CHAPTER 246: CHAPTER 246

He moved silently up behind her. On the secretary’s computer screen, a large tattoo stared back at them—an intricate design that looked like a dagger, etched with eerie precision.

He fixed his gaze on it. He’d managed to pinpoint the murder’s location, but the dense magic in the area had blocked everything else. When the barrier around the site erupted in a storm of demonic energy, his eyes snapped open, bracing for the backlash of mana depletion. That’s when he spotted it: a brilliant tattoo glowing fiercely on someone’s chest, cutting through the chaos like a beacon.

"...Is it the goddess?" he muttered aloud, his mind racing.

"Have you gone mad?" his secretary shot back, her tone sharp.

"There’s rumors that the demon beast ’Tigris’ has been reincarnated—we’ve even spotted a full-grown Leviathan. It’s just my speculation that the goddess must be alive," he shrugged, brushing off her skepticism.

For context;

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Tigris

Level: Apex Grade 1

Specie: Demon Beast

Appearance: Resembles that of a tiger, standing about 15 feet at the shoulder. Its fur is a deep obsidian-black with luminescent crimson streaks, giving it a fiery, burning appearance in low light. It possesses piercing amber eyes that glow with malevolent intelligence, and retractable claws that shimmer like molten steel. Its tail is long and whip-like, tipped with a barbed spike, and it has a pair of curved, razor-sharp horns on its head.

History

: Several years ago, Tigris first appeared suddenly in the heart of the western region, unleashing chaos and destruction. Its arrival was marked by a brutal killing spree that left towns, forests, and villages in ruin. It showed no mercy to humans, rogues, monsters, beasts, or even seasoned heroes—devouring them all in its relentless hunger. Its inhumane speed made it nearly impossible to track or counter; a single strike of its claws could slash with such ferocity that it left a thousand wounds in an instant. The carnage persisted until a coalition of 20 apex-grade heroes banded together to face the beast. After an intense and grueling battle, they managed to bring Tigris down, though at great cost.

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The secretary scowled at Matthew’s wild rambling. "Stop messing around and just tell me what you saw. This is important."

"I found something, but it’s not directly related to the culprit," Matthew admitted. He hadn’t been able to identify the killer from the tattoo he’d glimpsed. Since that lead was a dead end, he’d shifted focus to tracing the victim, hoping to uncover the motive that way. But even after digging through the past for a couple of days, the only clue pointing to the culprit remained that tattoo. And today, he’d unearthed something even more shocking.

"What is it?" his secretary pressed, leaning in.

"Raphael Forbes... became a Demon," Matthew revealed, his voice low.

"What?" Her face went rigid with disbelief.

Even Matthew could hardly wrap his head around it. "I’m not sure either. But Aamon Forbes wanted to hide this fact, and the examiner who checked his son seemed to have gone along with the request."

Still, it looked like the examiner couldn’t fully abandon his conscience and duty. He hadn’t cremated the real corpse—instead, he’d stashed it in his basement. The body that got burned was a fake, crafted to look exactly like the real one.

"Then... what about the culprit?" the secretary asked, her voice edged with urgency.

"There’s nothing more I can do," Matthew replied, shaking his head. "There’s not much time left, and finding the culprit is beyond my capabilities. It’s impossible. But this tattoo..." He jabbed his finger at the computer screen. It wasn’t so rare that only one existed in the whole world, but it wasn’t exactly common either. "Tell that crippled devil that this is the only evidence. As for the information—"

"Don’t call Sir Jozef ’crippled devil,’ or else he’ll have our heads served on a platter," his secretary snapped, cutting him off.

Matthew just rolled his eyes at her. "As I was saying, the information we found out about Raphael Forbes—encrypt it and archive it in our Scarlet Phantom database."

"W-What if people find out?" the secretary stammered, her eyes wide with worry.

That crippled devil. Jozef Forbes.

After slowly losing his emotions from a side-effect of his Gift, he’d turned into a sociopath, nothing like his old self.

This old man was so terrifying that he could scare even his usually level-headed secretary shitless.

"That’s exactly why we should keep it archived," Matthew said. "Not even that old man can touch Scarlet Phantom easily. Plus, don’t you think we should hold on to the only card we have against him?"

"You want to... fight back?" The secretary asked, her voice trembling.

"No, I wouldn’t say I’m fighting back," he replied.

In Aeonia, there were only a handful who could go toe-to-toe with Jozef Forbes head-on. Maybe some members of the Guardians, or Donovan Killian—who’d died years ago—could’ve pulled it off.

"If I’m killed, it’ll be on you to tell the world," he smirked, gazing out the window. "You’ll get revenge for me, right?"

The scenery outside was outdated, like he was staring at Monfort back in 1900—faded and stuck in time.

’Revenge for me... Revenge...’ He froze, the word echoing in his mind. What if the culprit wasn’t someone who had a grudge against Raphael, but against Jozef himself?

Only one person sprang to mind.

His niece, Whitney, had once asked for a background investigation of...

"I must be really crazy," he laughed, shaking his head to clear the thought. Remillia Lockhart didn’t have the ability to cast such a powerful barrier. If she did, she’d have gone after Jozef directly. After all, a sociopath like Jozef wouldn’t feel much from his grandson’s death.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Friday Afternoon Training

"Hey, Remillia—"

"Do you want to team up?"

"Please be my partner!"

"You don’t have a partner yet, right?"

"I got here first!"

"Would she even choose you?"

It was our last subject of the day: Horde Disruption and Control Protocols. I slipped away from the crowd silently and headed toward Whitney, but she was already paired up with Rex. No choice left—I’d have to pick one of the guys who’d been hounding me. Then someone tapped my shoulder.

"Do you want to team up with me?" Ezekiel asked.

"Gladly," I said, relieved I didn’t have to deal with the others who’d jumped in first.

Just like that, we were partners, drawing envious stares from the rest of the male and female students.

"Alright, hold your partner’s hand and gather in front of the cave!" the instructor barked, his voice echoing across the training grounds.

Obviously, he was just using a figure of speech—no way we’d actually be linking hands like some cheesy team-building exercise. But Ezekiel glanced back and forth between his hand and mine, then hesitantly reached out, only to pause and look up at me with those big, puppy-dog eyes. "Ah, um... Remi..."

"We don’t need to hold hands," I said, catching on that he’d taken the instructor’s words way too literally.

"I-I see," he stammered, letting out a dry cough to cover his embarrassment.

"Alright, line up! Each team will go in, starting from Team 1!" the instructor ordered as we filed toward the cave entrance.

With only fifty students in the class, the cave felt spacious, not at all cramped like you’d expect. We walked for a bit until we hit a ten-way crossroad, each path marked with a sign reading either O or X. The X’s were probably claimed by other teams, so we picked an open one and ventured in.

"Looks like we’re up against snakes," I said, scanning ahead.

"Snakes?" Ezekiel echoed, sounding a bit surprised.

"Yeah, Viperath. There are at least a thousand of them," I replied, my voice steady.

Hiss. Hiss. Hiss.

The hissing grew louder as we approached, the air thick with anticipation.

"It seems like we’ll be graded on how we handle this," he concluded quickly, piecing it together.

"Maybe not," I shrugged. "They’re just snakes. We should be able to take care of them." I pulled out a single dagger, ready for action.

"You’re only using one?" he asked, unsheathing his sword with a practiced motion.

"Yeah," I said, focusing on the path ahead. "You distract them while I look for the queen."

I scanned ahead until my eyes locked onto the queen. She was bigger than the rest, coiled up with five beefy Viperath guards surrounding her. "I’ll draw their attention to you, so wait for my signal before you attack," I instructed.

He nodded, ready.

I hurled my dagger at one of the minions, and instantly, all of them whipped their heads toward us, hissing in unison. "Your turn!" I called out, vanishing to his side.

"Hey—!" His protest cut off as the Viperath swarmed toward him.

"Make sure not to get bitten! Their venom can melt your insides if you don’t have the antidote within a minute!" I shouted back.

With that, I zeroed in on the queen and her guards.