The streets were empty, and the first hour inside this place, there was an odd silence, as any words spoken seemed to vanish, as if there was something in the air that was consuming the sound.

Three thousand young Siphons spread through the lower districts like a net, their boots echoing off buildings that had not seen maintenance in decades, as their torches cut through the perpetual twilight that had settled over this part of the city.

For many of them, it was a shock seeing this part of their city, as they had never been to the slums or seen how the poor and normal folk lived their lives, and it was almost as if they were in another place and not the magnificent city they had known all their lives.

The upper districts were massive, and for many, there was no reason to walk down this part of the city because they had teleportation portals in the upper districts that could take them to their destinations outside the city, and they did not have to use the general teleportation portals located in the lower districts.

They were only three thousand of them, and although their prey were supposed to be in the tens of thousands, maybe even more, they wanted to claim more of them, and so they moved in loose formations, separated into squads that kept together, with weapons drawn, and eyes scanning every shadow.

Yet an hour had passed, and they found nothing.

The streets were empty, and the buildings seemed to be empty as well, as doors hung open with their locks broken from the inside, windows gaped like mouths waiting to scream, and the wind moved through the alleys, carrying the smell of old cooking fires and older fear.

"Where is everyone?" a girl asked, her voice hushed.

No one answered.

Silent instructions were given, and parts of the squads began to check the buildings they were passing methodically. They had similar training in the past, and it was easy for them to fit into this role.

Some of the candidates slowed down a bit to back up the squads checking the buildings, but most of them chose to move on and head deeper, they all knew from the reports that the hole these creatures had emerged from was in the Tannery quarters, and that was still ahead of them, still for the sake of properly checking their surroundings, they would need to check all the houses.

A squad of Academy students entered a tenement on the corner of a street. The door was open, but they noted that the lock was shattered. Inside, the rooms were empty, and the beds were unmade, their blankets thrown back as if the sleepers had risen in a hurry.

A pot of rotten porridge sat on a cold stove, its contents untouched, and a child’s doll lay on the floor, its button eyes staring at the ceiling.

"Signs of struggle," one of them said, pointing to a chair that had been overturned, a table that had been pushed against the wall. "But no blood or bodies."

"They were taken," another said.

"By what?"

"How should I know, most likely they were eaten. Most of the people here are weak scrubs, and it would be a miracle if any of them remain alive. Come on, let us keep searching, these creatures are said to like cold and dark places, maybe we will find them in the basement or the attic."

A Guild squad searched a warehouse near the old tannery. The building was vast, with its ceiling lost in shadow, and its floor covered in a fine layer of dust. The dust was undisturbed except for a single set of tracks, human and barefoot, like that of a child, leading to the center of the floor and then suddenly stopping.

"They just... stopped," a boy said, kneeling beside the tracks. "Like they vanished."

"Wow, and water is wet," his squad leader replied sarcastically, "We can all see that they vanished; it must mean that some of these creatures may be able to fly. You, go Inform Elara and Theron about this anomaly, perhaps it would give us a lead that none of them have."

Not all buildings in the lower districts were run down. Due to the cheapness of the properties here, it was a frequent thing for nobles to buy cheap properties here in the lower districts and convert them to sprawling mansions where they could relax and usually partake in activities that would be frowned upon in the upper districts.

It was not rare that these mansions were filled with women who were the harem of the rich and powerful, and a young noble from the upper districts was searching one of these mansions that belonged to his older brother.

His brother had told him about some of his favorite women and wanted him to ensure they were safe.

There were supposed to be fifteen women here alongside all the maids, helpers, and security personnel, totaling about a hundred people.

The gates were open alongside all the doors, and it was a good thing he had other people following him because this sprawling mansion was filled with too many shadows, and it was too empty.

"Where are you all?" he whispered.

The house did not answer.

And the young noble looked outside the window at the twilight inside this place, even though it was still morning, and he wondered what was causing this phenomenon.

Ⓐ

As the first hour passed, the candidates began to notice things. Small things at first, then larger things.

They began to see that some of the buildings were too clean. It was not as if the houses had been cleaned but rebuilt from the ground up.

When they checked inside these new homes, they saw that the food in the kitchens had not spoiled, or the flowers on the windowsills had not wilted, and the faint smell of death that pervaded this place was missing in these houses.

It was as if time had reversed in some part of this city.

"What can this mean?" someone said. "Is there any talent that can do something like this?"

"Not that I know of, but the types of beasts are endless, and I think no one has ever seen beasts like this before," another voice replied, and there was excitement inside the voice.

The strangeness did not necessarily scare these young Siphons; instead, it excited them. It only meant that the price they thought they were going to claim was becoming more precious.

There were many legends in the world of Siphons going to places of mystery and coming out transformed, with unique abilities that changed their destinies forever. The stranger this place was looking, the more they knew they had stumbled into something truly precious.

Most of the squads were called back from the houses, as it had been decided that no one was in the buildings, and they began moving faster to the source of this event.

They found the first body at the edge of the Tannery Quarter.

It was a middle-aged man, dressed in the simple clothes of a laborer.

He was lying in the middle of the street, his arms folded across his chest, with his eyes closed, and he looked like he was sleeping, but he was not breathing.

None of them would know this, but nearly four weeks ago, this man had been looking for his wife and child, and he had seen something that looked like his son and had taken him home.

Now, his body was lying in the middle of the street as if he had been carefully placed there.