In the middle of the night, Cail's phone suddenly rang.
Cail was still awake; he was sitting in his bed reading a book. The moment his phone rang, he was quick to respond to it.
It was Jael.
"I seem to have flinched when I heard my phone ringing. It seemed like I developed a conditional reflex," Because every time his phone rang, it's a new trouble.
"Hello? Jael, what's up?" Cail rubbed his eyes.
It was silent on the other side.
'Don't tell me...' Cail was alert the moment he remembered the cult. It shouldn't be this fast! Based on the news articles that he gathered, it should at least take a week for them to go to Jael's house if they were following the same pattern.
Cail didn't speak, he just listened to the silence. He could hear a faint heavy breathing on the other side.
"Cail... Please help me," Jael said, his voice quivering, filled with terror.
"What happened? Are those cults there?" Cail asked, but he already had his guess.
Jael didn't answer for a second, before he spoke in a very hushed tone, "Yes. Th-they suddenly just appeared here. I woke up to them chanting something strange on my front door. They matched the description, so they should be it."
Cail grabbed his jacket and rushed outside. "Have you called the police?"
"Ye-yes I have. B-but I think I'll be gone after they arrive," Jael said ominously.
Cail paused, "Why do you say that?"
"They're already inside my house."
...
After saying that, the call was cut off. Cail had to hurry. He jumped into his motorcycle and rushed towards Jael's house.
As indifferent as he was to some things, he did have basic protective instincts towards people that he was close with. People who can stand him are rare, he knew that.
"This is moronic," he muttered. He's very aware that his decision is rushed. But aside from the fact that Jael is his friend, he also promised someone to keep Jael safe.
To be honest, Cail was not a trustworthy person, but he knew sincerity and for the most basic part, he's just strange. Even he himself doesn't know how to evaluate himself.
"Let's just keep things simple, I'm crazy," Cail concluded.
His glasses were turned on. He surveyed the surroundings. His heart dropped when he saw a suspiciously large amount of void energy as he drove through Jael's area.
...
The moment he arrived at Jael's house, he was a bit shocked as to how absurdly quiet it was. If not for the fact that this place was almost blanketed with Void Energy, he would have thought that Jael was just messing with him.
He could feel that the concentration was inside the house. He climbed up the gate and jumped down. The moment his feet landed into the ground, he could feel something. He isn't sure what it was but it was very strange.
Cail kicked the door open. A rifle appeared in his hand. It was fortunate that his reaction was quick because what met him was a Shard jumping at him.
He pulled the trigger and boom! The globe-like circle covering the man's head shattered together with its skull.
The sound of the gun going off seemed to have triggered something. As if the house suddenly came alive, countless Shards suddenly came out, rushing towards Cail.
Cail looked at those madmen. With his glasses, he could see a lot of weak points in their bodies. They looked like they were stitched together.
He tried to distance himself to get a better aim, but because of how many they were, some of them managed to get past and lunged at Cail.
One of the Shards managed to come close. Its sharp claws slashing towards Cail's neck. Cail managed to avoid getting killed by it, but the claws managed to almost tear his shoulder apart.
Cail could still feel his shoulder. He gritted his teeth and shot the Shard. With one of his arms injured, his aim was a bit off. He misfired a shot and hit the chandelier on the top.
"I almost self-sabotaged." The sharp glass from the chandelier almost turned him into a porcupine.
At this moment, he was already using his rifle as a bat.
He continued to take out as many of the Shards as he could. But they are just too many. "The house isn't this big. Why are they endless!"
His grip on his gun was off. It was a total nightmare. A Shard managed to smack his rifle off his hand and tackled him to the ground.
Cail paused the Shard's arm. This fucker is strong. With his other arm barely exerting any force, the Shard was gaining the upper hand.
The Shard managed to bite his wrist. Cail managed himself not to scream and thought, this isn't good. He could feel the other Shards approaching.
He gathered his void energy on his palm and smashed it on the Shard pinning him. This is a very energy-consuming move, but out of desperation, Cail had no other choice.
He managed to crawl towards the weapon and shot the Shard point-blank into its head.
They were close. The Shard's blood splattered into Cail's glasses.
Cail had no choice but to fight with rose-tinted lenses. He had no time to wipe it off.
Cail pulled the bookshelf down to slow down the other approaching Shards as he tried to shoot them.
One of the Shards pulled his comrade to block Cail's shot. Cail was a bit taken aback but remembered that although most of them are half insane, they still have some degree of intelligence.
Some of them even started chanting something weird and threw stuff at Cail.
He dodged and the small orb that they threw at him exploded. Cail was thrown off by the shock. Half of the house was blown off.
Cail stood up. He doesn't even know where he was injured. He needs to find Jael and get out of here.
He shot the Shard that was chanting but others seemed to have a self-sacrificing mentality. They used their body as a shield for the chanter.
"This can't go on. I need to find Jael." These guys are endless.
With no other choice, as he was being attacked by the Shards, Cail yelled, "Jael! Where are you!"
Then, out of his expectations, he heard someone behind him.
"Cail, I'm here."