Hunter of the Evernight
Chapter 641: Gregory’s plan

Chapter 641: Gregory’s plan

Gregory’s plan was simple.

He needed to find a way to get to Arwen and somehow force out the entity that was trying to replace her existence.

But all things considered, there was no way the banshees in the Wailing Peaks would allow him to do such a thing.

From what he understood, the person taking over Arwen’s body was an ancestor of the banshees from the third era, a figure that had the grand desire to conquer death and free the banshees from the Callings.

But as grand as that goal was, Gregory couldn’t allow his daughter to be the sacrificial lamb of that person’s return.

He’d much rather take her place, at least, that way, Arwen would be able to keep on living.

Having made a lot of mistakes in his life, he felt this would be his chance to do something for Arwen after abandoning her for all these years.

In any case, the current circumstances dictated that if he dared to go after Arwen, it would be the same as going against the Wailing Peaks, and as much as he wanted to believe otherwise, he didn’t dare to think that he could take on the entire mountain even with his current state as an Anomaly.

So there were two options: either he let things be, watching as the ties between him and Arwen were slowly destroyed, or he got help from external forces to isolate Arwen long enough to destroy the entity within her.

Thanks to his heightened senses, he was able to detect the presence of other entities besides banshees in the area beneath him which meant that there were other captives apart from him.

But he couldn’t just assume that they would be useful and needed to be sure that they would help him.

With that in mind, he began to recite a spell.

Meanwhile, Elena had just stepped out of the Grim Forest, making use of her dimensionality to walk two plans at the same time, basically hiding herself from normal sight.

She could have teleported into the Wailing Peaks directly if not for the fact that the Grim Forest somehow interfered with teleportation.

If she’d dared to move too quickly, there was a chance she’d find herself impaled by an ash tree.

In any case, with the Peaks ahead and a river of sludge a few meters away, she closed her eyes and sensed the dust she’d placed on the others only to be disappointed to find that they were gone.

It seemed Ulysses’ corruption had succeeded in wiping them off, which meant that she had to locate them manually.

Clicking her tongue, Elena turned into a stream of gold dust and made her way into one of the many holes in the mountain.

***

The last thing Nadia remembered was being almost crushed to death by Baba Yaga.

After that, everything was blank.

She recalled a peculiar pain, both to her body and mind, but apart from that, nothing else, not even what had caused the pain she’d experienced.

In any case, after wading around aimlessly in her psyche for so long, she found herself in a familiar city with walls erected around it, and at its center, the statue of the Emperor stood tall.

"This..."

"You recognize this place?" Someone suddenly asked from behind causing her to turn back while putting her guard up, preparing to strike should the person be an enemy.

However, she paused as she instead came face to face with a handsome gentleman with a rather feminine aura about him, dressed in a suit with a cane and a top hat.

He had a monocle on his left eye and wore a pair of gloves, possessing long hair that seemed to have been trimmed recently.

Despite appearing to be no older than twenty, the man exuded an aura of maturity no different from an elder.

The air about him was rather peaceful, with Nadia feeling the urge to sleep while in his presence.

"You... who are you?" Nadia asked as she took a step back while actively using her authority to counteract the man’s aura.

She had come across such an aura before, though it was milder, and as much as she wanted to believe that it was from the same source, it brought about a new set of questions, with the one at the forefront being, how?

How did a man have the same aura as a Mystic that had contracted with the Devil of Sloth, Xistora?

Gregory managed a smile. "No need for you to be wary, I won’t hurt you."

Sensing sincerity in his words, Nadia took another step back before asking. "You are a Devil Wheel Mystic?"

"At least answer my question before asking yours."

Nadia paused, confused by his words promoting Gregory to remark. "Do you recognize this city?"

"... Yes," Nadia replied. "This is Krobridge."

"Just as I thought. The fact that you share a tie with Arwen now makes more sense."

"You know Arwen?" Nadia turned alert.

Gregory managed a smile. "For your first question, my name is Gregory Hallewell. For your second, yes, I am, or rather, I was a Devil Wheel Mystic, and for your third question, yes, I know Arwen; after all, she is my daughter."

"You are Arwen’s dad?... Wait, what do you mean ’was’?" Nadia asked almost simultaneously, unable to comprehend Gregory’s words.

"I’m sure you have questions and as much as I’m willing to answer them, please be aware that we don’t have forever." Gregory calmly said.

Nadia blinked a couple of times before taking a deep breath to calm her nerves.

While doing so, she took her mind back to her time in Arwen’s family manor, recalling the photos of Arwen’s family.

Sure enough, the man in those paintings shared an uncanny resemblance to the man before her.

"You are Arwen’s father." Nadia muttered as she met Gregory’s gaze.

Gregory nodded. "Indeed, I am."

"Why?... Why did you abandon her?... She thought you were dead."

"I didn’t have a choice." Gregory replied with a melancholic look on his face.