The first pale rays of dawn began to bleed over the eastern horizon, painting the sky in dangerous hues of amber and gold. I dove sharply out of the clouds, landing with a heavy, muffled thud a few miles away from the towering stone walls of Caria. The morning light was a ticking clock; the moment the rays grew too bright, they would blister my mutated sixth-evolution skin.
Moving quickly, I retracted my massive blood wings and tightly buttoned up my fire-resistant crimson trench coat. The thick fabric completely sealed the wings away and provided vital shade from the escalating sunlight, ensuring no one would connect me to the 16-gold bounty on the "blood-sucking winged demon."
I joined the early morning foot traffic and approached the massive outer barriers of the 4th District. Standing at the city gates was the veteran gatekeeper, Luscious. He squinted at me through the morning mist, leaning heavily on his halberd.
"Back already, Eirene? I didn't see any heads dangling from your belt. Tough night out there?" Luscious muttered, checking my silver 7th-Rank Luminous Knight status card. He eyed my empty hands and waistline.
I kept my expression entirely blank behind my Leech's Hollow Mask. The 3 kg severed head of Vanessa Katt was perfectly secure inside the weightless void of my golden Inventory Ring, out of sight from bureaucratic eyes. Ignoring his comment entirely, I dropped a single silver piece into his palm. My funds ticked down to 6 silver pieces. Luscious shrugged, swiped my card, and waved me through the iron portcullis.
I maintained a swift, uninterrupted pace, bypassing the commercial streets of the 4th District and cutting straight toward the inner residential sectors. When I arrived at the gated checkpoint leading into the 3rd District, the familiar face of the sector gatekeeper, Renny, greeted me.
"Morning, Eirene, toll and status card, please." Renny said with a tired yawn, tapping his ledger.
I handed over my card and another silver coin… bringing my remaining funds down to exactly 5 silver pieces. He stamped my clearance logs, and I stepped into the quieter, cobblestone avenues of my home district.
I walked down the familiar rows of townhouses until the brass numbers of House 132 came into view. Just a few yards away, the district paperboy, Charlie, was tossing bundles onto front porches. He caught sight of my crimson silhouette and jogged over with a friendly grin.
"An early bird today, Eirene! Here's some fresh newspapers for you. Safe to say the city survived the martial law sweeps last night." Charlie said cheerfully, handing me a crisp, rolled-up chronicle.
I grabbed the papers with a brief nod of acknowledgment, sliding them under my arm. I would dissect the headlines for any news on the Bureau's operations once I was safely inside.
I stepped onto the wooden planks of my front porch, completely shielded by the overhang of the roof. Secure within my own domain and hidden from the burning morning sun, I finally reached up and pulled my heavy canvas hood backward, letting the cool dawn air hit my face. Evelyn was waiting inside, and Vanessa's head was ready for consumption.
I reached out and delivered a specific, rhythmic sequence of knocks against the wooden door frame… a precise tactical signal to let my little sister know it was safe.
From the other side of the oak panels, Evelyn's youthful voice rang out instantly.
"I'm here, big sister! The door is unlocked."
I turned the brass handle and stepped inside House 132. Evelyn was standing in the foyer, already dressed for the day and practicing walking around in a pair of high heels she must have found in the closets. She looked up, her twin jade-green eyes blinking in surprise.
"Eirene! Back already? That was incredibly quick."
Instead of answering out loud, I rapidly scribbled a message on my notepad, ripped the sheet out, and flicked it accurately across the room. Evelyn snatched the flying piece of paper out of the air, pouting slightly.
"Hey, throwing things is mean! What even is this?"
She held the note up to the morning light, her eyes scanning my messy handwriting:
Help me, sister. Consume the Immoral Knight commander's wife. Give me the intel.
The moment she finished reading the last word, I raised my right hand. The golden Inventory Ring on my ring finger flashed with a sharp, metallic glare as I pulled the 3.0 kg biological payload out of the weightless void and dropped it directly onto the clean wooden floorboards.
Thud.
Vanessa Katt's severed, blood-soaked head rolled slightly, her cold, dead eyes staring up at the ceiling.
"Ah! What the… who is this?!"
Evelyn shrieked, jumping backward in her heels and clutching her chest in sheer, primitive shock. She took a hesitant, trembling step forward to take a quick peek at the grisly features beneath the soot and dried gore. Her expression hardened instantly.
"Wait... this is Vanessa Katt. How did you...?"
True to the vast database of absorbed memories inside her super-intelligent tactical brain, Evelyn recognized the face immediately. The minds of the Capital Knights she had devoured back in the mines knew the high-profile profiles of the Immoral Knight leadership all too well.
She looked down at the note again, then back at the severed head, a serious, mature focus settling over her youthful features.
"Well... if you need the base layout and the entry codes, I have to do this,"
Evelyn said, sighing as she carefully bent down. She caught Vanessa by her long, soot-stained hair, lifting the head precisely so not a single drop of residual dark blood could stain her clean clothes or her heels.
"But I'm taking this into the bathroom. I am absolutely not letting my big sister watch me turn into a monster and eat this thing."
She turned on her heel and marched straight toward the hallway bathroom, closing the heavy door behind her with a firm, absolute click.
I stood alone in the quiet foyer of House 132, the house keys resting on the counter and my wallet down to 5 silver pieces. I could hear the faint, shifting, gelatinous sounds of her high-tier slime biology taking over on the other side of the wall. Vanessa's brain was officially being processed by the hive-mind, and the exact coordinates of Cameron Gal's fortress would be ours in a matter of minutes.
As the faint, gelatinous sounds of Evelyn processing the tissue echoed from behind the bathroom door, I leaned against the foyer wall, a dark smirk pulling at the corners of my hidden smile.
I didn't actually need Vanessa's brain to copy her physical form. My analytical mind flashed back to our very first encounter in the field weeks ago. During that chaotic skirmish, my fangs had tasted her blood, and I had successfully extracted and cataloged her exact DNA sequence into my sixth-evolution biological database. Thanks to my advanced Shapeshifting trait, I could already replicate her exact height, vocal cords, dark-iron vanguard armor, and facial features down to the absolute cellular level. What I desperately lacked were her secrets… the internal layout, the patrol routes, and the active security codes that kept the main faction from turning on one another.
The bathroom door clicked open, and the heavy, metallic scent of blood dissipated into the hallway.
Evelyn stepped out into the foyer, looking completely calm and composed as she used a clean towel to thoroughly wipe a stray smear of crimson from her cheek. Her twin jade-green eyes flared with a sharp, hyper-intelligent luminescence as the vast database of Vanessa Katt's memories seamlessly integrated into her organic super-computer brain.
"I've got it, Eirene, the first location she gave you was definitely a death trap. The real Immoral Knight base is located deep within the jagged peaks of the Rebelbub Mountain Range. It's a massive, fully fortified castle, securely hidden and cloaked by localized mana barriers right in the heart of the gorges." Evelyn said, her voice dropping into a focused, tactical tone as she tossed the towel aside.
She looked straight at me, a confident smile breaking across her face.
"I have the guard rotations, the active defensive matrix passcodes, and the exact chamber where her husband, Cameron Gal, handles their tactical deployments. You can walk right through the front gates as his wife."
The trap was set, the destination was locked, and the blueprint to Cameron's throat was officially in my possession. With only 5 silver pieces left in my purse but an absolute tactical monopoly over the enemy, the Crimson Phantom was ready to execute the final stage of the hunt.