"Put your hands up and surrender right now," the guards shouted at Daniel in a threatening tone.
They believed he was an enemy sent to assassinate high-ranking officials.
Killing intent surged in Daniel’s eyes, and a glow of death aura flickered in his hands.
Feeling that aura, August experienced a brief mont of fear and quickly intervened to prevent any conflict.
"Gentlen, calm down. This young man is a friend of mine."
"Are you sure, Mr. August?" the guards exchanged glances, then looked back at August.
The head of the Awakened Association nodded, and the guards slowly lowered their weapons.
"If there’s any issue, please call us imdiately," they said and then left.
"August, can you please tell who that friend of yours is?" the mayor asked, a bit annoyed.
"There’s no need to know much. He’s a good friend and soone I trust."
The mayor was about to speak again, but Daniel stepped in, glancing at August.
"We need to talk. Please."
The head of the Awakened Association let out a sigh and stood up. He could feel the coldness and anger in Daniel’s voice and eyes. It was a clear sign of worry.
"Everyone, take a short break. I’ll be back soon and we can continue the eting," he said and left with Daniel.
"Who was he? You know him, right?" But the mayor wasn’t done asking questions—he simply changed who he was asking.
Philip sighed and looked at the short bald old man across from him, who was staring with those brown eyes.
’This old man can really act like a child sotis,’ he thought. Feeling that everyone in the room was now curious about that boy, he gave a brief explanation about Daniel’s identity.
anwhile, Daniel and August reached the garden area of the Awakened Association and sat on a bench there.
"Exactly what happened after I entered the tower? What the hell is going on here?"
"We’re not entirely sure what happened either. Suddenly, a dinsional break occurred, and a large number of corruption beasts invaded the city... As soon as we realized, we sent the citizens into shelters and tried to contain the attack," the head of the Awakened Association replied with a sigh.
"How big is this attack that it’s still not contained?" Daniel asked, frowning.
He didn’t think the beasts were powerful. He figured the problem was simply the number of them.
If it had been an S-rank corruption beast or multiple A-ranks, the city would’ve already been destroyed.
"There are just way too many of them. And the real problem is how fast they reproduce. It’s not traditional reproduction either—they reproduce using light," August said tiredly.
"Light? You an sunlight or any kind of light?"
"Any kind of light."
"Is that even possible? What kind of ssed up species is this?" Shock replaced the coldness in Daniel’s eyes.
If a species could reproduce just by being in light, they could potentially form an army of billions.
"We’ve been trying to shut off all lights in the city. We’re even planning to build a do using an array to block sunlight during the day."
"To contain the situation, we need to kill the Boss, right?" Daniel asked.
"Yes. But the Boss is deeply hidden, and we don’t know where it is. We don’t even have enough information about this species. We’re waiting for a few experts from the capital to arrive and help us understand what we’re dealing with," August nodded.
"I see... What about my family?" Daniel gathered his courage and asked.
It wasn’t that he had forgotten about them. He was just afraid to ask—afraid sothing terrible had happened to them.
But he couldn’t hold back any longer.
"Your family was kidnapped three days ago. Actually, it happened right when the dinsional break occurred. At first, I thought they might have been attacked by the corruption beasts, but the guards at the residential area said no beasts ever reached there," the head of the Awakened Association said after a brief pause.
"I imdiately went there myself to investigate, but found absolutely nothing. Literally nothing. It’s like they were never there. I assigned several guards to search for them."
"So they just vanished? Without a single trace?" Daniel’s eyes flickered again with coldness and a hint of worry.
His thoughts drifted to those assassins. Could it have been them? Did they send another group to kill him, but when they didn’t find him, they kidnapped his family instead?
It seed very possible—but sothing in his intuition told him that wasn’t the case.
If it wasn’t them, then what the hell happened?
"I don’t know. Given the situation, as you can see, it’s been extrely difficult to look for your family. There are so many limitations, and even the guards I assigned couldn’t find any leads," August said, looking at him.
He truly felt sorry about what happened to this boy’s family. Daniel had really beco like a son to him.
But the current situation had severely limited what he could do. He had even tried using his influence and connections with the Federation’s intelligence organizations, but nothing ca of it.
It really did seem like Daniel’s family had simply vanished.
"But you said you found a clue, right?" Daniel suddenly asked.
The head of the Awakened Association paused, then pulled sothing out of his inventory—a hand. A blackish-purple hand with galaxy-like veins.
It didn’t look like a human hand at all—more like a monster’s hand.
"Using so information-gathering items, I was able to trace your family’s movent up to the city border. I sent my guards there, but they didn’t find anything—only this hand. I thought it might be connected to your family, so I kept it."
Daniel took the hand and examined it carefully. A glint appeared in his eyes.
"Do you recognize this hand?" August asked, noticing the reaction.
Daniel just nodded. Of course he recognized it. It belonged to a Fallen—the very sa ones he had left behind to protect his family.
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