novelraw Chapter 645: Shadow Thief
Chapter 645: Shadow Thief
Chapter 645: Shadow Thief
At dusk, the abandoned industrial zone along Mist Capital’s coast was shrouded in a gray-purple halo.
The sun had already sunk below the sea level, but the sky had not yet turned completely dark.
During this period, the people of Mist Capital called it “Gray Dusk.”
This ambiguous moment of blurred light and shadow between day and night was also the time when most people in the city hurried home before darkness fully descended.
But for members of the Spirit Medium Association, Gray Dusk marked the beginning of work.
Harding stood at the entrance of an abandoned factory building, his hands tucked into the pockets of his dark blue uniform.
His gaze crossed an open area piled with rusted steel and looked toward the distant gray sea.
There were no ships on the sea, only thick fog slowly surging like the breathing of some enormous creature.
He was forty-seven years old this year and had worked in the Association for over twenty years. After retiring from frontline field work, he had thought he would no longer lead teams on missions like this.
But the situation this time was different.
The previous team that had been sent out had been completely wiped out without even transmitting any information back.
The Association needed experienced personnel, so he had come out.
“Old Harding.” Dirk’s voice came from behind. “The area has been confirmed clear. The three factory buildings to the north are all empty. No civilians or unrelated people.”
Dirk walked over and stopped beside him.
His young face showed an eager expression, but deep in his eyes hid a trace of barely noticeable tension.
After all, he had only been employed for two years and had previously faced only ordinary Hazard Grade Stranges. This was his first time participating in a capture operation against a Threat Grade Strange.
“Where are the others?” Harding asked.
“The other three elite squads have already arrived and are doing final equipment checks. The capture team is setting up the sealing formation and lighting arrays. It will probably take another half hour.” Dirk pointed inside the factory building. “I went in and checked. The space is large enough and the ceiling is high enough. It’s suitable for deployment.”
Harding nodded without saying much more.
He turned around and looked at the empty industrial zone behind him.
This abandoned industrial zone had once been one of Mist Capital’s largest shipyards. It had been closed thirty years ago due to a Strange attack.
Since then, the area had remained deserted. The factory buildings stood empty, equipment rusted, and only occasional vagrants and black-market traders would appear here.
For today’s operation, it was an ideal location.
No civilians, spacious area, allowing them to make preparations in advance without worrying about affecting innocents.
Moreover, it was remote enough that it would not attract unnecessary attention.
One after another, several black box vans drove into the industrial zone.
The doors opened, and Association members in dark blue uniforms jumped out and began unloading various equipment.
Metal frames, rune stone slabs, high-power lighting units, rolls of cables…
Harding and Dirk walked deeper into the factory building.
The other three elite squads were already waiting inside.
Six people—three men and three women—ranging in age from thirty to fifty.
Each person’s uniform was slightly different from that of ordinary Association members.
The collars and cuffs had silver trim, and below the emblem on the left chest was embroidered a star-shaped mark representing “elite.”
Some leaned against the walls, some squatted beside equipment crates, and some were talking in low voices. But everyone’s attention focused the moment Harding walked in.
“Everyone’s here,” Harding glanced at the people present. “I won’t waste words. I’ll get straight to the intelligence.”
He took out a folded sheet of paper from his pocket and unfolded it.
On the paper was a hand-drawn image of a Strange: a semi-transparent, flattened human silhouette without facial features or limb details, like a thin, crumpled black sheet of paper.
“Provisional codename: Shadow Thief. Grade: Threat Grade, preliminary assessment suggests peak Threat Grade. Manifestation form as you can see—semi-transparent shadow form, gliding across surfaces. Its movement trajectory always avoids light sources, preferring to travel along wall bases, under furniture, or beneath anything else that can cast a shadow during Gray Dusk.”
Harding pasted the paper on the wall and turned around.
“According to the ‘Prophet’s’ calculations, this thing’s killing rule is… it only attacks ‘people without shadows.’”
Dirk frowned. “People without shadows?”
“Correct,” Harding nodded. “But its own existence is the cause of people losing their shadows. This thing itself feeds on shadows. When the Shadow Thief passes by your shadow, it will ‘bite’ a small piece from the edge of your shadow, making your shadow smaller by a bit.”
“This process is extremely covert. Ordinary people won’t feel anything, and it’s even difficult to notice the change in the shadow with the naked eye. But as it repeatedly passes by, your shadow will become smaller and smaller until it completely disappears.”
Harding paused for a moment, allowing the people present to digest the information.
“After losing your shadow, the Shadow Thief can convert your body into its nourishment. This process is very slow and may take several days. The victim will feel inexplicable fatigue and weakness, and finally die during a seemingly normal sleep. From the outside, the deceased shows no external injuries or signs of poisoning. It looks like natural death.”
“So the people who disappeared in the old district…” an elite team member spoke up.
“Some disappeared, while others were treated by their families as ‘dying of illness,’” Harding’s tone grew heavier. “We only discovered this pattern after comparing death records from the past four months. More than a dozen people were described by witnesses before their deaths as ‘without shadows’… but no one noticed this detail at the time.”
The factory building fell silent for a moment.
“We have roughly confirmed the Shadow Thief’s activity boundaries through the geographic coordinates of the victims,” Harding pointed at another hand-drawn map on the paper. “Its current activity range is concentrated between Seventh Street and Twelfth Street in the old district. It has not exceeded this range. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that it will expand its activity area.”
“The previous team we sent out was completely wiped out without transmitting any information back,” Dirk added, his voice lower than usual. “So we suspect this Strange may have a ‘second stage’ or other troublesome characteristics. We chose this location as the battlefield today to prepare for various contingencies.”
Harding walked to the center of the factory building and looked up at the rusted steel frame ceiling.
“We have already made preparations for the site in advance. The sealing formation covers the entire industrial zone. The lighting arrays are arranged in a grid pattern to ensure there are no blind spots. The capture team is responsible for peripheral support and maintaining the formation. The eight of us…” He pointed at the elite team members present. “Will be ready to act at any time according to our respective specialties.”
“Understood,” the six people responded in unison.
“Then take your positions.”
The sky had turned completely dark.
The lighting arrays within the industrial zone had all been set up.
Each lamp was specially made, with rune-engraved shades that could scatter light in a special way, ensuring no residual shadows remained within the illuminated area.
In addition to lighting, these were also used to restrict the Shadow Thief’s movement space.
The sky grew darker.
Harding stood in the center of the factory building and lowered his head to glance at his uniform.
The collar, cuffs, and chest area of the uniform emitted a soft fluorescence in the darkness.
This was standard Association equipment.
Every uniform was embedded with trace amounts of fluorescent runes, ensuring the wearer remained in a “lit” state at all times while not producing extra shadows.
The uniforms of everyone present lit up. The scattered points of fluorescence converged in the darkness into a reassuring halo of light.
Dirk stood beside Harding and flexed his fingers.
“Old Harding,” Dirk said in a low voice. “Do you think this Shadow Thief really requires such a large operation?”
Harding glanced at him. “That’s what the previous team thought too.”
Dirk closed his mouth.
Harding turned and walked toward a box van behind the factory building.
The van’s rear doors were open, and the interior was brightly lit—in the literal sense.
The inner walls of the cargo compartment were covered with various light sources.
Fluorescent lamps, incandescent lamps, rune lamps… illuminating every corner of the compartment like the midday desert, with no shadows existing at all.
In the center of the compartment, a stretcher was placed on a temporary frame.
A man lay on the stretcher.
In his forties, with a haggard face, sunken eye sockets, and skin showing an unhealthy grayish-white color.
He had his eyes open, his gaze unfocused as he stared at the ceiling of the compartment. His lips moved slightly as if trying to speak but producing no sound.
Harding climbed into the van and squatted beside the stretcher.
“Can you hear me?” he asked.
The man’s eyes slowly turned toward him and blinked once.
That was the only action he could manage now.
“You are the most recent victim we found,” Harding’s voice was soft but clear. “Your shadow has already completely disappeared. According to the Shadow Thief’s pattern, it will come for you in the next few days. So, help us find it. Afterward, the Association will do everything possible to help you recover.”
The man blinked again.
This time, very slowly, as if saying “okay.”
Harding stood up, jumped out of the van, and nodded at Dirk beside him.
“Get ready to begin.”
Below the factory building’s ceiling, eight high-power lighting units lit up simultaneously.
White light poured down from above, illuminating the entire industrial zone as bright as day.
Rusted machinery, broken windows, cracked concrete floors… everything was exposed under the light with nowhere to hide.
But light also brought shadows.
Everyone standing under the light cast a shadow—long or short, dark or faint—beneath their feet.
Harding looked at the shadow beneath his own feet and frowned slightly.
Although the Prophet had said that losing part of one’s shadow would not cause problems, it still caused some concern in his heart.
But this was a necessary sacrifice.
Although they had a “shadowless person” as bait, if there were no shadows in the surrounding environment, the Shadow Thief would not appear.
Therefore, they also needed to act as bait themselves.