Fighting Fate (Sylus x Mephisto)

3. Whispers and Dust

It's been about a month since my run in with Sylus and I had hardly seen him since. I would update him every so often about the Heroine/Female Hunter and occasionally play pool with Luke and Kieran at a nearby bar.

She was walking with Caleb, one of the key players in the Ever Group, and he walked into the store while she walked around the block. My aether core in my eye scans the area sensing fluctuations nearby. I can see her Hunter's Watch not reacting to anything but she seems to be able to still sense the fluctuations in the air not realizing that it's actually coming from a person.

I fly to another lamp post across the street and I see a man wearing a cap, coming out of an alley. He turns slightly to the hovering patrol drone with compound eyes and fiddles with his hat. As he moves I can tell the Metaflux in the area is increasing. I'm not supposed to engage with her, only watch.

I watch as the Heroine crosses the street and begins to follow the suspicious man from a safe distance but he's noticed her and his pace is increasing. I fly closer peering from above. I watch as she begins to walk fast and see that she's been hit by his Evol, which appears to be some form of light? She whips her arm, shocked by pain she felt no doubt.

"I see that you're actually smart. Too bad, I don't have time to play around." The man says to her, turning around. I can see her hesitate as the man rushes into an alley. She runs after him, but he's already gone. I debate whether to follow him or not but decide to stick to my mission.

I watch as she and Caleb have an uninteresting conversation as they walk back to Josephine's home. I can feel it in my feathers, something is wrong. It's too quiet, as I look around I hear a major explosion and when I look down the heroine is on the ground crawling towards the house. I dive down to the closest alleyway checking to make sure no one is around and sprint to her. I picked up my phone calling Sylus.

"There's been an explosion, she's passed out on the floor," I rush out before he can greet me.

"Are you alright?" He asks and I say yes without thinking about it.

"Call emergency services, check the area. The arsonist may still be in the area." He states in a chilling voice. The phone clicks and I dial for emergency services. I can sense someone watching nearby and I turn my head. I start hearing neighbors come out of their homes checking on what's going on. An older woman runs up to me and checks on the Heroine for me.

"Did you call emergency services?" She asked not to look at me.

"Yes," I say before dashing back to the alley I had transformed earlier. I run and transform back into a crow and fly overhead. I can feel the aether core in my eye scanning around until I see the man in a raincoat walking down a different alley. I fly overhead and can see him enter an abandoned factory. I carefully sit perched above them, and not too long later I see the man that the Heroine had run into wearing the cap pushing the door open entering the building.

His steps kick up dust, and the sound of his shoes hitting the ground echoes in the empty room. The man in the raincoat turns his head when he hears the noise. He pulls back his pointed hood.

"Long time no see. You look older now." He says.

"Have you gone blind as you kept an eye on Ever?" the man with the cap retorts, his voice surprisingly old-sounding compared to his appearance. His hands over a black briefcase. The man in the cap smells heavily of the explosion site's scent and I can tell instantly that it was him who was the arsonist.

"Here are the goods." He says and the man in the raincoat frowns before pulling out a handkerchief from his pocket and wraps it around his hand to pinch a corner of the briefcase. He gives it a couple of shakes before opening it. I can see that it contains slightly yellowed pages but I'm not sure what they say. The man in the raincoat goes through them silently page by page.