'Supreme-grade spiritual aptitude!?' The two men in suits who were standing behind Bishop Walls and Detective Watson were dumbstruck.
Both of them had top-grade spiritual aptitude themselves. Yet they were shocked to realize that the youth lying half-dead on the bed had the legendary supreme-grade aptitude.
What sort of concept was a supreme-grade aptitude? The aptitude levels were as follows: low-grade, medium grade, high-grade, top-grade, and supreme-grade.
If their top-grade aptitude was found in 1 out of 100,000 prospective Transcendents. Then a supreme-grade aptitude was 1 in a million.
That was how extremely rare a supreme-grade aptitude was. With such an aptitude it was very likely that he would at the very least reach the Mid-String Ranks. The two men looked at each other and saw the shock in each other's eyes.
After Detective Watson was done chatting with Bishop Walls, he turned around and smiled at the two men who were still recovering from the shock, "Ron and Andrew right? Bishop Walls has told me great things about you."
The tall youth with brown hair and brown eyes, Ron, snapped back from his daze and replied respectfully, "It is our honor to meet you, Detective Watson."
Andrew also hurriedly greeted, "Pleased to meet you, Detective!"
"As you can see. Bryan still has a lot to learn. He's still a Rank 2 Apprentice at the moment. When he advances to Rank 3 Apprentice, I will have him accept missions with the Silver Owls. When the time comes, I hope you can look after him." Detective Watson said with a smile.
Silver Owls was the Special Transcendent Division under the Church of Wisdom that dealt with supernatural incidents as well as protecting their believers from Transcendent related cases.
Listening to Detective Watson, both Ron and Andrew said in unison, "Yes sir!"
Then Andrew mustered up his courage and said, "Detective! I have a favor to ask of you."
"Oh? What is it?" Detective Watson raised an eyebrow.
Andrew took out a notebook from his pocket and gave it to Detective Watson. Then he said in embarrassment, "P-please give me your autograph."
Detective Watson chuckled and took the notebook from Andrew. He concentrated his spiritual force at the tip of his right index finger, using it as a quill, and signed the notebook. Then he smiled and gave it back to Andrew.
Andrew took back his notebook, flipped open the cover, and saw the autograph of his idol. He smiled foolishly and thanked Detective Watson with shining eyes, "Thank you, Detective!"
Looking at Andrew's childlike smile, Ron was struggling to hold back his laughter. Detective Watson smiled and replied, "No problem. Keep working hard and don't trouble Bishop Walls too much."
"Yes." Andrew nodded vigorously. Then all four of them left the infirmary, allowing Bryan to rest peacefully.
…
The burly 6 feet tall Johnny continued to choke Bryan with an evil smile on his face. Bryan's face turned red as he struggled to breathe. At the last moment, when Johnny let down his guard, Bryan stabbed him in the left ear with a fork.
However, Johnny's smile only grew wider. He grabbed the fork that was embedded into his ear and pulled it out. As soon as he pulled the fork out, blood gushed out from his ear in large amounts.
Johnny brought the fork closer to his mouth and licked it with his tongue. His face showed a feeling of ecstasy as he asked Bryan with a deranged look in his eyes, "How does it feel to kill, boy? Did you like it?"
Bryan was utterly horrified as he thought, 'Why isn't he dead? Why? Why is this happening?'
Looking at Bryan's face which was filled with horror, Johnny continued, "Are you happy to take a life? Did you enjoy it?"
Johnny raised the fork in his hand and pointed it at Bryan as he added, "You know what it feels like to take a life. Now you must also experience the feeling of having your life taken from you."
"N-noo! Someone s-save me.." Bryan struggled to speak as his eyes turned teary from fright. But Johnny laughed maniacally and stabbed the fork right into Bryan's eyes.
Bryan snapped his eyes open and screamed, "Noo.."
He panted heavily and looked around. He was inside a dimly lit room made out of large grey-colored stones. Bryan raised his right hand and touched his eyes. Seeing that they were all right, he heaved a sigh of relief and mumbled, "So it was a nightmare."
He observed his current self and saw that both of his legs and left arm were bandaged. He touched his forehead only to find that it was bandaged as well. Bryan sat up straight on the bed with great difficulty and looked at his trembling right hand.
"I really killed him, huh?" Bryan spoke softly. After having been on the verge of death and forced to kill another human being, he was greatly traumatized. Never in his life, had he thought that he would have someone else's blood on his hands.
Bryan didn't know what to feel. Should he feel guilty about having murdered someone? Or should he feel relieved that he was alive after killing that person?
Deep down in his heart, Bryan knew that it was the right thing to do. He knew that if he didn't kill the other person, he would have been the one to die instead.
But he couldn't get over it. He couldn't get the image of Johnny's lifeless face out of his mind. He laid back down on the bed, turned to his side, and curled up like a shrimp.
Tears kept streaming out of his eyes as he kept mumbling, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry. I didn't have a choice. Goddess forgive me."
It would take him a while to overcome this trauma. The flickering candlelight inside the room cast a long shadow on Bryan's trembling body.
Meanwhile, the full moon in the night sky outside was covered by layers of thick dark clouds, seemingly trying to alleviate the anguish and guilt in Bryan's heart.