The moment Vivian heard Hessiana's voice, she trembled and was about to break up into a swarm of bats and hide—a reaction that had become a reflex when she sensed Hessiana was going to pounce on her. However, Hessiana stopped short of doing that at the last moment, as she realized that it was not the most appropriate occasion. Defying her inner urge, she stood still on the spot at the table and just said hello.
Convinced that Hessiana would not jump at her declaring her love like an eager puppy, Vivian breathed a sigh of relief and began to pay attention to those in the assembly hall.
There were a dozen men and women, both young and old; all had their strange auras sitting at the expensive wooden conference table and staring at Vivian and Hao Ren. Other than the familiar faces such as Hessiana and Zeon Lucas, the rest must be the bigwigs from other families in the sanctuary that Hesperides had mentioned, Hao Ren figured.
The assembly hall appeared too empty with only a dozen people assembling there. These people were divided into groups sitting far from each other at the large table. No doubt they were of different races. The vampires and werewolves were seated at the farthest end of the table, while the rest of the people did not seem to be very fond of each other too.
The misfit between different races was not much a surprise to Hao Ren anymore as the otherworldlings had been hostile to each other for tens of thousands of years.
Vivian could only recognize less than half of those at the table. She gave up digging into her memory for the names of the rest and sat down down matter-of-coursely at the round table together with Hao Ren, Y'zaks and the rest. "Hello, long time no see. In case you don't already know me, I am Vivian Ancestor," Vivian said.
She appeared calm and dominating, which was traits that she rarely displayed at home, but Hao Ren was not surprised at all. She did it unconsciously when facing otherworldlings of her junior. It was a method to impose authority and dominance; acting like a weakling would only get excluded in the otherworldling society where seniority and experience were important.
There was no display of resentment towards Vivian. A middle-aged man in a black suit sitting across the table rose up with a big smile, bowed and greeted Vivian respectfully. "Please forgive me for not recognizing you earlier, Countess Ancestor, as I was too shocked; I didn't expect to see you appearing among us suddenly, after all, you have been very quiet for more than a century."
The middle-aged man's move seemed to be a signal as everyone at the round table got to their feet and greeted Vivian though they were of different races and forces, some of them were even rivals. The vampires bowed reverently, while the werewolves nodded slightly as a minimum gesture of respect, even the patriarchs in the sanctuary who were acquainted with her paid their tribute to her. The whole process became as solemn as a ritual. Even Hesperides who came in later bowed slightly.
Everyone was like giving Vivian a standing ovation. Vivian, Hao Ren, and Lily were stunned. The husky maiden looked at Vivian, wide-eyed. "Wow, Battie, you're a big cheese!"
"It's a modern day now, so put yourself at ease." Vivian let them sit down, and she looked at the middle-aged man. "Who are you?" she asked.
The middle-aged man was about to sit down when Vivian asked him. He did not aim correctly on the chair and almost fell on the ground. He hemmed and tried to look calm. "Countess Ancestor is very humorous. Ahh, you may have forgotten."
This middle-aged man seemed to have realized Vivian's memory problem. He tidied up his clothes and introduced himself. "You once saved my father, Wayne Walter, the elder of Blood Clan from the North American Sanctuary. I was honored to meet you several times when I was young. Back then, you had a close relationship with our family, but then our family went bankrupt and moved to North America, we lost contact since. After our family had reestablished itself, my father had always wanted to find you to no avail."
Two words stood out: 'close relationship' and 'bankrupt.' Hao Ren looked at Vivian with a wacky expression; this woman was a real jinx, he thought.
Vivian felt a bit embarrassed. Cold sweat started to trickle down her forehead as it was the other old acquaintances' turn to introduce themselves. Fretting about hearing more bankruptcy stories, which might mean she owed them money, she quickly interrupted them. "Self-introduction is unnecessary; I may not remember you after all. I'm here for the shadowy monsters, which I heard that they were called the Shades of Chaos."
Hesperides added, "Two persons at the sanctuary of the Countess was also attacked, but they have captured the thing."
It caused a stir among the patriarchs. Hao Ren heard someone whispering, "It is said that the Countess is living in Asia, and I have not thought that the monster has spread over there." "The dimensional coordinates of the seal leaks may not be the same as that of the real world." "Three days ago, in South America—"
Hao Ren hemmed to interrupt them. "What exactly is that shadow?"
Some patriarchs began to notice the presence of Hao Ren this time. Initially, they thought Hao Ren was just a follower of Vivian and never expected him to speak. Zeon Lucas and a few patriarchs quickly introduced Hao Ren to the others. Then Wayne Walter got to his feet. "It seems that Countess Ancestor has forgotten about the shadow, then allow me to explain it to you. Our family was an ally of the Ancattero family hundreds of years ago.
"The Shade of Chaos is a kind of weird creature first appeared in the ancient times and the early days of the Mythological Era. Whether it is a creature is still controversial, but its behaviors are very similar to that of a creature. I guess everyone now knows what the shadow looks like; it is parasitic in the shade, moving on the surface of physical objects, looks like an image, does not need to eat or rest, and is extremely dangerous.
"The Shadow of Chaos will attack the supernatural races including the demon hunters indiscriminately. They are good at hiding themselves, and it is kind of difficult to know when they will attack. They are invisible and can damage the body tissue of its target with magic and cause mental trauma. This kind of shadow can hide in the shades, and move quickly on object surfaces. It is almost impossible to destroy them with normal attacks.
"The only effective way to fight the Shades of Chaos is to bind them with powerful shadow spells and exile them into the purely shadowy dimension, where they will slowly blend into the dimension itself. When they couldn't regroup themselves, they will dissipate by itself. Apart from that, I also heard that the Holy Flame of the demon hunters was effective against the shadows, but there is no way to verify it."
Wayne paused, giving Vivian and the others a chance to ask questions and think. Hao Ren immediately seized the opportunity. "Did you just say that the Shades of Chaos will only attack the supernatural races?" he asked.
"Yes," Wayne replied and nodded, "including the demon hunter and us."
The 'us' he meant was obviously including the werewolf and the vampire. This information immediately got Hao Ren's attention. "Humans will not be attacked?"
"I've never heard of them attacking human so far."
Hao Ren wanted to tell Wayne that he was attacked too, but when he thought of the alien tech and magic blessings he had, it was embarrassingly simplistic to say that he was a pure human. He thought better of it, but his mind was racing.
If the shadow just attacked the supernatural races, that would only mean the otherworldlings from the Plane of Dreams. He was wondering if the shadow was also affected by the innate nature of hostility.
Vivian nodded to Wayne and signaled his party to continue.
"There is something about the power of the Shades of Chaos I need to explain. The most dangerous of those shadows is not their lethality, but their ability to attack the mind and cause madness. After being attacked by the Shades of Chaos, your mind will be affected, and you will go mad very quickly."