Suddenly...

The knocking stopped.

Everything became silent.

No one knocked on the door anymore.

Miyuki thought they had finally left.

But the next moment...

Bang!

Someone kicked the door with full force, trying to break it open.

Bang!

Bang!

Again and again, they attacked the door.

No matter how hard they tried...

The door didn’t move even a little.

They kicked it.

They rammed it with their shoulders.

They even struck it with their swords.

But nothing happened.

The door didn’t even have a single scratch.

Because the barrier hidden inside the door had already activated.

For people at their level...

Breaking it was impossible.

The barrier was far beyond their strength.

In this village, none of them were even above C-Rank.

There was no way they could destroy it.

Outside the room, six people stood there with their faces covered by dark cloth.

One of them cursed in frustration.

"What the hell is this?!"

"Why won’t this damn door open?!"

Another person immediately stopped him.

"If you keep standing here trying to break the door, it’ll never open."

"We’re just wasting time."

"And we don’t have much time left."

"Hurry."

"Let’s go through the window instead."

Before leaving, one of them looked at the others.

"You two stay here."

"After we get in through the window, we’ll open the door from the inside."

"If all of us go to the window, they might escape through the door."

"So you two stay here."

After saying that...

Four of them quietly left for the window.

Only two people remained standing outside the door.

Then the four of them began climbing the side of the house.

Miyuki’s room was on the second floor.

There was only one large window.

Fortunately, Miyuki had already closed it.

There was no magic barrier around the window.

As the four men climbed past the first floor, they didn’t notice that two Shadow Monsters were already waiting there.

One was slightly above them, while the other was a little below.

They silently hid inside the darkness.

Under the moonlight, the men’s shadows stretched across the wall.

Slowly...

The two Shadow Monsters slipped into those shadows.

None of the men noticed anything.

The Shadow Monsters quietly took control of their shadows.

This was one of their special abilities.

As long as the target was weaker than the Shadow Monster, it could control them through their shadow.

If the target was stronger, the skill wouldn’t work.

But these men were far weaker.

In the next second...

The eyes of the two controlled men turned completely black.

Without saying a word, both of them suddenly grabbed the legs of the two people climbing above them.

Each of them tightly grabbed one leg.

The two men above immediately stopped climbing.

"Huh?"

"What are you doing?!"

"Let go of my leg!"

"I can’t climb like this!"

They tried pulling their legs free, but the grip wouldn’t loosen.

The other man looked down in confusion.

"What happened to them?"

"Why are they grabbing us?"

"They’re not even answering!"

"I think something’s wrong with them!"

"Just kick them!"

"We can deal with them later!"

The two men immediately tried kicking the ones below.

But before they could...

The controlled men suddenly pulled with all their strength.

"Aah!!"

All four of them lost their balance at the same time.

They crashed to the ground in a tangled heap.

Only the two who had been climbing from above cried out in pain after the heavy fall.

The other two stood up again without showing any reaction, their completely black eyes staring silently into the darkness.

But before they could stand up, both Shadow Monsters controlled the two men’s bodies and made them stand up.

Meanwhile, the other two men were still lying on the ground after the fall.

One of them was on the right side.

The other was a little farther to the left.

Then both controlled men slowly walked together toward the man on the right.

One tightly grabbed his body so he couldn’t move.

The other grabbed his neck with one hand.

He couldn’t breathe.

He tried to move his hands and legs, but both of them refused to let him go.

If this continued, he would die there.

The other man saw both of them holding his friend on the ground.

He stood up.

His left leg was injured, but he still forced himself to move toward them.

When he reached them, he first tried to free his friend.

He grabbed the man who was holding his friend’s neck and pulled with all his strength.

But he couldn’t move him at all.

Then he punched his face again and again.

Blood came out, but there was no reaction.

It was like he couldn’t feel any pain.

He tried pulling him once more, but his own injured leg slipped.

He fell heavily onto the ground.

Gritting his teeth, he stood up once more.

His left leg was still hurting badly, but he kept moving.

Then he saw a big stone nearby.

He picked it up and rushed toward the man who was choking his friend.

Bang!

He smashed the stone onto his head.

Blood immediately flowed from his head.

But he still didn’t let go.

Bang!

Bang!

He hit him again and again.

Finally, he fell to the ground.

Without wasting any time, he picked up the stone again and rushed toward the other man who was holding his friend’s body.

He struck his head again and again.

After a few minutes...

He also fell to the ground.

Finally, he managed to remove both of them.

He quickly went beside his friend and dropped to one knee.

He tried to wake him up.

But it was already too late.

He was dead.

The other two men who had been controlled by the Shadow Monsters were also dead.

Now...

Only he was left alive.

Along with the other two men who were still standing outside the room’s door.

Then that man finally understood that he wasn’t alone.

Now, his three friends were already dead.

Only he was left alive.

Then the two men who had been hit by the rocks and fallen to the ground slowly stood up again.

He looked at the two Shadow Monsters standing there, along with the two controlled bodies.

The two Shadow Monsters slowly turned their heads toward him.

A creepy smile spread across both of their faces.

He realized he couldn’t win against them.

But instead of running away...

He made a big mistake.

He decided to attack them.