Realization

Bones!

Although the body before Kieran was badly mutilated, there were still the remainings of some meat, fat and organs on it. However, the hardest component of the body was tougher to find. Other than the half-eaten skull, there was not a single complete bone to be found.

Had the bones been crunched? Or did the beast prefer bones over meat?

Neither speculation was valid.

The second one was easier to reject. Even if the beast had munched on all the bones, there should have been some bone residue left behind, but Kieran couldn’t find any.

The first one was pretty obvious. Considering that the skull was half-eaten, it was safe to say that the beast disliked bones, which meant that the victims’ bones had been taken by someone else before the beast had eaten them.

"What does Sphendix want with the bones? Does the magic circle require bones as a medium?"