Chapter 646: Capture
“Everyone, stay alert.” Harding’s voice ca through the portable communication devices to every person’s ear. “The Shadow Thief could appear at any mont. Maintain vigilance, do not act alone, and constantly monitor any changes in your own shadow.”
Silence.
Inside the factory building, only the buzzing of the lighting units and the distant, low rumble of waves crashing against the shore remained.
Before long, Dirk was the first to spot it.
From the northwest corner of the factory, beneath a pile of discarded steel, a semi-transparent shadow slid out.
Its form was exactly as drawn on the paper Harding had brought: a flattened human silhouette, without facial features or limb details, like a human-shaped cutout made from semi-transparent black plastic, gliding silently across the ground.
Its movent was extrely eerie.
It was as if soone had applied a layer of oil beneath its “body,” allowing it to slide in a manner unaffected by friction.
The Shadow Thief’s speed was not fast, but it was incredibly quiet—so quiet that when you stared at it, you would suspect you were seeing an illusion.
“Target confird,” Dirk said in a low voice. “Northwest corner, approximately fifty ters away.”
The Shadow Thief did not head straight toward them.
It glided along the base of the walls, as if searching for sothing, or perhaps probing.
Its “body” flexibly turned at the angle where wall t floor, sticking to the corners as it slid toward the south side of the factory building.
Then it passed the first set of lighting units.
Light shone down from above, casting clear shadows on the ground.
The Shadow Thief paused for a mont at the boundary between light and dark. Its “body” trembled slightly at the edge of the light, as if sensing sothing it found uncomfortable.
But it did not retreat. Instead, it followed the edge of the light in an arc and continued gliding deeper into the factory.
There was no doubt—its target was the man lying on the stretcher.
The van was parked on the south side of the factory building. Light from inside the compartnt spilled through the half-open door, casting a rectangular patch of light on the ground.
The man on the stretcher had been pushed to the doorway of the compartnt, half his body in the light of the van and half in the darkness of the factory.
The Shadow Thief glided toward that direction.
“It’s taken the bait,” Harding’s voice sounded in the communication channel. “Proceed according to plan.”
The Shadow Thief crossed the open space in the center of the factory building.
Its speed increased, like a shark that had slled blood.
The semi-transparent shadow left a blurry trail across the ground as it headed straight for the van.
When it was less than twenty ters from the van, Harding moved.
However, Harding did not charge toward the Shadow Thief. Instead, he moved sideways, positioning himself directly between the Shadow Thief and the van.
His shadow moved with him across the ground like a black flag unfurling.
Thus, the Shadow Thief’s forward trajectory shifted.
It was looking for an angle—a safe angle from which it could “eat” Harding’s shadow while also approaching the van.
Dirk circled around from the other side, forming a pincer with Harding.
The flashlights in both their hands switched on simultaneously, their beams sealing off all paths for the Shadow Thief to approach the van from the front.
The Shadow Thief’s speed slowed.
Its “body” began to tremble slightly, as if hesitating, or perhaps calculating.
Then it suddenly turned and glided along the ground toward the east side of the factory building.
That area was near the edge of the sealing formation being set up by the capture team, where the light was slightly dimr.
“It’s trying to circle around,” Dirk said in the channel.
“Don’t pursue. Let it circle,” Harding’s voice remained calm. “There are people at the formation.”
Sure enough, when the Shadow Thief reached the east side, several other people were already waiting there.
Four people’s flashlights ford a line across the ground, completely blocking the Shadow Thief’s path forward.
The Shadow Thief stopped.
It halted in the open space in the center of the factory building, surrounded by nurous flashlight beams from all directions.
The semi-transparent shadow slowly rotated on the ground, as if surveying every direction and searching for any possible gap.
“Sealing formation, activate,” Harding ordered.
Pale blue light lit up simultaneously from the four corners of the factory building.
Runes erged from the pre-buried stone slabs and spread rapidly across the ground, converging at the boundary of the factory into a massive closed circular formation.
The formation’s light contracted inward, gradually compressing the Shadow Thief’s range of movent.
At the sa ti, the shadowless man was pulled back into the van compartnt, and the van carrying him sped away to a pre-prepared area under intense lighting.
The scent of “food” had disappeared, and the surrounding environnt had changed. This made the Shadow Thief sense danger.
Its “body” suddenly accelerated, charging toward the nearest direction.
That was the gap between Dirk and another team mber’s positions.
Its speed increased by at least double, shooting across the ground like a black bolt of lightning.
Dirk raised his right hand, palm facing down. A black thread shot out from his fingertips and precisely wrapped around the edge of the Shadow Thief.
The Shadow Thief’s body was pulled by the thread, its speed dropping sharply.
But its reaction was fast.
Its body deford and stretched under the pull of the thread, like jelly being pinched at the edge.
Yet it did not struggle. Instead, it followed the direction of the thread’s pull and changed its trajectory.
It abandoned its charge toward Dirk and glided toward another angle instead.
At that angle, Dirk’s shadow had been stretched long by the direction of the lighting. The end of the shadow was less than three ters from the Shadow Thief.
The Shadow Thief charged toward the end of the shadow.
“Dirk, move left!” Harding’s voice exploded in his ear.
Dirk executed the order almost instinctively.
He took three steps to the left. His shadow shifted with his movent, and the end of the shadow moved away from the Shadow Thief’s path.
At the sa ti, one of the capture teams on the east side imdiately adjusted the angle of their lighting unit.
A high-power beam swept across Dirk’s previous position, completely erasing the residual shadow he had left behind.
The Shadow Thief’s attack missed.
Its body spun in a circle on the open ground, as if expressing so emotion similar to “confusion.”
Then it charged toward another direction—this ti toward Harding.
Harding stood in place with his hands in his pockets, calmly watching the dark shadow rush toward him.
His shadow lay quietly at his feet, motionless.
When the Shadow Thief reached a position less than a ter from Harding’s shadow, it suddenly ca to an abrupt stop.
Its “body” trembled violently on the ground, as if enduring so kind of pain.
At the left chest of Harding’s uniform, beneath the star-marked emblem, a faint blue light emanated.
It was the aura of his Strange: “Storm Eye.”
rely the peration of this aura was enough to make a Strange of the Shadow Thief’s level feel discomfort.
Thus, the Shadow Thief retreated.
It fell back to the open space in the center of the factory building, its body shrinking into a clump, like a crumpled sheet of paper.
It was trembling—a fine, high-frequency tremor that transmitted through the ground to everyone’s feet.
“It’s afraid?” Dirk said.
“No,” Harding shook his head. “It’s preparing.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the Shadow Thief’s body suddenly exploded.
The flattened human silhouette spread out in all directions like ink spilled on the ground, turning into a nearly transparent dark film that rapidly spread across the surface.
The edge of the film touched the walls of the factory building.
There were many shadows on the walls.
The rusted machinery, broken windows, and steel-frad ceiling cast countless shadows of varying sizes and shapes under the lighting.
The instant the film made contact with these shadows, it seed to find channels.
It “crawled” up the walls along the shadows, then “crawled” onto the abandoned machinery along those shadows, and from there onto even more objects.
“It’s connected!” Dirk’s voice carried a trace of tension. “It’s controlling those things!”
The objects throughout the abandoned factory seed to co alive.
A heavy stamping machine, rusted for thirty years, suddenly activated.
Its motor emitted a piercing roar. The massive flywheel began to spin, and the rust-covered ram smashed down fiercely, creating a crater in the ground.
An overhead crane slid along the tracks on the ceiling. Its huge hook swung in the air, claws opened, grabbing toward the people below.
A pile of discarded steel pipes sprang up from the ground, as if manipulated by invisible hands, whistling as they flew toward the Spirit diums in the field.
“Everyone, stay alert!” Harding’s voice remained clear amid the chaos. “Do not panic. Follow the contingency plan!”
The capture team imdiately brought the sealing formation and lighting arrays to full power.
The formation’s light changed from pale blue to bright white, enveloping the entire industrial zone in a nearly blinding halo.
The lighting arrays began sweeping in regular patterns, attempting to sever the Shadow Thief’s shadow connections to the objects.
But every object controlled by the Shadow Thief had a direct link to its dark film.
Even when a lighting beam swept across and cut off one shadow channel, it could maintain control through another.
“Dirk, do not release your Strange!” Harding saw Dirk raise his hand and imdiately stopped him. “I’ll handle it.”
Harding took a deep breath and released his suppression on the Strange within his body.
Thus, the Storm Eye was unleashed.
Inside the abandoned factory, a real storm appeared out of nowhere.
Genuine dark clouds condensed in the space beneath the factory ceiling. Thunder echoed between the walls. Fierce winds swept through, carrying bean-sized raindrops that lashed everything.
Rainwater surged in from all directions simultaneously, as if invisible rain-making machines had been installed in every corner of the factory.
And at the center of the storm was Harding.
He stood within the wind and rain. His uniform flapped violently in the gusts, but his body remained completely still, hands still tucked in his pockets.
The fierce winds slamd into the objects controlled by the Shadow Thief.
The flywheel of the heavy stamping machine slowed under the wind. The crane’s hook swung unsteadily in the air. The flying steel pipes were swept away by the wind, clanging noisily as they smashed into the walls.
The storm and the Shadow Thief had reached a standoff.
The objects controlled by the Shadow Thief were continuously pushed back under the storm’s assault, but the dark film stubbornly clung to the shadow of every object, refusing to let go.
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