When the plot-skips players into the game world

Just past one in the morning, gunshots and explosions followed in quick succession. Soon after, a great fire was blazing.

Despite the vast campus of the Royal Law University, the Knights on night patrol quickly noticed the disturbance.

When he arrived at the scene, he found the lawn at 14 Roning Street parched and ablaze; bodies scattered in front of the door with bloodstains nearby, and the signature tattered armored flesh left by Demon Dogs upon their death, he immediately realized—this was not a problem that he as a second-energy-level Inspector could handle alone.

Without hesitation, he turned and ran. About twenty minutes later, the Supervisory Bureau's team arrived leisurely. But by then, the school staff had already received a call to extinguish the fire here.

Following the Knight's request, the scene was left completely intact, aside from putting out the fire. No unnecessary movements were made.

Because the call indicated a severe situation, the Supervisory Bureau dispatched a considerable team.

At two o'clock in the middle of the night, twelve Inspectors mounted on Gryphons and fully armed rushed to the location.

"These people should be Demon Scholars."

Upon seeing the scene for the first time, a middle-aged woman leading the group, wearing a monocular, immediately judged, "I see the enchanted light of ritual spells."

In her vision, two of the people shone with the protective light peculiar to ritual spells.

She looked carefully and confirmed, "The ritual's effects have not yet ended; the battle must have taken place not long ago."

"Director Taya, take a look at this."

A young male Inspector squatted on the ground, wearing leather gloves, he picked up a glimmering red dust: "This should be Flame Spirit."

"Hmm, I see it."

The new female Director nodded, "Judging from the traces, it was the flames of the Path of Devotion that killed them. The original power of the flame should not have been that great; it must have been amplified using Flame Spirit."

"Director, there's no one inside!"

The Inspector who investigated the interior also returned and reported, "But there are signs of destruction... a fight might have occurred inside!"

"I'll have a look."

The Director nodded and simultaneously inquired the school staff and Knight nearby, "Who lives here? Is it one of the teachers?"

"It's a student."

The Knight replied, "It's Aiwass Moriarty."

Upon hearing this, Taya was stunned for a moment, her expression turned serious.

She confirmed, "Is it that honored Aiwass Moriarty?"

"How many Moriartys could there be, Ms. Taya," the Knight responded.

"Then we have a problem..."

Taya murmured, her brows tightly furrowed, "Is this retribution?"

She called out behind her, "Mr. Doane, please do a time reversal here!"

"Here?"

A Legal Mage in his fifties slowly approached, "I can only reverse the last hour of the deceased's actions… Are you sure it's here?"

In his hand, he held a silver-white elf wand, with the symbol of Avalon at its tip—a silver triangle with an emerald at the center.

After receiving Taya's affirmation, the old Legal Mage promptly tapped his wand on the ground.

Suddenly, silver-white runes condensed into an array, spreading out from the ground in an instant.

Soon, silver-white transparent outlines appeared above the bodies, standing up as if time were flowing backward, moving forward against the chronological order.

"Wait a second!"

Suddenly, Taya urgently intervened.

The next moment, the images abruptly paused.

Although the outlines were very blurry, she clearly saw—a Knight with a giant sword had no lower half, yet floated in mid-air. It seemed to appear out of thin air, but clearly, there was no body there.

Her complexion changed slightly, "A Blade Demon?"

"What?"

Hearing this, those around were also taken aback and gathered closer.

"This person is accompanied by a Blade Demon," Taya looked down at the man dressed like a lawyer with a distinct cross-shaped scorch mark on his face and chest, "Could he be the 'Blade Demon Test Subject'?"

The "Blade Demon Test Subject" was a wanted criminal at the Lohar District Supervisory Bureau.

Though called a wanted criminal, they didn't even know what the person looked like.

All they could confirm was that at many of the murder scenes, the presence of Blade Demons had been detected—likely a Demon Scholar using supernatural force to summon and manipulate Blade Demons, thus brutally killing the innocent.

Blade Demons are quite rare, and there should be only one on Glass Island. Thus, they dubbed the unknown assailant the "Blade Demon Test Subject."

But the Lohar District's Supervisory Bureau had far too many cases, and other districts were unwilling to transfer to Lohar District.

So "Blade Demon Test Subject" remained just a name on the wanted list, with no one even knowing what they looked like, whether they were male or female, or their age.

"Can you see what repelled the Blade Demon?"

"It was struck by something."

Doane pointed to where it had been knocked flying, "It must have been something with great impact. But there are traces of a Demon dissipating, so I think its master was killed, and then the Blade Demon was banished."

"A great impact?"

Director Taya wasn't surprised by the latter part. To kill a Blade Demon head-on, one would need to be at least at the fourth energy level.

But the more she thought about the first half, the more puzzled she became.

Only one thing was certain—the bodies of the Demon Dogs in front of the door had clearly been dispersed by a purification ability. The external armor was almost undamaged, and the rotting flesh inside was intact. It was just that the curse controlling the carcasses had been driven out... While the curse was still active, this flesh should have been purple, but now it was the color of ordinary rotting flesh.

"As far as I know, Aiwass Moriarty is a Priest. He once crushed an Aberrant Limb Demon with the help of an Extraordinary Item," said a young female Inspector, jotting something down in her notebook while casually responding, "This must have been done by him personally. He's capable of such a feat."

Taya nodded, then shook her head, "That's possible. But the Blade Demon definitely wasn't defeated by him. He's just a Priest, and he's not mobile. Even with the boost from the Flame Spirit, it isn't possible to blow up a Blade Demon in an instant. The Blade Demon has strong resistance, so there must be someone else on the scene—at least someone capable of physically knocking a Blade Demon flying or even killing it."

"But there are no footprints, Director."

"He might be able to fly."

Taya replied, "It could also be some sort of spell... Spells can achieve that effect too. However, there are no traces of the Path of Wisdom spells left behind... But it's also possible they were erased. Skilled Mages can cast spells without leaving traces."

"So, what you're saying is, there was a powerful Mage with Aiwass Moriarty when they were attacked by four Demon Scholars."

The Inspector muttered to herself while recording in her notebook.

"It's not necessarily a Mage."

Taya added as she turned back, "It could also be someone from the Path of Devotion or the Path of Transcendence—after all, only traces of these two types of power were left. But we can't rule out a powerful Transcendent from the Path of Adaptation, capable of hiding their traces."

With that said, she walked into the house to continue her investigation.

Under the display of her monocle, red and purple traces littered the ground.

Through these traces, she gradually began her retroactive tracking.

It seemed that Aiwass had won the battle.

With the help of the unknown ally, he had defeated a group of Demon Scholars who had attacked him in the dead of the night.

That fat man with his head blown off by a bullet, the strange explosion injury on his head, was very familiar to Taya—it was the same special bullet Aiwass had used when he first killed a Demon Scholar at the Pelican Bar.

This was obviously someone Aiwass had killed himself.

Apart from this fat man, the other three had died from flames. Moreover, two of them showed almost no resistance or traces of struggle before their deaths, indicating they were killed instantly.

The scattered Flame Spirits on the ground were the proof of his spellcasting.

Taya slowly realized... This must have been a high-level Transcendent of the Path of Devotion.

It was a simple assumption: if a person had the power to crush a Blade Demon head-on, then there was no need to use firearms, which emphasized accuracy rates. Thus, those three people were probably not killed by Aiwass.

And if the helper had been a Mage, there would be no reason to use only fire abilities.

"Collect some of these bloodstains and take them for testing," she instructed her subordinates, pointing at the blood on the ground.

Judging from its shape, it was blood naturally dripped by someone. By the height, it should have come from an adult, not Aiwass seated in a wheelchair.

So had he been injured?

But the bloodstains were only present at the door and disappeared further inside.

Then, he must have been healed immediately after sustaining the injury.

That fit even more with the "two Priests" hypothesis.

There were traces on the wheelchair, leading from the door to the living room. The living room was somewhat disheveled, the table overturned on the floor. The candle that had fallen and been snapped... it seemed like someone had been interrupted while trying to perform the "Rite of Fire."

Could it be that the two of them had fought?

But there were no bloodstains or bodies here. If a fight had occurred here, what should have been left were bodies—since the bodies at the door hadn't been cleaned up and things were scattered on the ground. It didn't make sense for only Aiwass's body to have been taken away.

From this perspective, Aiwass must have at least not died!

Realizing this, Director Taya breathed a sigh of relief.

She had just taken over Director Gordon's position; if the hero who had just accepted the Holy Sword Medal a week ago got killed in her jurisdiction, she would be in trouble.

But soon, her attention was drawn to a faint shadow lingering in the corner.

"…Hmm?"

She squatted down to examine it carefully for a long time, her expression changing dramatically, "This is... a Shadow Demon?!"

How could there be an Upper-Level Demon like a Shadow Demon on Glass Island!

This Shadow Demon clearly hadn't attacked the Demon Scholars; they were in league with one another—this meant that among these members of the Noble Red Society, one had summoned a Shadow Demon!

Upon seeing the four people killed, it followed the two into the room in Stealth. Traces of shadow power were still left in the door gap—this was the evidence.

And while the two were being healed, the Shadow Demon suddenly attacked, knocking them down and capturing them. That should be the full picture.

—With the involvement of an Upper-Level Demon like the Shadow Demon, this was no longer something they could handle.

She didn't dare to delay and could only report the matter to the Supervisory Court.

The first to receive the report was her former supervisor, Inspector Gordon.

Upon hearing of traces of a Shadow Demon, he immediately thought of someone.

"...Aleister?"

Inspector Gordon murmured to himself in a low voice, "Is it you?"