"The key aspect of a successful hunt is silence."
On a huge bronze gargoyle, the Haunter silently listened to Kariel's words. He was indeed born with knowledge of many things, but not those Kariel was speaking of now.
He was still too young to understand the laws by which this world beneath his feet lived. Innate knowledge only gave rise to more questions.
"As you can see, in all of Quintus, there are tens of thousands of gangs. Their territories are divided very clearly, down to some inconspicuous little street. This means that if you do not act silently, the noise of killing will be heard by other gangs."
"Are they not already used to killings?" the Haunter asked with bewilderment. "Do they truly care about noise from another gang's territory?"
"The sounds emitted upon death by civilians and gang members are different, Haunter."
Kariel stretched his lips into a cruel smile.
"Civilians die, and that is it. Few of them cling to life; there are plenty of suicides too. Where do you think so many bodies without visible damage come from at the corpse-processing plants? Is it all from disease?"
"And as for the gang members… you have killed them. Tell me, Haunter, what sounds do they make when they die?"
"Curses," the Haunter replied after thinking. "They curse me and say that someone will avenge them."
"And not only that."
Kariel waved his left hand, and the smile on his pale face grew even wider.
"Also gunshots… Haunter. They will fire without stopping. If you cannot muffle the sound as I do, then it is better to act silently."
"Then why do you not muffle the sounds for me?"
"Because this is your solo hunt."
Kariel stretched the muscles of his neck and shoulders, squinting.
"Listen, I will die someday. I am an ordinary man; I cannot, like you, tear apart armored vehicles with a sweep of a hand… And you, Haunter, obviously have some common goal with me."
"Therefore, I will teach you everything I know. And then, even if I die, you will be able to change this cursed place. In that case, even after death, I will be very happy."
Having said this, Kariel shrugged. The Haunter listened to him silently with a calm expression.
He kept nodding, but it was clear from his face that he did not fully understand the meaning of Kariel's words.
And again, Kariel Lohars felt a sharp irony looking at this naivety.
"You naive little monster… why did you appear specifically on Nostramo?"
Kariel shook his head with a smile.
"Go," he said. "One gang. Destroy them all."
The Haunter walked to the edge of the gargoyle. At the very moment he was about to jump, he stopped suddenly.
He turned to Kariel and said, "Killings cannot solve the problem, Kariel. That is what you told me."
"Yes."
"Then why do we continue to destroy these gangs?"
"Complete the task, clear them out so that other gangs do not notice, and I will tell you the answer."
"Truly?"
"I have never deceived you."
The Haunter hesitated no longer. He nodded and jumped from the gargoyle. Kariel watched him until the tall shadow finally dissolved into the night, and only then sighed.
"Only eighteen months old…" he muttered. "What psychopath created such a monster and threw him specifically into Quintus?"
...
"The coroner from House Skraivok is dead," said a bald man.
He had no lips, and his face was disfigured by countless piercings that were hard to look at.
His torso was bare, and chains emerged from his wrists, deeply embedded in the flesh and trailing down to his waist. The sight was strange and frightening.
Piercings were common. Many gang members liked to decorate their faces to stand out. The same applied to body modifications—masochists were a dime a dozen here.
But the sliced-off lips—that was the point.
It meant he belonged to the "Chattering Teeth" gang.
It meant he belonged to a noble house from the Upper Hive.
"I heard that woman had a special metal arm, so strong it could crush the head of a tusked bull with one blow. How did she die?"
In the candle-lit room, another woman asked.
She was dressed in a lavish white dress with numerous folds. Her waist was thin, and her exposed chest was soft and white. Beautiful to look at, but on her neck, she wore a necklace skillfully made of human bones.
The bald man looked at her irritably and snapped viciously, "Are you just babbling, Guvas? Everyone knows that House Skraivok is swimming in money, and if you serve them like a dog, you can get anything. What difference does it make who killed her? What matters is where her corpse is!"
"Oh, who knows, Kangja, who knows. Maybe I really am babbling because I have nothing to do… but you had better speak to me more politely."
The woman laughed coquettishly, and her lips, stained with human blood, slowly stretched into a smile.
"I recently received a batch of hallucinogens from the very top… if you do not want to wake up one day and find that your own people have hung you up and are preparing to skin you, show me a little respect."
The man named Kangja snorted coldly. He raised his right hand and stroked his exposed teeth. With his free left, he continuously pricked the flesh of his thigh with sharp nails.
He needed a little physical pleasure to remind himself not to lose his mind.
"Enough," finally spoke the third person in the hall, who had been silent until then. Compared to the lavish courtly dress of Guvas and the cruel body modifications of Kangja, he, in his black clothes, seemed the only normal person here.
"We have no connection to House Skraivok," he said emotionlessly. "This is not our concern."
"But House Skraivok is always generous, Prey," Kangja said. "Shall we not snatch our own piece?"
"The one who dared to kill the coroner of House Skraivok on the eve of the Great Cleansing is beyond our strength," Prey shook his head calmly.
"And even if we are lucky and find her corpse… how shall we solve the problem that House Skraivok will throw at us? They, of course, will want to know who killed their coroner."
Kangja nodded thoughtfully, which contrasted sharply with his irritability in the conversation with Guvas.
"So, do we declare a curfew?" the beautiful Guvas asked.
She squinted and, saying this, took an object resembling a syringe from a handbag on the table.
Through the transparent body, the bewitching scarlet color inside could be clearly seen.
"Not yet. And inject less. The addiction to the Type 3 blood mixture is too strong. You will burn your brains out. Look at your lips; you are already hooked on human blood, aren't you?"
Guvas licked her lips, savoring the taste of blood, and nodded absently.
A single look at the syringe clouded her gaze, her breathing quickened, and a flush appeared on her cheeks.
Watching this, Kangja smirked coldly.
This is how it is with those hooked on the Type 3 blood mixture. At any unpredictable moment, a wave of addiction can overwhelm them.
If they do not drink blood or inject a dose, this mad state can last for several days.
Seeing this, Prey irritably grabbed a gilded plate from the long table and hurled it, knocking the syringe out of Guvas's hands.
The woman's first reaction was not rage, but an instinctive pounce, like a dog. She crawled on the carpet, trying to find the syringe.
Her actions continued until a black leather boot stepped on her right hand.
Guvas raised her head and saw Prey's emotionless face.
"I should not have let you deal in hallucinogens…" Prey said quietly, his left foot beginning to press down, twisting brutally on Guvas's palm.
The bald Kangja bared his teeth in a smile. Guvas turned pale with pain but did not dare to move.
"You have absolutely no self-control, and that is only half the trouble… In normal times, your licentiousness does not matter, but now life is at stake, and you are thinking of injecting a dose?"
Prey kicked her in disgust, throwing her to the other end of the table. He finally lost his temper and broke into curses.
"Not to mention whose damn private soldier that cursed avenging spirit is, but also the deaths of Father and Razor! They were torn to pieces and thrown in that cursed church, and we, damn it, also had to clean it all up!"
"The Great Cleansing will begin soon, Guvas!"
Prey rose from the table and glared furiously at the bleeding woman. Her first reaction was not to stop the blood, but to continuously touch her bleeding nose and bring the blood to her lips.
There was an expression of ecstasy on her face.
On Prey's face, an unconcealed disappointment finally appeared.
He looked at Guvas and opened his mouth again. Because of this, he did not notice the dark shadow flitting past the window and ignored the quiet sounds coming through the shroud of rain.
These sounds were like tearing flesh.
"Kangja has established connections with the 'Chattering Teeth,' which means that we finally will not have to pay our way out to survive this Great Cleansing. And you are drowning in hallucinogens and cannot get out…"
"Look at yourself; someone dying of black lung at the factory is better off than you…"
"…Prey?"
Kangja blinked, not understanding why Prey had fallen silent.
He, of course, would have been pleased to see Guvas punished or even expelled from the gang. He would have gladly taught this fool trading in hallucinogens a lesson. However, Prey's silence stopped everything.
He turned and looked at Prey. And his eyes widened in terror.
He did not see Prey.
More precisely, he did not see Prey's head.
The headless body swayed by the window, into which the acid rain lashed. They hadn't even noticed when that window had opened.
Kangja jumped up sharply, simultaneously drawing his pistol and trying to scream to call for help from the gang members waiting outside the door.
Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.
A long and pale hand had already managed to grab him by the neck.
"Farewell," the Haunter said politely. "By the way, your windows are very easy to open."
In the next moment, a dull crunch rang out. The last thing Kangja saw in his life was a fragment of white bone stained scarlet.
Half a second later, when his consciousness began to fade, he finally understood what kind of bone it was.
It was a fragment of a spine.
Whose was it?
With this question, he sank forever into eternal darkness.
The Haunter cast aside the head with the spinal fragment and turned to Guvas, who remained in the room.
He had heard the entire conversation of these three gang leaders while standing outside. He knew her name and knew she had a blood addiction.
Actually… the latter could be easily understood by her behavior.
A normal person would not pounce on the corpse of their comrade and greedily drink his blood.
The Haunter approached her mercilessly.
The downpour continued outside the window.