Chapter 2: The City of a Million Screams

The Horton household was simple and spacious. It had two stories and three bedrooms. It also had an open living room connected to the kitchen. On a rare sunny day, the bright red sun sent maroon rays past the clouds and through the translucent blue curtains, bathing the kitchen in violet as the mother prepared chicken pasta for dinner.

"Mom, when's dad gonna get home?" a young boy asked. He was sitting on the couch, playing a video game on the TV.

"He'll be home late again. He said he had to take a long shift today."

"Aw, man."

"I guess that means more food for me!" the teenage daughter said.

The doorbell rang. The maid went to answer the door, but the mother stopped her, saying, "I'll get it."

The maid returned to dusting the cabinets.

The mother opened the door to reveal a young man wearing a black hoodie and jeans.

"Can I help y—"

Before she could finish her sentence, a flash of blue light blinded her. Aster shifted into his demonic form, grabbed her throat, and lifted her into the air with one arm.

She managed to turn her head back slightly and say, "Get…out…!" before her neck snapped, and her body went limp. Aster ripped out the mother's heart, devoured it, and tossed her corpse aside, her eyes wide open even in death.

The maid immediately dropped what she was doing and sprinted for the back door, pulling the kids with her. The young boy was frozen in shock, and the girl's face was drenched in tears.

The maid then shoved the two children through the back door, yelling, "Run!"

Aster bolted across the room toward the maid and prepared to kill her, but he stopped himself at the last second. He sniffed the air a couple of times and scrunched up his nose in annoyance.

"A human?"

The maid put her arms up in a fighting stance, her knees trembling. Aster easily knocked her aside.

"To think a human would help shrouds."

Aster dashed outside, leaving the maid slumped up against the doorframe, sobbing. He shifted back to humanoid form so that he could blend in with the crowd.

Pushing through the thick throngs of people heading home from work, Aster restlessly pursued. But with all these obstacles in the way, Aster lost sight of the two children after only a few minutes. He tried to sniff the air, but there were too many scents for him to trace the children. He let out a frustrated sigh and slowed his pace to a walk.

Then, Aster's phone buzzed.

There was a text from Lorred: I found the kids. Sending my coordinates.

Aster scowled.

***

The two children cowered at the end of the alleyway as an SPCB shroud hunter blocked the only way out. Lorred placed his phone back into his pocket, having sent his coordinates to Aster.

"Surrender peacefully, and I won't have to hurt any of you."

The girl stood confidently and pointed at him, saying, "You fell right in our trap!"

"Huh?"

Lorred felt a looming presence behind him. He turned to see a burly man wearing a baker's outfit.

The baker then transformed. His skin turned into black scales, and his legs merged into a long serpent tail. Both of his arms turned into cobra heads, while his human head turned to that of a viper with two horns.

As the baker bathed in light from his miasma, Lorred drew his gun and shot the shroud in front of him, but the bullets disintegrated from the immense heat.

"Dammit!"

Lorred missed his chance. If he had shot the bullet sooner, everything would be over. Unfortunately, when a shroud entered their demonic form, bullets were useless; they would simply bounce off. Only miasma-infused weapons could pierce through a shroud's dense skin. With the current technology, only melee weapons could be made since bullets couldn't hold enough miasma to be effective in combat.

After the enemy shroud finished his transformation, the remaining miasma thinned out, and the serpent lunged at Lorred, forcing him to dodge to the side. The snake attacked again, and Lorred jumped backward. They had now traded places, the serpent having placed himself between Lorred and the two children. His goal from the beginning was to protect the kids from the shroud hunter.

One of the snakeheads turned back and asked, "Are you two alright?"

The boy and the girl both nodded.

Lorred unsheathed a bone-white sword and pressed a button on the hilt. Immediately, electric blue smoke surged through the blade, giving it the same hue as the miasma that engulfs shrouds when they shift into their demonic form. It was a miasma sword.

"Making weapons out of the life-blood of shrouds?" the serpent muttered. "Disgraceful!"

Lorred went in for the attack, slashing with the miasma sword. The serpent tried to catch it with one of his left head, but the blade cut clean through the jaw like a white-hot knife through butter. Still, the serpent did not let this deter him. With his middle head, he spat acidic venom. Lorred tried to dodge, but a detrimental amount hit his leg, burning through his pants and melting his flesh. Lorred screamed in pain as he staggered, unable to keep his balance. The serpent took advantage of this and used his right head to bite Lorred's right arm, causing Lorred to drop his weapon. The snake then tightened his grip and threw Lorred into the wall.

Even with countless injuries all over his body, Lorred managed to sit up. Unfortunately, sitting up was the only thing he could do.

[Is this the end?] he thought. [Damn. I guess they don't lie when they say a shroud hunter's mortality rate is horrendously high. But I never expected to go down this early. There's still so much I want to do.]

Lorred thought back to when he was first accepted into the Shroud Hunter Academy, a boarding school intended to train individuals who would one day work for the SPCB. His parents sobbed and begged for him not to go, but he couldn't get into any other job since he couldn't pay for a post-secondary education. Becoming a shroud hunter paid better than the military, and it was his only choice given his above-average physical strength and dexterity.

[In the end, physical abilities couldn't do anything against the demonic shrouds.]

In the beginning, after becoming a shroud hunter, everything was fine. He never had to tackle dangerous jobs, and he had ample time to socialize with his fellow hunters. A few months into the job, Lorred fell in love with another hunter named Kara. Everyone told him not to get attached to anybody since either one of them could die at any moment, but he couldn't deny his feelings. Lorred often gave Kara a bouquet of flowers, but she never reciprocated his love. She only wanted to be friends. Even still, Lorred couldn't stop thinking about her.

[Would she cry if I died here? I hope she doesn't. I don't want her to feel bad. For a shroud hunter, attachment was a weakness. But what about my parents? They're both disabled, so who's going to take care of them?]

If I leave this world right now, there'll be so many regrets I'll leave behind.

I can't die. Not here…

So, please…God. I've never been a religious man, but please hear my plea. If there's any goodness in the world, I beg you to let me live another day.

Please…

The serpent slithered to Lorred and pummeled the nearly-dead shroud hunter over and over and over again. The snake did not want Lorred to die immediately. Instead, he wanted Lorred to suffer the same pain that shrouds felt every day of their lives. The snake condemned the shroud hunter to a slow torturous death.

"You goddamn humans! This is what you get!"

The girl, watching from the sidelines, winced at the sight, covering her little brother's eyes.

Suddenly, the serpent gasped. A piercing pain came from his abdomen.

When he looked down, there was a black hand protruding from his chest.

"Hmph. I missed your heart."

Aster, currently in his demonic form, pulled back his hand, and the serpent fell to its stomach, miasma billowing from the wound. But the serpent was still alive. The snake got up and faced Aster. It then struck with its right head, which Aster punched out of the way. Aster then followed up with a slash, using his fingernail to cut off both the left and the right head in a split second. As Aster neared, the serpent's eyes grew wide, noticing the blue cracks on Aster's horns. Aster then sliced off the final head and consumed the snake's heart.

The miasma dissipating from the corpse created a deathly fog in the alleyway.

Aster kneeled beside Lorred's body and checked for a pulse, confirming that Lorred was still alive. He was hanging on by a mere string. Next, Aster walked over to the two children. He then took out his phone and called Yuna.

"Yes?" she answered.

"I've cornered two shrouds. Also, Lorred needs an ambulance."

"Understood."

Yuna ended the call.

The girl ran at Aster and drew a knife. Aster caught her hand, twisted it, and kicked her back, causing her to land on her butt.

"What's the matter? You can't shift into your demonic form?"

The girl glared at him. It was like this for many shrouds; most were unable to shift into their demonic form until hitting puberty.

The girl got back onto her feet but didn't fight back. She realized that it was useless to do so.

"Why is a shroud like you working with the hunters?" she asked.

"I'm not a shroud. I'm a human."

"You're a monster!" the young boy yelled.

"Shut the hell up."

"What did we do wrong?" the girl asked. "Why do you shroud hunters keep killing us like animals?"

"Your father was a member of a terrorist organization."

"Is it wrong to fight for freedom?"

"Saying that just proves you knew all along what he was doing. But you kept it a secret. That makes you a terrorist too."

"We just want to be free!"

"You'll never be free. This is punishment for the sins your ancestors committed."

The Age of Shrouds was an era when shrouds ruled over the entire continent, subjugating humanity into slavery. But for each new queen that came to power, the empire weakened. Shrouds turned against one another. Every time the queen died, the Authority would pass on to a random newborn child, and shroudkind had to wait many years until their new leader could assume the throne.

Bit by bit, they destroyed themselves.

Now, it is the humans who reign supreme, using various justifications to punish their mortal enemies.

Unfortunately, no one knew how shrouds came to be. Most historical records from the distant past have been destroyed due to the constant wars between humans and shrouds that plagued the continent. By the time the wars ended, there was barely any information from before that era. The only thing that kept the past alive were the verbal stories passed down from generation to generation. But memories were unreliable and stories were changed, whether it be intentional or unintentional.

"They're the same ancestors that you have!" the girl yelled. "Why do we have to atone for sins that we, ourselves, never committed!"

"I've had enough of this! I'm gonna dump you both in a power plant!"

"No! I refuse!"

The girl turned to speak to her little brother. "It's over now. Either we get put into an SPP and go through purgatory for the rest of our lives, or we kill ourselves here so that we can die a quick death."

"No! I don't want to die!"

"It's the only way, Terrance."

A single tear fell down the girl's cheek as she closed her eyes. She brought her knife to her own neck, her arm shaking uncontrollably. Her brother tried to grab her arm, but she kept him back. Aster watched all of this insouciantly.

With tears streaming down the boy's—Terrance's—face, he wailed, "Don't do it, sis! You're the only one I have left! Please!"

The girl sliced her own neck and fell lifelessly to the ground.

"NOOO!"

Terrance grabbed the knife. His entire body trembled, and his eyes were unfocused.

He muttered to himself, "I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die."

The boy brought the knife to his neck, but indecision froze him in place. If he killed himself now, he would only have to be brave for a single moment, and every hardship would melt away. On the other hand, if he refused to kill himself, he would have to be brave for the rest of his life, enduring terrible suffering.

For a few more moments, Terrance weighed his options. In the end, he dropped the knife.

"I…can't…" he whispered almost inaudibly.

He buried his face in his hands and sobbed, tears pouring through his fingers and dripping onto the pavement.

From outside the alley, an ambulance and a van arrive, the SPCB logo etched onto its side. Yuna got out of the driver's seat and approached Aster. The medics loaded Lorred's body into the ambulance, while Aster handcuffed Terrance and dumped him into the van.

They then drove off, heading toward the nearest shroud power plant.