Bang!

With the sound of Valentine's gunshot, the Ghulah once again was immobilized. The ugly creature was standing in front of him, motionless. Blood and other disgusting liquid kept oozing from the wounds all over its body, as well as from the nipples on its sagging breast. Its rotting skin secreted a rotting kind of smell.

"How is your preparation?" asked Valentine to Agatha who was standing in a distance.

There was a puddle of blood underneath the woman who was covering her left wrist with her right hand. A moment later, she removed her hand and revealed the rapidly healing cut across the soft skin and quickly took out a black powder from her purse. She sprinkled some of the powder on the pool of blood and began chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Bloodshed and Manslaughter, imbue this blood with explosive power!"

The blood on the ground began creating tiny sparks.

The Ghulah had almost broken free from the effect of the paralysis bullet, so Valentine quickly fired another shot at it.

Bang!

The bullet with the yellow tip darted through the air and drilled a hole in the Ghulah's right thigh. Valentine had deliberately avoided shooting its head because Agatha needed the creature's intact brain.

"G, that's the second consecutive paralysis bullet, so the effect should be tremendously reduced," he muttered.

Valentine then quickly ran closer to where the blood puddle was and used up the last use of Order from Purloin.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order Agatha's explosive blood to envelop the Ghulah!"

As he finished chanting that, the pattern on his belt became dim and the blood on the ground rose to the air. The crimson liquid then flooded quickly towards the Ghulah which had begun moving again.

Kaboom!

The moment the blood came in contact with the creature, it exploded right away with a loud bang. However, since Agatha only used a little bit of gunpowder, the power of the explosion itself was not great. Valentine didn't waste time and hastily approached the location of the explosion.

"It's not dead yet!" said Valentine and gestured at Agatha to come to his side.

Lying on the ground, the Ghulah's body was badly maimed. The blood explosion was indeed a powerful attack, but also a messy one; there was blood everywhere, both from Agatha and the creature, and some pieces of flesh added to the gruesome sight. The creature's left hand had been severed by the explosion and there was a big gaping hole on its upper torso, exposing the creature's rotting organs inside. Its right leg had also been cut off by the explosion. However, it was still trying to move with much difficulty, and the wound on its body began healing quickly shortly after.

"Growl!" the Ghulah screamed at them menacingly, exposing its bloody fangs and rotten tongue.

The two people were standing near the creature within a safe distance so it couldn't splash them with its blood.

"The thing will burst into flames if we completely kill it. To get its brain, we must do it while it's alive... however, all of its bodily fluid is highly toxic," said Valentine.

Agatha seemed surprised by the information.

"But how are we going to do it if its blood is toxic?" she asked.

Valentine raised both his hands and showed her the gloves that he had just quickly put on. His coat's sleeves also covered most of his arms. He said to Agatha confidently, "I think I can avoid it with this."

He aimed once more at the recovering Ghulah with a paralysis bullet to give him an extra second or two.

Bang!

The bullet hit the creature's chest and he quickly got to work. He crouched down near the Ghulah's head with his dagger in hand. Agatha observed the female ghoul carefully to prevent it from attacking Valentine suddenly. Valentine also lent her his revolver so she could shoot the ghoul at any time.

With his sharp dagger, Valentine made an incision around the Ghulah's rotting forehead and cut it open without a problem. However, the wound began healing rapidly, so he had to work fast.

Bang!

The ghoul had started to move again so Agatha shot it. With every paralysis bullet shot at the enemy, the effect reduced by a lot, so it could only buy him an extra second. He put some more power and managed to cut open the head of the creature, revealing its brain, all in less than five seconds.

"Easy does it," he said while pulling the object the size of his right hand by force.

The soft organ's nerves snapped as he took it out of the head and blood covered his gloves.

"Get away! It's still alive!" shouted Agatha.

Valentine quickly jumped back from the creature who had begun thrashing wildly. Although its brain was gone, strangely, the Ghulah was still alive.

Valentine quickly covered the brain with a cloth that he took from his pocket and safely stuffed it inside his other pocket. He then gestured at Agatha to return the revolver to him.

Grab!

She threw the gun and he skillfully caught it. He then reloaded the chamber with blood bullets and quickly shot at the rabid creature.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The last time he killed one, it took him three shots to finish the ghoul, so he didn't want to take his chances. He shot twice at the creature's chest where the heart should be and once at its neck.

From the whole where the bullets were, numerous blood veins came spurting out and enveloped the creature. Blood began bursting out of the veins and burned the Ghulah completely until there was nothing left of its whole body but ashes. There was something that slowly took form from the ashes of the creature.

"This one is for us, G," said Valentine while approaching the ghoul's remain.

Valentine couldn't touch the object with his gloves because the Ghulah's blood would stick to it. He took off his gloves carefully without touching the bloody part and threw them on the ground. After that, he set the bloody gloves on fire and picked up the ghoul's remain.

Crackle...

The sound of the flame consuming the fabric was soothing, but he was not done yet. Valentine quickly put the remain inside his pocket and walked to one corner of the open area where there was an electric pole. He used his dagger to cut a small wound on his palm and started chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, offer this blood as a medium,"

The blood on his hand began emitting a mysterious yellowish mist.

"For I declare this place under the Shroud of Secrecy hereafter!"

He dropped the blood under the pole and a wave of yellowish mist swept the area for a second before disappearing completely. He then turned to Agatha who was waiting for him.

"We're done here," he said, and then revealed the inner part of his pocket and took out a bundle of the brain covered in cloth, "Here's what you're looking for. Careful, don't touch the organ directly with your bare skin,"

Valentine handed the object to Agatha and she carefully put it inside her purse.

"Now we need to get out of here quickly," added Valentine.

The two people left the area right away without looking back. The eerily quiet area slowly got behind them and they entered the normal busy part of The Concrete.

...

In a dark and foggy square surrounded by buildings, two cloaked figures walked out of the shadow and observed the area. Their faces were completely hidden by their hoods and their clothes were covered. There was no way of knowing their identity just by observing them. The two cloaked figures seemed to be looking for something.

"We're too late. Another ghoul has been killed," said one of them. The voice belonged to a man.

The other cloaked figure approached the ashes that were lying in the middle of the square and crouched down. Near the ashes, there were severed hands and legs with rotten skin.

"Is it the Police or that Shroud again?" asked the cloaked man.

The figure who was crouching down looked up to the other and said in a low manly voice, "I'm sure it's the Shroud, which means divination will be useless,"

"Why do you think so?" asked the man who was standing.

The crouching figure stood up and showed the severed ghoul's hand with a gesture.

"The Police have a Gore, so if they had done it, the hand would have been cut cleanly. But this looks more like the result of an explosion," he said. His voice was hoarse.

The other one nodded.

"It's a shame that it's this one that died. It has almost evolved,"

"It's fine. We still have many others that are feeding well. They should be evolving to Ghulahs any time soon, and before we know it, an Umm Ghulah should be born,"

"So what are we going to do about the Shroud?"

The cloaked figure who was crouching before stroked his chin.

"We'll kill him of course, if we have the chance. But to do that, we need to find him first. That's the hard part," he said finally.

The other cloaked figure also went into deep thought.

"Three of our members have been killed. Although they are the weakest among us, they are still powerful. We need to be more careful as well,"

"Do you think the killer is also this Shroud?" asked the other figure with a hoarse voice.

"It's not impossible. Ghastly said she has seen him and she said he was wearing a sorrowful mask. We should pay attention to someone like that selling ghoul remains in the black market,"

"That should be Horror's job with his weird birds," replied the hoarse-voiced figure.

"So what do we do now?" asked the other figure while looking around.

The windows of the nearby buildings were still covered with curtains and no one dared to look out to the square below. It seemed to be something the residents there had agreed upon in order to preserve their own lives.

"These people will do anything as long as it benefits themselves, eh? But now that Shade is dead, we need to find another way to control them,"

"You are right. Right now, I'll summon another ghoul in this area. This place is just the perfect breeding ground for them. We just need to make sure meddling people will be taken care of swiftly," the hoarse man replied; his voice sounded sinister.

"Then I'll provide you with the materials," replied the other ominously.

The cloaked figure with the hoarse voice sat on the ground and took out objects from inside his cloak pocket while the other one went into one of the buildings. Once everything he needed was out of his pockets, he stood up and moved to the dead center of the square.

The man slit his wrist and let his blood pour down to the ground. He then started moving around and drew a big sigil that covered almost a quarter of the total area of the square. The blood sigil resembled an altar with three crosses at the top.

Not long after, the other man came back, carrying two unconscious men on his shoulders. He dropped the people, who were still breathing, outside the sigil.

"I'll be back with more," he said and then went away again.

The hoarse-voiced man approached the unconscious people and took out a knife. He then stabbed one of the men right in his neck and beheaded him. The whole time, the man didn't even open his eyes; he just died without even knowing. He did the same with the other man and once the heads were severed, he removed the people's clothes and cut off their limbs one by one. The victim's blood sprayed onto the cloaked figure and the rest flowed to the sigil, combining with the blood that was already there.

The cloaked man used the severed limbs to create an altar in the middle of the sigil and placed their heads on top. There was now a gory altar standing, ready for the ritual that he was about to perform. He then took out six black candles and lit them up. After that, he sprinkled some oil around the area and the musty, earthy smell penetrated his nose.

The other man came back with two more unconscious people and after dropping them down, he went away and came back not long after with more people. He repeated it one more time until there were a total of six unconscious people lying on the ground beside the blood sigil.

"I think this should be enough, no?" asked the man who had been going around kidnapping the victims.

"Yes. Let's start now. Wake them up," replied the hoarse man.

The man snapped his fingers and the six people woke up simultaneously. They were looking around in confusion and once they saw the altar created from human limbs, their expression showed fear right away.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

"Please don't hurt us!"

They started begging once they found out that they could run away. Their bodies refused to listen to them.

The cloaked figure who had kidnapped them did something and the six people involuntarily walked into the sigil, standing separately and forming a circle. Although they couldn't run, they were still conscious and blood seemed to have been drained from their faces. They were feeling extreme fear.

"Don't worry. It will only hurt a lot," said the man with a hoarse voice.

With all the people in position, he walked to the front of the human altar and kneeled before it. He then started chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Necromancy and Sin, have prepared these six human sacrifices,"

His eerie voice reverberated in the dark night.

"I hereby wish upon thee to accept my offering,"

The candles suddenly burned violently and the earthy smell of the oil became the smell of rot and decay. The blood beneath the six human sacrifices started to change its form, resembling hands that began grabbing them. The hands with sharp claws tore down the victims' clothes and flesh little by little, making them bleed. With the victims' blood flowing to the ground, more bloody hands were formed.

"Argh!"

"It hurts!"

The victims were crying in pain without being able to move. Their flesh was torn off and the bloody hands started to reach their torsos and heads. The six victims were being torn apart alive without mercy. Their eyes were reflecting the agony and horror that they were feeling, but the stronger the emotion they felt, the more vicious the bloody hands became. Sharp claws sank into the soft flesh. Blood came gushing out from the wound and white bones were exposed.

Not long after, they were reduced only to their heads that were strangely still alive although their bodies had become piles of flesh. Their eyes were wide open and tears were running down their cheeks, mixed with blood. They should have been dead by they weren't. They saw as what used to be their bodies were slowly being sucked by something from the altar. The two heads placed on the altar had at some point opened their eyes.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Necromancy and Sin, call forth a Ghoul upon this land!"

The piles of flesh slowly gathered in the altar and it rose higher and higher until it formed a complete ghoul. The two severed heads also merged with the pile of flesh, disappearing completely after that. Standing in the middle of the sigil was now a male ghoul that looked ravenous. The black candles had stopped burning and the rotten smell of the oil had returned to normal.

"My child, eat these heads to replenish your energy," said the man who had summoned the creature.

The ghoul quickly approached the six decapitated heads that were still alive and started munching on them one by one. The horror expressed by the heads' faces was indescribable.