Thud!
The body fell into the darkness of the corner in the dilapidated house.
A male with a little beard on his face had disbelief and shock etched on his last moments. It was only a suspicion guided by a strong intuition that there was something suspicious in this place but he never expected it to actually be able to take his life.
His casted shadow rippled restlessly and the spear-like protrusion that pierced through his glabella from behind retreated in the now unmoving body, like a swallow returning to its nest.
"You couldn't have just stayed away, could you? Curiosity mired with overconfidence is indeed a deadly concoction. Tsk! I need to change places now."
An indifferent male voice came from the other side of the corner.
The dark robe on the corpse didn't elicit any apprehension in his tone. Dead men tell no tales so his choice to kill this police officer was inevitable.
Offending others, especially the government, was too easy in their profession so he had long since steeled himself when apprenticing under his mentor.
No risk, no reward!
The shadow of the corpse rippled again, the surface of the cold floor seemed to have been turned into water, submerging the entire being completely underneath.
The body wasn't buried under the floor but was pulverized into dust by the sheer hidden destructive power of the spell. This was a standard spell for physical evidence destruction in the shadow magic discipline.
"Hmm?"
A startled sound came from his mouth. He took out a crystal ball to check the anomaly. He just sensed that his location was being deduced with the help of a medium he had contact with.
Anti-tracking and anti-reconnaissance was something he was very proficient in, or to be precise he had to be otherwise he wouldn't survive long.
"Damn it! How were the surveillance items discovered!?"
"Troublesome! Very troublesome!! If I had known better I shouldn't have tried my luck to take advantage of the chaos!"
The figure stepped out in the moonlight, his towering body no longer wreathed in shadow.
It was the assassin Deep Observer!
Earlier, he had been following his bounty target Russell Auburn but just as he thought it would be a routine day suddenly multiple dark mages clashed with the police.
He then hid even deeper and watched the situation with great interest.
He had no thought of helping fellow assassins from the Deliverance Altar that were caught up in it. Though he hadn't been keeping up with their hatched plots it didn't mean that he didn't understand why they were all gathered with those lunatics.
The dismembered body had necromantic traces but among the hidden forces gathering in this town there was no news of internal strife or falling out with other groups that could have led to a necromancer's death.
Even more so the necessity to make an example so blatantly that was detrimental to their later cooperations.
One person informed another and soon quite a few of the "curious" ones had arrived, mixing among the onlookers and watching the excitement. Death Abyss was now in the spotlight after the stunt they just pulled on the neighboring province so this way of being made an example off greatly stimulated the gossipers.
More wanted to confirm the truth of this unexpected news on behalf of their superiors while others gathered simply to watch Death Abyss's reaction.
To be honest, he was also quite curious what could have caused this but before he could contact others for intelligence, a fight broke out between the two sides, catching him off guard.
Only people with strong disguise spells in the Novice Mage realm that didn't even fear one major realm higher's investigation could possibly be still mixing among the civilians with the risk of a Patrol Officer arriving anytime at the scene, who would undoubtedly sweep the place with Heart Mirror at the first opportunity.
That necromancer in the Adept Mage realm did handle the brat's foul mouth well but unfortunately a short-tempered one was near him that gave them away quickly, leading to a great battle.
It would be a lie to say that he wasn't anxious when he saw his bounty target getting hit by a spell from the Adept Mage necromancer, actually making him think for a second to step in and…
Finish him personally to unlock the silver-class token's restriction!
But against all odds that kid withstood the spell damage. This proved to be a fruitful discovery! If his bounty target possessed a magical item capable of defense against cross realm attacks then he had to appropriately bring out trump cards to ensure foolproofness at the fated moment.
When two Valiant Mages appeared at the same time Deep Observer still chose not to engage but unfortunately that blood sucker somehow discovered his presence, probably one of the strange quirks of blood magic they dabbled in.
That old fogey, a mere wastrel with no future ahead of him, actually dared to threaten him telepathically about falling out with the Deliverance Altar if he didn't besiege the Chief Constable with him.
What he hated most was to be coerced into doing things for others. It brings up bad memories! At that time he made up his mind to backstab the guy by pretending to agree first.
"If you dare pull a trick I have made arrangements to transfer my final memories before death to that exalted being! Choose carefully whether you want to be honest or not!!"
That blood sucker warned him again and also made him finally discard the vicious plan that was churning in his mind.
Old ginger is spicier!
It wasn't without any reason that this old vampire, limited by aptitude and intellect, had still managed to survive this long in the kingdom. His grasp of psychology and caution truly made him feel choked for a second.
Not wanting to offend a dark mage surpassing the Lower Three realms over this small request he decided to cooperate properly. Perhaps he could also take the chance to eliminate Walter, a big variable in his quest to craft an unique death for the target.
Just as he was about to succeed, as if by fate, his sure-kill attack expending a one-time trump card was blocked by a newcomer!
He was about to lose it!
This guy was definitely squatting nearby and only appeared now to snatch a favor. The fact that his stealth was good enough to even keep him oblivious still shocked him greatly.
Also that old coot!
That vampire definitely intended to use him as a pawn to divert Major Ryan's attention. There's no way that he could detect him but not find this guy sneaking nearby. He absolutely refused to believe that everything was a coincidence.
The biggest evidence being that after he used the trump card, he singlemindedly retrieved all his clansmen and ran for his life without even turning back for a glance. So-called besieging together was nothing but a fart!
The bad luck doesn't end here, he got more injuries added to him during the escape even though he hadn't fully recovered from the past ones and now his surveillance items had been discovered so quickly and were being traced back to him.
"What's going on? How come I am so down on luck ever since that incident!? I have been stumbling all the way from the prefecture to this town. Have I been hit by a curse or something?"
Deep Observer fell into a deep doubt.
For a mage walking the path of arcana enlightenment any sudden inspiration couldn't be rashly dismissed. Most of the time it was their fate and fortune in the unseen influencing them in such moments.
His movements, however, didn't pause because of it. He decisively destroyed the crystal ball and used concealment-type spells on himself to shield from being further deduced by clairvoyance spells.
Russell Auburn's house might have become a deathly lure to ensnare him so he prudently decided against making any moves at the moment. At his present severely injured state it would be courting death if he went there.
Since the target has become alerted the assassination difficulty has risen exponentially. This matter could only be put aside for now, at least he had to initially recover from his wounds to be able to initiate any of his redrafted plans.
After confirming the spells taking effect successfully he merged into the dark of the night, away from prying eyes of police and military officers that were patrolling everywhere.
While he was making his way back to a safehouse he collected intelligence from a few unlucky officers stranded in deep alleys without any companion nearby.
Body, mind, and soul, among the three foundations body is the vessel for the soul while mind is the doorway to the soul. Soul is the very core essence of an existence that allows them to "exist" in the world.
So, in order to extract memory the target's mind must be influenced as it was the place where consciousness begins and memory that shapes the existence was hosted.
Thanks to memory extraction spells instead of trying to figure out how to deal with neurons in the brain one can simply attack the mind to collect information much more easily.
Granted that psychic restrictions hadn't been placed to block such prying. Some simply have the effect of a sturdy defense followed by involuntary erasure while more ruthless ones self-destruct the invaded mind in an attempt to harm the invader.
Every poison has its antidote!
However, memory extraction spells could only play a limited role in realms beyond the Lower Three realms as mages become far more difficult to deal with. Guarding the mind from being influenced is one of the focal points for higher arcana realms.
"What!? The smuggling den has been exposed? That idiot, Jason! So many people have been implicated in a single day because of his blind decision."
"What a pity for a resourceful guy! After offending both sides so thoroughly he wouldn't survive for long in this kingdom."
Deep Observer mourned for this poor fool but actually didn't care in his heart.
In a sense, his current predicament all stemmed from Jason's arrogant decision to make an example out of a traitorous subordinate and try to fake the grimoire origin to cover up.
Without the dismembered body his target's patrol team wouldn't have stopped there, no dark mages would had been baited by the necromantic traces leading to their covert gathering to confirm intelligence, and neither the Blood Clan members would have gotten exposed forcing that old man out in the open to rescue them.
Among the black magic factions Blood Clan was infamous for their protective tendency when it came to a clansman's safety. When you beat a young vampire an older one might be on its way, and if you deal with the old one then their ancestor will arrive next.
Compared to other dark mages' indifference when it came to their fellow comrade's lives Blood Clan was indeed very disgusting to fight against when they kept targeting you in droves due to the simple grudge formed from harming their clansman.
It could be seen from how he was threatened to cooperate with the oldie. Their warning to call upon the aid of a far higher realm was no joke. They could indeed have means to contact them and there's a very high chance that the aid will come faster than anyone else.
He might get taught a harsh lesson before his mentor could even come to his rescue. Since his odds weren't looking good he could only compromise at that moment!
Night soon passed and dawn arrived.
Because of martial law Little Clover Town remained gloomy and oppressive, a tension palpable in the air. Civilians and dullards both were hoping for the situation to resolve quickly so that their lives could return to normal.
A ray of sunlight passed the gap in the curtains, waking the young man who was frowning in his sleep.
Russell woke up, his eyelashes trembling slightly before taking in the sight of his bedroom.
"..."
A smile of relief appeared on his face. Looks like he got away scot-free, for now at least.