"What!?" Zaros widened his eyes and Zane frowned at the look of the monster.
"What should we do!?" Zane asked.
"I'll be enough to deal with this. Seems he was a Eye level Seeker." Zaros dropped his robe on the ground, exposing his well defined body, and walked towards the monster.
Zane didn't move a muscle and just stood there, watching him.
"What's happening?" Slem walked towards Zane, rubbing his eyes.
Zane looked at Slem who was walking lazily towards him. "A monster appeared..."
Slem came out the door and turned towards Zaros and the monster.
"Ew.. he looks disgusting..." Slem frowned when he saw the crocodile-like monster and hid behind Zane.
Zane glanced at Slem and went back to watching the fight between Zaros and the monster which had already started.
It was a fight of strength, both would punch each other and recoil backwards. Bruises were appearing rapidly on Zaros's body, but the monster was starting to slow down.
After some time, visible yellow glowing cracks were forming on the monster's body and with one last punch, the monster fell down on the ground, all of its eyes still staring at Zaros.
"Hmph..." Zaros walked back towards Zane, his body bruised and him dragging the monster by its tail.
"What was that?" Zane asked Zaros once he was in front of him.
"This... I've only heard about these things. Rest for now, I'll speak to you tomorrow." Zaros passed Zane and Slem, walking towards the entrance.
Zane looked at the monster that was being dragged and widened his eyes. It didn't have a shadow.
---
After resting for the night, Zane headed to the room for essence feeding together with Zaros.
"So what was that yesterday?" he asked Zaros while feeding his essence to the Slug.
"That was your doing." Zaros replied.
"What!? What did I do?" Zane let go of the slug he was holding on his hand, and it fell on the table.
"When you consumed their essence, a part of them was stolen from them." Zaros began explaining.
"Essence is what holds us Seeker in place. It is what keeps us sane, and it affects our emotions." he looked at Zane. "Since Seekers are already hanging by a thread mentally, if one part of your essence disappeared suddenly, to balance your essence and emotions, your body will ramp up the remaining essence and emotions."
"We call this lunacy. Even normal Seekers are prone to lunacy, so if the Seekers are missing a core part of themselves, they will fall into lunacy faster." Zaros leaned back.
"So this 'lunacy' can turn us into monsters?" Zane was curious.
Zaros nodded his head and spoke, "Yes, being a Seeker already made us inhumane. Becoming a monster is the least that could happen to us..."
"Get back to work now." He rested his head back and closed his eyes.
Zane went back to feeding his essence to the slug.
'Hmm... Well, I've already started it, so there's no harm on continuing it right?' he thought to himself.
'I can completely use my shadow if I continue for two more days anyways.' he shrugged and went back to work.
---
"We will attack their base after two days." Thorn was standing in front of an open ground, which was filled with over 50 knights.
"We will be forming 6 squads under the Night Leaders, and the Night Leaders will report directly to us commanders." He shouted.
"Go and prepare yourselves! We will head out tomorrow." he shouted, "May the night protect us!"
"May the night protect us!" the cadets shouted in unison.
Thorn dismissed all the knights and headed inside the church together with Anson.
"You're too tame old man. Shouldn't you have done a speech or something to boost their morale?" Anson remarked.
"We don't have time for that, they'll be motivated once they get to use what they have trained anyways. Don't worry about them." He replied.
"Tch.. So boring. Then I'll see you tomorrow." Saying his goodbyes, Anson left the church.
Thorn shook his head and headed towards his office.
*Creak*
He opened the door and headed inside. A person was waiting for him, sitting on the chair opposite to his table.
As soon as Thorn entered, the person stood up and bowed, "Commander.."
"Edana..." Thorn headed towards his chair and sat down. "Sit down..."
Edana sat down on the chair and looked at Thorn with attention.
"Edana, we will be heading out tomorrow, after reaching the cave and setting camp, we will be attacking them according to our plans."
"Yes commander." She tilted her head in confusion. "I was already briefed on this."
Thorn shook his head and looked towards Edana. "I have a different mission for you." he said in a serious tone.
"I need you to head here once we attack." He pointed at a structure on the map.
Edana looked at where he was pointed.
"We believe they are holding Seekers prisoner in here." Thorn added.
Edana widened her eyes and remembered something. 'Maybe Valentina's brother is also held here...' As she was lost in her thought, Thorn spoke once again.
"...I...." He said in a somber tone. "I need you to save my brother if you find him here."
Edana dropped her jaw in shock.