"Montanas, huh… Just when things couldn't get more exciting."
The person who stepped out of his white car was a towering figure, a 6'4" slim man. With warm ivory skin and piercing grey eyes, he was matched by his black hair.
Dressed in a perfectly tailored black suit with a white shirt and silky black tie, polished black leather oxfords completed his formal yet versatile look.
Around his neck hung a locket, attached to a thick rectangular card that displayed his name, position in the force, logo of the Arcane Crime Investigation Bureau (ACIB), and stars depicting his level:
Name: Zayne Blackthorn
Position: Mystical Intelligence Officer
Level: 4 Stars
"Sir, come this way."
A man wearing a black jacket with black pants, two blue stripes along his sleeves, and his name imprinted on his chest pocket area along with the logo of ACIB and below that, the stars depicting his level.
Field Operative: Orion Feldspar
Level: Eight stars
The field operative guided Zayne to the crime scene. As they walked towards it, they approached the front of the factory. The field operative banged on the wall and shouted,
"Hey, you guys, open the factory door! Mystical Intelligence Officer (MIO), Mr. Zayne Blackthorn, is here."
Zayne had already started to observe his surroundings. It seemed like the factory had been abandoned for a very long time, and the doors were all rusted and jammed.
As the doors opened, a woman stood there, greeting Zayne as he walked in.
She also wore a black jacket and pants with two blue stripes on both the jacket and pants. Inside, she wore a maroon shirt, grey pants, and black shoes. Her perfume, a captivating blend of floral and musk, was noticeable. She carried a revolver holstered at her hip.
Name: Aria Windmere
Level: Four Stars
"Mr. Zayne, finally you are here. I have been waiting for you for a while."
Zayne thought to himself,
"Aria Windmere, a skilled spellcaster-turned-detective with an analytical mind, one of the best Field Operatives, so I decided to make her my assistant."
Zayne spoke to Aria,
"Hey, Windmere, give me a brief on the situation."
Aria, with a disappointed look on her face, said,
"Zayne, I can't explain the situation... you have to see it for yourself."
Zayne glanced at her disappointed face. As Zayne moved inside the hall, all he could see was blood splattered everywhere.
He thought,
"It looked like someone had splashed buckets of red paint on the pillars, walls, and floor. No wonder she had that look."
All this blood and that pungent smell made it unbearable for those who weren't accustomed to these situations.
Zayne asked the people working near the pools of blood, as there were many analysts present at that moment,
"Well, what in the hell do we even have here?"
"Uh... so we are seeing a possible mass homicide, with around nine to ten guys dead..."
This guy, his name is Fanqui Moselick, and he is the head forensic analyst in our department. Well, not many people work in the forensic category in our department.
"And... Um... You see how these fingers are here and there, and here, then one is so far..."
Pointing out all of the fingers that were present on the ground.
"Yeah... this is like, torture."
"Yeah, you see that the amount of force that is needed to remove fingers is a lot, that is not possible for any 'human' to do so... I looked for traces of magic..."
"And?"
"And, I wasn't able to find any magic used here!"
"So it means that there is either the involvement of a whole group or probably the usage of—."
"Power!"
"Yeah... the usage of power, but if you look at that place..."
He pointed his finger towards the chair where Emilio's half-burnt face was kept and said,
"That scene seems a lot different than the whole situation here."
Zayne was shocked to see what that was.
"What the fuck is that? Is that even real?... That's the fucking youngest of the Montanas."
Aria said to Zayne,
"Sorry, sir, this is why I wasn't able to clearly explain the situation to you."
"Yeah, you bet... With the Montanas involved, this might be a whole different situation... Does the Chief know about this?"
"Yeah, I've informed him. He will soon be on his way here, and I've already told everyone not to let any media people near this area."
"Thank you! Aria, you are truly intelligent, keep working like that, and in no time you will soon be where I am."
Zayne shouted,
"Hey, Moselick! Collect all the shreds of evidence and magic power presence. We need to find out how many types of powers were used and how many people were involved in this."
"Uh, wait, sir... but do you have some time?"
"Hmm... What is it?"
"Here..."
Fanqui Moselick handed out an evidence bag from the evidence boxes and asked him,
"Umm... Sir, these were the tablets that we collected. They were lying on the floor... These might be drugs."
"Hmm... So this might be related to some gang war. I need you to quickly analyze what type of drugs they are and send a report to my table first thing in the morning."
"Okay, sir, I'll try."
Aria, Fanqui, and Zayne were discussing these, and then Fanqui also mentioned,
"All of these were like here, but..."
Fanqui dragged them away from the hall and said,
"Here, you see these prints... as if some person was here and they ran... if you properly analyze this, I think they—"
Aria said,
"Fleeing from here probably... and what is this trail of blood here?"
"Oh, this... Well, the head of this person is here."
Fanqui sat down and turned the head of the bodyguard,
"And his body is right over there."
"Really? This is quite hard to believe, how a person's body could fly so far away while the head remains here."
"I understand you, sir... but well, there would have been a group of people to do this."
"Yeah, I just hope this would be the last thing they do before ending up in jail."
Aria said that to Zayne,
"We all wish that, sir... Um, this might not be important, but... there was news of a car like this crashed around, uh... one kilometer or something away."
"Hmm... check on that, and take Orion with you... I also need to go somewhere now... So you guys know your job, don't let this news spread in the media before the Montanas know about this."
Zayne walked out of the factory, began walking towards his car, and was observing everywhere but wasn't able to find anything. So he opened his car door, sat in, took a deep breath, and sighed.
"Haah... Quite the thing to see early in the morning."
He looked at his phone: 3:38 AM.
"Fuck, it isn't even morning."
As he twisted the keys of the car and the engine started, a guy was running towards the car, shouting his name.
"Sir Zayne!... Sir Zayne!"
Zayne saw him, lowered his car window, and spoke,
"Feldspar... What happened?"
Out of breath, he said,
"Huff... Haah... sir, actually, uh... at the evidence scene, we found a shoe. It isn't anything big, but these types of shoes are usually worn by university kids..."
"How can you be sure?"
"Well, sir, one of my kids wore these when he goes to his university."
"Okay... this is an interesting piece, huh... Check on it more..."
"Umm... sir, I also have a theory."
"Go on, but make it short."
"Okay... so I think there probably might be the involvement of some kids from the same class or university where the youngest of the Montanas might be going."
"Have you seen the bodies... in there? They were so badly hurt, that couldn't have been done by some random jackass university kid."
"Uh... sir, you gotta hear me out first... It could be that the kid was trying to get back at Montana?"
"And how would you say that?"
"Well, my kid also goes to the same university, and he always tells me that these Montanas were never popular for doing anything good, they were always in trouble or they were the trouble."
"And what university is that you are talking about?"
"Woodstok University."
"Hmm... you have an interesting theory here. Take the shoes to Moselick and tell him to get the results for these as fast as possible."
"Okay, sir... thanks for listening!"
"No problem, Orion... I'll check out this
university."
"Yes, sir... Bye!"
He closed the window, started his car, and entered the location of Woodstock University into the maps application of the car.
And followed the path...
"In four hundred meters, you will arrive at your destination."
"Arrived at Woodstok University."