Max landed the flying beetle near the entrance to the dam of Ĉielarko Valley and found several piles of rotting corpses.

They lay in the mud, twisted and mangled, at different stages of decay. Some of them were burnt to a crisp, and others of them looked like they were bloated, possibly drowned. Most had their throats slit and chests stabbed, and they lay together in an unfinished mass grave.

The purple hue of the anti-gravity generator in the middle of the dam illuminated the area, and it made it all much worse. The sound of rushing water, the bright harsh lights, and the bodies with faces still in shock, mouths left open, were too much.

Max took a few steps, leaned over, and threw up. The smell was stuck in his nose even when he covered it and he had never seen anything so brutal, even when he served on conflicts off-planet.

From the little inspection he reluctantly did, nothing at the crime scene made sense.

Whatever group started digging the hole didn't have the time to finish or didn't care, and several footprints were left at the scene, but they didn't lead anywhere and suddenly stopped. Max didn't know why Sir Alta thought he saw or claimed he saw Max killing everyone there. He guessed that whenever there was a senseless crime afoot, the military and imperial police did what they did best, and chose the most likely suspect.

A peko.

Max left the crime scene and was returning to the beetle, feeling defeated again, and worrying how he would clear his name. He shouldn't have put Tiffany's safety over Emporer's Valeborn because of his job, but again he had made an emotional decision instead of a logical one. He didn't go back to check if he left Ĉielarko and it was now easier to point the finger at him.

"Aetheria, ask The Third Squad if the Golden Paser has left the nest."

Aetheria gave a little ding and a message was delivered.

"Yes, sir! The Third Squad wants you to know that the Golden Paser has left the nest!"

One less problem made it possible for him to weigh catching the murderers or returning to the Ĉielarko Castle. Most people would have left Ĉielarko by now but he could save the few remaining stragglers. But if he stopped whoever killed the castle residents and damaged the dam, then he wouldn't have to evacuate anyone.

"The people will be fine," the voice in his head said. " It's a distraction. Kill the ones in the forest."

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Cold, skeletal, translucent hands came out of his back and grabbed his shoulders, pushing him toward the forest. Max nodded and went wherever the voice led him, it had never led him astray. The voice in his head was never his thoughts, at least he hoped. Ever since he took the gem out of his chest, the voice spoke to him frequently, teaching him many new ways to use the Ten Paths.

Into the dark forest, he went, his blue gem lighting the way, but only for a few feet. He kept going until he stopped suddenly and noticed something strange.

Suddenly in the part of the forest he walked into the trees were straight in a row.

He backed up and bumped into another tree that wasn't there earlier.

"Oh," he mumbled. "Excuse me."

The tree's roots wrapped around his left foot, but quickly he cut them with his sword. Vines and roots started crawling up his body and mushrooms were growing, getting wider and morphing into horrific four-legged beasts.

Max snapped his finger with his free hand, and fire came from it. He burned down the roots and vines that clung to his body, and flew back from the trees, but they quickly surrounded him again.

"Please M'Lord," said a voice in the dark. "We came to rescue you from evil. We don't want to hurt you!"

"I do."

Max clutched the gem focusing his strength on it, and his original sword was now back. With two swords in his hands, he pushed them straight into the ground and used them as conduits. Electrical pulses ran through the forest floor, killing whatever was unlucky enough to be in its radius. A few people screamed in the dark, there was a strong smell of chemicals for a second, and then a fire began right behind him, several yards away.

Some of the Weavers hiding among the trees were cyborgs, and Max's attack had instantly fried their circuits. One of them combusted and lit one of the trees on fire, causing another issue for Max to solve. The fire at least illuminated some of their hiding spots, and they had no choice but to come out.

They hissed at him like snakes, some of them on all fours, filthy, covered in mud and blood from head to toe.

Max pulled his swords out of the ground sheathed one of them away and faced the fire, choosing to defeat the ones he could see first.

"If you turn yourself in, I won't have to kill you," he said.

"Why would we ever," one of them shouted.

"I did my duty to offer you a trial. The rest is your fault."

Their wild hissing started again, and he ran at the closest one, a young woman on a fallen tree. Max clenched his fists, focused all his strength again in his hands, and another electric current ran through his sword. He swung left, but she lept away with a smirk. Her smirk quickly turned into shock, when the electric current kept going, growing from the tip of the sword, wrapping around her and shocking her.

Her body fried, and she screamed while her insides cooked, her hair turned black, and her iris' went bright.

When done with her he didn't hesitate to move on to the next. He used the wind to push him faster towards a group of three and quickly slashed through all of them, right, left, left, through their abdomens. They blinked for a few seconds, then their torsos shlopped right off the top, the bottom of their bodies fell to the ground, and the ground was now watered with their blood.

Some of the Weavers in the forest started to run away. Some thought he wouldn't come quietly, but not knew his strength was terrifying.

"Don't run," he shouted. "You were tough when you killed all those people earlier! Stand and fight!"