Tracking down Draven

"If anyone steps outside, your boss dies," Draven coldly warned the thieves in the hall and followed Martilan until they reached a copper door. Martiland twisted the knob to reveal the interior of his evil lair. It was a cozy little room with a large oak table, several stacks of wooden crates, a couple of bookshelves, and heads of various animals such as a lion, deer, and bear hanging on the brown walls. A single chandelier dimly lit the room, revealing the map on the table.

"What do you two want from me?" Martiland was still shivering,

"First, I want all the etherials you have" Draven grabbed the map of Etheria and ordered. Martiland's heart bled as he grabbed a crate behind the table.

"There are twenty thousand in the crate. I swear that's all I have,"

"Put them in the sack," Draven ordered Sarah. Hearing his order, she didn't waste any time. Instead, she quickly opened up the sack, grabbed the crate, and poured the sparkling gold coins into the sack.

With these twenty thousand etherials, Sarah had almost seventy thousand etherials. On the other hand, Draven rolled the map and put it in the sack along with the armor pieces and the etherials.

"Sarah, tell him everything you want,"

"Yes," Sarah looked up at the ceiling for a moment, recalling everything she needed to hack into the UFH servers.

"I need five thirty-two-inch glycer mirrors, three mark four Elidyr engines. They must be version five, not the latest ones. Noah ray stones, as many as you can get. Paladine wires. Etherian energy hijacker built by Malory, not the black marker crap…" Sarah continued to list down all the things, and the more she asked, the more Martiland was afraid of providing them with the items.

Because Martiland knew what one could do with all the items.

Still, Martiland was in no position to negotiate. However, he didn't possess these items with him. So if they wanted them, he had to get them from somewhere else.

"I…I don't have these items with me here. They are scarce" Martiland swallowed nervously,

"As rare as your life? Because if you don't get these items for us, you will beg for death,"

"How long will it take? Remember, the longer I am with you, the harder it will be for me not to slice and dice you,"

"Just give me three hours. Shall I?" Martiland looked at the glowing diamond-shaped rock, which was called a Khal, on the table,

Draven watched over Martiland rubbing the stone, making it glow brighter and brighter until the diamond turned green,

"Mirith, listen to me carefully. Drop everything you're doing and bring me these items to the sewers ASAP,"

**************************************

Meanwhile, in a dark cave, a tall figure stood before a large mirror that showed several images of Scarface, his brutes, and their dead bodies.

The blue light radiated by the mirror illuminated the tall figure and revealed the dark armor resembling the one Draven stole from the adventurers guild.

The dark cowl and the mask covered the man's face except for his blue eyes. He was the protector of Veland; The Black Knight.

"Master Layne" A middle-aged man who wore a butler suit and had a goatee approached the Black Knight. The man placed the tray containing a bowl of soup and a few cookies on the table. Then, he joined the Black Knight in watching the mirror.

"Minister Reagan. I hope his soul may rest in peace," the man sighed, speaking in an elderly voice.

"He will after I bring the killer to justice," The Black Knight said with a cold rough tone that was as hard as steel.

"Have you found any clues in the killer's whereabouts Master Layne?" the butler asked as the Black Knight touched the mirror, sliding his palm to bring the images of Draven's cave.

"The killer took some inspiration from you Master Layne," The butler said, looking at the dark cave.

"That cave belonged to Stonemaster, a superhuman who could control and manipulate stones," The Black Knight said as the image of a man covered in gray stone armor appeared in the mirror,

"Stonemaster? He's in the UFH prison if my memory serves me correct"

"Yes," The Black Knight nodded,

"He was apprehended by the Angel of Lotus. The UFH maintained the cave until they finally took their people off the cave two years ago"

"Did you manage to find anything that could be used to find the killer, Master Layne? What about the tracker we put in the suit?"

The Black Knight slid the image to bring the image of his new suit of armor which was now in the possession of Draven.

"The tracker was last active in the cave. It's safe to assume the killer had managed to deactivate the tracker"

"The sooner we find him the better Master Layne. He had massacred Minister Reagan and his men without the armor. I can't imagine the damage he could do with it"

"The armor might be our best way to find him. According to my contacts, they saw someone flying away from the guild in the direction of the cave. They described the figure as having large red wings, resembling these wings" The Black Knight slid the mirror to bring the image of the Pigeon who was Draven's first victim.

The Butler broke beads of sweat on his forehead when he noticed the mummified body of the Pigeon,

"The Pigeon was assigned to protect a carriage containing an important cargo transported to Kingdom Ladon through the Veland forests"

"What was the cargo?" asked the Butler,

"Classified. The information cannot be accessed remotely. The UFH has locked the information airtight" THe Black Knight said as he brought another image to the mirror. This time, it was the image of an Inn filled with injured men and broken tables.

"Where is this Master Layne?"

"Martha's Inn, six hours ago. Look at this body" Black Knight tapped the mirror as a man's body with his head badly caved in appeared in the mirror. Then, another body face smashed in appeared. Just like the previous, the butler saw three more bodies who were brutally killed by someone.

"Dear God. Which group did this? Clown's men?" the butler gasped,

"The people in the Inn claim one guy did this. What are the odds of the one who killed these adventurers and Minister Reagan being the same?" The Black Knight paused for a moment before continuing,

"The witnesses claim despite receiving several blows, the young man went on beating them. They also claim they saw him wearing dark armor underneath his jacket"

"It must be your armor. A normal human being couldn't have fought and won without something protecting him from all the attacks"

The Black Knight nodded as he shared the exact thoughts too.

"Connecting everything we know, I might guess where he might have gone next"

The next moment, The Black Knight ruffled the images in the mirror,

"The pigeon's mummified body. The red wings are similar to the pigeon's wings. The armor. The murders" The Black Knight pointed at each image and talked,

"The killer had no wings when he fought the people in the Inn and we know how Pigeon's wings work. To spread open the wings, the flesh needs to be cut through. That's why the Pigeon wore a suit modified to let the wings out without any interruption. If the killer's wings worked like the pigeon's he needs to modify my armor and there is only one who could do that,"

As he said, The Black knight waved his hand, removing all the existing images in the mirror and bringing the image of a man.

"Timothy Aldiren"

In addition to Timothy's portrait, the butler saw other information about Timothy such as age, family, affiliations, and current whereabouts. Under the affiliations, there was another name.

"Master Crayford. He's one of his students?"

The Black Knight nodded,

"A best one at that. Timothy worked at UFH after finishing his training under Master Crayford, until three years ago,"

"What happened three years ago?" asked the butler,

"Minister Reagan killed his pregnant wife,"

The butler shook his head disappointedly as he sighed,

"He took so many lives, Master Layne. Timothy must have been devastated. When a regular man's world turns upside down, he becomes someone else,"

"The question is, has Timothy helped our killer or not? I am about to find out that now,"

Just as The Black Knight was about to turn around, the butler stopped him,

"Eat something, Master Layne. You've been going on day and night without a shred of rest for weeks,"

"We have a killer in our hands, Leonard. A deeply disturbed killer. The last thing we need is another Clown capable of turning the kingdom into a warzone. I will rest after I put him in prison,"