As the fire tried desperately to burn away at his skin, simply nothing happened, as he could hear Edward yelling for him. "Steven, are you alright?" Feeling his mana come closer.
Still standing in the roasting fire, he didn’t move, only waiting for it to slowly calm down; slowly looking down, he realized the ground below him had been blown away and he was simply flying in the air.
As suddenly a wave of water splashed towards him, trying to extinguish the flames, Steven could only scoff madly; having to use such a power already annoyed him. The Grace of Hell was an extremely rare spell normally only known to the Lord of Hell and his children.
But Steven had learned it from a Bright in the revolt of hell, but not after watching people die who could’ve been saved by it. Pushing away the memories, he could hear a single tear vaporizing in the fire.
Stepping forward through the air, the fire didn’t seem to stick to him, instead remaining where he had stood, and as he could finally walk on a hard surface again, he watched Edwards’ expression change between amazement and confusion.
’’The grace of hell? At your age already?’’ He sounded impressed as he inspected him. ’’You truly are a bright...’’
’’What else would I be?’’ Steven answered, petting the guy on the shoulder, happy to be at least able to use the ability to fool him even if it meant revealing more power.
Turning his head towards the fire, he couldn’t feel a single trace of the shadows’ magic anymore, leaving him no ability to track the real guy behind it.
’’I don’t think it will end with this,’’ Steven spoke, already searching his surroundings for any abnormalities but finding none as he let out a deep sigh.
He wasn’t able to end it today, meaning somebody else might have died this night in a place he couldn’t protect.
But he still walked forward, letting Edward stand in the cold night as slowly the place started to get filled with guards trying to inspect what happened and caused such a commotion at night.
But each one of them that tried to ask him anything, he simply waved away, not feeling in the mood to explain, and with Edward already talking to some of them, he knew they wouldn’t try to push him.
Jumping back to his window, he barely was able to balance himself after his landing.
"What happened, sir?" Irose already spoke about him inspecting his master, but Steven waved him off too.
"Not the real one, just a powerful summon, probably the being that killed number nine," Steven answered, his voice flat as he just wanted to get some rest, but he couldn’t.
There was no telling when the real one was going to attack again, and he was not going to rest until then.
’’You can go back to sleep; I will try to rest too.’’ He lied towards the old man, not wanting to worry his old heart with something he had no impact on.
Watching Irose nod and walk towards a side chamber still under his protection, Steven checked on every small summon he had made, monitoring all the students to some extent.
But even all of them seemed to be completely functional, easing his heart. But even then he didn’t even sleep for a single second, staying on alert for the whole entire night.
Until the sun slowly rose, filling his room with a warm shine, and feeling the house slowly become more and more active, he let go of it. As he rose from his bed, he picked up the present from June, slowly opening it.
Inside the poor paper was a machine similar to a small golem just made out of metal and way more advanced. ’’Poor girl. She should have something like this protecting herself.’ As he sat it down on the nightstand, activating it with a simple input of mana.
As it started to wake up, it opened its mouth but didn’t speak; instead, it seemed to be inhaling the air, probably checking it for any poison. ’’Small girl, already having found out the tactics of the killer.’’
He was impressed by her creation and even more by the time she needed to craft something as powerful as this; he could certainly use it for Irose at night.
He knew finding the person was much harder than he had expected if he used summons, so he had to make some plans to counter it.
But until then, he couldn’t do anything other than play the protecter and wait. Walking down the stairs towards the living room, it was still empty, which was probably better that way.
The arena too was mostly empty except for Lumiel training with some guards again, but Steven didn’t feel like training today; instead, he continued his way, unsure where to go.
The main street, too, was mostly empty, but Steven was just hoping for the cafe to be open today, and to his luck, it was. This time was filled with a few customers who behaved.
Sitting down at his usual spot, the nice waitress didn’t let him wait for long. "What brings you here today, sir?" She asked, trying to sound nice, but he could feel her fear.
’’Why don’t you stay at home like everyone else?’’ Steven answered even though he already knew the answer.
"I still have to get my money; I can’t let some maniac on a killing spree for a second time disrupt my work permanently." What she said may have sounded cold, but it made sense to him; the best thing to do was find a routine in such situations, and it didn’t seem like staying at home was protecting anyone.
"Wait, did you just say a second time?" As he asked, his throat tightening, hadn’t he dealt with the shadow yesterday?
"Yes, more students got murdered, but the weird thing was the teacher and guard patrolling all said they saw some weird shadows all over the city."
Steven froze at her words. How could there be multiple shadows? Didn’t Edward say you had to sacrefice your own shadow for it?
As realization slowly hit him, the way those people had died might not have been the work of some maniac at all. It might have been a spell designed to harvest their shadow.
Jumping up from his chair, he nearly scared the waitress to death, as he quickly placed some money and a stone on the table.
’’I will be back later.’’
He spoke as he stormed outside.
He had finally found something worth hunting.