Fate / Chronos

Chapter 21: The Hunter's Path - Part 3

Four years.

We traveled all over the world on many missions, taking out dangerous individuals along the way. Like a surgeon operating with deadly precision, we kept collateral damage to an absolute minimum.

Our latest mission took us to East Africa. Some mage by the name of Marick Vosloo near the capital of Kenya stopped responding to the Association. They believed the Blood-Red Syndicate got to him. We were among the first people on the job to retrieve his body.

The sun had already vanished from the sky. Our car came to a halt on the dusty terrain near a hill. Ryoken and I both got out and walked to the top. Once there, we took out a pair of binoculars to scout out the area.

I saw the prestigious manor right away, about 200 meters away from our position. It was surrounded by a brick wall on all sides. The front gate was wide open.

Next, I surveyed the courtyard. Flowers of varying colors along with bushes were arranged in neat squares. A few birds were skipping around before... flying away.

"The bounded field is disabled," I said. "Birds just flew out of the courtyard."

"I see no activity through the windows," Ryoken said. "Lights are all out, too."

We trekked the hill down toward the manor until we reached the wall. I scaled it up and jumped down on the other side. There, I hurried behind one of the bushes and scanned the area.

Silence. No visible activity in the house or the yard.

"Clear," I whispered through comms.

Ryoken hopped over the wall and we ventured inside. We had this process down to a science at this point. Check for activity, breach the room, and clear it of hostiles, if any.

The carpet in the lobby was burned. Bullet holes decorated the walls and the staircase. The ground was stained in blood. My first thought was that a group of freelancers ransacked this place, seeing as your typical mage wouldn't be caught dead using guns.

I crouched down and dipped my finger in the crimson liquid. Still fresh. Couldn't have been older than a few hours, but who did it belong to? There was no body.

"The raid here was very recent," I said, getting up and wiping the blood off.

"The compass isn't reacting," Ryoken said, putting it back in his pocket. "Let's find his workshop."

"Understood," I said.

We sneaked up the stairs. Though there might not be anyone there anymore, there was no reason to let our guard down. Small pools of blood were scattered around the building every now and then, accompanied by a wake of destruction. Shattered glass on the floor, bullet holes in the walls, and smoke traces on the carpets. We took turns in advancing room by room, scoping out every corner in the process.

We arrived at the last room, all the way down the hallway on the second floor.

The door was ajar. Ryoken held up three fingers and counted down.

Three. Two. One.

I kicked the door open. We rushed into–

An empty room.

It was a fairly small one. There was a wooden table at the middle and a desk at the back. What made this room stand out though were all the empty shelves where one would expect to find tons of books and other things.

I approached one of the shelves to inspect it. Layers of dust outlined the shapes of the missing books and jars.

"No bodies and all magecraft related items gone," I said.