Chapter 2: The Cornerstone (Narrated by Abel Lee)
The goddess stared at me with her gypsum eyes. Like other parts of her body, the corners of her eyes were adorned with spider's webs. The first time I saw her, I thought she was only an ordinary Hellenic-styled statue. However, when I paid more attention, I noticed that she was the goddess in the story I used to hear when I was a little kid.
"I've never thought the story was real," I whispered, still admiring the beautiful face of the goddess that was clouded by anger and to her long index finger which she pointed toward something, or someone.
Alexa turned her head, frowned. "What was?"
I pointed toward the goddess. "Her..."
Alexa's pair of blue-sky eyes shed confusion whilst she frowned even more.
"The story about this goddess," I explained. "She had three children from two husbands. The eldest was born from an immortal husband, and the younger twins from a mortal man."
"And you recognized the goddess from...?"
Seeing that Alexa seemed interested to hear the full-story, I dragged her closer to the statue. I pointed the goddess' hand.
"This pose was taken from the scene when the goddess put curse to her first and second son who accidentally killed their youngest brother. On that same moment, she also cast curse to the trickster deity who gave witchcraft to her second son and tricked the youngest to sacrifice himself in order to stop his brothers from fighting. I've heard about the story when I was a kid."
Alexa gave me a stern look. Her blue eyes locked on me, but with different intention as they were before. She brushed off a strand of her chin-long, straight red hair from her temple and put her hand on my shoulder. The bony yet strong hand of hers pushed me down until I bent my knee to level my height with her petite body. Her thin red lips formed a bow, which both ends nearly touched her dimpled chin.
I could only grin.
"Listen, Abel Lee...," she said. "The story, as good as it is, is a myth. Myth is equivalent with none-that-it-matter with our business here! If you do have some leisure to sightseeing and observing statues at this so-called museum, it would be better if you turn on your 'radar vision' and start to scan this place. Then, please..., please find that culprit Balin so we can return to HQ as soon as possible..."
"You said you wanted to know," I protested, but caved in for her plea.
I turned on my so-called 'radar vision'. I saw my own reflection on a silver shield of a medieval warrior statue, witnessing how my iris colour changed from black to silver with specks of green.
Please do not get shocked with this slight change. This was how my power work. To be honest, Alexa and I were not ordinary humans. We called ourselves Esper. We possessed supernatural or ESP power, to be exact. Alexa, for example, was an Animorpher. She could transform into any kind of animal shape, like any kind. In one transformation, she could morph different parts of her body into different kind of animals' anatomy. There was this one time when she morphed into a buffalo with a rhino body, yet had claws of a lion and a bear. Oh, did I mention about the gator's tail to complete her transformation?
I had had always think that she was a genius.
I, myself, had this 'radar vision'. Its function was more or less similar with the combination of infrared and thermal vision. The difference, however, I did not use it to have visual in darkness, but to see the 'other' sphere of this world. Well, maybe similar with spiritual world, but it wasn't packed with ghosts or spirits. Ordinary men might not realize that they were sharing their existence with creatures called 'Balin', a zombie-like creature. There were ordinary people who were not born with natural super-power such as ours, but were able to master alchemy and witchcrafts. They were sorcerers. Such kind of people were whom we deemed responsible for the creation of these so-called Balins.
History had always tracked record of some humans who tried to play god. After millennia of failure inventing technologies to create human or to properly clone one, some maniacs turned their attention to the alchemy and witchcraft. Eventually, a decade ago, one of them managed to create this Balin.
I had never witnessed the creation of Balin (which I preferred to call 'it' as it), but from the textbooks I read during my study at the Esper academy, I knew that a sorcerer could create a Balin by preserving a dead body which heart they replaced with crystal. This crystal was the crucial element. It wasn't your ordinary crystal, but a crystallized stone created from their magic power and knowledge of alchemy. Each crystal was crystallized using different methods, thus made each Balin unique. These Balins also possessed artificial intelligent, came from combination of the old memory of their past lifetime and additional intelligent infused by their 'creator'. Apparently, the crystal planted inside these Balins' body was not merely useful to make them came to life, but also to relive their brain cells.
Each sorcerer seemed eager to create the strongest and the most 'humanized' Balin. The stronger a sorcerer could be, the stronger super-power their Balin would possess, and their Balin might be hard to be differentiated from a normal living human.
However, there was no single Balin that managed to fool my radar-vision. This vision could detect the golden aura that was normally enveloping a sorcerer and which also radiating from the Balin's crystal. With that, I could tell-apart which is what. If their creator was strong enough, usually that aura would be weaker and clouded by yellowish (or bluish) aura that was normally surrounding ordinary human. Nevertheless, none could fool my vision. Even if it were only a tiny speck of gold, I would detect it out.
Before I continue, I thought it would be best to first explain about my and Alexa's line of work. We were partners in a task force called EOPID (abbreviation for Extra-Ordinary Phenomena Investigation Department). This secret task force was established by Alpha Law, the world number one conglomerate and businessman. He and his family were also like us, Espers, but they would only reveal the fact to the EOPID members. The world only acknowledged Alpha Law as a successful businessman that had wide-range of business network starting from home utilities to technologies and weaponry.
Alpha Law decided to establish this EOPID when a decade ago, a Balin was found dead next to his best friend's daughter. When the M.E. cut him open, he found himself looking at one already long-dead human remains with a piece of rock stuffed in his chest. After conducting series of investigation, Alpha Law finally discovered fact about these Balins. He discovered numbers of unexplained phenomena, which victimized many of civilians, were in-fact the doing of the Balins. The Law family had always been a guardian for Esper community, such as giving shelter to the abandoned Esper children, or to help them schooling their power. Therefore, Alpha Law decided to train some of these Espers as agents to hunt, capture, and/or kill any Balin. EOPID also had authority to track down any sorcerers that creating chaos or terror to civilians and to take any necessary measure in order to protect the civvies.
So far, EOPID had ten field agents and four technicians. The field agents, like Alexa and I, had to always be ready to go to any part of the world from our HQ. The said HQ itself was located at the basement of Law Inc. building in J City. Such as today, four hours ago I was leisurely sitting on my chair at HQ, sipping my coffee, minding my own business, before five minutes later my beloved boss, Brilliant Law (who was also happened to be the only daughter of Alpha Law), warped me and Alexa to an old castle served as museum for locals, that was located somewhere in remote area of Scotland.
Report said that there were two mysterious deaths in three months. According to Brenna, one of the EOPID technicians whose duty was to search such cases, the first body was a young man. Said young man was a John Doe. He was found dead and attached to one part of the castle walls, only from top part of his head to his waist. The rest of his body had transformed into creeping plant that had crept and covering the whole wall. The case soon became phenomenon and attracted many of scientific authorities as well as tourists, in and out the Great Britain. Due to the fame of the body which raised the locals' income from tourism, under the pretence of investigation in the process, no one was care enough to give the said man a proper burial.
The second body was found a month ago. This time, all villagers recognized her as the village chief's daughter. The upper part of the said young woman was bound by vines to the water fountain at the village square. Her death broke the chief's heart. He, then, finally realized that dead bodies were not exactly a healthy tourism attraction. He immediately took down his daughter's body and contacted law authorities in London to investigate the two cases.
Scotland Yard sent down their investigators to investigate said cases for three weeks, before they reluctantly gave up and decided that the phenomena were beyond their capabilities. Furthermore, England's top M.E. in London could not determine the cause of death of the two bodies. Miss B, aka Brilliant Law, agreed with Brenna that the two deaths must had been caused by Balin. Therefore, she dispatched Alexa and I to this dreaded place ASAP. We were dispatched using a warp machine created by Miss B herself. The said machine could transport object(s) through space and dimension, like a sorcerer's portal. The machine enabled us to arrive here in matter of seconds, around three to four hours ago. Pretending as a couple of tourists, we strolled around the village to gather information and 'scanning' with my vision. The information finally led us to this castle, where the first body was found. We were suspecting that the Balin might have been one of the museum workers. Still disguising as tourists, we then took a tour around the castle.
According to the pamphlet in my hand, this castle was once the residence of an eccentric Scottish nobleman. He loved antiques and old artefacts, to the extent that he devoted his life and almost all of his fortunes to collect said stuffs. At the end, the nobleman died a poor man with no living relatives. His castle and collections were ended to be given away for public display as museum. The museum was originally expected to raise the village income. However, I was quite pessimistic about that. The museum hardly had any visitor. Besides us, there were only three to five other tourists. The artefacts displayed here were in poor condition, and (as far as I could say) had no significant historical values.
We didn't find anything inside the museum. Moreover, my sensitive nose was allergic to dust. That was why, after a good half an hour sauntering inside the museum, I dragged Alexa to stroll around the outer parts of the complex. There was a small forestry next to the castle, which often used for camping site. At the back of the complex, there was a cluster of stone houses. I was guessing that these houses were used to serve as the housing for servants. In front of these houses, some statues were recklessly piled in rows. One of them was that goddess' statue. Judging from their appearances, they were initially the ex-occupants of the museum.
"That room is the curators' office," one soft voice stopped our steps, "Visitors are not allowed to enter."
We turned our head and I shut off my radar vision to have a good look of the speaker. This was one of my vision's weaknesses. When I turned it on, I would not be able to see my surroundings in their normal state. Everything just turned into clusters of colours, like when one was using thermal vision. I noticed that the speaker was a skinny boy with thick-frame spectacles. He seemed in the same age with Alexa, around 17 to 18 years old. His pale face was adorned with speckles and he had light brown hair that brought out his light-green eye colour. The boy was watching us with nervous glance, his slender fingers clenching and relaxing in unnerving rhythm. After I satisfied observing him, I turned on my vision once more, only to find something that made me grin in glee.
"Your eyes...," the boy stuttered when he saw the change on my eyes colour.
Alexa sighed, "See Abel, that's why I keep telling you to wear your shades, so no one would notice the change..."
"Oh please, who would in their right mind wear sunglasses in such foggy weather?! Moreover, its best he saw my silver eyes," I smirked to the boy, "'Because this pair of eyes will be his last memory before death embraces him for the second time."
Alexa fixated her gaze to the boy now, a mischievous smirk breached her face.
"Well..., well..., how lucky are we, to be able to catch a big fish without any bait...?" She said with glint of thrill flashing in her blue eyes.
The boy's body stiffened, before he suddenly ran into the forest near the castle.
"After him!!" I let out a command that was promptly executed by Alexa, even before I shut my mouth.
Alexa took off her clothes and revealed her special suit which she always wore beneath her 'normal' clothes. Alexa's slender body vibrated for seconds before her white legs turned into yellow colours blotted with black dots, followed by transformations on her torso, hands, and finally her red head. In matter or seconds, my cute, yet sassy partner had completed her transformation as a cheetah, picking up her running speed and dashed farther in front of me. I forced myself to chase the four legs of cheetah that could outrun a car. Fumbling, I stopped a couple of time to pick up Alexa's strayed clothing, to make sure she would still have something to wear when she changed back. Well, Miss B actually had made a sort of body suit for Alexa to wear, so she would not have to be completely naked when she transformed back. With her techno-craft power (which was a power to create new or modify old technologies), Miss B had made sure that Alexa's black suit could adjust any transformation she would make and also to duplicate the colour of the animals she would morphed into.
After a few minutes, I had lost track of them. I stopped in front of a big tree, catching my breath, while casting my eyes to the surroundings, in case my partner left me some signs. After some minutes passed, I finally saw disturbed grasses and faint track of a cheetah's foot, not far from where I stood. I was about to follow the trail when suddenly, I lost control of my feet. Before I realized what had happened, I had been hung and bounded on the trunk of the tree where I was resting under, seconds ago.
I tried to comprehend what was happening when I realized that I was bounded by creeping plants.
"Who...are...you?" A voice hissed from the top of the tree. It was a gravelly voice that could raise the soft hairs on the back of your neck. The voice was unpleasant and my body was shivering in their own accord upon hearing the voice.
I fixed my gaze and saw that the voice was coming from the museum-boy's mouth (or whom I should call as Balin). I had no idea that he had been watching me all this time. The boy's fair skin had been replaced with wrinkled blackish skin, as black as charcoal. He was like a freshly dug bog body after centuries of mummification process at the bottom of ancient bog. Yet, different with the bog bodies, his black skin didn't shrink into his bones, but bulging out over the newly grown stiff muscles. His clawed fingers and toes dug deep into the bark, giving him secure grip for hanging upside-down on the tree. The creature's blood-red eyes shining devilishly, shooting loathing gaze toward me.
"Animal indeed has animal-sized brain," I cursed Alexa, "How could she not even realize that she had lost her prey?!"
"Whom did you curse?!!"
I craned my head so high to see below.
"Alexa~~!!" I couldn't be happier to see that girl. I pointed the Balin and gave her a grin, "I was cursing it..."
Alexa raked her gaze at me with disdain. She had transformed her head back to her original human head, but still maintaining her rhino-skin, paws of tigers and four legs of horse's transformation.
"You're pretty...," I grinned and she sneered.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU????!!!"
Uh-oh, apparently the Balin's patience had reached its limit.
The creature had decided not to wait for our answers and started to use its power to animate a tree. A giant tree next to us started to wave around its huge branches to attack Alexa. Alexa jumped side-ways with her horse's legs and held back the branches attack with her claws. The branches broke into pieces.
"Hey, be more careful, don't hurt the tree!!" I panicked. "Global warming!!"
"Shut up!! It will be faster if you help to kill it, you know?!" Alexa yelled back before morphed her head to one of a bull. Apparently, she was trying to horn down the tree to the ground.
The Balin jumped and crawled on top of me. I noticed that the boy's originally white cheeks had been drawn back, almost touching his now-pointed ears, to give place for huge fangs and shark-like teeth. The skinny body of the boy had now packed with stiff muscles and his brown hair had all fallen, giving place for thickened skull like that of a Pachycephalosaurus' bone head.
"S-stay away…!" I tilted or cocked my head to maintain distance from its filthy face whenever it tried to approach me. I had been an EOPID agent for four years and fought many kinds of Balin on the process. However, still, to see a Balin's face up-close would never be my favourite choice.
"A-alexaaa…!"
Alexa ignored me completely. She was still busy with her tree. The Balin was also disregarding my plea, simply kept approaching me. I felt the nerve system and cells in my hips and feet were thumping as if they were eager to find its new form, and to dissolve into the tree where I hung. Now I could tell for sure that this creature had been given the power to use or animate plants, including changing a human into one.
"You think you're great, aren't you?" I hissed. I was furious! "Do you think you are that invisible with this power, huh~?!"
I was focusing all of my power toward each cell and nerve inside my body. The Balin was initially still smiling viciously to me, but now it wore bewilderment on its face. I was the only one who was laughing now. I felt each cell and organ inside my body stiffened, followed by my skin that became as hard as metals and it started to glow. In matter of seconds, my body had been covered by metals layer, on the outside, as well as in the inside. I ripped the darn plants that bind me just before and stretched my hand as fast as I could to throw a bone-breaking punch to the Balin.
The creature was not ready. It was still shocked witnessing my transformation. My fist made a loud bang when it hit the Balin in the stomach and send him flying. Another loud 'bam' echoed on the forest when the creature crashed into a tree. I was ready to blow another punch when I noticed, from the corner of my eyes, a glimpse of a chimera's shadow had bolted forward to attack the Balin. It sank its teeth on the Balin's neck and tore the head apart from the rest of the Balin's body.
"They always taste bitter," Alexa morphed back to her petite body. She spat with a disgusted face.
"I'll ask Miss B to include that in the textbook of Balin 101 since it was only you who ever tasted it. Don't you feel sick? It was a corpse, nonetheless. A fucking human corpse..."
Alexa threw me a pointed look. "I don't have to bite him if you kill him faster, Ironman!"
"I was about to kill him with another blow if only you didn't interfere!"
"Why didn't you use your power earlier?"
I glanced over to any part of my body that I could see. I was still a giant metal creature from top to toe. I shrugged.
"Lazy..."
Alexa's eye-brows shot up into her hairlines. She said nothing but started to collect her clothes. She put them on quickly and without another word she started to swing her legs to the museum's direction. I immediately panicked and tried to stop her.
"Lex..., Lex..., please don't walk out just yet. You know that I need ten more minutes before my power wear off and I could change back. Please wait, OK...?"
And..., there you go. Beside the 'radar vision', I had this other ability to control and/or manipulate five elements. The said five elements were fire, water, wood, metal and earth. The concept of these five elements was originated from Taoism. The Tao adherents believed that this universe and everything in it was established based on these five core-elements. The five elements could strengthen each other or weaken one another. In every single beat of life, the five elements had to be balance. The lack of or the profuse of one element in comparison with the others would create imbalance that could lead to disharmony of the nature. Human's body, in principality, was also established from the harmonic coordination between these five elements. Once any imbalance of element occurred in one's body, then illness would soon be materialized.
However, although each human was said to have these five elements, there must had been one that was dominant to reign over their physic, especially in sorcery. The dominant element that was reigning over a sorcerer from the moment they were born would lay foundation for their mastery of magic. A sorcerer could not master any magic that have clashed element with their natural element. For example, a sorcerer that was born under water element would not be able to master fire element-based magic. As for my power, it allowed me to use one of the five elements to counter the enemy's dominant element. My 'vision' could help me to read my enemy's element, which was usually shown in their aura, then using its polar element to counter it. For example, if my enemy had fire element, I would simply use water element to neutralize it.
Sadly, different with Alexa's power, I could only use my power once a day, an element a day and only for a short 15minutes time limit. If I forced myself to use more than one element and/or more than 15 minutes, then (someone said), my internal organs would explode and I would die due to internal bleedings. Well, at least that was what being explained to me by the woman who raised me. I had never tried it myself. It was always better to be safe than sorry, right?
Alexa stuck out her tongue, pushed me away, as she walked approaching the Balin's corpse. As it returned dead, the Balin changed back into its human form. The skinny body of the boy laid stiff not far from us, while his severed head had also changed back to its original form, rolling next to my feet. I squatted down and gazed upon the now blank, green eyes. He was so young and looked so naïve. I bet he would've never imagined that someone would raise him back from death and turned him into a monster.
"Lex, lend me your connector," said I without turning my head since my petite partner was busy using her wolf claw to rip open the Balin's chest and dig out its crystal heart. I tried my best to censor that memory out of my mind. I still needed my beauty sleep after all this, for goodness sake!
Alexa threw her connector with a splash of the Balin's blackish blood. The thing was not bigger than 5-inches and looked like your everyday smartphone, black and sleek. Now, the corners of the glassy monitor were spoiled with the Balin's black blood, sticky and filthy. I was so grateful to have strong stomach. Swallowing down the disgust, I wiped the blood off with a fallen leaf.
"Bren," I called when a face showed up on the screen.
Brenna was a beautiful woman of Spanish and Javanese mixed-bloods descend. She had gorgeous tanned skin like the seductive colour of sweet chocolate milk. Her skin colour was a great combination for her bright, champagne-coloured eyes. As always, she braided her wavy, raven hair to the back, showing off her exotic, heart-shaped face. She also had a pair of dimples on both cheek, which clearly visible whenever she smiled. At that moment, her plump red lips were forming a sweet smile that lit up her beautiful face.
"Abel," she returned the greetings, "I thought you would never contact me and updating your situation. Miss B is unpleased you know?"
The name promptly made me cast my eyes to Brenna's surroundings, over her shoulders, looking for a glimpse of that scary boss of ours' shadow. However, I could only catch a sight of the free-duty field agents who were leisurely sitting and chatting around the vicinity. There was no sign of the boss anywhere.
Brenna giggled. "Just kidding. She went to attend a conference since the two of you being dispatched, and not yet return."
I felt relieved and sighed. I gave the woman a piercing glance for her prank, made her giggle once more.
"Bren, could you please find this kid's identity?" I pulled the Balin's head and shoved it in front of the screen, warranted a shriek of disgust from Brenna.
"Abel, take that head away!"
"Are you done scanning?" Revenge indeed was sweet. Brenna's cheeks flushed, clearly irritated by my prank. I could only grin and put up innocent face.
"Done, I've found his identification. I'll send it to you."
Brenna was a Brain, a kind of Esper who was born with high intelligentsia and able to manipulate any kind of technology. In Brenna's case, she could type programs and input commands to the computer merely with her mind. As I predicted, she could find information that I needed effortlessly. Alexa's connector let out a sound of 'ping' twice, giving cue of incoming messages. Brenna herself had severed the connection.
"Jonathan Cowell, born January 2nd, 1992, died July 25th, 2012. He died four years ago. He was from Edinburgh, and took History major at Edinburgh Uni. Hmm…, cause of death…, oh, traffic accident."
"No sign of fatality on his body," Alexa interrupted. She cleansed her hands (heaven knows what she used to do that), and peeked through my shoulder.
"What did you say?"
"There's no sign of accident on his body."
I let out a long sigh. In my book, that could only have one meaning.
"What?" She asked.
"Her master healed him first Lex, then changed him into Balin."
"So?"
"Have you ever seen any Balin that died from an automobile accident yet possessing a flawless corpse as if the accident never took place?"
"This is the first one, I guess."
"Right, why do you think it could be that way?"
"His master is a perfectionist?"
I resisted the urge to slap this petite girl on the head. I sincerely interested to conduct research on how far the type of certain super power could influence the index number of its user's intelligentsia.
"Have you read the manual about alchemy, which was a compulsory reading at the beginning of our training?"
Alexa nodded.
"So, you should've know that to return a deformed corpse to its pristine condition would require significant amount of magic energy and complex alchemy formula. Therefore, in our case, the Balin's master had spent significant power and time to heal him. In my opinion, the most perfectionist wizard or sorcerer would refrain themselves from doing so. They would rather discard the disfigured body and find another, less flawed corpse."
Alexa cocked her head, boosting her brain cells to comprehend my information. Seconds later, she bugged her eyes as she came to understanding.
"The master had close relationship with the Balin!"
Finally.... "My hunch on this matter is also getting stronger because the Balin did possess remarkably powerful supernatural power. Have you retrieved the crystal?"
Alexa nodded. She stretched her arm to pass the stone to me. The crystal was diamond-shaped and reddish in colour. Alexa cleaned it up, but stains of Balin's blackish blood were quite persistent. I used my index finger and thumb to get a grip on the cleanest part of the stone, then scanned it with my vision carefully. Precisely as I thought, the stone was glowing out sparks of green aura, the sign of wood element that once infused in it.
"The residue of the element aura was still so bright, no wonder that Balin's magic was so strong. Call Brenna again Lex, ask her to send us any data that she could find about this Jonathan. If his master was someone close to him, then the master should've been his own family member or one of his closest acquaintances."
Alexa sighed, but she was executing my command. "So, does it mean we'll be staying long hours in Scotland until we could track down the master?"
I grinned, before pain came to strike my body like wave. I felt my skin pulsing when it was returning to its original state, followed by my internal organs. I had used my power for seventeen-bloody-years, yet never even once I could get used to the agony that it was often inflicted.
"Ooh..., good gracious...," I moaned.
"Are you alright, Abel?" Brenna asked. She wore a worried expression when she saw my agony through the connector.
"Don't mind him, he's always like that when he returned to his normal state. From weird to weirder," my partner smirked viciously.
I gave her a pointed look while holding the urge to slap this sharp-tongued girl on the head.
"The only living relative of Jonathan Cowell was his mother, and she lives in Edinburgh," Alexa informed me, eyes glued to her connector.
"We'll visit her later if we must. Firstly, let's find the head of this museum. He may know a thing or two about Jonathan. Open box password 5531, user name Lee, Abel."
I pointed my gadget, shaped like a wristband with stripe of silver plate on the middle, toward the Balin's carcass. "Upload and save," I inputted the command. My gadget was glowing, and seconds later, the Balin's corpse had been transformed into digital mosaic. Afterward, the mosaic was sucked into the silver plate on my gadget.
This gadget was the original creation of Miss B and one of the basic equipment that was compulsory to bring by the on-duty EOPID field agents. Miss B called the gadget Pandora Box 00-I. The box main function was to save any evidence we collected on the field. It could digitalize any material into algorithm, then saved it into digital data to be downloaded and re-constructed later. We were also using this device to store the Balin corpses temporarily, in order to bring them back to the HQ, so the Law's lab-technicians could conduct research on them.
"Do you think the head of the museum would know something?" Alexa tried to keep up with my walking pace. Apparently, without her cheetah legs, it was hard for her to keep up with my long legs.
"Well, that man was the one who employed Jonathan. So, I guess he could give us some information about the boy. It's worth a shot, right?"
"Or..., he may be his master!"
That was certainly something I would not like to expect. At least, not today. If that man was Jonathan's master, then we would definitely get engaged in another battle. Meanwhile, I was still powerless until the end of this day. After witnessing the masterpiece of Jonathan's master, I knew he must be a powerful sorcerer. Without my power to back her up, Alexa would have no chance against him.
"Hopefully not," I mumbled, as far as possible from the reach of Alexa's ears.
We walked toward the entrance. The sun was almost set at the horizon. The museum visitors had left the place one after another. When we finally got back there, the friendly old cashier lady had left her booth and started to close one part of the museum door.
"Ma'am, please wait!" I called for her attention. She looked at us, waiting. A friendly smile breached her seamed face, accentuating the crow's feet on the corner of her warm, brown eyes.
"Ma'am, do you know where we could find the head of the museum?"
"His office is at the back, just next to the curator's office," she answered quickly, then resumed closing the door.
Alexa literally dragged me to the pointed direction. I stared at my partner's red hairs that were dancing in the air, in resonance with her running pace. I wondered what made this petite girl so excited with the matter on hand. Was she that hungry for battle and adventures?
We arrived at the cluster of stone houses where we met Jonathan earlier. In front of us, there were two maroon doors. Since Jonathan had warned us before, we knew which one was the curator's office. We walked straight to the left door and knocked. I turned on my radar vision, preparing myself to scan the head of the museum. I had decided, if that man was a sorcerer, I would drag Alexa away from this place and persuade her to confront the said man tomorrow.
After three knocks, the door was opened with a creaking sound. An old man answered the door. I let out a relieved sigh when my vision did not show any indication that the old man was any other than a good 'ordinary' senior citizen. I turned off my vision and acknowledged that the museum head had a sharp figure, bald headed, and had a tall nose that reminded me of a bird's beak. His tall build started to bend forward. His beady eyes gazed at us bewildered.
"He's clean," I whispered to Alexa.
"Excuse me Sir, we would like to ask you about one of your employees named..."
"Whose face's like this," I cut Alexa's words and displayed my connector's monitor in front of his eyes. Jonathan's picture was on it.
The old man looked at the picture closely, so close until his nose was almost touching the digital screen.
"Oh, you mean Nathan Rourke! I have not seen him again after the lunch break, so he might've going home. Well, he isn't really employee here actually. He loves antiques and offers a helping hand around the museum. In return, I give him daily paycheque and allow him to read any book or parchment on the museum collection. He is a diligent and a good kid, so eager to learn. I hope I could make him a real employee here by next year. Are the two of you friends of his? He rarely mentions about his friends, nor had one visiting him here."
"Well, you could say that. We are, um..., his friends back in uni. We came from Edinburgh for holidays, and heard that Nathan is working here, so we came to pay him a visit. We also wanted to ask him to be our guide and show us around," I ended my bluff with one enchanting sweet smile that was normally very effective to persuade any senior citizen.
The smile indeed was effective, because the old man's face beamed and he practically sung out the information we needed.
"Actually, Nathan came here just a couple of years ago with his older brother Liam. However, the brothers love camping and hiking, so I think he would be an excellent tour guide for the two of you, especially if you plan to hike."
"Brother?" I threw a bemused look toward Alexa, who was re-checking the information in her connector and shaking her head not long after. "Do you know where they live? We may as well visit their house...," I enquired, sweet smile was still on display.
Half an hour later, we arrived at the said 'Rourke brother's resident'. The brothers' house was located about two hundred meters from the village square where they found the chief's daughter a month ago. The house was quite big for two occupants. It was two storeys high, brick-walled house with white door and windows frame, as well as its roof. The windows were tinted black, giving out a stricken contrast with the frames' colour and its dark orange-coloured brick walls. The house, like other houses on its surroundings, had no fence. The only sign for the address was a white mailbox erected near the gravel driveways.
"Is this the house?" My partner checked her notes again. She tiptoed and tried to peek inside.
"This is it," I nodded. "We'll visit them first thing tomorrow morning."
Alexa's red head turned to me, as the owner glared bemusedly.
"Why would we want to wait until tomorrow?!"
"Lex, my gut is telling me that this 'brother' of Jonathan in fact was his master."
"Therefore, let's catch him now!"
"Lex, I have no more power left for today. We'd seen Jonathan's power earlier. Do you think you could handle his master all by yourself?"
Alexa came in realization and relented.
"So, what? We rent a room and wait until tomorrow?"
I nodded. "Unless, you have another suggestion. No? OK. Let's stay here for a night and ask for Miss B's advice for this case. Hopefully she could send down other agents to help us."
"This is the first time you are willing to have other agents to help you beside me."
I did not respond to Alexa's jeer. Honestly, I had bad feelings for this case, but I preferred to keep it to myself. My only hope was I could bring the two of us back home safe and sound. If I had to shave off some of my pride in order to do so, hell..., so be it.
Chapter 3: Lingering (Narrated by Abel Lee)
Since the village was opened for tourism, many of the villagers' houses were transformed into B&B and hostels. We did not have any difficulty to find a B&B near the Rourkes' house. In fact, we found one exactly at the opposite side of the Rourkes' and our room window gave us perfect view of the said house. While waiting for Alexa taking her shower, I opened my connector and updated our situation to Brenna. Miss B had not yet return, but Brenna assured us that we would get our back up whenever we needed it. I also sent her the Balin's data from my Pandora Box. I hoped I could get more information from the lab, which might help us to find efficient method to fight the master.
"I also gonna need whatever information that you can dig on Liam Rourke, Bren'," said I, before I severed the connection.
Alexa finished her shower and had now changed her tops with an over-sized T-shirt that we bought at the souvenir shop next door. Drops of water from Alexa's hair had dampened the T-shirt on her shoulders and part of her chests, faintly revealing the colour of her body suit. I was sure if it were Brenna, in that same condition, I would already have growing problem in my hands. I definitely would be having difficult time to contain myself from the waking urge and the crazy beats of my own heart. However, I felt none of that feelings seeing Alexa in her current state. I really took pity on her lack of womanly attractiveness.
Alexa saw the blinking light on my connector and started to grumble.
"You contacted the HQ without me."
I threw my connector to bed and said to her crossly. "Yep, I've reported it all to Brenna, while you were consuming fresh water for...almost 45 minutes. Now, it's my time to have my shower. Please mind the connector, because Brenna will send important information, 'Kay?"
I did not wait for her reply and grabbed a clean towel. I dashed into the bathroom and locked myself in it. I let out a whistle, complimenting, when I saw the bathroom was old-fashioned but clean. Next to the toilet, there was a wooden mirror frame and simple-styled sink supported by a wooden structure. The bathtub was small with shower on it. The water was still warm from Alexa's turn. I dozed myself in the heat of the water, and let my muscles relaxed.
I was about to sing my favourite song when I felt my surroundings were shaking. At first, I thought I was imagining it. I turned off the water, nevertheless. I wiped dry my face and body while waiting for the next quake, if the previous one were not merely my imagination. I didn't have to wait long for the second one.
"Abel!!" My petite partner yelled from the bedroom, with background sound of people yelping from our floor and downstairs.
"Earthquake!!"
I put on my shirt and trousers, and then barged out to find Alexa. The girl stood next to our room window, with her gaze locked outside.
"What happened? Was it really an earth quake?"
Before Alexa could answer my question, someone was pounding our door. It was the inn-owner, asking us to go out for our safety. His voice was urgent and he was relentless.
"Alright, we're coming out!!" I yelled back, although my body was approaching Alexa instead of the door.
My steps were stopped by a strong quake that crumbled our room wall, snapped its wooden frame, at the exact point where Alexa was standing at.
"Lex!" I dashed toward her, trying to grab her hand.
Alexa, however, did not fall down. She was floating in the air instead. She morphed her hands to a pair of bird wings and flew back to my side.
"Abel, try to scan that area. I don't think this is your average quake."
I did her bidding and cast my radar vision to the pointed direction. My partner's hunch was proven right since I saw flashes of golden surrounded by green aura clustering into the shape of giant tree roots, that were launched, approaching the village in high-speed.
"The master had tracked us down and decided to act first! He's trying to kill us!" I yelled as Alexa planted her bird's claws on my shoulders, trying to take me out from the B&B. She flew out through the hole on our wall.
How I yearned for my power on time like this. If I could still use it, I could transform myself into iron body, and had no need to feel Alexa's bird claws pricking against my shoulder's skin, started to feel painful.
"Go outside the village, Lex!" I yelled once more. "The master is pursuing us. We could jeopardize the safety of the villagers if we stay here!"
Alexa heard me and she flew down toward the grassland on the outskirts of the village. She dropped me once we were close to the ground and morphed back. We were lying on our backs for a while, trying to catch our breath, especially Alexa. She seemed exhausted. Well, I could not blame her. She just carried me(who was two heads taller and weighted twice of her weight(flying for almost half an hour.
"Are you alright?" I asked, stroking her back in circles.
Alexa was still coughing and panting, but she nodded. "He doesn't after us?" She whispered.
I cast my vision around and saw nothing out of the element. "So far no. He may lose us for now, but I think he won't stop just yet. My previous hunch was right. He is a sorcerer with wood element. He is able to manipulate trees to be his weapon. I think we're safe as long as we are not standing nearby any tree. Did you get our connector?"
My partner nodded once more. She gave me my connector and Pandora band.
"Good girl," I praised her, stroking her hair gently.
Alexa hastily pushed my hand away, looked genuinely annoyed by my ministration. I didn't know why she never liked it when I showered her affection.
We wore our Pandora band and tried to contact the HQ. When we were still waiting for connection, the night sky above us was twinkling for a beat. Soon after, we started to feel another quake.
"Oh no, he found us," I murmured. "Lex, I need you to take me in the air once more. I will try to search his location mid-air."
"Good idea. Once you pinged his location, I'll go catch that bastard!"
"I? We!" I protested. "Do you planned to leave me out and go by yourself?"
"This is just 10 PM! You said yourself that you could only use your power once a day, in fifteen-minutes time window. Why would I let you join me if you'll be nowhere in being helpful?" My partner cocked her hands on her waist, glared at me.
"There's no way I would let you go by yourself too, Little Girl!" I said as fierce as she did. "I may not be able to use my power until this day over, but my vision could help you. Moreover, I have my geomancy gun with me!"
I downloaded my gun and showed it to her. The gun was also another compulsory equipment to bring when we were on-duty, as obliged by Miss B. The gun was shaped like your traditional, everyday regular gun, but it was made of titanium with magazine filled with silver bullets that could explode mid-air, shooting geomancy wave toward the enemy once it was shot.
Alexa gave a sarcastic look at my gun. As an Esper, there was no EOPID agent who felt any necessity to bring and use that mandatory gun. We always considered our power to be our strongest weapon.
"Listen to me, Old Man, just for this one time! You have to stay here, until you regain your power. I could detect that sorcerer location with the department standard goggle!"
Information, the said goggles was another mandatory field equipment. Principally, the goggle was made based on my radar vision ability. However, as usual, human creation, no matter how good it was, would never exceeding natural creation. The goggle could only detect the location of non-human energy or creature, but could not show their elemental aura.
Alexa, as my partner, was hardly using the goggle. She preferred to rely on my vision. This time, she showed her determination by downloading the device, to challenge me back. She even called me an 'Old Man'?! This is war!!
We glared at each other, with no intention to yield first. However, we were stopped by another quake, while a tree that was located around 100 meters from us started to animate. Its root grew longer, ripped the soil beneath it and stretched out to attack us.
"Run!"
Alexa's hands started to grow feathers before they were completely transformed into a pair of wings. "Listen to me, Abel! Stay away for a while!"
"You listen to me!" I yelled back, but quite helpless, as my body was being lifted up to escape the tree that tried to catch us.
My partner flew higher, while I cast my vision to our surroundings. I did hope that the sorcerer was not a too high-level one, who could erect a barrier on himself while casting the chant to animate trees. Because, if he were that high-levelled, then it would be hard for me to scan him.
"Turn South, Lex! I haven't seen anything!"
Alexa executed my command. This time, even when it was only a glimpse, I was able to detect a spark of golden aura.
"To the castle, the museum! He is in the forest next to the castle!"
I felt the bird Alexa flew closer to the ground. Before I could stop her, she let go her grip on my shoulders when we were only a couple of meters high from the ground. My body hit the grass hard as Alexa flew away.
"Alexa, stop!!" I yelled. "Alexa!!"
I forced my legs to run as fast as they could, giving no attention for the pain caused by wild grasses and sharp pebbles that scratched my bare feet. I pushed myself up as quickly as possible when I fell on a rocky slope. I ran lightning fast toward the castle and passing by the village where we stayed previously. The quake had stopped there, but many houses were destroyed as the aftermath. Some of the women were crying, yelping, or could only stare bewilderedly with their children on their lap. The children cried, hugging their parents or screaming in despair, looking for their parents. The men clenched their teeth, tried to collect themselves as they dug the ruins to find any missing clansmen. They braced themselves to console their family, to become the rock their wives and children needed.
I saw our innkeeper stood in front of their B&B's ruins. The husband embraced his wife's shoulder, tried to comfort the woman. They noticed me when I was running passed them, looked at me dumbfounded, but did not try to stop me. I also did not have time to say hi and chitchat with them, nor to offer helping hands to help the villagers, even though I felt guilt storming down my heart. They would've never to face such disaster if it wasn't because of us. I collected myself, focusing myself with matter at hands, which was to find Alexa, before I eventually joining the villagers here to mourn for their beloved ones.
I finally reached the castle's gates. I narrowed my eyes, striving to see through the veil of the night's darkness. Half of the castle complex had been shattered from the quake, leaving ruins everywhere. I pushed my way into the forest, climbed the mounting ruins that were blocking my way while casting my radar vision everywhere. I tried to scan any trace of human being there, with no avail. However, I was a bit relief because my 'green world' did not show any trace of other being either.
"Lex!!" I tried again.
I could still feel a subtle quake beneath my feet. I tried to ignore it and only focus to find Alexa.
"Alexa!!"
My voice was bounced by the trees once more. However, this time I got two kinds of responses. The first one was the soil beside me opened up and the tree roots shot out of the ground, bashing my ribs mercilessly. I could feel my body was flown in the air before it finally landed hard on the ground. Then, the second one was, when I tried to stand up, I saw a body flying toward me. I recognized the petite figure and the red head that was lit up under the moonlight anywhere. I hastily got up and prepared to catch Alexa with all the power I still had left. I managed to catch my partner, but the repulsion force was too strong for my legs to keep their hold. We fell down with me being sandwiched between Alexa and the forest litter.
"Lex!!" I tried to suppress and ignore all the pain that piercing my body like needles. I rolled us over to check Alexa's condition instead. "Lex, are you alright?"
I stroked her head gently and then moved my hand downward to her shoulder. It was then when I felt my hand was sticky with some reddish and warm liquid. "Alexa!!" I panicked once I realized that it was her blood.
This time, Alexa groaned. She opened her eyes and frowned in pain.
"Are you alright?" I asked once more.
"My shoulders hurt...," she whimpered, trying her best to hold back her tears.
I pulled her closer, slightly relieved that her wound did not hit any vital part of her body.
"It's okay, it'll heal soon. It won't hurt anymore after a while," I whispered, rocking her body gently in my arms. "Let's get out of here first and wait for back up. Or, we could wait until past midnight. Once I regained my power, I'll slice that sorcerer to pieces. What about that, hmm? You can wait, right? Hold the pain, Okay?"
Weakly, Alexa nodded. I ignored my fractured ribs when they were screaming in protest as I carried Alexa on my back. I swung my legs to run as fast as possible, trying to outrun the roots that made it their life mission to knock me down. Then again, the sorcerer did not have any intention to let us go that easily. He cast spells to make the trees in the forest blocking our exit, frustrating me since I could only run in circles.
After some time spent running like a headless chicken, pain and exhaustion finally took their toll on my body. I fell once more, Alexa's body sandwiched me down to the ground. I felt her blood dripping on my cheek.
"Abel...," Alexa whispered half-conscious. "Are we gonna die...?"
I spat on the jinx. "Nonsense! Do you think I will let you go that easily from your calling as the partner of the magnificent Abel Lee?"
In the midst of the dark night I thought I saw Alexa's thin lips tugged up on one end.
"Right...," she whispered once more.
I hugged Alexa even tighter. My eyes glanced over my Pandora Box. Actually, I still had one more secret that I had never told Alexa. Inside my gadget, I had one instrument that might be able to help me to use my power again, even though the day had not yet changed. With that instrument, I could also use all five elements in 15minutes timeframe. However, the woman who raised me said that the instrument could only be used for five times in my whole life. And, after using it, I would have to rest my power for three days. All the restrictions came along with one additional warning: the internal injury if I were planning to use my power more than once in a day.
Alexa grimaced in pain once more, while the earth in front of us cracked open. I drew my power and collected myself, carried my partner to dodge sideways. It seemed I had to take that last measure, I cursed mentally.
"Open box, password...!"
My words dead in the air, got interrupted by a beautiful singing voice. The voice echoed all over the forest, breaking the sorcerer's chant and stopping the trees' movements.
My partner recognized the voice too. She opened her eyes slowly. This time, her electric blue eyes were shining bright, filled with hope. Her thin lips flashing a relieved smile.
"This voice..."
I nodded and laughed, equally relieved as she was. "The song of siren..."
Strung along the singing voice was a melodic guitar sound. The guitar sound accompanied the singing voice as it grew louder and sharper. The rhythm got more intense, yet maintaining their gentle harmony. The harmony of the singing voice and the guitar sound was so beautiful and mesmerizing, hypnotizing each of living beings there. The trees slowly moved their mighty branches and opened the path. Now I could see clearly the museum ruins, and there were two familiar silhouettes walking toward us.
"Shyu..., Pats...," I called meekly, never felt so relieved to see them before this.
I watched as the couple approaching us. They were our colleagues, field agents like us, partners on both professional and private levels. The lovers both had small and slender figures, made them look cute together. The female's name was Patricia Virtanen, Pats for short. She had stopped singing by now and was watching us with a wide, gentle smile spread across her chubby face. Pats was 19 years old this year, two years older than Alexa. The two girls were equally petite, but Pats was far more mature than my partner was, personality-wise. Pats' light-brown eyes were sparkling in the dark, round and brilliant. Pats always cut her brown hair short, looked boyish as usual, but it also became her signature hairstyle. She was indeed excelled in masculine sports such as martial arts and gun-shooting. However, her strongest talent was singing. It was, in fact, her super power. Her voice could break any spell and touch any living beings to their core. That's why, the nicknames "siren" and "song of siren" were attributed to her. As in myths, sirens were known for their beautiful voice that could hypnotize anyone who was listening.
Her partner-slash-boyfriend, Shyu Ikderi, was an Asian of Manchu descend, with a cute young face. He was quite short for a man, no taller than 170 cm. His Asian trait was obviously showcased by his pair of almond-shaped black eyes, the same colour as his nape-long hair. Under his left eye, he had a small beauty mark that made his cute face even prettier. Actually, I thought that Shyu and Pats were resembling each other. Maybe that was what made them look so good together. Shyu was two years younger than me, 20 years old, and could be considered as one of my best friends in EOPID.
If Patricia's super power was her singing voice, then Shyu's was his manipulation for wind energy. He could create, borrow, and/or using the power of wind with or without media. However, ever since he got to know Pats and even more after they started dating, he preferred to channel his power through his guitar. He even named the instrument by "Little Wind Goddess". The guitar also served as his weapon. Using it, he could channel his wind power to support Pats' singing power or to restore her energy, strengthen their offensive power, or to attack the enemy. I, myself, preferred more of Shyu's style when he was not using his guitar and cast his "Wind God Fist". It was more interesting to see, although I admitted that his attack with the guitar was no less fierce than his fist. With all modesty, I acknowledged the couple as two of the strongest Espers I ever met. Their collaboration would hard to be rivalled by other field agents, or even by any Esper, Alexa and I included. Fortunately, the two were very nice kids and very humble, made us get along very well.
"The boss sent you?" I asked, half-panting.
"Miss B has not yet return," Pats answered. "Brenna called and asked us to help you. She's worried since she couldn't get a hold of you, yet the Law's satellite showed high-level of supernatural movement near your last-known GPS position. She has erected the barrier around the museum complex and the forest, so we could fight as hard as we need to. I could see that the sorcerer is really strong to be able to make the two of you like this."
I cast a faint mocking smile. "He's got lucky because I have used my power for today to kick his pet's ass. It's a piece of cake for that sorcerer to face Alexa solely."
"Watch your mouth, Lee...," Alexa let out a protest with a pinch on my cheek.
"I gave the pain-killer serum for Alexa and stopped the bleeding. Why don't you two take covers at that castle, while we take care the sorcerer," Shyu helped Alexa to stand and was about to walk her back to the museum ruins when I blocked his path with my giant body, in comparison with his.
"...and missed the chance for some pay backs? Yeah, right...," I sneered, extending my hand with palm up to my best friend, "Give me one of the pain-killer serums and I'll go with you to kick that bastard's ass."
"Abel..."
"Shyu, I think we could use Abel's power," Pats smiled toward her boyfriend. "Just give him the serum. In five-minutes time, he would be able to use his power again, anyway. Right, Abel?"
I winked to Pats. "It's always lovely to chat with a sensible woman."
"I wanted to go too," Alexa pushed Shyu away and tried to stand firmly as proof that she was still adequate to fight.
I groaned at the back of my throat. "Lex..."
Noticed that we were likely would waste time for a pointless argument, Pats immediately intervened. She threw pointed look to us with a big smile split her face.
"Stop arguing, or Shyu and I will knock the two of you out 'till tomorrow evening. Both of you are wounded and none is actually fit to fight. So, this is what we are going to do: I'll let you to join us, but you have to promise that you will let us make the opening. It's not until I gave you signal, that you can join in to blow the final attack to pacify that sorcerer. Are we clear?"
Alexa and I looked at each other, realizing that Pats was right. We then nodded in agreement, made the boyish girl's smile grow wider. She started to sing again when she saw that the trees resume animating. Shyu also started to strum his guitar. This time, they played more aggressive and intimidating melodies to open a path. Half stumbling, we walked even deeper into the woods.
The sorcerer did not allow himself to be intimidated and tried to fight back. Each time his chant was broken by Patricia, he quickly cast new chants. The trees repeatedly opened and blocked our path with their branches and roots. Shyu added his energy, made him beam with bright yellow aura, like a radiant aurora in my radar vision. Receiving the supporting energy from her lover, Pats immediately raised her pitch. This time, they were successful to open even wider path. Based on the plummeted recovery time that the sorcerer needed to recast his broken chants, we knew that he must had been wounded from Pats' attack. This fact made us add our walking speed. We certainly could not let the bastard heal first.
"There he is!" Alexa hissed.
Not far in front of us, standing behind giant trees fort, we finally saw Liam Rourke. His handsome face wore a disgusted expression at the sight of us and his royal blue eyes that fixed on us were full of hatred. His plump lips did not cease to read chants. The chants were dancing outside his erected barrier as the tattoos of magical patterns on his forearms(which not covered by his shirt(were glowing each time he shot out his magical energy. Sorcerers were actually pretty easy to be identified, since they always tattooed their strongest spells on their body, particularly on their arms and back. However, sometimes they used veil spell to hide their identity from laymen, but would need to reveal it whenever they wanted to use their power. Pats and Shyu took their melodies to a more intense level, made Rourke's handsome face contort in agony, as some of his chants were broken once more. This time, he barely had the energy to replace them.
I glanced over the digital time on the connector. Ten more seconds and it would be the new day. I silently did the countdown. Right when I count to zero, the lovers managed to break Rourke's last strain of chants and crack his barrier walls.
"Now Abel, Alexa!" Pats yelled.
Alexa roared, promptly bolted in her panther shape. I also gathered my energy and cast out the metal element. In the five elements theory, metal was the element that could control wood. Thus, by borrowing the power, I hoped I could crush that bastard.
I let the power gathered on my hand and used it to smash Rourke's barrier in one blow, opened a path for the panther to tear the warlock apart. Of course, as trained sorcerer, Liam Rourke would not only be sitting duck. He animated a tree near him to protect himself from Alexa, but I took a precaution one-step ahead by erecting a metal wall around the three of us. The wall managed to prevent Rourke from animating another tree for protection, made the Irish-man growl in frustration. He finally used his last energy to blow waves of energy attacks to Alexa.
I did not want to spoil Alexa's enjoyment, so I merely stood at the side, making sure that my metal wall standing firmly. My partner roared once more and transformed into a Minotaur, but her body was of a bear, completed with a gator's tail. Inside my barrier, energy bolts flashed in turns with burst of bear's claws and whip of gator's tail.
In many opportunities, presumably due to her rage, Alexa was careless. It kept me busy to protect her with my metal body. However, she did not wait until I pacified all the attacks, but keep dashing forward to the sorcerer with her might. She managed to plant her claws on Rourke's body, including on his good-looking face.
Eventually, after resisting with all he got from Alexa's fierce attacks and drained all of his energy, Liam Rourke ceased his attack and surrendered. His hands fell weakly on his sides, his tattoos stopped glowing and his blue eyes gazing blankly at us. My partner, still pumped up with adrenaline, failed to recognize the sorcerer's submission and had bolted to bite his neck off. Luckily, Shyu and I were fast enough to erect a somewhat combination of metal and wind shield to bounce Alexa back in the nick of time, made her fall on her back. Afterward, after transformed back, that petite girl kept ranting out her dissatisfaction on this incident.
"Liam Rourke, we are Extra Ordinary Phenomenon Investigation Department agents. We are arresting you for the abusive use of sorcery and alchemy, which led to death and other significant damages for the civilians. Therefore, we will take you with us and send recommendation to your Order to strip off your power," said Pats after she put on a collar to cancel any supernatural power one possessed.
I saw Liam Rourke smiled bitterly. He took a glance to each of us, filled with anger and hate, until he fixed his gaze on me.
"Were you the one? Did you kill him?"
"What?"
"Nathan.... Were you the one who killed him?"
The royal blue eyes shed anger and pain.
"It was me! I'm the one who killed you pet!" Alexa growled, stared at the Irish-man nonchalantly. "I bit his head off."
Just when Alexa finished her word, Liam Rourke silenced the girl with a spit. My partner was not yet ready for such 'attack' and could only freeze when the man's saliva stained her special suit. However, after her brain returned online, the petite girl immediately burst into a flame.
"You bastard...!!"
Pats and Shyu hastily jumped to catch Alexa and stop her from morphing to chew the sorcerer alive. All EOPID agents were required to abide to the International Human Rights Declaration when we were executing our tasks. One of the interpreted rules was, we should not intimidate or deliberately hurt any surrendered or arrested power user.
Liam Rourke ignored Alexa's threat and curses. He returned his gaze to me. This time, pain was dominating his eyes.
"You scared him," he hissed. "Nathan was scared of you..."
For seconds, I was speechless from his words. The scene of how the Balin's red-eyes were glinting with fear witnessing my transformation played vividly in my eyes.
"He shouldn't have kill two people. You were supposed to stop your pet from killing civilians thoughtlessly...," I finally spoke.
"He was not my pet!!" Liam roared. However, this time, his eyes were not only shed pain, but tears also ran down his cheeks, dampened the scars left by Alexa. "He wasn't any pet..."
Liam Rourke fell on his knee and kept crying inaudibly, made us could only look at each other dumbfounded. This could be our first time to see a master crying for his pet Balin. Most of the case, sorcerers created Balin to do their dirty laundry. Therefore, Balin basically was a mere pet, or property for its master. My partner seemed disgusted with the view. She decided to step away. She stood next to a tree about three meters far from us, pointedly giving us the sight of her back only.
After managed to compose himself, Liam Rourke lifted his head and stared at us. "You were wrong. Those two..., I killed them, not Nathan. You…, you should've killed me instead of Nathan!"
The confession stunned us. This could also be our first time to handle such case. Although sorcerers liked to make experiments using living beings, but they would be very careful not to put their piece of works for public display like the murders in this village. The reason for that, nonetheless, was because sorcery community had always been an exclusive and secretive community, hidden far from the hustle and bustle of the civilian world. If there were any thoughtless killings, usually they were the doing of Balins, who were less experienced and tend to show their power off(the power that they were certainly never taste during their 'life'-time.
"Those two tried to seduce Nathan. They took advantage of Nathan's innocence and naive nature! They were two pieces-of-trash that deserved such endings!!" Liam Rourke's voice echoed in the forest, including inside of our head. His eyes filled with anger and jealousy. After a beat, I, Shyu, and Pats finally realized the true motive of Liam Rourke's act.
"You were in love with your Balin!" We choked in our words.
Liam Rourke drew a faint smile, yet asserting all of his feelings. I noticed that one side of Pats' thin lips tugged up awkwardly, while Shyu seemed bracing himself from not throwing up out of disgust and I inevitably let out a gagging sound. This case was really a whole new experience. Hopefully, it would be the first and the last for us. Otherwise, Miss B would have to provide more of the enhancement serum for us.
I heard two 'ping'-s from Alexa's connector vaguely before she padded her way across the forest to find us.
"What the hell?!" She was screaming hysterically with her eyes glued on the connector screen. I poked her and whispered.
"Shush, shall us not to be bigots. Isn't it quite common nowadays? You know, for those of same gender to..., you know... It's just this time they were Balin and its mas..."
I let my words dead in the air, was unable to continue with all the nausea I felt, thanks to the elaborated fact of the real nature of Liam Rourke and Jonathan Cowell's relationship.
"Alive and dead...," Shyu added, as quiet as he could, ending his words with a fake cough.
Alexa gave us pointed looks and then inconsiderately pointed Liam Rourke with her index finger. "Dead...and dead!"
My partner narrowed her eyes when she saw that we did not give any reaction and only stare back at her, stupefied. She raised her connector right in front of our noses and told us to read the new message she just received from Brenna.
"What??!!" This time, the three of us screamed in unison.
"Are you sure this is not mistaken?" Shyu asked. "Liam Rourke, born May 15th, 1990..."
"Died July 24th, 2012...?"
"Died?"
"A day before our Balin," my partner finished our sentence with a stern look. "He is also a Balin."
"That's impossible!!" I screamed in disbelieved. "He is too strong for a Balin!"
"Read the information once more, Abel! Before he died, he mastered alchemy. He was a sorcerer!"
"Still...!" I stubbornly screamed in despair. I could feel that at this very moment my pride was disintegrated and shattered into small pieces.
"That's right," Liam Rourke hissed. "Since I was little, I learned so many crafts and alchemy. However, no matter how much I mastered and studied them, none of them could help me to cure my illness. I finally resigned myself to fate, was ready to embrace my condition. However, the resolution crumbled after I met Nathan. He was so full of spirit and vibrant with life, so young and naive. He was so innocent that I couldn't restrain myself. I was fallen in love with him. For the first time in my life, I was obsessed to try to live on as long as Nathan lives in this world. I just wanted to live with him, grow old with him, yet it was too much of a dream. My body betrayed my wish. My lifetime study disappointed me. I was destined to leave this world hastily, leaving my beloved one, my true love behind. However, fate seemed took pity on me. She didn't let me leave this world alone. She, too, took Nathan to accompany me. We, then, started anew. We went to a new place, built our new life... We had never been happier..."
Yet we came and put that happiness to an end. I swallowed hard, was not able to face the weeping face of a Balin in front of me. I, Abel Lee, was an EOPID agent for four bloody years, and I had killed numerous Balins. Yet, at this moment, I was unable to even look this Balin in the eye.
Liam Rourke shut his mouth, but remained staring at us, crying. For some minutes, we all were silent.
"Something's wrong!" Shyu suddenly hissed. He hastily approached Liam.
"Wh-... What is it?"
Shyu waved his hand in front of Rourke's eyes and then shook his shoulders. The Balin did not give any reaction.
"Shyu, watch out!" Patricia yelled and pulled his lover away from the sorcerer.
Said sorcerer's body was now sizzling and smoke came out from pores of his skin. His handsome face had now lost its shred of humanity. His body blackened, while the royal blue eyes were losing its colour.
"He's dead," Pats whispered. "His master turned him off..."
Alexa cast her eyes to our surroundings, as if she was trying to take a glimpse of any responsible culprit who lurked in the dark of the night. "Coward!! Show me your face if you dare!!"
I walked approaching what was left from a Liam Rourke. I stared to his now blank eyes, similar with Jonathan Cowell's last gaze.
"Open box, password 5531, user Lee, Abel..."
The once was a sorcerer transformed into digital mosaic, then sucked into the Pandora Box.
"Let's go home," I whispered to my colleagues, pulling Alexa closer by her shoulders. "It's more than enough for a day job..."
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
0 Power
stone 
Paragraph comment