Earl James' bedroom had a big fish tank. The Earl stood in front of the tank, feeding the special 'fish' he'd collected.
Outside, the party was going strong, and his wife had already gone to chat with the guests.
James wasn't into never-ending parties. He loved collecting, especially weird, shiny objects. The folks who lived at the top of the Tower all had quirky hobbies. After all, their social circles were small and limited, but their power and money were huge.
"Hail to the Tower, long live the Queen," James muttered, picking up a light-colored body part from a plate and dropping it into the fish tank.
At the bottom of the tank, energy stones of all sizes gave off a rainbow light that lit up the creatures swimming in the water. These stones, precious enough to power airships, were just decorations in his bedroom.
A strange creature swam up. It had a human face and a fish body. Its eyes were red, and it showed its teeth, quickly eating the meat dropped into the tank. This mutant creature was caught from the Polluted Zone. It might have been a human once, but now, who knows? Its arms and legs had been purposely cut off, leaving just the body and a tail. The tail's scales glowed with a creepy, rainbow beauty.
James really liked this fish. He remembered how hard it was to catch it, and how many alphas might have died in the Polluted Zone. But it was all worth it because the fish's beauty gave him so much joy.
James got closer to the tank, watching the fish eat while showing a human-like expression of pain and despair. "I wonder if this creature remembers being human? I've never heard it talk," he thought, smiling.
Suddenly, a figure faintly reflected on the glass of the tank.
The figure popped up out of nowhere, its cold stare reflected among the underwater plants and pretty stones, like a ghost appearing in the water. Shocked, James turned around and quickly let out his psychic incarnation.
His psychic incarnation was a cayman, with extra-strong armor, sharp, powerful jaws, and super-fast speed. As soon as the creature came out, it got huge, opened its big mouth, and lunged at the intruder.
Seeing the charging cayman, James felt a little calm. Even though he had lived a luxurious life for many years, he was an A-tier alpha, able to change his psychic incarnation's form however he wanted. Plus, he didn't want to beat the intruder, just to slow the person down for a moment. All he needed was a quick pause to press the alarm button under the table.
In just seconds, his psychic incarnation would balloon up to a huge size, flipping and wrestling around, breaking furniture and busting open the door. The noise would surely grab the attention of the guards outside.
James began to calm down, giving a cold stare at the man who had dared to invade his private space. He was filled with furious anger.
The intruder was wearing a black tank top, with a bandana on his head, and a small blade held in his mouth. To James, slipping into his room quietly like a ghost and breaking into his most personal place was totally not okay.
He would make the intruder pay. As soon as the guards got there, they would grab him. Then he would have the man's arms and legs cut off and torture him slowly, so he understood how big of a crime he committed.
James watched as his cayman opened its huge mouth, already getting in the way of the charging alpha. The sharp teeth would bite through the man's legs in a split second if he didn't back off.
But unbelievably, the assassin didn't back down. His eyes shone with a purple light, burning like a fire from the underworld.
The purple light fCountessly charged ahead, and in a flash, it was right in front of him.
When the dust cleared, those cold purple eyes looked down at James from above. The freezing blade was already against James' jewel-covered neck.
Everything happened in a blink of an eye. James only just realized his cayman had bitten into something. He could feel the sensation of teeth sinking into flesh and bone. He looked over, in shock, to see that his psychic incarnation had bitten into an orca.
In moments of life-or-death crisis, instinct pushes one to protect themselves. James was almost astonished when he realized that, this killer didn't even hesitate when faced with deadly danger. He called forth his psychic incarnation, shoving it like a shield into the huge jaws of the cayman.
Harm to a psychic incarnation would cause serious pain to the master, greatly affecting their actions.
The tail of the orca was chewed down to the white bones by the cayman's huge bite. But the alpha in front of James stayed steady, the sharp blade resting against James' neck. The light from the energy stones lit up the alpha's icy eyes, showing no sign of pain.
"This man is crazy," James thought, a cold sweat running down his forehead. His hand, almost touching the alert button, slowly pulled back.
He was just a tiny bit away from the alarm. He hadn't even had time to react. He could hardly believe that he, a top alpha, could be taken down in just a few seconds.
Even though he knew his high alpha rank was because his family used lots of expensive gene drugs, and even though he didn't really have much battle experience, he'd always easily beat his guards in past practice drills. His top-alpha status was shown off proudly, and naturally, he got lots of compliments from people around him. He always saw himself as strong.
"What do you want..." James lowered his head, trying to make a deal, hoping to get more time.
After all, he was super rich. There shouldn't be anything he couldn't buy, including his own life.
"I've come back from Polluted Zone 35," the alpha in front of him said.
"Polluted Zone 35? The one with a living insectoid stone?" As the thought popped into his head, the cold blade of the knife cut through the skin of James's neck. Without hesitation, without any doubt, it took his life away, not letting him negotiate at all.
James tried to scream, but he couldn't make any noise. The thin blade had precisely cut his vocal cords and windpipe. He grabbed at his throat, not believing what was happening as he slowly went down on his knees. A lot of blood poured into his lungs from his cut windpipe. He felt like he was drowning, which hurt so much he wanted to die, but he couldn't for a while.
Earl James, who never cared about other people's lives, crawled on the ground. One hand was holding his bleeding throat, the other was reaching forward. He twisted his face, making small, throaty sounds, begging the killer to let him go.
Facing death, the noble earl lost his fancy air. He was just like any regular person, just as scared, just as weak, just as scared of dying, wanting to live.
Ren squatted down, looking at the man lying in the blood, and put a piece of white paper in front of him. "I know you're not the only one. Write down the names of the others. You might still have time to get to a healing pod."
He sounded calm, like a canoe floating on a sea of blood, making the dying man want to reach out and grab it.
With his throat clutched, his tears and snot flowing, James shook his head desperately. He wanted to say "stop, those are big people, even I can't afford to mess with them, it isn't something a lone alpha like him could handle," but he couldn't make any noise.
The alpha, who was like the grim reaper, didn't want to hear him talk, only squatted in front of him, waiting for him to reach out for that only lifeline. The dying James had no choice but to reach out his hand, his shaking fingers covered in blood, and write down a list of names.
He saw the alpha pick up that bloody list of names, flip it open in the air, and carefully read the names written in blood. Finally, under his desperate stare, the killer's eyes lit up with a purple glow again.
Ren thought he'd made a bit of a mess at the scene, but he didn't have any other options. He had to crush James's brain to make sure no one could access the memories using the Cerebral Cylinder system.
He sat in the blood-covered luxury bedroom, using the light from the energy stones in the fish tank to unlock the personal terminal on James's arm. This terminal on the body controlled all electronic devices in the mansion. Once he opened it with James' eyes and fingerprint, and with some technical skill, he could easily erase all the security records that a killer would want to delete.
Human technology in this era had gone back by thousands of years, and productivity was severely low. Even with the help of recovered artifacts, the mix of technology wasn't perfect. It was extremely easy to break, especially for a top student from the alpha academy who had spent many years in the Polluted Zone.
Ren carefully cleaned everything up, making sure he didn't leave any personal information behind, before standing up.
"I saw it," a voice came from the fish tank.
Ren turned to see the strange 'fish' swimming in the tank.
"I saw everything, kill."
"Good. I'm glad."
The creature that didn't have a human form spoke in broken, disjointed human language.
"Kill me."
"I don't want to live."
"End it for me."
"Or else, I saw."
In the end, it couldn't say anything else, only repeating that it didn't want to live.
Ren looked at it through the glass for a while. The creature's eyes were a lot like a human's, red and full of pain.
"It's okay, don't be scared. I'll be quick," Ren said, his voice gentle but a little warm, as he put his hand into the colorful fish tank.
On his way back, Ren purposely took a different path, going out of his way a few times.
In the future, even if someone were to find the ventilation ducts, they wouldn't be able to figure out where he entered and exited from the marks left in the big network of ducts.
He moved forward in the cold, closed-off duct.
The tail of his orca had been badly hurt, and overusing his senses made waves of pain in his mind. His body felt really uncomfortable, but it didn't matter. He had at least done the first step.
The dark ventilation duct was full of dust, with some light coming in through the vents. In this small space, he could hear loud talking and laughing, and the smell of alcohol that was very annoying to an alpha.
Ren kept quiet, making sure he didn't make any noise as he moved forward. Suddenly, a small tendril appeared in the gray-black duct not far from him. The tiny piece of tendril seemed curious, like a creature exploring a new environment. After it came out, it moved its sucking cups around in the air, exploring around it.
Ren froze for a moment.
Typically, alphas and betas wouldn't casually manifest their psychic incarnations in public.
He couldn't understand why the beta's psychic incarnation would suddenly emerge here, in such an unusually hidden place.
All he knew was that the person was nearby, perhaps she was even sitting right...