After making sure both the mother and kid were safe they asked the kid some clarifying questions, the four of them left the ruined house without much information at all. Peter ordered all of them to retreat back to their base of operations. There was no merit in trying to hunt for more information when one of their members couldn’t even defend themselves anymore. There was no sense in that, better to go back now and then make a plan off attack with their new information.

The four of them were running through the rooftops of Kortlea. As Peter ran through the rooftops, he was reminded again of the beauty of this city. He jumped across the gap of one building to the next and he saw a visual illusion that made the paint of the house move, as he sped by the house’s little black and white painting of a boy, appearing to wave at him. He looked at the landscape at large and the nighttime beauty of Kortlea was inspiring. While this was happening though, the four figures jumped through gaps and scaled walls. They were having a leisurely conversation.

“A description of the devil… What spell could possess a kid?” Luke said while he sprinted across the roof.

“None. As far as I know.” Peter said back. The four members of this team tried to wrack their brains of anything remotely similar happening in their lifetime. But as they tried to search their memories, nothing came up.

“What’s important is we just found a new mana phenomenon left by this ‘devil’.” Irene said while kicking off a wall and scaling over it. Though her mind was exhausted, her body was in good shape, she was keeping up.

“That is true, violet mana isn’t something I’m familiar with. I’ve met many magicians, so have you, and I haven’t seen anything like what you’d described.” Luke said. Every spell one casted left behind a change in the natural mana ecosystem, but it was usually gone without a trace in an hour's time. What’s more interesting was, the violet mana barely even showed itself to Irene after pushing herself that far, normal residual mana wasn’t that hard to unveil by professional standards.

“How did you even figure out there would be residual mana?” Peter asked her.

“It’s because I realized that the incidents we’ve been following could actually be the devil. I adjusted my spell to locate residual mana because the devils in the books also used magic, though they are very different from us. I thought if that was the case, I should find something if I focused on residual mana.” She explained.

“Hmph. We can’t rely on you nearly killing yourself to find a small part of the information that’s there.” Gram said with a short and deep pulse of his heart, emphasizing his statement as he landed and rolled across the roof.

“You’re not wrong Gram. We’ll be a woman down if you have to do that everytime and we don’t know if they’re going for us eventually. Also, if we’re going to use wands every single time, I doubt we can see this through to the end without our division being disbanded because of our overuse of budget.” Peter said, taking the simplest routes he could.

Wands were extremely expensive to use. They were an amplifier, allowing possibilities that the normal person couldn’t attain through normal means. Every time a wand was used, its enchantments burned through the material it was on. Especially with Irene’s usage of it earlier, her wand was burnt halfway through her use but it was immediately gone through her quick search of this violet mana.

A bit frustrated, Irene couldn’t help but agree. “All I saw was a small part of it. We can try to brute force it but we find these devil incidents way past an hour.”

“If that’s the case, why do you think there was still the presence of violet mana there?” Luke asked.

“I have no idea.” Irene answered honestly. She had hypotheses’ but those didn’t really help until she had more information.

“Peter, why aren’t the other spymasters in on this?” Gram asked.

“Probably because it’s still a small case. Ambrose told me they had something else they’re focusing on and it’s big from what I can tell.” Peter said, not too sure about why they’re the only ones pursuing this.

“They’d rather focus on keeping their wealth than actually helping this country.” Luke said in a derisive tone.

“Calm yourself Luke. I’m certain they’re doing their job as well.” Peter said. There was most certainly more to this than meets the eye. “Also, I’m handing the job of finding out more about the theological precedence of this situation to you, I know you have connections.”

“I’ll deal with it.” Luke answered.

The four of them continued to roam through the night. Armed with the little information they do have, they began their planning.

 

---

 

A man was walking in circles around his room, his neatly parted blonde hair being tussled with his actions. He had a heavy expression that he couldn’t seem to shake no matter how hard he tried. He was in a quaint room, one that appeared to be an office. He could’ve buried his head in the endless books that lined the walls of his office, maybe even drown his thoughts with the stack of paperwork that was on his desk. But his mind barely even registered that.

A knock was heard from opposite of his door. There was a rhythm to it and it jolted the man from his thinking and released the haptic enchantments on the door. A man with blonde hair and green eyes showed himself.

“Peter, glad to see you’re still fine.” The man said.

“Ambrose, likewise.” Peter answered.

The door was closed and the faux relaxation immediately went away. Business was in order. 

“Your mission went well I hope?” Ambrose asked, there was a slight similarity in the likeness of him and Peter though his eyes were quite exotic, they were amethyst in color. He sat down behind his desk and began to pour some tea that was already brewed for Peter to drink.

“It finally bore some fruit.” Peter said while he sat down, there was a tinge of joy in his voice. Though Ambrose didn’t seem thrilled to hear it. “Though we would need a constant supply of dekraydor wood and you would need to refocus your enchanters in this mission as we would chew through those wands quickly.”

Ambrose quietly sat as he heard Peter out. “That’s not exactly feasible. What happened?” 

Peter explained the situation. He explained how Irene managed to find a clue because she made the connection that the devil isn’t actually just an evil person but the real thing from theological books, especially the Book of the Maker. How the kid was trapped and was possessed and described the devil and that they were coming. How the events they’ve just experienced matches up with the events in the Book of the Maker. 

Ambrose leaned against his chair. His fingers, which were full of rings, cupped his chin. “I’m going to say it quite bluntly. I can’t believe it.”

“I’ve sent Luke to find and talk to the most knowledgeable priest he knew in the Book of the Maker. We’re trying to figure out if it has any weight to it at all.”

“After that? The kid didn’t exactly have all the details. Did you secure the house at least so it couldn’t be tampered with?” Ambrose asked.

“I’ve talked to the owner of the house and one of the head guards in Kortlea. They agreed to keep it untouched for now.” 

“Good. Then you can at least go back to it and try to find some more clues. Though if Irene was close to death. I doubt she can go any further than that.”

“That’s the most interesting part. We’ve always managed to find some clues in every incident however little we found. It’s how we managed to find Dalin. But now, we used every tool in the book and it brought up nothing. Short of killing herself, Irene had to cast a modified investigation spell to find residual mana. That’s never been necessary in any of our missions. Not even the past devil incidents. And now, somehow, we couldn’t find anything, not even a child inside the walls.”

“A conundrum indeed. I would love to give you more backup but unfortunately most mages of your caliber have already taken up jobs they prefer.” Ambrose said. And that was quite the statement. He was a council member. He had access to people who could easily face a platoon of high guards and come out on top without much trouble. If he didn’t know someone, then it was incredibly unlikely Peter would be able to find a suitable recruit.

“I still think we should go after Scribe Dalin’s known accomplices.” Peter said.

“Drop it, Peter” Ambrose said with a harsh tone, though he was amicable and easy to talk to, it was easy to forget that this man was part of the council. “The situation with Dalin already almost made the council members vote for an investigation on who did it and to remove them from their position and if a council member was involved, remove them from their seat. When Dalin killed himself, that removed a lot of the tension. A lot of the members believed that whatever came to him he was guilty for, if that was his response.” Ambrose explained.

Peter composed himself. “I understand. Then, can you at least give us permission to look into this troupe called ‘Living Life’? I doubt an entertainment group being looked into would shake a few feathers.”

The council member’s fingers tapped rhythmically on the desk. “From what you’ve told me, it was quite convenient how these events played out. Fine, just don’t do anything unnecessary.”

Peter beamed from the statement. “Thank you, we’ll keep it quiet. In any case, Ambrose, I’ve known you for a while now. Is there something bothering you? You didn’t exactly seem enthusiastic when you heard we finally got some headway in this.” Peter said.

Ambrose's mouth turned into a wry smile when he heard that. “There will be a court meeting addressing war prevention.” 

“War prevention?” Peter murmured to himself. “What does that entail, exactly?”

“Mandatory military service for everyone sixteen years old and above.” Ambrose said.

“What are they expecting civilians to do?” Peter scoffed. One warrior-mage could wade through civilians like a huntsman goes through fat.

“A lot. After the meeting, the council will start working together with the merchants to create weapons they could handle even without a deep connection to the senses.” Ambrose explained.

“If the council could do it, that would be revolutionary. Every child in Arrelyn will speak Tinisian if this is the case.” Peter mused. “What made them act so drastically?”

“Contria. These past three hundred years, they’ve managed to reconstruct and become a threat once again.”

“The grudge lives on, huh.”

Ambrose nodded. “It does.” 

 

---

 

Irene was brewing some tea. She muttered herself the ingredients she needed and she was meticulously weighing each and every one of them. It was some medicinal tea that helped ease the pain of the fatigue of the mind as one casted too much magic. When one casted magic, you used your mana reserves and mana was the energy that held people together. The glue that made everything possible, though that was just some theories of philosophers. The reality was, use too much of your mana and you as a person, cease to be. This was why when magicians casted spells, their minds started to hurt and their hearts started to dangerously pulse rapidly, it was a defense mechanism to stop them from exerting themselves to the point of death. Though that was any human mechanism wasn’t it? Your body exhausted you before you could run yourself to death, made you full before your stomach burst. Every living being had natural inhibitors.

Though what were the inhibitors of devils? What is their ceiling of power? Irene asked herself. She took out a notebook and began writing the events that she experienced. She didn’t spare any detail and was indiscriminately jotting every single little thing down.

“How did they manage to possess a kid? How did their spell manage to deflect any of our attempts to pierce it?” Irene muttered to herself. She began to think about the characteristics of the devil, there were plenty of descriptions of their power and their inclinations in the Book. They could possess humans. Doing whatever they wanted with their body. There was a passage about a priest who dropped their faith and got possessed and cried blood while writing a bastardization of the Book of the Maker until he died. Wait, I think there were multiple ex-priests who got the same treatment now that I think about it.

Irene got out her own copy of the Book of the Maker and compared the events she experienced in the ruined house and the passages in the book itself. 

“An enclave of humanity, invaded by the demonspawn, houses ungaurded and vulnerable but they picked one, to further the terror the people would feel. And so, an atrocity was committed in the middle of a packed community though there was no one to see it, except one. The people managed to find a child inside the chimneys, at first he appeared fine. But the end was coming, and it was heralded by a child. So pure and full of love was possessed and gave the first description of the devil.” Irene muttered to herself as she read the very last volume of the Book of the Maker, called the Volume of Dismantling.

The details weren’t so clear cut. It was never that clear when you tried to analyze a book that was written thousands of years ago. Context that would’ve been there, gone. Realizing there was a definite connection there and how ridiculously hard it was to even just find a glimmer of its residual mana. Irene read on.

 

---

 

Luke was waiting in front of a house in one of the residential districts in Slab Lutinae. The sharp points that protruded from the house were tempered by swirls and curves everywhere else. There was a quaint hammer dangling from the protruding sharp roofs that was in the middle of the house. The wind blew but it didn’t seem to move the hammer one bit. It was one of the many decorative practices of those who believe in the Maker, though the specific owner of this house was a Foundationalist, which was the largest denomination of those who believed in the Maker. Stability and foundation was lauded as one of the highest virtues one can aspire to.

The door was opened and Luke met a kind face. He had a necklace of the Maker that had the iconic hammer. “Luke, is it?” He asked.

“Priest Donovan, good to meet you! Sorry that I’ve called you on such short notice.” Luke said bowing to the priest.

“Hah! That’s fine. I don’t have the heart to turn away one of Samuel’s friends. May his soul be where it needs to be. Come in, young man. Make yourself at home.”

Luke entered and was greeted by the bare essentials. There wasn’t anything lavish inside his home. No extravagant pieces. Though it did show the foundations and pillars of the house quite well. 

Donovan sat down on one of the rocking chairs in his living room that was closest to the chimney and he pointed to look to sit in the rocking chair opposite of him.

“So, what has gotten you so desperate to look for a priest of the Maker? My dear assistant was quite miffed at you visiting at such an irregular time.”

“Is it fine for me to set up some extra privacy enchantments?” Luke asked.

“I didn’t expect it to be such a serious conversation, but go ahead.” Donovan said.

After finishing his preparations. Luke explained the situation to the priest. He explained what they witnessed without divulging any more information than needed.

“A first witnessing of the devil... Your friend is right. It is from the Book of the Maker. Specifically from the volume of the dismantling.” The priest said with a troubled face.

“You're one of the most theologically knowledgeable priests that I’ve heard of. What’s your opinion of these events?” Luke asked.

“Hmm…” Donovan rocked slowly back and forth on his chair. “Events like this have happened in the past. Whether an opposing religion has tried to set up the believers of the Maker or even just atheists themselves who want to discredit us. But, the most telling thing from your story is how the child was possessed… The magic that has been gifted to us has never granted us the power to control people. But this violet mana… It was never described on what color the devil’s mana was but their control of magic is inherently different from us and it was described that while people could try to see their spells, it is a fool's game. While residual mana is definitely more reasonable to find than the spell itself, there was no one in the book who had done so. Probably because our control of spells and mana is much more sophisticated today.”

Luke tried to digest that information. “There’s precedent, then?”

Priest Donovan made a measured nod and spoke carefully. “I believe it to be more realistic for your friend to have seen things from her near-death experience and the child having an episode of the mind, but yes there is precedence.”

“This isn't the answer I expected.” Luke said honestly.

“Accounts of devil sightings happen all the time. Us clergy of the Maker have to take these matters seriously. Granted, yours does seem to have some weight to it, but I can’t just agree without further investigation. Though our order, who specializes in investigations like these, are busy investigating miracles that people claimed to have happened.” Donovan answered.

“I wasn’t aware Threinas was rich in miracles.” Luke answered in jest.

“More than you know.” Donovan laughed. “In any case, the decision comes to you if you want this to be private or for me to share with my fellows in faith.”

“I would want it private for now. I’ll inform you if I change my mind.” Luke said.

“Then it shall be done. It was an enlightening conversation, Luke. That is certainly food for thought.” 

“Hopefully it remains just food for thought.” Luke muttered and excused himself.

 

---

 

Gram was blacked out in some random bar in Lutinae. Though Lutinae was the most important city of Threinas, after all the capital city which comprised all slabs and valley cities was named after Lutinae itself. It held the assembly court, high judge courts and the leaders of Threinas who do their job in the council chambers where its members decide the fate of the country.

Though from the bar Gram was in, it didn’t exactly look the most pristine nor representative of the country. Soot was smeared everywhere from the walls to the drunkards themselves who enter this sorry excuse of an establishment. 

Though while it lacked the riches in the wealth kind, it was rich in rumors. Stories from all over the country from its Slabs, valley cities and even provinces floated around. And a certain story was dominating them all. The Adjudicator. A man in red and black, hell bent on dismantling every loan shark gang that was in Lutinae. Some people even said that he had Threinas as a whole in his sights. The Adjudicator was apparently a powerful haptician, known for his staple killing of the gang leaders with a spell that conjured an invisible hand of force and crushed them down against the hard road. He alone dismantled seven loan shark gangs in a week.

“Hah! This Adjudicator is just another vigilante who’ll randomly disappear because he bit more than he could chew!” A drunk patron said, though it was much more slurred and incomprehensible than presented. Still, his speech was understood well enough by the patrons of the bar.

“Ahh come on! He’s doing this country some good I tell ya!” His friend told him.

“He’s not going to save you just because you’re in debt, dumbass! Plus, your debt is to the bank, not some loan shark.” He said to him.

“Tch, maybe I should’ve taken a loan from them usurers after all. Then maybe my debt will disappear.” 

“Hahaha! You have something wrong in your brain pal! Maybe get a loan for that first!” 

The Adjudicator huh. Gram thought to himself. Though he looked as drunk as ever. His thoughts were much more sober than that. He listened to every conversation that was happening in the bar. Finding himself satisfied as the conversations turned more into arguments as the booze was processed by their bodies. He woke up as if in a drunken stupor and left the bar.