155 Decei

"G, let's head out and test my new abilities," said Valentine. He was still wearing his own appearance and didn't plan to use Purloin to transform because his own abilities had just been upgraded.

He stood up from the wooden armchair and walked towards the giant suitcase that he brought. He hadn't unpacked yet, so all his clothes were still inside-- in fact, he didn't plan to unpack at all so that in case he needed to escape quickly, it could be done easily.

Valentine opened the big brown suitcase and revealed the neatly folded clothes inside. He took out the brown leather jacket that was placed at the very top and put it on. There were slight folding marks on the jacket, but with some tapping, they were gone. After taking out what he needed, he carefully zipped the suitcase shut and placed it standing up next to the bed again for ease of reach.

Once he had put on his jacket, Valentine muttered began using his ability of Concealment to mask himself. Since the limit had been raised to six, he could conceal more than one thing at once.

"I hereby declare my presence a secret!"

A thin yellowish mist descended slowly and enveloped his whole body.

"I hereby declare my face a secret!"

The same thin yellowish mist descended again and floated over his face, covering it completely.

"I hereby declare the sounds I make a secret!"

Another thin yellowish mist descended and enwrapped his mouth, feet, and hands, and a thinned layer covered his entire body, stacking on top of the previous one.

"Hmm... what else can I conceal?" he said while in thought, however, his voice could only be heard by himself and not other people.

Valentine's whole being had now been completely concealed, and if an outsider were to come into the hotel room right now, they would only see a silent, empty room.

He then picked up his commando knife with the engraving of his name and pressed the tip of his left index finger against the blade. His flesh was cut open easily and a tiny splotch of blood came out.

"I declare this jacket under the Shroud of Secrecy hereafter!"

He shouted and then rubbed his bloody fingertip against the inside part of his brown leather jacket. His blood stuck to it instantly, leaving a tiny bloodstain that was invisible from the outside.

"We're ready now," he said confidently while wiping the remaining blood from his fingertip. His wound healed immediately after that.

With his preparation done, he walked out of his hotel room and locked the door behind him. Luuk had moved into the room next to him sometime in the afternoon after he gave a call to his friend's house through the hotel's landline, and the man was probably inside. However, since he was completely concealed, knocking on his door would be just meaningless, so he left his neighbor alone and went downstairs.

"..."

The moment he pressed the small button to ring it, the yellowish mist moved and engulfed the bell, concealing its sound. Valentine was both pleasantly and annoyedly surprised by the finding.

"G, the concealment extends to the sound created by things I use. That can be very useful but at the same time, it is annoying. And I hope you can still hear my voice because otherwise, we can't communicate. We cannot read each other's mind, after all," he muttered quietly out of habit, although his voice was completely muffled by the mist.

"So this is what the enemies used to avoid our detection. However, people who stare and concentrate directly at us will still be able to see us, since we are not invisible. The mist just misleads the senses, making them think we're not here. Except for the one covering our face and sound, I guess, since they are completely blocked off to the outside," he said analytically.

Valentine then walked out of the hotel through the main door and although he wasn't even trying to be silent, there was no sound created in the process of him opening and closing the door-- not even the wind chimes' tingling made a noise.

The moment he took a step outside, the gentle night breeze brushed his face. The moonlight shone upon the land below, casting shadows to the trees with brown leaves. Besides himself, there was currently not a single soul outside. Not even a single motor carriage was seen driving by either, despite there usually being quite a few at that hour, especially in the big street of Bloemstraat. With his boosted hearing, all he could hear was the silence that was broken by insects and other denizens of the night.

The park next to the hotel was also deserted. The street lights were still on and illuminated the place, but there was currently no one there. Although it was not very strange for the park to be empty past midnight, if coupled with the fact that the street was unusually barren, it became somewhat curious.

Feeling the abnormality, Valentine had his right hand ready to draw his gun at any time. His left hand had taken out his dagger and was holding it tight. He then walked towards the north, where the street should be busier. From where he was currently at, going north would take him to Grotemarktstraat.

Valentine walked very quickly with light steps. Since entering the rank of President Contractbound, his physical abilities had also been enhanced. He was trotting through the quiet street and in less than five minutes, he had arrived at Grotemarktstraat, which was also abnormally empty. Even the numerous establishments there had been closed.

"Something is not right. Where is everybody? Had something happened while we were busy cooped up in our room?"

Then, the next breeze that hit his face brought something unexpected that made him raise his eyebrows.

"G, it's the smell of blood! It was very faint but I could smell it,"

He then quickly ran west where the smell was coming from, heading towards the direction of his apartment. There was still currently no one else besides him as if the government had issued a stay-at-home order to every citizen of Sloten.

Because he had gone too far from where he cast his abilities, his Concealment had become undone. Valentine quickly recast his abilities and concealed himself again.

The smell of blood became somewhat thicker. After crossing the bridge, Valentine headed north again, following the smell. There, he finally saw signs of human activities. There were parked Police motor carriages blocking the entrance to the street and some hospital carriages on stand by. Something big must have been happening there for them to completely blocked off access like that. The thick smell of blood reinforced his suspicion even more.

He readied his weapon and approached the blockade, skillfully climbing over the motor carriage that was placed on the sidewalk silently. There were bloodstains on the ground that had dried up. Valentine approached the stains and observed them carefully.

"The fight happened here some hours ago. But since the blockade is still in place, the main event must still be happening further in," he muttered as he drew his gun from the holster.

Bang! Bang!

There were faint sounds of gunshots in the distance. Valentine increased his pace but stayed in the shadow of the buildings. Although he was still concealed, he still needed to be careful. He walked farther and farther in until he could finally see the reason why people were all staying inside; the Police were fighting with a group of supernatural creatures!

There were a total of five ghouls and a headless bulky figure carrying a giant ax. There were also four creatures that looked like reanimated dead bodies busily attacking the Police force.

Bang!

Clank!

The headless creature easily deflected a bullet shot at it using its giant steel ax. Despite the size and probably the weight, it was swinging it with ease as if it was just a wooden stick. Valentine was curious about the creature, but to use Reveal, he would have to get close enough for it to be in range. He decided to stay away because he could get hit by stray bullets or even the blood arrows that a female officer was firing at the creatures.

Besides the heated fight happening, there were also Police officers tasked with transporting the dead bodies and the injured out. The officer with the friendly face seemed to be in charge of the operation. He was busy making people inhale a similar blue powder that Luuk made and then commanding the others to carry those people away.

"The Police should have this under control. There is nothing we can do here but watch, G," he muttered.

Valentine was hiding near the entrance of a building with a protruding wall that served as a cover while the fight was happening in the middle of the large intersection. The Police were coming from all four directions, completely blocking off escape for the creatures, although they wouldn't try to escape in the first place. Most undead creatures only knew to fight until death since they had no fear.

At that moment, suddenly Valentine noticed a Police officer who was acting strangely. He was a man with brown hair and glasses on his face. The man was looking around suspiciously in the heat of the fight and once he was sure no one was watching him, he quietly slipped past his companions and headed towards a secluded alley.

Out of curiosity, Valentine followed the man who hadn't seem to notice his concealed self. The man kept walking deeper into the dark alley and then turned right and hid behind a pile of cardboard boxes. Valentine also took a hiding spot somewhere he could still see the man, right behind a dumpster on the opposite side.

"!!"

The man suddenly began twitching uncontrollably and collapsed to the ground. He was writhing and wriggling as if he was about to burst in an explosion. His belly then got bigger and bigger until it ruptured in a bloody explosion, sending pieces of flesh and blood everywhere. From the hole that was created by the explosion, a naked woman came crawling out covering in blood and other bodily matters. A strong stench of blood and fecal matter instantly filled the air.

The woman then stepped out of the body and stood there while looking at the blood covering her whole body. Slowly, the blood seeped into her skin while the other substances fell down on the paved ground, revealing her corpse-like pale skin. Her blue eyes were looked like she had been dead for decades and her blonde hair was curly and messy. She looked rather young and beautiful, but her face had a sinister expression that would make people want to stay away from her, especially while she was looking at the mangled corpse below her.

Valentine had slit his wrist a little to allow blood to come out, but not too much that he would be weakened. He let the blood pour down to the pavement and began chanting while focusing on the effect that he wanted.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Deception and Hidden Thoughts, call forth an illusion that covers this area!"

The blood that had touched the ground suddenly evaporated and at the same time, an illusory orange curtain descended from above, covering a very small area in front of him. It was only enough to envelop the woman and probably two other people around her if there were any.

Once the curtain was set, the woman, who had been taken by surprise, suddenly began seeing numerous men with sinister and lusty expressions surrounding her from every direction. There was no gap that she could use to escape. Although there were many men there, all of them looked similar, with only slight variations to their features. The woman was covering her face tight with both hands and backing away until her back was against the wall. She seemed to be in great emotional distress and was screaming gibberish.

It was Valentine's new Illusion ability!

He had made the woman see her biggest fear many times fold and now she was incapacitated because of that. However, since the enemy seemed to be stronger than him, the blood consumption was great despite there being only one enemy and he was getting weaker and weaker very quickly.

Valentine raised his gun with his right hand and aimed at the woman.

Bang!

His bullet his the woman's head! The shot that he had fired was silent despite he himself could hear the sound. The woman, who hadn't been able to avoid it, was hit by the bullet. However, it failed to penetrate into her skull and only managed to cause a slight injury on her forehead. The bullet head then bounced off and she screamed in pain.

"Argh!!"

Knowing that she was in danger, she used her instinct, and suddenly her body melted into a disgusting blob of flesh and blood. Her melted figure then reentered the corpse, causing its open belly to be bloated.

Bang!

Valentine quickly shot at the corpse's stomach and this time, his bullet drilled into the dead man's flesh, causing blood to come out of it. However, he didn't know if it was the corpse's blood or the woman's blood.

Before he could shoot again, the man's bloated stomach quickly returned to normal and the woman was nowhere to be seen. She had managed to escape!

Valentine wiped the blood off his wrist and the wound began healing rapidly after that. He carefully walked towards the corpse with his gun in his hand and observed it. The man's expression looked like he had died in extreme pain while the area around his stomach was disfigured like he had been mauled by a giant bear. There were pieces of flesh around the dead man but there was no sign of the woman at all.

"G, that must have been a member of the Pale Society. The one with corpse abilities should be a Plague Cavalry, and she must have teleported to another corpse. It's useless to try to find her since we don't know which corpse she has moved into, but at least we have seen her face," he said calmly.