Atama was reading the news. The scientist was claiming an assassin was sent to Onogi's house to kill him– the intruder through the fence.
It has been two days since Hitori stormed Onogi's house, Atama was sitting on his chair behind the table. He was looking at the latest news released by the Mage Reporters, and the news set online by the Reporters on the other side.
He got the newspapers from his men. When he read the title, his heart jumped. No matter how many times he looked at the title, his heart did flip-flops.
He took a deep breath to calm himself, then touched the temple of his head. A white light glowed around his head, it helped his nerves to calm down.
He opened his eyes and looked at the heading: Another Massacre at a Wedding Party– is a serial killer on loose?
He decided to read the mages' news first. So he jumped to the huge-ass paragraph right below the heading and the date.
After two manslaughters at two different venues by the same killer, the mages claimed that the killer at the birthday party and the wedding party was not just a killer– it was the work of the scientist killer who broke through the fence two months ago.
Atama wanted to reject that idea, but the citizens had already accepted it. Now he feared they might raise strikes or a rally to pursue the Ministers to find the killer and punish him for his crimes.
He barely knew who the killer was, of course, he had his men looking for the killer, but the process was slow. Atama received a report from the Birthday venue, dark magic was used. He knew that much.
He grabbed the paper, crumbled it in his fist, and threw it across his office. It caught on fire midway in the air, and what fell on the floor were only its ashes.
The news report from the Scientists was lying flat on his table. Then he read the heading: Mages' Assassin? Attack at the Onogi Fortress.
His mouth dropped open. He may not know about the killer on the loose on their side, but he sure as hell knew about the 'assassin' who attacked Onogi's fort. But he decided to read the report before jumping to a conclusion.
He read through the whole article on the assassination attempt made on Onogi. The damage done to his private property was above average– the staircase was wet on fire, the elevator was broken, and the windows were shattered.
Around fifty guards were killed in the attack as they tried to save their master. Then finally, he fought with Onogi– broke his neck, and did temporary damage to his spinal cord– thankfully, Onogi Kamino entered the scene and stopped the assassin from killing his son.
And now he was convinced. Did not matter if he jumped to the conclusion or not, because the conclusion had jumped on him. He chuckled, still not able to believe it, he leaned forward and thought:
Those fools! Just because I am covering for them does not mean they can do whatever they want! If they keep messing like this… oh, no. I should talk, yes.
He sighed and continued reading the article.
The scientists were convinced it was a mage assassin who had broken through the fence that night. But, both sides had evidence of criminal activities, and the crimes on the Mages' side were out of the world.
Although the killer seemed to use dark magic, it was in Atama's hands whether to let the information out or not. Since the things have been boiling between him– the Mage Minister– and the Head Scientist.
Atama literally knew what was going to happen next. The Head will call for a meeting where he might ambush Atama on the way back or Atama will blow everything up. It depended on the venue for the meeting.
But right now, his attention was on something else– someone else. Someone he had not heard from in a long time.
He clicked his tongue when he went back to the article and read 'Onogi Kamino.' Kamino… he thought. What are you doing? He wondered.
Kamino was friends with Hiro before they split and shit happened. And that brought a lot of memories from the past. Although they were good friends for a while, even their relationship was spoiled by bad blood.
The killer. Atama realized who the killer might be. He might be from the world of Cultivation, an old enemy.
He grabbed his hair and tried to pull it out again. This had helped him remember his time on the Cultivation Planet, so he tried again. He could not get farther than the images he had seen in the drawings by his men.
The marks on the walls, the dark fire that burned everything, and the way a kid stabbed other kids before stabbing himself. Not to forget the man who did the same.
He pinched his eyes shut and tried harder than before to make the glimpse of a man sucking dark emotions clear.
The glimpse painted an image in his mind. His face was covered with dark energy and his hands were emitting that dark mana. He used to kill everyone who came in between him and his enemy.
The insects, the animals, the men, all of them just to suck their dark emotions of pain, grief, and anguish. Then he would manifest that into dark mana. He had a simple way of how things work:
The more he killed, the more emotions were released. And the more emotions he sucked, the more mana he could create– hence making him stronger with every kill.
The darkness around his head started fading. It was moving away from his face, it was going away as if he was going away.
Atama grunted, come on, come on, damn it!
But how much did it help? Not much, because the dark energy continued fading. He was going out of his sight, he was losing his only lead– he was sure it was someone from the world of cultivation– but who exactly?
A maroon color beam struck the fading image and the fog vanished, then the body fell without revealing its face.
This is it, come on, close in, close in!
He grabbed as much hair as he could in his hand and clenched them hard. His whole head was hurting now, but that did not stop him. If he could close in, then the pain did not matter.
His vision took him to the man who he had knocked with a killing curse. Atama was getting more and more excited to see the face, once he gets a good look at it, all the points will match up.
Then his vision loomed over the body. The dark energy had vanished smoke, and the face was visible.
His heart did flip-flops when he saw the face. The teeth were showing and the smile was side, the upper lip was lifted, and his eyes were wide– wider than any eyes he had ever seen.
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