“BACK OFF, I SAID BACK OFF!!!”

  The guards were busy controlling the crowd. It could not be helped, they were all curious, and rightfully so. There were loud noises in the middle of the night, and when people went to look, a building, half-sunken on the ground, was engulfed in a massive blaze. It was also no ordinary building. The locals and the guards knew that it was the main hideout for the Lorca gang.

  “MAKE WAY. MAKE WAY FOR THE COMMANDER OF THE GUARDS!!!”

  It was Viscount Hengard and his retinue. They were struggling to get past the sea of crowds and head towards the crime scene. Ever since Kylan took his post as one of his vice-commanders, Hengard rarely visited a crime scene anymore. But today, today he was awoken from his slumber early by the wildest report he had ever heard in his career. He just had to check it for himself.

  Hengard finally managed to get past the crowd and entered the perimeter. He was flabbergasted by what he witnessed —a collapsed ground and remains of a charred building that used to stood there. The scent of burned humans wafted through the air. He could not mistake the smell; he had smelled it often during the War of the Empress.

  Hengard noticed his two nephews, Kylan and Irvin, were in the middle of discussing the scene, so he walked towards them.

  “Kylan! Irvin! Give me status report.”

  Seeing their uncle, Kylan gave him a salute while Irvin just nodded weakly.

  “Yes, Uncle. The guards who were patrolling nearby heard a loud noise, then they saw a bright light and smoke, indicating there’s a fire. They immediately called for backup and rushed to the scene. According to the report, when they arrived the ground was already like this and the building was burning furiously. They were trying to extinguish normally, but the fire wouldn't die down. So we got the mages to do it for us.”

  Irvin waved, he was part of the mages who extinguished the fire with a [Rain] spell.

  “The fire cannot be extinguished through normal means… Was it magic?” Hengard asked Irvin, the one who was most knowledgeable in spells and magic. But Irvin just shook his head.

  “It wasn’t. The only traces of magic you can find here are from our [Rain] spell. It was either a fire from oil or alcohol. That’s why normal water didn’t work.”

  Hengard was surprised that there was no magic involved. How could such a scene be possible with pure physical means?

  “Not even for the ground?” Irvin shook his head at Hengard’s other question.

  “Kylan, were there any reports of a huge amount of gunpowder or oil stolen?” Hengard remembered about the warehouse robberies that were probably done by the Molrrets and a bunch of kids, but he was not sure if he remembered them stealing enough explosives or oil to do such a thing.

  “No, uncle. No gunpowder or oil were stolen. At least not in an amount that could do such a thing… they do stole a lot of wines though … but… “ The wines could explain the fire. But not the sunken ground. And a bunch of kids, burning a gang’s hideout? Why?

  Hengard became more concerned. His mind raced but he could not make heads or tails of the situation. Then he remembered, “Irvin, could the Molrrets do this? Sink a building?”

  Irvin shrugged. “Theoretically… yes. But … a single or a dozen Molrrets could not do this. At least not in a single night. The residents would have realized that the ground foundation was getting weaker. Even though they were gangs, they would have done something to prevent it … or at least moved their hideout.”

  It was a reasonable assumption. Which was why it did not make any sense at all that there would be a bunch of humans trapped under the rubble and ended up being burned … alive or dead.

  “The strangest thing for me was the scale of destruction.” Irvin continued. He was in full researcher mode. “If Molrrets did this… naturally the other buildings would be under risk of sinking too. But… Only this building sank.”

  “Have you checked the other buildings?” Hengard asked. Now he was worried that the entire street might sink to the ground.

  “We did. We sent our familiars inside the sewer and found no foundational damage on the other buildings… but we have to send experts or architects to be sure… and we did find a lot of small sized tunnels all over. Our guess is Molrrets”

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  “A lot. Like how many?”

  “Like hundreds of Molrrets many.”

  Hengard was shocked. Hundreds of Molrrets!? He did not even know that it was possible for that many Molrrets to gather in one place.

  “Hundr- ,,, Irvin. Theoretically speaking. What kind of damage could hundreds of Molrrets do?

  Irvin hesitated to answer his uncle's question. He knew it would send his uncle into a panic. It did send Kylan into one.

  “Well … we have recorded history of a mountain city buried in a landslide because of a horde of Molrrets.”

  Hengard just remembered about this story. He never cared about it before because a horde of Molrrets was a rarity and forgotten about all of it.

  “Remind me. How big is a horde of Molrrets again?”

  “... around a thousand.”

  “Dear Luminous…” Hengard was troubled. There was potentially a small horde — No, a large horde of Molrrets under the city of Hazen. And he had no possible solution to it.

  “Is there… is there anything in history about how the horde was dealt with?”

  “As far as I know … no. We don’t even know what happened to that horde that destroyed the city. The best guess researchers could give was… they kinda split off by themselves.”

  “Great… fucking great.” Hengard felt like he was losing his hair, he might go bald like his brother after this. Heck, his brother might ripped his hair apart when he told him about it.

  “Alright, that’s one problem we potentially could not solve… What about the fire? Why would the Molrrets set it on fire with wine?” Hengard decided to gather a lot of smart people to tackle the Molrrets problem… Now, he just needed to know about the fire.

  But his nephews were silent. They had no answer.

  “Kylan. Irvin. Do you think… do you think it was the kids? The street urchins who might have set it on fire?”

  Again, they were silent. None of them wanted to think a bunch of kids might had been the one responsible for this … atrocity.

  “Maybe… maybe it was Rex.” Suggested Kylan. “There were reports that he employed kids in his gang. Maybe, maybe he’s the one who orchestrated all this.”

  Kylan’s suggestion sounded reasonable. After all, Rex was known for his flame magic—and he had a propensity for arsons. However, if it was really Rex that was responsible. That meant Rex possibly controlled a horde of Molrrets, and that might be the worst case scenario for all of them.

  “Kylan. I’ll give you full access to all the resources you need to investigate this. Make it your main priority.”

  “Yes, Sir.” Kylan accepted the responsibility. It might be the biggest job in his twenty-two years of life. Bigger than when he had to help protect his family back in the war a few years ago.

  “Irvin. Support your brother. And make sure the Mage tower — all of them — focus on this.”

  “Yes, Uncle.” Irvin had no choice. Even he knew how big of a crisis this was. It might not even be a hard thing to convince that old coot, the tower master, to personally helped with this case.

  Hengard looked at the sky. He was already tired and the morning only just started.

  “... I need a drink.”

  ********

  A red-haired boy was watching the crowd from inside a nearby building. He heard the news, but he did not expect for Lorca’s hideout to be destroyed in that particular way. Especially not after he just beaten up one of his enforcers.

  “Did you do this boy?”

  A man entered the room the red-haired boy was staying in. He was only wearing a vest, showing off his chiseled body and tattooed arm. He was lean and mean, with hair dyed red, making him looked like he was related to the red-haired boy, only the boy’s hair was natural.

  “I thought you were the one who did this, Rex.” The boy answered the man's, his boss’ question.

  “Nah. If I’m the one who did this. I would just burn the whole building… not the extra stuff. I’m not capable of destroying the ground like that ...” Rex, proud as he was, acknowledged that this was beyond his means.

  “... but you, boy. I think you’re capable.”

  The red-haired boy seemed disinterested in the accusation. He understood why Rex made it — he feared the boy's potential, feared that the boy would overtake him one day.

  “I could … but not this quick. I would have to dig underground first and plant explosives powder kegs all over. That would require a lot of men, time, and gunpowder. No way it would have escaped your watch, Rex.”

  “True. And you wouldn’t waste that much effort just for Lorca.” Rex yielded. He knew the red-haired boy was a smart one, smarter than him. Even an idiot like him could understand, the effort needed for this was not worth the results, or the aftermath.

  “But if it wasn't you … or me. Then who?”

  The red-haired boy also wondered the same thing. There was someone — something capable of this much destruction in the city. A new player, and it did not care about the power balance. The boy could only come to one conclusion as to who was responsible for all of this … the black thing that killed Krieg, the one everyone wrote off as mad ramblings of former Krieg’s underlings.

  “Well. I’m not sure Rex. There is one thing I know for sure. Everyone… especially Lorca will blame this on us.”

  Rex smiled. His arms lit up in flames in excitement.

  “Heh, I guess we’re gonna go to war.”

  ********

  Inside an alleyway, two hooded figures, one large and one small, were looking at the place they used to call their hideout. It was Lorca and Bald Head.

  “How dare they. HOW DARE THEY!!!”

  In his anger, Lorca smashed a nearby wall, cracking it. Bald Head was panicked by his master’s anger.

  “Boss, we don’t want the guards to notice us.” His cowardice irritated Lorca, but Bald Head had a point. The guards would want to know who did this, and if they saw him they would capture him for questioning. If it were just normal guards, Lorca would not care, but today, there were knights, mages, and even the vice-commanders and the commander of the guards among them. This had become a huge deal.

  “Bald Head. Who do you think responsible for this?”

  “Well… “ Bald Head hesitated to answer. “If I have to guess. Rex. But…” It just did not make any sense for Bald Head. He could understand if Rex burned the building. Destroying the ground it stood on… That was not Rex’s modus operandi.

  “Rex… REEEEEX!!!” That was a good enough answer for Lorca. In his mind, Rex was responsible. Bald Head had lost his chance to voiced his doubt on Rex’s role in this incident. He knew a war with Rex’s gang was inevitable.

  “Bald Head. Gather every member that is still alive and every weapon we got from our hidden stockpile. We’re going to war.” Declared Lorca.

  “Alright Boss. It’ll take some time. What do you want to do in the meantime?”

  “I’m going to meet with Gano and Carven. Let’s see if I can get them to join my side.”

  Thus the two of them went their separate way, both preparing for war against Rex. A misguided attempt to avenge their fallen comrades.