Year 1023 of the new calendar, Month of the Sun, 12th day

It was the next day since that damn fight in the middle of the city, and his powers had been swirling around in my mind ever since. He didn’t come with me for a direct confrontation, so I can safely assume that his ability to fight against me out in the open wasn’t all that much. There is always the chance that he had some other factor, but giving in to the paranoia over him isn’t going to help me. I could always hope that he won’t attack me, but he doesn’t seem the type to just leave a person who survived one of his attacks alone.

I got up from my bed, Ava had left right after the Duchess talked with her-I was just alone in my room now. I got out of my messy room-cleaning it up can be left for a later date-and decided to go to my classes. As I walked out, I realized that I smelled absolutely disgusting. The stench emanating off me could kill, fuck me I didn’t realize the fight yesterday drenched me in my sweat. Sighing, I went back inside my room and stimulated some of my mana.

I generated some water out of every pore in my body, thoroughly rinsing every part of my body. The wind I created had brought me my soap already, so I just decided to shower right in the bedroom. It was a nice exercise in mana control, but even with my decent level of control, I had already gotten some parts of my clothes wet. Nothing that couldn’t be remedied though, I generated a hot breeze around me-drying me and my clothes thoroughly. Walking out, I smelt the fresh morning breeze around me which instantly put me in a good mood. The walk to my first class was uneventful, beyond seeing a handsome brown haired man talking to a girl-which I promptly disregarded, that scene was so common that I couldn’t care to remember it for more than a second.

Stepping into class, I could see that the Duchess was missing which wasn’t all that uncommon. I sat down and started to zone out what the teacher was saying. I don’t even know why this class was still given to my class, the “basics of mana” was already drilled into our minds. Lady luck didn’t seem to like my internal comments, the teacher looked at me and said “Mike, how about you explain the basics of mana, the manipulation of it; and how it can be formed outside one's own body.”

I focused back on the class, some people were looking at me-out of the corner of my eye I could see some people, damn it was still the open house. There was a girl with long black hair and glasses, there was an earth elemental with them; an Angel and Demon that looked to be newly formed were staring each other down; and an elf that held a pompous look in her eyes.

I answered the teacher (after a minute of contemplation, the answer was easy but trying to please the people here was harder) with “Mana is a fundamental force of the world, usually described to be cool, serene, stable and mellow. It is found inside every race in a reserve, said to be right beside the soul of a creature. Mana itself does not have any specific type, that is the fundamental thought for the manipulation of it. One must weave symbols inside their own body, symbols that the mana can go through to change its form to what one desires. The manipulation of the symbols is the hardest part to effectively using magic. Though some people do have talents for specific types, theoretically there should be no hard limit on what symbols one can use. Mana isn’t a physical object, so it can pass through your skin easily. The manipulation of it outside one's body is exponentially harder to do, but not impossible.” I finished off my tangent by demonstrating my last point. I weaved the symbol for a water stream inside of me and passed a small amount of my mana through it-the water generated on my palm and controlling it got much harder, but not impossible. I moved the water to turn into a small wyrm-similar to the one I saw in that book-and then closed my palm, controlling the water to go into the water bottle of that elf.

The other students didn’t seem all that surprised, but the people here for the open house looked surprised-all but the Angel and Demon anyway, who just took a look and turned back to each other. The teacher looked at me, her eyes exuding a complicated gaze, but she just nodded and said “Good Mike, that was a near-perfect response.” before continuing on with the rest of the lesson. The kids then left at the end of the class, and I was prepared to as well. My teacher, Mrs. Kehlir had other ideas, it seems, she asked me to stay with her after class. I let out a soft sigh, one that was noticed by my teacher-going off on her look of me-and proceeded to step into her office.

She looked at me, her scarlet hair wasn’t common, but neither was it uncommon. She was tall, taller than me and stood at just over 2 meters tall; she had a fair complexion with brown eyes. She had an interesting past, a Nephilim huh. Half Angel, half human; and hated by Angels for being a stain on their holiness, and Demons for the same reason-as surprising as it is. Demons and Angels are closer to each other than humans, after all. Despite that, they still prospered and survived well enough. Our teacher was old, very old, and so she almost definitely survived past The Last War.

She said “So Mike, you were the one to fight last night? In the middle of the city, no less?” I narrowed my eyes, she should have no way to know and I plan to deny it all. I shook my head and said “I have no idea what you are talking about, care to explain?” Her eyes looked at me with a complicated gaze again, a mixture of confusement, and some reluctance; anger was there, along with a healthy amount of disappointment; and then finally some kind of enlightenment.

“I have my sources, why did you fight in the middle of the city?” she asked me again, her look showed that she expected some reaction from me. I just kept a constant frown on my face when she talked, maintaining my poker face. I shook my head and started to walk to the exit, she stood in front of me though with a questioning look.

I looked at her again before answering “Unless you have a real reason to keep me here, you can’t.” She wasn't satisfied with my answer, so she said in response “Stay here, I still have questions for you.” I narrowed my eyes at her, “Unless you forgot, Mrs. Kehlir, you can’t legally bind me here with no reason. A baseless accusation doesn’t fall under that.” I said slowly, and then added on to the end as I walked out of the door “Nor can you physically keep me here anyway, we both know I’m stronger than you.”

She wasn’t a warrior like most in The Last War, just a lucky civilian. It was a sore spot for her, and I knew it. She looked shocked, but I didn’t care for it-I started to walk out again. She yelled out “Wait, wait. Come back here, I’ll tell you.” I looked back towards her, she swallowed her saliva and started to talk.

“My friend is the leader of the mage organization under the police, he talked about a fight that happened in the middle of the city. I-I’m ashamed to say I asked him further, he looked reluctant at first and then gave your name. I didn’t care about it until I heard one of my students name, I just wanted to talk to you about it. You shouldn’t go down this path, one of fighting, and I was worried for you. That’s why I called you here, you’re a bright young man and I would love to see you grow into someone great.” She said, I contemplated for a moment before coming inside the room once again.

“You know what you did is illegal, right? Don’t leak this to anyone.” I said, and she promptly nodded. I looked around, and generated a pure mana barrier around us-I would rather us not have our conversation be spied upon. Sighing, I started to talk. “The serial killer running around is a mage, he targeted me on the walk to my house. I had to defend myself from him, and I plan to try and take him down. I doubt he would leave someone that survived his attacks.”

She replied with “Why don’t you go to the official mages?” I shook my head and answered her “They’re bogged down by more important matters. He is clever enough to do things that don’t anger the actual people in power. They don’t care enough to give manpower to solve a case where the killer is only killing prostitutes.” She nodded in agreement, she and I both knew that the mages wouldn’t care about him unless he causes some huge problems.

I looked around her office after my statement, and something caught my eye. I went up to today's newspaper-I had not read it yet today-and I saw two girls that I saw before. The girl I saw with the brown-haired handsome man was in the newspaper as a victim, her body had been severely mutilated. Her panties had been torn off with such force that her thigh had scorch marks, her head had been separated from her body; she had been raped, a nipple had been torn off from her body, and her arms had been completely removed from her body. She was only one of the two victims, the other was the one I saw talking to a handsome black haired man yesterday.

Her thighs had been bitten into, along with her buttocks. Her genitalia had been mutilated with an iron rod that had been heated-likely with his own mana-and it had been penetrated so hard that her uterus had been broken. She had a broken jaw, a skull-fracture; and her fingers were removed, stuck inside her stomach that was taken out of her own body. I could see her wounds, yet the report says that she didn’t die due to those reasons. She had her stomach-and other internal organs-removed, and then fed to her as seen by the pieces of the organs inside her esophagus; she and the other women were victims of the heinous deed of this individual, but their deaths did provide some crucial information.

The time of death for the brown haired girl was only 45 minutes or so after I saw her, and the black haired one was only 20 minutes after I last saw them. The style of the killings were nearly identical to the previous murders, so I can safely say that he was the one to kill them. If we go off the 2nd girl, and how she died of blood loss instead of her stomach, and other internal organs, being removed, then he had to have some way to sustain them. Healing magic was, perhaps, the only way to fully keep one alive for that amount of time.

“Shit, he’s a shapeshifter…” I muttered under my breath, my teacher heard it and asked “What do you mean?” I looked back at her and said, “These 2 girls, their deaths are too close to the time I saw them talking to 2 different people, but the way they died was nearly identical to the earlier murders. He must have been the one to, fuck he’s a shapeshifter. He also has to have some healing magic, no normal girl like the victim could have survived having her uterus broken and stomach removed without external help. The 2 are only 14 and 13, goddamnit-this sick bastard needs to be stopped.” She nodded in approval.

“Get me some books on races that can shapeshift without mana, I couldn’t sense his mana signature on them.” She said in response “You know I’m still your teacher right? Get them yourself.” I narrowed my eyes at her, which conveyed my meaning of ‘is this really what you’re on in this murder case?’, she sighed and left to get my books. “Oh right, tell the other teachers why I’m not attending their classes.” I said before she was out of ear shot, I could see her nod and I went back to contemplating.

The killer this time didn’t target sex workers, as far as I know, but I will have to make sure. I picked up my phone and called the Duchess-I did not want to bother her, but she was my best chance to answer this. She answered my call and said “Yes Mike? Why’d you call?” in the same sweet voice as always-well, beyond that one time she yelled because of my fight but that was understandable.

“I need to know if Kimberly Heyin and Olivia Joeyn were sex workers, they’re the newest victims of the killer.” She said yes, and proceeded to find their records. It was, technically, illegal, but that wouldn’t stop the Duchess, nor would it stop me. She answered after 2 minutes or so and said “Yes, they were auctioned off as private escorts by their families just a year prior.” I squeezed the phone in my hand, though not strong enough to break it-I was too poor to break my only phone.

Kids, children in the prime of their youth, sold off as private escorts by their families. Disgusting is my only thought, absolutely vile. I said “Thank you, Your Grace. I owe a favor to you, just call me if you need anything. Goodbye, Your Grace.” and waited for her to say goodbye as well before hanging up. I let out the air in my lungs, trying to calm down-unsuccessfully. Mrs. Kehlir came into the room again with just a single book, she answered the question I was about to ask “This was the only one, Races of the World by Hylue Ger on what you requested. Only one I could find, and I did alert the other teachers that you would be with me.”

I nodded, and started to flip the pages. Only 3 really fit the description needed, a Baronette Sanguine; a Talpa Subcintus, but that was more unlikely because they’re only found in Kleistin, a country that isn’t anywhere near Iabrun; and a Doppelganger, a race that specializes in changing their form at will without any mana, but they’re only known location is in Jevelin. I knew that the Iabrun officials have ways to see through their natural disguises, so this should be pretty accurate.

A Baronette Sanguine huh, I suppose that would also make sense with what he called ‘advancement’, the advancing from a Baronette to a Baron? That made the most sense, now for weaknesses. Interesting, the Sanguine ancestor represented the Morning Star-Helel was it? The name of the yellow planet, said to be the Morning Star because it shines the brightest in the morning. Weakness, weaknesses. The easiest would have to be to use the power of the God of War, said to have suppressed and banished the Sanguine Ancestor during The Last War. That was just a myth, but it was about the best that I can do.

I said to my teacher “Get me a murdock root, the hair of an Elf, the toenail of a Hoplite, and 12 candles scented with the blood of a Basilisk. Plus the first scale of the Angoies.” She nodded, she was well versed in the land of rituals and all of this would be easy to get here. The final, and hardest part, would be getting a Griffin’s feather-said to be the preferred mount of the God of War. I called up the Duchess again, I felt bad for this but I couldn’t devise any other way to get my hands on one.

She answered in the same sweet voice as always “Yes Mike, what's the reason for the call?” I winced a bit from her voice, but I kept steady and answered “Sorry to call again, Your Grace, I require the feather of a Griffin. The killer is most likely to be a Baronette Sanguine, and the feather of the Griffin is vital for the ritual I plan to do.” She replied with a curt “Sure” and then asked “Where are you at the moment?” I answered with “Mrs. Kehlir’s classroom.” She hung up, and appeared in the room in less than a minute. Likely teleportation, she held a huge feather in her two arms-cradling it as if it were a child.

She gave it to me, I put it on one of the desks and went to kneel to her-to show the proper respect a Duchess deserves. She motioned for me to stop, which I promptly followed and went back to a standing position. “I owe you another favor, Your Grace. Thank you.” I said to her, she nodded and clutched another teleport stone. She said “I’ll be sure to take you up on that, Mike.” before injecting her mana into it and teleporting away. I took the feather, and went to the designated room for rituals. It was attached right beside the classroom-a way to demonstrate rituals without destroying the room.

Mrs. Kehlir arrived as soon as I opened the door to the ritual room, carrying all the items by manipulating some air. She went inside the room and put all the items down on the floor, I carried the candles that were tinted with the vermillion color of blood. They exuded a putrid odor, but I endured through and laid them out in a circle. I tied the blonde elf hair around the black piece of murdock root-the toenail of a Hoplite was stuck into the middle of the murdock root. I then put the Angoies scale, a dark purple scale that gave off an enticing smell-one had to be careful though, the feeling of ecstasy that comes with the scent of the first scale of an Angoies is also the carrier of a lethal poison.

Finally, I laid down the centerpiece of the ritual-a true Griffin feather. Everything here had symbolic value, Basilisks were seen as the sworn enemy of the Griffin under the God of War-named Ky’svelir. The toenail of a Hoplite, the main animal used in the wars fought by the God of War, and the Angoies-said to be the beloved lover of the God of War, according to the Church anyway. Murdock and Elf hair are just stabilizers used in rituals, a way to keep the connection of Deity and Mortal.

“Oh Great God of War, The Engine of the Play, Director of Conflicts, Lord of the Battle, Symbol of Blood, I pray to you in a time of need. I beseech you to help me with this conflict against a heinous monster, I pray for your boundless wisdom-and limitless strength-to help this lowly mortal banish the monster hiding in the shadows of Iabrun. The Lord of Battle, Symbol of Blood. Stop this lowly fiend from further staining your honored name on the grounds of Augustus.”

A swirling wind started to form right when I finished my statement. Blood started to leak from the candles, the elf hair untied itself and disintegrated along with the murdock root; a surreal scene of horror descended upon us. A feeling of pressure mounted upon me and Mrs. Kehlir, forcing us to kneel; it increased again, forcing us to prostrate before the ritual. The toenail of the Hoplite floated next to the scale of the Angoeis; both combined together and started to ooze a sickly, putrid, foul, and rancid smelling substance of some sort. It was a greenish-brown substance, it smelt of disease and decay and crept slowly down from the amalgamation in the middle of the air.

It took everything I had to stop myself from hurling the contents of my stomach out. Suddenly, cracks started to form in the air, leaking blood of all different viscosity and colors. A brilliant purple leaked, exuding so much power that I couldn’t look at it-or sense it all that much. A shiny gold color went down from another, giving off a certain presence. I couldn’t put my finger on it, it was profound and deep; yet no matter how much I tried to pry any sort of information out of it, I couldn’t, it was like a blank spot for me. The supreme lilac blood filled to the brim with power I could still feel was there, yet I had an instinctive feeling telling me to not to try and pry anything out of it-that if I did, it would be the last action I ever did; a warning from the very depths of the soul I owned that this blood was unique, this blood wasn’t meant to be trifled with, or messed around with.

Yet, for how powerful it was, it still registered that it was a thing; the golden blood was different, it had a viscosity similar to water, flowing freely down, I could see it with my eyes but I could not sense it. It was a blank spot to me, it felt like nothing was there even though I could see it. It was unsettling, it was standing there and I could feel no power; yet it disturbed me more than that immensely powerful lavender blood, it touched further than my soul; it touched further than even my own mana supply. There was something about it, something… more deep, something more full. It overpowered my senses, I could only focus on the golden blood flowing down from the spatial crack; it was… mesmerizing, and absolutely incredible. It felt above me, no, it felt above the entire world and that drew me closer and closer to it.

I needed to feel it, I had to feel it. I stood up from my position on the floor to a kneeling one, and then fully stood up; I disregarded the earlier feeling of power, the blood was more enticing. I took one step, a 2nd step, a 3rd step. I felt something catch my left leg as I went for another step, it was a heavy weight. I looked down, a strange red-haired woman was grabbing my knee with all her might. “Who are you?” I said, my voice was different-deeper than before, but I didn’t really care for the change. She looked up at me in shock, “Who are you?” I growled at her this time, my voice had been significantly changed. This strange… Nephilim by the looks of her facial structure, eyes and distinct natural hair color grabbed me for no reason.

“I’m your teacher, Mrs. Kehlir!” She yelled out at me, I didn’t recall such a person, and I knew for a fact I didn’t require a teacher. She was weaker than me, I could tell that from a cursory glance. “Get off me, you little gnat. You are no teacher, you are nothing but a worm that grovels.” I said, the tone of my voice getting progressively angrier. I had no patience for this woman that pounced on me for no reason.

“Wait-” I started, I now knew the reason as to why she took my leg “You little BITCH! You ant, you’re a maggot, a fly, a little weasel. You are not fit to breathe the same air, and walk the same soil as me. I am above you in every way, you are nothing and you can not stop me from reaching my goal.” I said, I kicked her off and turned to the golden and beautiful blood. It was time for the main event… and I am going to enjoy it very much.