Suspect Aleister

Around 1 a. m., gunshots and explosions rang out in succession. Immediately afterwards, a large fire broke out.

Despite the large size of the Royal Law University campus, the knights on night patrol quickly noticed the commotion.

When he arrived at the scene and found that the lawn in front of 14 Ronin Street was dry and burning fiercely; there were corpses scattered in front of the door, bloodstains on the door, and the signature armored rotten flesh left by the dead Demon Dog on the lawn, he immediately realized that this was no longer a problem that he, a Second Level observer, could handle.

He turned and ran without hesitation. About twenty minutes later, the Bureau of Supervision finally arrived. Before that, the school staff had already been called and came to put out the fire.

At the knight's request, the scene was completely preserved, except for extinguishing the fire. No unnecessary movement was made.

Because the content of the phone call was very serious, the scale of this investigation by the Bureau of Supervision was quite large.

At 2 a. m., twelve inspectors arrived on griffins, fully armed.

"These people must be Demon Scholar."

Upon seeing the scene, a middle-aged woman who was leading the group and wearing a monocle immediately made a judgment. "I saw the aura of ritual magic."

In her sight, two of these people were radiating a protective aura unique to ritual magic.

She took a closer look and confirmed, "The ritual effect hasn't ended yet; the battle must have happened not long ago."

"Director Tai Ya, look here."

A young male inspector squatted on the ground, wearing leather gloves, and pinched up a wisp of red powder that shimmered faintly. "This should be Flame Essence."

"Yes, I saw it."

The newly appointed female director nodded. "Judging from the traces, what killed them was the flame of the Dedication Path. The original power of the flame should not have been that great; it must have been amplified by the use of Flame Essence."

"Chief, there's no one inside!"

The inspector who went inside to investigate returned and reported, "But there are signs that something has been damaged... there may have been a battle inside!"

"I'll go take a look."

The director nodded, then casually asked the school janitor and the knight standing nearby, "Who lives here? Is it one of the teachers?"

"He is a student."

The knight replied, "It is Iver Moriarty."

Upon hearing this, Tai Ya paused for a moment, then her expression turned serious.

She confirmed, "Is it that Honored Iver Moriarty?"

"How many more Moriarty are there, Lady Tai Ya?" the knight replied.

"That would be terrible..."

Tai Ya muttered to herself, her brow furrowed. "Is it revenge?"

She called out to those behind her, "Mr. Dawn, could you please rewind here?"

"Here?"

A middle-aged Law Mage, well into his fifties, slowly approached. "I can only recall the deceased's actions within an hour... Are you sure it's here?"

He held a silver-white elven staff in his hand, the tip of which bore the symbol of Avalon —a silver triangle with an emerald set in the center.

After receiving Tai Ya's affirmation, the old Law Mage slammed his staff on the ground without hesitation.

Silver-white runes condensed into a magic array, spreading out from the ground in an instant.

Soon, silvery-white, transparent, and blurry outlines appeared on these corpses. They stood up as if time had reversed, moving forward against the flow of time.

"Wait a moment!"

Suddenly, Tai Ya hurriedly said.

The next moment, the screen suddenly froze.

Although the outline was very blurry, she could clearly see that the knight wielding the greatsword had no lower body, yet he could float in the air. He appeared out of nowhere, even though there was no corpse there.

Her expression changed slightly. "Blade Demon?"

"What?"

Hearing this, the people around were also taken aback and gathered around.

"This man is accompanied by the Blade Demon," Tai Ya said, looking down at the man dressed like a lawyer with a distinct cross-shaped scorch mark on his face and chest. "Could he be the ' Trial Blade Demon '?"

"Trial Blade Demon" is a wanted criminal by the Lloyd District Supervisory Bureau.

They call them wanted criminals, but they don't even know what the other person looks like.

All they could confirm was that the remnants of the Blade Demon were found at the scenes of numerous massacres—meaning that a Demon Scholar had used supernatural powers to kill innocent people in order to summon and control the Blade Demon.

Blade Demons are relatively rare demons; at least, there should only be one such example on Glass Island. Therefore, they named it the "Trial Blade Demon."

There are just too many problems with the Lloyd District Supervisory Office, and other districts are unwilling to transfer personnel to the Lloyd District.

Therefore, "Trial Blade Demon" exists only as a name on the wanted poster, and no one even knows what he looks like, whether he is male or female, or how old he is.

"Can you see what defeated the Blade Demon?"

"It was hit and sent flying by something."

Dawn pointed to the trail of its flight. "It must have been something with tremendous force. But there are traces of a demon dissipating here, so I think its owner was killed and the Blade Demon was sent back."

"A huge impact?"

Director Tai Ya wasn't surprised by the latter part. To be able to kill Blade Demon head-on, one would have to be at least at the Fourth Level.

But the more she thought about it in the first half, the more confused she became.

Only one thing is certain—the corpses of the two Demon Dog in front of the door were clearly dispelled by the purification ability. Their outer armor was almost undamaged, and the rotting flesh inside was intact. Only the curse controlling the corpses had been dispelled... When the curse was still present, this rotting flesh should have been purple, but now it was the color of ordinary rotting flesh.

"As far as I know, Iver Moriarty is a priest. He once defeated the Deformed Limb Demon with the help of supernatural artifacts."

A young female inspector was making notes in her notebook when she casually replied, "He must have dispersed them himself. He's capable of doing that."

Tai Ya nodded, then shook her head. "It's certainly possible. But he definitely didn't defeat the Blade Demon. He's just a priest, and he's not very mobile. Even with the Flame Spirit's buff, it's impossible for him to kill the Blade Demon instantly. And the Blade Demon is very resistant, so there must have been someone else there—someone who could physically knock the Blade Demon away or even kill it."

"But there are no footprints, Chief."

"He might be able to fly."

Tai Ya replied, "It could also be some kind of spell... Spells can achieve this effect. However, there are no traces of spells left by the Path of Wisdom... But it's also possible that they were erased. Skilled mages can cast spells without leaving a trace."

"In other words, a powerful mage was with Iver Moriarty when they were attacked by four Demon Scholar."

The inspector muttered to himself while taking notes in his notebook.

"Not necessarily a mage."

Tai Ya turned back and added, "It's also possible that person was someone who Dedication Path or Path of Transcendence —after all, only traces of these two powers were left at the scene. However, it's also possible that they were a powerful Path of Adaptation extraordinary individual, Path of Adaptation also have the ability to conceal traces of the Dao."

After saying that, she walked into the house to conduct the next step of the investigation.

Through her monocle, red and purple stains were visible everywhere on the ground.

Through these traces, she gradually traced the origins.

It seems that Iver has won.

With the help of that unknown accomplice, he defeated a group of Demon Scholar had ambushed him in the dead of night.

The fat man who got shot in the head— Tai Ya recognized the strange blast wound on his head—it was the same special bullet Iver used when he first killed that Demon Scholar at the Pelican Bar.

This was clearly someone Iver killed himself.

Apart from the fat man, the other three died from the flames. Moreover, two of them showed almost no signs of struggle or exertion before their deaths, indicating that they were killed instantly.

The scattered flames on the ground were proof of his spellcasting.

Then Tai Ya gradually realized... this must be a high-level Dedication Path who transcends the ordinary.

This is a very simple assumption: if a person has enough power to defeat a Blade Demon head-on, then he doesn't need to use firearms, which emphasize accuracy. Therefore, those three people were probably not killed by Iver.

If the helper is a mage, there's no reason for him to only use fire abilities.

"Collect the bloodstains and have them tested."

She pointed to the bloodstains on the ground and gave instructions to her subordinates.

Judging from its shape, it was blood that had dripped naturally. Its height suggests it belonged to an adult, not someone in a wheelchair like Iver.

So he was injured? But the bloodstains were only at the doorway, and disappeared inside.

So he must have been healed immediately after being injured.

This further supports the inference of "two pastors".

There were marks from the wheelchair all the way from the doorway to the living room. The living room was a little messy, with a table overturned on the floor. A candle had fallen to the ground and been snapped in two... It seemed someone had been interrupted when trying to use the "ritual fire."

Did the two of them get into a fight?

But there was no blood or corpse here. If a battle had taken place, then only corpses should have been left behind—the bodies at the entrance were left unburied, and belongings were scattered all over the ground. It makes no sense that only Iver's body was taken away.

Judging from this perspective, Iver should at least not be dead!

Thinking of this, Director Tai Ya breathed a slight sigh of relief.

She had only just taken over as Director Gordon, and if a hero who had just received the Holy Sword Medal was killed in her jurisdiction just a week later, she would be in big trouble.

But soon, she noticed a faint shadow lingering in the corner.

"...Um?"

She crouched down and examined it closely for a long time before her expression changed drastically. "This is... Shadow Fiend?!"

How could Greater Demon like Shadow Fiend exist on Glass Island!

This Shadow Fiend clearly hadn't attacked the Demon Scholar; they were allies—meaning one of these Noble Red Society members had summoned the Shadow Fiend! He witnessed the four men's deaths and then followed two others into the room. Traces of shadowy power remained in the crack of the door—this was the evidence.

While the two were receiving treatment, Shadow Fiend suddenly attacked, knocked them down, and captured them. That should be the whole story.

—This involves Greater Demon like Shadow Fiend, which is beyond their ability to handle.

She dared not delay and could only report the matter to the Inspectorate.

The first person to receive the report was her former superior, Inspector Gordon.

Upon hearing traces of the Shadow Fiend, he immediately thought of one person.

"... Aleister?"

Inspector Gordon murmured softly, "Is it you?"

I've decided not to eat yet; I'll eat after I finish updating!

Update complete, meow! The cat's gone to eat and will be back to correct typos!