Chapter 194: Doing What He Does Best

"Do you have anything else to say in your defense?" Adryan asked with a raised eyebrow under his mask as he tilted his head to the side.

"AAARGGGGGHHHHHH"

Red Skeleton leader Jonah Manson cried out in pain as he hung upside down from the ceiling of his office.

A hunting knife plunged to the bone in his leg and it was attached to a tripwire that dangled him from the ceiling.

"Don't be whiny." Adryan sighed in exasperation as he grabbed Jonah's shoulder and spun him around.

"HAVE MERCY!" Jonah yelled as he spun around and got more and more dizzy. The motion of spinning and the blood rushing to his brain was making it hard for him to think.

Grabbing Jonah's cheeks tightly and stopping him, Adryan pulled him to within inches of his mask and whispered in amusement.

"Shout all you want little bird, no one will come to save you."

Jonah turned pale and began to shake even more.

He subconsciously looked behind Holmes and saw how in the remains of what was once his door were the corpses of his guards. Where their hearts should have been was a hole that had smoke and the smell of burning flesh.

He knew that the rest of his men faced the same fate or worse if they hadn't already come to his rescue.

Looking into the eyes of the terrifying mask and seeing a small flash of red in the darkness of those eyes, Jonah opened his dam.

Releasing the man, Adryan said between laughs and disbelief.

"Are you a little boy?! Peeing yourself?! You're pitiful!"

Jonah in his pants soaked with urine and blood, with a knife driven to the bone in his leg and having hung upside down for quite some time, finally broke down and passed out.

Looking at the unconscious Jonah, Adryan sighed as he shook his head.

"Regrettable."

Forming a Fire Dagger in his hand, Adryan threw it at the tripwire cutting it and freeing Jonah.

Plump! Snap!

"Aaaaghhhh."

Gravity pulled hard and Jonah hit the ground with his side and a crack sounded.

"Mmm, it looks like you broke your arm when you fell... Pity." Shrugging, Adryan with his foot turned the whimpering Jonah to face him.

"Good morning princess. You looked a bit red on the face so I had to wake you up, I was afraid you were suffocating." Adryan joked with an evil smile under his mask.

Looking at the demon in front of him, Jonah scrambled trying to get away from it. But Adryan was not going to allow it so he stepped on the knife, sinking it deeper into the bone.

Jonah yelled and with his good arm he began to hit the demon's foot trying to get away but nothing was working.

Not being able to take it anymore, Jonah surrendered to the monster.

"I'll tell you everything but let me go!"

Adryan smiled and lifted his foot letting go of Jonah's leg.

"Was that so hard?"

Jonah was pale, sweat beaded his forehead and his vision was blurry but he tried his best to give Holmes what he wanted.

With the promise that he wouldn't burn him to death.

He already knew his fate was sealed from the moment Holmes walked through his office door with the corpses of his strongest guards in his hands. All he wanted was to leave without suffering as the victims of this monster had done.

After listening to everything Jonah had to say. Adryan walked to the cabinet behind the office desk.

Moving the cabinet aside with a kick, a safe was discovered.

Humming a soft melody, Adryan walked up to Jonah and grabbed him by the head, and dragged him along.

Jonah squirmed but no matter what he tried the iron grip Holmes had on his skull wouldn't budge.

Forcing Jonah to his feet, Adryan slapped the man hard on the back causing him to scream again.

"Open it." Adryan said calmly as he grabbed Jonah's leather chair and sat in it.

"What?" Jonah exclaimed confused. He had told him the password of the safe.

"Are you deaf or what? Open it." Adryan responded nonchalantly as he crossed his legs and rested his cheek against his right fist.

"But-" Jonah tried to protest but a flame formed in Holmes's left hand.

The man said nothing but the sharpness in his gaze said everything Jonah needed to know.

Not wanting to burn to death, Jonah quickly opened the safe and after doing so, quickly stepped out of the way.

Looking at the thick bills in the safe, Adryan smiled under his mask but that smile disappeared when he saw a bag of pink powder in the safe.

He didn't even look at Jonah who fell to the floor, Adryan got up from the leather chair and walked over to the safe.

Jonah watched all this and could only regret it. All he had earned and worked so hard... He lost everything in just 15 minutes.

Looking down at his right leg, Jonah just laughed in defeat. He couldn't even feel it anymore.

But his own wailing was interrupted by black hunting boots.

Looking up, Jonah watched as Holmes held in his hand the bag where they kept much of the product.

"Remember how I said I wouldn't burn you alive?" Adryan asked calmly and Jonah froze.

Before he could try to say or do anything, the bag full of Pink Powder covered his head.

Shaking but to no avail, Jonah began to inhale large amounts of the powder.

Adryan having done so, tied the neck of the bag tight around Jonah's neck with a tripwire, not tight enough to choke him but tight enough so he couldn't get it off.

Watching how Jonah began to squirm on the ground letting out moans, cries and screams at random along with a darker stain on his pants. Adryan raised his right hand to the man.

"I lied." The redhead said before a Torrent of Fire engulfed Jonah.

....

Under his brown eyes, there were huge dark circles proof of his enormous lack of sleep.

Taking a deep sip from his container and feeling the black coffee go down his throat, Ikanser Bernard blew out an exasperated sigh.

'I may be a Sequence 7 Appraiser but five days without sleep takes a toll on me. If I were a normal person I wouldn't even be able to stand up.' The man thought as he approached Skiper.

The man also had dark circles under his eyes.

"What do we have?" Ikanser asked coming in front of the man but his attention focused on what was left of the building.

Skiper looked at his captain and nodded.

"The usual Captain. No traces or clues were left and Holmes left his business cards."

Handing him a card, Ikanser took it and read it.

<Are you the best they could send? What a disappointment.

Sincerely: James Holmes>

Grunting, Ikanser handed back the card and took another, deeper sip of his coffee.

'I'm going to get you, bastard!' Ikanser thought annoyed as he squeezed his container.

As soon as he has his hands on the son of a bitch he would rip that mask off his face and see the face of the wretch that tormented and humiliated him for so long. Then he would tie the man's legs to the H.U.J and see how-

Crack!

"Fuck!"

But Ikanser was so upset that he used too much force that he ended up breaking his container and was doused in coffee.

Looking at his coffee-covered arm, Ikanser could only laugh out of anger.

"Not only did we lose the only lead we had on his teammate, but we can't question the other suspect due to the protection she has from the Church of the Earth Mother..." Ikanser muttered very quickly, his voice carrying a little trace of madness barely contained.

The information revealed by the Secret Order member they captured became the first clue they had to catch Holmes but as soon as the illusion of the clue appeared it was cut off.

This man's spirit had signed a contract so they hadn't been able to get much information out of him. What they did know was that he was hunting someone in Backlund and a description of his target and companion.

The suspected objective that this member of the Secret Order was looking for left Backlund and they didn't have enough evidence to solicit help from the Church of the Evernight Goddes to chase him. And the suspected companion of this suspect had the protection of the Church of the Earth Mother so she was untouchable which at the same time made the first suspect more hard to investigate.

Looking at his Captain, Skiper only had a flat face.

'This case will end up driving him crazy.' Skiper was already considering telling his Captain to transfer the case to another team for his sanity.

Pulling out a separate document from his board, he handed it to his Captain.

"We found this hanging from the gas lamp in front of the building. It talks about a new drug and its effects. Also about an evil organization forming part of it."

Ikanser coming out of his crazy trance took the document with his clean hand and began to read while Skiper continued explaining.

As he listened to his team member's explanation, Ikanser frowned even more.

'This information not only speaks of the effects of the drug but the trafficking routes, and the large number of traffickers and gangs that deal with it. It also talks about the possible involvement of the Rose School of Temptation and the evidence there is...'

This information was information left behind by James Holmes. And this was not the first time that the masked man did this.

The Black Skull case was still fresh in his mind.

The things he had seen...

Shaking his head to erase those ugly memories. Ikanser sighed and looked at Skiper.

"We can't take a criminal's word for it but we will focus more attention on this drug. I will contact the Nighthawks and Punishers to do the same."

Hearing what his Captain said, Skiper nodded with joy and a small smile grew on his face.

Captain Ikanser was horrible at hiding it and he always relaxed when talking to the Captain of the Nighthawks.