Secondhand Shadow?

Dottie suddenly shouted, successfully drawing everyone’s attention. After noticing all the eyes on her, she merely flashed a sweet smile, as if apologizing for her earlier loss of composure. Yet there was a trace of unease in her eyes that she could not conceal.

"Ha, she seems… very afraid of us." Such an obvious shift in emotion naturally could not escape the Eredar Twins’ notice. Saloras reached out a hand as if to stroke Dottie’s face, but Dottie desperately leaned back to avoid her. Her smile remained unchanged, but her eyes had turned fearful. "What are you afraid of, woman?"

Fear upon seeing demons was a normal reaction. But… the Eredar Twins were not the kind of hideous demons who inspired terror at first glance.

Quite the opposite—they were elegant and beautiful, every gesture carrying deadly allure. They were the ultimate non-human girls coveted by shut-ins. Though their reverse-jointed legs might make some people uncomfortable, there was another group who would say, "Those hooves? I could stroke them for a year."

So, people’s first reaction upon seeing the Eredar Twins should have been surprise, not fear. Unless they knew their background, or had sensed something.

"I’m… somewhat sensitive to supernatural powers," Dottie explained.

"I heard… you seem to have suffered badly at the hands of supernatural power." Evenson stood with his hands on his hips, frowning. "That crazy woman whose name I can’t remember used some kind of ability to do a real number on you."

"Whitney Frost." Dottie swallowed, as though those terrible experiences had happened only yesterday. "She used an energy called Zero Matter to force a confession out of me."

"Thanks for the reminder." Evenson wagged a finger, then rolled his eyes. "So… you sensed that power again just now, didn’t you?"

Whether it was the Weakness Curse Evenson had used to subdue her, or the demonic-rune ritual currently underway, both were supernatural powers. Yet Dottie had shown no major reaction until the twins appeared. She must have sensed, from them, the power that had once caused her such immense suffering.

"You…" Evenson waved his hand between the Eredar Twins. "Which one of them are you more afraid of?"

At that moment, the Eredar Twins stepped forward together. Yet they made no threatening gestures. Instead, they struck flirtatious poses. Apparently, they did not like being thought of as frightening.

Dottie said nothing, merely casting evasive glances toward Saloras.

"Tch…" The answer was obvious, and Saloras let out a disdainful sound.

"Hehe… terrifying Saloras…" Aurelles took the chance to tease her sister.

"Terrifying? What’s so funny about that?" Saloras rolled her eyes. "Remember? We’re twins. We look the same."

"Ahem…" Evenson coughed, cutting off the sisters’ bickering. "It seems we can draw a conclusion."

"It’s nothing serious." Saloras spoke indifferently. "Shadow Power. That woman-whatever-her-name-was—she must have mastered some shadow power. It’s nothing impressive."

Strictly speaking, the Eredar Twins were both Sorcerers. A Sorcerer’s power system consisted of no more than three branches: Fel, shadow, and flame. Of course, if one’s physique allowed it, and one had the energy and interest, one could also pick up some berserker abilities.

Imagine discovering that the guy across from you was charging at you with a broadsword as wide as a door. You were just about to run, only to realize you had been covered in curses. Then he hit you with a Whirlwind and even fired off a Brain-Dead Arrow. What a beautiful sight that would be.

But overall, only those three powers were fundamental. As for the Eredar Twins, their skin color made it clear enough: Aurelles had mastered flame to perfection, while Saloras could wield Shadow Power with consummate skill.

"Shadow…" A tiny sphere of shadow condensed between Evenson’s fingers. He waved it before Dottie, and sure enough, she recoiled from it intensely. "But where did this shadow come from…?"

A Sorcerer’s powers were all extraordinary. Flame was manageable enough—though violent, it was merely a difficult-to-control natural element, one that Sorcerers twisted when they used it. But shadow and Fel… those two powers were far less simple, especially their origins.

"The Void…" Fel was the mark of the Burning Legion, while shadow originated in the Void. Cold sweat broke out on Evenson’s back at the thought.

If someone in this world had once connected with the Void and gained Shadow Power, that was no good news. In the real world, the truest terror was nothing but those hungry evil gods.

"It can’t be the Void." Saloras said with certainty. She was practically a veteran when it came to shadow power, so she had plenty of authority on this subject. "How could mortals possibly gaze directly upon the Void? Even a fleeting glimpse would terrify them to death, those hollow creations."

"And her…" Saloras looked at Dottie. "If she had been harmed by shadow power directly from the Void, she would already be dead."

"Shadow not from the Void…" Evenson thought for a moment. "Then it’s secondhand shadow?"

"What we use is secondhand shadow." Saloras corrected him. "What she encountered, who knows how many hands removed it was."

The Void radiated endless Shadow Power into countless worlds. So the place closest to this world, and the place with a great deal of readily available Shadow Power, could only be "Hell."

Evenson immediately let out a long breath. This result was still acceptable. Connecting to Hell was far better than connecting to the Void. At the very least, the Seven Lords of Hell looked much friendlier than the evil gods in the Void.

"Boss~" Sarah’s voice came from nearby. "It’s done over here."

"Okay, I’m coming." Evenson answered casually.

"I have proper business to handle now." Evenson said to Dottie. "Can you tell me your choice? Are you willing to work for me?"

Dottie’s eyes moved back and forth between the three of them. She realized she had no choice at all. She feared Saloras’s power, and she could not abandon her attachment to Peggy Carter. "All right. I agree."

"Very good." Evenson smiled. "From now on, you’ll be working under those two. If you don’t behave, they’ll be far harsher than Whitney."

"I believe that." Having made her choice, Dottie looked much more relaxed. "But I remember… you said this was a company?" Shouldn’t the people working for these two be a cult or the Secret Party?

"It is a company. They’re major shareholders." Evenson said. There were only three people on the board anyway.

"Demons run companies too?" Dottie found that hard to accept.

"What’s wrong with that? Devils even have publicly listed corporations. What’s so strange about us opening a company?" Evenson spoke as if she were making a fuss over nothing.

"All right, now I’ll have to ask you to sleep for a while. I need to get to work." With that, Evenson lightly tapped Dottie on the head, and she immediately fell unconscious.

"Seriously…" Aurelles came over to Peggy Carter’s side, looking at the demonic runes burned into her body by Fel. "Do you really know how to handle the Illidari method?"

"I’m serious too." Evenson replied with utmost sincerity. "I have absolutely no idea."