CH 21 - Homecoming

Alex

The church's three bells chime in an angelic tune, signaling the curfew in Asylum. For a month now, the people of this quiet little town have been the victim of a serial killer. It started with a man, a former adventure, by the name of Damien. He was found dead in his home, throat ripped open and teeth marks aplenty covering his body.

From what I hear, it remains the bloodiest crime scene of the case, almost a crime of passion compared to the meticulous attacks that have come after. The victims have nothing in common, but that is simply because of Damien. He is the only nonmage of all the bodies found. The rest have all been magic users, but the age, race, and ability all differed.

The town guard have been running themselves ragged searching for signs of the killer, as well as those that have gone missing. Multiple young boys have gone missing, which might have been a clue, and even led the investigation to the first missing person, someone who yet again broke the pattern. Damien's wife, Leah, has not been seen or heard of since all this began, and even a few months before that.

The guard had been certain they had their culprit, but after asking the neighbors about the missing wife, a former priestess of the church, they learned it very much couldn't be her. She had apparently fallen ill with some rare disease a year prior, one the town doctor couldn't identify. Her husband had been working himself to the bone trying to pay for treatments and medications and even magical healing, but nothing had been working. Why Leah had been taken is unknown, but all evidence told she is far too weak to ever kill anyone.

I am the A-rank adventurer known as Alexander the Blade, Sword Paladin. Born in Kyudo, I was personally asked by Lord Arthur Apollo to come investigate, though he was evasive with his reasoning, to say the least. In the end, all I learned was that the first victims had some connection to a friend of his, so he wanted this settled quietly.

I've been here a week now, and so far I've got nothing. There have been eleven confirmed dead, four missing boys, and one mystery surrounding a missing person too sick to walk. But the investigation itself is at a standstill.

Each kill happens where it happens, meaning there is no pattern. Three people were attacked in the streets at night, four in the local inn and tavern, the Noble's Respite, and the rest in their homes.

They weren't quiet kills, and the guard tends to be called within moments of the attack thanks to their vigilant patrols, but every time, they are too late. They keep finding the same scene.

A bite to the neck, the jugular ripped out and eaten. No other wounds, and surprisingly little blood. It was like our cannibal cares less for the meat, but rather craves the blood of the victim.

I've yet to spot any sign of them as of yet, even though tonight, I was the first one on scene. I look down at the young woman lying in the street. A lady of the night, likely out looking to try and make some money from one of the stressed out guards. Business must be pretty slow right now.

By the look of her, she never met any such individual tonight, having run into the killer first. I can see the fear that remains in her lifeless eyes, and whisper a prayer to send her off. "Oh goddess Joy, please ease her suffering, allow her happiness in another life. Oh God Death, if she is not permitted another chance, then please, help me bring her killer to face your gentle touch. Great Order, allow me to be the tool of your justice."

I look over her body, trying to remain as respectful as I can be, as I wait for the town guard to arrive. Nothing new. Her body is without markings of any kind except for the neck-

"Hold on, what have we here?"

Dainn

We decided to take horses for our journey, keeping supplies small and planning for resupply stops on the road. Cass had agreed to join us, and so we're a party of four still, despite miss Eifa's departure.

The trip has been rather pleasant so far, if not horrendously slow. I have yet to tell Emilia that this journey to the capital will be the end of a chapter for us, and I'm having a hard time finding what to say. The truth is, I don't know what there is to say. She is my friend, of course, and I will do anything to make her happy. But is there any merit to all the snide comments, the little jabs about the two of us?

I'm realizing I don't know what love is. I can't recognize it, or even tell the difference between it and regular old platonic affection. I had pursued a total of three women in my past life, and yet, I can confirm I had done so out of peer pressure more than anything else. And worse, none of them had ended well at all.

Hopefully, getting to talk to my parents will provide me something. Closure, inspiration, an epiphany? I don't know what I'm expecting, but I have this feeling inside that I have a chance to fix something within myself, to mend part of my broken soul.

The trip took us a little less than a week, and that's with us slaying a pack of rapid wolves, stopping a stampeding group of cows, and preventing the robbery and murder of a group of apprentice blacksmiths headed to Vatica. We liked them so much, Emilia wrote a letter of introduction for her father.

We arrive in Asylum early in the afternoon, stopping at The Noble's Respite to get some rooms for the night, named because Asylum is connected to every major road in Nubia, so nobles travelling anywhere within the kingdom are highly likely to make the stop. In short, for a town as small as Asylum, known only for its farmland that produces enough crops to supply half of Nubia alone, the inn is rather expensive.

It is highway robbery, to be frank, especially since it is the only inn in town. While Gauss is getting things sorted with the proprietors, I sneak away with Emilia and Cass on my heels. I'll be honest, while I am certainly no stranger to hateful glances, I was tired of the constant stink eye from the frat boy posing as a mage, and old habits are rising up. Habits that involve me imagining what I might find if I cut him open by the gut and pull his entrails out slowly.

I am in Asylum for one reason, so I see no point in putting it off. I found my way home easier than I thought, my memories as fresh as if I were here just yesterday. Some things had changed, others not so much. The town blacksmith, once nothing more than a shop offering simple repairs for tools and basic equipment, now offers handcrafted weapons and armor. The florist shop has somehow managed to remain in business, though half the shop was now taken up with a contract office, which is the Craigslist of this work. Need a contractor? Gardner? P.I.? Then you need to post with the contract office.

The most surprising change, however, was the boarded up doors to my parents townhouse, the sign reading: "DO NOT ENTER! AREA APART OF ONGOING INVESTIGATION!"

SNAP! goes something inside.

I can feel something in me call out looking at the sign. Is this dread? Fear? Anxiety? Whatever it is, I hate it.

"Dainn?"

I feel a hand on my shoulder. My mind doesn't even register who spoke. I reach out a hand and use Green magic to command the wood to split like the red sea, ignoring the boards and sign altogether.

"Dainn, wait!"

I don't. I walk into my first home in this world, using Green magic to reach my consciousness out through the floorboards and search for anyone that may be inside the building. I don't sense anyone, but I do detect something upstairs that I can only describe as red, dry, and sticky.

Blood?

I feel something cold, hard, and sharp touch the nape of my neck. The tip of a sword. "This area is off limi-"

I am in no mood. I speed boost, draw my sword, and turn, batting away the weapon threatening me.

It is a boy, about fifteen years old, with sandy blonde hair and black eyes. He wears a steel breastplate over adventuring attire. I see the badge of a Paladin on his cloak.

"Leave," I growl. "I have more right than any to be here."

He tenses, and I can feel his fighting spirit. His bloodlust isn't murderous, having more of a disable-the-enemy feel about it. I don't care. He is in my way.

He doesn't leave. "Listen, if that's true, then let us-"

I dash forwards with the speed of lightning, igniting my blade in blue flames. His eyes go wide as he raises his short sword with insane reflexes to block my strike. "I said leave!" I cut straight through his blade, ten inches of steel clanging to the floor. I put the tip on my blade millimeters from his throat, allowing my flames to recede so as to not burn him, at least not too horribly. "I won't ask again."

He smirks. Then, with speed matching mine, and without magic no less, he grabs my wrist, disarms me, and flips over me. I lift myself up with the wind, and ready to skewer him with the floor itself, when he kicks me straight out the front door, into the street outside. I look up to see Cass and Emilia staring at me with shock and concern.

"Dainn, calm down, please," Emilia asks, her voice soft and pleading.

"I can't stop. I need to see. I'll kill anyone that gets in my way!"

Cass is trying to talk to the other boy, pleading for him to stand down. "Please, sir. He is just a little overwhelmed right now, but believe me, you do not want to fight him!"

"I'm sorry," he says in return, not looking at her, but at me. Smart, I am already gathering my magic to delete this mongrel. "But I was sent here by Lord Apollo himself, and I will not let him taint what little evidence we have!"

He takes a single step, closing thirty feet in a moment, giving me half a second to react. Plenty of time thanks to my buff. I unleash a Royal Silver Eldritch Slash, forming shadows into ten squid-like tentacles with blades where the suckers would be.

I see him falter as he realizes what he threw himself into, going from trying to land a pommel bash to my temple to having to block, dodge, and parry an onslaught I designed to fight four of my instructors all at once.

He is overwhelmed quickly, taking cuts to his arms, legs, and face. I leave his breastplate completely untouched, my way of toying with him like the pet he is. He manages to slice through two of my tendrils, but I simply reconnect the instant he does so. He truly is a pathetic thing, and so I decide it is time to end his miserable existence.

He falls to one knee, panting after three intense seconds of futile resistance. I fuse the ten arms into one, changing my magic from silver to blue, drawing the moisture from the air itself to create the base. I then summon Green magic to blast it with wind creating ice. Finally, I give it a singular, guillotine sized blade. It is my Royal Teal Combo spell, and I call it Glacial Crash.

And crash it does, as I bring it slamming down on his ne-

"Dainn! You're scaring me!"

I stop just short of committing a murder in the streets of my hometown, the ice so close I've drawn blood at the nape of his neck. I look at Emilia, who is crying, Cass holding her.

Reality comes crashing down on me as I come to my senses. The town guard has arrived, clearly hesitating to make any moves. They are scared. As are the townsfolk watching my tantrum unfold.

I feel magic in the area, a powerful spell being prepared nearby. I turn to see, when I spot Gauss blasting a beam of Royal Gold magic directly at me. I am caught unawares, and go flying into the brick outer walls of the row of townhouses.

The last thing I remember before passing out from the sudden trauma is the light turning to chains and binding me like the monster I am.