Murder Investigation! (2)

Zane landed on the grass outside the mansion, his assailant kneeling onto his chest to prevent him from moving. 

"Master! Lanius-!" Zane began to yell, only for a blade to be pressed to his throat. 

"Shut up!" His attacker barked, revealing themselves to be a man. Looking at him, Zane noticed he was a grown man wearing a familiar green robe.

Unperturbed by the blade, Zane tilted his head. "Are the Children of Namek also investigating his death?"

"I'm asking the questions!" His spit flew towards Zane's face, who turned away in disgust. "What have you found out? How much does the Blood of Syne know?" 

"We got here like 20 minutes ago, dude." Zane rolled his eyes. "We don't know anything yet." 

"Zane!"

As they talked, Vincent and the rest of the squad ran out of the mansion to see Zane held by knifepoint. Zane noticed Vincent was carrying an injured woman in a green robe identical to the man holding the knife.

"Let him go!" Lanius glared at the man, making him take his attention away from Zane.

"Not until you tell me what-" 

While the man was distracted, Zane's spellbook appeared beside him on the ground as he cast Mana Bullet, shooting two, tiny bullets into his attacker's eyes. The small beads of mana pierced through his attacker's pupils and out the back of his head, immediately killing him.

The dead cultist fell onto Zane, bleeding all over his face, causing the boy to groan. He pushed the corpse off of himself, getting to his feet and dusting himself off in front of his squad's shocked faces.

"You just killed that guy…" Lisa said, her mouth still wide open.

"He had a knife to my throat. Besides, he told me he was from the Children of Namek. Aren't they the enemy?" 

Zane was back to his plain, polite attitude as Lanius and Lisa looked at him like something was wrong with him. Vincent sighed.

"No, what you did was correct, Zane. It's good that you didn't hesitate but… it's okay to have some every once in a while." Vincent turned around and dragged the injured woman to the side of the mansion. He felt a little sad at the thought of the childhood Zane must have had, to so easily kill an enemy with no hesitation…

"So…" Vincent crouched down to be eye level with the woman. She was a cultist they had found downstairs, the source of the scream. However, she had already been injured when they found her, a nasty gash on her side. That was when they had heard Zane.

"What are the Children of Namek doing here?" He asked as his gaze turned cold.

The woman coughed out a bit of blood. "Same as you guys. We wanted to find out what happened to Smart Nash."

"He was working with you guys?" Vincent narrowed his eyes. It was one thing to have criminal connections, but to be assisting an active enemy of the kingdom… 

"Has been for years now." The woman took a moment to breathe. "Heh, for all we know he was working with the Blood of Syne, too."

Vincent's eyes widened as Zane remembered something. Vincent began to think hard about a third possibility of what happened to Smart Nash while Zane searched the corpse of the dead cultist, finding the folder he was reading earlier.

"Master, you should look at this." Zane walked over and handed Vincent the paper that had "CoN" written on it. Reading it, Vincent froze. Lanius and Lisa walked over to read the paper as well, only to be similarly shocked, the white-haired boy's fists shaking in rage.

"This… this is a list of all the citizens that have gone missing throughout the kingdom." Vincent closed his fist, crumpling the paper, which had contained information about all the citizens that had become victims of the Children of Namek, including their daily routines, health status, and more. "He was feeding all of you your sacrifices…"

"It was a solid operation, at least until those fuckers got him." Anger flashed in the woman's eyes as she coughed up more blood. "We were sent here to find clues about what he knew about the Blood of Syne, or anything that could tell us about that cult itself, but our schedules seemed to overlap." 

The woman chuckled at her own joke before bursting into a coughing fit, taking a while to calm down as she clutched her side in pain. "Damn shadows…" She cursed.

Seeing her take a breather, Lanius started to approach her, to give her a piece of his mind, to just let out some of his anger at, at the injustice-!

"What did you just say?" Vincent stuck out a hand to stop Lanius as a sense of foreboding filled the man.

"The shadows…" She tiredly looked at Vincent, the earlier fit of coughing had drained her of energy. "We were just sneaking around the mansion when the shadows reached out and cut into my side, that's why I was injured when you found me…" 

Vincent was filled with dread as he bent down to inspect her wound. Sure enough, it was a deep cut, however, the edges were covered in a thin, dark energy that slowly ate away at her skin. Before Vincent could question why he didn't sense the dark energy earlier, he felt a bunch of dark energy gather behind him, beneath Zane's feet.

"GET BACK!" 

Vincent yelled as he quickly flashed to Zane's position, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him away as spikes made of darkness emerged from the ground he was standing on earlier. Lanius and Lisa jumped back, ready to fight as they surveyed the situation.

"I nearly had you." 

A dark blur quickly sped past them, taking the injured woman and disappearing, before multiple figures materialized on the roof of the mansion, wearing black and red robes. The one leading the group had his hood down, revealing an adult man with black hair and eyes, the injured cultist on the ground beside him.

"The Blood of Syne, I presume?" 

Standing protectively in front of his students, Vincent glared at the man on the rooftop.

"Correct." The man clapped. "You may call me Benjamin. Now, if you would hand over the boy?" 

Lanius and Lisa looked at Vincent with a confused gaze as he stood closer to Zane. "You cultists are not-" 

"I was just asking to be polite." 

Vincent quickly sensed an attack next to him and raised his arms to block his face as a gauntlet made of shadows smashed into his guard, sending him flying. While the trio of students were frozen by the sudden attack, another black blur appeared, this time grabbing Zane before reappearing on the rooftop next to Benjamin.

"Zane!" Lanius cried, while Lisa looked on with worry. Vincent still had not come back yet.

"Well, this is where we say goodbye. Kill them." 

"Guys! Help-!"

Giving his order, Benjamin began to sink into a puddle of shadow at his feet, along with the injured woman and Zane, who struggled and cried for help but was cut off as he was consumed by the shadows. Lisa and Lanius could do nothing but watch as their squadmate was kidnapped in a matter of seconds.