That same afternoon, John went to the headquarters of the Inquisition in London to make a preliminary investigation of the situation in the current magical world, but as he read the various reports about it, he could not help but feel that something was wrong.

With the exception of the sea races, the rest of the magical creatures were decaying over time, this was quite strange and not believable at all, but Cardinal Spinoza's research reports and the reports of the third, seventh, ninth, thirteenth and eighteenth fleets stated that the levels of magic in the sea were increasing and because of this, the sea magical races were in a slow but steady expansion, so what made them different, the environment? The sea was anything but gentle, and while there were places that were still inaccessible, they had little or nothing to do with the magical sea races.

The fact that the environment was brutal was not an argument to validate the growth and evolution of the magical sea races, on the contrary, it was what limited them, since the fights between these creatures for territory and hunting grounds were quite frequent, and it was these same fights that allowed humans to navigate the seas calmly, since these sea races generally tended to ignore humans, being rare cases where they attacked human vessels. But this paradigm has been shattered in recent years, and it has taken the intervention of the NMI and the Reliers to keep these races out of the human world.

As for the rest of the magical creatures, both terrestrial and aerial, the case was more worrying; apart from the constant human expansion that expelled them from their original habitat, these races began to show signs of involution in the last decades, losing the intelligence that characterized them, becoming nothing more than beasts that acted by instinct, so their future was inevitable, to be exterminated by the Inquisition or locked up in reservations for their preservation.

On the other hand, both the birth rate of wizards and the magical awakening of children of human origin were decreasing at a terrible rate, to the extent that many Quelrathar mathematicians predicted in their calculations that wizards would disappear completely within three or four centuries.

John could not help but sigh, the beings he hated the most had a miserable future if they did not try to change, but among the few reports he had read he had noticed how unbalanced their society was; they lived a medieval lifestyle; in their society it was quite common to find traits of racism, not only against humans but among themselves; they had an almost modern system of government that was out of sync with the lifestyle they had; they were very closed, isolating themselves completely, with no desire to return to the human world, well, the Quelrathar were to blame for that happening, but those were different times, currently, from what he had heard, Pope Mihail had tried to re-establish relations between both sides, but many ministries of magic in various countries had opposed this action.

In short, mages were rare, but also unfortunate.

He decided to take a break and put away all the reports he had read, heading for the cafeteria to get something to eat, but on the way, he ran into Lorenzo in one of the corridors, listening to a hysterical nun who, after noticing his arrival, became completely emotional and ignored Lorenzo, only approaching him to kneel down and cry bitterly.

"Hunter! Do justice to our cause and bring down the hammer of justice on those who attempt against the human race!" she said between sobs.

"What happened?" John asked Lorenzo, stunned.

"A rift opened above the Santa Monica Orphanage and all the children and staff on duty were trapped by the abyssal creatures," Lorenzo explained casually.

"I understand." Helping the nun to her feet, John wiped away her tears, then pulled a piece of candy from the pocket of his trench coat and stuffed it into the nun's mouth.

"Hunter!" the nun said urgently.

"Sister, how many years have you been here?"

"Hunter, the children!"

"I know, but in cases like this you have to stay calm, tell me, how many years have you been in service?"

"Hunter, you have to save the...!" The nun could not finish her words before she collapsed to the ground.

Within seconds of the nun falling to the ground, a loud alarm sounded throughout the headquarters.

"Apparently, a mole has leaked our location," Lorenzo said in a fit of rage when he heard the alarms.

"This is nothing unusual, children are not to be trusted if they have not seen the cruelty of this world," he sneered, "so how many forces does the headquarters have to defend itself?"

"Right now there are only you, me, and the members of the Reliere on duty." Lorenzo said as he walked towards the main entrance, stopping a few meters later and turning around a bit confused. "You're not going?"

"Sorry, can you pretend you didn't see me today?"

Lorenzo was silent and stared at John.

"It's okay, I understand, the truth is that the magic has unbalanced my aura and I can't use it, plus Karenina beat me half to death," he replied reluctantly.

"For your sake, I suggest you defend the headquarters."

"Besides the fact that I can't use my aura and I'm badly injured, I'm only eleven years old! You want to send a child to fight the battles of an adult?"

Lorenzo looked at him silently.

"Can't you cover for me? You know better than anyone that there are a few cardinals who hate my guts because of the events of the 'Sforza of the 32', and the last thing I want to do is let them know that I can't use my aura."

Lorenzo looked at him silently.

"Lorenzo Inocenzo! You swore to protect the weak and innocent, don't I fall into those categories?"

Lorenzo looked at him silently.

"Lorenzo, please, all these years we've known each other and I've worked for you, until I find a way to use my aura again, don't use me if you don't want to see me die."

Lorenzo was still silent, only this time he began to draw his sword.

John had no choice but to go to the armory and curse Lorenzo's eighteen generations, but at the same time he prayed that nothing bad would happen to him, otherwise he would most likely not make it out of this invasion alive.

He did not know which enemy organization, alien race, or abyssal faction was attacking the headquarters, but no matter who it was, he did not believe that they would waste the opportunity to uproot such an important headquarters as London could be, so they would most likely attack with all the forces they had at hand, and might even call in more allies, so his situation could get worse, but never better.

After leaving the arsenal fully armed, he went out in search of survivors, although the alarms might be timely, there was always someone who was delayed and did not manage to evacuate in time, so his duty was not only to repel the enemy, but to make sure that no one was left behind.

After checking the warehouses, the cafeteria and the file rooms, he made his way to the staff offices, only for the lights to go out and a foul smell of rot to spread around him along with a light fluorescent fog, John clicked his tongue and continued to move cautiously, carefully checking all the places around him. The atmosphere was eerie, giving the feeling that he was being watched intently by a monster that was just waiting for the moment when he would let his guard down to pounce on him and kill him on the spot.

Any normal person, even veteran Reliere soldiers, if put in his place would collapse on the spot or start making stupid mistakes out of nervousness, but things were not like that for him, who despite his young age had enough experience in attacking abyssal rifts, said experience manifesting itself in little things like not using melee weapons at a time when he was not fit to use them, so his current armament consisted of a DR316.

This and many other small details determined that while he could not use his aura, he would not be so easy to assassinate either, although the latter depended entirely on the enemy he was about to encounter.

After exploring these areas, he went straight to the bathrooms, changing rooms and pools, but he didn't find anything, frowning, he went to the main entrance, but a silly thought came into his head and he immediately ran back to the archive room, even though it was rather unwise to do so, if this silly thought was real, then the damage the Inquisition would suffer if he didn't intervene would be brutal.

Ten minutes, it only took ten minutes, but what he saw chilled his blood to then awaken his murderous intent, though difficult, he knew he had to kill the creature before him at all costs, even if it meant being left on the brink of death, losing a limb, or even dying.

Across from the file room, an attractive woman with emerald-green hair, a light complexion, and a pair of horns on the sides of her head stood carrying a box full of documents.

"Wow, you came back too soon," the woman said reluctantly.

John wasted no time in firing at close range, but the woman reacted instantly, dodging with ease, though she had to drop the box in the process.

John's priority was never to hurt her, so in a single instant he threw ten grenades, one in the direction of the box and the other nine into the filing room, after which he felt something pull him by the neck and throw him away, violently breaking a wall and indirectly saving himself from being killed by the effects of the grenades' explosion.

"You are a very bad boy, because of you my superiors will punish me," the woman pouted.

"As if I'd care," John said in pain, his wounds had worsened and he could barely breathe, but he still mustered the strength to change the clip and fire again.

"Don't you think you're being too cruel to your benefactor? But I guess that's to be expected, humans are a horrible, ungrateful race," she paused, letting out a sad sigh. "I thought you were different."

"Benefactor? I don't owe you anything, you filthy fiend," he replied angrily at her ambiguous words.

"What do you mean you don't?" She said as she pulled out a photo. "You know, it would be a shame if the Inquisition knew that the reason for the attack on this headquarters had anything to do with you," she grinned playfully.

John felt his heart tremble with fear, the Inquisition aside, if Karenina saw this picture, his future would be extremely bleak, so at that moment he cared little or nothing about the consequences of his actions, forcibly activating the aura in his body, but at that moment a mysterious and unknown supernatural force went in the direction of his heart, destroying it on the spot, incredulous at what was happening, he vomited a mouthful of blood and then collapsed to the ground. The last thing he saw was the woman running towards him in terror.

He did not know how long he had been unconscious, but when he finally regained consciousness, the first thing he saw was a pair of women in front of him, the first was a nun dressed completely in red with golden patterns on her uniform, who was praying fervently, the second was a woman dressed in silver armor with the logo of a spear and a bull engraved on her breastplate.

She glanced around and realized she was in the main room of the headquarters, next to several stretchers filled with the wounded being tended to by both HOPE medics and DiviSture Santas.

"Sister, how long have I been unconscious?" asked John hesitantly.

"As long as it takes to recover from your injuries," the saint replied, getting up and walking toward another stretcher, repeating her prayers once more.

"The Grand Inquisitor has asked me to bring you to him when you awaken," the other woman said.

"How bad was the situation?"

"Victrix, Ferrata, Gemina and Bravea had to be used, you can deduce everything just by knowing that bit of information."

John felt a chill run through his body.

"And 'Fulminata'?"

"They were ordered to protect the Emperor's Mausoleum."

"I see, take me to the Grand Inquisitor."

The woman nodded as she led him to the outskirts of the headquarters.

John looked at the ruins of the once surviving relic of the Age of Annihilation, inhaling coldly, he couldn't help but feel fear for the demon woman.

Finally, they reached the outskirts of the headquarters, where Lorenzo was in charge of giving orders to a large crowd of nuns and priests. The woman at his side took her leave, leaving John to watch the sunrise and wait for Lorenzo to leave.

When Lorenzo was finally able to take a break, he waved John over and offered him a can of orange juice as he smoked a cigarette.

"Thank you," John said with a polite smile, even if he didn't like the drink, he wasn't in a situation where he had to be picky.

"How are your wounds?"

"The prayers of the DiviSture saints continue to inspire awe, no matter how many times one sees them."

"Excellent."

John was stunned by her words.

"I don't understand, don't you have anything to tell me?" he asked anxiously.

"Well done, if it wasn't for your intervention, the London headquarters would have been completely destroyed."

John was stunned to hear this, as far as he could remember, he had done nothing major except destroy the archive room, that action was insignificant compared to everything that had happened, so to receive such a congratulation was unimaginable.

"Currently, the London headquarters is the only one in all of Europe that can be considered operational, so until you enter Hogwarts, you will be under my command."

"Wait, I'm still going to Hogwarts, even with all this mess?"

"Of course, but now the Pope's orders have changed." He pulled out a sealed envelope and handed it to John. "Unlike the stupid order you got before, this is a real order from the Pope."

John grabbed the envelope earnestly as he bowed respectfully.

"I hear, I see, and I obey."

"You are free to go, I will expect you on Monday to continue your service." He threw away his cigarette and left the headquarters.

John felt dizzy at these words, but as he was about to reply, a nun approached him with an attitude of fervent devotion.

"Oh, great and mighty Praetorian, it is my honor to witness your magnificent figure, please read and sign." The nun said as she handed over a thick report along with a pen.

John took the report, read it, and felt his heart stop for a moment.

Said report told of an unimaginable feat, under the testimony of a high ranking NMI directive, it told the story of a brave boy who slaughtered a horde of sixth order abyssal creatures, not only saving said directive, but also uncovering a terrible conspiracy involving not only a Cardinal and abyssal creatures, but demons as well.

Attached to this report was a picture of said Directive, which he had asked to be given to him upon his awakening, as a souvenir, so that he would recognize it at their next meeting.

John felt his body go cold with fear, that directive was that demon woman.