Captain Francis

“Unacceptable!” Emperor Michael roared and slammed his hands down onto the desk and it shattered from the impact of the blow. I winced at that as splinters went flying around me. “Six days and the culprit hasn’t been found.” I took a breath before speaking. I hadn’t seen him this upset in a long time. But each day we failed to track down the culprit, Michael got angrier at our lack of progress. My lack of progress, since I had taken over the investigation.

“I have scanned everyone in the city and the map was used as well. But they are too adept at hiding in the populace. No one abnormal has been seen.”

“Captain. That is unacceptable. An attack on Joyo is an attack on me. From what you have gathered, it is clear a meta-point skill is at play. I suspect one that empowers a person through eating others. I will melt everyone in this city if I have to,” he said with a glare. I wasn’t sure if he was serious or not, but he really would do it if he thought it was necessary.

“And you would probably kill them if you killed everyone. But there are too many people in the Capitol. Six days of lockdown, is already pushing things. I am afraid, there is no more information, even with the reward of ten million points on offer. We are looking at a person working completely alone,” I explained.

“Captain, I am not happy if you can’t tell.” I could tell. “For Ken to be defeated so easily and to defeat Joyo, even if he was drunk and high off his mind, means that this person is a possible threat to me. How is this possible to not be known and for this person not being found?”

“There is no way to tell what skills a person has. We can’t exactly check for meta-points unfortunately. It stands to reason that a person got one and didn’t make a fuss. Now we have a killer that consumes people in some way.” It was very disturbing how no trace had been found of Ken.

“Joyo is never going to recover. The injuries have a huge cursing effect. I shouldn’t say never, but he will have to reconstruct his hands, shoulder, and part of his face with his energy. It will take a while even with his stats,” Emperor Michael said with a frustrated tone.

“Indeed, that is correct, but all the leads have been exhausted. All of the grinders, women, and people who he was with have been accounted for at the bar. They have been questioned multiple times and extensively checked with skills and their identities have been vouched for. This was an attack of opportunity by a lone agent. They also have a way to conceal themselves as well,” I said what I had already told Emperor Michael before.

“It isn’t acceptable. I have just lost billions of points worth of investment!” Ah, yeah, he would be more pissed about that than Joyo’s health or wellbeing. He wasn’t wrong in a sense, since those billions of points invested into Joyo were national defense levels worth of spending. I knew of the costs that the Crystal Vortex incurred. It was butt clenching how bad it was.

“All we can do is address the situation with the information we have. Unfortunately, there are no new leads.” That statement was what got him pissed off earlier in the conversation. But I was going to say it again and not make false promises. That really would get him to melt me if I lied in any way. He might rage a bit, but he wouldn’t attack me. If I lied, that would be an entirely different issue.

He let out a long sigh and collapsed back in his chair. “So, a serial killer,” he muttered.

“Well, we only know of one confirmed kill, but it stands to reason that is correct. Joyo would not have been his first target. But trying to trace lost lives out in the wilderness is impossible. Teams disappear for all sorts of reasons along with people out grinding by themselves. They are probably building themselves up to attack you,” I explained.

“Attack me. They are snorting crystal dust if they think that will work. They didn’t even kill Joyo, so they are clearly way below my combat level. Double the soldiers on Michelle and Doctor Katz. But that puts us short a melee person. And training someone up is a massive headache.” I knew Michael well enough he was thinking some very uncharitable things about Joyo right now.

If he was wounded he should have hit the target back, even though he was missing his hands. Or run away and not get portions of him eaten. He should have teamed up with the soldier guarding him instead of being so drunk as to be useless.

To call Michael pissed, would be to call the Systemic Lands a pleasant vacation. The sheer rage he had right now for everyone involved in this situation was very high. That was one reason why I was explaining this to him, instead of someone else who he would probably melt to send a message.

He knew he was being managed but accepted it. But each day that I failed to make progress, he was less and less pleased. He had given Joyo a room in the Imperial Palace, but his allowance had been massively cut. All he got was a servant to feed him gruel every day. Failures got gruel and a room without visitors until they fixed the curse damage.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Emperor Michael had said it would improve Joyo’s understanding of countering extensive curse damage. And that if he wanted to kill himself that option was always available. Joyo had refused, but he was in a miserable state. The pain was immense, and Emperor Michael had said no pain killers of any kind to remind him that he represented the Emperor and that with rewards also came responsibilities not to get taken out with the investment that had gone into him.

I knew he was even considering turning Joyo into a hybrid for Michelle to use to recoup some of his investment into the man. There were feelings there, but once a billion points or more was on the table, Michael refused to let any kindness, or any compassion govern his decisions.

“They protection detail has been increased to two people on duty at all times. We will need to expand our numbers from fourteen to twenty to compensate.”

“Approved. We will eventually be leaving Purgatory, but I want a plan in place to find and kill this individual with extreme prejudice. No mercy, no quarter. Once they are found, they are not to escape again. I want enough attacks there isn’t a trace left. Stupid meta-points,” he muttered the last part quite loudly and looked down at his desk. “That was stupid.”

“A bit, but at least you feel better now?” I asked.

“A bit. Sorry for yelling,” he said with a sigh.

“It is fine. I know you wanted to rush around, but that wouldn’t have helped things. The next question is if we keep it under wraps or not?” I asked.

“An official announcement. Have XLR8 do it. Release the details as well. With emphasis the figure was cloaked. There is no reason to hide one’s identity unless they are well known elsewhere. Hiding like they are is their main advantage. Getting everyone on guard is important. Release the full details if it won’t hinder things?” I asked.

“It shouldn’t but people will ask about the skill.”

“Explain it in detail. And that a serial killer has found a level 6 skill that gives stats for eating others. That is more than enough information. Speculate on what they are doing. No one will fact check this,” Emperor Michael explained.

I nodded at this. “Clarissa also asked if the city upgrade is still on track,” I brought up. Michael had secluded himself to focus on the curse damage after the attack. So, he would be ready for any fight that might come up.

“We will keep the current schedule. Anyone as a possible melee replacement?” I asked.

“No, you know the issues,” I told him.

“No one wants to punch monsters that will curse them. And the idiots who go around doing that, melt off their hands to slimes or something,” he said with a frown. It was the hard part of finding anyone who could fight in melee.

No one wanted to do it. And if they did, there was some other serious disqualification that took them out, either figuratively or literally. “I could expand the search pool and work at a training program, but those have failed in the past.”

“No, don’t bother. Michelle will have to handle the melee portion and personal protection. But it is more weight on her shoulders. At least she doesn’t go out and cause problems.” It was a bit unfair to Joyo to say that. Fighting in melee like he did required a mindset that caused issues.

He had extreme PTSD from all the fighting. He would drink and sleep around while in Purgatory to forget. That was why he didn’t want to be stuck in the Imperial Palace during downtime. The compromise was a single soldier to accompany him.

We had never really considered a situation like this one happening. There had been failed assassination attempts in the past, but he had a lot of stats to resist most attacks. With his Body stat so high, he was very hard to kill. But whatever bit off his hands and other parts of his body, completely ignored his defenses.

That was the scary thing. But it was a biting type of attack. We still had no idea if they were a man or a woman. There just wasn’t any information. “If they don’t come back and gain power?” I asked Michael.

“Let them,” he replied. “I can tell you are surprised, but there are only so many high stat people out there they can take a bite out of. These people aren’t going to be taken out so easily. Joyo’s being alive is proof of that. The higher the stats, the harder it will be for them to get them. I doubt it is so simple as one plus one for any skill that gives stats.”

“So, sort of penalty?” I asked.

“Yes. I have been thinking about what type of skill it could be. If it was additive, then it would have made sense to just farm low level people and add on a thousand or so stats at a time. Far cheaper and a lot less risk. But there has to be a diminishing return. They went after Joyo for his stats, and he has a lot.”

“That is a big leap to make,” I replied.

“Maybe, but I don’t think so. This isn’t some mindless brute rushing around. They attacked in a side street, equal distance from the bar at the South edge of the city to the inner city. And not on the main road either. Joyo has been going out for several nights, but they attacked the one night it wasn’t a straight line back, or close enough, to the city center.”

“If they stop?” I asked.

“Then they stop. They might die somewhere else, and I won’t have to kill them. Doubtful, but it is possible. The reward and the spread of information will limit their movements. Pass things over to Clarissa’s people. Let them handle it going forward. It is no longer our concern,” Emperor Michael said.

That was why I talked with him even when he was mad. Now he was moving on. Keeping him stable was important. While he had gotten much better over the years and meditated, sometimes his emotions would surge at a specific memory or thought. Residual damage, when he cleared out the curse damage in his head. Some thoughts triggered uniform emotions, which tended be towards rage.

Basically, it was curse damage he had left behind in his brain while fixing everything. Rage wasn’t a good motivator, but it had colored all his anti-curse work for quite a while. Now there were distant aftershocks of that fix he had to deal with.