Jacob was getting close to his car when he saw a Demonic Beast out of the corner of his eye and swirled with his sword, unsheathed in less than a second.

It was a Hellspawn Chameleon, and it was already dead, with its guts spilling. Given that the cut was clearly not man-made, a Demonic Beast must have done it.

Demonic Beasts don’t usually kill each other if not to eat.

With a quick glance, Jacob established that the kill had not been motivated by eating. The Hellspawn Chameleon was still all in one piece.

This is the equivalent of murder. I need to investigate this better.

He crouched and started drawing Inscription Patterns on the ground. In a couple of minutes, he made sure that all the blood on the ground belonged to the Hellspawn Chameleon.

This means that the other Demonic Beast is at least at the peak of the Cockroach realm. Otherwise, it would have never been able to ambush the Hellspawn Chameleon-like this.

The Hellspawn Chameleons, in fact, were not just stealthy but extremely careful around their enemies. That meant that whatever Demonic Beast had killed it, it was either a much higher leveled monster or a stealthier one.

Few monsters are stealthier than Hellspawn Chameleons.

Jacob was more inclined to believe a higher leveled monster had killed this Hellspawn Chameleon.

He had to delay his trip to Fort Oak, it seemed.

I really hope it’s not what I’m thinking of.

There had already been so many changes in history that now Jacob could barely make predictions based on his past life. Therefore, he was now prone to just use logic and his past knowledge, without assumptions on how events should go.

And if I have to be logical, this is one of the worst signs we could get.

It wasn’t a problem as big nor as pressing as the Charybdes had been, but it was something they had to prepare for.

Well, let’s do it.

Jacob put a palm on the corpse.

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Still warm.

He took out a piece of parchment and took some blood from the Hellspawn Chameleon.

Revenge Seeking Formation

It took him half an hour to inscribe all the necessary Inscription Patterns for the Formation.

This specific Formation was a variation of the one he had used, a variation that he had come up with together with Epagogia in their past life. She was as much of an Inscription Pattern expert as Jacob was, if not more.

The blood started forming an arrow that pointed to the Black Forest.

Ok, let’s see.

Jacob put the parchment on the ground and started using some more Inscription Patterns to get a more accurate position.

F*ck.

He looked toward the Black Forest, specifically in the rough direction where the Alchemical Garden was. Then, he jumped inside the car after taking the parchment with him. The Formation could only last up to an hour and only on creatures without personal protections against this method of scrying. Also, if they went too far, Jacob would lose them.

The Alchemical Garden was close to the road that connects Blacksoil and Fort Oak. Therefore, Jacob was driving toward that. The scouts and his people had mostly removed the debris and new cars from the roads, making it quite easy to get around. Fuel was not a problem for the moment since they had more than one fuel pump close to St. Peter.

While driving, Jacob fell back into his memories, reminiscing.

There had been a scared kid once, a guy who could barely take any decision. He had been saved by Helena’s relentless quest to put him back on his feet. He had hidden under blankets in the woods, tried to disappear for good. Nothing had been good enough. Helena had always been there, waiting for him to grow up.

And now I am threatening her because she can’t come around as quickly as everyone else.

Jacob felt like a hypocrite.

Helena had always been there, waiting.

I should probably go talk to her before things get out of control. But, instead, I’ll just tell her the truth about my past life. It’s coming out anyway, whether I like it or not. Let’s hope Marcus and Lucius will be sensible enough to keep their mouths shut.

Jacob felt a stab of anxiety while thinking about Marcus spilling the beans to Helena and her feeling somewhat betrayed that he hadn’t told her himself.

“Fuck,” Jacob braked and got out of the car, suddenly interrupting the flow of his thoughts.

He quickly glanced at the parchment in the passenger seat and swore again. It wasn’t pointing at the huge Demonic Beast in front of him.

Jacob unsheathed his sword and swore again.

“Fu**ing hell is it possible that I can’t have one moment of fu**ing peace?!”

The Demonic Bloody Wolf snarled and threw himself at him. This was the natural evolution of Demonic Wolves. It was a beast at the Intermediate Great Stage of the Mantis realm.

Jacob opened up the Meridians in his forearm with his left hand, while pointing the sword toward his enemy.

Aura Synchronization, 0.0000001%

The red energy exploded around Jacob, and he sidestepped the huge monster. A Demonic Bloody Wolf was four times the size of an ordinary wolf, bigger than a tiger even. Its hide was incredibly tough, and it could kill with its terrible claws or maim people with its huge toothed maw.

It was a monster too strong to appear in St. Peter’s region, or at least that was under normal circumstances.

Not when there was a possible Demonic Beast horde coming.