CHAPTER 52: CHAPTER 52 – ETERNAL NIGHT (PART 9)

Chapter 52 – Eternal Night (Part 9)

Jack’s chest rose and fell sharply, his breath unsteady as he tried to regain his bearings. The world around him was still shrouded in silence, but the sudden end to the chaos left a strange ringing in his ears. The suffocating mass of vines that had moments ago threatened to consume everything had already begun to disintegrate, curling inward and burning away into ash. Fire trailed like veins through the ruined maze of cannibalistic vegetation, streaking in a deliberate path that seemed to withdraw back toward the main body of the monstrous growth.

’That was...’ His thoughts tangled as he blinked, struggling to wrap his head around it. Slowly, his gaze rose.

Floating at his side was the familiar divine beauty, her radiance untainted even in the midst of so much destruction. Her face, however, was not calm—it was etched with unease, her lips pressed together as though she feared the words she might utter. Worry and fear shadowed her expression, though she said nothing.

Jack could only stare for a moment, his eyes drinking in both her presence and the strangeness of the situation.

"Jack?" Evelyn’s voice broke through the haze, soft but sharp with concern.

"... I don’t know." He forced the words out, feigning confusion as if he were just as lost as she was. "It wasn’t me."

That, at least, was partly true. The rest he could not admit. He couldn’t tell her that it was Lune—the silent guardian bound to him—who had struck down that creature. Revealing that would only bring more questions, questions he wasn’t prepared to answer.

Evelyn’s brow furrowed. "If it’s not you, then... who? That thing caught fire all at once, too perfectly. That wasn’t an accident."

Her suspicion carried weight. The flames hadn’t spread like a natural blaze; they had consumed with precision. As she searched her thoughts, something else stirred in her memory. Not long ago, when they had been facing the Dire Tiger, Jack had been flung into the air. She remembered vividly the moment he should have crashed hard against the ground—only, he hadn’t. His fall had slowed unnaturally, his body touching the earth with a gentleness that defied all logic.

At the time, she had doubted her own eyes, dismissing it as the illusion of chaos. But now...

’Something doesn’t add up.’ Her eyes narrowed slightly, lingering on Jack. He looked bewildered, perhaps genuinely. If he knew more, he was hiding it well. Still, coincidences could only explain so much.

Her curiosity sharpened, but she swallowed the questions forming on her tongue. For now, there were more pressing matters.

"A-Agh..." Jack groaned as he pushed himself upright, his body still aching from the encounter. Evelyn was quick to step forward, offering her hand without hesitation. Their fingers briefly touched as he steadied himself.

Together, they rose to their feet, turning their eyes toward the gutted building. Where once the vines had filled every corner and crevice, there was only emptiness now, walls stripped bare and coated in blackened residue.

"Let’s leave," Evelyn urged. "We don’t know if those things will come back."

Jack cracked his neck with a grunt, rolling his shoulders as he tested his body. The bleeding had already stopped, and though sore, he felt his strength returning. His body was healing faster than expected. "Yeah... let’s go."

Neither of them wanted to linger. Their footsteps echoed as they rushed from the hollowed structure into the open street.

The district outside was a wasteland. Silence clung to the air, broken only by the crunch of debris beneath their boots. The corpses of monsters had long cooled, leaving behind only mangled remains and the trail of destruction that marked their passing. Above, the night sky stretched endlessly, deeper and darker than before. The stars glittered cruelly, and the eclipsed moon pulsed with an unnatural brightness, as though the heavens themselves had shifted.

Jack stared upward, his expression dark.

"..."

Evelyn followed his gaze, then muttered under her breath, "It’s that man’s work, isn’t it?"

Jack’s jaw tightened. "He changed the sky. Somehow." He hesitated, then added, "You feel it, don’t you?"

Her eyes lowered to him, questioning. "Feel... what?"

"Essence," Jack said, blinking slowly. "It’s in the air. Far thicker than before."

The word struck her like a bell. Instinctively, she spread her aura, probing the atmosphere around them. What she felt made her eyes widen slightly. The world itself seemed saturated, the flow of essence weaving through the air, seeping into her skin with every breath.

"That shockwave we felt earlier..." Jack’s voice broke through her stunned silence. "It wasn’t just destruction. It was essence being injected into the world." His thoughts clicked into place, the puzzle pieces forming an alarming picture.

Lune’s calm voice slid into his mind. "It is also why those vines grew with such speed. They absorbed the essence, expanding and moving with greater awareness. Its aggression toward you sharpened because of it."

Jack’s lips pressed into a thin line. ’So that’s it. That explains everything. Sommeil didn’t simply unleash power—he flooded the city with it. He must have known the monsters would become uncontrollable if left unchecked. That’s why he wiped them out beforehand, or at least culled most of them. Any essence injected into their bodies would only accelerate their growth into horrors beyond control.’

A weary sigh escaped him. The headache building behind his eyes only grew worse as his mind chased after the threads of conspiracy. Sommeil’s goals remained an enigma. Why alter the night sky? Why force essence into the city? Why expand the Aevum Clan so aggressively? And how was he able to do that in the first place? The questions pressed on him like weights, and for the first time, the distant power of the clans felt suffocatingly close.

’I can’t ignore this anymore. If I want to survive what’s coming... I need to find that man.’

Jack’s decision crystallized in his chest like cold steel.

"We’ll continue as planned," he said aloud, breaking the silence. "To the college."

Evelyn gave a short nod. "...Alright."

The two moved swiftly through the ruined streets, their pace quickened by the oppressive weight of the night. The sky only deepened, a canvas of eternal darkness pierced by sharp starlight and the eerie glow of the eclipsed moon. The essence in the air thickened with every step, its presence undeniable now, like invisible waves pressing against their skin.

Jack felt it coursing through him, feeding his strength, hastening the healing of his wounds. His body hummed with vitality, though he knew such gifts would not come without cost.

Their path was unchallenged. The corpses of slain monsters littered the streets, silent reminders of the battle that had raged before. Navigating the carnage was the only obstacle, their boots slipping at times on dried blood and shattered bone.

After half an hour of steady running, the campus loomed before them.

"The gates are shut," Jack muttered as they approached. His eyes traced the iron bars, bent and dented from repeated blows. Deep claw marks marred the surface, streaked with dried blood.

Even the walls surrounding the gate bore the evidence of violence—scratches gouged deep into the stone, and splatters of crimson still stained the mortar.

"They got in," Evelyn whispered, her throat tight as she swallowed. "Do you think...?"

"We’ll see soon enough." Jack moved without hesitation, climbing the wall in a smooth motion before dropping down the other side. Evelyn followed in kind, while Lune floated effortlessly after them, a silent wraith in the night.

The moment their feet touched the ground, the smell of blood hit them like a wall. Corpses littered the courtyard—monsters twisted in death, humans cut down in their struggle. The stench of iron was thick, and the quiet that hung over the campus was suffocating.

Jack’s eyes narrowed as he surveyed the scene. Interesting.

The air here was different, heavier, as though the essence that filled the city had pooled inside these walls, soaking into the ground. His instincts prickled with unease, the hairs at the back of his neck rising. Something about this place felt worse than the streets they had just crossed.

"We’ll head for the main building," he said, his voice low but firm. "If there are survivors, that’s one of the better places to find them."

The West Gate College was the largest in the nation, a sprawling institution that housed thousands of students from every discipline. It was more than just a campus—it was a city within walls, with countless buildings, residences, and facilities. Searching the place would not be simple.

But if life remained, they would find it.

Their steps echoed through the aftermath of the massacre as they crossed the yard. The gates of the main building soon came into view—if they could still be called gates. The massive doors had been bent nearly in half, locks shattered and twisted as though crushed by impossible force.

Jack stepped carefully inside.

The interior was worse than the courtyard. Blood painted the walls in thick smears, corpses scattered across the floor in grotesque arrangements of limbs and torn flesh. Humans and monsters alike had perished here, their final struggle preserved in the devastation around them.

Jack’s frown deepened as he stepped over a lifeless arm, his eyes scanning the fallen. He searched each body with growing intensity, his heart tightening.

Not one of them was familiar. No shape, no clothing, no trace resembled his parents. Relief mingled with dread in his chest—relief that he hadn’t found them here among the dead, dread of what it meant that he still hadn’t found them at all.

The silence pressed in.

And so they pressed forward, deeper into the ruin, unaware of what awaited them in the shadows beyond.