The people at the party were unconscious, even the musicians on stage had lost consciousness, knocked out by Lewin, who stood in the middle of the stage looking at the unconscious ordinary people before her, due to her colleagues who had gathered around a person holding a woman in his arms, before she disappeared and reappeared near them swiftly.
"Is everyone unconscious?" asked Loughart while holding that woman in his arms.
"Yes, Commander!" replied a muscular person, none other than Steve, who was carrying Lady Shane on his back.
"Yes!" replied all ten members, but one person was missing among them! He was now at the location of the powerful energy in the north, and there were people spread out around a circle with a 50-meter radius extending to the church grounds.
"Sir! I will prioritize protecting Lady Shane!" said Steve, looking at Loughart.
"But it's dangerous to move alone! The killer might change course and suddenly target you!" said Loughart seriously.
"Trust me, sir!" replied Steve.
"Alright, you may, but you must take Lewin with you!" Loughart said while looking at the cold-faced Lewin.
"Your order, Commander!" the two said before suddenly disappearing.
Loughart looked at the eight remaining members, including himself, and said, "Then! Spread out across the area to corner that serial killer and prevent him from pursuing Lewin and Steve! Also, to prevent any unwanted intervention! After you return the citizens to their homes!" Loughart shouted while looking at the person calmly smoking his pipe, named Simon!
"Simon! Do it!" Loughart said, looking at the pipe in Simon's mouth.
"Your order, Commander!" he said in a cold voice… as the pipe began emitting thick, dense smoke that covered everything in the city center, even the people there.
That artifact, extracted from the corpse of a Level 3 individual named "Steam Illusion".. had been sealed before its abilities could manifest on the bearer… and Simon had been trained on it.
And this smoke! was from the abilities of that artifact! It could trap people in an eternal illusion within it, and was also used to transport opponents to any place the user desired! Using this ability, the user could enter the memories of targeted individuals and find out where they spent most of their time in their lives, provided it was a location within a 600-kilometer radius. It also acted as a giant smoke shield capable of repelling attacks from enemies up to Level 4.
Its side effects were that it could only transport four power-bearers at a time, provided none were above Level 3. The most dangerous flaw was that the bearer of this artifact had to smoke from it for their entire life; if they didn't smoke for three hours, they would turn into smoke and merge with the clouds in the sky… Also, its user was weak against individuals who used wind or storm-based abilities.
But Steve had managed to negate the last flaw! By possessing the Path of Elemental Bearer! He was at Level 3, Tier 3, and could harness some of nature's abilities for his benefit!
"Transport!" Steve shouted while also emitting steam from his mouth, which mixed with the artifact's smoke and carried people on small clouds, moving them through streets and buildings toward their homes.
"Go! I'll take care of transporting these people! And you all go and help Guther. I feel he might be killed soon," Simon said, gritting his teeth from the artifact rapidly draining his overall bodily energy.
'Hmm. I have no relation to that Guther; he always looks at me lustfully, so I hate him. Unlike my beloved Pingy, despite my attempts to seduce him, he hasn't fallen!' Lizzie thought in her mind and said, "Are you sure?" she asked, looking at Simon's condition.
"Yes!" Simon said confidently.
Loughart didn't say anything, just looked at the cloud that took the woman from his hand, grabbed the hesitant Lizzie, and then disappeared with her, followed by the remaining members except Simon.
"Thank you, Commander!" Simon said gratefully.
"Why didn't you expose us?" asked James, who was walking beside Xiao Ping, who was rubbing the back of his neck in pain. He said, "I don't think you couldn't sense the anomaly when this artifact was activated, right?"
"Perhaps because you two showed no hostile intent towards us!" said Simon, pushing his energy more intensely to carry more people.
"And why do you think that!?" James asked him while looking at him.
"That's just intuition!" Simon said before continuing, "How could anyone who hides their power like you two, and blends among ordinary people with such skill, harbor any ill intentions towards us!"
"I think you have it backwards! If we are hiding our power from you, doesn't that mean we have bad intentions towards you?" asked Xiao Ping while adjusting his black hat and pulling his black glove to make it tight on his hand.
"No, I didn't reverse it! If you truly wanted to harm us from the beginning!, you wouldn't have waited until now or performed that act on stage!" Simon said, emitting more smoke from his body. 'I'm not surprised by that boy's ability to hide his power because he's at the mid-tier of intermediate levels! And he seems as strong as the Commander, or even stronger!' Simon thought to himself before saying, "I'm surprised by you, young man! You seem like a beginner, but why can you control your energy with such skill?" Simon asked Xiao Ping, who was now standing before him with James.
'So he also noticed what Xiao Ping is capable of while still being a beginner, as if he were a mid-tier individual!' James thought to himself and waited for Xiao Ping's answer.
"Why should I tell you?" Xiao Ping replied coldly, while wiping the traces of Lizzie's lipstick from his cheeks.
'I forgot he's a cautious demon, even if a woman had him under her thumb moments ago!' James thought to himself, looking at Xiao Ping, before shifting his gaze to Simon.
"You're right! That's something I shouldn't know!" Simon said, looking at Xiao Ping, then continued, "I'd better say we all have secrets no one should know!"
James looked at Simon and smiled, saying, "Since you didn't expose us... that puts us in your debt for a favor!"
'What? We owe him a favor! This isn't a favor since he offered it himself! I suggest we kill him now!' Xiao Ping communicated telepathically in James's mind… He felt that the more he used it, the more proficient he became.
'Don't be so ungrateful for a favor! There's a saying by the Prince: 'If you can't return a favor, don't deny it!' So we must repay it,' James's voice was heard in Xiao Ping's mind. James didn't mention the terrifying power of this artifact.
'Huh! The Prince said that?' Xiao Ping was shocked because he felt this saying was extremely familiar to him, increasing his suspicions about the Prince. James didn't hear Xiao Ping's last words because he wasn't using telepathy, and assumed Xiao Ping agreed.
"Thank you!" James bowed while grabbing Xiao Ping's hand and pulling him along.
"Don't mention it! And I'll wait for the day you repay this favor!" Simon said as he saw the duo pass by his side.
'He's exploiting us at the first opportunity! Over a simple favor!' Xiao Ping was furious internally, while removing James's hand from his arm. He asked James, "Where are we going?"
"We're going to catch that killer!" said James, looking at the clock hands before him.
"But there are many official power-bearers here! And I don't expect these officials to ignore us; they might consider us among the killers, as I told you before," Xiao Ping said while activating his ability. He saw many silver threads moving above numerous houses and shops under the light of that crimson moon.
The steam emanating from that artifact was diminishing, allowing him to see better and not have his vision obscured by the artifact's effects.
Suddenly, James squatted on the ground, and Xiao Ping stood directly behind him.
"We don't need to worry about that!" James said, placing his hand on the ground and feeling it, then raised his head towards Xiao Ping and continued, "Because we're a duo of foolish detectives who won't care about such trivial matters!" He smiled strangely at Xiao Ping.
"Yeah, that's convincing!" Xiao Ping said, placing his hand on his chin, but quickly added with concern, "But what do you mean by foolish? And what's with this strange smile!"
"Haha, nothing, but I wanted to ask you something: Are you good at flying?" James asked in a strange and suspicious manner.
"No, why do you ask?" replied Xiao Ping, feeling something bad was about to happen.
"Haha, hold on tight then!" James looked at Xiao Ping, his eyes gleaming with amusement.
That look caused Xiao Ping... to be surprised for a second before understanding its meaning and his suspicions were confirmed, but he was faster and sat down, clinging to the ground.
"Yes... I like your sharp intelligence!" James praised Xiao Ping's action loudly and continued, "Here we go, Pingy, hold on tight!" James pushed.
"I will definitely kill you-----ahhhhhhhhh" Xiao Ping wanted to threaten James, but as he was about to utter his last words... they were replaced by a scream because they flew into the sky using a piece of ground, circular in shape, with many small rocks falling from it towards the earth below them.
...
End of Chapter~ To be continued