Chapter 94: [Chapter 94 ● The Invisible Sniper!]
"Shoot~"
The word left her lips softly.
The result, however, was anything but harmless.
A compressed projectile of darkwind instantly formed at her fingertip before being launched soundlessly into the distance. No flash appeared, no warning was given, no killing intent leaked, and no disturbance announced the attack.
The invisible projectile crossed the distance between them in an instant.
The male mage never even realized he had been targeted. The darkwind penetrated directly through his skull before violently imploding inside his head. Blood, bone, and brain matter erupted outward. The man’s body collapsed lifelessly onto the street before the others had even processed what they had just witnessed.
Silence followed. The surviving adventurers froze. Their eyes widened and their breathing halted. For several long seconds, nobody moved, nobody spoke, and nobody even seemed capable of understanding what they were looking at.
The corpse lay motionless on the ground, blood slowly spreading across the stone street, yet their minds struggled to form a coherent conclusion.
The Veil of Misrecognition quietly corrupted interpretation, while the Oblivion Hunting Ecology pressured environmental certainty.
The event had happened, and they had witnessed it, yet understanding refused to properly settle. Nearly ten seconds passed before one of them finally found his voice. His expression was a mixture of shock, confusion, and disbelief.
"Where did this dead man come from?"
"Didn’t you say you already scouted the entire area? That there wasn’t anyone here? Not even a single body?" one of the adventurers shouted, pointing toward the corpse lying in the middle of the street. His voice trembled slightly as panic began creeping into it. "Then what is this, Elara?"
"I—I..." The scout staggered backward, her expression pale, confused, and uncertain. "I don’t know..."
A strange fear gripped her heart. The answer should have been obvious. She had personally scouted this route less than five minutes ago. She had inspected every street, every alley, and every rooftop. There should not have been a corpse here. Yet somehow there was, and the more she tried recalling the details, the more unreliable her memory became.
The certainty she should have possessed simply wasn’t there.
Above them, Aphryne watched the scene unfold and could not help giggling. ’Aww, how sad~’ Her crimson eyes curved into crescents.
This game was wonderful; perhaps it had already become her favorite. Watching the outsiders stumble through their own confusion, watching them desperately search for answers while understanding slipped further and further away—it was endlessly entertaining. Even better was the fact that they never realized what was happening to them.
They remained completely unaware, like prey wandering deeper into a predator’s territory, like insects voluntarily entering a spider’s web.
Aphryne smiled brightly. Then she snapped her fingers. Six compressed bullets of darkwind materialized around her before instantly shooting toward the adventurers below. The attack was silent, invisible, without warning, without killing intent, and without even the slightest disturbance that ordinary senses could perceive.
Yet just as the bullets were about to reach their targets, a translucent white barrier suddenly expanded around the remaining six adventurers. Radiant light flowed through the protective dome as a young woman stepped forward.
"I won’t let any of you die!" she declared, her voice firm and resolute. "Not while I’m here!"
She was a healer, or perhaps a support mage—who knew? At that moment, the distinction hardly mattered. What mattered was the confidence in her eyes, the absolute certainty that she had arrived in time. For a brief instant, relief appeared on the faces of the others.
Then that certainty shattered.
The woman’s deep emerald eyes widened. The protective barrier remained intact. Not a single crack appeared upon its surface. Its defensive power had not been broken, had not been overwhelmed, and had not even been challenged.
And yet, the six darkwind bullets passed straight through it, as though the barrier had never existed, as though it possessed no authority to stop them.
Disbelief flooded her face. Her mind refused to process what she was witnessing. The bullets continued forward uninterrupted. Then they struck. Six heads exploded almost simultaneously. Blood and fragments of bone scattered through the street.
Six bodies collapsed one after another.
The woman stood frozen, the barrier remaining standing around her, perfectly intact, perfectly functional, and utterly meaningless.
For the first time since arriving, genuine horror appeared in her beautiful eyes.
"How...?"
Aria stared at the corpses littering the street below, her voice sounding almost mechanical and distant, as though her mind was struggling to process what her eyes were witnessing. The barrier was still standing, and she was still alive, yet the six adventurers were dead. None of it made sense.
A moment later, a figure descended from above and landed beside her. He had black hair, an academy uniform, and a calm expression—another one of the academy’s students. His gaze swept across the surroundings before narrowing slightly.
"Aria."
His voice was unusually serious. "I can’t sense whoever launched those attacks."
The statement immediately drew the attention of the other two academy members nearby.
"In fact," the young man continued, his expression gradually darkening, "aside from the four of us, I can’t detect anyone else in this entire area."
Silence followed. Aria blinked before slowly turning her attention back toward the corpses. Something felt wrong. Very wrong.
"Ah..." Her brows knitted together. "These seven..."
The sentence trailed off. The other three instinctively looked toward the bodies as well, only for the same strange confusion to surface within their minds. Indeed. Where had these seven come from?
They were certain that when they had entered this district, nobody had been present. No adventurers, no investigators, no civilians, and no survivors. Nothing. And yet, seven corpses were currently lying in front of them. The contradiction made their heads ache.
Aria’s eyes narrowed. "Just what is happening here?"
Her gaze swept across the empty area. Silent streets stretched into the distance. Buildings stood abandoned. Houses remained dark and lifeless. Not a single living person could be seen anywhere.
"Why is this entire area in the Gildemark Ward empty?"
