?The eerie silence of the night didn’t stop the men from moving in the shadows. They moved slowly, wanting not to be seen as they made their way toward their target.

Heeran’s Love.

The place was very easy to find with bright light declaring the name for the world to see. The words forged using Light shined endlessly.

The group of 6 men stepped closer and closer, almost until there were just 3 shops away. The light here was bright enough that anyone could see them even by accident. One of them hissed ‘stop’ and everyone stopped moving.

“What’s that, boss?” the man asked, pointing at the base of a shop with broken lights.

The boss looked and frowned. Something, no, someone moved in the shadow. Many someones. More people?

“Guards or…” the boss asked.

“Aren’t those Prav’s gang members?” one of them asked. “Yeah, look. That shaved head belongs to Marc.”

“The hell?” the boss asked, squinting his eyes. Now that he focused on just the head, the strange indent on the back of the head did belong to Marc.

“What the hell are they doing here?” the man asked.

“What the hell are you guys doing here?” a voice spoke from behind them. Everyone turned around, clothes rustling loudly in the silence. They had to squint to see a figure clad in dark clothes clinging to the shadows.

He was hiding so very stealthily.

“Jerry?” the boss asked.

“Yo, Paul,” the man said. “Fancy seeing you here. Mind telling me what you guys are up to?”

“We have a mission here,” the boss said with a frown. “If you’re here, that means…”

“I have a job too,” the man whispered. “I would be mortified if I were to hear we had the same job. One of us would have to stand back down, and we both know it wouldn’t be me.”

The man named Jerry pulled out a dagger from somewhere, which immediately disappeared like a magic act. He continued doing this for a few moments, waiting for Paul to speak.

“We were paid to burn that shop over there. After that, we have an optional task to kill the man who owns that shop. Are you here for the same mission?” Paul asked, his voice barely keeping his fear in check.

Jerry stuck to the shadow, showing no signs of whether he was pleased or not. After what felt like an eternity, he finally spoke. “It seems this task is more important to our benefactors than we could’ve presumed,” the man spoke. “And it is not just us who came here.”

His eyes turned around the street, most likely seeing more people hiding, creeping toward the shop.

“I will kill the owner of this shop,” Jerry said. “Do nothing to get in my way, Paul. You can play with your pretty flames instead.”

Paul slowly nodded and Jerry disappeared into the shadows.

The group waited for a while before one of them dared to speak. “Boss was that…”

“The Nightblade,” Paul said slowly.

The group gave a small gasp. “No wonder he was so good at hiding himself,” one of them said. “I heard he has a Shadow Core.”

“Forget about him, look ahead. We have more incoming. We need to burn it down before the others can,” Paul said. “Let’s move, we will have to get inside to burn it. The inside is different from the outside.”

He had come here during one of the past few days to see what the fuss was all about in the city. He had left impressed and stunned.

The group nodded and moved. Just as they arrived at the door, another one did as well.

Swords came out at once, more weapons flashing in the bright light under the sign. Paul remembered seeing the face of the man in front of him before. This was a mercenary group.

They had to be the first ones to go in.

Paul pulled out a fire sword and pulled so much heat out that it started melting the chains on he door. The chain came off with a clank in just a few seconds, one side completely melting off.

“Good job, boss,” one of them whispered quietly.

“Yes,” Paul said, slightly stunned. That… was so easy. Had he become strong? No, he didn’t think so. Then why did the chain come off so simply?

‘I must’ve hit a weak link amongst the chain,’ he thought and stopped thinking about everything else before walking in through the door.

The Mercenary men seemed to not have a way to open the lock so easily, so they waited for Paul and the group to do it. Once those men entered, the rest entered as well.

Paul arrived inside the room that was dark all around them. They could only see themselves in the vague light the Fire sword gave. The mercenary group behind Paul walked in, then another group came in, and then another.

Paul was stunned.

Just how many people did they expect to be required to burn a simple house down? One could’ve just attacked with a Fire technique from outside and it would’ve done the job had it been a regular building.

The only reason they even came inside was because of the vastness inside compared to the outside.

Paul pointed his sword toward the mercenary group, slowly moving away from them. The other mercenary group slowly distanced themselves from each other as well. Their eyes refused to move from each other.

It was only when they were far away in the darkness that they turned to talk amongst themselves.

“What do we do now, boss?” one of them asked.

“We burn the place and leave,” Paul said, turning around to look at the walls. They were still dark.

“Someone bring out your Light sword and make some light,” he ordered. ᴡ ᴏᴠʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛʀs ᴀʀ ᴘᴜʙʟsʜᴅ ᴏ Noᴠelꜰre.nt

A person did as requested bringing out a hammer that quickly gave a glow of light that shined… nothing but the humans.

“What?” Paul paused in confusion. The light was out and it shined brightly.

But then… why was everything still in the shadows?