Boom!!!!

There was a deafening noise coming from behind Valentine and Groen, most likely from the center of the field. It was so loud that even though they were not standing anywhere near the center, they were still deafened for a second. The effect was even more severe on Valentine whose hearing was boosted and who had been taken by surprise. Blood looked like it was about to come out of both his ears accompanying the damage they suffered. However, he didn't really have the time to react, nor to even process what was happening. Even the pain hadn't been registered by his brain.

Following the noise was a devastating shockwave that pushed everything out of its path. Bodies, pieces of concrete, and dust were sent flying away from the center of the blast. The sounds of bodies hitting brick walls of the surrounding intact buildings were completely overpowered by the thundering noise of the aftereffect. Not that it mattered for in the ears of the survivors, only loud ringing was heard even after several seconds.

Once the shockwave had done its share of damage, clouds of dust began descending onto the area, covering vision with its thick brown-greyish color. The smell of blood, dust, and charred flesh combined into one and penetrated the survivors' noses. The thick dust stuck to people's skin. Dirty, sticky dust covered both the skin and the open wound on it, sending a stinging pain to the person unlucky enough-- which included most people there.

Valentine was now lying on the ground with a bleeding head. However, he couldn't really pay attention to the pain from his head because he was still hearing the loud ringing from his ears, and the incessant noise was giving him a headache. His whole body was aching and covered in the brown-greyish dust while the coat he was wearing was torn in many places; he must have hit something else before hitting the wall.

Tap!

There was a dusty hand tapping his shoulder which sent a surprise to Valentine. He was still unable to focus because of the ringing, so his sense of danger wasn't triggered. He moved his right hand with difficulty, which sent pain all over his body, and held the hand on his shoulder tight. If it was an enemy, at least he could prevent him from taking another action to some extent.

"I-- ------ ------ -------!"

The person seemed to be speaking, but he still couldn't hear anything but the noise in his ears. Valentine looked up and behind the cloud of dust, he could see it was only Groen who didn't look that much better than him probably. He didn't hear what the man had said, but Groen was handing him a pouch containing a blue powder using his free hand. Without wasting his time, he let go of the man's hand and took the pouch from him.

"Hhhhh..."

He inhaled the powder vigorously and let the blue powder entered his lung. A few moments later, he gradually felt better and the loud ringing in his ears slowly receded. Valentine stood up slowly and tapped the coat that he was wearing to clean the dust off it. At that moment, besides the back of his head, his right waist had also been injured. There was a thin shard of concrete stuck there, which he plucked out without much thought.

"Thank you," said Valentine genuinely, and then asked, "What's the situation?"

"I --ont know. Yo- --re the cl---st to me when I ca-- to," replied the man, his voice not to clear because the ringing hadn't completely disappeared yet.

Valentine knew what the man was probably saying. Since they had stood near each other, the shockwave probably sent them to the same spot as well, so Valentine was the closest person to Groen at that time.

Valentine began hitting his ears with his palm as if he was trying to get water out of the other side.

"Your ears are still ri---ng?" asked Groen. Valentine now could hear almost everything he said.

He nodded and then quickly check his condition again. The wound on the back of his head and his waist had completely healed while his stamina was recovering quickly.

"It's stopped," he replied.

"Then I'm going to check up on everyone. I would appreciate it if you could watch my back. Zeger de Witt might still be lurking around somewhere," said Groen. He sounded rather tired. Perhaps he was worried about the fate of his men and it was weighing on him.

Valentine gave the man a firm nod. He readied his dagger and followed him closely from behind while keeping a watch on his surrounding.

The curtain of dust reduced the line of vision and the sounds of coughing and painful grunting filled the air. The first man that they found was sitting against the wall with a bleeding wound on the back of his head, similar to Valentine's, but much worse. The wall was painted red with his blood whereas his body was painted grey by the dust. The man's upper body was unmoving, his eyes wide open. He seemed to be dead.

"May you rest in peace," said Groen as he closed the dead Police member's eyes. His tone couldn't hide his pain.

They continued along only to find even more dead bodies lying on the ground. Since Valentine was not attached in any way to the dead men, the thought about how to loot their bodies without being seen by Groen crossed his mind. However, he suppressed the thought right away and stayed respectful. That was the least he could do to the people who had helped him.

"Urgh... Help! Is there anyone??!! Help!!"

There was a voice of someone in pain coming from behind the curtain of dust. Groen and Valentine rushed to the source of the voice without wasting time. There was a man wearing the blue Police coat lying on the ground; his right hand was crushed under a big chunk of concrete.

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"Sergeant Groen! I can't feel my hand," said the man the moment he saw Groen approaching him. There was relief in his voice.

Groen looked at Valentine and the latter nodded. The two of them took position and lifted the heavy concrete with all their power.

Thud!

The chunk of concrete was flipped to the other side, freeing the man's hand. Groen then gave him the same pouch of blue powder that he had given Valentien and the man inhaled it right away. However, his crushed hand didn't return to normal even after all the powder was inside him.

"Your powder can't return his hand to normal?" asked Valentine out of curiosity.

Groen shook his head.

"No. It is not some miraculous medicine. It only boosts the body's natural healing, which for us Contractbounds can do wonder. But for normal people, it all depends on their bodies," replied Groen. There was still a smile on his dust-covered face.

The two of them kept on searching for survivors around the spot where they had been fighting before. A total of nine surviving Police Officers were found and they were all gathered near a building. After Groen placed a Safe Zone around them and made sure that they had their weapons, he said to Valentine.

"Zeger de Witt seems to have gone away. I'm going to investigate the cause of the explosion and the condition of my fellow Police members. You do what you want," said Groen.

It hadn't been one hour since the restriction was put in place, so Valentine couldn't use his Concealment yet. He didn't really fancy meeting the other Police Contractbounds because things might go wrong, so he let Groen go alone. He wanted to investigate as well but he would do so alone, under the curtain of the thick dust.

"G, that sudden explosion took us all by surprise. It's difficult to see through all this dust so we'd better be careful," he muttered.

Valentine quietly walked towards the direction that he was sure to be the center of the street. The 'black hole' had been there and had most likely been the cause of the explosion. What he wanted to know was the cause and what happened there after that.

It didn't take him long to reach the center, which he knew because of the giant crater left on the paved ground. There was no sign of the black hole anywhere except for the damage the explosion had caused. The buildings closest to the center were obliterated and were only barely standing. All the windows had been reduced to glass shards on the ground.

Valentine felt like he was looking at a war zone. It evoked a familiar feeling of sorrow, terror, and anxiety that he used to feel back then.

Suddenly, Valentine heard a pained cry from the distance. He followed it and slowly, he could see ahead of him the female Sergeant called Oranje kneeling on the ground next to a motionless man.

It was Paars!

The man's body was covered in deep wounds and there was a gaping hole on his chest where his heart was. Blood and dust covered his whole body and the Police coat that he was wearing was all torn. His eyes were wide open and there was an expression of shock on his face. A moment later, he started bursting into flames and his ashes were left on the ground, along with his contract scrolls and remain.

He was dead, and Oranje was mourning his death.

Judging from the wounds that had been on his body, his death was not caused by the explosion, but an attack from someone. The enemy, Horror, must have been using the shockwave to attack the man somehow before fleeing; there was no sign of him anywhere.

Although he was not familiar with the man, Valentine still felt regret that he had died just like that. They had been fighting Ghastly together and he wouldn't have won without Paars' help.

Valentine left the area quickly before Rood, who was searching for Horror, noticed him. He went to see what had happened with the other fight between Roze and Obscurity, which happened on the other side of the street. Valentine relied on his hearing that had returned to follow the sounds of people talking in the distance.

"We got two of them, and one is heavily injured. What about the losses on our side?" asked a female voice that should belong to Lieutenant Roze.

Valentine walked closer but stayed hidden in the distance. Groen was among the people currently present there, and they all didn't look to be in their best condition. The man named Bruin was covered in cut wounds while Geel's right arm was mangled. It was recovering slowly, but it still looked to be in a terrible state. The woman named Wit had returned to her human form and she was probably the only one without any visible wounds on her body-- even Roze was covered in blood.

There were ashes on the paved ground in the shape of humans. Those must have been the members of the Pale Society that they had killed. Valentine couldn't judge who those ashes belonged to, so he could only guess.

At that moment, he heard the sound of static followed by the voice of a man that he was already too familiar with; it was Rood, whose voice he had often used, speaking through the radio.

"Paars *static* dead,"

Then there was silence. The news seemed to have been a shock to them.

The sound of static then disappeared, leaving the five people present there in disbelief.

"Rood must have been joking... right?" said Wit. She tried to sound cheerful but her voice couldn't hide her disbelief.

Roze shook her head heavily.

Wit fell on her knees. Her usual ferocious face was nowhere to be seen; what was present was just the face of someone who had just lost someone dear to her. Tears started running down her cheek as she held back the urge to scream as hard as she could.

Valentine didn't know the relationship between the two, so he could only guess. Wit must have been Paars' partner or maybe there was even something special between them. He left the mourning Police on their own and made his way towards the end of the street.

"G, they said they got two of the members of the Pale Society. That means there should be four of them still left around this area. It's still quite dangerous here so we have to pay attention to our surroundings," muttered Valentine.

After walking only for several meters, suddenly, there was the voice of a man speaking right into everyone's ears. It was none other than Obscurity, the enemy with the creepy ability.

"*Pant*... you should have left the 'seed' to us. It wouldn't have exploded like this if you had done so. Now, look at what you've done. Your men are dead and your beloved city is destroyed, heheh..." he said. Although his voice sounded amused, he didn't sound to be in his best condition either.

Suddenly, Valentine heard the sounds of motor carriages approaching. There seemed to be at least six of them coming towards the Police, judging from the sounds. Valentine quickly hid behind the wall of a building and watched what was happening through the cloud of dust.

Vroom! Vroom!

His estimate was exactly right. Six brown motor carriages approached the street at a high speed and then stopped at the spot where the Police were.

From where he was standing, Valentine couldn't see clearly what was happening, but he could hear everything perfectly.

"Finally you're here, old friend," said Groen, greeting one of the people getting out of the motor carriages.

There was a figure of a man wearing what looked like a suit who was standing with his back facing Valentine. He could only barely see his figure through the dust, but he felt like he had seen the man before.

"I'm sorry, Henk. It took us a while to break through the barrier set up by their organization,"

Valentine recognized whose voice that was. It was Mastro Gianni of Fratello Maggiore, the mafia organization!

"Now that you guys are here, let us begin the second round of the hunt. We need to properly avenge Paars as well," said Roze with audible anger in her tone.