After the report was delivered, other investigators were sent by the Church. They conducted the search, and when they found the bishop's body, part of his soul had been taken. This was the necessary fact to confirm the investigation team leader's hypothesis.
It truly was a Dream Catcher.
The Rabbit Case became known throughout the Empire and the Church; the destruction of Gastiar was a major blow to the expansion in the North. The Emperor lost power, and some free kingdoms that were about to yield peacefully went back on their word. The Two-Faced Church lost a great bishop, a huge number of acolytes, and most importantly, the reliquary of Saint Irsabel. The faith of the people of the North, who had believed in the divine protection of the Two Faces, was never the same; and the Rabbit disappeared.
The memory of the case was alarming for the two White Scarves. Madly's expression, always concise, had lost its null air. The reports were very clear in her mind; she had studied this case several times. There was various information, and numerous search groups had been created with the aim of finding the Catcher. For what? Not even she knew; it was said that the Cardinals themselves would enter into combat upon finding him.
Now, in front of her, the suspicions of the same creature that had created one of her Church's greatest disasters in recent times were about to be confirmed.
Her lips trembled in fear. Her nails dug into the flesh of her palm. New blood mixed with the old. She was about to lose control. Her heart beat faster and faster. She could feel the blood rising and inflaming the veins in her forehead. She was about to faint from dread and despair.
Calvirs watched the woman's expression change. She took a few steps back, about to trip over the chains. Her actions only reaffirmed his suspicions. Knowledge of the case was common among new recruits, and he had been an acolyte at the time of the Rabbit. He had known other acolytes from Gastiar in the beginning, remembered the faces of some White Scarves who were sent for investigation and never returned. Even though he hadn't lost anyone special, he had felt the tremors of the tragedy; everyone in the Church had felt that shock at the time.
The man was losing his control upon seeing his partner's state. Madly was not one to be shaken. He had seen countless cases with her, some so horrible he didn't even like to remember them, but a Dream Catcher was on another level.
— Do you think it's the same one? — Calvirs forced his voice out, like a drowning duck.
Calvirs's voice woke Madly from her inevitable breakdown. A logical, trained feeling ran through her body. Both had been trained for this for years. The reports weren't created for nothing. The memory of the event was so that it wouldn't be repeated.
— No. The modus operandi is different. This one seems to have tried to be stealthy, or just wanted to send a message. The Rabbit would have killed the entire local population and waited for us amidst the corpses. — She took off her gloves, throwing them among the chains. — I've seen numerous reports; the Rabbit is a showman, likes to attract attention. He waits for the investigators to show up, responds to them by singing that made-up song. He likes to draw attention.
— If it's another one, did he just enter here to kill him? Fled from the Others without making any noise and disappeared? The blood is fresh. What was he trying to tell us? — Calvirs answered himself, looked at the cut on the injured prisoner's belly, the way the Others behaved, the scratches on the sigils. Someone who wanted to leave a message would do something much better; someone who wanted to be stealthy to kill an Arche would know how to break runes, or circumvent the breach report. — He's new. An inexperienced Catcher...
Madly looked at her partner and followed the same line of reasoning. It seemed logical, but there was little evidence to prove it and many assumptions that came from these creatures; they didn't even know if they had this concept of young and mature, inexperienced and veteran.
— We need to send a report. I'm going to head to the local population. If he's really a new Catcher, he'll collect as many dreams as possible wherever he goes. Besides, they might have information about someone new in the area.
Madly didn't wait for Calvirs's answer. Her hand ran into the inner pocket of her overcoat and pulled out silver coins between the fingers of her left hand. At the same time, she ran towards the stone corridor as fast as she could. Her speed was humanly uncommon; after all, she was close to the 2nd Rank. The improvement of her body and the increase in her flow were clear from her training as a White Scarf.
With swift steps through the darkness, she saw the bright light of the corridor. Without braking, she threw the coins against the metal cell and its wall. An explosion formed; the ancient building trembled with the impact. A hole was created through the floor; pieces of stone fell to the ground like rain. From the midst of the cloud of stone and dust, Madly leaped into a free fall. Her body tucked in, reducing the contact area, like a small cannonball. Her top hat flew off, releasing the bun that held her hair. Her clothes flapped against the wind, preparing for the impact against the small, more solid shacks. Less than a meter from the ground, the White Scarf threw a silver coin from her right hand. This one was different from the others, created by a Silver Glove focused on sigils, specifically for her, with which she had learned to use her flow better to activate it, as part of her training for an advanced Silver Glove technique.
The girl's flow emerged over the coin, making its sigils glow. Madly pulsed correctly, as a small mistake would have injured her.
— Lady of Unctions, She of Two Faces, Goddess who reveals the truth. Help your follower, promote the truth in my words. I beseech you, Speaker of Courage, Protector of the Just, show the true face of this object. Do not deny my plea. Reshape it to its true form.
The prayer was finished, an important step for a follower of the Goddess. Madly knew it wasn't necessary to perform the prayer, but she was still just a Soulless one; she needed her faith to make future advancements. Everything she had so far was because of her. Her flow could sustain the action of the Sigils on its own, but if she one day wanted to not need to use them, she would have to train the technique of revealing truths.
The coin activated, becoming a large silver shield, 1 meter in diameter. The designs around its edge were beautiful. The sigils joined the metal details that formed a beautiful silver eye in the center. The monochromatic tone gleamed in the sunlight of the ruined city.
Madly placed her right hand on the shield and pulled it closer to her body. She stepped with both feet onto it, accepting the impact. The sigils glowed again, and a large part of her flow was spent to keep the object in its true form and not be destroyed. Sparks fell against the stone roof, and the shield slid easily through the middle of it, while the White Scarf combined her flow with balance, shooting through the city's alleys towards the bell tower with astonishing speed.
...
Calvirs looked at the dead prisoner's body one more time. Dread still stirred in his bones, making it difficult to move his flow, but he was trained for this. Besides, he wasn't a master in the use of flow and knew he never would be, but he was good at creating sigils, which could be crutches for his deeds. He had learned enough not to need his energy as much for it. He took a coin from his pocket, one he had spent hours making and which would finally be useful for the case. He wasn't thinking about its price at that moment, only about what needed to be done.
He positioned the milky-white coin, a bit thicker than the standard ones given to White Scarves, on top of his thumb and tossed it up. A small, specific pulse of flow was sent into the coin. The flow surrounded the sigils, giving them energy. The object began to spin naturally, until it increased its speed. White glows began to emerge from the coin, branching out into smaller sigils around it. The speed increased even more; a strange whirring, a cacophony of metal being crushed, pierced Calvirs's ears. He knew it was a good sign.
— The Two-Faced Goddess, lady of the just, she who lost an eye so that all may see. Here is my will. Here is my plea. — Calvirs tossed his hair back and put his right eye forward, placing his face as close as possible between the prisoner and the coin spinning in the air. The air almost cut him as he got close to the coin that was shining and breaking in front of him. With his hand covering his left eye, he continued the prayer. — May my senses be delivered through vision. May it be shared with your other follower, Valen Kiros, until my eye closes. Please, Lady of the good, do not turn your other face to me, do not show me pain, but have compassion on your devotee...
The pain didn't let him finish. The coin exploded in front of him, and the white glow mixed with the metallic dust, entering his right eye. The absurd pain almost blinded him, but his blurry vision began to adjust. His eye, brown in shade, was now milky-white, with small glimpses of silver that slowly increased.
— It worked... Shit! It worked... — The euphoria didn't contain his pain, but Calvirs had successfully sent his vision.
A compression formed on his retina, similar to fingers crushing his eyeball. Calvirs knew what this meant. Father Valen had received the communication. A Silver Glove was seeing through his eye at this very moment.
Several thoughts came to his mind at that moment. All fragmented and cut short so as not to send the wrong information to the Glove. The pain slowly subsided, and he took a deep breath to regain control after the euphoria of success.
— Father Valen Kiros, I, Calvirs, White Scarf, come to send you a report of utmost importance. We came to analyze a ruin in the Imperial Pincer, bordering the pseudo-destroyed Kingdom of Ralzalen, currently a Dead Zone. The ancient city, known as Markshal. A New Order sigil was broken by an unknown target; the prisoner inside the cell was killed by a soul attack.
Calvirs slowly approached the man's body. He looked deep into the wound and thrust his hand inside the cut. He pulsed a little flow into it, feeling the distant sparks of the soul, almost disappearing.
"I don't have the capacity to understand what the attack was like, but I hope Father Valen can discern from my attempt... He must be hearing my thoughts now. Forgive me, Father Valen Kiros."
A pain arose in his cornea again, confirming for him to continue.
— The White Scarf, Madly, confirmed the hypothesis that only part of the soul was taken. From the single blow and the way the soul was taken. We believe it could be a Collec...
Before Calvirs could finish the sentence, the glow in his eye tightened with more force. Blood leaked from his corneas, and he couldn't stop himself from screaming. The glow intensified, and he felt his flow go out of control; an irregular energy was passing through his command. A message was appearing in front of him.
Maximum Alert! Fulfill your role in the mission: Defend the area and search among the civilians for the Dream Catcher. Any creature that leaves the city must be eliminated automatically. Enforce a total quarantine.The Catcher must be looking for nearby dreams. Try to hold him as long as possible. Do not let him escape, even if it costs you your life. I am distant, but I will arrive as quickly as possible, give me 1 week.
Calvirs's heart pounded. Fear became clear in front of him. His eyes stared at the prisoner's corpse, imagining that this would be his end. This was a suicide mission. 1 week trapped in an abandoned city with a Dream Catcher? He didn't have the capacity for such a feat.
"New troops will arrive with me. We cannot signal anything to the Empire. The information cannot leave the city walls. Do your job as best as possible."
"May the Good Face protect you!"
The forced report was finished. Calvirs stared at the pieces of the coin fallen on the ground and his blood leaking from his eye.
— May the Good Face protect us.
Author's Note: Hello, everyone! Sorry for the delay in updating the novel. I had some health problems and am getting better now. To ask for forgiveness for my absence, I made this little combo. I hope you like it!
Don't forget to dream!