More amused than frustrated, Alex decided to pay a visit to someone who could potentially be of help to him.
Unfortunately, Hell was where this old friend was. But fortunately, he did not have to take Scarlett and Eliana along this time. So, Alex's spirit broke away from his body. This time, he did not need to go through the tedious journey of plunging right into the bowels of the earth. He could simply teleport now. And teleport he did.
Acheron was no doubt surprised.
"Old friend, this is your second visit in less than five years. You really miss me that much don't you?"
"Acheron you cheeky bastard, your over confidence should have made you a king by now!"
Acheron Charon laughed. "Who says I am not?!!"
The small talk continued for a bit, until Alex stated the purpose of his visit;
"I must admit old friend, this is not a social call..."
"Ha!" Acheron exclaimed triumphantly; "I knew it!! What is it you want this time you scoundrel? Don't tell me you're here to snatch another human soul again??? Building a harem are we?!"
"Trust me, I wish it was that...but unfortunately not..."
His tone had taken on a more serious note, and Acheron sensed it immediately. He said nothing, affording Alex the ground to continue;
"...it's a pretty big ask, but I need to borrow it urgently friend; I'm talking about your soul searcher..."
A shadow of resistance immediately streaked across Acheron's eyes, indicating his aversion to Alex's request.
"I don't know about that bud, that's a hard ask. That's a really, really hard ask. Why can't you just conduct a wide search using your eye of god???"
Alex maintained his ground; "I'm afraid that won't just cut it right now."
"Why not? Didn't your powers upgrade when you got all humpy with Lilith last time you came here?"
Alex gave him a blank stare.
Acheron nearly doubled over in laughter at his friend's apparent shame; "Oh come off it man, don't give me that look!! Of course I know about it, and don't even try to ask me how!"
Alex did not even bother. This had Lilith's finger written all over it. There and then, he made a mental note about it to warn her next time she popped up. He decided to sweeten the request;
"Okay, how about I bring you some gifts from earth next time I come here. I know it gets pretty glum around here."
"You don't know the half of it! But by all means, indulge me- what kind of gifts are we talking about exactly?"
Alex listed out a couple of things, and after a little old fashioned back and forth, finally, Acheron settled on a large crystal ball that could be used to spy on any soul or location on earth. It was a funny request, but it was what he wanted. So Alex had no choice but to agree.
They both shook on it, and Acheron snapped his fingers, summoning the soul searcher at will.
Now, any god or spirit could be worshipped by humans wherever they were- this was the working principle on which the soul searcher worked. With the ease of a magnet attracting metal, it could fish out ordinary souls based on their names and the frequencies of their soul fluctuations. Naturally, this was of no consequence to high-level gods and high-ranking demons.
Originally, the whole thing was meant to enhance the efficiency of hellhounds whose jobs were to strictly drag souls to hell. Excited, Alex scurried back to earth, eager to initiate the process. In the twinkle of an eye, he reappeared back in the living room of Catherine's parents' house, and immediately looked at the clock. It was not shocking to see that barely sixty seconds had gone by.
He listened for any movements upstairs, but none came. With his eye of god, he looked through the walls and saw that both parents had climbed into bed with Catherine and were actively cuddling her like a big baby, as if they were afraid to let her out of their sight for even a second.
With the perimeter secured, Alex turned his full attention to his new toy.
For an artifact that had been pulled out from hell, the soul searcher looked kind of pretty. It was unique for a lot of reasons, and one of those reasons was that it could take on the form of any device that appealed best to its user.
In Acheron's hands, the device had the appearance of a chainsaw. That was not all too weird, considering the fact that Acheron was a prince of Hell. But, right now, in Alex's hands, the soul searcher had taken on the form of a brandless laptop. Willingly ignoring the fact that his subconscious was leaning heavily towards his human side, Alex paid no mind to it and started to initiate the process.
As he entered Khosa James' name and frequency into the soul searched, he mulled on the data he had so far.
It was kind of strange that the demon very much still at large. But that was not even the interesting part. It was the fact that a low level demon such as him had not only somehow managed to evade his search completely, but was doing so with the help of an obviously powerful spell. The spell that almost looked like it had been calibrated to keep out really powerful mages- or gods.
His thoughts began to gravitate towards the godkiller; 'maybe this two are connected...'
Coincidentally, the results from the search came in at that exact moment, confirming Alex's original thoughts! His theory was not too far from the results. In fact, it was practically the same!
According to the Soul Searcher, Khosla James' location was reading very close to where all of this had originally started out. Alex looked at the screen feeling like a detective on crime television. The demon's current location was just a stone throw away from Angelia's last known location! It was not far from where she had last performed, the same place where she had kicked Alex out!
The jigsaw puzzle was finally coming together, and Alex found himself getting more and more curious. For a god who had lived through several millenia and seen it all, this dalliance with the godkiller was the closest he had gotten to a climax that did not involve sex.
In the blink of an eye, Alex was out of the house, and appeared at a location that was close to the demon's current base. It was a pretty modern neighbourhood.
From where Alex stood, there was a whole building between him and his target. But he did not see the obstacle, he saw only the objective. With his eye of god, he got a clear line of sight, and was able to clearly spot a hidden basement. His eye had done him a great service, but he needed to hear as well.
Focusing his strength on his hearing, he was able to filter out all the extra noise in the environment, and increased the sensitivity of his ears by a thousand percent. Standing on the street, with a far away look on his face, no one paid attention to the stranger in the black turtleneck and brown boots. It was not like Alex minded them anyway.
His entire mental energy was focused on the conversation coming from seventy feet away. The unmistakable deep vibrations of a man voice resounded in his ears, followed by a quick short reply from what appeared to be a lady.
Alex focused, trying to hear the words this time;
"...I did exactly what you asked me to!!." The lady was speaking now, "It's not my fault there were blowbacks! I told you this was going to happen!"
Alex tensed. He knew that voice! It was none other than the high and mighty Angelia! But tone of her voice in this conversation lacked the familiar calm and authoritative tone she normally carried. She sounded tense, almost afraid even.
The deep voice came again;
"You must really think I'm playing..."
Some scruffling sounds followed, as if some people were fighting.
"Stop it! I've had enough! You can't make me do this anymore!!" Angelia yelled pitifully.
There came a short deep croaking laughter that was shortly followed by signs of struggle.
"You've met your end today. I don't normally do this to women, but by heavens, I'm going to enjoy squeezing the life out of your tiny stubborn neck!"