"Oh-oh... Now, this is something I wasn't expecting, I must say," Tobey's face couldn't be seen, nor his tone read. He lowered his head at the exact moment that all those cops pointed their guns at him. The only thing they could perceive in his expression was his cunning and cold eyes glancing at every single cop inside there.
They felt that Tobey wasn't completely submissive, which was something quite disturbing taking into consideration that he was under the aim of dozens of guns. If that man wasn't afraid of this kind of thing, he was going to get frightened by what?
"I must remember you something, Tobey Foster. You may be probably one of the greatest detectives that this city had ever seen. You solved many cases and did a very good job for the sake of humanity. However, none of your feats makes you undefeatable or untouchable. You can still bleed, regardless of how smart you are," someone said behind him.
"These are nice words, paladin. Also, it's nice to see you. I talked with you for a long while now, but I just had the chance to see you in person today. I always thought that you were a very competent man, the marshal that the police station of this city needed. It's just a pity that you are on their side," Tobey quickly and nonchalantly said. Nonetheless, even though he was trying his best not to do it, there was a bit of disdain and irony in his voice.
"I wonder what's going on in your head for you to act with this much cockiness. Is it because young men like you tend to act unreasonably like this? Or are you planning something?"
He could feel his hair standing on end as that paladin circled him slowly, the sound of his steps echoing inside the room. The tension of having several guns pointed at him wasn't even near to what he was feeling when facing two high-grade paladins at the same time. In truth, he preferred to be at the aim of a missile rather than staying in that room.
'Just bear it for some time more, Tobey. Just a little longer and you have got this case!'
"I think that you overestimate me a lot, paladin...", he slowly said as the marshal of the cops finally got in his field of vision. He was a man with a very well-cared black beard, hair of the same color, and one of his eyes was nebulous which probably indicated that he was blind from one eye.
That man was big and strong like a bear, at least by the looks. Just the presence of his big figure was enough to make Tobey tremble a little bit. While he was around 175 cm tall, the man towered at 195 cm at the very least. Besides, he definitely didn't have the body of a sedentary.
"I suppose that you are Caleb Alek, right? After all, this name seems to suit you."
The man frowned hard, squinting his eyes at Tobey.
"How did you know that?"
"I discovered when talking with an old friend of mine. You probably heard a little bit of him. Ah! Maybe he is the person that sent you to search for me because he knew what I was planning and was stalking me all this time. I guess that Gustav is a really convenient human employee for you, right? After all, he can do things that other paladins would need to be very careful when doing..."
Caleb Alek looked at Tobey as if he was about to kill him. He gave a threatening step forward, his intimidating aura getting bigger like a huge shadow projecting over the detective.
"Stop it, Caleb. You know that he is not worth it. We can't kill him right now. Clementine was adamant in saying that we should take him to her alive," Ariel Terzic said, approaching his friend and standing beside him. His calm eyes had a hint of severity inside them and he was looking at Tobey from above, completely arrogant.
"I know. But she said that she wants him alive, but she didn't say unharmed did she?" the marshal said, glancing at Ariel.
"Ok, ok... Just, please, be careful," his partner agreed.
The marshal showed a malicious smile to Tobey while squinting his eyes. He was quite happy that he would get to humiliate him a little. He wanted to do so after the detective did all those things just to look cool.
"Let me clarify something to you, Tobey," the marshal said as he took him by his collar. "We, paladins, are made for a single purpose: to kill your kind. You should be grateful that you are talented enough for the higher-ups to want someone like you alive for a bit more time. If I was the one taking care of you, not Clementine, I would have killed you already in the first chance I got!"
Once Tobey heard that his eyes widened a little bit. He noticed something that he let pass unnoticed unwillingly. Maybe, he was just ignoring that fact until that point due to everything that happened and how betrayed he felt. However, one thing was clear now:
'Clementine is strong enough to have the respect of these people. If she wanted, she would have killed me right on the spot. She didn't do it because she didn't want it! But... Why? Why would she do something like this? A-Anyway, I can hear them coming, I can't slack off right now!'
"You know what, Caleb Alek?" he said in a choked voice as the paladin pulled his shirt so strongly to the point of nearly lifting Tobey from the ground. "I like when people act exactly how I predicted they would do. It is very funny, and makes me feel like the smartest person standing in this room, haha..."
"What are you even saying?"
"Did you really think that, after knowing that one of the paladins was marshal of the police station, I would call you here for no reason at all? Maybe, you assumed that I was counting on you trying not to blow your cover in front of your cops and the employees of Ariel's enterprise, but that's not the case at all. I knew that, although you were more limited now, you weren't totally incapable of using your powers.
"Also, with your scheme of putting humans under your wing to make them work for you, there is no way I would assume that you were worried about it."
Caleb Alek grabbed one of Tobey's arms, a murdering gleam in his eyes. He twisted it a bit to the left, showing that he intended to break his arm.
"So, what's your plan?"
"Take down two high-grade paladins at once, so I don't need to bother to go to the police station to do so."
That was the last straw for Caleb, who grabbed Tobey's arm more strongly and was about to break it when more people entered the room.
By looking at their uniform, they were from the police station of a near municipality. They weren't meant to be acting there.
"What's this sh*t?" Caleb asked as he tilted his head while looking at the cops with different uniform pointing their guns at his subordinates and Caleb himself.
"Marshal Tom Reynald, you are arrested for corruption and attempted murder, as well as involving yourself in the crimes of kidnap and murder happening in your city," one of the cops of another municipality announced, pointing his gun directly at marshal Reynald (or Caleb Alek).
Caleb's face got redder every second more as he alternated glances between Tobey and that man pointing a gun at him. He was about to snap, and Tobey could feel his Divine Energy rising.
"You don't have any authority here in my city to arrest me, you pig," he coarsely said.
"I received a personal call from the marshal of MDCI, he said that there is a request in the court of the state allowing me to arrest you. It's still under analysis, but until the second stance, my actions are under the law and the protection of the own state!"
Caleb Alek closed his hand into a fist, taking another step forward. Ariel, though, prevented him from walking further. The latter wasn't even looking at that new police officer anymore, nor his short-tempered paladin comrade; his eyes were glazed at Tobey. Amazingly, his expression was still calm, but he was truly wary of that man called Tobey Foster.
"You are behind all of this I suppose..." Ariel said after taking a deep breath.
Tobey shrugged his shoulders carefreely.
"It's a bit of a cliché right now but... of course it was me."
"You cannot reveal everything, otherwise, you will end up hurting yourself as well. I wonder what kind of lies you said to them."
Tobey knew what he meant. He was referring to all the secrets involving paladins and demons, and Tobey indeed couldn't reveal everything.
"I revealed every single thing, to be honest. Everything that matters!"