Her steps, even though she was trying to mask it, were still somewhat anxious, so taking a breath she stopped for a moment and adjusted the scarf around her neck after that she continued her walk in the dark alleys.
But as she arrived at the meeting point, she couldn't help but remember what she had read in the newspaper a few days ago.
...
.. .
-Explosion at Backlund Bridge-
On Friday morning, after having returned to buy some things and finish her breakfast, Xio was sitting with a cup of coffee in hand reading the newspaper.
_On Thursday morning at the Backlund Bridge a large explosion destroyed the roofs of several residential buildings and destroyed a carriage killing the horses at the same time, according to the authorities it was due to a gas leak that ignited, it is estimated that the repair of all the damage will be around 900 pounds..._
'~Explosion~, of course..' Xio thought as she took a sip of her coffee while sitting down reading the newspaper and on the other side was Fors who had just entered the kitchen with messy hair and was having a very late breakfast.
"You have to improve your sleep time Fors" Xio scolded Fors who seemed to move while still sleeping.
"Yes yes yes mom" answered Fors sleepily while taking a bit of bread to her mouth.
Shaking her head, Xio continued reading the newspaper and as soon as she turned to the next page, her hand that was raising the cup of coffee to her mouth stopped.
In the announcements section there was one extremely striking since it even included a drawing.
-Any information is wanted related to a man called Mr. Holmes, he always wears a black windbreaker and a mask whose eyes and mouth seem to be in an eternal scream, any information will be rewarded with 50 pounds...information must be delivered in the Lucky Bar...-
The drawing was the appearance of Mr. Holmes although it was somewhat inaccurate, Mr. Holmes was not that thin and he also had a strong posture but it was enough for her to confirm that it was her "coworker".
Placing the cup on the table and placing the newspaper on her lap, Xio frowned.
'Mr. Holmes, what did you do now...' Xio thought and due to the posture she had, she caught the attention of the sleepy Fors who spoke to her.
"Is something wrong Xio?" Sighing Xio just grabbed the newspaper and showed her the picture of the man.
"I would like to talk to you about something..."
.....
Fors was as usually lying face down on the sofa as if she were a dead fish.
"Fors get up tell me have you found any information about your formula?"
Xio asked her friend as she held today's newspaper in her hands.
"There's nothing Xio I don't know what to do anymore" Fors answered without raising her head making Xio frown in concern.
"We will find it, trust me" Xio said as she sat on a chair and opened the newspaper.
She had been looking for information about Mr. A's party since one was not held last week but she found something else that caught her attention being the head of it.
-THE CREED FELL AND THE FIRE MAGE OF EAST BOROUGH-
The more she read, the more her eyes trembled and her pupils trembled.
_Yesterday on the afternoon of Saturday, July 7 in East Borough at 5:20 p.m. an event never seen before happened, the well-known gang The Creed has been destroyed by a single man, the man who calls himself Mr. Holmes hunted down the members of the Creed during the day, managing to kill more than half of them and not satisfied with that, he destroyed the gang's base and burned the gang leader alive in front of the eyes of the public, it is unknown how..._
'What is this?!!' she thought alarmed the more she read and getting up abruptly from the chair drawing the attention of Fors who finally raised her head from the pillow and looked at her friend.
"What's wrong Xio?" she asked as she scratched her eyes trying to get rid of the sleepeness.
Xio didn't speak but threw the newspaper in her friend's face so she could see for herself.
Removing the newspaper from her face, Fors began to read and she had a more striking reaction than Xio's.
"XIO THIS WOULDN'T BE THE MAN YOU WORK WITH TO CATCH THE BLACK SKULL LEADER." Fors yelled at her friend as she pointed to a sketch of what Mr. Holmes looked like while on the roof in the newspaper.
Frowning, Xio nodded as she raised a hand to her head.
"It's him, I can't believe he did something like that..." Xio replied.
...
Returning to the present, Xio adjusted her scarf again as she reached the meeting point and there was the man in question.
Leaning against the alley wall with his arms crossed and looking up at the cloudy sky.
Mr. Holmes as always was dressed in the same clothes that she read in the newspapers and she could not but raise her eyebrows in doubt.
'Doesn't he care that he may get caught for not changing his clothes?' Before she could continue thinking, Mr. Holmes stopped looking at the clouds and looked at her with that gloomy mask.
"You arrive a little later than agreed, miss, and I already thought that you abandoned me" the man's voice continued with that provocative tone that made Xio's veins throb, but using her training as a noble and knight she maintained a cold mind.
"Looks like you've been busy for the last week Mr. Holmes" Xio spoke causing the man to let out a dark laugh.
"Don't worry miss, I was just getting rid the trash..."
Still leaning against the wall, Adryan continued to look at the disguised Miss Xio.
"Miss, did you manage to finish your preparations?"
"Everything is ready" was Xio's short answer as she approached Adryan.
Standing closer to him, she took out some papers and extended them towards the masked man.
"These are all the data I managed to gather from the place where he should be hiding"
'Not bad, Miss Judgment,' Adryan thought with a whistle and grabbed the papers and read.
Apparently the place where Joseph lives was more than 70 years ago a very successful fishing hunt but due to various tragic events the original owners negotiated bankruptcy and was abandoned.
Supposedly no one has lived in or set foot in that house since it went bankrupt more than half a century ago.
'What better place to have your necrophiliac fantasy, the poorer port of the East Borough has a horrible stench on its own so no one would care about a new one and no one will know what he is doing'
While he was thinking that, Adryan finished reading the papers and handed them back to Xio who grabbed them and put them away again.
"Miss I hope you brought something else besides your sword after all we have no information of what Joseph is capable of"
"You don't have to worry about my Mr. Holmes" Xio answered as she took out a revolver from her waist and the redhead could only smile behind his mask.
"So how about we go get him?" he asked as he bowed.
The disguised Xio didn't say anything and she just nodded and they both went in the direction of that port in East Borough....
...
..
...
The East Borough's poorest port is better known to locals as Mulock's Viscera, this name couldn't be better due to the hideous viscera of this monster fish,being the only thing that surpasses it in smell the Canned Wolf Fish.
It was already very late when Xio and Adryan had arrived and now they were both looking at an abandoned building from a distant alley.
The paint in the fishing house had been peeling off a long time ago and the ceiling had huge holes, the windows were all broken and the door was broken in big pieces at the corners.
'My poor nose...' thought Adryan with reddened eyes due to the horrible stench coming from the house.
This was a huge drawback of having such a sensitive nose and he could even say that there should be at least 10 rotting corpses in there.
"Just like Billy said, it's there" the masked man said disgustedly and Xio nodded with a wrinkled nose.
Even though her senses weren't as sharp as the redhead's she could still smell the scent of the bodies from where she stood.
"Let's go in from the back..."
Xio said quietly as she took out her sword in her right hand and her revolver in her left hand.
Adryan just nodded and before they both started to move Xio said one last thing.
"If there are any guards inside, we'll kill them and when we're inside we won't talk anymore" when Xio said that she began to move cautiously towards the fishing house.
Adrian just sighed and followed Miss Judgment closely as he looked around for any surprises that might appear.
As the two of them got closer to the house the smell got worse and Adryan could only curse his nose.
But ignoring his discomfort, there was one thing that gave Adryan a bad feeling and that was the fact that they were not running into anyone, he understood that no one should know that Joseph is here but even so, was he really alone?
Not wanting to confide in luck, Adryan discreetly put on the Burnt Band and moved closer to Xio in case he had to make an escape he could grab the Sheriff and run away quickly.
With his current spirituality it was possible he could handle taking an extra person although he didn't know if he could do it because he never tried so the best thing for them was that he didn't have to jump blindfolded headfirst into the pool and hope that it is full.
Arriving at the back of the fishing house, Adryan and Xio found an open window and the smell coming from it was much worse.
Beckoning to Xio who just nodded, Adryan approaches the window while crouching down he stuck his head out and looked into the room...
The room appears to have been modified to be a human butcher shop, there were several rows of human bodies hanging from hooks, the bodies varied in size and shape, some clearly those of children.
These human bodies had no skin, and Adryan could clearly see the rotting muscle on the bodies, and that wasn't the most disturbing thing.
The most disturbing and disgusting thing was the fact that all these bodies seemed to be wearing makeup?
Even Adryan could see various traces of dried fluids on the bodies.
'Sick bastard' was what Adryan thought as he stopped looking inside the room and closing his eyes for a few moments to meditate, he turned to look at Xio who was waiting for some indication.
Sighing internally, Adryan just nodded and entered through the window. Seeing this, Xio quickly and silently approached the window and before entering, she saw the demonic scene inside.
Xio almost vomited when she saw this if it weren't for the fact that she covered her mouth and that the little vomit that came out she swallowed again.
She quickly meditated to calm down and after a few moments she opened her eyes again but she didn't look at the bodies but looked at the exit to this room.
_______________________________________________
Sorry for not posting chapter yesterday and so late today guys.
I'm a little sick but I should be better tomorrow.
Note to readers: all the chapters published up to this point were chapters that I wrote over the course of two months from my other story with the same name.
I have published this new one in the fanfics part because the other one is in novels.
I hope you like this book.