The man slid down the wall, it was apparent that the pain in his leg was too much for him to bear. He gasped and continued,
“What do you Humans call them? Supers? Yes. Supers. You’ll need them for this plan —” He suddenly wheezed. Balling his fingers into a fist, he banged on his chest and coughed blood. Aiden, still wary of him, refused to approach him to help.
The man smiled, “Good. Stay prudent.” Aiden watched the blood he had spat on the ground vanish away as the man continued, “There is equipment capable of dealing with the ghost. It doesn’t have any other power apart from the fact that it is sharp. But it needs aether to work, just like any other equipment. Only supers can control aether, you can think of aether as the fuel which lets them use their power. The equipment has conditions that it must taste a liter of blood before each use, which lasts for an hour —”
“Even weapons need to abide by conditions and side effects of using the ability?”
The man laughed, “Of course, any and all abilities must follow the rules. Anything or anyone who employs abilities must go through conditions and side effects of the respective ability. Let me finish before asking your doubts brat.”
Aiden looked to the side, a lady had exited the shop and was walking their way. But surprisingly, she paid no mind to the man, going her way after shooting a glance at Aiden.
The man smiled, “It is difficult if there are a lot of people but one person isn’t a problem. They wouldn’t be able to see or hear me. So, I was talking about the equipment. Its side effect is that it drains blood from the user as soon as it stabs into the target.”
“Such a thirsty weapon.” Aiden muttered. “Right? It’s shaped like a short sword. Hidden behind the corner wall of the ketchup house.” The man instructed, before he got up.
Sensing that their talk was done, Aiden quickly asked, “Wait, who are you? Why did you help me? Can’t you simply retrieve the weapon yourself and give it to me? And are you not a human? Plus why do you think just a sharp weapon might help against the ghost?”
The man tore his shirt and started bandaging his leg as he answered Aiden. “I don’t believe we’ll meet again. I might be dead before that, so no use telling you who I am. As for why I helped you, it’s because you are already in the process of dealing with that ghost. No other reason. I would have guided anyone capable towards the equipment had I met them first.”
His eyes suddenly glinted with madness, the intensity of which scared Aiden as he backed up. The man’s teeth grinded against each other as he answered,
“I am simply helping myself here, fulfilling my duties. My peer is hunting me, he has betrayed our master, who is now trapped.” Aiden felt as if the man was about to attack him but he just continued with more hatred in his voice.
“That betrayer sowed seeds of greed into our master’s mind, causing her to attack the human group. That’s where it all began, that’s when she got trapped.” Aiden quickly interjected, “Wait, so it was you guys who killed the team from the Bureau.”
The man furrowed his brows. “We killed the entire team before they could even say anything so we don’t know where they were from. You might be talking about the second team, you humans had a rather quick response time. They did speak about being from the Bureau and were also quite strong. 5 from that team managed to get away alive, but of course, we didn’t come out of it unscathed either. Like I said, they were quite strong, only four of us including the master were left.”
The Bureau said only one came out alive though. Aiden thought in confusion as the man continued,
“The betrayer plans to let the ghost feed on everyone here so that it can grow and our master can never escape. Although I doubt she can escape now even if the ghost simply stays alive. As for why I can’t just give you the weapon, I might be found if I retrieve the equipment.”
He smirked, Aiden a felt dangerous from the man that instant which immediately disappeared as he continued,
“The weapon reacts to us, Vampires. That should answer your question if I am a human or not. As for a sharp weapon. Heh, your sharp knives would hardly even penetrate it. You’d need a lot of force with that and that would only barely stab the ghost of that level. You’ll need our weapon if you want to stab its heart.”
The man was almost done tying up the wound on his leg, about to leave without even parting words as Aiden’s question made him halt again.
“Do you happen to know the conditions and side effects of the ghost?”
The man replied without turning around, “You haven’t found out about it yet? Did I overestimate you guys? Nevermind. I only know two conditions of the ghost. One needs to see and react verbally to the illusion it creates. There is one more, which I have no idea of. As for side eff—”
“Wait, so the red moon was its illusion right?”
“What else? This ghost has a domain. I don’t want to explain all the basic things now, ask other humans what a domain is. It overlapped the image of the real moon with its red moon. Why do you think the moon appeared so big and low in the sky? Its domain can only extend till so far.
“As for the side effects, this ghost stays in empty houses during the day and moves to hunt people in another house at midnight. It might be related to the side effects I believe, maybe sunlight damages it? Maybe any light damages it? I don't know what it is, but I hope you succeed.
The man began walking, limping considerably less than before.
“The betrayer probably wouldn’t meddle with the humans again after killing the mayor and hacking the administration so that migration never takes place. You can focus on dealing with the ghost, the betrayer plans to run away after killing me, and also why he wants the weapon, to take it with him.”
Aiden’s pupils dilated as he heard him. Frankly, this whole set of information was a big bomb to him. Before he could ask anything more, he watched as the man disappeared right before his eyes.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
A super indeed.
“Big bro.” He heard Mimi call out to him. Her voice had the same cheerful tone to it, as if the earlier aura didn’t affect her in the slightest.
Did he only direct that at me?
As much as Aiden’s rational mind tried to reject how someone couldn’t have a killing intent, dangerous aura, and the likes, he would have to accept it. He knew the world didn’t work according to the world view he had formed, there might be much more weird and mind blowing things existing in the world.
He picked up Mimi at her insistence as she resumed eating her pack of potato chips. While she focused on her chips, he organized the information he had just received.
1. Supers use aether — a type of energy — as a fuel to use their abilities.
The only reason I might not have felt it when I used it against the ghost might be because I was too focused on the ghost and had to deal with the intense headache too.
2. You need aether to use abilities, and anything which employs abilities. Like the equipment, which was a short sword.
3. All abilities have conditions and side effects.
I don’t seem to follow this concrete universal rule. Is it too unusual? But even the vampire, who didn’t think too highly of humanity, said it was a rule for all the abilities. Maybe this ability is different? Or is it that I am different?
Aiden only speculated, neither confirming nor denying due to lack of solid evidence. Everyone harbored the desire of being different. Everyone wanted to be unique, to not be categorized with the common masses.
Aiden recognised the feeling of exhilaration which welled up in his heart when he theorized about him being different but he immediately squashed it. Unless he had proper facts to confirm the statement, unnecessary thoughts would only cause him an error in judgment further down the path.
4. Equipment uses 1 liter blood as a condition to use its ability — sharpness — and drains some from the user as soon as it is stabbed into the target as a side effect.
5. The master of that man is trapped in a way that she would be unable to escape as long as the ghost lives. I can assume she will be freed as soon as it dies.
6. Before the Bureau’s team, another team was completely wiped out. And instead of one as informed by the Bureau, 5 survived.
Something clicked in Aiden as he suddenly recollected the talks about those two murderers.
They talked about encountering a group! About how it made their task easier. Indeed, it would’ve been easier to murder with fewer people.
Considering those two, plus the victim, that’s three. So these three, plus Evander and an unknown guy survived. But taking into account how the Bureau only said one person made it alive, maybe the unknown person didn’t manage to reach the Bureau? These two after murdering would’ve likely fled somewhere so they weren’t counted either.
But instantly after, his eyes widened, recalling how Bureau didn’t know about the conditions of the ghost but Evander did. Maybe the unknown guy managed to reach the Bureau but Evander didn’t. But then, if Evander knows about the conditions and nature of the ghost — about how powerful it is — why not that unknown guy?
Aiden kept aside this question for later and moved on.
7. The ghost has insane physical toughness. And I now know two of its conditions. And also where the ghost lives, hinting at its side effect.
8. The betrayer vampire has killed the mayor and was the one who hacked into the administration office.
Fearing that he might not remember all of it, Aiden noted it all down on his phone. Before he could put the phone back into his pocket, a message popped up.
Aunt Hellen? Oh yea, it might be about Mimi.
He opened the message, and indeed, it was about Mimi. There was no such person in the records of the town. Hellen expressed concern over the matter but Aiden politely brushed it off after taking a look at the little girl in his hand.
Evidence first. I won’t do anything against you if you don’t make a move against me.
Aiden normally wouldn’t have let something like this affect him. Putting initiative into the opposition's hands wasn’t like him, but emotions make one act different from what their rationale would suggest.
“Big bro! Game!”
Mimi excitedly pointed to a direction. There was a shop which was selling 100 packets of potato chips as a reward for its lottery system.
Quite the perfect gift.
He agreed to her demands and headed towards the shop. It was a very basic lottery system of spinning the wheel which had many white balls but one red ball and one golden. Red guaranteed the lottery but golden gave extra prices. He paid at the cashier and let Mimi spin the wheel.
From all the earlier events, he was anticipating a golden ball. And indeed, a shiny golden ball dropped from the wheel when it stopped.
“Congratulations! You have won the golden reward.”
The man took him to a room where there were multiple boxes. He opened one to show a chocolate pie inside, meaning all the boxes here were filled with chocolate pies. But instead of the anticipated response, the man noticed that the little girl was about to cry.
Aiden quickly said, “Can’t we get potato chips instead?”
The man hesitantly replied, “But that is the reward for the red ball sir.”
“Can’t you just give me potato chips equivalent to the price of these chocolate pies?”
“I’ll contact the manager.”
It was roughly 5 minutes later when the guy entered the room again. “The manager has agreed to give you potato chips of the same value.”
“Thank you. Please keep it here itself, deliver it only when I give you a call.” But after taking a quick look at Mimi’s face, he took a packet and placed it in her empty hands which had already completed the previous packet. “I’ll take just one for now.”
It was a short but welcome distraction. Coincidentally, he also caught sight of the bus approaching the nearby stop. He sprinted madly towards the stop and managed to get on the bus, getting off near the third site of murder after approximately 15 minutes. The buses took different routes so the time it took for one to go from one place to another varied depending on what bus you took.
Going in, he noticed that the work was still going on. People were going about and examining every small thing.
How much manpower is being dedicated to it?
When he entered with Mimi in his hands, Hellen and Valeria who were conversing on a sofa of the living room nearby immediately got up and approached him.
Valeria excitedly began chatting with Mimi while Hellen only gave her a once over before gazing at Aiden.
“Long story.” He shrugged.
The next 20 minutes he told her about everything which happened, during the course of which Valeria joined. When he turned around, he noticed Mimi was sitting alone on the dining table with potato chips in her hand.
“It might not be good to involve her too much in this.” Valeria reminded him as he was about to bring her. Hellen followed up, “The Bureau is way more sensitive than you think.”
He relented. When he was finally done, before they could even get to asking questions, Hellen’s phone rang. She looked at them.
“The Bureau’s team is here.”