'Then what was the reason for the mission?!' They were beyond vexed by what they heard. They had risked their lives for an unknown object, but at the end of everything it turned out to be useless.
[There are two options. Either this was also a decoy package or the main aim of the mission was to kill demigod Sanders.
Chances of it being the first is very low because the mana emission is real, meaning it's most likely the second.] The system quickly ran some analysis.
'If it really is the second, a matter involving one of the big 3 families isn't something we should meddle in.' Blake thought as he walked into the carriage.
'The violation fee better be worth it…' Blake thought with a frustrated look on his face.
10 minutes after Blake's carriage had left the scene, 3 carriages bearing the insignia of a rising ash cloud arrived at the now empty crime scene.
It was none other than the Calton city's police force, the Ash corps.
Immediately the carriage came to a halt, members of the alighted from them and began an investigation on the crime scene. They wore black leather pants with ash suit vests under black half cloak which had the insignia of a rising ash cloud embedded on the left part of the chest.
They quickly created an energy barrier that encompassed the entire crime scene in order to prevent both people and natural elements from affecting the integrity of the evidence, before they fully went to work.
Similar occurrences were seen in many parts of the slums and even some parts of the mid-region of the city. These were sites where multiple battles had occurred between the 'decoys' and the mercenaries, but the most affected area was the slums.
Not only were a lot of infrastructures destroyed due to the violent wind and thunderstorms, but a lot of lives were lost. Apart from the many commoners trapped and killed in the catastrophe while they were struggling for their daily bread, some of those indoors were also affected.
The quality of most buildings in the slums was below standard and was in bad shape. When the storm came a lot of buildings couldn't withstand the assault of the wind and lightning strike of that level, thereby collapsing and killing many inside.
It was an unintentional massacre!
30 minutes later, a luxurious carriage bearing the same insignia arrived at the scene and on seeing the new carriage, all members of the ash corps immediately stopped work and stood at attention.
"Status report…" A man in his early forties said as he stepped out of the luxurious carriage. He had a heart-shaped face with perfectly trimmed sideburns and a pointed nose.
He wore a half-black cloak with red seams at both halves forming the ash corps' insignia at the center when closed and under the cloak were multiple medals pinned unto a black suit vest.
After the entire team gave their salutes to the commander, the supervisor of the crime scene walked up and began giving his report.
"Commander Darius, we found 26 ash piles, but the interesting part was their position. It showed they were trying to encircle someone or a group.
Also, from the level of destruction and interference, we had while using the beholder, it is safe to assume that this was a battle between demigods at the perfect realm." The supervisor kept a straight face till he finished his report.
"What did you manage to see while using beholder?" Commander Darius asked with furrowed brows as he looked at the rubbles that were once houses.
"The best we could get was seeing the 26 men being burnt to ashes, even the color of the flames was unclear due to the high level of interference." The reported.
"I see… Excuse me for a sec." Immediately the commander was done with his words, his half-black cloak spread apart and burst into flames turning, it into large fiery wings.
BOOM!
Before the supervisor could blink, commander Darius had already zoomed off sending a shockwave that made the hero realm supervisor take several steps backward.
In a millisecond, he arrived at a ruin 100 meters away from his original spot and made a pronouncement.
"Everything is weightless!"
Immediately the words left his mouth everything became weightless and began ascending. The rubbles rose and bodies followed.
'Out of 25, 3 are alive. Has 2 seconds left, 5 seconds left, hmm a minute and more guess it's your lucky day.' Commander Darius moved forward grabbing the survivor and returning to his original spot.
'Huh?' When the supervisor opened his eyes, in front of him was commander Darius and in his hands was an unconscious 10-year-old girl who had sustained multiple fractures and dislocations.
"She is still breathing." Commander Darius said as he handed her over to the supervisor. "Oh… send beholder to me."
"Yes sir!"
2 minutes later a detective came and handed over the artifact named Beholder.
Beholder was an artifact in form of a bronze hand mirror. It had the ability to use mana fluctuations and emissions in a given area to reconstruct what had happened in the area in form of a vision. The clarity of the vision was dependent on the power level of both the user and the person being spied on.
'Let's see what happened here…' Darius injected his mana into the artifact causing a ripple that made the surface of the mirror tear in half, revealing a yellow-stained eyeball filled with multiple eerie blood vessels.
Once the eyelid was fully open, the pupil had a purple aura that sent images of what happened to Darius' mind. It showed the images of when Mason's carriage parked and waited for Blake's party.
'The vermillion rood… Hmmm.' Darius thought when he saw the artifact known to be in the custody of the royal family.
'These two again…' Darius couldn't help but comment when he saw the carriage bearing the insignia of the Nystrom family.