A couple of days later and Beau was back in Bath. His mission this time had been incredibly successful. Not only had he foiled an evil plot, he had found something that could very likely lead to the culprit behind his family’s murder.

There were no papers to prove the existence of an archive. Just a terrified MCR officer hoping the information would allow him to be forgiven for his sins. It obviously was no where near enough and Beau had left him a pile of miscellaneous meat on the floor of the cabin.

He did feel sorry for Watson, or whoever had the misery of discovering the maimed corpse.

This was how Beau worked. Although there had been a few duels or large fights during his time angel hunting, most of his kills had been quick, no nonsense assassinations. Which was exactly how he liked it.

It made it a lot easier to conduct business. Which mostly meant tampering with the evidence.

The archives however, posed a completely different problem. Firstly, they were in London.

It was a long way away and was also a lot more capable when it came to catching rogue magicians. He was in danger just walking the streets, let alone using magic.

Secondly, his shop would have to be closed for an extended period of time. Marianne could always work with Sheila but he needed the money.

Thirdly, it was a bloody long way and Beau was an inherently lazy person, just thinking about all those bumpy carriage rides made his bottom sore.

After rubbing his back side for a while, trying to convince it that everything would be fine, he sighed and set down the gadget he had been working on.

The plan involving the Queen was not going to happen for quite a while yet. So Beau’s mind was set on the archives. A trip to London might actually be good, he knew a couple of people there after all.

He made a snap decision and closed up shop. After telling Sheila where he was going he set off. Not forgetting to say goodbye to Watson on the way. She was surprised as she was going to London as well but decided not to tell him for it was strictly business and the last thing she could deal with would be such a convenient distraction.

Beau’s bottom whined along with his stomach producing a sort of symphony of pain. Luckily the rest of the carriage riders were experiencing the same thing creating an orchestra, the cacophony of unpleasant sounds, so Beau was not too embarassed.

The cart finally fumbled to a stop outside a large building that looked like a bank. Beau got off and almost collapsed immediately due to the loss of feeling in his legs.

After unloading the carriage of his bag and clothing, he donned his hat and overcoat, perfectly complementing his black suit, and walked towards a perfectly, undoubtedly, middle-class establishment. A receptionist greeted him as he entered, and a room had been booked a few minutes later.

After checking the room he looked out the window, seeing the building he wanted to see, he nodded and drew the curtains. The only thing he had on his mind right now was food and sleep to revitalise his poor aching body.

He had decided to go fully under cover. Blue hair would attract copious amounts of attention so he changed the colour to a dirty blonde, similar to Watson’s. He kept the long and shaggy style though.

After booking the room he spent two days observing, making sure to record every movement within the specified building. Nothing went in or out without Beau knowing, at least, that’s what he hoped. There was always a possibility of some sort of secret entrance but he doubted it, it was too much effort.

His report at the end of almost a week of observation determined a few results. Including but not limited to, the presence of permanent guards and their shift changing times. The regular visitors and times the entered and left the buildings, even the items that the people were carrying were being recorded.

It seemed that only the guards were magicians, most of the workers were just normal people. Over the last few days he had been fighting back a deep itch to storm the place, completely ignoring any sort of tactics or plan. The only thing holding him back was his worry of slipping up at such a crucial point in his crusade against the Creed.

Mixed in was also a strong feeling of anticipation on finally finding out what circumstances his family were murdered under and finding the pile of shit that did it.

After a week of watching, and barring any irregularities and assuming that this week was just like any other, he pretty much had it all figured out.

His plan was a simple one. Find and kill one of the workers before they get inside the building. Put on their clothes, completing the disguise, and enter the building. All goes well, with no resistance whatsoever.

Obviously it sounds fantastic just saying it.

Beau sighed as he placed his hat on his head. It was going to be a bumpy ride.

Beau’s target came into sight. An overly normal looking man who, even if you knew him very well, you wouldn’t be able to pick him out in a crowd. Perfect.

After swiftly dispatching the man he donned his clothes and created a mana shell around himself with the appearance of the now deceased man. For any other person, that kind of magic spell would be ridiculous. It used way too much mana and would leave you completely empty from the amount of detail that went into making a perfect replica. Hell, even a normal top class magician would run out of mana just changing the face and hair which Beau had done in the mansion fisco previously.

There was actually a very simple reason Beau is able to do this, and it’s actually the same reason his mana shield is so ridiculously strong, more than anything fathomable for normal magicians.

He had a butt ton of mana.

It overflowed out of his body and regenerated at a ridiculous pace as well. It was also the culprit behind his magnificently blue hair. Thinking realistically, it was too much, it wasn’t possible. But, there are always exceptions in everything, Beau just happened to be one of them. So, being able to stock the shield with a ridiculous amount of mana, of course it’s going to be many times stronger than normal.

After assuming the man’s looks, he strolled confidently into the building, not looking at the guards as he walked in and showing a card for allowing entry. It was all going smoothly so far. Beau couldn’t help but smirk, naturally, now that he was here, no one could expect to leave this place alive.

First things first however, Beau headed straight for the archives which were almost way too conveniently signposted. It made sense though, seeing as it was a facility. Libraries and hospitals also have signs.

After finding the correct room and searching through the files he eventually found what he was looking for. He wouldn’t forget the date, even if he wanted to, and he certainly remembered the location.

The file stared him in the face, 4 years of hunting had lead to this moment.

Funnily enough, at no point did he ever think of giving up.

He opened the file and read through it, he had sufficient control over his emotions to get through the file with little difficulty.

After stopping, he immediately smiled.

Was he insane? Probably, a man could only experience so much and he’d probably gone through enough suffering for a couple of lifetimes.

He slowly set fire to the file having memorised its contents and threw it on the rest of the papers, burning the entire archives sounded like a great idea.

So far everything was going to plan, just the way he liked it.

If he failed at a point like this then he could hardly call himself an assassin now, could he?

He evaporated the mana dummy that was covering himself, revealing his blue suit and hair, along with two guns.After a brief moment of consideration he tucked the guns away again. How could he hold back at a time like this?

A solid wall of azure mana formed around him, creating an impenetrable wall whilst allowing him vision of his surroundings. He then proceeded to summon pure fire. A raging inferno of blue flame encased his arms and upper torso.

The fire had reached quite a substantial size at this point so he headed out the room, quickly gaining the attention of the workers. They were immediately scorched.

This carried on till getting to the first guards. Their magic was at a reasonable level, unfortunately for them, they had no chance from the very start.

The fire around them slowly approached like a nightmare. In amongst the blue flame were screams that were barely audible but added to the ambience. Beau had a ridiculous smile on his face as he walked through like Satan patrolling his domain. Almost all of them died immediately, the guards took a little longer, one poor guy was very stubborn and his shield stayed up, instead he was killed by lack of oxygen and poisonous fumes.

Beau trod over bodies as he made his way around the facility, finding more guards which tried to attack him before he got close. His mana shield held firm, however, he felt being indestructable was boring so he put less power into in.

Seeing the fluctuation, the guards mistook it for Beau running out of mana and crumbling so they went all out, Beau took some cover and manipulated the fire to slowly seep through the cracks in their shields, he took his guns out and, peeking out from behind walls and doorframes, took pot shots at the remaining guards. The gun’s power meant that even Beau’s shield would have trouble, let alone these ones. He looked at the scene of carnage in front of him and sighed.

With guys at just this level there really was no way for him to have fun.

“Oh, quite a mess you’ve made here?”

Beau looked up with delight and after looking at the man put his head down again.

“Haha, are you scared of me? Well, now that you’ve gone this far you’ll die here.”

He manipulated his fire which, in comparison to a normal magician could be considered quite impressive, but when compared to Beau’s rage induced inferno, there really was nothing exciting about it.

Beau raised the gun and shot the man through the skull. After letting out a confused sound the man dropped to the floor.

“I hope that wasn’t meant to be the main antagonist, that would be way too boring”

Beau let out a sigh and exited the building, which was still partly of fire. The scene had attracted quite a few spectators and Beau quickly stopped the fire. Any more than this and the neighboring houses would catch on fire too, that would be bad news. He was a bad guy, but not that bad.

After leaving he muttered a name, engraving it into his very soul.

“James Fillmore”

A relatively common first name but a less common last. He should be relatively easy to find.