Chapter 60: Call from Lia, Nova City in lockdown (3)
As soon as Lia walked out of the cafe, she swiftly took out her phone and called a cab. Since she came here under the demand of City Lord Liebert, he didn’t allow Albert to follow her and wanted the young ones to have some free space.
And that also meant going back to the Inner District on her own.
However, just as she finished calling a cab, her phone suddenly rang.
Surprisingly, it was one of her friends from Nova-1 High—Maris.
They had been close for a long time, but after she became an evolver, she rarely showed up at school. Because of that, they hadn’t talked to each other for a long while.
With a click, she accepted the call.
"Hello, Maris!" Lia greeted in a happy tone. "It’s been so long since you called me. I thought you forgot about me."
However, Maris didn’t share the same energy as Lia.
Instead, her voice was solemn. "Lia... Are you free right now?"
"Yes, I am," Lia replied. "Why? Did something happen?"
"Yes..." Maris’s voice came from the other side, shaky and low. "Something did happen. No... It would be more accurate to say that I found something very bizarre. I-I didn’t know who else to contact, so I called you."
"What is it?" Lia’s expression turned serious.
"I-I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain it," Maris said in a desperate voice. "Lia, please, can you come to me? This can’t be talked over the phone. I’ll send you my location."
"Alright!" Lia nodded. "I’ll come to you, Maris. Don’t worry. You’ll be safe no matter what happens."
From the tone of Maris’s voice, she sounded panicked and anxious, and as her friend, Lia couldn’t just turn a blind eye.
"T-Thank you, Lia. I knew I could trust you." Maris said with some relief.
Soon, she ended the call and a live location appeared on her screen. At the same time, the cab she booked arrived.
Seeing this, without thinking much, she swiftly got inside and set her destination to Sector Six.
Time passed swiftly, and an hour later, the cab—utilizing the fast route to Sector Six—reached the location mentioned by Maris.
Getting out of the cab, Lia looked around. The place was littered with abandoned warehouses; this was most likely an old storage facility in Sector Six.
However, that wasn’t her concern. She took out her phone and dialed Maris’s number. She picked up immediately.
"I’m here," Lia spoke first. "Where are you?"
"I-I’m in the warehouse with the number B-64," Maris replied.
Lia looked around and quickly spotted the warehouse.
"I found it. Wait there, I’m coming!" Saying that, she cut the call and rushed toward the warehouse.
Inside, it was dim and eerily silent, and there was a strange smell lingering in the air—the scent of chemicals.
Lia stepped inside, her footsteps echoing through the empty space. "Maris, I’m here. Where are you?"
Right after she spoke, she sensed faint movement in the corner of the warehouse. Turning toward it, she saw Maris.
Maris was a girl with an average face, short brown-black hair, and right now she wore a look of distress and anxiety. The instant she saw Lia, Maris rushed toward her.
"Maris!" Lia called out as Maris threw herself into her arms.
"What exactly happened?" Lia asked, her voice filled with concern. "What did you want to show me?"
"What I wanted to show you..." Maris slowly spoke. "Was this."
As she said that, her hand moved toward Lia’s neck—holding a syringe filled with a purple liquid.
shnk!
The sharp sound of the needle piercing skin rang out.
A stunned expression appeared on Lia’s face. "You... Maris... What did you do?"
The moment the syringe hit, Lia felt dizzy. She couldn’t believe what was happening. Her thoughts became sluggish, and her consciousness started to blur.
Maris pushed Lia to the floor, her face twisted with fear. "D-Don’t blame me, Lia. If I didn’t do this, t-they said they would kill my parents and my brother."
"Ah..." Lia realized.
It was a setup. She had been played by someone she trusted.
Lia knew Maris well—her personality, her habits. The thing she cherished the most was her little brother, who was only seven years old. Lia had met him before; he was a bright and confident kid.
"..." Lia’s mind flashed back to two days ago.
Precisely at the time when Grey suddenly started acting strange.
His voice echoed in her head like a bell.
"I trust your intuition, Miss Lia. Practice hard at home, don’t go anywhere."
’Was it truly a coincidence?’ Lia struggled to stay awake, her spinning vision barely holding Maris’s face.
Her thoughts were in disarray. She couldn’t think straight anymore. The only thing in her mind was Grey’s voice, repeating over and over.
With trembling hands, she grabbed her phone and dialed Grey’s number.
It began ringing immediately.
However, just as it rang, a black-grey hand appeared in her vision, snatched the phone, and ended the call.
Lia subconsciously turned her gaze—and what she saw was a man with slitted dark yellow eyes, unnaturally colored hair, and a black horn protruding from his head. He wore human clothes, but his legs were those of a goat.
In her current state, she couldn’t even muster shock. She just stared blankly, thoughtless, as the last flicker of will—the instinct to call Grey—faded away.
"Greetings, Miss Lia," the man spoke. "I am a humble being that has crossed over to this world from the Abyss. Nice to meet you."
"..."
Lia didn’t respond. She couldn’t.
Seeing that, he chuckled. "Right, I forgot—the numbing poison has reduced you to a mere human with no thought."
"But that’s fine. My goal isn’t to kill you. I just need to draw the City Lord out of his little cave that he sits in all day." As he said that, he snapped his fingers.
Instantly, bolts of lightning crackled throughout the warehouse and a dark globe of energy began to spread.
It was the creation of a Corruption Field!
"Let the show begin," the man said with a smile.
Sector Six, Nova-5 High.
Lightning crackled as a dome of black mist covered the entire school and the surrounding streets.
In Sector Five, amidst the bustling streets, lightning split the sky and a massive black void formed out of nowhere, swallowing everything in its path.
"Arghhh! What is this?!" Civilians screamed as they ran in terror. A Corruption Field had erupted, and they were about to be consumed.
It didn’t stop there. More and more Corruption Fields began spawning within Sector Five.
And not just there. Other sectors were experiencing the same disaster.
The civilians of Nova City looked on in horror. "W-What is this? Is this the end of the world?"
Multiple Corruption Fields loomed over the horizon of Nova City as the surviving civilians trembled in fear.
[Attention! Multiple Corruption Fields have formed in all sectors due to unknown reasons! The entire Nova City is now in lockdown. Citizens, please seek shelter within the nearest Evolver Association immediately!]