CHAPTER 68 - Clad in red, it comes at night! II
Leo
I may be overcautious, but I feel like in this world where magic and other types of powers are a thing, I should take as many preventive measures as I can. So… I create my new persona to avoid suspicion of myself, and what can possibly work better for me to find information that a demon that preys on evildoers?
Nothing, yes, nothing. It may attract some attention if I overuse it, but as long as I play it smart, I should be in the clear and it would help me deal with the communication issue.
Who in their right mind would question a demon that's talking to you through a mind link of sorts? I wouldn't!
Thanks to me being the “host” of the link, I should be able to modify both my tone and voice as I please, so there shouldn’t be a problem with my identity being exposed, at least through the link.
I wear my crimson red robe with the hood on. Bruma hides under the hood, her eyes glowing a deep blue as she uses mana to look around. Tired of preparing I start searching, now fully disguised as my demon persona.
Jumping from roof to roof with the help of short bursts of qi, I scout around the city without the use of any mana, not wanting to attract the attention of those with good mana control. The fact that most of the people I’ve seen so far doesn’t mean there aren’t any, far from the truth, it may be a lot of them, I will need to look around the whole city and gather some intel on that before making any assumptions.
Not even half an hour passes and I hear a scream of agony. It comes from my left, not too far away. I start rushing there, using my improved hearing to help me pinpoint the exact location till I finally find the culprit of the screams.
A small child, a boy that should be about 13 or 14 years old lays on the ground with his back against a well, his low, muffled cries reach my ears across the square that's devoid of life. A small group of guys leaves the square as I arrive too.I identify them as the culprits, they clearly strike me as the typical gang of lowlifes that would beat up a kid. That, and a clear trail of blood that drops from the fist of one of the guys, easily traceable to the small kid.
For a second, I consider my options. Beat the guys first or later? But I end up leaving it for later, making sure the child gets safe and sound to its home takes priority, at least as safe as he is right now.
I can see that he is still breathing but he is in really bad shape. One of his hands is clearly broken, and I am no doctor, but he seems to have a couple of broken ribs. His head is bleeding too, but it doesn’t seem to be the worst of his wounds and his breathing is stable, so I wait, keeping an eye on the area from the shadows as he recovers.
Some minutes pass by before he stands back up again to his feet, but not too many, at least not for his wounds to get any better or his condition to stabilize.
‘It couldn’t have been more than half an hour, maybe fifteen minutes. Is he in a time crunch?’
The thought of him being unaware of his health goes through my mind, but it can’t be, it has already been a long while since the fight, so any adrenaline that might have run through him before is now gone. Even then, I merely follow him to ensure he gets home safely, as safe as he already is at least.
He struggles to advance as he walks, clearly needing a good rest, but he doesn’t stop at any point, going as far as scraping against the walls of the houses that surround the street. There is nearly no light on the street, yet he is not bothered by it, only focusing on what's in front of him.
Finally, he stops in front of the door of one of the houses, looking at the wooden door. His muffled cries resurfacing yet again as he looks at the same plain wooden door that doesn’t look any different from the one in the other houses.
Cautiously, I decide to send a bit of mana inside the house to make a quick scan and see if everything is alright. The house ends up being a small, yet cozy place for a small family, yet something is missing, only one of the beds is being used, and the person in question doesn’t really have much of a qi signal.
‘That person is dying.’ There is no doubt of it, whoever is lying in that bed is either dying of old age or illness. Looking at the attitude of the small boy it’s probably the latter.
Choosing to take the chance to kill two birds with one stone, I choose to create a link with the boy before he enters the house, trying to shine some light into his life as I take the chance to eradicate some evil and gather intel at the same time.
‘Do you want everything back?’ I say inside his mind through the link, modifying my voice to make it sound as if I were the devil trying to steal everything from him with a suspicious deal.
‘Answer me child, what do you seek? Do you seek revenge on those who bullied you?’ I push some more, trying to instigate conflict. The best way to push someone to do something he wants, but knows it’s not good for him, is to do it fast. Let the emotions take over and start an invisible countdown, so that a decision has to be made in the heat of the moment.
A panicked voice leaves the boy as he tries his best to tell himself that he won’t back down.
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“I won’t let you steal my soul or my grandma’s soul, leave me alone!” It’s a good choice and usually, I would be ashamed to step so low as to lie and deceive a small child, but my current situation is not one which allows messing around.
He is still a child, if I pressure him a bit more he will just crumble and end up taking the helping hand he so desperately needs. Even an adult would have it difficult to deny my offer, even more now that his grandma seems to be the one dying and he’s got just one last chance to save her.
I don’t know what’s her grandma’s illness, but I will do as much as I can, for now I need to strike a deal to get my desperately needed info under the cover of a demon hunting.
‘So that’s what it is, you think it is a trap? Well, you see, I really need to find a few humans to kill, the more sins they have committed, the better.’
I can already see his will dwindling, so I just add a little bit more to the fier.
‘Why won’t you just guide me over to some? If one of them ends up being someone really evil, I won’t kill you, and maybe I will help you with one single thing you may want.’
Coming from a suspiciously looking demon, a promise or kind words are the last thing you expect to hear, so I just casually threaten him, pressing him even more for an answer.
‘Last chance. If you don’t answer me, maybe I start my rampage with you here.’
“Fine! I will take you to the place where the evil guys gather! But promise me that you will keep your word.” He finally gives in.
‘I will.’ I answer him, taking the deal as my call to start by gifting him a small amount of qi, filling him with renewed energy and helping him recover from his smaller wounds.
‘Let’s start the feast, you go first.’
By the time I ask him to start walking and guide me, he is already mesmerized by my ability to heal him and I can already see his little smart mind thinking on how to ask me for help with his dying grandma, his teary eyes a clear giveaway.
‘No worries, she should still have a few hours.’ I think as I follow the little guy along the street, carefully melting with the shadows to avoid prying eyes.
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After about fifteen minutes or so of walking, the child finally stops in front of a big storage building, signaling at it. The walk here wasn't even that long, but the boy probably never left his house at night, as he was scared and anxious at every turn he took.
I can’t blame him though, on our way to this place we only saw another person outside, and he seemed like a mercenary or some kind of warrior by his looks. Most people just stay inside their homes the whole night.
I think about mapping the whole building with a mana scan, but I chose not to just in case there’s someone capable, still doubtful of the absence of capable fighters around.
I plan on infiltrating the complex and take a look and see if there is anyone inside, it could be all empty and I wouldn't know without performing a scan, so first, I shush the child away. It probably is not the safest place to roam at night, but it's a lot better than staying here with me, if this is really the base of the gang that beat him up he will have nothing to worry about soon enough.
‘You can now return to your home.’ I see him shiver for a second as my voice takes him by surprise, but I wait for him to leave. He seems unable to go back home without any reassurances, so I give him a small push.
‘I will go visit you soon enough after I finish here.’
My words seem to be enough now, and the boy starts walking back home, looking a bit depressed.
‘Let’s see what we have here.’
Ready to infiltrate the building, I restrict my use of qi and mana, keeping it to only qi and the smallest amounts of mana that I can control, not wanting to give away my position.
‘If I limit myself to only cycling qi through my body to reinforce it, I should be invisible to any mana scans.’ I mean, I would still come out as something in their scans, but if they do the same thing as me to scan the place, their scans would tell them that I am but a normal human with no mana at all.
I look around the building, but as I find no other way in that the main entrance at the front and a couple of high up windows to let light in, I start to notice my lack of reconnaissance skills if I take my mana scans out of the equation.
I am fairly sure that If I get better at wielding qi I should be able to do something similar to a mana scan but for living things. Anything that breathes or has “life” on it should be able to be spotted with it as non-living things aren’t able to absorb qi on their own.
Leaving those thoughts for later, I keep cycling my qi as I jump high up and get a hold of one of the windows, trying to take a look through it without blocking the moonlight shining through. That way avoiding casting any shadow that might alert someone inside.
Inside there is not much light either, but there are a couple of rooms that are closed, so I will need to check those out. Expending more of my qi, I create a small blade of qi that shines in the night with its distinctive yellow hue.
It’s not the best thing to carry something that emits lights when trying to sneak in, but I limit the length of the blade to a very small size, resembling more a fake nail than anything else as I use it to slice soundless through the glass of the window. It is light so faint it would be hard to notice from the inside.
‘I can use qi to create these weapons, but if I want to join the mercenaries to make some money, either I learn how to do it with mana to avoid suspicion, or I won’t be able to use any weapon at all as I do any mercenary activities.’
A couple of minutes after cutting glass with my makeshift knife/nail, I carefully and skillfully take out the sliced glass panel from the window and put it aside, carefully choosing a spot where it won't slip and fall.
Once I check that there are still no guards inside, I let the small construct of qi attached to my pinkie to vanish as I go through the hole in the window. I enter the storage with ease and after checking there is a clear spot on the ground I let myself fall, trying to muffle the sound of the fall as much as I can.
‘First stage of the plan successfully completed, now I just need to make sure this is where I need to be.’ I say to myself, looking at the two closed rooms on the first floor. The lower floor where I currently am is only a big open space where a lot of wooden cages are laid around in an orderly manner.
Eyeing the upper floor rooms as my target, I first look for the stairs. Once I spot the staircase, I take a quick look inside a few of the boxes, looking for something suspicious before making my way up. The content of the boxes may help me make a clear assumption on what to find on the other floor.