Humanity spent a significant number of years trying to figure out the source and its propensity for magic. And honestly, we would probably have been bumbling for a lot longer if the Celestials and Infernals did not get involved. Or as they're more popularly known... Angels and Demons. With the High God almost completely sublimated into his creations, the angels were left without their master and the demons without an enemy to hate. All that was left was humanity, and we were the only ones who could do the one thing the High God could.... we could do: create life, we could create form and give it purpose, we could create magic.
Every child is born with an affinity to the elements, the nuances of which I am not going to elaborate on in this class. But being born with an affinity to the elements is not enough. We are all born with a very small amount of source, or as your modern generations have taken to calling it... Mana. To increase it, the only way that has been proven or works is to cannibalize it from each other. Which is to say, if I kill your merry class of very annoying misfits.... your source, your mana, your very essence and perhaps even your soul will be joined to mine, as I will grow stronger. But I digress; that's only one half of the equation after all. Because it is one thing to have an affinity and the mana to utilize it, but it is another thing to be able to utilize it.
Man is flesh and blood, mortal. We can carry magic, host the very soul and essence of the divine, but by virtue of being moral we can't use it. And that ushered in the era of the grimoires, an era that, till now, still holds. Using natural materials and naturally occurring spell cards, we created tools that could allow us to do magic. The spell cards can be found within source saturated materials or in places in the wild where the natural mana has gathered enough. Usually, these also create elementals, but once again, that's for another class.
We take those spell cards, study them, and then etch them into sturdy enough materials that can hold them, activate them, and alter and evolve them if we so choose. We made the tools and focus for humanity to be able to fully harness the source, to achieve communion and oneness with the very soul of the High God. To alter the very fabric of reality, shake the foundations of creation and bend the natural order to your will... we created... Grimoires.
Recording Of Professor Hamish Xenon Saunders' First Re-education Stream. (Viewers: 3)
The next couple of days had been a whirlwind of activities, probably none more significant than the fact that Azrael himself had been arrested for the death of Thomas. Which was why he was here, in a waiting room in the city's police headquarters, being interrogated. The room that they were in seemed to block any form of magic, leaving everyone here as simple human beings. It wouldn't take a lot for him to escape. After all, he still had his extremely powerful healing to rely on, but he doubted that would make his case. Azrael looked to the side where a mirror stood. He had seen enough movies with these things to know that this was probably a two-way mirror and, on the other end, there were a bunch of people watching him.
There was a loud bang on the table as he turned to see that the detective, a balding middle-aged man with a beer gut, had thrown a grimoire onto the table. Azrael recognized it, it was the ice grimoire he had worked on the day Thomas was killed. He raised his head to look at the detective, then back at the grimoire. The grimoire itself was shaped like a wand. Apparently the client had been one of those old-school traditional magic users. And while its entre frame was a sleek metal gray with segmented plates to give it a sort of reptilian feel. It was still shaped like a traditional wand, with a small light blue oval stone attached to the tip. It was no longer than fifteen inches and just an inch or an inch and a half thick.
"What can you tell me about this grimoire, Mr Azrael?"
The detective had a small smile on his face, though, given how slowly he was speaking, you would think he was talking to a child, or a bomb about to go off. He had probably pulled some file somewhere and read the part about Azrael being incapable of expressing emotions. And then, in the time he was with Thomas, there were probably enough records of him getting into fights and being extremely efficient in the sort of damage he dealt. Of course, none of those had been without provocation, but he had still been forced to see a psychiatrist and ended up diagnosed with Alexithymia and was seen as a borderline psychopath. At first, none of this meant anything to him, but seeing just how much trouble that has gotten him in now, perhaps he should have been calmer.
Azrael reached out and picked the grimoire up. Even with the anti-magic wards up, the detective looked uncomfortable. He flipped it, observing the grimoire. It looked almost intact if not for an extra segment around the clasp that held the stone. He took it closer to observe the grimoire, prompting the director to stand up, to stop Azrael from tampering with evidence. But Azrael started speaking, and as he spoke, he kept up with his inspection of the grimoire. He, too, wanted to figure out who was responsible for this crime, and once he's done so, they would answer him.
"Mortal Stage Three Ice Grimoire" is made from cold steel and the core at the top holds a <Blooming Frost> spell. The materials themselves are rather basic, having no auxiliary effects but to cast the one spell it holds. I was made to believe that it belongs to a musical conductor, and the spell itself was used to create crystal ice sculptures in the shape of flowers. The resin used to connect the core and the cold steel has degraded, and the core itself is rather delicate. Even after the wear and tear, the core had been banged against something, causing a crack that exposed the internal spell matrix, effectively destabilizing the balance of the spell card. That also had to be fixed. " No one else could handle the task...it needed steadier hands." Azrael finished as he looked up, locking eyes with the detective...his dark eyes cold. It came as no surprise the detective looked away first.
"After working on it, I turned it over to customer services. " They would have been the ones responsible for packaging, billing, handling payments and delivering the grimoire back to its owner." Azrael then dropped the grimoire back on the table as he looked at the detective. The man picked it up and gave Azrael a suspicious look as he looked through the grimoire to ensure he had not tampered with it. He huffed and placed the grimoire down before turning a full glare on Azrael that the young man did not find intimidating in any shape or form.
"We know all that, but the owner had decided to come check it out themselves. Apparently, the grimoire is too delicate to be left to the couriers from your company. They had every intention of coming to pick it up today. However, it was found close to the house you shared with Thomas with your DNA all over it, and signs that it had been used recently. Not to mention you forgot to mention the spell of
Azrael looked at the detective for a few seconds, his dark eyes holding his gaze with such piercing accuracy that whatever the man wanted to say was left lodged in his throat. There was just something about Azrael's eyes: they were dead to the world and everything else. No emotion, no worry. No fear, just cold calculating logic and calmness. Azrael could understand the need for a rough and loud tactic from the detective, but that was just if he was unwilling to cooperate with him. And as it stands, Azrael was willing to endure anything to get some answers.
"Yes detective, that is exactly what I am saying. But still, while I cannot begin to call myself a genius of any sort, I know for a fact that the extra attachment to the clasp, holding a combat spell matrix, was not there when the wand was delivered to me. If you would like a demonstration, I can show you that that's not just an extra spell matrix but an artifact. So, the grimoire still has one spell, one decorative spell that was augmented into a combat spell. You should upgrade your scanners; you should never have missed something so basic."
Azrael stretched out his hand, and the detective complied immediately. He picked the grimoire up and easily slid the extra segment attached to the clasp off, then threw it towards the detective. He placed the grimoire down and sat back, waiting for the detective to observe the new evidence in his hand. Of course, having all these things thrown in his face did not please the detective one bit. In fact, he became even more suspicious.
"This is rather convenient, isn't it? You can just throw off suspicion on yourself by saying the grimoire was modified without your knowledge. " Do you have any proof that this artifact was not on the grimoire when it was first handed to you?" Azrael shrugged and then nodded his head.
"In fact, I do have proof, but as that is the only thing ensuring I won't go to prison, I am not saying anything until I get to call my sister. The information is vital, and I want to sleep in my own bed tonight, given the level of incompetence you have shown already, and the sheer fact you've made me talk this much. "I would rather keep the chances to prove my innocence away from incompetent law enforcement officers and people I cannot trust to get me the justice I deserve." Azrael's voice took on a dark tone at the end, his voice held a promise, one of great suffering and death.
The detective opened his mouth to say something, then he closed it back before turning to the window and nodding his head. That more than proved that there really had been people watching his interrogation. A door to the side opened and Emilia walked in. In her hands was a laptop, Azrael's laptop. He chuckled; she had already thought ahead. Emilia had just started out as a junior police officer. She wanted to be a detective, but still, you all must start from somewhere, then work your way to the top.
But before she was a cop, she is.... or rather, she was the daughter of one of the most accomplished Grimegineers in Chae city, not to mention the very secret fact that Thomas used to be a spy. He had a storied past, and his death could have been for any number of reasons. Old enemies catching up to them, corporate espionage, or maybe someone making a deal with a demon, going crazy and killing their father. Emilia would be driven; she had learned from the best after all.
For one, once she had seen or heard of the evidence the police had against him, she would have gone right back to the company to clear out Thomas's and Azrael's workshops. Their laptops and computers had records of everything they had ever worked on and were kept on a private server that only their family had access to. Since Azrael worked on the grimoire, the schematics and the state in which it was found would be there, complete with photos and information from the scanners. All of it was evidence that when the grimoire was in his hands, the artifact had not been present.
With that realization, they could not tie the murder weapon to Azrael. He had an alibi, and even with his so-called 'mental issues', he had no motive to kill Thomas. Unfortunately, this meant that the rest of Titan Rising Industries would be under investigation. But for now, that did not matter as Azrael and Emilia left the police station, neither one of them saying a word to each other until they got back home.
The moment they crossed the threshold, though, into the home where Azrael had spent the later part of his teens, growing up into the young man that he was today. The scent of death and blood still lingered, but along with it was the abject feeling of loss. It was finally enough to break Emilia down as she turned and started crying, her wails heart-wrenching with each attempt to breathe through her grief, sending ripples through the veil over Azrael's emotions. The anguish was something he could relate to, and he could do that because Thomas' dying was a wrong that had been done not just to Emilia, who now had the best relationship with her father, but to him too, whose only anchor had just been taken away from him.
It took almost an entire hour for Emilia to calm down. And at that time, Azrael had held her, lost in his own thoughts as he came to a decision. The moment she stopped crying, he got up and made her coffee, before coming to the seat directly opposite her. Emilia looked up at him with eyes so red, it looked as if she had spent all night partaking in recreational herb use. But the anguish was still there.
"I do not understand the need to grieve, but I have heard it is necessary. So, I will give you all the time that you need, but a wrong has been done to us, and I intend to rectify it. Is there anything you can tell me about Thomas's death? " You would have definitely carried out your own investigation before coming to the station," Azrael said to Emilia. She scoffed, sniffing as she wiped her eyes.
"What makes you say that?" Azrael raised an eyebrow.
"You left me at the station overnight. After you have seen him... I'm sure the next stop will be coming to get me. Being in police custody would make that hard, and if I'm the one being accused, you would want to find your own answers, just in case it's possible your adopted brother killed your father. Emilia looked offended, almost as if Azrael was accusing her of believing he killed Thomas. But she calmed down, Azrael was just being straight forward and calling out the facts. That he could come to such a conclusion showed just how well he knew Emilia, and just how much he had learned also from Thomas.
"I followed up every possible lead. Even the individual that's supposed to be responsible for handling the grimoire had no idea it had been taken. She also has a solid alibi, same as you. So, I hacked into the company's personal server. " The camera logs from just after the grimoire arrived at customer services for processing have been completely scrubbed clean."
"Hacking is illegal, especially arcane hacking. Did you leave any traces? Your magical signature can still be tracked if you are careless-"
"My father was murdered! " I don't care, Azrael!" she snapped at him, forcing him to remain silent for a few seconds. He had no idea what to do. Emilia was a mess right now, and not even her mother could control her. Only Thomas had that answer. He sighed as he nodded at her.
"What did you find out then, any leads?" Azrael asked as he leaned forwards on the seat. Emilia nodded her head.
"Yes, the scrub was not arcane." Azrael cocked his head to the side, arcane computing was one of the few subjects he had problems with, even though his level of knowledge and their applications were considered talented. He didn't know everything regardless, and the networking aspect of it was still within the purview of Emilia. Given one of her affinities was for the null element
"It means that someone wiped out the information from a computer. It must be someone who has access to the security logins for the company. So, I thought perhaps it was one of the security guards, but they too have an alibi, which means this must come from up top. Someone in the company wanted our father dead or at least had a hand in it. " I tracked the computer, but it was coming from the Arena." Azrael raised an eyebrow at that.
"That's not encouraging. " Do you have a way to identify the person or the computer itself?" she shook her head, leaning back on the couch, proof that this block in her path bothered her.
"Well, that's better than nothing. It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, but we have a few clues to go off on. For one, the artifact used is a very low level one, but it was used in a way that shows the user has a certain level of mastery of it. Whoever they are, it's not the first time using it, and if they were not bothered enough to take the artifact off, which is rather sloppy work, I'd say they have someone or have access to a large batch of them. " Can you check or try to find out if there are any records of mass-produced artifacts with the ability to create the spiked augments." Emilia nodded in agreement. Azrael was right, they had way more information and clues than she originally thought.
"If I find anything, I'd still have to find a way to get the records of the people who purchased the artifact. " I can narrow it down by seeing which of the purchases is connected to the arena... but what will you do?" Azrael looked down for a moment as he contemplated what she just asked him. It seemed to be obvious, but perhaps he needed to say it himself to drive his decision home.
"The Arena. There's someone using that artifact among the fighters... so I will go make a grimoire...and then... I'll go hunting for our father's killer."