staring at him with an intense, protective gaze. Zero sighed. "And I don't need your bow, either, Legolas."
Legolas narrowed his eyes. "Avoid the racist blocks."
"Of course," Zero said, rolling his own. "Not planning on taking a stroll through any demon-restricted areas."
…
In the vast, dry expanse of the Scorched Plains, the Silent Night was a suffocating blanket. The omnipresent shhhhhhhhhhh was not a sound but the absence of it, a pressure on the eardrums that made the world feel small and claustrophobic. High above the ducal palace, Myer Cantor, a senior Abjuration mage, floated, his eyes fixed forward, his entire being focused on the shimmering silver barrier.
"I think this is it, Professor," his apprentice whispered, his voice strained. "We're more than halfway through. The barrier is holding."
"Do not assume," Myer's voice was a low murmur, careful not to carry. "Do not relax. Keep looking forward."
"Y-yes, Professor."
Suddenly, the pressure vanished.
The shhhhhhhhhhh stopped.
The silence that followed was a thousand times more terrifying. It was a perfect, absolute void of sound that screamed a warning. Myer and his apprentice held their breath, every muscle in their bodies screaming at them not to turn, not to look.
Then, from the direction of the ducal residences, a thin, reedy shriek tore through the silence. It was a sound of pure, unadulterated terror, and it was abruptly cut off with a wet pop.
CRUNCH.
The eating sound began. Free to move, Myer and every guard on the wall spun their entire bodies around. High in the barrier, a pinprick of darkness was widening, a tear in reality itself. Viscous black ichor dripped from its edges, and from this wound in the sky, a proboscis of pale, boneless flesh was descending with horrifying speed.
It struck a small but elegant house on the edge of the palace grounds. The building didn't just collapse; it imploded, wood and stone folding inward as if crushed by an invisible, giant fist. The fleshy tube, its tip a mouth that wasn't a mouth, plunged into the wreckage. The grinding, pulping sounds that echoed across the plains were wet, intimate, and sickeningly loud.
"The tear! Seal the tear!" Myer roared, he and the other mages streaking across the sky, their hands already glowing with searing light.
But they were too late. The scream, the crunch, the sight of the impossible creature—it had woken people. Lights flickered on in nearby houses. Faces, confused and terrified, appeared in windows. They turned their heads. They looked.
The creature finished its meal. The last, definitive crunch echoed and faded. The fleshy proboscis retracted, pulling back through the tear in the sky.
Then the hushing began again, louder this time, more insistent.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...
And the world snapped back into a broken shape.
Myer Cantor, hovering in the air with his hands outstretched, suddenly felt a wave of profound confusion. Why was he here? He was supposed to be on the western perimeter. He looked down at the empty lot where a house had stood moments before. 'Strange,' he thought, his mind supplying a perfectly logical, completely false explanation. 'I didn't realize the Duke had scheduled a demolition for today.' The feeling of wrongness, the phantom limb of a memory, was quickly washed away by the logic his own mind created to fill the void.
The guards on the wall blinked. They felt a cold draft where moments before there had been a sense of shared panic. Their captain was yelling orders, but they couldn't remember what the initial alarm was for.
Inside the ducal palace, Archduke Alastair Brenford stirred in his sleep, a vague, unsettling dream of a scream fading from his mind. He felt a chill, a sudden emptiness in the grand tapestry of his domain, as if a single, unimportant thread had been pulled loose. He dismissed it as a nightmare and settled back into a restless sleep.
Only one person saw and remembered.
In his crib, the baby Alec Brenford began to cry. Not the loud, demanding wail of a hungry infant, but a soft, terrified whimper. He had seen it all. And in his ancient, infant eyes, the memory remained. He cried for the man who was gone, for the family that no longer existed, for the unseen void that had just been carved into the world, a void that only he could now perceive.
…
Back in Evercrest, the grotesque, fleshy sky of The Hush still hung over the city, a silent, oppressive blanket. Mages, led by the duchy's chief abjurer, Professor Bryn Garner, continued their ceaseless patrol, their glowing forms a stark contrast against the pale canvas. Below, the Watchers moved with a frenetic energy, finally free to move their heads and hurry through the streets.
The night felt impossibly long, an eternity of shared, silent dread. Then, the first rays of true sunlight cut through the horror, and the sky snapped back to its familiar, brilliant blue.
Professor Garner let out a long, shuddering sigh of relief. "It's over," he announced to his covenant, his voice hoarse. "Check your memory books. Sound off. I want to know if any of our own were... vanished."
On the streets below, a similar ritual was taking place. The Watchers, who had been awake all night, frantically pulled out their own small notebooks and scraps of parchment. A collective, city-wide wave of relief washed over them as they all confirmed that their loved ones, their partners, their friends... they were all still there. The city's barrier had held. Evercrest was safe.
At the ducal palace, Duke Orion Evercrest gave a deep, respectful bow to the exhausted mages. "Thank you, Professor Garner. On behalf of my entire duchy, thank you."
Bryn Garner just yawned. "Delay the celebratory banquet until tomorrow, can you? Tonight, I feel like sleeping for a week."
"Of course," the Duke said. "We have prepared the finest hotel in the duchy for you and your people. Once again, thank you."
As the mages walked out, their job done, Duke Orion slumped into his throne, the adrenaline finally leaving him. He rubbed his temples. "Keep me posted on the reports from the other territories," he said to his assistant. "I need some sleep."
…
In the loft of Café LeBlanc, Zero was up unusually early, an excited energy about him. He had just finished washing his long hair and was vigorously drying it with a towel.
Soma, already in the kitchen preparing for the day, looked at him. "Isn't it annoying, having all that long hair to deal with?"
"Naahh, it's good," Zero said, preening a bit. "I look like a young Zhuge Liang." He manifested a simple paper fan from nowhere, flicking it open and holding it before his face. "Fufufufu, how do I look?"
"Like a third-rate young master from a bad historical drama," Soma shot back without missing a beat.
"Third-rate!" Zero said, offended.
"HAHAHAHA!"
Zero finished getting ready, his usual casual attire on, his veiled hat in place. As he was about to go downstairs, he saw Legolas, fully dressed, about to slip out the second-floor window.
"Where are you going?" Zero asked.
Legolas turned slowly, a bow held loosely in his hand.
"And why," Zero continued, his voice laced with amusement, "do you have your bow?"
Legolas sighed, his stealthy exit thwarted. "Okay, you got me."
"It's alright," Zero said, walking past him towards the stairs. "Just don't follow me." He then went downstairs, his voice echoing up. "Byeeee!"
He reached the front door. Soma had come down from the loft, a worried look on his face. "You sure about this?"
Zero took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly, a puff of resolve. "I'm ready," he said. He opened the door, took a deep breath of the fresh morning air, looked back at Soma, and gave a final, confident wave.
Unbeknownst to him, from the shadows of a rooftop across the street, two figures watched him go.
"Do we know why he is of such interest to the Master?" Ren asked his twin.
"Just do what the Master told you," Liane replied, her voice sharp and direct.
They melted back into the shadows, following their charge from a distance.
As he stepped out into the morning from the alley. The air was crisp and clean, the oppressive weight of the Silent Night completely gone, leaving behind a city that felt renewed. It was a world of runic steam rising from grates, of magitech lamps flickering off as the sun claimed the sky, a world of brick and steel that hummed with a quiet, ever-present energy. It was a magical, industrial city, an '80s New York seen through a fantastical lens.
And today, the city felt closer, more intimate, than ever before.
The shared trauma of the night had forged a new, fragile bond among its people. Neighbors who usually only offered a curt nod were now embracing in the streets, their faces etched with a profound, tearful relief. "You're okay!" they'd say. "Thank the gods, you're okay." Younger children, oblivious to the existential horror they had just survived, were just happy to be caught up in the sudden, overwhelming wave of affection, laughing as they were hugged and fussed over by their parents.
A genuine smile touched Zero's lips from under his veil. It seemed that even in the face of absolute peril, there was a light at the end of the tunnel, a spark of community and love that made it all worth fighting for.
He was so lost in the moment that he almost didn't see the familiar horned face in the crowd. "Boss!"
Zero turned to see Kael, his demon regular, rushing toward him. "Kael! I was about to head to the library."
"I was just on my way to your café!" Kael said, pulling him into a tight, heartfelt hug. "Oh, thank the gods you're alright."
Zero, caught up in the joyous, city-wide celebration, returned the hug. "Yes, of course," he said with a laugh. "Glad to see my pancake demolisher is still with us."
Kael laughed at the dry joke, the sound free and unburdened. As they stood there, Zero's keen ears caught the less charitable whispers from the passing crowd. A sneer from a human merchant: "...filthy demons, should've been the first to vanish..." A disdainful look from a well-dressed elf. But Zero saw that Kael heard it too, and simply chose to ignore it, his focus entirely on the good. The demon's face was alight with pure, unadulterated happiness.
"Boss," Kael said, turning and gesturing to a demoness who was standing shyly behind him. "I want you to meet my wife, Lilly."
"Oh!" Zero said, turning his attention to her. "This is the other half of Kael I've heard so much about." He offered her a hand. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. You two complete each other."
Kael and Lilly both beamed. "I was just about to take her to your café for the first time," Kael said. "Are you closed today?"
"No, no, the café is open," Zero said with a wave of his hand. "Soma is handling it. Gotta let him earn that paycheck, hahaha."
Kael laughed too. "Well, we're going to go get some of those famous pancakes, then. We need a good breakfast."
"Of course," Zero said. "Be careful."
The couple walked off towards the café, their hands intertwined, their smiles bright. Zero adjusted his veiled hat and continued his walk toward the library. The entire city seemed to be engaged in the same unspoken celebration, a collective sigh of relief after a night spent holding their breath. He was glad, so incredibly glad, that he had chosen today to finally step out.
*A/N*
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*A/N*