The trail of energy flickered faintly in the air, f delicate lines invisible to the ordinary eye. It wasn’t something tangible in the normal sense—more like a shadow of something that had passed, a trace of something that shouldn’t have bee behind.

  I swallowed hard.

  “So… we’re really hunting a Witch?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

  Azami nodded slowly, her eyes still fixed on the glowing lines. “Not just any Witch. This one is skilled enough to leave only this faint a trace.”

  I frowned as I stared at the energy trails. I hadn’t been able to see them before Azami activated her power, which meant this Witch had tried to hide their presence. But if they were skilled enough to erase their tracks, why were there still remnants like this?

  I voiced my question, and Azami thought for a moment before answering.

  “Two possibilities,” she finally said. “First, they iionally left this trail for us to find. A kind of bait.”

  I furrowed my brow. “Bait for what?”

  “To lead us to something they want. It could be a trap, or just a game.”

  I bit my lip. “And the sed possibility?”

  Azami shifted her gaze to the darkening sky. A gentle breeze blew, carrying a biting chill that seeped into my jacket.

  “The sed possibility… they were in a hurry.”

  I froze for a moment, processing her words. “You mean they actally left this trail?”

  She nodded. “If that’s the case, then it means something forced them to leave quickly. And that also means…”

  I g her. “They might still be around here?”

  Azami gave a faint smile. “Exactly.”

  A cold shiver ran down my spihis time not from the wind.

  We stood in silen the narrow alley, apanied only by the faint sounds of vehicles on the main road a few blocks away. I couldn’t see anything, couldn’t hear anything, but my instincts told me something was watg us from the shadows.

  “Alright,” Azami said finally. “Let’s follow this trail. But stay alert. If this is a trap, I don’t want us walking into it unprepared.”

  I hough I wasn’t sure what I could do if there was indeed something waiting at the end of this path.

  We began walking along the alley, following the blue light trail that only Azami could see. Our footsteps sounded softly on the slightly damp asphalt.

  I could feel the tension in the air, something almost intangible yet so real.

  Azami felt it too. I could tell from the way her eyes narrowed, from the way her fiwitched lightly at her sides, ready to a an instant if needed.

  We turned a er and—

  SRKKKK...!?

  The air around us suddenly felt heavy.

  In that instant, I felt something—not a sound, not a light, but a presenbsp;

  Someone… or something was here.

  Azami stopped abruptly, her hand immediately raised. Golden light flickered in her eyes, and I could see the energy in the air beginning to swirl wildly.

  “Heh… Looks like we’re not alone,” she whispered.

  I held my breath.

  Then, right in front of us, something emerged from the empty air.

  I don’t know how to describe it. It wasn’t like someoepping out of hiding or emerging from the shadows. It was more like the world itself suddenly allowed something to exist here, as if reality had shifted in an instant.

  And the figure that appeared—

  Wasn’t human.

  I felt the hairs on the bay neck stand up as I looked at them.

  A slender woman with a sharp, almost expressionless face. Her eyes were pitch bck, devoid of light, like bottomless pits. Her clothes were tattered and torn in pces, and her long arms hung limply at her sides.

  But what disturbed me the most wasn’t her appearanbsp;

  It was the way she stood.

  She wasn’t like a normal human. There was something… wrong about her posture. Her feet floated slightly above the ground, her body leaned forward just a little, like a puppet suspended by invisible strings.

  Azami immediately moved, stepping in front of me with a guarded stanbsp;

  “Do you see her?” I asked softly.

  Azami nodded. “And I think she sees us too.”

  The woman didn’t move. She just stood there, staring at us with her empty eyes.

  Then, slowly—**very slowly**—her head tilted to the side, like someone seeing something iing for the first time.

  I held my breath.

  Azami gripped my wrist tightly. “Get ready.”

  I didn’t know what would happe.

  But I knew ohing.

  We had just bee the target.