Chapter 158
Suspect Alistair
It was past one in the early morning when gunshots and explosions echoed, followed by a conflagration. Despite the vast campus of the Royal Law University, the knights on night patrol quickly noticed the disturbance.
Upon arriving at the scene, the knight found the lawn in front of No. 14 Ronin Street scorched and burning fiercely. Corpses were scattered before the entrance, blood stained the ground, and the distinctive remnants of a Demonic Hound — its flesh rotted and armored — lay on the grass. He immediately realized this was a problem beyond the scope of a mere Second Tier Supervisor. Without hesitation, he turned and fled.
About twenty minutes later, personnel from the Inspection Bureau arrived, albeit belatedly. Before their arrival, the campus workers had already been notified and had extinguished the fire. As per the knight’s request, the scene was preserved in its entirety, with no unnecessary movement of any kind.
The gravity of the situation, as described over the phone, warranted a large-scale response from the Inspection Bureau. At two in the early morning, twelve supervisors, fully armed, arrived on Gryphons.
“These people should be Demon Scholars,” stated a middle-aged woman wearing a Monocle and leading the group, upon her first assessment of the scene. “I can see the spiritual aura of ritual spells.”
In her vision, two of the individuals present still emanated the protective spiritual aura characteristic of ritual spells. She observed closely and confirmed, “The ritual’s effects are not yet over, so the fight likely occurred not long ago.”
“Director Taiya, please take a look at this,” said a young male supervisor, crouching on the ground. Wearing leather gloves, he picked up a pinch of faintly glowing red dust. “This should be a Flame Essence.”
“Yes, I see it,” the newly appointed female director nodded. “Judging by the traces, the flames that killed them belong to the Path of Devotion. Originally, the flames wouldn’t have been this powerful, likely amplified by the use of Flame Essence.”
“Director, there’s no one inside!” A supervisor who had investigated the interior returned with the report. “But there are signs of destruction within… a fight may have occurred inside!”
“I’ll take a look,” the director replied, and then questioned the campus workers and the knight present, “Who lived here? Was it a teacher?”
“It was a student,” the knight answered. “Eivass Moriarty.”
Upon hearing this, Taiya paused, her expression turning solemn. She confirmed, “The decorated Eivass Moriarty?”
“How many Moriartys could there be, Madam Taiya?” the knight replied.
“Then this is problematic…” Taiya murmured, frowning deeply. “Is this retaliation?” She beckoned to the man behind her, “Mr. Dawn, would you mind performing a retrospective here?”
“Here?” A middle-aged Law Master in his fifties ambled over. “I can only trace the actions of the dead for the past hour… Are you sure it’s here?” He held a silvery white Elf Staff, its tip adorned with Avalon’s symbol—a silver triangle with a green jewel at its center.
After receiving Taiya’s confirmation, the elderly Law Master unhesitatingly slammed his staff onto the ground. Silvery white runes condensed into a magic circle, spreading across the ground in an instant. Soon, faint, transparent silvery white silhouettes appeared over the corpses, rising as if time were reversing, moving backward through its sequence.
“Wait!” Taiya suddenly exclaimed. The scene immediately froze.
Although the silhouette was indistinct, she clearly saw that the possessed knight, wielding a giant sword, had no lower body yet could float in the air. It had appeared out of nowhere, yet there was no corpse there. Her expression shifted slightly. “A Blade Demon?”
“What?” Hearing this, the surrounding people were startled and crowded closer.
“This person was accompanied by a Blade Demon,” Taiya said, looking down at the man dressed like a lawyer, with a distinct cross-shaped burn mark on his face and chest. “Could he be ‘Blade Taster’?”
‘Blade Taster’ was a wanted criminal by the Lloyd District Inspection Branch. However, they didn’t even know the culprit’s appearance. They could only confirm that traces of a Blade Demon were found at the scenes of multiple victim mutilations—suggesting a Demon Scholar had used Extraordinary Power to kill innocents to summon and control it. Blade Demons were relatively rare, with this likely being the only one on Glass Island. Thus, they named it ‘Blade Taster’.
However, the Inspection Branch of the Lloyd District was overwhelmed with cases, and other branches were unwilling to transfer personnel to Lloyd. As a result, ‘Blade Taster’ remained only a name on a wanted poster, with no one knowing their gender, age, or exact appearance.
“Can you see what caused the Blade Demon’s defeat?”
“It was blasted away by something,” Dawn pointed to the trajectory of its flight. “Likely something with immense impact force. But there are traces of a Demon dissipating here, so I believe its master was killed, and the Blade Demon was then sent back.”
“Immense impact force?” Director Taiya wasn’t surprised by the latter part. Someone capable of directly defeating a Blade Demon would have to be at least a Fourth Tier. However, the first part became increasingly puzzling as she pondered it.
One thing was certain: the two Demonic Hound corpses outside the door had clearly been dispersed by purifying abilities. Their external armor was largely intact, and the rotting flesh inside was also complete. Only the curse controlling the corpses had been dispelled… While the curse was active, the flesh would have been purple, but now it was just normal rotting flesh.
“From what I know, Eivass Moriarty is a Priest. He once defeated a Deformed with the help of an extraordinary item,” a young female supervisor said casually as she jotted notes, “This should have been dispersed by him personally. He’s capable of such a feat.”
Taiya nodded, then shook her head. “Indeed, it’s possible. But he definitely didn’t defeat the Blade Demon. He’s just a Priest, and he’s physically impaired. Even with the amplification of Flame Essence, he couldn’t have instantly blown away a Blade Demon. And Blade Demons have strong resistance, so there must have been someone else at the scene—someone capable of physically blasting away a Blade Demon, or even killing it.”
“But there are no footprints, Director.”
“He might fly,” Taiya replied. “Or it could have been some kind of spell… Magic could achieve that effect. However, there are no traces of Path of Wisdom spells remaining… but they might have been erased. A skilled Mage can cast spells without leaving a trace.”
“So, a powerful Mage was with Eivass Moriarty, and they were attacked by four Demon Scholars,” the supervisor mused aloud, recording it in her notebook.
“Not necessarily a Mage,” Taiya corrected, turning back. “It’s also possible that person belonged to the Path of Devotion or the Transcendent Path—after all, only traces of these two powers remained at the scene. But we can’t rule out a powerful Path Adaptation Extraordinary, as Path Adaptation also has the ability to conceal traces of its path.”
With that, she walked towards the house to continue her investigation. Under the magnification of her Monocle, red and purple traces were scattered across the ground. Following these traces, she gradually traced the events.
It appeared Eivass had emerged victorious. With the assistance of an unknown helper, he had defeated a group of Demon Scholars who had sneak-attacked him in the dead of night. The plump man shot in the head with a bullet bore a peculiar explosive wound on his head that Taiya found very familiar—it was the special bullet Eivass had used when he killed the first Demon Scholar at the Pelican Bar. This clearly indicated Eivass had personally killed this individual.
Besides this fat man, the other three had died by flames. Two of them showed almost no signs of struggle, combat, or exertion before death, indicating they were killed instantly. The Flame Essence scattered on the ground was proof of his spellcasting.
Taiya gradually understood… this must be a high-level Path of Devotion Extraordinary.
It was a simple hypothesis: if someone possessed the power to directly defeat a Blade Demon, they wouldn’t need firearms, which emphasized accuracy. Therefore, those three people couldn’t have been killed by Eivass. And if the helper was a Mage, he wouldn’t have only used fire abilities.
“Collect the blood samples for analysis,” she instructed her subordinate, pointing to the bloodstains on the ground. Based on their shape, they were naturally dripping bloodstains. Their height suggested an adult, not Eivass, who was in a wheelchair.
So, had he been injured? But the bloodstains were only at the entrance, disappearing further inside. This implied he had been injured and immediately healed. This further supported the deduction of “two Priests.”
There were traces of a wheelchair, leading from the entrance to the living room. The living room was slightly disheveled, with a table overturned. Wax candles lay on the floor, broken… it appeared someone had been interrupted while attempting to use “Fire Worship.”
Could they have fought each other? But there were no bloodstains or corpses here. If a battle had occurred here, there should be bodies—the corpses at the door were left untouched, and things were scattered everywhere. It was unlikely only Eivass’s body would have been removed. From this perspective, Eivass was at least not dead!
Thinking this, Director Taiya breathed a slight sigh of relief. She had just taken over from Director Gordon, and if a hero who had recently received the Sacred Sword Medal was killed within her jurisdiction a week later, she would be in serious trouble.
But soon, she noticed faint, almost imperceptible shadows lingering in a corner.
“…Hm?” She crouched down and observed carefully for a long time, her expression finally changing drastically. “Is this… a Shadow Demon?!” How could a glass island have a Shadow Demon, an Upper Demon! This Shadow Demon obviously hadn’t attacked those Demon Scholars; they were in league. This meant that one of the members of the Noble Red Society had summoned a Shadow Demon!
Seeing the four killed, it had followed the other two into the room stealthily. Traces of shadow energy remained in the door crack, serving as evidence. And while the pair underwent treatment, the Shadow Demon suddenly attacked, incapacitating and capturing them. This should be the full picture of events.
—The involvement of an Upper Demon like a Shadow Demon was beyond their handling capacity. Dare not delay, she reported the matter to the Inspection Department.
The first to receive the report was her old superior, Inspector Gordon. Upon hearing of the Shadow Demon’s traces, he immediately thought of someone.
“…Alistair?” Inspector Gordon muttered softly. “Was it you?”
He considered it, deciding to skip his meal for now and eat after finishing the update!
Update complete! I’m going to eat now, and I’ll correct any typos when I get back!
