Amid Christopher's agonized screams, Isaac turned his attention to the young detective behind him.
"Hréoda!" A shock wave burst forth.
Charles barely managed to dodge, but before he could regain his balance, Isaac appeared in front of him. He kicked Charles in the midsection, sending him crashing into the wall, while simultaneously producing chains. He hurled them at the wall.
One end of the chains passed through the wall as if they were one and the same, leaving only two shackle rings hanging down. Isaac then seized both of Charles's wrists, locking them into the shackles immediately. Every action from beginning to end was performed with incredible speed and skill.
"Please stay still for now."
The pendulum clock chimed again. Isaac turned sharply toward the sound.
"Hréoda!" The incantation was spoken, this time targeting the pendulum clock in the corner.
The clock exploded into pieces, with wood fragments and mechanical parts scattering everywhere. The once-imposing timepiece was now reduced to worthless debris.
"Annoying."
He then turned his attention back to Christopher, who lay moaning with a weak and hoarse voice. Isaac flicked his hand, producing another large piece of oil-soaked curtain. He draped it over the body of the man he despised most in life, careful not to let the fabric touch the flames already engulfing Christopher's legs.
"Nur Kalla!"
Flames erupted across Christopher's body. His hoarse screams rose again in excruciating agony as fire slowly consumed his flesh. Strangely, the fire didn't spread to the desk or surrounding objects—it burned only Christopher's body.
Isaac looked away from the burning form and began systematically searching the room. He moved with expertise, as if he knew exactly what he was looking for and where it might be hidden.
Charles, chained to the wall, watched Isaac's actions with curiosity despite his dire situation.
"What are you doing?"
There was no response. Isaac continued his methodical search, ignoring Charles's question. Christopher's screams gradually grew quieter until they became faint moans.
Charles tried to engage in conversation, hoping to stall until someone might notice something unusual. Though he knew it was a faint hope, he had to try.
"How long have you been planning this? Since the forest? The explosion at the reception? Or since Roland's death?"
This time Isaac paused briefly as he searched a drawer, before pretending not to care and continuing his task. Charles knew he had touched on something important.
"You killed Roland, didn't you?" Charles pressed, his voice growing more confident. "That must be when it all started... If it had been earlier, what benefit would you have gained by letting Roland and Michael be hunted by the Script-Decipherers? What would you have gained by letting the Script-Decipherers be destroyed by the special uni—"
Charles suddenly stopped, his eyes widening as a realization struck him—something connecting everything together.
"Unless..." he muttered, his voice barely audible but filled with dawning comprehension.
Isaac abandoned his search and turned to Charles with interest. "Seems like you've figured something out... let's hear it."
When Charles remained silent, Isaac spoke in a cold tone, "Will you speak willingly, or shall I force those words from your mouth?"
Charles swallowed before beginning. "Your plan must have started from the very beginning... You leaked information to the Script-Decipherers back then. But an organization like that, priding itself on secrecy, wouldn't trust just anyone easily. So you must have been connected to them somehow..."
"But that's not important, because ultimately you betrayed them anyway. Your goal was to redirect most of the special unit's personnel away from headquarters, focusing their efforts on attacking the Script-Decipherers..."
Isaac listened with interest as Charles continued, "With most forces away from headquarters, you had the opportunity to infiltrate... Your purpose was likely to steal certain items, such as equipment and special drugs, like the sedative you used in the forest or on that woman..."
Charles glanced at Fiona's unconscious form. "After the Script-Decipherers were suppressed, there were reports of missing special drugs and raw materials with no withdrawal records... You must have stolen them because you weren't an officially recognized Ascendant and weren't issued sedatives..." He paused. "And if I had to guess... you already knew the formula to produce the sedative."
Having heard this, Isaac couldn't help but express admiration. "Impressive deduction."
"You planned everything meticulously, but there was still something that didn't go according to plan," Charles stated.
"And what was that?" Isaac asked.
"Me."
"You guessed right. Yes, you were the variable that disrupted things. Your previous case, the one you solved, caused the City Guard to swarm around the orphanage, near the Script-Decipherers' hideout... Even so, it was still within manageable limits, and the plan could proceed," Isaac admitted.
"Then that explains another mystery," Charles said.
"What's that?"
"When I went back to Michael's family, a member of the Script-Decipherers tried to abduct me. That's what I've been wondering about all along."
"A secret organization that had just relocated their hideout because the City Guard was merely patrolling nearby—an organization that cautious—even if their subordinates weren't particularly bright, their leader should have been quite paranoid. They should have instructed their members to be careful with every action."
"But that man rushed to capture me, even though it was obvious I was connected to the special unit. Since returning from Old Town when I first went looking for Michael, even without specific information, the connection should have been apparent. Logically, he shouldn't have acted because it was too risky. But he did."
"So I realized it didn't make sense," Charles continued. "I began to think that man's actions must have been secretly influenced by some factor. When I became an Ascendant, I became even more suspicious. In the final moments when that man tried to escape, those two arrows shouldn't have harmed him—they should have passed through him like your power allows. But instead, they injured him."
Charles narrowed his eyes at Isaac. "Those powers were similar to yours, though seemingly weaker. But from what I've observed, your type of power shouldn't be able to interfere with his... unless special equipment or cursed objects were used, or he wasn't acting alone..."
Isaac remained silent, neither denying nor confirming Charles's theory. But to Charles, this silence leaned more toward a "yes" than anything else.
Charles felt he was getting closer to the truth.
Isaac stepped closer to Charles. "Continue," he said with interest.
"After the confrontation between the special unit and the Script-Decipherers ended, you began the next phase of your plan, at the reception that night..."
"Your power, Isaac... one of them must be the ability to teleport wherever you wish. Henry was probably implanted with the parasite when he went to the bathroom during the reception."
Charles pondered for a moment. "There were two reasons for acting then: one was revenge, and the other was to use Henry as a tool to kill Christopher by implanting him with a parasite. But the plan failed... or maybe it half-failed, since Henry was already affected by that parasite."
"After that night, you dealt with Roland next," Charles concluded.
Isaac shook his head. "You're wrong about this, detective. I didn't kill Roland."
Charles paused briefly before murmuring, "Then... Christopher did it?"
Isaac nodded. Charles continued his analysis, "So Roland was silenced. But how could he manage it? After the incident at the reception, he should have been under close surveillance by the special unit. Any actions or communications would have been monitored. If anything suspicious occurred, the special unit wouldn't have overlooked it... unless..."
Charles's eyes widened with realization. "The body-splitting potion! So, to be precise, the person who killed Roland was another Christopher—a split form created by the special potion."
"Correct," Isaac confirmed. "So Roland's death had nothing to do with me."
"But Michael's certainly did. You killed him in the forest, hid his body, then embedded yourself into my body," Charles analyzed. "Christopher's position gives him considerable power. Having informants would be normal. By then, the temple research facility had been burned down. I, having broken in, would naturally be the most suspicious person."
"Upon returning to the capital, he would inevitably send someone to intercept me and question me about Michael's whereabouts—either asking nicely or using force if necessary. That gave you, hiding inside me, the opportunity to reach your target. And so events unfolded until now."
"Slightly off," Isaac corrected. "To be precise, I deliberately spared Christopher's men in that forest so they could report back."
As he finished speaking, he triggered some mechanism, revealing an insertion slot shaped like a ring head in the wall behind them.