The air around the crime scene grew heavier as Mrs. Kira stepped closer to Marcus Rayner’s lifeless body.
Her delicate fingers reached up to her face, and in a single motion, she removed her blindfold. Gasps rippled through the small crowd of onlookers as her full face came into view… her white eyelashes framing bright, luminous yellow eyes with a haunting black sclera.
The golden shimmer appeared on her hands intensified as a strange sun eye-like pattern that appeared on her palm.
She gently crouched down and placed her hand on the man’s forehead. Beside her, Claus moved, his single visible eye was focused. With a sigh, he reached up and removed his eye patch, revealing a striking difference from his other eye, his uncovered eye was black with a white sclera, his lashes as pale as Kira’s.
Kneeling beside her, Claus placed his hand on the man’s chest. A faint black moon eye sigil, appeared on the back of his hand, complementing the glowing pattern on Kira’s palm.
“Are you ready?” Kira asked softly.
Claus nodded. “Yes.”
The moment the words left his lips, their eyes began to glow… Kira’s radiating with an intense golden light, Claus’s burning like an inky abyss. A massive, radiant magic circle materialized beneath them, its design a mesmerizing blend of black and yellow, a vivid interplay of the sun and moon.
The runes and sigils within the circle pulsed with mana, casting the entire in a strange glow. A Union official standing nearby took an involuntary step back, awe written across his face. “What…what is this?” he murmured, his voice trembling.
Seth, leaning casually against the lamppost, whistled low. “How flashy,” he said, scribbling something in his notebook.
“Don’t get to see this kind of light show every day.” He smirked but couldn’t hide the slight edge of unease in his tone.
Seth casually pushed off the lamppost and strolled over to Brielle, his hands shoved into his coat pockets. His sharp eyes lingered on the radiant magic circle beneath Kira and Claus.
He stopped beside Brielle, raising an eyebrow.
“So, what’s with the fancy magic circles?”
“What’s their talent?”
Brielle sighed, rubbing her temple as if the explanation were more trouble than it was worth. “It’s called Solar and Luna all seeing eyes.”
“S-rank talents.”
Seth perked up at that. “S-rank, huh? Sounds exciting. So, what does it do exactly?”
Brielle hesitated, her eyes flickering back to the glowing scene in front of them. “I’m not exactly sure, to be honest,” she admitted. “All I know is that I’ve heard that they don’t using mana.”
“What?” Zane’s head whipped around so fast it was a wonder he didn’t strain his neck. He stared at Brielle with wide eyes. “They aren’t using mana? What kind of talent doesn’t use mana?”
Seth looked equally stunned. “Yeah, what gives? Talents without mana? That’s like…a joke, right?”
Before Brielle could respond, Claus spoke up without looking at them. His voice was calm, but there was a sharp edge of irritation. “For you information, it’s a Blessing, not a Talent,” he said sharply. “And if you don’t mind, we’re trying to concentrate here.”
Brielle and Zane both muttered “Apologies sir.”
Stepping back. Claus exhaled a long breath, shaking his head.
“Amateurs,” he muttered.
Seth, however, wasn’t done asking questions. He crossed his arms and tilted his head. “Blessing, huh? Funny how I’ve never heard about those before.”
Brielle shrugged. “That’s because they’re extremely rare. Most people who have them don’t even realize it. Blessings don’t function like ordinary talents tied to mana, although they use anther type of energy, but our current technology is unable to detect or identity it. According to data I’ve read, they are inherited, tied to bloodlines or specific events, and they operate outside the usual magical systems.”
“Fascinating,” Seth muttered, rubbing his chin as his gaze drifted back to the glowing figures of Claus and Kira. “And here I thought I’d seen it all.”
Kira’s voice suddenly cut through their conversation, sharp and focused. “If you’re done speculating, keep it down. We’re not finished here.”
“Right, right,” Seth said with a smirk, raising his hands in mock surrender. “Don’t let me distract you, sunshine.” He stepped back, but his eyes remained glued to the duo.
The magic circles pulsed brighter as Kira and Claus continued, the air around them humming with energy. For a moment, the entire scene was silent, except for the faint crackling of magic.
Then Kira’s eyes widened suddenly. The yellow portion of the glowing circle beneath them shuddered, and a small crack appeared on its edge, rippling outward like fractured glass. Claus caught the disturbance immediately, his brow furrowing.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I’ve found something,” Kira said. Her gaze never wavered from the body beneath her hand.
Claus nodded, his hand pressing slightly deeper against Marcus’s chest. “Traces of a presence,” he confirmed.
Kira exhaled, a hint of satisfaction in her voice. “Good. Then we’re done here.”
Together, they removed their hands, the glowing patterns on their palms and the backs of their hands fading. The massive magic circle beneath them dissolved into particles of light, rising into the night air.
Kira and Claus stood, their expressions calm. Around them, the gathered officers exchanged uncertain glances, clearly shaken by what they had witnessed.
Seth broke the silence with a slow clap, the sound echoing in the charged atmosphere.
“Well,” he said, slipping his notebook into his pocket, “that was dramatic. Care to tell the rest of us mortals what you found?”
Kira didn’t respond immediately, her glowing eyes dimming back to their eerie natural state as she then proceeded to wear her blindfold again… Slowly. She exchanged a brief glance with Claus as he did the same with his eye patch.
As he finally wore his eye patch, Mrs. Kira turned to them then spoke up softly, “The cause of death isn’t as simple as it appears. There’s a lingering trace of external interference… a powerful force siphoned off off his life essence.”
Brielle took a step closer, her brows furrowed. “External interference? Do you mean… magic?”
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
Mrs. Kira nodded subtly. “A unique form. It isn’t traditional arcane manipulation, but something more insidious.” Her fingers traced an invisible line over the body’s chest, stopping abruptly over the heart. The golden light grew brighter.
“Here lies the focal point of the attack. Whoever did this struck directly at his life force, bypassing his physical body and creating some shirt of… Shoid I say a portal, to pull out all his
blood in his body trough the heart.”
Seth whistled low, crossing his arms as he leaned against the lamppost. “So, we’ve got a professional killer on our hands. Someone who knows how to make a death look clean and mundane while hiding all the juicy details. Wonderful.”
Brielle shot him another glare. “Would you stop making light of this? It’s bad enough as it is.”
“Who said I’m making light of it?” Seth shot back, raising an eyebrow. “I’m just stating the
facts, Brielle. Whoever did this isn’t your run-of-the-mill thug.”
Claus stepped forward. “He’s right,” he said with his deep voice.
“This level of precision isn’t common. Whoever’s behind this knew exactly what they were doing. They wanted to leave as little evidence as possible.”
Claus’s gaze swept over the gathered officers before settling on Seth, Zane, and Brielle. “The aura we sensed… it doesn’t belong to a human. It’s from some kind of monster.”
A ripple of shock passed through the group. Zane frowned, his brows knitting together as he folded his arms. “A monster? That doesn’t make any sense. Monsters don’t have the intelligence to pull off something like this. Even if it was a boss monster.”
Brielle nodded as she too agreed. “Yeah, the possibility of a boss monster roaming the city is
highly unlikely, and regular monsters act on instinct. They’re destructive, sure, but calculated murder like this? I can’t see it.”
Seth, leaning casually against his lamppost again, smirked. “Well, that sounds like fun. A clever monster playing assassin? I guess it won’t be too long before we start seeing gods.”
Claus sighed, clearly unimpressed by their disbelief. “Monsters and humans have distinct mana patterns,” he explained.
“Humans’ mana is fluid and structured, reflecting conscious control and discipline. Monsters,
on the other hand, have mana that’s wild and chaotic. Even when subdued, it retains an underlying instability. The mana pattern we sensed tonight was unmistakably that of a
monster.”
Zane blinked, as he slowly decided to consider Claus’ words. “You’re sure? There’s no chance it was some rogue Null Talent user or something?”
“No chance,” Claus replied. “I’ve been attuned to mana patterns for years. I know what I
sensed.”
Brielle bit her lip, still struggling to wrap her head around the idea. “But for a monster to do
this… it would have to be intelligent, wouldn’t it? More than intelligent… it would need to be
cunning.”
“Not all low ranked monsters are mindless beasts,” Kira interjected softly, her blindfold once again in place. “Altho their intelligence can’t initially compare to a boss monster’s, some evolve. Some adapt. And the stronger they are, the more capable they become of thinking,
planning, and manipulating.”
A tense silence followed her words.
Seth finally broke it with a slow, deliberate clap. “Well, that just makes this more interesting. So, what do we do now? You two know the exact monster we’re dealing with?” Claus shook his head. “Not exactly. The mana pattern is unique, but it’s not something I’ve
encountered before. What we do know is that we’ve memorized it. And…” He paused, his eye narrowing slightly as he turned to Kira.
Kira nodded in confirmation. “We can sense a similar mana signature nearby. It’s faint, but
it’s there.”
“Wait,” Zane interjected, his voice rising slightly. “You’re saying the monster might still be here? Like, close by?”
Claus nodded. “Yes, but before we investigate, we need reinforcements. This isn’t a job for a few investigators. We’ll need people who specialize in combat.”
Brielle crossed her arms. “You think it’s dangerous enough to call in fighters? What if it leaves
while we wait?”
“It’s a calculated risk,” Claus said firmly. “But rushing in unprepared is worse. If this thing is
capable of what we just saw, it won’t hesitate to do it again. And I doubt any of us here are equipped to handle something of this caliber.”
Seth grinned, his excitement increasing. “So, we’re calling in the cavalry. Fantastic. The question is… who’s up for the job?”
Kira glanced at him, her expression unreadable beneath her blindfold. “That’s not your
concern. Claus and I will make the call. Your job is to stay out of the way until the specialists arrive.”
For once, Seth had no witty comeback.
As the group exchanged uneasy glances, the faint hum of lingering energy from the magic
circle faded entirely, leaving only the unsettling chill of the night air. The hunt was about to
begin.