Chapter 37: GHOST IN THE DARK
The darkness that covered District 7 was not the lack of artificial light; it was a total thick empty space that seemed to take away sound, heat and human hope.
With the air filled with mana reduced to zero by the Black Sky the citys systems had broken down into useless pieces. The flashing neon signs, the security machines, the flying transportation lines and the high-frequency communication devices were all not working. In place of them a cold ash-filled wind moved through the destroyed streets of the areas bringing the choking smell of hot copper and ozone.
Groups of people were gathered in fear outside the darkened buildings their crying and desperate prayers filling the freezing air. Close by groups of middle-level Hunters—men and women who had spent millions of credits on metal armor and top-level weapons—were screaming at their equipment in wild disbelief.
"My mana is full! Why won’t the fire start?!" a C-rank mercenary leader shouted, hitting his ten-thousand-credit sword against a concrete wall.
Clang! Clang!
No single spark came. The open-circuit mana devices in weapons needed air mana to start the magic parts. Without that their expensive and flashy gear was heavy cold iron.
Noah Kurtz walked past the screaming Hunters, his hands in the pockets of his coat. His slouched posture did not show any sign of being affected by the chaos around him.
Next to him Jiho Park walked in his slip-on shoes holding a big canvas bag over his shoulder like a load of dirty clothes. Jiho sometimes looked at the fighters with a sleepy uninterested look.
"Man, Master " Jiho said, letting out a yawn that made fog in the freezing air. "Everyone is running around like ants when you hit their hill. It’s a blackout. It’s not like the sky fell down... Well the sky did go black. Still."
"They built their world on borrowed light, Jiho " Noah said quietly his voice calm in the freezing dark. "When you depend on a System to tell you how strong you are you forget how to stand when the System stops."
Noah didn’t need air mana. Deep in his back the tiny thread of cultivated Ki moved smoothly through his body flowing in a self-contained loop. His basic physical strength, trained by the blueprints of fourteen ages worked at 100 percent no matter what the world around him was like.
To Noahs built-in Ash-Walker senses the black streets were not dark. His gray eyes could see the signs of stress in the broken buildings the way the air moved through the alleys and the exact places of every scared person within fifty paces.
They moved through the streets of District 7 turning from the main market street and going into the narrow hidden stone alleys leading to the underground market area.
"Where are we going first, Master?" Jiho asked, scratching his brown hair. "You mentioned a scholar earlier."
"Alistair’s lab " Noah said, his shoes making sounds against the wet road with no friction. "His underground place uses isolated liquid chemical batteries made from designs. He doesn’t use the Associations mana grid. If anyone in this area has a working radar it’s him."
As they reached the brick alley where the Lantern Vault was the sound of loud desperate shouting came from the dark entrance ahead.
Noah stopped, shifting his weight slightly onto his heel as his gray eyes narrowed in the dark.
Outside the wooden door of the place was a group of six armored company guards from the Harrington Syndicate—one of the four big companies that controlled the high areas. They were wearing high-grade suits with fibers but their high-tech plasma guns were silent their blue power cores dark.
The leader, a man with a scarred jaw was kicking the heavy wooden door of the Vault.
BOOM! BOOM!
"Open the door Vance!" the scarred guard shouted, his voice full of fear. "We know you have chemical generators down there! The Harrington familys lower security hub lost power. We need your emergency batteries to restart our scanners!"
Inside the Vault the heavy wooden door stayed locked from the inside. Alistair Vances nervous trembling voice came through the iron opening.
"G-go away!" Alistair said nervously. "My chemical batteries are for my private servers and my coffee machine! If you put a power surge into your company grid my data will be destroyed!"
"You little coward!" the scarred guard growled, raising a iron-reinforced hammer. "The System is down! The Association laws don’t matter anymore! If you don’t open this door in three seconds we’ll break it. Hit your head hard!"
The company guards raised their iron sticks preparing to break the lock.
In the world when the rules ended and the lights went out the idea of a civilized company order disappeared quickly showing the harsh violent side beneath.
Noah Kurtz watched the scene from the shadow of the alley his slouched body completely relaxed. He didn’t take his black knives. He didn’t use any aura.
He just turned his head slightly toward the man beside him.
"Jiho " Noah said in a voice.
"Yeah Master?" Jiho asked, taking a sip from a crumpled paper cup of cold water he had picked up somewhere.
"They’re stopping the door to our scholars place."
"Ah " Jiho nodded sleepily putting his cup down carefully on a window ledge. "That’s rude. I wanted to ask him if he had any noodles in his basement."
Jiho Park took three heavy steps out of the shadow. His old slip-on shoes made loud casual sounds on the wet brick floor.
"Hey metal boxes " Jiho called out letting out a jaw-cracking yawn. "You’re making much noise. The Master wants to go."
The six Harrington Syndicate guards turned around in the dark their dead plasma guns lowered as they looked at the slouched figure in a big yellow shirt and slip-on shoes.
The scarred leader sneered in disbelief. "Where did this commoner come from? Get out of here before I break your legs, guy."
"I don’t think my legs break easily " Jiho said lazily scratching his stomach. ". You’re welcome to try while I stand here."
"Tch! Kill him!" the leader ordered, waving his hand.
Two strong company guards ran forward in the dark raising three-inch iron sticks over their heads. They used all their strength for the blow bringing the sticks down toward Jihos bare collarbones with enough force to break solid stone!
BOOM!
A strong shockwave moved through the brick alley. Dust and small pieces of stone fell from the walls.
Jiho didn’t move. He didn’t prepare his legs. Did he use any magic to protect himself. He just stood there in his slip-on shoes casually picking at his ear with his finger as the two heavy iron sticks hit his shoulders.
[Absolute Inertia Activated]
CRACK! CRACK!
The huge force of hitting a unmoving surface went back violently through the weapons. The three-inch iron sticks broke instantly into flying pieces of metal while the two company guards screamed as the force broke the bones in their arms snapping their wrists like dry branches!
"GAAAAAH! MY ARMS! MY WRISTS!" the two guards cried, falling into the mud while holding their broken arms in horror.
The other four guards, including the leader stood frozen in shock. Their eyes bulged in the dark as their minds couldn’t understand how a man without armor had just broken iron sticks with just his shoulders.
"W-what kind of monster are you?!" the leader stuttered, stepping back until his back hit the Vaults door. "What rank are you?!"
Jiho looked at them with an expression giving a lazy amused smile. "I don’t really care about ranks. My Master makes good soup."
Before the frightened leader could react a quiet silent shadow moved past Jihos side.
Noah Kurtz appeared directly before the leader like a ghost coming out of the dark. His use of the Ashen Step was so perfect, so completely, without any sound or movement that the guard didn’t even know Noah was there until his bare hand rested on the mans throat.
Circulate.
A tiny thread of Ki moved from Noahs fingers into the pressure point behind the guards jaw.
Puch.
The leader with scars on his face had his eyes roll back instantly. His body had a problem. He fell down on the wet bricks like a heavy bag not even moving before his body touched the ground.
Noah didn’t even look at the three guards. He just turned his eyes toward them in the dark—cold and deep like an old pool that had seen many years.
"Leave " Noah said in a voice.
The three guards dropped their weapons. Ran into the dark alley pulling their hurt friends with them out of fear.
Silence came back to the wet brick alley.
Noah reached out. Tapped three times on the metal hole on the big wooden door.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
"Alistair " Noah called out. "It’s Noah. Open the door."
Inside there was a crash as Alistair probably knocked over some metal things.
Clatter! Clack!
The big door. Alistair was there all messy with his hair sticking up. His glasses were on crooked and his eye lens was spinning.
"Noah! Jiho!" Alistair said, grabbing Noahs coat and pulling them inside before closing the door.
"By the ancestors you’re alive! Did you see the sky? The big system is gone! The main computer is all cut off!"
"We saw " Noah said, walking into the room and cleaning a small bit of ash off his shoulder.
The inside of The Lantern Vault had glowing bottles that gave light. These were emergency lights that didn’t need the magic power. On the table Alistairs computer was working, powered by a battery under the floor.
"Is your local radar working?" Noah asked, sitting down and putting his hands on his knees.
"Working?!" Alistair said, walking back and forth with a cup of coffee. "Noah my sensors are picking up things all over the city! Because the big system is dark old memories are coming up fast!"
Alistair touched his screen. A map appeared on the table.
Many red spots were lighting up across the city near the middle and the old factories.
"Look at this " Alistair said, staring at the map in fear. "The dark sky isn’t a power failure. It’s a change in the world. Old things from the past are coming out now!"
Noah looked at a silver spot under the middle part of the city where the poor and rich areas meet.
DING.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Main place of power found]
[Type: Bronze Tier Safe Room]
[Access Level: Open because of the change]
[Need help to get in: Bronze Tier (0.25% needed)]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Noah had a smile in the warm light.
The Bronze Tier Safe Room he got before was ready. Now as the dark sky broke the city the way to his room was opening under the rich areas.
"Alistair " Noah said softly. "I need the directions to that central place."
Alistair stopped, looking at Noah in shock. "The central place?! Noah that area has space problems! My sensors say a group from a company was attacked there! Their tools stopped working. They’re being hurt by strange dark things!"
"Then we need to go " Noah said, standing up and fixing his coat. "I have a place to open."
Jiho picked up his bag. Yawned, smiling at the excited man.
"Don’t worry glasses man " Jiho said, still sleepy. " Long as the boss makes dinner I’ll keep him safe."
Noah went back to the door hands in his pockets eyes showing old strength as he got ready to go deeper into the dark and broken heart of the city.