Rei and Dell were led into a sterile, high-walled office where a young official sat trembling, clutching a stack of incident reports. He looked at them as if they were live explosives.
"Please... I need your cooperation," the man stuttered. "I have to document... how you did it. That mountain-sized monster—how did you make it obey you?"
Rei sat down calmly, his white-and-red cloak settling around him. "It's simple. Our enchanted cart failed in the danger zone. I happened to have a rare, single-use ancient talisman designed for monster subversion. I used it to force the beast into a rampage that cleared a path to the city. It worked, didn't it?"
The official leaned forward, his eyes wide. "A talisman capable of controlling a Class-S Titan? Those don't exist in the current registries! Who made it? What was its origin?"
The door swung open before Rei could invent another lie. A man in a pristine white lab coat stepped in, radiating an air of cold, clinical authority.
"Don't fret, officer," the newcomer said. "I can confirm his story. I am Researcher Wells, head of the city's Bio-Research Department. I personally gave that boy a prototype talisman for field testing. It appears the results were... explosive."
The official blinked, stood up, and bowed. "Head Researcher! I didn't realize this was a sanctioned experiment."
Rei tilted his head, sensing the newcomer's heartbeat—it was slow, steady, and lacked the warmth of a normal human. "You did?" Rei asked, his voice neutral.
"I did," Wells replied with a thin smile.
"Yeah... of course you did," Rei said, playing along. Dell looked between them, confused, but a sharp nudge from Rei kept him silent.
Wells sat down and took over the interrogation, feeding the official a complex narrative. He identified Rei as 'Qwell' and Dell as 'Jagy,' two specialized contractors who had been away on a three-month retrieval mission. He even produced forged documents on the spot, dismissing the Chaos Scepter as a "high-output prototype wand" Rei was tasked with bringing back.
Once the paperwork was filed, the three walked out into the crisp evening air of Aurion.
"I didn't expect the red tape to be quite that thick," Wells remarked. Then, without warning, his body began to dissolve. His skin turned into a viscous pool of dark, bubbling blood on the pavement.
"What the—!" Dell jumped back, his tattoos flashing. "Rei, he's melting!"
"It's a clone," Rei said, looking down at the puddle. "The molecular structure was unrefined—likely a blood-construct. It reached its stability limit."
A voice vibrated from the center of the blood puddle. "Excellently analyzed. I knew making you my eternal rival was the right choice."
Rei reached into the bubbling blood and plucked out a small, vibrating Sound Krystallite. "Rival? I don't even know who you are, Wells. I'm not anyone's enemy, and I don't want to be."
"But I have already chosen you, Rei," the voice through the crystal hissed. "I create biological weapons, but in this city of cowards, no one is strong enough to test them. Then I saw what you did at the battle of einn fundur. I saw the weapons the revolutionaries used under your name. I have an inexorable urge to pit my flesh-and-blood creations against your mechanical and magical wonders. It is our destiny to clash."
"My days as a fighter are over, Wells," Rei said, his voice cold. "I'm not building anything, and I'm not fighting you."
"We'll see," Wells' voice crackled. "Did you know that because of your 'grand entrance,' the city has initiated a total lockdown? No one enters or leaves for ten days."
"What's he getting at?" Dell asked, looking worried.
"Wells, don't," Rei warned.
"You're smart, unlike that buffoon next to you," the crystal laughed. "In ten days, when the lockdown is at its peak, I will release a pheromone that will draw every monster in the 'Dead Zone' to these walls. The barrier will shatter. Thousands will die—men, women, children—all because you chose to remain 'passive.' So, what will it be, Hero? Will you build a weapon to stop me, or will you watch this city burn?"
Back in the Astria, at the Soo Mansion, the atmosphere was just as tense. Ben stood before a group of fifty adventurers and travelers, all of whom had been detained for questioning.
"One of you killed Lord Soo," Ben announced, his eyes scanning the crowd.
"This is crazy!" a mercenary shouted. "We have jobs to do! You can't keep us here!"
"You'll be compensated ten gold coins for your time," Young Master Soo said, stepping forward.
"I can earn more than that in an hour!" someone else yelled. They started to move toward the exit, but a line of spear-wielding soldiers slammed their weapons against the floor. The message was clear: stay or die.
As the moon rose to its zenith, Ben signaled the medics. "Check their wounds. The gardener used shears treated with Night Lily extract. Under the full moon, any wound caused by those shears will glow with silver spores."
Before the medics could reach the first row, a man in a dark cloak bolted for the wall.
"Not on my watch," Levi muttered. He drew his pistols and fired three precise shots. The man tumbled to the ground, his legs giving out. Before he could crawl away, Levi was over him, pressing the cold muzzle of a gun into the man's mouth. "Move again, and I'll paint the grass with your brains."
Alya knelt by the fallen man and peeled back his bandage. A brilliant, ghostly silver glow erupted from the jagged gash on his thigh. "Found one," she grinned.
They performed a swift sweep of the rest of the group and found a second accomplice with similar markings.
"The rest are free to go," Ben said, turning to Young Master Soo. "You can handle the interrogation from here?"
"Yes," the Young Master said, his voice heavy with resolve. "Thank you. We will find out who hired them."
Ben, Alya, Levi, and Emilia prepared their cart. They had a lead, but the shadow of the true killer was still looming over the alliance.