Besides the upcoming elections, the yearly Science Exhibit was only a day away from when Sordido Palladium was found lying in the Student Council Head office.
Pavone’s eyes widened when he saw his brother passed out on the floor, waking him up. He saw the mark on his neck.
Using his Mage Focus, he had undone the paralyzing effect.
“Cough! Cough!” Sordido caught his breath. “Where is she!?”
“Where is who?” Pavone furrowed his brows. “What are you doing in my office?”
“The benefactor….. Big Brother, I met the benefactor. They approached me in the form of a Simian girl candidate.”
Pavone’s expression further darkened at this. “And you brought them here?”
“I didn’t! They have your key!” Sordido shook his head repeatedly. “I tried to paralyze them but my vision suddenly got dark and…. and…”
Pavone nodded. “It’s really them. Sordi, I told you to spy on them, not get involved directly with them. They’re too dangerous.”
“I know, but I thought I got them fooled. How in the Abyss did they even know about the paralyzing stone!? Not to mention….”
“They know about us, Big Brother.”.
The Head of the Council usually wears a calm, dignified face. But this time…..
His face turned into something scarier than a wild beast.
“What did you say?” His grip over Sordido’s neck tightened. “How? How did they know?”
Sordido’s gray skin turned maroon from his blood rising to his face. “Big… Brother…. You’re hurting me….”
“Again. How did they know? Did you tell them?”
“No! Cough…. I’d never…. I promised never to tell anyone… Believe me, Big Brother…..”
Pavone stared coldly at his brother’s eyes, none of that familial warmth he usually had.
But eventually, he let go.
Sordido was telling the truth. He knows this boy well enough to tell if he lies.
He let go, and gently massaged the marks he made on his neck.
“Alright. I believe you. After all, I trust that little Sordi would never do anything to make me mad.”
Sordido gasped for breath, his eyes a little teary. “Thank you, Big Brother…”
“They may have truth-gaining skills like Councillor Verita, that’s why they found out.” Pavone concluded.
“But they can also shapeshift… bring darkness….. Brother, what is this benefactor, really? No one can have several Mage Focuses at once.”
Pavone rubbed his chin. “Whatever they are, or what their powers are, I can still defeat them. I can turn off their Mage Focus….. unless they are a Hero Mage.”
“Which is unlikely. What Celestial god would bestow a blessing on someone this evil?”
Sordido then remembered Zeriav’s ramblings. His brother told him about how this priest believes he was being possessed by Abyssal daemons.
“What if it’s not a human at all, brother? What if truly was a daemon from the Abyss…”
“That’s not possible, Sordi.” He sighed. “Daemons are down in the Abyss and not powerful enough to climb all the way here. The only daemons in this upper planes…”
“Are those who are not useful and filthy Commoners.”
He went to rummage at his desk drawers.
“I remember now. There had been such daemon in our midst.”
“Who?” Sordido peeked behind him.
“A Commoner fiend. I cannot recall his name, but his files must be here. Father hands me a copy of all the student’s files as I requested.”
But as he looked through, he then frowned. “Where are my statements?”
“Statements?” Sordido blinked.
“The statements that I have compiled this vacation.”
Sordido remembered now. They were the papers his brother threw at him once to prove his point that no one in the Avians can mess with him.
He shook in fear. “They must have taken it….. They wanted to look into your files as well to incriminate you….”
“Gods be damned!” Pavone kicked his drawer. “Quickly, they must have taken it to sell to the Simians or to Lovushka!”
They left the office, and Pavone never did find out what that Commoner fiend’s name was.
————————
The moment Vyrill saw a dark figure go inside his laboratory, his shoulders immediately went tense and the scalpel he was using to dissect a cat almost fell.
“Tomorrow is the big day, Professor.” Ronin said, taking off his cloak’s hood.
“Where have you been?” He asked, not daring to look at him directly.
“I should ask you the same question. I noticed you have been avoiding me ever since that day, Professor.” He went over to the metal tray with the cat’s carcass. “Did you dislike me?”
Vyrill did not answer, focusing on the dead rather than this…. this thing that he could not even tell if it was a living human or…. something else.
“You never called me out to experiment anymore. Do you no longer want me to be your assistant?” He just continued to ask.
Vyrill shook his head. “That’s not it.”
“I saw the truth. The truth that you made me see. Anyone else who gets slain by you will be cursed with that truth.”
Ronin just raised an eyebrow. “What truth?”
“The things you made me see…. The darkness. I have seen it so clearly. It is ever so present.”
Professor Vyril Krustal continued to slash through the animal in a daze, slashing and slashing until the blood went to his eyes, but did not care.
“We have been fooled by the sun for so long. We have come to believe the light, but it is actually the darkness that came first. When the sun disappears, there is only the night.”
“Endless night for eternity…. Nothing but black. It watched over us all, it is within us, within our shadows…. tailing, stalking, and then…..”
“It strikes.”
The blood splattered to Ronin as well, but he just licked it.
“You should leave tomorrow’s exhibit to me, Professor. We can’t have you prattling on and on about ‘darkness’ and destroy this research that you have worked all your life for, right?”
“Your whole life’s work…. Would you waste it away just for this thing you saw that I am not even aware of?” Ronin tilted his head to the side.
“This research that’s closest to your…. Heart.” He grinned, as he pointed at the professor’s chest.
Vyrill tumbled back from fear, holding up the scalpel to Ronin. He looked hysterical, shaking like a leaf.
Ronin just went to his side, squatting down with a smile….
“I have a companion that will help me tomorrow. You can take a rest for the whole day, Professor. Thank you for all your hard work.”
And he slammed the paralyzing stone to his neck!
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