Chapter 310 - Tipping To Fall-II

Turning on the next day, the early morning had turned busy for both the Associates and the Hunters. Han Seojun had just came back after a mission far from Seoul. Once he came back and received the information about the attack in Chunjang Hospital and saw the death lists, his eyes widened when he noticed the name of Wan Seulgi; his sister's dear friend. 

"There seemed to be a very important announcement made to other Hunters, Blackie," said one man who was an acquaintance of Seojun, named Garret. As Hunters separate their lives as a hunter at night and a civilian in the morning, most of them had changed their name into another nickname including Seojun who was named Black. 

"Stop calling me like a pet," Seojun answered curtly, compared to how friendly he is with his sister, he prefer to keep it to himself and have space between him and the others in the Hunters; as he knew socializing wasn't always the right choice when no one know in which second other would die soon. "About the Hospital case that was brought in last night, did anyone found out who the cause of attack is?" 

"I have stayed here last night but the people above us kept the case a secret; there are barely things that I know. I only saw the picture of the scene where the top part of the building was wiped clean."

Seojun narrowed his eyes, "I have only seen that too."

"Gentlemen," greeted a man who had came in front of them, greeting with a smile.

Upon seeing who it was, Seojun bowed respectfully, "Mr. Kwon Huan and Mr. Rem, good afternoon." 

Reason for people to become Hunters differ between themselves. Some times, it was money, revenge, and at times personal attacks. Out of all people who had chose the path as Hunters, Kwon Huan was one of the people Seojun respect. The man was still on his mid twenty but his achievements and skill had turn him into a captain which garnered his respect. 

"Shush, you suppose to call me Moon, here don't you remember, Black," Kwon Huan asked with a light chuckle. 

"I'm sorry, I forgot," Seojun answered sincerely, and the man nodded, taking no offense. "It's rare for everyone to come here. I wasn't aware that the notice was sent to everyone. Do you know anything about it?"

Kwon Huan turned to look at Mr. Rem and shrugged his shoulders, "Coincidentally we had just talked about that earlier but like everyone who was sent the letter, we don't know why they had called us."

"We can only suspect that it must be something very gravely important," said Mr. Rem whose position was the same as Kwon Huan— a position of a commander which was considered to be a high position yet they were kept in the dark with the discussion of today's meeting, causing Seojun to feel suspicious.

"Can it be an information about the witches?" asked Garret who stood beside Seojun. "Black and I had just talked about the hospital incident if they had called us, it must involve the incident that happened last night, right?"

"Yes but also I feel like there is more than what we have known," Kwon Huan said and his words caught the back of Seojun's mind.

When the meeting was started, Seojun entered and sat near the seat of the captain. Though he was younger than most people around him, he was considered to be one of the most skillful members of Hunters. Not far from him was Garret who had took the seat as the person who was supposed to sit beside Seojun had turn absence. 

"Look there, it's Barloy," Garret whispered, "And beside him is Rainy, Thom, and Ulysee. All of them are Hunters who we could never come across. Don't you think today might be the day we finally caught the tail of the witches and burn them all for good?"

Seojun also saw the people who one could never see often as they were high grade Hunters whose work were to hunt high class witches that live in hidings. What Garret said made sense but for some reason, seeing the expression the High grade Hunters had which was gloom and grave, a silver of foreboding premonition crept under his skin. 

He took a look at his phone again, wondering when Seoyeon would call him back as he had tried to call him many times to no avail. He had also called the purebloods who took care of his sister but both of them were out of the line.

As the meeting begin, Barloy, the head of the Hunters spoke the opening, "The incident last night was truly a deep loss for everyone, both us the Hunters who weren't able to save the loss of lives but also humans who had to suffer the loss due to the attack of creatures who they aren't even aware living beside them. Dark witches are creatures who I am sure no one in this room could tolerate as much as I do but today we learned that dark witches are not only the beings who humans have to fear."

Whispers came across the room. Kwon Huan and Seojun both raised their brows at the opening words Barloy stated. Rainy, the other high grade Hunter who sat beside Barloy with his long brown hair cut above his neck said, "Around last night, a witness of the dark witches we captured have confessed of their doing. Allegedly they have came to take the life of a human who was successfully turned into a half vampire by their potion. However what had killed them weren't us, vampires, or humans. It was another creature that we have and the Associates have just learned."

"That being is called the Catalyst," it was the last High grade Hunter, Ulysee who had spoken and Seojun's hand on the armrest tightened upon hearing it. 

Garret turned his face when he noticed how Seojun's expression turn for a severe expression, "Are you alright, Black?"

"I am fine," Seojun cut in between. The Hunters had just known about Catalyst and not Seoyeon, consoled the young Hunter. When the new image of the hospital building was projected on the screen behind where the high grade Hunters were sitting at, Seojun pulled his frown deeper at the damage around the building. 

He felt his back turn colder with time passing, it had just been yesterday where he warned Jung Hwa that Seoyeon might have reached the third stage; for the catalyst to take over it would need more than a month yet Seoyeon had somehow triggered her power in a day after passing the third stage. Why? There was something wrong with Seoyeon's progressions, the catalyst inside her was much more alive and lethal than other catalysts who he read in the book. What was the difference?

Someone had raised their hand and asked, "What is a catalyst, sir? Are they the one who had destroyed and killed the people on the Hospital?"

Barloy replied, "The catalyst is indeed the person who had caused the blast in the hospital but it was found that most of the patient inside the Hospital had been killed previously by the dark witch. Catalyst are beings who posses much more volatile power then dark witches but they are very different than witches. In around every one hundred years, there is only one of them; and following the death of the previous catalyst, another one would appear a hundred year after their death. They are also the being who had killed most witches to the brink of extinction centuries ago."

"Aren't the catalyst a good kind of people then?" whispered someone from the crowd, not daring to speak aloud to voice out his question.

The high grade Hunter nodded, and Ulysee said, "Indeed we had thought the catalyst as a good being but from what everyone had seen today, catalyst has never been on anyone's side. They are not in human's side, vampires, or us the Hunters. The previous catalyst killed humans, the others killed vampires and also Hunters; there are no sure cases of why they had decided to kill the group of people and it would be hard to pin point their reason to kill as there had never been solid reasoning but if we let our guard down, the result would be more than what you saw happen in the hospital. The blast the current Catalyst blew in the hospital is only a percent of their true power."

Suddenly someone from the seat raised his hands, his eyes looking subjective and judging, "I mean no offense, sir but from what I have seen the Catalyst doesn't seem to be a foreign creature for the High Grade Hunters which mean you knew of this person's existence as the catalyst. Why did you decide to hide the catalyst's existence from us?"

"To avoid massacre," answered Thom who took the question, "We do posses the information about the catalyst but up to a very small information. Killing the catalyst must be what everyone have in mind right now but the reason we didn't kill the catalyst when they are a baby is to avoid their power going awry before. In the past it had been tried to kill the baby who posses the catalyst which only ended up as a fail as the baby blew up almost a single city alone. Since then it had become a code not to attack the catalyst and wait for their power to manifest. When their power are in a premature stage, it would be during that time that we would attack to minimize the damage. Unfortunately for last night, the catalyst's power had grown very quickly that we weren't able to do anything."

"However today, we have decided to put a bounty on the catalyst," said Barloy and Seojun's eyes widened at the words the man said, "We cannot allow the person to run free with the power they have in them, and after holding a discussion, the Associate will also lend us a hand in order to hunt for the catalyst.. The catalyst is this woman," at the same time, the screen behind them flickered, showing the face who was very familiar or both Seojun and Kwon Huan, "Miss Han Seoyeon, the current holder of the catalyst and the person who we will have to hunt now."