Nothing would have betrayed his non-human nature if not for the slitted pupils and the claws at the end of the fingers holding a communication amulet. "Dead?" The creature looking like an old man echoed in disbelief. "All of them?" "And at the same time." The man behind the desk could hardly contain the grief in his voice. "Do you know what this means?" "Either they were rounded up and slaughtered or they killed themselves." The old man pondered. "Since there’s been no rumor about a sudden mobilization of the army, it must be suicide." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎 "Which means they faced an enemy they knew they couldn’t defeat or even escape from." The ordinary-looking man flipped the communicator in his fingers, counting the missing runes. "Could it be another of those weird elite soldiers the Mage Association sent after us in the past months?" The old man asked, unknowingly referring to the members of the Queen’s Corpse. "No." The man behind the desk shook his head. "Those guys were strong but not this much. Our brothers and sisters couldn’t beat them but always managed to escape thanks to their tattoos and teamwork. "Whoever our new enemy is, he must have overpowered them quickly and left our brothers and sisters with no hope if they chose to kill themselves. Investigate what happened at the Roaring Lion tonight, but be discreet. I don’t want to lose anyone else." *** "Emperor Beasts?" King Meron said in surprise. "All of them? Not just one or two?" "All of them." Yerna nodded. "We have brought the corpses to the coroner for the autopsy. Maybe we can learn something about this poison they used and how to neutralize it." Discover stories with freewebnovel "Good thinking, Major." Sylpha nodded. "Leave the room. We need to confer with Supreme Magus Verhen and his associate alone." "As you command." Yerna gave the Royals a deep bow and did as ordered. "There’s something you should know, Magus Verhen." The King said. "Before you came to us, we had already sent a couple of members of the Corpse to deal with this criminal organization. Useless to say, they failed." "Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?" Lith asked, knowing part of the answer already. "Because there was no reason to." Sylpha replied. "We still told you everything the Corpse’s members discovered, like the tattoos and the inhuman strength of the criminals. With no breathing technique, our operatives failed to spot the cloaking devices. "They also failed to capture these criminals because of what now we know is a gap in mass. Back then, we suspected it was due to new and improved tattoo potions." "It makes sense." Lith nodded. "The only advantages your fake Awakened have over Emperor Beasts are Life Vision and body refining. Yet the cloaking devices neutralize the former and the mass gap compensates the latter." "Indeed." Meron sighed. "On top of that, Emperor Beasts are usually skilled at shapeshifting. They can turn into smaller animals or change their human appearance at will. "It’s no wonder every time we identified a criminal and failed to arrest them, they seemed to disappear from the face of Mogar. They just shapeshifted into someone else and resumed their business as usual. Unlike us, beasts recognize each other through smell, not sight." "Has there been any case of a criminal empire of Emperor Beasts in the past?" Solus asked. "Never." The Queen swept the air with her hand. "At worst, one of them became a crime boss or a mercenary for an organization but we’ve never seen something like this. Or rather, it might have been here all along but we never noticed it. "After all, true mages with powerful bodies are a security nightmare. Each one of them can use dimensional magic, shapeshift, and kill hundreds of guards without leaving a trace of their passage." "Still, I find it strange they managed to stay hidden for so long just to be discovered right now." Solus pondered. "I believe this isn’t something old but something new. The question is why here and now?" "I think I have a way to find out or at least get a clue but I can’t do it here." Lith said. "I understand. Let us know as soon as you learn something. King Meron out." "Major Yerna, I have to leave for a while." Lith said after opening the door and breaking the insulating spell. "If there’s an emergency, you can contact me on my amulet. I should be back in a few minutes." Yerna nodded as Lith and Solus Warped high in the sky and from there they flew at high speed away from Kophar, Warping a few more times in random directions to throw off their tail anyone who might be following them. "Dammit, no mana geyser." Solus used both the Eyes and Ears of Menadion to scan the area for potential enemies and an energy source for the tower. "Let’s be quick, then." Lith replied. "We can’t go back to Lutia so you’ll have to sleep in the ring tonight. Be careful to lock your door from inside before coming to me or even weirder rumors will start circulating about us." "I know." Solus performed a final scan of the area and then pressed a rune on her Council amulet. "Hi, Lith. Hi, Solus." The hologram of Zoreth’s face appeared from the white gemstone that powered the amulet. "You don’t have to worry. Everything is fine in Lutia." "How do you know?" Lith asked in surprise. "Everyone knows you’ve left and I’m not a jerk who calls only when she needs something." Zoreth crossed her arms and her voice became colder. "I care, you know? Unlike someone else." Both Lith and Solus cleared their throats in embarrassment. They had yet to call home, assuming that no news was good news. "What do you want?" The Shadow Dragon asked, certain it wasn’t a social call. Lith told her about his encounter with the Emperor Beasts and their behavior, including the suicide to avoid capture. "Since you are an expert on the matter, is this some kind of criminal cartel that has remained in the shadows for centuries and for some reason now has slipped up or is it something new?" "It’s new." Zoreth replied. "Otherwise, I or one of my associates would know about it. I’m one of our youngest and I’m still older than the Kingdom." "How can you be so sure?" Solus asked. "Emperor Beasts are no pushovers and there’s no lack of scumbags among them." "True but until a while ago, an organization like the one you’ve just described would have been either massacred or forced into submission." Zoreth replied. "Remember that the black market has always been a monopoly of the Undead Courts. "Three different criminal organizations filled with powerful individual and well connected with the local nobility struggled for domination of all the big cities of the Kingdom. There was no place for Emperor Beasts except that as mercenaries, like Gadorf. "The Undead Courts tolerated his presence because he conducted daytime operations and alone could move around contraband with his Warping Arrays. He had his turf but he ruled no city." "The fight and win against the Undead Courts, you needed either to outnumber them or overwhelming power."