“Ahh, it’s good to be home,” Marcus said, only a hint of a drunken slur in his voice despite having been drinking with Alcander for hours.

Leon had released them that afternoon after they returned to Occulara, and the two had immediately gone out instead of returning home. After more than a month away from real civilization, they needed to get out and party for a little while before they went back home. Now, however, the sun had set hours ago, and they’d made their way back to their housing complex.

They each lived in separate houses off a main courtyard shared by eight other attached houses. It was a fancy and upscale place to live, and as a result, had pretty good security. Nothing that Leon would consider that good, Marcus was sure, but the complex was secure by any objective measure.

Alcander didn’t immediately respond; the woman he was bringing home was practically sucking his face off as Marcus fiddled with the lock on the door of the vestibule, which lead into the main courtyard.

The woman was strikingly beautiful—hardly surprising in Marcus’ mind. Alcander was handsome and confident, and he could practically point to any woman in a club and take her home, if he wanted. She was fairly pale, indicating that she didn’t work outdoors that often. Her hair was the exact opposite, though, being as black as night, and with eyes to match. She looked like she would’ve been a cold and aloof beauty, but almost as soon as Alcander introduced himself, she was all over him.

‘She must be hungry for a good shafting…’ Marcus had mused. He’d been left nearly alone in the club as Alcander chatted this girl up, but it had been a fairly unproductive evening. Marcus hadn’t seen anyone he particularly wanted to take home, and decided to get a bit liquored up, instead.

Now, however, as he got the doors open and strode in, his two nearly-oblivious companions stumbling in after him, doing their level best not to disentangle themselves from each other as they did, he found his thoughts turning to the cute girl who lived next door. He’d found her quite attractive almost as soon as he’d seen her, but she’d steadily declined all of his invitations to come over or even to go out. Still, she remained friendly, even taking the initiative to strike up conversations with him when she saw him first.

Wondering if she was home, Marcus walked into the courtyard.

“You two good?” he asked, smiling when Alcander, instead of responding verbally, which would’ve required him to pry his lips off his date, merely waved his hand to get Marcus to go away. “All right,” Marcus responded and returned to his house.

As far as he could tell, his cute neighbor was home, if the lights in her house were anything to go by, but he resisted the temptation to knock on her door and see if she wanted to hang out for a while, even if it was just out in the courtyard. He’d drank some incredibly expensive alcohol, stuff that was affecting him despite his fifth-tier strength, and he didn’t want to embarrass himself.

So, with some reluctance, he walked past her door and into his own house.

It was a fairly comfortable, if somewhat spartan residence. No over-the-top decorations, but just enough furniture to be comfortable.

With a deep, satisfied sigh, Marcus collapsed onto the nearest sofa, the thought of heading upstairs to his bedroom not appealing when he could just sleep right here. His eyes closed and he felt his mind darkening, sleep gradually clouding his thoughts…

—

“Mmmm,” Alcander hummed in annoyance as he fished his keys out of his pocket and started working on the physical locks on his house, the magical locks already having been disengaged just by brushing his hand against the doorknob.

The lady pressing herself against him and refusing to his lips go—he couldn’t remember her name—moaned in frustration as Alcander tried and failed to her his keys into the lock without taking his attention away from her. However, Alcander summoned the titanic willpower to pull away from her cherry-red lips and intoxicatingly sweet taste to glance down at the door and get his keys into the lock, then open the door.

Almost immediately, the girl grabbed him, spun him around, pressed herself back against him, and pushed him inside.

Alcander was all-too happy to be led around a little bit, and he started backing further into his home as the girl kicked the door shut behind them. He wrapped his hands around her tiny, almost inhumanly thin waist and pulled her further into his house.

She broke their kiss and moved her face downward, licking his neck.

Alcander was about to do likewise when he saw the sheet of paper attached to the back of his door, something that most certainly hadn’t been there before the wyvern hunt. He froze, recognizing the runes writ upon that paper that formed an enchantment designed to insulate a space from light and sound. And then he saw that such spells had been pasted all over the interior of his house,

But just as his heart rate spiked in panic, he felt a sharp pain in his neck, and he felt all of his power uncontrollably stream out of him. He lost all strength and went limp, unable to do anything more than whimper in pain and shock. He would’ve hit the ground if the pale woman he’d brought home didn’t wrap her arms around him and hold him up so that she could continue to drain his body of magic power.

He realized just what she was, now: a vampire. Her appearance hadn’t been extreme enough to trigger his alarm, but now that he knew, it was almost painfully obvious what she was.

Terror lanced through his mind with the thought that he was mere seconds away from death, but after a moment, another thought raced through him. He needed backup, he needed Marcus. His friend might be enough to save him, and if they could get to Leon, safety was guaranteed.

Alcander whimpered again, his body devoid of strength, his arms hanging limply by his side.

The woman draining his body of mana pulled back for a moment and looked him in the eye, her black irises sparkling red.

“Now, now,” she whispered seductively. “You’re not going to die, so don’t go doing something stupid, stud. If I have to, I’ll make sure there are no witnesses…”

Alcander glared at her as hatefully as he could, but she just frowned and let him fall to the floor and crumple like a wet rag.

“Where is she?” the woman then said in frustration, glancing back at the door. “This shouldn’t take so long!”

Alcander didn’t know what she was talking about, but summoning every ounce of grit he had, he clenched his jaw, called upon any and all sparks of power that remained in his body, and snapped his fingers. A burst of flame erupted from his hand, startling the vampire. Alcander grinned and tried to crawl backward, but his limbs were as heavy as lead.

“Don’t…” he rasped, “come… any… closer…”

He could feel darkness pressing in on the edges of his vision and knew that he had mere moments left to do something, anything, that might attract attention to what was going on in his home before he passed out and was left at the mercy of his assailant.

The vampire just stared at him, pity in her eyes as if she were staring at a beaten stray dog. She didn’t think he was a threat, but in the few seconds she allowed him, his soul realm released a few more sparks of power, rejuvenating him just enough to call on his power one more time.

He took a deep breath, banishing the darkness that threatened to take him, and let loose with an even bigger gout of flame than before.

The vampire didn’t move, but he didn’t care. She was probably stronger than him, anyway, if he hadn’t been able to sense her power at all. He wasn’t trying to hurt her. Instead, his aim was behind her.

She seemed to realize her mistake as his fire slid right past her, but she wasn’t a light or lightning mage and couldn’t move quickly enough to stop him. His fire hit the spell on the inside of his door, not quite powerful enough to break through, but more than enough to destroy the spell attached there.

“You!” the vampire shouted in anger, but she cut herself off from saying any more. Alcander grinned, his body falling limp once again with the expenditure of magic power, and she advanced.

The last thing Alcander saw before everything went dark was her foot smashing into the side of his head.

—

Marcus had barely started to doze before his brief reverie was interrupted.

He felt a subdued pulse of magic power, a tiny disturbance in the ambient magic power that he thought he recognized as Alcander’s fire magic…

Marcus sprang to his feet, but nearly fell over again as his fatigue and drink-addled mind struggled to keep up and maintain his balance. However, as he righted himself, he quickly moved to his door and looked out a window just adjacent to it, his panic cutting through his confusion and helping his mind to speed up to process what he just felt. He thought he felt Alcander’s magic, but it was dampened and distant, like someone screaming into a pillow in another room. Still, Marcus’ body moved before his mind could just write it off as nothing, his instinct to make sure his friend was all right taking over.

The courtyard was empty; everything seemed fine. There was no fire, and the lights in Alcander’s house were dark. As far as he could tell, there wasn’t a problem in his friend’s house…

Except that the lights were off. Marcus furrowed his brow, knowing that Alcander wasn’t one to have sex in the dark; he liked to keep the lights on even though he was more than powerful enough to see in the dark.

Marcus slowly opened his door while calling upon his magic power. He felt his light magic fill his body, and he prepared to summon his armor and weapons, just in case.

At the same time, he noticed his cute neighbor’s door opening, and her head poking out, also looking to Alcander’s door. She glanced at him, her long brown hair swaying, her bright blue eyes wide with anxiety.

“Marcus!” she whispered. “What’s going on!”

“Kassia? You felt that, too?” Marcus whispered back as he glanced around at the other houses, wondering if anyone else had sensed anything. He was disappointed to see it was just the two of them.

“Yeah!” she replied. “Felt like some kind of magic being cast in Alcander’s place!”

Marcus’ heart dropped. “Stay inside!” he sternly whispered as he started moving across the courtyard, not wanting his third-tier neighbor to be in any danger. “Find help if I don’t come out in a few minutes!” he added, watching as Kassia’s expression fell even further and she ducked back inside, almost slamming her door shut.

He rapidly moved to Alcander’s door, and when he tested the doorknob, he found that it was mercifully unlocked. With tremendous trepidation, he took a deep breath, and then slammed himself through the door, his eyes wide and searching.

He immediately saw Alcander lying on the ground, his date standing above him. Alcander seemed unconscious, but Marcus saw that he was bleeding from his throat.

Anger immediately took him, and he reached out with his own power at the pale woman above his friend. Searing light erupted from his fingers, but the aura-less woman turned and waved her hand, conjuring a small wave of dark red fire that should’ve been impossible for someone with her apparent lack of aura and magic power, but Marcus’ light hit the fire and dissipated within.

And then Marcus felt pain in his neck, and his body went weak. With some surprise, he realized someone had attached themselves to his neck and was sucking out his mana… and he recognized her. Kassia had attached herself to his neck and was draining him of power, a few wisps of darkness still wrapped around her form that didn’t match her aura at all. She was a vampire, he futilely realized as he collapsed.

Kassia then stood above him, grinning through blood-stained teeth, her hands smoking with dark power. She then crouched down and reached for him, covering his eyes with her smoking hand, and Marcus saw no more, the last thought in his head the vain hope that Leon could find them before they were killed, and the burning fury that his boss would bring upon these two vampires when they were found.

Marcus dearly hoped that he would live to see it.

—

Fury burned through Leon as he stood in the courtyard of Alcander and Marcus’ housing complex, a small team of Heaven’s Eye security forces going through their homes, looking for any clues at all as to where his retainers had gone. Joining them were Alix, Gaius, Anshu, and Anna, with Helen and Elise still busy looking for land for the golden apple orchard. Valeria and Maia, meanwhile, waited with him.

Talal, however, had chosen to speak with the heads of the security teams.

After being informed of his retainers’ disappearance, Leon had assembled his retinue and immediately made his way to Marcus and Alcander’s housing complex. Alix and Gaius had already checked the place on Valeria’s instruction, as well as the places that the two most frequented, and found nothing. Even then, they searched around for several more hours before finally returning to Leon’s villa and informing him of their disappearances.

This could all just be an overreaction, Leon knew, his retainers might still be in Occulara somewhere, drunk out of their mind or something like that, but he didn’t think so. Marcus and Alcander were fairly hard partiers, but they’d always been relatively responsible. Not once had they ever missed a training session, not once had they ever been late or shirked a duty that Leon required of them. Besides, a couple days had passed since they’d returned to Occulara, so they should’ve gotten all of their hard partying done by now.

Leon, glaring at anyone who came too close to him, could feel it in his bones: someone had done something untoward to his people, and he would burn them alive when he found them. Fire simmered just below his skin, and he felt like the heat of his wrath was radiating out even farther than his chaotic aura. His hands shook with his need to find something to cathartically break, his frustration and current helplessness only serving to infuriate him even more.

He didn’t feel in the best state of minds for searching for clues, which was why he also got in touch with Heaven’s Eye. Occulara technically fell under the jurisdiction of the Ilian Empire, but Heaven’s Eye ran the city like its own independent city-state, so as a Hand of the Director—at least, for the next few weeks—Leon was easily able to get a local security team out here to find his missing people.

Talal had taken over being the go-between for Leon and the team, and after a couple hours, the Samarid and the search team leader finally came over to let Leon know what they’d found.

“I think we’ve found just about everything that we can, Lord Hand,” the team leader said, and Leon was so out of his mind with anger that he didn’t even bother to correct the man’s use of a title.

“Anything noteworthy?” Leon growled.

“Nothing much,” the man replied. “No signs that things were packed, so the disappearance seems… unintentional, or at least, unplanned. We found no signs of violence, and none of the neighbors we spoke to reported anything suspicious.”

Leon stole a quick look around, noting that a couple of the neighbors were out watching the investigation. A couple more were watching from their front windows. Most, however, didn’t seem to be home.

Leon glanced at Talal. “Where were they last seen?”

“As far as I know,” the Samarid replied, “the last place they can be definitively placed is at the street crossing where they parted ways with Alix and Gaius following your release upon our return to the city two days ago. We still need to trace their last steps, I’m sure they were out doing things in public before this.”

Leon nodded in agreement. He wouldn’t put it past his retainers to have gone out to party as soon as they returned.

“Then… if they were kidnapped or…” Leon paused, not wanting to admit the possibility that his people were dead. They’d been gone for as long as two days, and anything could’ve happened in that time. Leon finished his thought, “… then it seems likely they weren’t attacked at home.”

“That’s my working theory right now,” the team leader responded, momentarily glancing off to his right where one of his people was waving him over. “I’m intending on sending a few people out to their usual haunts by the end of the day, interview anyone who might’ve seen your people. Don’t worry, Lord Hand, we’ll find them.” With that, the team leader turned around and walked toward his waiting subordinate.

Leon blinked, the title only working its way into his distracted head after the team leader had stepped away. “… Just ‘Leon’,” he whispered, though if the team leader heard him, he didn’t show it.

Feeling just a little calmer, he stood up, and just as he did, he saw Alix ducking out of Alcander’s house, look around for a moment, and then wave him over, too. She appeared a little anxious, so Leon hurried over.

“What is it?” he demanded.

“I… I’m not sure,” Alix said. “Just something that I noticed and I don’t know if it’s relevant.”

“Let me know anyway,” Leon insisted.

Alix took a deep breath, then led Leon just inside, and then almost shut the door. Leon almost thought that she wanted some privacy until she pointed to a strange-looking light patch on the backside of the thick wooden door.

“This wasn’t here the last time I was here.”

“When was that?” Leon asked.

“Maybe a week before we left for the wyvern hunt. I don’t know what this is, and I never heard Alcander talking about any repairs he had to do to his house.”

“Is that something he’d mention?”

“Well, he tends to share everything else, up to and including how the women he manages to bring home like to **, so I’d assume that he’d complain some about having to do some work on his door.”

Leon grimaced slightly, believing Alix completely; Alcander did tend to overshare, and if he had trouble with anything in his house, Leon believed he would’ve bitched about it at least a little bit.

Leon reached out to brush his fingers against the light spot on the door. It felt strange, almost a little wet, and yet Leon felt in his fingertip just a tiny hint of fire magic…

His eyes narrowed and he focused his magic senses on the door. Immediately, he found faint signs that the door had been struck with fire magic, and he guessed the light spot was just a result of a hasty fix.

‘Possibly done while drunk…’ Leon thought to himself, tempering his expectations.

However, it was evidence that magic had been cast in Alcander’s house, and fairly recently. His eyes narrowed further, and he expanded the scope of his magic senses to the entire house, looking for even the tiniest residual traces of disturbances in the ambient magic.

He didn’t expect to find anything in the air itself, given just how magically dense the air around the Central Empires was and how quickly any changes vanished into their surroundings, but he hoped if there were any other signs of fire magic being cast in the house, then he’d be able to pick up on it emanating off whatever the fire had hit.

What he hadn’t been expecting was to pick up on a slight trace of strange fire magic, a familiar tinge to it that had his heart skipping a beat.

‘Demonic magic!’