A Painting in Blood
A picture resembling a bird with wings spread wide was drawn there.
It had three heads, three pairs of wings, and six legs—an odd bird.
More chimera than bird, really.
That much was fine.
The artist's tastes could just be unusual.
The problem was that the picture had been painted not with paint, but with human blood. And where the bird's heads should have been were actual human faces.
Human arms adorned the tips of its three pairs of wings, and real human legs decorated the six leg joints like ornaments.
Someone had killed people, painted with their blood, and used their bodies for decoration.
"Sick fuck."
In this world, one person killing another wasn't strange.
Right now, this very moment, people were dying somewhere. But the slaughter unfolding before Zeon's eyes was different in nature from those.
It was clearly done not for survival, but to satisfy personal pleasure and desire.
"Tch!"
Zeon clicked his tongue.
The acrid stench of blood assaulted his nose.
Monster blood and human blood were different.
Both reeked, but human blood was far more pungent. Maybe that's why monsters craved it so much.
The victims appeared to be a family.
The head of a middle-aged woman and those of a boy and girl who looked like her children.
Their wide-open eyes and gaping mouths vividly conveyed the terror they'd felt in life.
"That psycho's handiwork."
Zeon instantly knew it was the work of the man Clexy had mentioned.
While he'd been away briefly, the slaughter had happened three floors below his home.
The more he thought about it, the worse his mood got.
It felt like his territory had been invaded.
That was when it happened.
"M-Mom? Kids!"
A voice came from behind.
He turned to see a boy standing there in a daze.
Zeon recognized his face immediately.
"Levin! No way..."
It was definitely Levin, the boy he'd run into on his way out earlier.
Now he remembered—Levin had said his home was at the end of the fifteenth floor, right here.
Levin staggered into the house.
His face showed he couldn't believe the horrific scene spread before him.
When despair reaches its peak, the mind goes blank.
Just like Levin now.
Levin couldn't think at all.
Just before he'd left home a few days ago, his mom and siblings had been fine. Sure, they'd fought that morning, hurling words they didn't mean, but he never wished for this—for them to die like this.
"No!"
Regaining his senses too late, Levin screamed.
"Jeez."
"What the hell happened?"
The onlookers shook their heads.
They were usually indifferent to others' family matters, but not this time.
It had happened right in front of their own homes.
They might have been the victims if things had gone wrong.
Shivering, the people gave thanks that it hadn't been them.
"Waaah!"
Levin clutched the severed heads of his mother and siblings, sobbing uncontrollably.
No one stepped forward to comfort him, even seeing that.
"Poor dead folks, that's all."
"The blood stench'll reach our place now."
"Hope they clean it up proper so it doesn't stink and attract bugs. But that kid... doubt he's got it in him."
What they worried about was the bodies not being disposed of right, bugs swarming, and the smell wafting into their homes.
Zeon watched them impassively.
Crying until he'd exhausted himself, Levin couldn't even stand.
His whole body was dyed red with his family's blood.
Zeon thought that maybe even this sight was what the psycho perpetrator wanted.
"Can't be helped."
Bam!
Zeon slammed the door shut, blocking the onlookers' view.
"Whoever the fuck did this to my family... I'll kill 'em. I'll find 'em and kill 'em."
Blood dripped from Levin's eyes as he clutched the heads and sobbed.
His tear ducts had torn, blood flowing out.
Tears and blood mixed, falling to the floor.
Light leaked from Levin's wrist.
Zeon knew exactly what that meant.
'He awakened.'
A rank badge—the mark of an Awakener—had surely appeared on Levin's wrist.
Martial types: red.
Magic types: blue.
Curse types: gray.
Those fused with machines: black.
Most Awakeners fell into these categories. But exceptions existed occasionally.
Zeon was a prime example.
His rank badge was an orange like a burning desert.
His awakened ability was Sand Mage, outside the usual lines.
The light from Levin's wrist was unusual too.
A vivid purple.
A color Zeon had never seen before.
Zeon examined Levin's wrist closely.
Purple light filled the final, seventh line.
Meaning F-rank Awakener.
Awakening straight to F-rank was ordinary.
Most started there.
Zeon had too.
Starting ahead didn't guarantee faster growth.
Some struggled lifelong with slow progress; others shot up quickly from F-rank.
Growth mechanisms varied by person and ability.
What mattered wasn't the rank, but the awakened power.
Zeon had never seen a purple rank badge before.
He didn't know Levin's ability yet, but it was surely extremely rare.
That was when it happened.
As Levin vowed revenge, his body suddenly turned transparent, rippling like waves.
He looked just like the ghosts from stories.
Whoosh!
A massive surge of energy erupted from Levin's ghostly form.
The energy destroyed everything in the house.
After unleashing that burst of energy, Levin passed out.
His transparent body returned to normal.
Zeon moved Levin aside and gathered the corpses.
The mangled remains were gruesome.
Anyone squeamish wouldn't dare touch them. But Zeon's expression didn't change as he handled them.
He'd seen far worse countless times.
This was nothing to shake him.
Gathering the bodies, Zeon muttered.
"Go to a good place..."
Whoosh!
Flames engulfed the corpse pieces.
Flames Zeon had summoned.
The superheated blaze incinerated them in seconds.
A fire this intense should have burned the whole house. Yet everything else remained untouched.
Only the area with the bodies burned, as if space itself had been carved out.
Flame mages would gawk at the sight.
Among magics, flames were the hardest to control.
Fire spread along mediums, making precise handling tough.
Yet here, he'd ignited flames indoors without scorching anything else—perfect control.
Like a natural flame mage.
The fire burned only the bodies and vanished.
Zeon opened a window to vent the heat, then scraped up the ashes.
Burning three people yielded just a handful.
Zeon put the ashes in an empty bottle.
Glancing around the empty house, he hoisted Levin over his shoulder and left.
The crowd that had gathered to gawk at the murder scene had all dispersed.
It had nothing to do with them, after all, so interest waned.
The scene showed how meaningless "neighborly bonds" were here.
Zeon took Levin back to his place.
He laid Levin on the bed and sat on the sofa, recalling the scene.
Levin had gone ghostly transparent and unleashed massive energy.
"Ghostification... Like a specter?"
Not all monsters had strong physical bodies.
Like the ghost mantises Zeon had recently acquired, some were parasitic, controlling other monsters. Others were liquid forms shifting without fixed bodies.
Slimes were prime examples.
Specters were among these odd types.
They floated incorporeally, attacking minds.
Those with weak wills lost themselves or got controlled.
"And energy emission on top."
If classifying it, closest to electrical energy.
Levin clearly had both traits at once.
Zeon had heard of dual awakeners, but this was his first time seeing one.
Levin was an irregular like him.
Unknown how far his potential went, but with proper growth, he'd be a huge asset.
Levin lay in deep sleep, unmoving like the dead.
Exhausted from the massive energy drain post-awakening.
Zeon left him and gazed out the window.
Cheap neon signs cluttered his view.
Levin woke three full days after the incident.
His aura had changed completely.
Gaunt cheeks, hollow eyes, deeply sunken gaze.
Like he'd aged a decade.
Sitting blankly for a moment, Levin looked at Zeon.
"This your place, hyung?"
"Yeah."
"Looks nice."
"Spent some cash."
"Figured it looked fancy."
"Got enough to get by."
"That thing—mana generator?"
"Yep."
"Whoa! Heard about 'em, but first time seeing one for real."
"First time owning one myself."
"Rich hyung as expected! Let's be buddies."
Levin flashed a bright smile.
Zeon watched his face briefly, then picked up the glass bottle by the window.
"What's that?"
"Take it."
"..."
"Your family. Cremated 'em without asking."
"Th... thanks."
The calm facade Levin had forced cracked.
He clutched the bottle to his chest and bowed his head.
Zeon watched silently.
He knew sometimes silent presence beat hasty words.
Levin lifted his head only much later.
Forcing a smile, he said,
"Thanks, hyung."
"What now?"
"Gotta go home. If I leave it, someone else'll take it."
"And?"
"Find the bastard who killed my mom and siblings."
Levin's voice was chillingly cold.
Revenge was his right.
Zeon had no intention of stopping him.
Just some advice.
"You know you awakened, right?"
"Yeah."
No way he wouldn't.
Awakening reveals your power instinctively, no explanation needed.
Zeon knew from experience.
"You know your ability's no ordinary one?"
"Yeah."
"Keep it hidden. Catch the wrong eyes, you'll suffer."
"Got it."
Levin nodded.
Zeon said no more.
He didn't know how much Levin would heed, but the choice and its consequences were Levin's alone.