Besides the upcoming elections, the yearly Science Exhibit was only a day away from when Sordido Palladium was found lying in the Student Council Head office.
Pavone’s eyes widened when he saw his brother passed out on the floor, waking him up. He saw the mark on his neck.
Using his Mage Focus, he had undone the paralyzing effect.
“Cough! Cough!” Sordido caught his breath. “Where is she!?”
“Where is who?” Pavone furrowed his brows. “What are you doing in my office?”
“The benefactor….. Big Brother, I t the benefactor. They approached in the form of a Simian girl candidate.”
Pavone’s expression further darkened at this. “And you brought them here?”
“I didn’t! They have your key!” Sordido shook his head repeatedly. “I tried to paralyze them but my vision suddenly got dark and…. and…”
Pavone nodded. “It’s really them. Sordi, I told you to spy on them, not get involved directly with them. They’re too dangerous.”
“I know, but I thought I got them fooled. How in the Abyss did they even know about the paralyzing stone!? Not to ntion….”
“They know about us, Big Brother.”.
The Head of the Council usually wears a calm, dignified face. But this ti…..
His face turned into sothing scarier than a wild beast.
“What did you say?” His grip over Sordido’s neck tightened. “How? How did they know?”
Sordido’s gray skin turned maroon from his blood rising to his face. “Big… Brother…. You’re hurting ….”
“Again. How did they know? Did you tell them?”
“No! Cough…. I’d never…. I promised never to tell anyone… Believe , Big Brother…..”
Pavone stared coldly at his brother’s eyes, none of that familial warmth he usually had.
But eventually, he let go.
Sordido was telling the truth. He knows this boy well enough to tell if he lies.
He let go, and gently massaged the marks he made on his neck.
“Alright. I believe you. After all, I trust that little Sordi would never do anything to make mad.”
Sordido gasped for breath, his eyes a little teary. “Thank you, Big Brother…”
“They may have truth-gaining skills like Councillor Verita, that’s why they found out.” Pavone concluded.
“But they can also shapeshift… bring darkness….. Brother, what is this benefactor, really? No one can have several Mage Focuses at once.”
Pavone rubbed his chin. “Whatever they are, or what their powers are, I can still defeat them. I can turn off their Mage Focus….. unless they are a Hero Mage.”
“Which is unlikely. What Celestial god would bestow a blessing on soone this evil?”
Sordido then rembered Zeriav’s ramblings. His brother told him about how this priest believes he was being possessed by Abyssal daemons.
“What if it’s not a human at all, brother? What if truly was a daemon from the Abyss…”
“That’s not possible, Sordi.” He sighed. “Daemons are down in the Abyss and not powerful enough to climb all the way here. The only daemons in this upper planes…”
“Are those who are not useful and filthy Commoners.”
He went to rummage at his desk drawers.
“I rember now. There had been such daemon in our midst.”
“Who?” Sordido peeked behind him.
“A Commoner fiend. I cannot recall his na, but his files must be here. Father hands a copy of all the student’s files as I requested.”
But as he looked through, he then frowned. “Where are my statents?”
“Statents?” Sordido blinked.
“The statents that I have compiled this vacation.”
Sordido rembered now. They were the papers his brother threw at him once to prove his point that no one in the Avians can ss with him.
He shook in fear. “They must have taken it….. They wanted to look into your files as well to incriminate you….”
“Gods be damned!” Pavone kicked his drawer. “Quickly, they must have taken it to sell to the Simians or to Lovushka!”
They left the office, and Pavone never did find out what that Commoner fiend’s na was.
————————
The mont Vyrill saw a dark figure go inside his laboratory, his shoulders imdiately went tense and the scalpel he was using to dissect a cat almost fell.
“Tomorrow is the big day, Professor.” Ronin said, taking off his cloak’s hood.
“Where have you been?” He asked, not daring to look at him directly.
“I should ask you the sa question. I noticed you have been avoiding ever since that day, Professor.” He went over to the tal tray with the cat’s carcass. “Did you dislike ?”
Vyrill did not answer, focusing on the dead rather than this…. this thing that he could not even tell if it was a living human or…. sothing else.
“You never called out to experint anymore. Do you no longer want to be your assistant?” He just continued to ask.
Vyrill shook his head. “That’s not it.”
“I saw the truth. The truth that you made see. Anyone else who gets slain by you will be cursed with that truth.”
Ronin just raised an eyebrow. “What truth?”
“The things you made see…. The darkness. I have seen it so clearly. It is ever so present.”
Professor Vyril Krustal continued to slash through the animal in a daze, slashing and slashing until the blood went to his eyes, but did not care.
“We have been fooled by the sun for so long. We have co to believe the light, but it is actually the darkness that ca first. When the sun disappears, there is only the night.”
“Endless night for eternity…. Nothing but black. It watched over us all, it is within us, within our shadows…. tailing, stalking, and then…..”
“It strikes.”
The blood splattered to Ronin as well, but he just licked it.
“You should leave tomorrow’s exhibit to , Professor. We can’t have you prattling on and on about ‘darkness’ and destroy this research that you have worked all your life for, right?”
“Your whole life’s work…. Would you waste it away just for this thing you saw that I am not even aware of?” Ronin tilted his head to the side.
“This research that’s closest to your…. Heart.” He grinned, as he pointed at the professor’s chest.
Vyrill tumbled back from fear, holding up the scalpel to Ronin. He looked hysterical, shaking like a leaf.
Ronin just went to his side, squatting down with a smile….
“I have a companion that will help tomorrow. You can take a rest for the whole day, Professor. Thank you for all your hard work.”
And he slamd the paralyzing stone to his neck!
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