Riley quickly took a carriage to the location where the Nexus Creature was last spotted. The streets were eerily empty, cobblestones slick with rain, their darkened sheen reflecting the flicker of distant lamplight.
A dense fog crept through the narrow alleyways, muffling the clatter of the carriage wheels and swallowing any hint of life.
This was 18th-century Europe—Paris, perhaps—but it felt more like a forgotten corner of the world, with its towering buildings looming like silent sentinels over the deserted streets.
For all Riley knew, Nexus Creatures lacked independent intelligence, which meant either someone—or something—was controlling it, or it had moved. His gut told him the former.
According to the sketch from his captain, this particular creature was known as a Danot, a grotesque fusion of a dog and an octopus.
