Black Phoenix Heir

Chapter 192: Chapter 192 — The First Lead

Chapter 192 — The First Lead

For the next three days, Victor and Lyra spent most of their time going through the information available on their citizen IDs.

Victor had recently discovered a public portal containing reports of missing people throughout the Tower. Each report listed a name, along with where the person had last been seen.

It was exactly what they needed.

They went through every report from the last seven days, writing down anything that seemed useful. Then they printed out a large map of the Tower and stuck it against one of the apartment walls.

Slowly, red dots began appearing across it.

Each marked the last known location of a missing person, with their name and the date they disappeared written beside it.

The work was mind-numbing.

For hours, Victor would sit with his citizen ID in hand while Lyra stood near the wall, adding another mark whenever he found something.

At first, none of it seemed useful.

People had disappeared all over the Tower, and there was no way of knowing which cases were connected to the Evil God worshippers. Some could have run away. Others could have gotten themselves killed somewhere. With so many people living inside the Tower, disappearances weren’t exactly unheard of.

But they weren’t looking at individual cases.

They were looking for a pattern.

So they kept going.

By the end of the third day, their apartment wall had changed completely.

The map sat in the center, covered in red dots. Around it were notes containing everything else they knew about the Evil God Organization.

The sideways eye.

The beast claws used during sacrifices.

The cellar.

The different masks they had encountered.

Everything Elder Benton had told Victor.

Even rumors they’d picked up about other disappearances had been written down and added to the wall.

Victor stepped back and stared at it.

If someone walked into their apartment right now, they would probably think the two of them had gone insane.

”There.”

Lyra’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.

She stood close to the map, one finger resting beside a cluster of red dots.

Victor walked over.

”What?”

”Look at the dates.”

He did.

Four red dots were grouped within the same general area.

The first person had disappeared four days ago.

The second, three days ago.

Then two days ago.

Then yesterday.

Victor’s eyes narrowed.

”One every day.”

Lyra nodded.

They immediately went through the rest of the map again.

It didn’t take long to find two more locations with similar patterns.

Three areas.

Victor crossed his arms as he studied them.

It wasn’t enough to prove anything. There could be other explanations.

But it was the first real lead they’d found.

If the disappearances were connected to the Evil God Organization, whoever was abducting these people seemed to be returning to the same areas.

Maybe they were hunting in places they knew well.

One of the clusters was centered around a series of back streets not too far from their apartment.

That would be their first stop.

They couldn’t afford to wait around either.

If these people really were being abducted for sacrifices, every hour mattered.

Unfortunately, Victor already had plenty of other things demanding his attention.

His gaze drifted toward the alchemical ingredients they had gathered from Basement Level Five.

He still hadn’t made the Body Armor Potion.

Elder Benton expected it before their next class, and Victor had spent most of the past three days working on this instead.

At least he had the Library.

With time passing twice as slowly inside, he could make up for some of what he’d lost.

For now, finding these people was more important.

Victor and Lyra had also discussed investigating the missing slaves in Basement Level Five, but that was much more complicated.

They knew the route where they’d encountered the wolf-masked man and rescued the twelve children, but Victor doubted the Evil God Organization would be stupid enough to use the same passage again.

And searching Basement Level Five blindly was almost impossible.

The place was massive.

Just traveling from one end to the other could take fifteen or twenty days. Once all the branching paths, hidden passages, and different regions were taken into account, they could spend months searching and still miss entire sections.

Then there were the monsters.

Some regions contained creatures far stronger than ordinary Beast Soldiers.

Going down there without knowing where they were looking would accomplish nothing.

The three locations on their map were different.

They actually had something to work with.

Victor secured his equipment before pulling his cloak over his shoulders.

Lyra was already dressed and ready beside him.

Nala fluttered across the apartment and landed on Victor’s shoulder.

Victor looked toward Lyra.

”Ready?”

”Yeah.”

She pulled her cloak into place.

”It’s time we start making progress on these evil bastards.”

Victor stared at her.

Lyra caught the look almost immediately.

”What?”

A quiet laugh escaped him.

”Nothing.”

Her eyebrows drew together.

”Then why are you laughing?”

Victor shook his head and headed for the door.

He’d just never heard Lyra phrase something quite like that before.

Maybe he really was rubbing off on her.

She watched him for a second, still confused, then followed.

They left the apartment and headed toward the first location.

The streets were busy at this time of day. Shops lined both sides of the road while people moved between them, some carrying bags or packages, others simply making their way through the Tower.

Victor and Lyra blended into the crowd.

About fifteen minutes passed.

Victor glanced behind him.

A cloaked figure walked some distance back.

He faced forward again without changing his pace.

The figure had been there for a while.

Victor had first noticed them not long after leaving the apartment, but at the time, he’d dismissed it. There were too many people around to assume someone walking in the same direction was following them.

Then they turned.

The figure turned.

They changed streets.

The figure followed.

Victor’s expression hardened slightly.

Someone was following them.

And he could only think of two likely reasons.

Either it was someone connected to the Evil God Organization...

Or the Tower was watching him again.

Neither possibility was good.

Victor glanced at Lyra.

Their eyes met.

She gave the slightest nod.

Victor continued walking as though nothing had happened.

At the next intersection, he turned.

Then he turned again.

The figure remained behind them.

One street became another.

Still there.

Victor suddenly cut into a narrow alley.

Lyra followed without hesitation.

They made another sharp turn between two buildings.

Footsteps echoed behind them.

Faster now.

Victor’s attention sharpened.

That was enough.

He rounded the next corner and immediately stopped.

Lyra took another two steps before stopping beside him.

Then they waited.

For a moment, there was only the distant noise of the surrounding streets.

Then—

Footsteps.

Rapid.

Getting closer.

Whoever was following them had increased their pace, probably worried they were about to lose sight of them.

Victor remained still.

One hand drifted beneath his cloak.

Closer.

The footsteps reached the corner.

A cloaked figure rushed around it—

—and nearly collided with Victor.

Both stopped.

For a second, no one moved.

Victor stared beneath the hood.

Red hair.

Red eyebrows.

A familiar face.

His expression went completely still.

Then his killing intent erupted.

The atmosphere in the narrow alley changed instantly.

Lyra stiffened beside him.

Even she instinctively shifted half a step back, her eyes snapping toward Victor. She had felt his killing intent before, but the sudden violence behind it caught her off guard.

Nala’s feathers rose along Victor’s shoulder.

For an instant, he was back in Basement Level Five.

A grave beneath the trees.

His fingers tightened beneath his cloak.

Around the handle of his dagger.

Alex’s gaze dropped.

Just for an instant.

He’d noticed.

Victor stared directly into his eyes.

When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet.

Cold.

”Alex Graveborn.”