With disbelief written all over their faces, Arl took the initiative to walk into the alleyway. His keen eyes and the twitching nose allowed him to pick up a faint trail. He moved and darted past corners until he came to a stop and he kneeled down.

Haya, Talian, Tulian, and Ruia kept right behind him until they saw him stoop to the ground, and placed his palm to the ground. After doing so, Arl continued up the alleyway like a hawk, moving swiftly with light steps.

“Is it just a coincidence? The same night when the altar was opened, we met the beggar. Yet, here we are in the same city where the thing that came from Oblivion, the beggar is also probably here.” Tulian started plainly speaking while they followed Arl. “That monster also acted like it was unnaturally obsessed towards him.”

“That beggar also disappeared when we resolved the situation. Maybe trying to escape from suspicion” Talian added.

“How can that be? I checked his physical condition personally, yet he lacked the second heart.” Ruia retorted while staring ahead.

“I’ve heard that the demons and devils from Oblivion don’t use internal energy. They have something that was blessed upon them. Each one had a different form to their power, much more pronounced than the second hearts’ primary composite. Another thing is that they don’t have physical forms until they come here and can change their own structure at will.” Tulian explained. “It is possible he is a devil and moved with the intention to form suffering through manipulation. It would explain why he would act weak without the second heart, to fool us for a time, and come here when the three forces are having their meetings, in order to plant corruption amongst the leaders.”

“We need to find a creature like that?!” Talian exclaimed. “What happens to those who become corrupted?”

“They become puppets fueled by their desires. Unable to ever wake up from their dreams.” Haya solemnly said. “However, I don’t think he is either a demon or a devil. Devils are known for their corruption of all living things and demons for consuming all flesh and controlling all monsters. However, we weren’t corrupted or eaten as far as I know, signifying that we weren’t dealing with a demon or devil. I might be, at the very least, a different variety.”

All of them went deep into thought for a while before Arl stopped before a stone warehouse. The outside was full of cracks and holes from old age and neglect. However, most of the windows that were on the outside were not in bad shape, except for one that was shattered.

Arl signaled for them to be silent as he crept along the outside of the building. The others quickly did the same action. The arguing voices of three people could be heard from inside.

“Tell me again, why ya’ll came back here after hours with no child? No child, means no payment!” A gruff voice demanded.

“Boss, the child’s guardian came and blew us away with a single round.” A hurt, kind of high pitched voice reluctantly said.

“Yea, boss, I was slapped into the wall easily by that person!” Another voice angrily followed up.

“Enough! If that person really was a protector of the Rul family, both of you would have died without even knowing how. I still can’t believe ya’ll were fooled around by a child. Now we’re probably going killed or at least have our base of operations uprooted from the city by those two.” The gruff voice was dejected.

“It sounds like they kidnapped a child from Rul?” Ruia whispered, “Despicable!”

“They might know whether or not it is the same beggar as the one we found.” Haya handed down a command, “Secure them!”

After two minutes.

Three men were down on their knees with confused, bloody faces. The one in the middle, the ‘boss,’ was a large man with a bald head and black beard. His shirt was a mess from the stains of blood, but the other two’s black clothes could still be observed to a certain extent of their original discreet design that hid such things.

“Okay, you three are going to answer all of our questions succinctly and to the point. If not, your head will immediately be severed.” Haya warned as she stood in front of them with her three foot sword that stung their skin without touching them.

“You can’t do that! This is the just city of Froir, a place of laws and regulations.” One of the black clothed people unashamedly argued.

Haya brought the blade dangerously close to the man’s neck, “Try me. Spit out everything.”

The man gulped and breathed deeply before speaking long windily, “Our two clients met us with the proposition of keeping some of their ‘cargo.’ The cargo being a kid named Fifth Rul from the Rul family, the fifth promising candidate for becoming the next Family head. We kept him here and he said he needed to use the bathroom. He escaped from us, but we chased after him. We nearly caught the bastard when some servant of Erkshem saved him by a surprise attack on us. The reason why I know it is Erkshem was because of his clothes and our prior experiences with meeting with such amoral people. I got kicked in the face, while my colleague here got his nuts crushed, so I don’t know if he is a man or not any more. Although I’m sure he’ll do fine later. My boss here then came here and found the kid missing while we just came back after sleeping uncomfortably on the ground. My bones also ache from such an experiences, so I can say so. I’m afraid that when I reach old age, I’ll have arthritis or something. Recently I’ve been getting a cold and started asking for a day off…”

While listening, everyone stared at the person with wonderment. ‘Does he have a concussion?’

“Shut up!” The ‘boss’ couldn’t take it anymore and yelled at his ‘employee.’

“Does this look like your ‘assailant’?” Ruia stood forward while before extending a small palm forward. A green tendril moved out of it and expanded into a human figure, the exact replica of whom they assumed was a beggar.

Seeing the image, the two men who ran into trouble nodded their heads several times.