“Alaran, I thought I said to keep Alhen safe, did I not? It has already been a cycle. Why has he not returned to the church yet?” Father Vincent asked with a deadly glare.

  Alaran stood before the father, who was in his office, looking at him with narrowed eyes.

  “I will look for him,” Alaran responded without explaining.

  Father Vincent froze, his face twitching with anger, and a vein popped out of his forehead and neck.

  “I see that you have forgotten who I am. Let me remind you,” Father Vincent said with a voice that demanded caution.

  In the next second, Alaran opened his eyes widely, the world looking to be in slow motion.

  Inside his mask, his eyes turned a deep shade of blue as he saw in front of him a blur so fast that it seemed to defy the laws of motion.

  He turned his head to the side, each muscle movement calculated and executed efficiently to preserve his life.

  His teeth gritted with strength as he felt a tremendous blow and gust of air manifest where his head would have been.

  The air raged like an uncontrollable tornado, blowing the office door off its hinges and sending it crashing to the ground.

  Alaran stood still as he watched Father Vincent standing in front of him.

  Father Vincent had retracted the hand in a flash, and now he locked eyes with Alaran.

  The anger in those eyes was evident to Alaran, who had his crow mask ripped from his face from the force of the blow.

  His features were now on full display.

  His short, jet-black hair reached his neck, and the right side of his face, trailing from his forehead to his cheeks, was burnt.

  The teeth were sharp and almost fanglike, with some small amounts of hair growing on the side of his cheek.

  Alaran was surprised to see a small trail of blood on his left cheek, trailing down until it reached his chin.

  He quickly wiped it off before focusing his attention on the father, who still had an angry expression, but also looked at him with something else.

  Father Vincent looked at him in disgust, averting his gaze from Alaran’s face.

  “Your face is horrendous. Put on your mask quickly,” he commanded.

  Alaran didn’t show any expression, picking up the mask calmly from the ground.

  His deep blue eyes slowly turned black, his teeth returned to normal, and the hair on his cheek fell to the ground.

  When the reversion process was done, he placed his mask back on without a word.

  “Good, I almost accidentally killed the best tracker in all of Yhia. Find my son; you have two cycles to do so,” Father Vincent said before returning to his chair.

  There was nothing to say.

  Alaran nodded and left through the broken door, leaving the father, who tried to calm down.

  ‘Even with Lord Malthan’s blessing, I was not able to fully see his movements. Being a Sol-ranked hunter is no joke,’ Alaran thought.

  He walked through the prayer-filled hallways until he stood in front of Alhen’s room.

  Alaran opened the door with ease before entering and heading straight for Alhen’s bed.

  He took the sheets that lay on top of it and brought them closer to his nose, smelling them until he had Alhen’s scent ingrained in his mind.

  ‘First step done, now it is time to retrace his steps,’ he thought.

  Alaran threw the covers on the bed before his eyes turned a deep shade of blue once again, and his vision shifted.

  The world around him became an array of colors that shone brightly in front of him.

  A blue path that represented a scent led outside the room, and Alaran followed with brisk steps.

  ‘I cannot afford for Alhen to die. If that were to happen, everything would be lost,’ Alaran thought.

  Failure was not an option, and he would have to work hard to find him fast.

  Alaran exited the church and followed the trail with a discerning gaze.

  For now, there seemed to be no anomalies, but that could change at any second, and he had to be aware of that.

  The trail eventually led him to The Crying Halberd.

  Curiously enough, the trail never went inside the establishment, stopping just a few meters away from it.

  ‘Could he have changed his mind? Something distracted him? Or perhaps trouble met him before he could enter?’ Alaran thought.

  He decided to enter first, start asking the right people questions, and then figure out what happened.

  “Ding!” He entered The Crying Halberd, and all eyes fell upon him.

  Curiously enough, in the corner of the establishment, he saw the siblings Sierra and Sloan, who were talking with frowns on their faces.

  Alaran approached without thinking twice.

  He kept his attention up in case they gave away any information, whether verbal or nonverbal.

  The siblings, noticing his presence, fell silent and stared at him with what he recognized to be fear.

  ‘They could be afraid of me because they have something to hide, or simply because they are intimidated by my presence. I need more information,’ Alaran thought.

  “Greetings, I am searching for my mentee, Alhen. Would you guys by coincidence know about where he might be? He suddenly disappeared recently,” Alaran explained.

  The siblings looked at each other with what seemed to be worry, and Alaran caught on to it quite quickly.

  “I am sorry, but we have not seen him either. We have been searching for him as well,” Sierra responded.

  “Oh, why is that? Why have you been searching for him?” Alaran asked.

  Although his tone seemed innocent, the siblings could hear the hidden meaning behind those words.

  “We have yet to pay him for the contract, and also, we were hoping that he would help us in future contracts. He was very helpful in the last one,” Sloan explained.

  “I see. I am quite curious about what my mentee did on that contract. Would you mind explaining?” Alhen asked.

  Sloan and Sierra looked at each other with complicated expressions before ultimately sighing.

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  “He saved us from being killed by a blessed lesser rank wiht. I do not want to get into much detail because it is a long story, but that is what he did,” Sloan answered.

  ‘The way they breathe, the way they hold themselves, and their expressions. They are hiding something, but they seem to truly not know where Alhen is. I will let them go for now, but will keep an eye on them in case they try anything funny.’

  “Very well, I am done here. We will meet in the future, and I hope that we will be on good terms by then,” Alaran said before retreating from the table.

  After saying his goodbyes, he didn’t immediately leave the establishment.

  He went around to a few specific individuals and started asking questions that would allow him to know more about what had happened to his mentee.

  No matter who he asked, however, they never had something that could satisfy him.

  ‘Seems like it will not be as easy as I imagined. It is time to go with option B,’ Alaran thought.

  He returned outside and followed the two scents, passing through many buildings and houses until he reached a dilapidated building close to the Lunar district.

  Alaran looked to his left and saw the walls that enclosed it.

  The entrance was right around the corner as well.

  Without a word, he walked until he was just in front of the building and closed his eyes, focusing on his hearing.

  It was faint, but there were sounds of feet touching the floor and hushed conversation.

  ‘Seems that I will have to dirty my hands for this. Based on their footsteps and energy, they should not be of a high rank,’ Alaran thought.

  He went to open the door, and surprisingly, it did.

  The door creaked open, and he entered without any care.

  As soon as he did, he could hear the sounds completely stop, but he didn’t need them to know where they were.

  ‘I have already mapped their locations in my mind. If they move, I will be able to sense it and deal with it before it becomes a problem,’ Alaran thought.

  The air was damp, and the building seemed to be in a horrible condition.

  Alhen’s smell inside was strong, way too strong.

  Alaran followed the trail until it led him to a solitary door.

  When he opened it, the inside was bare; there was no furniture or objects inside, and the smell deepened.

  ‘Very well, this proves that Alhen was captured. The way his smell emanates and lingers in the room, I have seen it before countless times,’ Alaran thought.

  He breathed a sigh of relief, and as he turned to leave, his ears perked as he heard some movement on the upper floor of the building.

  Multiple sounds manifested on the first floor, and they were heading straight for his location.

  ‘Time to get more information out of these people,’ Alaran thought before leaving the room.

  He heard a gasp right beside him and turned his head to look.

  A group of ten people stood before him, wielding swords and revolvers.

  They took a threatening posture and looked at Alaran with contempt.

  “I do not know what you were thinking, barging into this place like this, but it was the biggest mistake of your life.”

  “Surrender yourself willingly to us, and we will consider leaving you alive,” the man who appeared to be the leader spoke.

  The man was small, resembling a bulky dwarf.

  He had a short, red beard and black hair that contrasted with each other, and muscles that hugged his figure tightly.

  Alaran laughed, having to look down to meet the man’s eyes.

  A vein manifested on the man’s forehead as he gritted his teeth.

  He struggled to hold his anger, and after a few seconds, he yelled, “You are dead!”

  The men raised their revolvers and pointed at Alaran, who scoffed at the action and didn’t move a muscle.

  Before they could shoot, however, the short man raised his hand, and they stopped their actions.

  The short man took a deep breath and exhaled, his expression becoming tame.

  ‘He seems to be the leader, which means that he is probably who I need to keep alive. I know his type, the type to break easily after some pain,’ Alaran thought with a nasty grin.

  “You almost died because of my anger. I have to become better at controlling myself,” the short man commented.

  “Does a short boy with black hair, fancy-looking thuls, and hunter attire ring a bell? I want to know where he is. If I get what I am searching for, I will not have to kill anyone here,” Alhen reassured.

  The men looked at each other with confused expressions before laughing heartily.

  It took a few seconds for them to calm down, having lowered their guards almost completely.

  “And who in the Korghus might you be? Let me tell you who I am, my name is Igor, a trusted ally of the Sun family,” Igor said.

  “I have never heard about you,” Alaran said before smiling under his mask and taking a step forward.

  All the men became alerted and fired their guns only when Igor gave them the signal to do so.

  “Bang!” Multiple gunshots made their way towards Alaran’s figure at astounding speeds.

  To Alaran, however, these bullets seemed slower than a snail.

  Under his masks, his eyes became bluer, now resembling a precious gem, and his pupils dilated and became slits.

  He avoided every single shot with finesse, barely moving each time to avoid them with as little movement as possible.

  His body wasn’t moving fast, only his perception, which had increased.

  The men shot at him until they ran out of bullets.

  When this happened, Alaran stopped just in front of Igor, who looked shocked at what had happened.

  “Give me an answer to my question, I will give you five seconds to do so,” Alaran said before starting his countdown.

  Igor gritted his teeth before swinging his sword with expertise at Alaran’s neck.

  The strike was quick and powerful.

  It was aimed at Alaran with such precision that if it were anybody else, it would have gotten them, but not him.

  Alaran, with his bare hands, took the thul with his palms, stopping it completely in its motion.

  He then bent it carefully under the shocked eyes of Igor until it broke, landing with a loud clang on the ground.

  “Are we done yet?” Alaran taunted.

  The men behind him went to rush at Alaran, but Igor yelled out loud, surprising them and stopping their charge.

  “Stop!” The area turned silent, and his men looked at him with confusion.

  “That was something very wise of you to do, I would have killed all of your men otherwise,” Alaran said, breaking the silence.

  “I am not stupid enough to think that I can defeat you,” Igor said.

  Alaran stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.

  “Unfortunately, I do not have the answer to your question. I am aware that the boss had brought a kid, but we were not allowed to see him for the remainder of the time that he was here,” Igor said as he shook his head.

  “Hahaha!” Alaran smiled at his words and then began laughing heartily in the midst of the frowning men.

  “Now I am beginning to regret calling you smart. Did you think you would be able to trick me with an obvious lie like that? I can smell your intentions, and right now, you made me mad.”

  With those words, Alaran’s body began contorting and twisting in all sorts of directions.

  “Crack!” Bones popped and snapped, realigning themselves in ways that were sickening to the sight.

  “Do not let him complete whatever he is doing! Attack!” Igor yelled, snapping out of his stupor.

  All the men rushed at him, and this time, they didn’t stop.

  They raised their swords to the air, and some stayed behind reloading their revolvers.

  Igor thrusted his broken sword into Alaran’s neck and hit nothing but air.

  Alaran seemed to have teleported from how fast he moved.

  He now knelt many feet away with his hands on the floor, and his expression didn’t change despite the changes happening in his body.

  It was painful, way too painful, but he didn’t make a sound, keeping his eyes all the time fixated on his enemies.

  He grew in size and became taller than he already was.

  Before his mask was ripped apart, he took hold of it and threw it to the ground beside him.

  His clothes ripped, but somehow still held on to his growing frame.

  His nose elongated until it became a snout, and hair started coming out of his body in a fast manner.

  Igor reached Alaran in seconds and aimed to cut his head off, but Alaran bit the sword as it approached his neck, and this time destroyed it for good.

  “Damn it! Everyone, fall back!” Igor screamed.

  The rest of the transformation was over in moments.

  He now stood at ten feet tall, having become a beast, and looked at everyone, breathing heavily.

  “This transformation, there is no mistaking it. You are a follower of Lord Malthan, are you not? To think that there was still someone alive who worshipped him, that has his power, that could only mean one thing. You ar-”

  Igor didn’t have time to finish.

  Alaran disappeared from his view and heard many screams behind him.

  He widened his eyes, and when looking back, Alaran stood in the middle of his men, tearing them in half with his claws.

  ‘I cannot win!’ Igor exclaimed in his mind.

  He stood petrified, watching the carnage going on before him with wide eyes.

  Igor hesitated for a second before eventually deciding to run away.

  ‘It is not the most honorable thing to do, but who cares about that? I will have to escape the kingdom not to be punished by Kalle, but at least I will retain my life,’ the man thought.

  He ran with all his strength, leaving the dilapidated building in a hurry and traversing the streets with frantic steps.

  “Huff! Huff!” Igor breathed heavily and didn’t look back.

  ‘That man, he was… did I see wrong? There is no way that he could be alive. I still cannot believe that a dead man could come to life, unless he never died at all.’

  Igor gritted his teeth with strength.

  ‘Damn it! I just had to run into him for whatever reason. Considering what they did to him, it makes sense that I saw him.’

  ‘If the official statement given regarding what happened was a lie, then that means… yeah, I would be out for revenge as well,’ Igor thought.

  He arrived just outside the walls leading to the forest in a blur.

  To avoid causing a commotion, he left through the front door after showing the guards his identification.

  “Tang!” The door opened.

  ‘Very well, I am out. I am not an idiot to think that staying in the kingdom where the best tracker in all of Yhia is out for you is a good idea.’

  ‘Kalle is relatively low rank in the royal family; he is not a fighter and will not be able to protect me.’

  ‘The other royal members would never agree to protect me as well… unless I give them information that the man they thought dead was alive and causing trouble for them.’

  A smile made its way up his face, but then it dropped fast.

  “I should have thought of that before leaving the city. Now I have to go back,” Igor said, looking at the closed gates in front of him.

  “Yes, it is a shame that you did not stay in the city; you would have had higher chances in there,” a voice rang out from behind him.

  He turned around with wide eyes and was met with a big, hairy hand grabbing his neck and lifting him into the air.

  “Guhh!” Igor struggled to breathe against the deadly grip of the beast.

  It was Alaran, and he smiled wickedly, looking excited for what was about to happen.

  “Very well, now, you and I will have some fun, and you will tell me everything you know about a certain dark-haired boy.”

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