7 Leaving Town.

After his long night of slaughter, Victor enjoyed a nice sleep after his massacre. He had started right after midnight and finished around 6 in the morning. When he woke up, it was around ten, but that was the benefit of being Superhuman with magic in his system. 

He recovered quickly, so sleeping only 4 hours had no consequences. He hadn't even counted how many lives he had taken, but it was in the hundreds. He is watching the News with his pets and Shikigami in their tiny forms. 

It was like they won the lottery watching the lucky numbers, but it was the last warehouse he had set fire to. He had destroyed a massive supply of drugs while taking the guns for himself. However, the flames were yet to go out as he had underestimated what his flames could do. 

Firefighters surrounded the warehouse because the fire he had set was still burning. They continued to work hard to put out the black flames that seemed to never go out. Even after they poured thousands of gallons of water, the fires kept fighting. 

"WE NEED MORE WATER!" 

Victor had not considered how long his flames could burn, but even concrete and steel were used as fuel to keep burning. If the firefighters did not stop it here, the wind could carry off the fire, and they already had trouble putting this one out. 

Just as things looked like they would be here for hours, members of the Justice League arrived. Batman flew over the burning fire, and from the Batwing, he dropped a payload that fell into the fire before erupting into a stream of concentrated liquid nitrogen. 

He was not alone, as Giovani Zatara could sense the ominous magic used in this. 

"Sdniw fo retniw hsiugnitxe siht erif." (Winds of winter, extinguish this fire)

When cold, freezing winds blew into the flames, they worked with the nitrogen to encase the building in solid nitrogen, extinguishing all-devouring flames. Zatara gazed at what remained of the building and saw that even inside the nitrogen ice, tiny embers stubbornly refused to die. 

"This is awful." 

When they finally went out, he sighed in relief. He spoke into his earpiece because he and Batman were not the only ones there. Superman and Flash had come over because they had received a request for aid from Gladiator. 

While he wasn't in the League for personal reasons, he was still a hero and had contacts in the League. The man in question was here as he had been directing the Firefighter teams to put out the flames better.

Now that the fire was out, Zatara and the other Leaguers gathered around Gladiator. The man had his arms crossed as he looked at the former burning building. He didn't glance at the League members until Superman patted him on the shoulder. 

"You alright?" 

The man snapped out of it as he remembered the events of last night. 

"Yes, I was just curious about why those flames were black or why they refused to go out. This was not the only sight that was hit because 5 Warehouses owned by five different criminal groups were hit. No survivors. 

That isn't even the worst part, as several Police Officers, Sheriffs, Politicians, and Judges were killed in their homes. Shadows killed them. One was even ripped in half in front of his wife and kids. It was a bloodbath."

"Shadows?" 

Everyone turned to Flash, who started thinking of Metas with Shadow Powers. 

"Giovani, do you know of any magical creatures or magics that can control shadows?" 

Giovani thought about it. 

"Black Dogs, Hellhounds, maybe. Darkness Magic, of course. Why?"

Barry shook his head. 

"I was just curious because people were killed in their own homes by their shadows. This kind of power can be deadly in the wrong hands, as we need to see how things are done here."

Superman was curious.

 "I also wish to know who did this. Once we find them, we will need to put them away. Who knows how many died tonight."

Barry had to agree. 

"I feel the same way. I will run around the city to search for clues." 

When Barry ran off, Giovani turned to the chunk of nitrogen. 

"Whoever used this was a magic user. I know that much, and they did not use the magic of order. Magic does not give; it takes, and whoever used it was breaking that rule; they were taking it like a Chaos user.

Batman landed the Batwing nearby before leaving the cockpit. 

"Was this a Lord of Chaos, then?" 

Giovani shook his head. 

"No, this does not have the signature they use. In my opinion, the way they use their magic is similar. I could use Chronomancy to gaze at what happened the night before." 

Batman nodded. 

"Then do go." 

"Of course." 

Giovani walked forward and pointed his wand forward. He began to chant in reverse as he drew on magic to show what happened the night before. However, his spell broke apart, causing him to freeze in suprise. 

"That is odd. It didn't work." 

Batman was now very curious. 

"Do you know why?" 

Giovani had a few theories. 

"Most likely, the type of magic used caused distortions that could not be seen."

---

Victor turned off the TV because he didn't care anymore. He would lay low for now because the League would have an increased presence in Dallas. 

"Now that we have made my first significant action, we will have a target on my back. I cannot go out tonight because the League will pay closer attention. Instead, we are leaving Dallas for a week until things settle down. 

I'm glad I left a shadow in Mexico because we are going South. We can hunt Cartels, making the League think I moved South. Then, when they least expect it, I will strike again in Dallas. Sucks to be them, though." 

Victor sent all his Shikigami, his three dogs, and Jack into his shadow, which was endless even before he had the Ten Shadows. He then focused on the Shadow he had left in the Lacandon Jungle, where he had gone to tame Ramsa. 

When he activated the Shadow Exchange, he swapped places with the Shadow Construct. He then appeared in the heart of a Rainforest, which made him smile. He released his Shikigami and his pets here. From the look of it, his dogs and cat seemed rather curious about exploring this place. 

"You can explore if you stick with one or more of the Shikigami. This is also a good chance to start training yourself in magic because while you are my familiars, you aren't magical animals. As such, you could be taken and eaten by a Jaguar or Eagle, so be careful." 

Understanding the danger, his dogs instantly hid under Gram, the large white Divine Wolf. Jack jumped onto Yami's head, which made him frown. This cat had a bad habit of taking his head as a throne. 

Through his pact with his cat, he could tell Jack thought he was King. 

'Damn cat.' 

Regardless, now that his normal pets had their security assured, he started walking with Ramsa next to him. Balerion and Froggy walked off on their own while Gram stayed with his twin and the Pitbulls. 

As for Yami, he stayed with Victor and Ramsa, who would start the next Exorcism Ritual. The next on the list was Rabbit Escape, a mass of rabbits used as diversions. He expected to face trouble since Mana and Lykaon's Energy had mutated all the Shikigami into mighty creatures. 

Once he walked a good distance, he felt this area would be perfect. 

"Get ready." 

Ramsa and Yami leaned forward as Victor began the next Exorcism Ritual. A few feet forward, the shadows gathered together, forming a black rabbit with a red eye on its forehead. Other than that and the size on the larger side of rabbits, it looked normal. 

Rather than let the Rabbit multiply like crazy, Yami instantly controlled the shadows formed by the rainforest to skewer the rabbit through the head. He was so quick that even the Rabbit itself had not thought of using its ability to multiply. 

Victor turned to Yami, who looked proud of himself. 

"Well done, Yami. I would like it to clone itself because I wanted to do what Toji had done, but this works." 

With a proud look on his face, Yami held his head up. It looked funny because he had a white and black cat on his head. As for Ramsa, she leaned down to look at Yami as that had been borring. 

He ignored her as he had given Victor another Shikigami that could be used. Now that the Ritual was complete, he forged the Rabbit hand sign and summoned the Rabbit Escape again. 

Once the large rabbit appeared in front of him, he smirked. 

"Cute." 

He went down and picked up the rabbit in his hands. Other than the red eye, it looked like a normal rabbit but was not. 

"Welcome to the family, rabbit. Since you are a girl, I am naming you Rumi." 

He placed the rabbit on Yami's back, who didn't mind the small animals riding on his back. As long as they didn't crap on him, though, he didn't have to worry about that. Since that had been effortless, he decided to go to the next one. 

"Today, we will try two more: Max Elephant and Round Deer. Piercing Ox and Tiger Funeral will come tomorrow. Mahoraga, though, I'm not messing with him at all." 

From the look of it, the Shikigami thought that was an excellent idea. While the power of Mahoraga would be useful, Victor's chance of dying was high. That did not consider what kind of upgrades the Divine General had received from the energy of Canis Lykaon from his soul. 

It was bound to be powerful, but before facing the Divine General, Victor wanted to gain all 9 Shikigami, grasp his Balance Breaker, and learn two moves, Mana Zone and Domain Expansion. 

Mana Zone was from the anime Black Clover, and he wanted Yami Sukehiro's Dimension Slash. He really had no luck doing that because there were not many places around the world where the Justice League didn't have a presence. 

'Unless.' 

"Yami, Bounded Fields, do you know how to use them?" 

"Bark." 

Hearing the answer, Victor walked forward to the black dog and grabbed his ears. He pulled on them gently but firmly. 

"And you didn't think to tell me?"

With a small whine, Yami said that he had forgotten about them. Victor rolled his eyes. He would focus on that during this training retreat.

"Fine. I forgive you, but from now on, tell me, alright? Those fields could have come in handy for hiding my operations." 

For now, Victor focused on the next Exorcism Ritual, Max Elephant. Calling on Max Elephant used up quite a bit of mana, but not enough to bother him. However, he had to crane his head up when the 'elephant' took shape. 

"You ain't an elephant, that's a mammoth." 

The giant beast that formed in front of him reminded him more of a Wooly Mammoth, just sized up. The mammoth trumpeted at him and began to fill its trunk with water. However, Ramsa, who was here, rushed forward as the largest of his Shikigami. 

The mammoth aimed its trunk forward and released a wave of dark water, which Ramsa charged through. Yami lept away to avoid the water while Victor rushed forward and ran along Ramsa's back. 

When he reached her head, he lept off and surged Mana into his arm. The Mammoth noticed him moving, but he was just too fast. He reached the top of its head with black lightning circulating his arm. 

This was his lightning magic, but he was focused now. 

'Black Flash is a distortion in space that occurs when cursed energy is applied within 0.000001 seconds of a physical hit. Do the same but with mana.' 

Victor snarled as he released his punch, striking The Shikigami on the head. The sheer force of his fist, amplified by mana and Lightning Magic, caused the poor creature to fall limp on the ground. 

Victor landed on the top of the downed Mammoth, which began to fall apart into shadows. 

"It didn't work. Black Flash is going to be harder than I thought."

When the Shikigami was gone, he resummoned Max Elephant, which he renamed Maximum Mammoth. Besides being larger than a normal mammoth and having four tusks, it looked like a normal gigantic mammoth. 

Once the Shikigami reformed before him, its trunk came forward and sniffed Victor. 

"Sorry about crushing your skull." 

The mammoth patted him on the head with its trunk, saying it didn't mind. Victor smiled as he made a name for him. 

"I am naming you Hannibal." 

From the look of it, the Shikigami was fine with the name, meaning that he just needed Round Deer, Tiger Funeral, Piercing Ox, and Mahoraga. He wouldn't need to wait until tomorrow if things kept going like this. 

He could tame the remaining three Shikigami, which are other than Mahoraga. Once he had nine of the ten, he could begin to train his control over the Technique and work on fusions since the Shikigami could be temporarily fused for stronger effects. 

This was a good chance to start practicing his balance breaker once he learned how to make Bound Fields. He liked it when a plan went well.