February 28, 1976 (Present Day)
The City of Cheshire
(Yamir's POV)
*Sigh*
"You made quite the mess this time, Via." I told her.
"Eh, it'll be fine. After all, it's a "dog's" job to clean after her master~..." She replied.
Pretty sure it's the other way around…..
Ah, whatever. Ignoring her comments, I sparked forth a black devilish looking flame in my right hand.
This oughta do the trick.
"Oh but before you do~....." Via said, suddenly stopping me beforehand.
After saying that, Via got down on one knee and sunk one of her hands down into the puddle of blood again.
"What are you doing now?" I asked.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm sucking the leftover nutrients out of them. Can't let all this good stuff go to waste~" She replied.
As she was saying, the blood on the floor started to grow darker and lifeless in color, becoming paler by the second as if it was affected by a vampire.
There was clearly more to Via than what meets the eye, but since she's too busy "eating", it looks like I got to do some explanation, so I'll keep this brief.
You see, Via is a Desperado.
Desperados are humans who have become cursed by the power of any monster that is classified as a "Demon", thus gaining like-minded traits in exchange for losing something of equal value.
Now, as to what Via lost, I know too little to say anything for certain. But what I do know was the fact she gained a lot of different traits that gave her access to a large variety of demonic powers.
The powers of Desperados vary from person to person since there are many different types of demons in this world but what you saw now was something similar to a "vampire".
And one of the main abilities that vampires have is Blood Manipulation, which Via can also do by controlling the iron particles that flow within.
And like a vampire, it also allows her to nearly consume an indefinite amount of nutrients and mana particles through another person's blood, thus causing her to have near superhuman longevity.
But all of this was merely a scratch on the surface of the things that Via could truly do to a person.
There is one crippling downside to this however.
When a human spirit and demonic power are forced to co-exist within one body, complications are always bound to arise.
For Via, it came in the form of a psychotic alter ego. One that takes pleasure in murder. This personality, or "demon", can only be appeased through violence and chaos. The more bloodshed there is, the better.
And if it doesn't get what it wants anytime soon, it'll try corrupting Via's consciousness to the point until eventually she loses all sanity and has no choice but to go on a rampage.
In time, we eventually came to find out that this type of personality is typically referred to as "Euphoria", a trait seen in most Desperados.
"Annnd…..there we go~...." Via replied, now satisfied with her "meal".
It also seemed like she returned back to normal as well. Guess that means her Euphoria had its fill for one day. Not surprising considering the dead bodies.
Now getting permission to clean up this mess, I re-casted that black fireball spell from earlier and lightly tossed it towards the ground.
Under my command, the gloomy black flames began to spread around our vicinity, consuming and engulfing the crime scene with its blaze.
As blood cells began to evaporate out of existence, the bodies were reduced to ashes and dust.
A few minutes later, there was hardly much evidence that indicated possible murder.
Course that's if you ignore the property damage but that's besides the point. Normally, I could do a much better job than this, but this was sufficient enough.
Especially since we don't have to worry about erasing any possible witnesses.
Still, there was something that I was curious about.
"Hey, Via? What made you want to kill them?"
"What are you talking about?"
"There were clearly other ways to avoid all of this unnecessary bloodshed. We could have just ignored them outright or disappeared into the crowd when we walked back into the city. Hell, even if you were truly insistent on fighting them, you could have just rendered them unconscious." I explained.
Via sighed.
"You saw how those guys dressed didn't you? The way they addressed us with those lecherous eyes."
I raised my eyebrow.
"They were just perverted delinquents. Sure, they may not be the most upright civil type of people,but did they truly deserve death?"
"Sure, if you're assuming that was "all they were". But there was more to it than just that. I saw something far deeper than what no ordinary delinquent would do. An unforgivable evil."
"And that was?"
"Sexual assault. And they were repeat offenders."
At first, you may think that was a bold accusation, but in reality, Via wasn't wrong. Why?
Because I saw it too.
This world is filled with a lot of inexplicable evil. And once you expose yourself to that for so long, you start to get used to seeing a person's true nature even from just minor and superficial details. That same skill is necessary in our particular line of work.
Once a person commits a great crime, such as, you know…."that", it changes them on the inside. And no matter how hard you try to mask that "change", that evil will always linger for as long as they live.
And for us two, detecting that evil was one of our specialties. By the time those boys had approached us in the park, we already knew they were used to forcing their way through a woman's legs. That was why Via saw them as perfect targets she could prey upon without feeling any type of guilt afterwards.
But if that's the case, why did I ask Via that question anyways? It's simple really. I wanted to see if she actually had a better reason to kill somebody than something more shallow like "I disliked them".
And it seemed like she did.
So, in other words, I was able to see that Via was more then some mere monster.
"Alright, now, last but not least….Purify." Via said, chanting aloud another spell.
After saying that, a green magical circle suddenly spread out from beneath her feet before engulfing her in a whitish green holy light for a short second.
As the name implies, Purify is an advanced version of a basic skill used for healing. Its holy effects cleanses status effects like poisons or burns, but it can also be used to erase filth like bloodstains.
With this, Via looked just as clean as when we first walked in here. Although I didn't participate in the fight, I also used the same skill just to be safe.
Afterwards, Via looked towards the sky and noticed that it was starting to get late. Not surprising since we've been busy running around doing this and that.
"So now what? Do we go looking for Riad now?~" She asked.
"Good luck with that. This city is way too big for just the two of us. It'll be easier to just call him." I replied.
"No need for that~....." A sudden voice said out loud.
From the sounds of it, the familiar voice spoke through telepathic channels.
"Riad?" Although Via asked that within her mind, I was able to hear her loud and clear.
"Yep. Sorry for not getting back to you earlier, but I managed to secure us some shelter for the time being." He replied.
"Nice!~"
"As for the trip, it'll probably be better for the two of you to tell me in person. I know it's getting late and I don't want you guys out there any longer than need be." Riad followed up.
"That's fine. Where are you now?" I asked.
"Um, it's kind of hard to explain since you guys don't exactly have a map, so instead I'll arrange a transport to come pick you up. Just send me your coordinates and wait around for a while."
"Okay!~"
"A carriage? That's surprising." I replied.
Afterwards, Via gave Riad the location of the park we were at previously, which was understandable since picking us up from around here would more likely be suspicious.
"Alright, I'll see you when you get here." Riad said, before ending the call.
Afterwards, it was now just me and Via.
"I wonder if Riad got us a nice big bed for the three of us~...." Via wondered while getting lost in her own delusions again.
"I prefer having my own room, thank you very much." I strictly replied.
"God, you're no fun~....."