Chapter 93: Madman and the Cold-Blooded Huntress

Chapter 93: Madman and the Cold-Blooded Huntress Grace stood beside her husband and glanced at the people awaiting instructions. "Your goal is to dispose of every corpse in the city. Don’t engage unless absolutely necessary. Only defend yourselves when you must. And be careful." Her voice rang through the clearing, crisp and commanding. The crowd responded with unified, firm nods. "Help me with this for now. We’ll deal with the noble clan once this is over," she said, a cold smile curving her lips at the thought of them. "I’ll hold you to that," Ethan replied coolly, signalling his wolf. In one swift motion, he mounted the beast and rode off alongside the buses. "Love, can we talk about Eva now? She looks exactly like your younger self," Leo said, his voice thick with urgency—and the fragile hope that Eva might be their daughter. Grace saw the hope in Leo’s eyes and couldn’t bring herself to crush it, but she had to state the fact clearly to him. ""Even if she looks like me... there’s no way to prove she’s our daughter. We can’t blindly claim her, only to be wrong," Grace said calmly, though her eyes reddened sadly. Leo’s hope dimmed, a wave of regret washing over him. If only they’d found her before the power went out. Still, deep in his heart, he knew—Eva was their daughter. He drew Grace into his embrace, patting her back gently while his mind raced with another possibility to power up the DNA sequencer. His gaze drifted to the bus, and he sighed inwardly. ’The battery voltage is too low to power it. What about an electric-type user? No... they’re rare, and with all this chaos, it’ll be even harder to find one. Wait—there’s another way!’ "Love, do you remember that SSSS+ monster we hunted before that we almost lost our lives!’’ Grace stiffened, flashes of blood, torn flesh and Leo’s gaping stomach appeared in her mind. "No! There’s no way in hell we’re going after that monster again!" Grace shoved Leo back, her glare icy and unwavering. Her resolve was absolute. The thought of losing him to a one-time-use blood orb was unthinkable. "Did you forget so soon? We lost all our teammates—and you nearly died!" Her voice rose with a mix of anger and fear, her hands trembling as if she were back in that dungeon. Leo sighed and gently wrapped his hands around hers, trying to steady the tremble. He hadn’t realized how deeply the incident still affected her—he wouldn’t have brought it up if he had. "I’m sorry for making you remember... but it’s either that, or we find a high-level electric user," he murmured, eyes clouded with guilt. Grace drew in a shaky breath, struggling to compose herself. The memory still clung to her—weeks of sleepless nights haunted by the faces of the teammates they’d lost. "We’ll do the latter. I’m going in," she said weakly. The weight of the day and their conversation had finally caught up with her, and all she wanted was to rest her head. Before she could step inside, Leo swept her off her feet. Ignoring her protests, he carried her straight toward the stairs, unfazed by the scientist’s stunned reaction. Grace buried her face in his chest, feeling like her composed image had crumbled. To vent her frustration, she gave Leo a sharp pinch. Only Eva, who hadn’t heard of Grace’s famous refutation, felt the couples were sweet. "I can carry you too, you know—no need to be jealous," Julian said, teasing as he stepped in front of her view. Eva frowned and pushed his face aside. "Who’s jealous? You’re just blocking me from admiring a sweet older couple." "Sweet? Them?" Julian repeated, rolling the strange word on his tongue like it was a foreign language. The titles he knew were the Madman and the Cold-Blooded Huntress—not to mention their reclusive, shadow-wielding son. Julian shook his head, feeling this family was a hot, dangerous mess, and was glad he had nothing to do with them. "Sigh...I can’t see them again.’’ Eva’s sigh of disappointment snapped Julian from his thoughts. "Should we head back or wait for Ethan? He might be tied up for a while," Julian said, though he doubted waiting would do any good. Still, he wanted Eva’s opinion. Eva pulled a fruit from her space and took a bite before answering. "I’m starving, and Madam Grace clearly isn’t ready to talk about who caused the bombing... Let’s just go back." (。•́〈•̀。) Eva rubbed her stomach with a sigh. The fruit wasn’t easing her hunger—if anything, it was making it worse. She passed some fruit over to Julian, knowing he also hadn’t eaten all day. Julian took the apple from her with a grateful smile as he rose to his feet. "Let’s go.’’ He stretched his hands out, pulling her off the chair. Stone noticed they were leaving and wanted to stop them—he hadn’t gathered all the information about her space yet. But Julian interrupted him before he could speak. "Uncle, please let Madam Grace know that we’ve returned home...Eva is hungry and exhausted from using her space.’’ Julian added that last part to keep Stone from pestering Eva about her space again. Eva only raised a brow and stayed silent as they left the house. Their beasts noticed their master coming out and moved towards them. The fox curled its tail around Eva’s legs, trying to show off its newly grown hairs. Eva looked down, feeling the prickly hairs clinging to her jeans, and leaned in to stroke the fox’s fur. "Well done, but you have to grow more fur like Wolfy.’’ Eva’s eyes were encouraged as she rubbed its head. A smile bloomed on her face when she imagined her beast’s body covered in soft furs, and she couldn’t help but giggle and hug herself in happiness. Julian stared at his scaly snake and sighed, knowing it wasn’t going to spurt fur in its lifetime, and he grew envious of Ethan. "I think we should give them names. We can’t keep calling them fox, wolf, and snake," Eva said thoughtfully, taking Julian’s hand as she climbed onto the snake. Her fox scrambled up after her, curling at her side. Once she was settled, Julian set off without a word. They rode back to the mansion in a comfortable silence—broken only by Eva tossing out name suggestions so dreadful Julian visibly cringed. .... Two hours later. Ethan moved through the alley, ignoring the shrill scream as he turned the frozen corpse into a cloud of snow dust. Everywhere he passed through, he left a lingering coolness in his wake. The others worked in pairs or small groups. Only Ethan worked alone. Reaching another clearing, he spotted fresh corpses scattered across the ground—judging by their condition, they hadn’t been dead for long. Cold mist curled from his palm, snaking across the ground—ice blooming in sharp lines as it reached each corpse with pinpoint accuracy. The corpses froze solid in an instant. With a flick of his wrist, Ethan shattered them into dust. ’I hope I finish quickly and get back,’ he thought, striding toward the next street. As he walked, he unfolded the map and frowned—he was nowhere near finished with his assigned section. A quiet, weary sigh escaped his lips. As Ethan and the others cleared the city, elsewhere, some group of people was busy creating more corpses for them to clean up. "Just drug their food; you don’t need to do anything else; I’ll take care of it. It’s an easy job, imagine the amount of food we can get.’’ A short man tempted the tall man. "Didn’t you always complain about your boss sleeping with your wife? This is your chance for revenge. Are you really going to let another man insult your dignity and get away with it?" the short man goaded, and it worked. "I’ll slip it into their lunch. Wait for the signal," the tall man growled, snatching the vial with a dark glare before slipping back into the mansion.