The Tale of Aeryn Glaze (UNDER MAJOR REVISION)

Chapter 8: Chaos is here

No place in this world is safe. May it be in the past or in the present time. There was no haven and no shelter anymore for humans that could secure their lives. We are not safe, to begin with, but after the great war, everything has become more dangerous and crueler.

I've come face to face with the creature, and one thing's for sure, they were not humans. My conclusion after what that creature said leads me to think that they may have been eating those children, and legends say that demons take souls, especially children which are very pure and innocent. It could be both, or it could be something else. I am no match for them. Their strength, their power, their very existence is out of this world. I was only lucky that I survived after fighting against them. If Grim hadn't come in time, I would have been dead.

"It might or might not be their weapon that contains the poison but as what Jonah had testified, the creature barely even touched a single strand of his hair yet he had a scratch and was poisoned afterward," Grim said as he stood at the bottom of the table, where the rest of the team were sitting around it. "Aeryn had fought against them, too, and the creature used its weapon to hurt her. She was poisoned, too. Now the question is, what are they and how exactly do they poison their opponent?"

Cyper, one of the members of the team, slightly raised his hand and spoke.

"Since they fit perfectly to the description of the shadow demon who was in the war before, let's call it 'Shadow demon'," He said.

"Any other suggestion of the name?" Grim looked at us and all of us shook our heads. "Alright then."

He nodded and was about to say another word when Cyper raised his hand again and spoke.

"What if the black smoke was the poison? I mean," He grabbed a paper with a sketch on the table and showed it to us. "As Aeryn said, when the creature stabbed her, the smoke that was covering the entire weapon vanished and maybe that's how she was poisoned."

On the paper was a sketch of a dagger with black smoke covering the entire weapon. It was what the creature used to stab me and after that night I was confined in the infirmary, they brought it to the headquarters and examined it but no trace of poison was laced in it. What Cyper said made sense to me.

"Well, did you see the black smoke going to you when you encountered the creature?" Grim asked as he looked at Jonah.

"I don't know. The place was dark and I could barely see anything."

It was still dark at that time when we had our first mission as a team. People were still sleeping and no lights were turned on. Plus, the creatures were invisible and they could easily camouflage in the dark since their bodies were covered with black smoke.

"There were no reports of missing children since the last time Aeryn encountered creatures like them." Grim continued. "But we have to continue finding them and figuring out what kind of being we are against. I know for sure that they're not gone and they're only waiting for the right time to attack again so we have to be ready. For now, I'll send the rest of Thanatos members to Erether while our team will stay here."

We all nodded in agreement. I then watched Grim as he ordered one of his men to tell the organization members to go back to Erether and continue our life mission as a Thanatos member, to protect and take care of the Eretherian people. After that, he came back to the table and laid the map of Erether over the table and then pinned it down with a stone.

I bit my lower lip as I stared at the map of Erether, waiting for what Grim would say. The population now is smaller compared to the population that the world was before the war happened. It is such a pity that I only get to see that world in an image, back when I used to be a research pet of the research facility and not something I saw with my very own eyes.