Technically, nothing had happened that would have forced Kaden to switch to his backup plans. Things just got… messy.

For a moment Kaden thought of simply incinerating everything, just in case, but he kind of wanted Erral to be found. That would cut search soonest around the matters he didn’t want people to be searching at. That is, if he didn’t leave any evidence.

Kaden looked around at the destruction. He had avoided using his talons on Erral. The body itself, while mangled after blowing up slightly, was still perfectly recognizable and all sorts of wounds could be seen. Kaden had relied mostly on Vengeance and how it weakened Erral.

“I wonder, if I accidentally left some evidence”, Kaden muttered to himself. Then he cursed and realized he probably couldn’t stay there for long.

The formations providing defense were still functioning. Nothing was visible outside. No one should come anytime soon. Yet, to take enough time to ensure no evidence was left, it would have him be gone for too long.

Any mana minor signatures he might have left, were like obscured by whatever burst out from Erral when he tried to explode. As for vengeance mana, that was acceptable. Erral’s body should be filled with it.

“I’ll have to trust nothing can be found”, Kaden decided. He still looked around for anything obvious. He did collect some things away just in case.

Then the next move was to stash away the bloody clothes he was wearing and incinerate them at later time. Kaden sometimes damaged his clothes with his talons and, if he had to fight, he was usually at the close range. This is why he carried with him some replacements. What he lacked was ability to wash himself, but he hoped a cloak and quickly returning to home would solve that.

“That shouldn’t be wasting too much time”, Kaden continued thinking. “If all had gone as planned, I could act immediately, but I need to clean up. I cannot appear covered in blood.”

Kaden reconsidered burning the place again. He was not sure what was worse, having the mess that would be eventually found or that the inquisitor kept up search for Erral and chance they run into some critical lead back himself.

Also, how long would they investigate who killed Erral? That would have come up eventually anyway and Kaden was not concerned of that much.

“Gah… I need to refine my methods in the future!” Kaden finally cursed to himself.

Eventually Kaden decided not to burn everything. He trusted his own ability to kill people without being discovered.

He closed the door behind him and looked back. Indeed, from outside everything looked exactly the same as before.

“I wonder who owns this place once that is investigated”, Kaden thought to himself as he discreetly left. “Hiding a fugitive is pretty illegal. If its Nelsen, I might get looked at too, but I doubt he was that stupid.”

Kaden lameted that in so many ways murder was easy and yet so difficult. Sidon had been easy. That had gone cleanly, but Erral? So many paths of possible investigation that could lead back. Still, Kaden didn’t regret anything. This had been the best possible chance. Kaden repeated that to himself a few times.

As for how to proceed. After taking a few detours and getting back home, Kaden destroyed all the things he had that could be considered evidence and cleaned all the blood away.

His visits to Erral had been relatively regular. Kaden wanted to inform Nelsen of Erral’s ‘unfortunate’ passing as quickly as possible. He didn’t want it to take too long and cause any questions why he had waited so long to notify him.

Kaden expected Nelsen to let matters continue naturally from that point onwards. Nelsen should have no problems about informing the inquisitor about it due to wanting to have Erral’s killer found.

This is why Kaden was somewhat concerned about that evidence. If none were found, there wouldn’t be much for the inquisitor to keep looking for and the search would end. At that point Kaden was pretty sure most, if not all, loose ends would be tied up or forgotten.

Once done with everything, Kaden made his way back out. Nelsen would surely come once he was informed and it would be odd to not be waiting for him. All had to look authentic!

After he got back to the hideout Kaden carefully broke formation that protected the door so that it could be opened from outside. Then he took out his phone and called Nelsen.

“Nelsen, something has happened”, Kaden said as soon as Nelsen answered.

“What is it?” Nelsen asked.

“Erral is dead”, Kaden said while trying to sound as serious as possible.

“WHAT?!” Nelsen shouted.

“I came to deliver the usual supplies, but Erral did not come open the door as usual”, Kaden told Nelsen. “I forced my way inside and it seems there was a fight. Its a mess.”

Nelsen was silent for a while, but then simply gave Kaden a short answer. “I will come there.”

“Now things should move to conclusion”, Kaden thought to himself after he put away his phone.

Kaden wanted to laugh a bit, but held himself back. He did not wish to celebrate too early. “Calm! Yes, that is what I need now. I must seem solemn now that Erral is dead.”

While Kaden trusted his ability to lie, acting was a bit another thing. He still thought it should be fine.

As expected, Nelsen appeared relatively quickly.

“The door is unlocked”, Kaden told Nelsen. “Everything is still as I found it.”

Nelsen didn’t say anything and went inside.

Kaden followed after a bit of time. He wanted to see, if Nelsen noticed anything. Perhaps if there really was something to find and Nelsen did find it, Kaden could also kill Nelsen. Obstacles had to be removed after all.

It didn’t seem like Nelsen had found anything. He was merely standing next to Erral’s corpse.

“I’ll find the culprit for you, Erral”, Nelsen muttered. “Rest in the afterlife.”

“That might be bad”, Kaden thought to himself. “He seems more determined than I expected. Yet, if nothing points me, its fine. Nelsen can investigate nothing, for all I care. As for Erral, I wonder what made it to afterlife. Haha, perhaps it was just a shredded broken soul, if it made there after all.”

Kaden watched silently a bit more, but then broke the silence.

“So… what do we do now?” Kaden asked.

Nelsen looked at Kaden in the eyes for a moment. “We will report this”, Nelsen said finally. “While this place was arranged by me quite a while ago, it has not belonged to either of us, at least not officially. We will tell that I started to investigate places like these just in case and found him.”

Just as Kaden had expected! Nelsen would not hide it!

“And we just happened to find Erral just shortly after he died?” Kaden said. Never agree to things immediately! It could seem odd.

“Well, I’m not letting him rot here for a while just to hide our involvement”, Nelsen replied. “He deserves better.”

This was fine enough to Kaden. Good excuse would be that Nelsen merely happened to think of same thing as whoever killed Erral. Perhaps the inquisitor would look oddly at it, but then again, most of the things regarding this entire fiasco was odd right from the beginning. Cultists. High profile leader. Bombing. Demon that acted unusual ways. One more thing wouldn’t change anything.

Kaden watched as Nelsen called and revealed the location.

Very soon approaching soldiers could be heard coming closer. Soon after they appeared from the nearby streets. Among them were the inquisitor, Weils, and also some of the higher officers.

Nelsen walked forward to meet them and the inquisitor similarly walked forward to meet with him.

Weils gave some orders to the soldiers and told them to go check the house and then he started talking with Nelsen.

“I was under impression you did not wish to take part in the investigation?” Weils started. “Yet, here you are with corpse of Erral in a pretty good hiding place.”

“What can I say, I changed my mind and wanted to find my friend and get to the bottom of this all”, Nelsen answered. “I wanted to hear the answer from himself, but...” Nelsen sighed. “He died before I could ask him.”

Weils was nodding with a smile. Kaden was pretty sure he knew what Nelsen said was bullshit, but it was acceptably good grade bullshit. By this time some of the soldiers came out and confirmed Erral’s death to Weils.

“You don’t happen to have any idea how exactly Erral died?” Weils asked.

“None”, Nelsen answered. “I merely followed a lead with one of my underlings. I would guess someone got to him before we did.”

Weils gave a look at Kaden and frowned, but then concentrated back at Nelsen. “Come inside, since you are here. I’ll have more questions. To both of you.”

Nelsen nodded and Kaden followed right behind him back into the hideout. Once inside, Weils looked around.

“Its a failed self destruction”, Weils said as he examined Erral’s corpse and then looked around. “No sign of any heresy. Nothing pointing to worship of God of Lies.”

“I’m still certain he was framed”, Nelsen added.

“Whether or not that is the case, there is a lot of evidence”, Weils said and then gave another look at Erral. “Though, I guess there is someone with a motive. Even if he is partially blown up, there is a pretty interesting wound on him.” Weils moved closer and poked Erral with his finger right at the place where Vengeance had hit. “This would be vengeance mana. How quaint.”

“I did notice it too”, Nelsen continued and nodded. “Clearly this all could be arranged by someone.”

“A lunatic that uses vengeance mana will eventually appear”, Weils said and seemed to forget about Erral’s body as he looked elsewhere. “City guard and military will be notified of it. If Erral was the last target, then the matter is solved. If there are more, then they will hear about it eventually. As it happens, this person likely has very little to do with the church and thus does not require my interference.”

Nelsen gritted his teeth. “Are you saying you will let the culprit simply go?”

“My work is done”, Weils said calmly. “The demon is banished. Cultists have been routed. Whether or not Erral had anything to do with them, no longer matters. A murderer with vengeance mana is not my concern. In fact, I will be well rewarded after I report back. This was a major operation and we got rid of cultists staining the city. If you wish to continue investigating this matter, you must coordinate with military and city guards.”

Kaden watched it all. “Haha, thats what servants of gods are like, Nelsen”, Kaden laughed in his mind. “They serve only gods and themselves. No trust should be placed on them!”

“Indeed, as it happens I have other work to do”, Weils continued. “It is my job to ensure no heresy exists within the Holy Saint Empire and that the true gods will shall be done. Keeping that in mind, there are some things I have to do. You interfered with the investigation on your own without informing me. This won’t look good on your record, Captain Nelsen.” Then he also gave a look at Kaden. “Nor your subordinates who likely only loyally followed your orders. This is a lesser offense, but one that can be perhaps repaid.”

Kaden frowned.

“What do you mean?” Nelsen asked.

“Military will deal with your punishment”, Weils said and looked at Kaden. “As for your subordinate… such unique person might actually be useful in something I have been tasked to look at.”

What was the inquisitor planning?

“I’ll have to examine your devotion”, Weils said and pulled out some kind of item. “I have never seen someone so mutated and yet functional. Perhaps it is god’s blessing or perhaps … a heresy?”

Kaden roughly now knew what the inquisitor meant. They have ways of checking which god’s influence a person has on them. That is to say, which gods they worship. Even ‘wrong’ ones, with perhaps exception of God of Lies, which is is slightly harder to detect.”

When was the last time Kaden worshipped a god?