Adrian stood there for a few moments before turning back toward the city.
His mind was a mess.
Every time he tried to make sense of what had happened, he remembered the black energy that had erupted from him, followed by his mother’s words.
When he reached the city, he saw a group of surviving Night Guards.
Dan was among them.
Dan’s eyes widened when he saw Adrian.
“Adrian?!”
One of the guards approached him.
“We saw the creatures dragging you into the forest!
How did you make it out of their territory alive?”
Adrian didn’t answer.
He simply stared at them in silence, as if he hadn’t even heard the question.
Dan walked up to him, concern filling his voice.
“Adrian, what happened?”
Adrian tried to answer, but he couldn’t find the words.
His mind was still trapped in what had happened inside the forest.
He couldn’t understand the power that had emerged from him, or what his mother had done.
After a few moments, Adrian finally said only one thing.
“I want to go home.”
Dan looked at him and realized Adrian couldn’t keep fighting in this condition.
He went to his squad leader and explained what had happened.
“He’s in no condition to fight right now.
I want to take him to his grandfather’s house.”
The squad leader looked at Adrian, then agreed.
Dan returned to him.
“Come on.
I’ll take you to your grandfather’s house.”
Adrian didn’t respond.
He simply walked beside Dan in silence.
Dawn was beginning to break when Adrian and Dan reached his grandfather’s house.
The moment his grandfather opened the door and saw them, concern immediately appeared on his face.
Adrian entered the house and sat down in silence, with Dan sitting beside him.
His body was covered in wounds, but he paid no attention to them.
He remained quiet, thinking about everything that had happened in the forest and his mother’s final words.
His grandfather watched him anxiously.
“Adrian, what happened?
Why did you come back like this?”
Adrian didn’t answer.
Suddenly, he raised his head and looked toward the end of the hallway.
There was a door leading to the basement, and something inside him urged him to look down there.
Adrian stood up.
“The basement…”
Dan looked at him in confusion.
“What about it?”
“I don’t know, but I feel like there’s something down there.”
He walked to the door and opened it before heading down the stairs.
Dan and his grandfather followed him until they reached the basement.
The room was dark and cold.
Nothing immediately stood out.
Adrian took a few steps forward, then stopped.
A faint sound came from the darkness.
Dan looked around cautiously as the grandfather moved closer to them.
Suddenly, a black creature lunged out of the shadows!
Adrian raised his arm at the last second.
The creature’s claws slammed into it, knocking him backward.
He staggered several steps before raising his eyes toward it.
It was a huge black creature with white eyes and sharp teeth.
“It’s one of them!” Dan shouted.
The creature lunged again.
Adrian turned and dodged its claws, but the creature caught him at the last second and slammed him hard against the wall.
Anger began rising inside Adrian.
He wasn’t only angry at the creature.
He was angry at everything that had happened since that night—from the deaths of his father and mother to everything he had seen in the forest.
He clenched his fist.
“Why won’t you stop?”
The creature attacked again, landing a powerful blow that knocked Adrian to the ground.
“Adrian!” Dan shouted.
Adrian slowly raised his head and saw the creature moving toward Dan and his grandfather.
His eyes widened as the anger inside him grew stronger.
“Don’t…
go near them.”
Adrian forced himself back to his feet.
Something strange was moving inside his body.
Intense heat spread through his veins, and faint black lines appeared across his skin.
He stared at his hands in disbelief.
“What is this…?”
He had no time to think.
Adrian rushed toward the creature, but this time, he was faster.
He slipped past its attack in a single burst of movement, then drove his fist into its face with tremendous force.
The creature was sent flying and crashed into the wall.
Adrian stared at his hand, then at the creature.
He didn’t understand what had just happened, but he could feel something inside him beginning to awaken.
The creature rose from the rubble and opened its mouth, preparing to attack again.
Adrian raised his head, his eyes filled with anger.
“I won’t let you touch them.”
The creature charged at Adrian once more, but Adrian moved at the last second and drove another powerful punch into its head.
The creature crashed to the ground and didn’t move again.
Adrian stood there, breathing heavily as he stared at his hand.
The black lines across his skin slowly faded, while traces of the strange power lingered around his body for a few seconds before disappearing completely.
Dan remained frozen in place, staring at Adrian in shock.
He couldn’t understand what had just happened.
His grandfather, meanwhile, looked at Adrian in fear, his eyes shifting between him and the creature’s corpse.
He didn’t know what to say, but he could feel that something dangerous had happened to his grandson.
“I…
I don’t know what happened,” Adrian said, staring at his hand.
Dan had no answer.
He remained silent, staring at Adrian as if he was still trying to process what he had just witnessed.
At that moment, his grandfather’s expression suddenly changed.
He began looking around frantically, as if he had remembered something important.
He moved through the basement, searching the room with growing panic.
“No…
No, this can’t be.”
He hurried between the objects until his eyes landed on a glass box in one corner of the basement.
The box was broken, and white vapor was slowly escaping from it.
His grandfather approached it hesitantly.
The moment he saw what was inside, tears began streaming down his face.
“No…” he whispered.
Adrian walked toward him.
“Grandpa?”
His grandfather suddenly turned toward him and stepped back.
“Don’t come any closer!”
Adrian stopped.
His grandfather stared at him in fear.
“You’ve become one of them.”
Adrian took a step back.
He couldn’t respond because part of him had begun to fear that his grandfather might be right.
He didn’t know what had happened to his body either, or what the strange power inside him really was.
But Dan stepped forward without hesitation and stood beside him.
“Maybe I don’t understand what happened to you, and I don’t know what this power is,” Dan said firmly.
“But I do know one thing.
You’re my best friend, and you always will be.
Even if you turn into one of them, I know you’ll still be the Adrian I know.”
Adrian looked at him.
A small smile appeared on his face, and some of the tension inside him finally eased.
Dan’s words had reminded him of who he was.
Adrian then turned toward his grandfather.
“Grandpa…
what was inside that box?”
His grandfather looked at the broken box through his tears.
“Your mother’s body was inside it…
but now I can’t find her.”
Adrian stared at the broken box.
“So you were the one who kept her here?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you bury her?”
His grandfather lowered his head as tears streamed down his face.
“I couldn’t bear losing her.
Even if it was only her body…
seeing her every day helped me forget the pain.”
Adrian looked around the basement and noticed a large opening in one of the walls.
He approached it.
“The creatures came here and took Mom’s body.
They left through this opening.
But we arrived while the last one was still here.”
Dan looked at him in confusion.
“What does that mean?”
“It means they haven’t gone far yet.
We can catch up to them before they burn her body.”
“Adrian…
I don’t understand.”
Adrian looked at him.
“Those creatures were originally human souls.
Other creatures steal their souls under the orders of the Mirror Master, and those souls eventually turn into the monsters we see.
But they burn the bodies of the people those souls belonged to, severing the connection between the souls and our world.”
Dan frowned.
“That’s why we found the adults’ bodies burned…
But why do they eat children?”
“When I met my mother, she told me that children’s souls don’t turn into these creatures.
The transformation happens because of hatred and anger, and children haven’t experienced those emotions yet.
That’s why the creatures eat them instead.”
Adrian looked toward the opening with determination.
“That’s why I have to catch them before they burn Mom’s body.
I have to burn it myself so her soul can finally be freed.”