The cold air felt wrong, and there was a faint scent of death lingering in the air, which was only logical; after all, he was here to find corpses.
Walking through a nearly completely dark room, only two flickering candles gave him a strain of light. ’’What is this creepy place? Does the principal not have a more normal room to hide corpses?’’
As he stepped closer, there were more than a dozen frozen bodies just lying on the ground, their parts barely pieced back together, fitting for a funeral.
Watching those lifeless students lying in front of them, he could only feel dread filling up his body; maybe he could’ve saved them if he had gotten here earlier.
It also only seemed to be the bodies of the people from the first incident. As he stepped closer to the first person, he cast a small flame in his hand, bringing it closer to the body.
As the darkness swirled away, he found something missing, turning the flame around the body; his suspicion only grew as it didn’t cast anything, not a single small shadow except from the clothes.
So it truly was a ritual, but just what kind of? Inspecting it closer, there weren’t any real clues, just blood circles drawn on him, but after the ritual ended, it was really hard to find anything out.
Setting the body back down, he was just about to give up as he traced once more for any mana still remaining. But to no avail, as he was just about to turn around and dismiss the flame, a single flickering light caught his attention.
A single shadow stood inside the room, not bound to anything. As realization hit him, "I’m sorry," he apologized, creating a strain of pure light in his hand. ’’But can you tell me where the rest of you are so I can free you?’’
The shadow stared at him confused as if he didn’t know how to answer as he slowly raised his hand, showing him number one. They lowered it to show a 4, then an 8, as it slowly stopped continuing to stare at him.
’’148? What’s that supposed to mean?’’ He yelled towards the shadow, not wanting to miss a single detail. But its eerie figure moved only shakingly as if it were being pulled towards something far away.
Pointing his finger towards Steven, it signaled a three and a half. Finally understanding its message, Steven raised the dagger made out of light. Taking a step closer, a single dark tear dropped from the shadow’s face as he delivered the final blow.
As it dissolved, Steven thought he saw a small smile form on the completely dark face, wiping away his own tears. The room turned entirely dark again as Steven left the chamber behind, knowing where to search next.
"Thank you, I’m proud of you, my student."
With a signal through his mind, he commanded Elizabeth to contact Yumoth.
Student 148.
That was his new main target.
But why would a student do all of this?
And more importantly, how could one student possibly possess the power necessary to create something like this?
Steven didn’t have an answer.
Not yet. But he would. No matter what.
He just couldn’t find an answer, not yet, but he will soon no matter what. As sunlight finally filled his sky again, the bone-chilling coldness slowly evaporated; his body moved a bit firmer.
His lunch break was pretty much entirely over to his regret. With slow steps, they returned towards the university, which was still filled with life from people enjoying their breaks.
But he walked past all of them, straight into Ms. Trellen’s classroom, who seemed to be already awaiting him. "Mr. Bright, you can’t just enter..." She tried to speak, but he cut her off.
’’Give me the info.’’ His voice was cold towards the demoness, who was forced to hand over the paper she was holding. "We didn’t find anyone suspicious this year, but two years ago there had been a student." She tried to explain, but he dismissed her with a snap of his fingers.
Reading it for his own, a student called Franclin Fantous got exiled from school some time ago after killing his own classmates and conducting experiments on them. But Franclin was never found, so rumors kept circulating about him living in the topaz dorm rooms’ dungeon.
As a perfect plan started to form in his head, he just had to get some support from his classmates without them knowing. Leaving the room, he found Lucy already waiting outside trying her hardest to spy on him.
Barely giving her a gaze, he handed her the paper. ’’Take the others and take care of it; I will get the main guy in the meantime.’’ She wanted to protest, but he shook his head.
Their mission was to destroy the shrine used to summon the shadows, while he will kill Franklin in his next hunt tonight.
He just had to bring him out sooner than the last days, and he already knew how. Barely noticing the last few classes pass. He had left a single note for Yumoth inside Elizabeth’s room.
They were going to bring every single student into the great hall for the night to protect them.
Not even this maniac would attack all of them at once, especially if he couldn’t gain anything from it.
So his only target would be a sleeping diamond student who ignored the rules and had returned to his dorms alone.
As he could hear the teacher calling out towards every single student one by one, his plan had started so there was no stopping it now.
With a smile, he turned invisible, walking just past Ms. Trellen, who was controlling some students.
’’Time to see what you do now, bastard.’’