"Excuse me, sir, but what's happening here?" asked Graham with his 'womanly' voice to a man who was also watching the blockade made from Police lines and many stationed armed officers.

The man turned around and looked at the short and pretty woman wearing an oversized trench coat next to him.

"I have no idea myself, but I heard it's been like that since last night. Maybe it's related to the stay-at-home order from last night?" replied the man. He was clearly clueless as to what had happened.

The fight had happened during the night and should have been finished in the morning. And wrapping things up shouldn't take that long for the Police and the government if they wanted to keep the matter a secret from the public. That was why the fact that the whole street was still under restriction was strange.

Graham became curious and at the same time worried that something bad was happening. He quickly slipped away from the crowd and went inside a store closest to the barricade. There was no secluded alley near there so he couldn't use his usual modus operandi.

"Excuse me, can I borrow the toilet, please?" asked Graham to the storekeeper. He pretended to want to pee so badly and was holding it back. He tapped around a little and appeared restless.

The female storekeeper looked at the small woman in front of her with a worried look on her face and then quickly pointed at the back door.

"It's over there. Please feel free to use our toilet," she said. Her tone was full of genuine concern, maybe because she knew how it felt to hold her bladder for a long time.

Graham entered the back room of the store and quickly hid inside the only toilet that was available after making sure there was no one else besides him there.

"Val, we're lucky this small store only has a unisex toilet. It would feel too awkward otherwise if we had to enter a female toilet," he muttered.

After that, he took out a lighter from his pocket and lit a fire. For a second he noticed that the lighter now felt a little bigger when he was holding it with his small female hand. He then began concentrating on the gentle flame while thinking of a question.

'What is happening behind the Police line?'

The flame in his hand burned brighter and then it started shaking violently. There was something forming from within the flame but it was not the clear image that he usually got from divination, but instead just complete blackness. He felt like he was staring right at the abyss and it was sucking him slowly in. He quickly put out the fire and ended his divination.

Pant... pant...

He was breathing heavily because of the tense atmosphere caused by the image. Graham tried controlling his breathing at once and wiped the sweat that had formed on his forehead.

"What... was that...?" he muttered, "Divination doesn't work, Val, so that means we need to find out through another means.

Graham put the lighter back inside his pocket and then began chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Cunningness and Transformation, hereby change my whole being to that of Cornelis Haring!"

His body underwent a transformation at once after he finished his chant. He grew taller and more muscular. His fair skin also became tan and his hair became shorter. There was a big scar formed on his face and his gaze turned very sharp as if he could see through lies.

Now that he had transformed back into a tall man, his pants had become too small for him. He had to unbutton it mid-transformation because it would break otherwise. Concentrating on his pants, he issued an Order.

"I order you to become bigger!"

The pants that he was wearing started expanding to match his current size and the material became thinner to compensate for the extra size.

With that, Graham had completely transformed back into a man and now he was using the appearance of the Police Sergeant Cornelis Haring aka Rood.

"It's indeed much more comfortable to turn into another man, Val," muttered Graham.

Once he was done with his preparation, he exited the toilet and went back to the store only to be welcomed by the storekeeper's perplexed look. Graham didn't say anything and just walked out of the store as if nothing had happened while the female storekeeper walked into the back room where the toilet was.

Graham's plan was to get information from one of the officers stationed as a blockade about what was happening behind the Police line. He would rather not have to enter the area because the result of his divination was not exactly reassuring. There must be something dangerous happening there, but he was very curious as to what it was and he needed to know if it would affect his life or not.

He walked confidently towards the stationed officer who was standing in the corner, rather far from the others. The moment the officer saw him, he straightened his back and gave Graham, who was now Rood, a salute.

"Sergeant Rood, Sir!" said the officer loudly enough for the others to hear him. The other officers nearby also saluted and once Graham gestured at them, they returned to their own things.

"Officer, how's the situation? Did something else happen?" asked Graham, pretending to know about the whole thing but was away for some time. He had to word his questions carefully to avoid suspicion.

"Sir, I am sorry but I am not allowed to answer unless you are wearing your coat and show your badge, Sir!" replied the officer loudly.

Graham's expression turned sour for a split second but he quickly controlled it.

"Sorry, I'll go get it," he said. The other officers began looking at him once the one he asked refused to answer, so Graham had no choice but to retreat for now.

Once he was away, he began muttering in frustration.

"Damn, Val, I think they are trained for impostors. We can't use this appearance to get anything out of them unless we have the coat and the badge, which is impossible. We have no other option but to slip past the blockade," he paused, and then added, "That's your specialty, so we switch,"

Graham kept walking away and disappeared from the sight of the stationed officers. He needed somewhere secluded and his only option was another toilet since the alley would be too far from there. He couldn't enter the same store so he chose a different store that was rather far away from the Police lines.

It was a rather big convenience store that usually had public toilets for customers. Graham didn't need to ask any storekeeper this time because the toilet was accessible to anyone and there was a sign by the door. He entered the male toilet and hid inside one of the stalls, sitting on top of the closed toilet lid.

"I order myself to fall asleep!"

He issued the order quietly and then after a second, he felt very sleepy. Once Graham fell asleep, Valentine woke up and opened his eyes. He was still using the appearance of the Police Sergeant Rood whose gaze was even colder and sharper now if combined with Valentine's.

"I hereby declare my presence a secret!"

"I hereby declare my face a secret!"

"I hereby declare the sounds I make a secret!"

Valentine cast Concealment in quick succession and his whole body was now covered in a thin yellowish mist. After making sure his weapons were ready to be drawn at any time, he left the toilet stall and exited the convenience store quietly. There were absolutely no sounds created as he opened the door and walked out of the building as they were muffled by the mist shrouding him.

Once outside, Valentine quickly walked towards the Police barricade. He then chose a spot where there were the fewest officers and carefully walked under the yellow line placed around the area. He needed to make sure he didn't touch any of the officers because although he was concealed, he was still physically there and could be seen by people with a sharp eye if they concentrated hard enough.

He made it on the other side and observed the surrounding street behind the barricade. It was a total contrast to the area outside where people were crowding the street. Besides the occasional officers running around delivering news, there were absolutely no civilians. Even the establishments and stores were all closed and the residents had probably been evacuated.

"G, this is just like last night. Something serious is surely happening here," muttered Valentine as he kept on walking farther and farther. He felt like he was in a post-apocalyptic world where humans were no more.

The deeper into the street he went, the more his sense of danger was triggered. Valentine stayed in the shadow of the buildings just like the night before and arrived at the heard of the isolated area. There were numerous armed Police officers being stationed there as well as some familiar faces. He recognized the real Rood there and his partner; the short officer with a friendly face.

Valentine hid behind a wall and perked up his ears to listen in to their conversation.

"Paars, divination still doesn't work?" asked a female officer with a pink floral dress under her coat.

"No, lieutenant. Oranje and I have both tried many times but we still got nothing. Not even an image appeared. We have no clue what object this is," replied the officer whose coat was tightly buttoned, Paars. He seemed to be wearing nothing underneath.

"Okay. Go back to patrolling then. Make sure no one entered the area, especially those Pale Society bastards," commanded Roze with a slight frustration in her tone.

"Will do!" replied Paars.

He muttered something and then suddenly his body became invisible. He then took off his coat and shoes and handed them to another officer nearby and he was completely untraceable now. Valentine couldn't see where the man was going because there were no sounds of footsteps nor marks of footprints on the ground.

Valentine then turned his attention to the space behind the officers. The female Lieutenant was talking about using divination, so there must be something they needed to find out. He carefully walked out of his hiding spot and crouched quietly towards the opposite side of the street, from which he should be able to see better.

"G, what the fuck is that?" Valentine couldn't help but exclaim. Luckily, his voice was concealed.

In the distance ahead of him, surrounded by yellow lines and people with strange equipment, there was a tiny black hole suspended in the air. It was only the size of a tennis ball, so it was rather difficult to notice from afar. However, the pitch-black hole was emitting a purple aura that looked dangerous. Valentine couldn't feel the aura directly because he was too far away, but his sense of danger was triggered nonetheless.

Looking at the hole in the space carefully, it did look like an anomaly. It was there as if someone had ripped out space, leaving a spot open. There was absolutely nothing that could be seen on the other side, but it appeared to be connected to another place or even dimension. The Police had tried to throw random objects at it to see if they could get through, but there seemed to be a force field blocking them.

"So we cannot destroy it by force and divination doesn't work. What the fuck are we supposed to do?" said Roze in irritation. She then turned to Rood who was talking about something else to Oranje.

"Rood, any news from the Captain?" she said.

The tall man with the scar turned around.

"The matter in the capital is almost finished. He should be returning with the main force at the earliest tomorrow," replied Rood.

"Then in the meantime, we have to gather as much information as we can about this hole in the space. Nothing has happened so far?" she asked again to the two Sergeants in front of her.

This time, Oranje replied.

"Nothing so far. I am also monitoring it using my familiar," she then patted the giant semi-transparent lizard next to her, "He hasn't shown any reaction whatsoever, so we can say it's still stable for now,"

Just as she said that the hole began shaking slightly and became stronger and stronger. All the officers there became alarmed at once and got their weapons ready.

Crack!

There was a loud noise coming from the hole as if a piece of glass was just broken violently. Then, two bloody hands reached out from the tiny hole, stretching it open. Without waiting to see what was trying to pass through, Lieutenant Roze quickly issued an order to her subordinates.

"Fire!!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A barrage of bullets attacked the bloody hands that were trying to open the hole, but they didn't seem to have any effect. The hole got bigger and bigger and the creature's head now fit through it. It was a skinny head with wounds all over its face and there were sharp fangs growing all over its elongated jaw. The creature's bloodshot eyes were staring at the humans before it with a starving look, like a tiger looking at its prey. A dangerous aura came out of the creature's whole body as purple miasma started seeping out of its pores.

"Growl!!"

It let out a loud cry that was enough to hurt the ears of anyone standing near it, including Valentine whose hearing was boosted.

Suddenly, the short and friendly officer shouted from the back.

"That's a Ghoul! Not a summoned ghoul, but a real Ghoul! Everybody get back!"