The Mansion

Voidborn raised his hand, fingers inching towards the doorbell.

“No.”

Asa grabbed his wrist and shook her head silently.

“You’ll alert the intruder.”

Voidborn gave a small nod and unsheathed his sword. The chain hung loosely in a loop in his other hand, the short blade dangling at the end, ready to be thrown at any unsuspecting enemy. He focused his eyes and looked through the door, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever that was happening inside the mansion.

Shock. Fear. Helplessness.

Their colours flooded the entire mansion in a smog, but what stood out was the blazing red streak that snaked throughout the entire place like a marked path in a labyrinth.

Anger.

It stemmed from the tracks that he had been tracking since the site of the murder, and the assailant seemed to have made many different stops in different places ranging from a pharmacy, a public bathhouse and even a restaurant, before finally arriving at the mansion.

Voidborn frowned. He couldn't outright tell Asa that he knew the assailant was inside, and that havoc had already been enacted.

He pressed his face forward, leaning his ear against the door, taking a few small sniffs.

“I smell blood,” Voidborn muttered. “It's dead silent in the area around the door.”

Asa nodded with her mouth closed again, and Voidborn only realised from this moment that she was really similar to him in terms of the amount of speech volume and number of nods. Not that it mattered.

Asa drew a dagger that was sheathed by her thigh and whispered to Voidborn.

“I’ll head inside first to check. Once it's clear, I’ll open the door for you.”

Voidborn nodded.

Asa’s eyes flashed grey and the shadow stuck to her feet shook, before splitting off. The split shadow darted through the gap at the bottom of the door.

Then Asa disappeared. She had used her Shadow Jump, phasing to the shadow that she had sent into the mansion without opening the door. With his weapon still drawn, Voidborn waited. He could see Asa moving around the mansion’s first floor with his Emotion Sight, and whatever colours he saw in those moments before Asa came back and unlocked the door, it was not a good sign.

“Multiple dead bodies,” Asa muttered as she swung the door open with utmost care.

Voidborn frowned at the confirmation she gave and treaded in softly. The foyer’s floor was flooded with scattered pools of blood, each one with the lifeless body of a maid or butler in the middle.

“From the looks of it, the perpetrator has not left,” Asa said, pointing to the ground. “The bloodied footprints only lead inwards.”

Voidborn grunted in agreement and walked in, heading for the grand staircase that sat in the centre of the large room. He looked at the bodies. They all died from wounds in the same area — their necks. Some had been stabbed through the side of the neck, others had their throats slit, while several bore narrow puncture wounds that passed clean through from front to back.

The hands of most of the bodies were wrapped around their neck, seemingly showing how they died clutching their own necks in an attempt to stem the blood flowing out of the wound. In fact, they were successful, because the flow stopped as there was no more blood left in the body.

“Let’s move quick,” Asa said. “Going by the wounds, the killer seems amateurish. Let's save whoever we can.”

Voidborn agreed.

“Shall we split up to cover more ground?” he asked.

“Sure,” Asa smiled, finally hearing a suggestion that matches what she was thinking. “I was waiting for you to say that. Scream for help if you can't handle anything.”

Then she disappeared. Her shadows had long split into seven different ones, scattering towards different sections of the house. Voidborn noted Asa’s skill, taking points on how such a skill with only one function can be used in so many different ways. An apt and versatile ability that could be used in reconnaissance, scouting, and combat.

Contrary to her, he knew where to go. He followed the red streak in the air and turned to the right, running towards the stairs, before climbing up towards the third floor. He ran down the corridor as Asa’s shadow trailed closely behind him, with her phasing towards it every now and then.

She’s phasing to each of her shadows every single moment, checking out every single spot as they move throughout the entire mansion, Voidborn thought to himself. She's extremely skilled. I can see why she's part of the best detective organisation in the Empire.

The number of dead bodies had drastically dropped ever since he entered the third floor, where he only found only two maids and a butler, which however, were also killed in the same way. Far down the corridor was a T-intersection, with a room facing him as he approached the joint, and a room on each end to the left and right. The doors to the room facing him directly had already been opened and Voidborn approached it, sticking his head in and peering inside.

It was empty.

He retracted his head and turned to the left. The door was opened. He turned to the right and the was faced with the same sight. The red streak he had been following alternated between the two rooms, and just as he debated which side to go to, Asa materialised beside him.

“I’ll take the left,” she said, already moving.

Voidborn nodded and turned to the other side, running towards the door. He halted his sprint shy a few steps of the entrance and treaded forward with soft and careful steps.

Palm resting on the slightly opened door; he pushed the slab of wood and widened the gap.

Shit—

Voidborn cursed in his heart and clenched the muscles in his legs, bursting forward. With his sword bearing arm raised high, he brought down the handle of the sword with a snapping force and jammed the blunt end into the neck of a man, a man that had his two hands wrapped around the neck of a woman.

The body fell limp onto the bed in an instant, collapsing to the woman’s side.

At that moment, Asa phased into the room and muttered a small curse at the sight.

“Fuck,” she cussed. “We were too late.”

Apart from the two of them, there were a total of four bodies in the room. The assailant lay limp on the bed to the side of a woman. His appearance was an exact match to the husband of the murdered woman he had investigated earlier this morning.

However, there were three more dead bodies to add to the list. The woman lay motionless on the bed, her clothes torn away. Dark bruises ringed her wrists and neck. Her vacant eyes stared at the ceiling.

To the side was a small baby in a cot who had been stabbed multiple times.

Voidborn walked towards the baby and checked for her pulse.

Asa looked at him, hope lingering in her eyes.

“… Too late,” he muttered.

Asa kicked the bed frame in frustration. She turned to the last body in the corner. He was tied to a chair, bleeding from stab wounds that were littered along the length of all four of his limbs. His fingers had been chopped off, allowing him to bleed to death with blood pouring from ten severed fingers like open taps.

It was an act of pure insanity. He had bled and wept in equal measure, forced to witness every blasphemous horror inflicted upon his wife and child before finally succumbing to his wounds.

“I’ll call the police,” Voidborn said emotionlessly, leaving Asa to tie the unconscious assailant up. Right as he left, he heard a small sniffle coming from her.