Howard calmly studied the mural the killer had left in Speaker Sanders's study. The devil in the mural seemed to wear a mocking expression.
The killer had escaped right before his eyes, then calmly returned here to leave a mural.
Howard took a deep breath. This was undoubtedly a cunning, composed opponent. He hoped the killer would stop committing crimes, because catching someone like this would be difficult unless several Saints were deployed.
But with the front lines under pressure, the Royal Family simply could not muster-
Even with ample manpower, the Royal Family was unlikely to mobilize so many people to catch a serial killer unless he had murdered a Prince.
With that thought, Howard turned and left. This was already the seventh murder, so the killer's slaughter should come to a temporary end.
Even if there were new cases, they would no longer be his concern. His assignment was only to investigate the Seven Deadly Sins case. Although he had failed to catch the killer and thus failed his mission, the assignment was over. He had more important things to do.
Backlund, West Borough.
Raphael carefully assessed his potion's digestion. The last three murders had further digested his Devil potion.
Raphael decided to begin preparing his advancement ritual. The ritual for advancing to Desire Apostle involved serial murder. After each mur-
der, each stage of the ritual, he had to eat the victim's internal organs. There had to be at least three days between murders, or he would easily lose control, but the interval could not exceed nine days either, as that would reset the ritual. The minimum was thirteen victims, and the maximum forty-nine. The more people he killed, the more complete the ritual would be, and the greater his chances of advancing.
Relentless, brutal slaughter would