THUD! THUD! THUD!

A loud banging on the door pulled Ragnar out of the sweet embrace of sleep.

Groggily leaving his bed, he moved to open the door. And to no one’s surprise, there stood the only other resident of the suite. Her expression though, might surprise some people. Ragnar wasn’t one of them.

She had a complex look on her face. She seemed to be glaring at Ragnar, clearly angry about something, but also in somewhat of a doubt, as if even she didn’t know why she was angry. She looked exhausted for the most part though, not a good look for someone so early in the morning.

“Didn’t get enough sleep?” Even Ragnar couldn’t help but ask, seeing her face.

But Aura didn’t seem to hear his words. She stared him down for another few seconds, clearly scrutinizing him and also taking some peeks into his room. However, before Ragnar could express his dissatisfaction with her actions, she spoke up in a tone that seemed unsure of itself.

“Did you do it?”

Ragnar looked at her, his expression clearly unamused. He just woke up and she wanted to talk in riddles.

“Be specific.” He demanded.

Aura didn’t even flinch despite his sharp tone.

“Did you kill Grim?” She clarified, sounding even more unsure.

“What do you think?” He asked with a small smirk, before shutting the door on her face.

Aura was left standing in the gallery, a completely helpless look marring her pretty face. What was she supposed to make of this?

Did he actually do it? Did he not do it? Say it clearly for fuck’s sake.

His smirk there told her everything she needed to know, but she still couldn’t believe it… because the way Grim had died was… unusual, to say the least.

His body was discovered lifeless, sleeping peacefully in his bed, with no sign of injury or even struggle. No one could come up with any ideas on his exact cause of death, not even any random conjectures were being thrown around. And all that was despite their family’s specialization in healing abilities.

His body was found to be perfectly healthy, with no potential for any life-threatening diseases whatsoever. Among all this, there was a single oddity, however, even that couldn’t justify his death. His essence, which should have taken several hours to disperse like it normally does in case of other walkers, had been thoroughly emptied out when his body was found. The implications of this were still being considered, since there was no precedence for such an incident.

Despite what the actual cause of his death might be, Aura had a lot to worry about in this situation.

This was a direct attack on the next heir of the Sylvancrests, and who would have a better reason to hurt him than the person who was previously the heir of the Sylvancrests, and currently trying her best to somehow regain her position. Although these political implications could paint her as the villain in this scenario, she would still be bereft from any immediate questions being raised against her due to the sheer difference in their strengths as well as the nature of their abilities.

Thus, she was very eager to leave this place before fingers could start being pointed in their direction.

However, she found it near impossible to ignore the possibility of Ragnar being the culprit. As soon as she had heard of this matter from Sierra, Ragnar’s attitude towards Grim in the lobby had immediately popped up in her head. Although others might not be able to link it to him due to lack of any tangible conflict between the two, she knew that Grim had given Ragnar more than enough reason to be angry with him.

However, she still found it hard to believe that dissatisfaction over someone not getting their name right could ever manifest into this situation. And she was also very sure about the fact that Ragnar lacked the ability to achieve this feat. She was one of the only people who have personally experienced his tainted perk as well, and that couldn’t achieve this. And he didn’t really agree to killing him either. Maybe he was just happy with the fact that Grim was dead, that must be why he had smiled while saying that.

Aura was clearly forcing herself to believe in something that looked to be the reality on surface, however, her gut told her that It had to be him. No matter the truth, he was a devil through and through, she was sure of it.

In the end, she just walked away, heading downstairs and curling herself into the hanging chair as she waited for him so they could depart.

Aura had no choice but to believe in the facts, she couldn’t give up on this opportunity no matter what, and even if he did kill him, what does it…

She shook her head rapidly to evade those thoughts. Even though he had openly admitted to having killed her three crew members, she didn’t know the exact situation for that scenario to have played out, and they weren’t even her direct family members, so she hadn’t given it much thought. However, when it came to Grim, she was certain that the only conflict of interest they had ever had was over his name. Even the thought of that being the cause for killing someone horrified Aura.

He hadn’t even shown any hint of killing intent in the lobby after it had happened, he acted so normal and casual then. Was it all just to prevent the blame from landing on him, was he planning on killing him from the get go?

As Aura was falling deeper into this pit with her every thought, Ragnar’s room’s door opened, and out walked the man himself dressed in his white shirt with black jeans and a denim jacket on top. His hands of course in his pockets, and a nonchalant look adorning his face, he walked down the stairs while matching Aura’s horrified gaze the whole way down.

His pitch-black eyes that reflected Aura’s face as he came and stood in front of her, his olive-skinned chiselled face that was showing signs of a budding beard, although didn’t make him very handsome, it all still served to give him a certain charm that made it hard for Aura to divert her gaze.

‘Is it the charm of a killer?’ She thought, her mind wandering randomly around all the things that were happening. But killing wasn’t that uncommon in this day and age. Although she hadn’t killed anyone herself, she knew many who had. And they definitely didn’t have whatever this was that Ragnar had in droves.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Suddenly, as she was still staring into his eyes, she noticed his hand extending towards her with his palm facing up, as if asking for something. Was he asking for her hand? Definitely not. Did he want to leave? But then … As she found her brain short circuiting over this simple gesture, he spoke up bringing her out of her reverie.

“My pouch.”

Oh, yeah. She had his new pouch. Aura breathed out a sigh of relief for some reason, realising he didn’t want her hand. This spatial pouch was the reason why Sierra was here in the first place, and she had only told Aura about Grim’s death to warn her to be careful. This event won’t even be making it to the general public to prevent their brand’s image from taking any hits. Although the proper investigations will still be taking place in the shadows.

Once again, Aura’s thoughts had led her to the conclusion that she needs to get out of here as quickly as possible. What if Ragnar showed this same attitude while someone else questioned him as well? She couldn’t risk it.

She abruptly stood up, handing him the pouch that she had been carrying in her hand ever since Sierra had brought it over. She wanted to give it to him when she knocked on his door, but his reply had left her at a loss, the pouch being the least of her worries in that case.

Instead of asking further questions, she simply walked past him saying, “L-let’s get going.”

She was, in all honesty, scared to get his confirmation. She didn’t know how she was going to react, whether she would be angry or she would just try to work with him regardless, she was even more scared to find out the answer to this dilemma. She just wanted to leave.

However, her efforts were dashed as he called out from behind. “Wait.”

She paused, turning around mechanically with a drop of sweat trickling down her temple. She didn’t know why she was so nervous, every step feeling like walking on thin needles.

“How much was it?”

“Was what?” She inquired; her brain clearly occupied by several other thoughts.

“The pouch.” He answered with slight frustration in his tone.

“Oh” It suddenly clicked for her and she took out her ethlet in a hurry, unwilling to give him a reason to trigger. “Its six hundred thousand. You can send it to me.”

Ragnar nodded and transferred the enders to her account without any further words.

After that, Aura simply walked out of the suite, clearly in a hurry, and Ragnar followed suit, not too far behind. Without wasting any time, they entered the teleportation circles, disappearing from the spot.

Appearing in the lobby-cum-restaurant, Aura was greeted by several people but she ignored them, directly heading for the exit. She was already using all her energy on maintaining a straight face, so greeting others was a tall task in her situation.

Sierra who was still sitting behind her reception noticed them leave, but she didn’t find anything odd since her Lady had already informed her that she might leave any time before noon. Although, she was ordered by Lucian to inform him when she leaves which she promptly did, also sending another message to a butler.

As Aura and Ragnar walked out of the massive tree, they could see a butler waiting at the entrance with her mount. As Aura was about to mount her ride though, the butler spoke up.

“My Lady, Young Lord is on his way to greet you before your departure, and he requests that you wait for his arrival.”

His words entered into Aura’s one ear and escaped from the other.

“Another time.”, was all she replied with, before heading off with Ragnar who entered the ground without being noticed by anyone. It was easy for him to detect when he was and wasn’t being watched.

A bit after their departure, Lucian arrived at the entrance with a crooked look on his face. “Did you not tell them to wait??”

“I-I did my Lord. She said ‘another time’ and left.”

Lucian sighed, “It’s fine, I doubt he had any hand in it anyways, an Arcane can only have so many tricks up his sleeve.” And Grim had already finished his task before losing his life. So, he didn’t have to worry about Aura’s safety.

He went back in, thinking about all the events that had played out yesterday, trying to find the cause of his trusted subordinate’s death.

***

Aura travelled silently like always, through the wide streets of Riftdale, heading the opposite direction from where they had arrived.

Several landmarks passed by them that caught Ragnar’s attention as they crossed the city. There was a tall pagoda in the colour scheme of red and blue that might give Aurora’s sanctuary a run for its money when it came to size. Another, much larger and grandiose Trade union was also a sight to see. They crossed a street, at the entrance of which, Aura’s expression that had remained constantly cold until then had shifted into disgust. It was clear even for Ragnar just at a glance that it was some sort of red-light street. The glow of this street even though it was early in the morning made it plenty clear.

The architecture saw several further shifts but Ragnar’s mind was thinking something completely different.

He was hungry. He hadn’t bothered to inquire about breakfast before leaving since Aura had been mindful enough of such things until now, so he decided to wait a little longer. He will have to take things into his own hands if she still didn’t stop somewhere to eat even after they had left Riftdale.

Ragnar could guess why she was in such a hurry to get away from this place and he didn’t feel responsible for this shit in the slightest. That guy had it coming. And free charges for him, win-win he would say, although both wins were taken by him.

Name: Ragnar Drakorian

Species: Human

Rank: Arcane

Lineage: Drakorian

Lineage Ability: ???

Lineage Perk: Shifted Transformation

Ability: Wave Surge (S Tier)

Wave Surge: The enigmatic manipulation of waves that ripple through existence.

Core Saturation: 462/5000

Tainted Perks: Earthen Fusion (Ability)

And if he remembered correctly, he had received 18 points from that, from a single Spectral. That… was good. Although Ragnar was hoping for a bit more since that guy was sure to be a True Spectral but guess that didn’t matter.

All humans seem to belong to the Menace class if Ragnar had to guess it through these charges. But he couldn’t really be sure, since no other human could get a death message or charges by killing each other.

Seeing these gains had only motivated Ragnar to be more proactive with his hunts, and he planned to be just that once they were away from HCR. Although, it would be quite hard to find more Spectral humans once they got away from civilization. Firstly, because of their limited numbers, and secondly, they were sure to be travelling as a pack, making it hard to simply pick them off on the side as they travelled to their destination.

That being said, Ragnar slowed down underground as Aura continued further at a steady pace. His next victim wanted to serve himself on a silver platter before they had even left the city. Were they spoiling him on purpose? Well, Ragnar won’t be denying free points.

Appearing in an empty alleyway between Aura and the dark robed stalker whom Ragnar had noticed pretty soon after leaving the hotel, Ragnar disappeared. This time, he was using invisibility instead of entering the ground.

The dark robed stalker was running at a casual pace since Aura’s mount couldn’t run very fast on these crowded streets. He was thinking about how many days he will be wasting following around these children when he could have been farming charges for his ascension into a Mystic. He was so close… just another drift into the Realm might have been all he needed, then his life would be completely different.

However, as he was fluidly making his way through the hordes of people and mounts on the street, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and before he could turn around to see who it was, everything turned dark.

Ragnar didn’t need to use any force. He simply took him along on a journey through the underworld, and reaching at least 100 metres below ground within a second or two, he released his shoulder. And then, there was a soft squish, as the body was instantly crushed by the surrounding earth, unable to make space for itself in the immovable mass of earth.

“You have disposed of a Human of the Spectral Rank, Reaper Sylvancrest.”

Another eighteen points for him, sweet. Ragnar had his signature grin as he caught up with Aura who still moved at her steady pace, none the wiser.

However, even Ragnar, who found this stalker just with his vision since he couldn’t use echolocation while he was underground, had failed to notice a second tail, who seemed much more in his element while doing what he was doing.

Like he was specialized in this job in particular. Although that specialized tail was currently quite anxious as he kept looking around, clearly in search for something, or someone. The last he had seen him, was when he left the hotel with the Sylvancrest girl, and then he disappeared, never to appear again.

After he informed his master of the situation, he was told to simply tail the girl until the boy eventually appears. For some reason, his master was sure that he would appear.