Chapter 465: Visions of the Past and Evan’s Ability
Psychometry, associated with the Law of Knowledge, was the power to perceive the residual information of an object and/or person.
This particular High-Rank Demon had been put in charge since he could use it proficiently and clearly recall details, however, he had a limitation in the form of duration.
"Besides, something is blocking my readings. The Culprit likely knows there’s a psychometric after them and they’ve taken action to deal with the power."
Arthur examined the victim’s clothing, a Demon Army Uniform, and asked about the strength of all the victims so far.
"All within the Level 600 to 750 Range. Upper Low-Ranks and Lower Mid-Ranks."
Hearing them call Level 700s Mid-Rank Demons, Evan’s brows furrowed slightly, and he shook his head with a sigh.
’I don’t think I can get used to hearing them call Level 700s ’Mid-Rank Demons’. To think it was like this 10,000 years ago...’
"What do you think, Evan?"
Arthur’s voice brought Evan out of his reverie, prompting him to glance at the mutilated corpse and offer his two cents.
"I think this killer clearly had it out for this guy. As for the missing Heart, they may have a use. Some sort of Ritual magic or something..."
Hearing Evan’s analysis, the Inspector nodded in agreement and provided further information.
"That’s what we’ve surmised as well. All of the 20 Victims share a connection.
At one point in time, they were all within Platoon 471 under the Army of a Deceased General.
With the General’s death and the disbandment of his army, they were all scattered to different Units under different Armies.
Besides that, there is no other connection with them.
We believe this is probably some sort of Revenge Killing perpetrated by an Aramisian who has a history with that Platoon.
What we cannot fathom, is how they can sneak around and perpetrate these murders without anyone knowing until hours after.
Furthermore, these guys are soldiers, yet none of the crime scenes show any signs of a fight. It’s like they were all instantly overpowered."
Despite the tight security, the killer had managed to isolate all their victims in secluded areas and kill them without anyone noticing until a random civilian stumbled across the corpse and reported it.
"Give me some space."
Within seconds of Arthur’s statement, the nearby Military Police Demons cleared out a 50-metre radius around him, allowing him to do as he pleased. Even the Inspector also moved back as well.
As for Evan, he moved back and slipped in between two Level 700 Demons, deciding to ask them some questions.
"General Arthur seems very respected here..."
"Are you new here or something?"
The demon beside him replied to his mutter, prompting Evan to nod in affirmation.
"Newly assigned as an Aide."
Evan lied, fabricating a ’position’ to fit in.
"Oh, makes sense you don’t know."
The Demon then proceeded to list out the feats Arthur had achieved in the past few months, talking about how the progenitor was seen as something like a beacon of inspiration for younger Demons.
Evan was a bit amazed to hear of Arthur’s feats, especially the one about him holding out against a Transcendent.
’I did encounter something similar with Craitid, but the levels are not even the same. The only way to equalize it would be if I had faced 100 Craitids then.’
The boy thought of a past encounter where he had to survive for some time against a more powerful foe, but the difference in power in his case was negligible compared to Arthur’s.
Just as the Demon said something that intrigued Evan, Arthur’s loud voice rang out, drawing all attention back to him.
"All right, I’m beginning. Protect yourselves with your energy."
The Silver-Haired Progenitor slammed his palms together and powerful magic power surged from his body, buffeting everyone in the area with its pressure.
Next, was his Faux True Voice.
|¬Pseudo Authority of Time: Visions of the Past. ¬|
Evan winced upon hearing the Voice, while most of the Demons frowned as it resounded in their heads despite having protected themselves with Demonic Energy.
’This...it’s the same as how Artemisia’s voice sounded sometimes. EOTD did that thing too!’
With Evan’s inner thoughts unbeknownst to him, Arthur used his time law energy to create projections of the past within a certain radius of his position.
Initially, the projections showed the scene from a few minutes ago, right before Arthur told them to give him space.
Arthur moved his left hand Anti-Clockwise and the Projections blurred as if someone was rewinding a video.
He rotated his palm four times, before suddenly stopping.
|¬Got him. ¬|
The Inspector’s eyes gleamed when he heard Arthur’s words, but he refrained from stepping forward, fearing he might interrupt the boy as he recreated the projections of the scene four hours and thirty minutes ago.
Right before their eyes, the scene of the murder unfolded.
It starred a figure clothed in an all-black coverall, with a hood and what appeared to be a gas mask covering their face.
The figure attacked the soldier, who was already weakened and bleeding, overpowering him and knocking him unconscious.
Right after, the person conjured a strange magic circle and deployed a spatial isolation barrier—revealing the reason why no one noticed when the crimes were being perpetrated.
Everyone observed as the Killer summoned a large 3-meter-tall half-humanoid spirit, with a skull-shaped head, glowing reddish-brown eyes, no nose, and a half-torn mouth.
While the spirit’s upper body was humanoid, its bottom half was a black mass in the shape of a tail connected to the back of the Killer’s chest.
The Spirit hovered silently as the Killer proceeded to cut off the soldier’s tongue before torturing him for close to 30 minutes, using divinity—an energy type very harmful to demons—to maximize the pain the soldier felt.
Arthur silently fast-forwarded through this part.
Afterwards, the Killer stepped back, wiping off the blood on their visor and gesturing to the spirit.
The spirit’s eyes flashed, and it used the sharp claws on its muscular arms to tear away at the soldier’s chest, ripping out his heart and holding it out in front of him.
Next, the spirit squeezed the blood out and opened its mouth wide, devouring the organ before slowly dissipating.
"So, the Killer is actually this spirit..."
Arthur muttered as he watched the coverall-wearing person bring out an artifact from an Inventory and activate it, releasing a pulse of law energy into the area.
Simultaneously, the projection glitched, evidently affected by whatever that was, but Arthur used his Pseudo-Authority to overpower the law energy and stabilize the projection.
They watched as the ’culprit’ of the murders, having finished the job, began to make their escape.
The person leapt atop a roof, and immediately, Arthur spread out his law energy to cover a 500-metre radius as he jumped atop the roof and began chasing the projection.
Evan, the Inspector, and a few others followed suit, chasing the projection through narrow alleys, into busy streets, and through various buildings.
Many of the civilian demons and the subjugated Aramisians saw them moving in a group, clearly confused about what was going on, but none stopped to satisfy the civilians’ curiosities.
After a five-minute chase, they eventually followed the culprit to a back alley, where the person crouched and conjured a Tier 5 Teleportation magic spell.
The teleportation magic, however, featured strange runes that neither Arthur nor anyone present recognized.
These runes were present in all the spell circles the culprit had used to avoid detection during their escape, and it seemed this strange Rune Magic was their main casting style.
Arthur paused the projection and got down on one knee, using the law of space to try and understand the teleportation circle so he could try to replicate it.
"Give me a few minutes and I shou-"
"Here."
Evan suddenly spoke up, and when they turned towards him, Arthur and the Inspector were shocked to see a Replica of the teleportation spell circle hovering above his palm.
Arthur even did a double-take to make sure it was the same thing, before asking.
"Did you just copy that...in an instant?"
"It took me about 3 seconds. I’m not really good with Spatial Magic."
"..."
All the Demons present looked at Evan like he was some sort of alien when they heard his reply. Well, he actually was, but that wasn’t the point here.
’It took him 3 seconds because he ’isn’t good’ at spatial magic? Then what if he was good at it?!’
The Inspector only took a moment to understand that Arthur’s deduction via fate had come to pass. Evan’s presence had saved them the time they would have spent to try and extract the coordinates from the spell circle.
Arthur used his spatial law energy to hijack the circle floating over Evan’s palm, marvelling at how neatly the spell had been recreated.
"This is impressive."
Evan didn’t seem to see it as much, simply shrugging in response
"Taking other people’s stuff is kind of my shtick, nothing new there for me."
For a moment, Arthur understood how others felt when they saw him do ridiculous things and act like it was a given for him to be able to do them.
He placed the magic circle on the floor, double-checked everything, and then manipulated the ambient cosmic energy to envelop them all.
After telling the Inspector not to ’resist the teleportation’, he activated it, sending them through space, straight into the hornet’s nest.
Well, the hornet’s abandoned nest, in this case.
They reappeared in a shed that was in the middle of a forest. It looked derelict and seemingly untouched for years. Nature had begun to reclaim the structure, with vines creeping up its sides and foliage encroaching on its perimeter.
Arthur reactivated his Pseudo-Authority and tried to use Visions of the Past again, however, there was great interference, making it difficult to conjure the projections.
Seeing this, Arthur frowned and drew in ambient cosmic energy, brute forcing his way through the interference and stabilizing the time law projections.
His use of cosmic energy buffeted everyone with an invisible pressure that made them feel like their body weights had nearly doubled. Strangely, Evan remained unaffected.
He rewound the projections by nearly three hours, eventually stopping when the figure of the culprit they had been chasing appeared.
"You finally took off your mask..."
The culprit removed the gas mask obscuring their face and immediately, the Inspector took a picture of their appearance underneath.
It was a woman with a few grey strands in her black hair, wrinkles on her cheeks, and reddish-brown eyes with noticeable eye bags.
"We’d run it through databases to find out if we have any information about this woman.
Thank you for the help, General Vaughn."
"..."
Arthur didn’t respond to the Inspector, his attention fixated on the woman as she removed the coverall and incinerated it, scattering the ashes out of the window.
His gaze lingered on the tattoo adorning her arm, something he found familiar, though he couldn’t quite pinpoint where he had seen it before.
"Isn’t that a dog tag?"
Evan’s sudden question redirected Arthur’s attention to the tag hanging from the woman’s waist. Instantly, Arthur’s eyes widened as he remembered where he had seen the symbol before.
"Rachel’s New Uniform!"
