The Incubus System Chapter 268. Mysterious Dark Power I

The Demon Hunters’ PoV (Larry and Tiffany)

07.51 PM

The night sky above Nighthallow City was clear. The moon and stars were clearly visible in the sky with few clouds between them. Most of the city’s streets were empty, Ledred was the only district that was still lively. But since the Demon Detectors and Alarms were in every corner of the district, that shouldn’t be a problem.

In another district, the demon hunters walked past a row of closed shops. Their feet moved swiftly across the quiet sidewalk, their attention occasionally shifting on the Demon Compass in their hands. As usual, they were patrolling according to their duty areas. The difference was, because of yesterday’s incident, the chairwoman decided to assign two demon hunters in one area. Not only because of the demon attacks becoming more frequent these days and preventing more casualties, but also so that the association had a better chance of meeting or investigating about the great demon.

“Eh? The chairwoman asked you to investigate Ethan?” said Larry in disbelief without stopping his steps. His eyes that looked at Tiffany who was walking beside him clearly showed his surprise. Since Mrs Clea was a little worried about Larry’s condition, she ordered Tiffany to accompany him on patrol tonight.

“Shhh! Lower your voice.” Tiffany hissed in a low voice. Her eyes swept around her. Indeed the place was quiet. The lights in front of the shops had dimmed, indicating they were closed. Only street lights accompanied their steps. But occasionally some people still passed them and it was taboo for a demon hunter to mention someone’s name even though he didn’t mention his surname.

Reflexively, Larry swept his gaze in panic.

“But why?” he said after making sure no one was near them.

“It’s because of that reporter. The chairwoman said she caught the reporter near her house this afternoon. She thought the reporter was spying on her but it turns out ‘she’ (Elenna) is looking for ‘him’ (Ethan). So the chairwoman wants to investigate what happened,” Tiffany explained.

“Do you mean that slime reporter?” Larry confirmed. He remembered that the reporter who broke into Myra’s mansion last night was the same person who interviewed Miss Diamond at college. He also caught her following Ethan a few days ago. But when Larry followed Elenna to ‘rescue Ethan’, he lost her track.

“Yes. Her,” Tiffany clarified.

“Pffftt!” Larry held his laugh since it was the funniest thing he had heard today. If he wasn’t wearing his Demon Hunter uniform, maybe, he had laughed out loud as usual.

“I’ve heard about that. You know— She accused ‘him’ as one of us, even said ‘he’ was at Nighthallow Station when the attack occurred. While in fact ‘he’ spent his time in the hospital toilet because of a stomach ache.” His chuckles sounded in between his voices. It was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard of. He knew this from Emma. Also, some students talked about how Elenna approached Ethan and argued with him.

” ‘He’ also said the same thing to the chairwoman and she (Mrs Clea) has confirmed this with the Nighthallow hospital CCTV footage. She has also confirmed ‘he’ was at the White Guardian Hospital when last night’s big attack took place. So we conclude that the reporter was hallucinating since she was too shocked by what happened at Nighthallow Station,” said Tiffany.

“What do you mean?” asked Larry with a frown. Of course, he meant her last sentence.

“That reporter encountered that great demon at close range in the Nighthallow Station incident. So maybe it caused her trauma or some kind of shock that caused the hallucinations. But what I don’t understand, of all people, why ‘him’ (Ethan)?” Tiffany couldn’t deny that Ethan’s fighting ability was above average, especially when he fought alongside her at Nighthallow Hospital’s parking lot. His movements were very sharp and fast although it was clear he was only relying on his reflexes as if he was used to it. But without Larry’s help, Tiffany believed that Ethan wouldn’t be able to defeat the demon. Surprisingly, Mrs Clea said the association spy had never found Ethan practising martial arts before. Even though he could have trained at home, she had never heard of anyone being able to fight that skillfully without a trainer.

“Is it because ‘she’ (Elenna) has seen ‘him’ (Ethan) fight? Or… maybe ‘she’ has seen ‘him’ use his skill?” Tiffany muttered. Ruby had also mentioned Ethan’s Thunder skill, of course in addition to Ethan’s confession that he had many girlfriends. Tiffany thought maybe it had something to do with it. After all, people who had that skill were very rare, so Elenna may have guessed Ethan was a demon hunter from there. Plus Ethan reminded Tiffany of how weak his father was when he was a teenager and got stronger as he got older. It could have happened to Ethan too.

“Maybe. I was also shocked when I found out he can fight.” Then Larry fell silent with a gloomy face as he remembered something that happened a few months ago.

“But… I understand why he decided to learn to fight…” he continued. He could remember how Ethan walked into class with a bruise on his face months ago. Although Ethan didn’t say who did it, Larry was sure it was Bern who had hit him. He knew how Ethan had tried desperately to protect his little sister, so it was natural that he learned to fight to protect Celia from Bern.

“Is it because of his sister’s ex-boyfriend?” said Tiffany.

“Yea.”

A breath escaped her mouth.

“Did ‘he’ also tell you about that?” she guessed.

“No. ‘He’ never said anything to me. But I know how annoying that person was and how he (Bern) treated ‘him’ and his sister. If it wasn’t because I had to cover up my identity, maybe, I would have beaten that jerk.” There was undeniable sadness and guilt in Larry’s heart since he couldn’t say anything about Ethan’s father’s sacrifice nor help him. Despite all their jokes, stupidity, crimes and useless competition, Ethan was the best friend Larry had ever had.

Meanwhile, from Larry’s answer, Tiffany could conclude that Ethan didn’t lie to her. Even though his oddity still bothered her.

As their feet moved and their minds lost in their own thoughts, their Demon Compass vibrated. They stopped their steps and checked their Demon Compass. In caution, they followed where the Demon Compass led them, a construction site. The creepy laughter came from there, quickly, they hid behind the fences and peered into the place. Even though it was a little dark, they could catch some Chaos Imps walking around among the piles of big pipes.

Larry and Tiffany exchanged glances for a while as if they were discussing with each other what they would do to attack the three demons. Since they were far from the crowd, they decided to ambush those demons without using their Holy Chain. Larry prepared his Holy Blast. While Tiffany prepared her Mana Strike. But before they attacked the demons, screams of pain came from the demons.

They peered once more, their eyes widened in shock and their hearts pounded in fear since they had never seen anything horrific like this before. The mysterious dark force erupted from the ground beneath the demons and formed dozens of black hands with terrifying claws. Those hands grabbed the demons, making them unable to escape, although they struggled with all their might. While the other claws attacked the demons brutally, tearing their skin and flesh, dyeing the ground beneath them with blood. It only took a few seconds to turn those demons into ashes.

As the wind blew away the ashes, those hands turned into a dark aura and entered the ground like smoke swallowed by the darkness of the night.

Larry and Tiffany could only stare silently in shock. From their Demon Compass, it was clear that there were no other demons in the place. But, what was that? What fearsome power was that? There was no one around them, yet the demons died mysteriously and in brutal ways.

“Is this that Great Demon doing?” said Larry as he could get his voice out. That was all he could think of. Because that demon was the only one who made the demon hunter association look as if it was just a kindergarten filled with little kids learning to fight.

“I think…” said Tiffany.

“We should report it to the headquarters…” Larry’s slightly shaking hand took his cellphone and he quickly dialled the association phone number.