Vice opened his eyes in alarm when he felt a buzzing from within his spatial pouch. Frantically, he pushed his hand into the pouch by his side and removed a golden card within it, which was shining brightly. Wisps of arcana that could only be seen by a cultivator escaped the card, and Vice was able to hear Anne’s voice from within the card.

“Vice, pick up already, it’s really important,” Anne shouted.

“Hey, I’m awake, what’s going on, Anne? Are you out of breath?” Vice asked into the golden card. The card increased in size until it became bigger than his hand after he’d pushed his mana into it. Vice could see Anne through the card and noticed the dark circles under her yellow eyes.

“Come over to mine now, please, it’s easier if I explain it to you in person,” she replied before cutting the call.

Vice jumped off his bed and immediately left the villa. He darted through the dark streets of Restok, using his mana to augment his speed which turned him into a purple blur. He reached the front door of Anne’s home, panting heavily as he slumped forward with his arms placed on his thighs.

“I’m here. Can you tell me what’s going on, Anne?” Vice asked as he entered without knocking. A putrid smell entered his nostrils as he walked closer to Anne who had streaks of a black tar-like liquid on her red floral sundress. “What the hell is that smell? I can’t stand it.” Vice covered his nose and immediately walked out into the orchard. The fresh breeze that was filled with a sweet scent from the fruits helped to cleanse his nostrils, and he quickly plucked a few strawberries and threw them into his mouth. Vice then turned back around and walked into the house whilst covering his nose with a bandanna.

“I used my magic to track the arcana in the Black Water back to its source. It was weird. The person resembled you, a lot. I wasn’t sure if it was really you or not at first, but I noticed they were a woman, so it couldn’t have been you. The person had horns just like you, but with a different pattern, and eyes just like you as well. Except for that the person was too blurry and tried their best to cover their tracks,” Anne said.

“Whoa slow down, they looked like me?” Vice asked. He rubbed his chin for a while as he was deep in thought. ‘What do you think this means, Favian?’

‘No clue, it’s not my problem either. Just get powerful enough so that I can finally leave your damned body. I don’t wanna stay here forever you, know that, right?’ Favian replied.

‘You really are the worst sometimes,’ Vice thought and gave a long sigh. “Are you able to track where this person is right now?”

Anne shook her head before saying, “As of right now, no. I’m going to need a lot of resources that aren’t exactly cheap. I’m trying to find someone here who covered her tracks really well. I am certain the person knows that I’m looking for them as well, I just sense a creepy aura from them.”

“Shit. Well, I’ve got enough money for whatever resources you need. If they know you’re looking for them, I think it’s best if you stick with me for now. Over my dead body will something happen to you,” Vice said, clenching his fists hard until they turned white. He stared at Anne with resolve and said, “You’re staying close to me until we find this asshole, and I’m not taking no as an answer.”

“Oh, I-” Anne said as her face turned bright red. She then looked at herself in a mirror by the front door. “Shit, I’m messy right now. Wait here I’m going to take a shower.” She sprinted up her stairs.

Vice heard a loud thump from within the house and ran up the stairs. “What happened? Are you okay?” he shouted once he’d reached the top of the stairs.

“I- I’m fine, I just tripped, hahaha,” Anne replied, and continued her sprint without looking back at Vice.

‘What is wrong with her? Did her tracking spell hurt her or something?’ Vice thought to himself. ‘Did that person cast some sort of spell on her? This might be really bad. I’ll have to observe her properly.’

‘An actual idiot. My student is an actual idiot. At least he’s good at studying magic, or else I’d be doomed to die on this shit planet,’ Favian mumbled.

Vice ignored the voice of his teacher, and instead waited for Anne outside the house because he still was unable to stomach the stench inside the building. Instead of waiting idly by, he decided to meditate as he waited for Anne. About half an hour later she came downstairs.

Vice gaped at her in awe as she wore a skin-tight black leather dress along with black heels. Her black hair, that he presumed she’d just washed, glistened unnaturally in the moonlight, and for the first time Vice’s heart skipped a beat. His eyes were drawn to her lush pink lips.

“Is that lipstick?” Vice asked sheepishly as he stood up.

“Yeah, I’ve had it for ages but didn’t really feel like wearing it until now,” she replied. “Like it?”

“It looks good on you,” Vice said as he touched his own lips, circling around them for a moment.

“Oh, I- I’m glad you like it. So where are we going to go now?” Anne asked as she walked closer to Vice.

“Hmm, I rented out a villa in the city, so we should go there for--”

[DING! Tracking Initialized. Widow maker has been found, coordinates are being transferred to the host.] Virtue buzzed.

Vice fell onto his knees and clutched his head. The pain was as bad as the last time the system had transferred the live coordinates to him, however, it didn’t last as long. Vice was able to get back to his senses after a couple of seconds. He rubbed his temple in circular motions as the blue arrows began to form along the floor.

“Are you okay?” Anne asked as she rushed over to him. Her hair waved about with a mind of its own before falling in Vice’s face.

“It’s nothing, there’s something we need to sort out in the Gwabu area. You might want to tie your hair up, we’ve got a lot of running to do,” Vice said. He waited for Anne to quickly do as he asked, and took off, sprinting away into the night. The heads up display from his system displayed the directions he should take, and just like the last time he was able to take the shortest path to his destination.

Despite her small stature, Anne was able to keep up with Vice with ease and ran side by side with him. “What’s wrong in the Gwabu area? Isn’t that just a residential place where all the married couples live?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

“There’s something stalking the people there, it’s killing all of the married men. If we don’t get there quickly enough, another man will die tonight,” Vice replied hurriedly.

“Why haven’t you told Paul and the police force about this yet? And how did you know that we needed to leave?” Anne asked, but Vice simply ignored the questions and continued running at his fastest speed.

After about half an hour of running at their top speeds, Vice and Anne arrived at the Gwabu area. Despite running for such a long distance, neither person was tired or out of breath, shown by their calm breathing.

The residential district was deathly quiet, as they carefully jogged through it. ‘Something is not right,’ Vice thought. “This is too quiet, even at a time like this, there’ll always be a light on somewhere or maybe even some animal noises. Something is off here,” Vice said. He examined the area vigilantly, his eyes focusing on anything that seemed out of the ordinary.

“Vice, look at this,” Anne said in a shrill voice as she pointed to the ground where there was a small fork in the path they were on. A massive bloodied black spider leg was on the floor. A decapitated head was lying next to it, its eyes long having been gouged out and worms crawled through the sockets.

“This is too big for a spider leg. What is going on here?” Vice said quietly as he walked forward to the mess on the floor. As he got closer, the smell of rotten flesh entered his nostrils, however, he didn’t budge one bit because of it. The head on the floor looked to be that of man, but it was already decomposed beyond recognition. The only features that Vice could make out were the chiseled jawline of the individual.

‘Huh? What’s this?’ Vice thought as he saw a rather strange sigil on the wall behind the head. A rune in the shape of a twelve legged spider was glowing in a red light, taking up only a small portion of the wall.

“Hey, Anne, do you know what this is?” Vice asked as he touched the sigil.

“Shit, get your hand away from th-”

A blinding light engulfed the pair, followed by a crackling sound. Everything turned red.