Death on A Cold Night

He had killed before, not once, and definitely not twice. The number of bodies he had piled up in the last decade reached the hundreds, if not thousands. Among them were high-profile names, some of the biggest and most influential people in Stardust City.

From Anthony Malcoy, the up-and-coming politician who was about to launch an official campaign that would have proven disastrous for the iron grip the Neon Conglomerate still held within the region, to the famous singer Eric Roland, who had become nothing more than a living, breathing propaganda mouthpiece for the Soulburners just outside Stardust City.

Men had died by his delicate bare hands, their lives slowly squeezed out as his cold, black eyes gazed at the moon. There wasn't a single murmur or beat in his heart as he did so.

Yet, none of it had prepared him for this exact moment. He could taste freedom at the tip of his tongue. After this, there would be only one more assignment.

Alec, as he was now known instead of the string of three numbers they called him at the facility (Zero-Zero-One), finished rinsing his hands after a long day of hard work running around the medium-sized restaurant.

His short hair was gelled backward, and a spotless black suit wrapped around his lengthy frame. Sparkling black dress shoes adorned his feet, clacking against the milky tiled floor in the cramped hallway that led to a stairwell.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a pair of silky gloves made from the latest fabric, infused with the latest nanite technology powered by spatial enderstones. Its existence ensured that not a single piece of biological evidence, his DNA, would stain his surroundings.

He gazed up and gave a brief smile at the cameras, knowing full well that they had been disabled two days prior. Or, to be more accurate, they had been interfered with. Agents had long infiltrated the private security companies responsible for all CCTV footage within a five-mile radius of the shop two days ago. Any and all forms of Video Surveillance Systems had been rendered useless, thanks to the pair of gold-rimmed glasses he wore. They obscured his presence, making him practically invisible on screen.

Thinly laid within the modified pockets of his jacket, he stored a few grams of enderstones with nature affinity. He reached in and pinched a rice grain-sized enderstone between his index finger and thumb. With a single breath, all the energy within the stone flew into him. For a moment, the veins underneath his skin glowed bright green. The weight at the pit of his stomach increased tenfold as all the energy settled.

He had about five minutes to make everything work. After reaching the end of his path, he took a left turn downward in the stairwell, towards the basement of the restaurant where the major gas pipes were located.

Enhanced by the energy from the enderstone, he made quick work of the downward spiral of steps, reaching a large iron door that stunk of the phrase "Keep Out." He pushed against the door, but it didn't budge.

Stepping back, he gazed at it and took a breath. As practiced, he reached into the pit of his stomach, drew bits of the green energy, and channeled it to his fingers.

Gently, he tapped the door.

And it broke away from its hinges and began falling. Alec reached out and grabbed it before it made a loud thud. Lifting it up, he shifted it to the side.

The room beyond was a total mess of thick pipes winding into one another in a tangled mess of a yarn ball. Rust had long settled on the surface of the metal pipes, creating a thick reddish-brown pattern akin to dried grease. Most of all, the stench was unbearable to his highly enhanced senses.

Flickering lights were mounted on the sides of the walls, still visible, but they barely aided the situation. Alec felt that his sight saved him in this case. If he had come in as nothing more than a normal human, he wouldn't be able to tell left from right or right from left.

He meandered through the pipes until he found the one he was looking for—a crusty old pipe labeled "propane." Channeling the green energy from the pit of his stomach, usually called a Dantian, he guided the energy to his arms again. In one smooth motion, he pierced right through the thick metallic hill of the pipe.

Gas spewed forth with enough force to bend the nearby pipes and leave an unending crack across the tiled floor. Propane was a colorless and odorless gas, the perfect candidate for the job.

Within the next sixty seconds, the entire ground floor where the restaurant was located would be filled to the brim with propane, and no one would know. Alec quickly left the small room and reattached the door, making it seem as if no one had touched it.

He walked up the stairwell, pretending that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Alec pulled on the green energy in his Dantian and gathered it all in the palm of his hands. Simultaneously, he reached within his soulscape and quickly ignited his soul. A light blue flame lit up around his soul, and lilac drops of energy condensed just outside the soul's perimeter. With his consciousness, he guided the soul energy through his soulscape towards his hands, where it melded perfectly with the green energy. A bright blue flower bloomed in the middle of his palm.

An odorless and colorless gas shot forth from the center of the flower, filling the entire ground floor in a second, at the cost of using up the entirety of the reservoir of green energy in his Dantian. The plant that bloomed on his palm was known as Blood Jasmine, even though its color wasn't close to that of blood. It got its name thanks to its beautiful but lethal presence, which could kill most humans in under a second.

Alec was certain everyone on the ground floor was dead by now, and the propane had most likely filled the entire place. Quickening his pace, he walked through the winding hallways of the "Staff-Only" area until he found Victor Saltslo's office—his boss and the leader of an illegal Ervorium distribution network. Ervorium was the name of a plant that formed the main part of an alchemical product that could halt the flow of internal Energy.

Pushing it open, he was surprised to see that his boss wasn't seated where he was supposed to be. Entering the office, he gave it a quick scan. This left him wondering where the man might have been. Over the past few months, he had been keeping track of everyone's movements in the restaurant from the moment they walked in to the moment they walked out. And he knew that when everyone was busy cleaning upfront after they closed at around six PM, the boss always went into his office to pray for approximately twenty minutes.

Against all odds, the office was empty more than fifteen minutes earlier than scheduled. Something was wrong. Alec's senses went on full alert as he started looking around the place. He started by opening each and every door that came his way, yet he couldn't find the boss at all. He checked the toilets, the various storage rooms, and even the few secret rooms he saw the man wander to.

Still, nothing.

That left the kitchen and the dining area. Alec moved fast, quickly opening the doors and shuttling through them, shoes clattering against the tiles. Dead bodies were everywhere in the dining area—about ten of them. Most of them were people he had come to know and supposedly love over the past few months. Surprisingly, he didn't regret it.

The lethal gas from the Blood Jasmine had done its work in seconds. Most of them barely had time to notice their entire nervous systems shutting down instantaneously. Alec looked through the bodies, yet none of them belonged to Victor.

Something was definitely wrong. Mr. Victor was supposed to be in his office, yet he couldn't find him anywhere. That only left the kitchen and behind the counters. Alec made quick work of the areas behind the counters, not finding a single trace of Mr. Victor anywhere.

He pushed open the doors of the kitchen. Shock fluttered behind his cold, dead, black eyes as he gazed at Mr. Victor's rotund shape gently gazing at him with a cigar in hand, his body resting against one of the islands within the kitchen.

"Thisisn't my first rodeo," Victor's voice sounded rough, almost gritting away the patience etched in him, "It's only a shame I didn't realize this sooner."

"How?" Those were the only words that escaped Alec's mouth. He couldn't understand how the man managed to survive his lethal gas that could knock down both a whale and an elephant instantaneously.

"Let's just say, I'm built different," Victor said.

In the blink of an eye, his rotund shape barreled toward Alex, cutting the few meters' distance between them in nanoseconds. Alec's instincts kicked in.