Caroline and Jason weren't the only ones that saw the shadows of two halves of two women above the SFPD precinct. Three figures in full body cloaks stood on the tops of three buildings around the precinct, staring at the shadows and chanting in very low voices.
And further away, under the protection of several layers of protection spells and disguise spells, Carol Summers was observing what was happening at the precinct, from the top of a business building. A group of seven followers were standing behind her, waiting carefully and silently for her commands.
"So this day finally came, and much earlier than I was thinking." Carol Summers sighed, "I thought I had more time."
"Ms. Summers. Shall we ready the cylinders?" one man in a black suit asked.
"Let's wait for now." Carol Summers said: "Let the Division handle it first. They are the ones supposed to protect the civilians."
"Wouldn't they come for you? We filed several official inquiries and complaints and tried to retrieve it." the man asked again.
"If anything, it will be the fault of the Crows." Carol Summers narrowed her eyes and said: "Don't worry, I'll handle the communication with the Division. You just focus on preparing the ritual for me."
"Understood."
Just this minute, the young man in a grey trench coat jumped onto the business building.
"Ms. Summers." the young man was a bit out of breath as he knelt down on one knee and presented a pocket watch to Carol Summers: "This is the watch of Bruce Shaw. I couldn't retrieve his body, it happened too fast..."
"No worries. Keep the watch." Carol Summers did not even look at the young man.
"This… Thank you so much!" the young man was shaken by what he heard, he immediately put the pocket watch back into his trench coat: "I'll be at your command anytime!"
"Don't be so happy yet. I have a dangerous task for you." Carol Summers said, "Go find Jackson. He will hand it to you and brief you on what to do. "
"Understood, thank you Ms. Summers!" the young man stood up, cast a spell on himself and jumped off the building.
"Poor kid." one of the followers couldn't help but say.
"Opportunity. I started out the same way." Carol Summers took out a cigarette and lit it up with her finger, right now the shadows on the top of the SFPD precinct were finally under attack from members of the Division: "What's the status of the artifacts?"
"The artifacts are ready. " a short-haired woman in black trench coat answered: "We can strike anytime, just give the word. "
"Good." Carol Summers nodded and started staring at the battle far away. After a while, she told her followers with a serious voice: "If the Division failed to contain it within their second circle, fire up all the cylinders and artifacts, strike them immediately. "
"All of them?" a couple of her followers were surprised at what they heard.
"Yes, all of them." Carol Summers sighed and shook her head: "How unfortunate, just when we managed to stall the new liaison and her core team to deal with the Crows..."
Before she could finish, Carol Summers noticed that the two shadows had two differently colored eyes that were emitting faint light in the night sky: one grey, and one blood red.
"Looks like I'm not the only one that benefited from the bind." Carol Summers continued with a frown: "The Division might not be able to hold them for much longer."
"Understood, on it."
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"Stay away! Help!" in a dark and smelly alleyway, two young college girls were boxed in by groups of zombie-like individuals from both ways. These were the unfortunate casualties of the supernatural battles nearby - they were attacked or just simply infected by residual or escaped energy from the dark shadows and monsters that appeared out of nowhere, and became half human half spirit monsters themselves. One of them had its throat almost completely ripped out, one could even see his spine from the neck.
Right this moment, two folded pieces of paper dropped from the sky and exploded in the middle of the hordes, silver and orange red lights burst from the explosion, those half human half spirit monsters were instantly annihilated.
"Go! Go! Get outta here!" the ones that saved these two college girls were none other than Caroline and Jason, the two college girls struggled up and ran away, without even saying a thank you.
"Boss! Pick up! Come back here ASAP!" Jason tried to contact Jianmen once again, but Jianmen still did not pick up.
The situation got worse for everybody, except perhaps the two shadows that were floating on top of the SFPD precinct. More and more dark shadows started coming out of the precinct, not only could they attack civilians and gifted individuals directly, but also could they merge together or affect their enemies to morph into stronger monsters. The spirit centipede they took great pains to finally kill was one example, and right now the three or for bird shaped shadows with four or six wings were some others.
Good thing was, after a while of fighting and rescuing, they were confident they got at least half of the civilians in the area out of danger. Yet, the casualties were huge as well, aside from the many that were dead, there were also those like the infected individuals they just annihilated. At first, they were really hesitant to attack any of those infected by the dark energy, for they still appeared to be humans. But after defeating at least a dozen hordes of them in order to save the civilians, and witnessing the fact that these infected individuals morphing into rabid skeletons or other types of unclean beings, they had become temporarily desensitized. Keep their minds focused on the problems now, they told themselves.
A cracking sound exploded from the buildings nearby like that from a sudden and powerful lightning. Three bright light blue energy beams shot through the sky, from three different angles onto the two shadows. These beams of energy pierced through the shadows, which seemed to have caused the two shadows a great deal of pain, as they gave out an ear-piercing scream and tried to move away. But the three energy beams stopped their movement, as if they were metal rods that actually impaled human bodies.
Loud, stern and echoey chants came from the three directions from which the energy beams emerged. Caroline and Jason could tell that these were chants of some large scale and meticulous spell, since they sensed that intense energy waves were radiating from those directions as well.
The two shadows squirmed and cried, their bodies shaking and twitching, but the beams of energy were still powerful and sturdy enough to keep them in their places. The chants grew louder and faster, and it did not take long before the spells to come close to completion.
The two shadows raised both their half a head to the sky, took a long inhale and screamed at the top of their non-existent "lungs". While almost at the same time, three energy chains shot from the same directions as the energy beams and wrapped around their whole bodies, binding them together and locking their movements some more.