Chapter 297: There You Are, My Prey

Location: Libeus Agency

Place: Headquarters

The entire Libeus Agency headquarters had erupted into chaos.

Reports poured into the command center faster than the operators could process them. Every few seconds, another district requested reinforcements, another Agency unit reported contact with demons, or another emergency channel announced civilian casualties. The enormous displays covering the walls were filled with warning markers spreading across Libeus, while several communication channels overlapped until individual voices became almost impossible to distinguish.

Sara stood in the center of it all, staring at the main tactical display.

The casualty count changed again.

Then again.

And again.

Each time the number increased, Sara felt the pressure in her chest grow heavier.

"How am I supposed to stop this...?"

Her voice was almost lost beneath the noise surrounding her. The demonic army hadn’t concentrated its forces in one location where the Agency could confront them directly. They had scattered throughout the country, attacking cities, residential districts and important infrastructure simultaneously. Every time Sara moved units to reinforce one area, another emergency appeared somewhere else.

Her fingers tightened against the command table.

"Yuno City is requesting additional units!"

"We’ve lost communication with the western response team!"

"Another demonic group has been confirmed near the northern district!"

"Director, Davenport is reporting Leviathan movement again!"

Sara closed her eyes for barely a second.

There weren’t enough people.

The Agency had prepared for invasions, disasters and large-scale supernatural attacks, but this wasn’t behaving like an ordinary invasion. The enemy seemed interested in spreading chaos itself, forcing Agency forces apart until no single unit had enough manpower to properly control its assigned territory.

Behind Sara, Sister Mary silently studied the information appearing across another monitor.

Her expression gradually became more serious.

"This doesn’t look right."

Sara turned slightly.

"What?"

Mary pointed toward the tactical map.

"Look at how they’re moving."

Sara followed her finger. Red markers covered enormous portions of the map, but after staring for several seconds, she began noticing what Mary meant. The attacks appeared chaotic from the ground, yet the larger picture suggested something more deliberate. Demonic units were keeping Agency forces occupied across multiple locations, constantly forcing Sara to divide what remained of her available manpower.

"They’re scattering our forces," Sara said.

Mary nodded slowly.

"And while we’re busy responding to everything at once, we can’t tell which attack actually matters."

Sara stared at the map.

That possibility was worse.

"What are they really after...?"

Before Mary could answer, every warning light inside the command center suddenly flickered.

Sara looked up.

The floor trembled beneath her feet.

At first it was faint enough that she wondered whether another explosion had occurred somewhere nearby, but the vibration rapidly became stronger. Cups rattled across desks. Hanging equipment began shaking, and several operators stopped speaking as they felt the same strange pressure moving through the building.

Then the roar reached Libeus.

"RRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR....!!!"

The headquarters shook.

Sara grabbed the edge of the command table as the sound slammed through the reinforced structure. Ceiling panels vibrated overhead, monitors shook against their mounts and several operators instinctively covered their ears.

"What the hell?!"

The roar only became louder.

It wasn’t like hearing some distant creature screaming across the ocean. The sheer intensity of the sound produced a physical vibration that traveled through the headquarters itself, making the walls, floors and equipment tremble together.

Then the lights flickered.

Once.

Twice.

Every monitor in the command center distorted simultaneously.

"Sara..."

Mary didn’t finish.

The power died.

Every display went black at once.

The tactical map vanished. Communication terminals shut down, ceiling lights disappeared and the constant electronic noise that had filled headquarters abruptly ceased. Even several backup systems attempted to activate, only to flicker briefly before failing as disturbances spread through Libeus’s already damaged electrical network.

The entire command center was swallowed by darkness.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Hundreds of people who had been shouting orders and exchanging reports moments earlier now stood completely silent while the roar continued somewhere beyond the reinforced walls.

Sara could feel it through the floor beneath her shoes.

Finally, emergency lights activated along the lower walls, filling the headquarters with a faint glow.

Sara slowly raised her head.

Her face had gone pale.

Leviathan had roared earlier that night. ℯℯ𝘭.

She remembered exactly what it had sounded like.

This was louder.

Much louder.

Sister Mary stared toward the darkened monitors before slowly turning toward Sara.

"What... was that?"

Sara didn’t answer immediately.

She remained beside the command table, staring into the dim emergency lighting as the final vibration of the roar continued traveling through the headquarters. She had heard Leviathan earlier that night, and even from this distance its voice had been powerful enough to announce its presence across the country.

But this had been different.

Far louder.

Far more violent.

It hadn’t sounded like a creature trying to frighten an enemy. There had been something almost deliberate behind it, as though whatever produced that roar had wanted the entire ocean to hear its answer.

One of the tactical displays suddenly flickered back to life as the headquarters’ protected emergency power stabilized. Most of the national map remained dark, but a warning marker over Davenport continued blinking repeatedly.

Sister Mary’s eyes settled on it.

Then her expression changed.

"That was a dragon’s roar."

Sara slowly turned toward her.

"A... dragon’s roar?"

The words left her mouth almost as a whisper.

For a moment, neither woman moved.

Then Sara remembered who had gone toward Davenport.

Her eyes widened.

Sister Mary reached the same conclusion at exactly the same moment, and the two women looked directly at one another.

"Her Majesty."

The words came from both of them simultaneously.

A chill passed through Sara.

That roar suddenly carried a completely different meaning.

Among dragons, a roar like that wasn’t simply noise or intimidation. It was something older and more instinctive a declaration that the creature before them had finally gained the dragon’s full attention. Almost like placing a mark upon prey and announcing to everything nearby that the hunt now belonged to them.

And Erza had just made that declaration over the Atlantic.

"Damn it..."

Sara clenched her teeth.

She wasn’t relieved that Erza had engaged Leviathan.

She was terrified.

Sara had learned enough about dragons to understand the difference between Erza fighting because something needed to die and Erza fighting because something had become interesting.

The first could end quickly.

The second was unpredictable.

Dragons could become frighteningly absorbed when they encountered something capable of entertaining them. Once the hunt became enjoyable, everything beyond their opponent could disappear from their attention. Distance, collateral damage and even the battlefield itself became secondary to discovering how far their prey could be pushed before it finally broke.

And Erza wasn’t merely a dragon.

She was their Queen.

Sara immediately slammed her hand against the command table.

Her hands tightened against the command table.

If that truly had been Erza’s roar, then the situation around Davenport was about to become far worse. The civilians above ground couldn’t be warned about what was actually happening. As far as the public knew, demons, dragons and the supernatural world didn’t exist, and maintaining that secrecy remained one of the Agency’s responsibilities even during an invasion.

But secrecy didn’t matter if there were no civilians left alive to protect.

"All units, emergency civilian protocol!"

The command center came alive again.

Operators switched to protected communication channels while backup systems continued restoring whatever functions remained available.

"Yes, Chief!"

Sara immediately turned toward the operators below.

"All branches, initiate mass civilian containment protocol. Deploy sleeping smoke throughout every populated district within the projected danger zones."

Several operators immediately began transmitting her order.

"Yes, Chief!"

"Don’t tell civilians what’s happening and don’t waste time trying to explain anything. Release the smoke, put them to sleep and have evacuation teams collect them immediately. Move everyone to the nearest reinforced shelter or bombing bunker."

The command center erupted into activity as the order spread across the surviving Agency network. Operators began dividing cities into evacuation sectors, marking civilian concentrations and assigning transport units to the closest underground shelters.

Sara pointed toward the coastal regions on the tactical map.

"Davenport and Yuno receive priority. Expand outward from there depending on the battle’s movement. I want civilians off the streets before whatever is happening over that ocean gets any worse."

"Understood!"

Sister Mary watched the map while another operator raised his hand.

"Chief, what happens after they’re evacuated?"

Sara barely looked away from Davenport.

"When the battle is finished, Memory Erasure handles them. Remove anything they witnessed tonight that can’t be explained normally, return them home and prepare a cover story for the physical destruction."

The operator nodded and immediately relayed the instruction.

Across Libeus, Agency units began moving.

Specialized vehicles entered residential districts and released controlled clouds of sleeping smoke through streets that had already descended into panic.

Civilians who had been running from unexplained destruction gradually lost consciousness before Agency teams in protective equipment followed behind, collecting them from buildings and roads and transporting them toward nearby reinforced shelters.

Nobody was told about demons.

Nobody was told about Leviathan.

And they certainly weren’t told that the increasingly violent disturbances spreading from the Atlantic were being caused by the woman supposedly responsible for protecting them.

Sara stared at the blinking Davenport marker.

"Damn it..."

She understood dragons well enough to know what that roar meant.

Erza had found something interesting.

And when a dragon truly found prey worth playing with, the world around that prey could become irrelevant. It wasn’t necessarily cruelty; it was something frighteningly instinctive. The hunt narrowed their attention until testing the opponent, overwhelming it and finally breaking its resistance became the only thing that mattered.

That was what frightened Sara.

Leviathan had already survived Erza’s attacks long enough to excite her.

"Get those civilians underground faster," Sara ordered, her voice becoming colder. "If Her Majesty has decided Leviathan is worth playing with, I don’t want a single civilian anywhere near the board."

"Yes, Chief!"

The command center erupted into renewed activity. Operators immediately relayed Sara’s instructions to every available branch, while new evacuation sectors appeared across the restored portions of the tactical map.

Agency teams were redirected toward civilian concentrations, sleeping-smoke units were dispatched ahead of evacuation crews, and nearby underground shelters were ordered to prepare for thousands of unconscious civilians.

Sara remained over the command table, watching everything unfold with growing pressure in her chest. There were too many things happening at once.

The demonic army was scattered across Libeus, Leviathan was fighting Erza somewhere beyond Davenport, civilian casualties continued rising, and now she had to prepare entire cities for the collateral damage that could come from Erza becoming serious.

Behind her, Sister Mary suddenly stopped moving.

Her hand rose toward her chest.

A strange uneasiness had appeared without warning, sharp enough that she instinctively looked around the command center despite there being nothing visibly different.

"What was that...?"

Sara heard her.

"Saint?" Sara turned toward her. "What happened?"

Mary didn’t answer immediately. Her brows drew together as she concentrated on the strange sensation, but she couldn’t identify where it had come from.

It wasn’t pain, nor was it anything she could properly explain. For just an instant, something had felt terribly wrong.

"I don’t know." Mary slowly shook her head. "I just felt something. Something isn’t right."

Sara’s expression became serious.

She knew better than to dismiss Mary’s instincts tonight, especially after the Saint had already helped them locate Yuuta.

Before she could question her further, one of the communication officers suddenly turned around.

"Chief! Captain Raven is requesting a direct channel."

"Raven?"

Sara immediately remembered where she had sent her. Using the information Sister Mary had provided, Raven’s unit had been dispatched toward the area where Erza’s human was believed to be located.

"Put her through."

The officer opened the channel.

Static briefly filled the command center before Raven’s voice came through.

"Chief, Captain Raven reporting."

"Go ahead, Raven."

"We located the targets. The Supreme Commander’s husband and daughter have both been safely rescued."

Sister Mary’s tense expression immediately softened.

"Yuuta is safe..."

Sara felt some of the pressure leave her chest as well. With Erza already behaving dangerously over Davenport, the last thing they needed was for something to happen to the human she loved.

"I see. Good work. Keep both of them under protection and escort them to the nearest secured Agency base. Don’t separate the child from her father."

There was a brief silence from Raven.

"Chief... I don’t think that’s going to be possible."

Sara frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"Her husband is refusing evacuation."

Sara’s expression darkened.

"Why?"

"He says he wants to go to Davenport."

Sara stared at the communication terminal.

"What?!"

Even Sister Mary looked toward the speaker.

Of all the places Yuuta could possibly choose to go, Davenport was currently the worst. Erza and Leviathan were fighting somewhere beyond its coastline, and Sara had just begun clearing civilians from the surrounding regions precisely because she didn’t know how destructive that battle was about to become.

"Absolutely not. Raven, keep him where he is. I don’t care if you have to...."

Sara stopped.

Something had changed on the other end.

Raven had gone silent.

Not disconnected.

Silent.

"Raven?"

The silence was so abrupt that Sara initially thought the connection had failed, yet the faint sounds of the ruined street could still be heard through the channel.

Wind passed over Raven’s communicator, distant Shadow Corps members were moving somewhere nearby, and Elena’s voice could barely be heard in the background.

The connection was still active.

Raven simply wasn’t talking.

"Raven?"

Sara waited.

"Captain Raven, report."

Still nothing.

Sister Mary slowly turned toward the communication station. The uneasy feeling from moments earlier hadn’t disappeared. If anything, it had become stronger, settling heavily inside her chest without giving her any explanation for why.

Then Raven finally spoke.

"...Who are you?"

Sara’s expression changed immediately.

There was something wrong with Raven’s voice. The captain hadn’t shouted or ordered her soldiers to attack. Instead, her words had come out unusually slowly, as though she were staring at something her mind hadn’t yet understood.

"Raven, what’s happening?" Sara demanded. "Who are you talking to?"

The transmission suddenly filled with movement.

Several weapons were drawn almost simultaneously on the other side.

"Protect the Supreme Commander’s family!"

"Formation!"

"Don’t move!"

Sara immediately leaned toward the communication terminal.

"Raven!"

No answer came from her.

Instead, something else entered the transmission.

A Young men laugh.

Soft.

Almost playful.

Sister Mary’s eyes widened.

The laughter didn’t carry the excitement of someone who had accidentally encountered an enemy. It sounded far more personal than that, like someone who had spent an unbearably long time searching for something precious and had finally found it standing directly before her.

Then the Mystreious figure inhaled softly.

"There you are..."

Sara froze.

The stranger sounded happy.

Far too happy.

"I’ve been looking everywhere for you."

Sister Mary’s fingers tightened against her clothes as the terrible sensation inside her chest suddenly intensified.

"Raven, get Yuuta out of there!" she shouted.

The mysterious figured laughed again.

Then, almost affectionately, he whispered two words.

"My prey."

KRRRRSH....!

The transmission vanished.

Every speaker inside the command center went dead at once.

Sara stared at the communication terminal.

"Raven?"

Nothing.

"RAVEN!"

Only static answered her.

Sister Mary stood completely motionless behind her, the color slowly draining from her face as that inexplicable feeling of danger refused to disappear.

And somewhere in Yuno City, the Shadow Corps had stopped responding.

TO BE CONTINUED.