This New Party councilor, already past forty yet still energetic and full of promise, seemed to have turned into a bomb from the neck down. With a boom, he exploded into a shower of flesh and blood, even his bones vanishing without a trace.
A bizarre figure crawled out of his mangled body, spreading its hands as though embracing the sky. The scattered flesh and blood still hanging in the air was drawn back toward the figure, forming a crimson robe around it.
The bodyguards on either side were thrown to the ground by the blast. When they scrambled up and witnessed that horrifying, insane scene, they turned and fled in terror.
The slower one was seized by a pale arm extending from the blood-red robe, then hurled off the podium with astonishing force and thrown into the few citizens below who had not yet managed to escape.
Everything happened in a flash. Angel had yet to recover from the shock of seeing Councilor Maynard turn into a human bomb when the unfortunate bodyguard exploded amid the crowd, blasting seven or eight citizens who were trying to flee into a bloody, mangled mess.
Only then did the person who had crawled out of Councilor Maynard's corpse, which had been left with only an intact head, steady himself and stretch his limbs.
He had short blond hair, a high nose bridge, and a beautiful yet androgynous face. He was Mr. C, the Aurora Order's Oracle who had escaped death at Enmat Harbor.
"Long time no see."
As if greeting an old friend he had not seen for years, Mr. C looked at Angel below the podium and spoke softly with a smile.
Yet there was not the slightest hint of amusement in his eyes. The pale right hand that had just