Black Phoenix Heir

Chapter 204: Chapter 204 — One Percent

Chapter 204 — One Percent

Five days passed.

Victor and Lyra had gotten a lot done during that time.

Most of those five days were spent looking into the disappearances and tracking down more Evil God worshippers. Using the map they had made and the patterns they’d already discovered, they managed to track down three more newly recruited worshippers.

Unfortunately, every single one ended the same way.

The moment Victor and Lyra captured them and started getting useful information—

Their heads exploded.

Victor knew it wasn’t a coincidence.

The Evil God Organization had planned ahead. Whatever they were doing to these new recruits, they’d made sure they couldn’t reveal too much information if they were captured.

Victor didn’t know exactly how it worked.

A curse?

Some kind of technique?

He had no idea.

All he knew was that the moment they started talking, they died.

Still, Victor and Lyra had learned one important thing.

The organization was definitely recruiting more people.

All three worshippers had joined recently, just like the man from the meat market. It was happening throughout the Tower, and the more Victor looked into it, the more he started to feel like the entire thing was a distraction.

Something didn’t add up.

Even after taking down three more worshippers, the number of people disappearing hadn’t gone down.

It had actually increased.

That pissed Victor off more than anything.

He’d hoped they were at least helping. Even if they couldn’t stop the Evil God Organization completely, he’d thought removing these killers would make some kind of difference.

Instead, it barely made a dent.

People were still disappearing every day.

More than before.

Victor shook his head.

At this rate, hunting down every individual killer was almost pointless. They could spend weeks searching for them, and even when they found one, they couldn’t get any useful information before their head exploded.

They needed another approach.

So Victor and Lyra decided to put the missing-person investigation aside for now.

Their next move would be Basement Level Five.

Victor had been thinking about it for the last few days. There were guards, mercenary teams, and countless others constantly traveling through the underground regions.

Someone had to know something.

Maybe someone had seen suspicious groups moving around.

Maybe one of the guards had noticed something unusual.

Anything would be better than chasing killers who couldn’t talk.

Fortunately, the last five days hadn’t been all bad.

There was some very good news.

Lyra’s curse was almost gone.

Only one percent remained.

Any day now, she would finally be free of the curse that had held back her bloodline for her entire life.

After that, she could break through into the Beast Soldier Realm.

Victor couldn’t have been happier for her.

She deserved it.

And Lyra’s excitement became more obvious every day. At this point, it was almost the only thing she could think about.

For years, she’d wanted the strength to find her parents and learn whether they were still alive.

And if they were...

She wanted enough strength to protect them.

But her parents weren’t the only people she wanted to protect anymore.

Victor and Nala had become her family too.

Nala had also made progress during the last five days.

She’d broken through to Rank Two Beast Soldier.

Everyone was getting stronger.

Victor had reached Rank Two Spirit Gathering.

Nala was now Rank Two Beast Soldier.

And Lyra was only one percent away from finally breaking her curse.

It was good.

But after fighting Snake Mask, Victor still didn’t think it was fast enough.

Victor and Lyra sat inside their apartment, discussing what they should do next.

Victor glanced at Lyra and smiled.

As usual, the moment they’d gotten home, she’d taken off the necklace that hid her fox features. Her black ears stood freely atop her head, and her tail rested behind her.

Victor found it funny how quickly she removed the artifact every time they came home.

It was almost as if hiding her ears and tail physically suffocated her.

”Lyra.”

She looked toward him.

”I think we should go into Basement Level Five and start asking some questions.”

Lyra thought about it for a moment before nodding.

”Yeah. I think we should.”

Nala chirped from nearby.

Victor turned toward her and laughed.

”Of course I’m not leaving you behind, Nala.”

Nala chirped again, apparently satisfied with the answer.

Lyra stood and picked up her necklace.

The moment she put it on, her ears and tail disappeared.

The dissatisfaction on her face was immediate.

Victor smiled but wisely kept his mouth shut.

They gathered their things and were just about ready to leave when Lyra looked toward him.

”So you really think your classmate Grace is the Space Witch?”

Victor nodded.

”I’m almost positive.”

Lyra raised an eyebrow.

”That sure?”

”There’s just too many similarities.”

Victor thought back to what had happened.

”But I don’t know what we should do with that information yet.”

His expression became more serious.

”If Grace really is Space Witch, then she’s connected to Elder Benton.”

Lyra nodded.

”And there’s something else,” Victor continued. ”The symbol on Space Witch’s back.”

”The alchemical flask?”

”Yeah.”

Victor had been thinking about that constantly.

”If Grace is Space Witch, then Grace has Samal’s symbol tattooed across her back.”

That was the part he couldn’t ignore.

”We already know she’s connected to Benton. So if she’s also connected to Samal somehow, then Benton might be too.”

Lyra listened quietly.

”Rakasha told me before we left that I needed to look for people who still followed Samal.”

Victor leaned back slightly.

”So I’m starting to wonder if Benton and his group are the people she was talking about.”

Lyra nodded.

”Yeah, I agree. It definitely sounds like they could be on our side.”

”Maybe.”

Victor wasn’t ready to go that far yet.

”I still don’t want to trust them completely. We don’t know enough.”

There were too many secrets involved.

Any one of them falling into the wrong hands could become a disaster.

Victor couldn’t afford to make a mistake.

Lyra looked at him for a moment.

Then she smiled.

”Well, you know you can trust me.”

Victor laughed.

”I know.”

The answer came without hesitation.

He stood.

”Come on.”

Lyra followed him toward the door while Nala flew onto Victor’s shoulder.

They’d spent five days chasing disappearances throughout the Tower and barely made a dent.

It was time to try something different.

The three of them left the apartment and headed toward Basement Level Five.