Extra Pages: The Author's Odyssey
Chapter 189: Phyacopatha Killer

Lucas, feeling a knot in his stomach, observed the surroundings. The shadows seemed to hold echoes of the violence that unfolded, and he couldn't help but recall the enigmatic nature of shadow magic.

Sia approached one of the fallen monsters, examining it closely. Her expression darkened as she observed peculiar wounds and markings.

"This wasn't a typical brawl. There's a method to this madness," Sia remarked, her voice cutting through the heavy silence.

Turning around Sia walked towards Lucas and said "Lucas wait here I will come back in a few seconds." Lucas just nodded with a blank expression.

Sua doesn't say else, this is the cold reality that is hidden from society. She just walked toward the entrance of the door leaving Lucas standing there.

With a gloomy expression on his face, Lucas was looking at the bodies.

There were more than a dozen of them, all broken and disfigured as if chewed and spewed out by a tornado. But of course, a natural disaster had nothing to do with what had happened in the seedy club. The result only looked like it.

This was the work of a Hero who turned into a psychopath.

A psychopath who needed to be dead or else he would continue his frenzy of killing.

After all, the results were in front of Lucas.

It left a deep impression even on him, though.

Lucas didn't have to look too closely to realize what had transpired. The position of the bodies, the nature of their wounds… the murderer had not used some powerful weapon on these people. No, it was much simpler.

He just did it with his hands.

'That bastard…'

Lucas couldn't shake the grim reality of the scene before him. The brutality inflicted by the psychopathic Hero-turned-villain was evident in the gruesome display. The thought that someone who once fought for justice had become the perpetrator of such carnage weighed heavily on Lucas's mind.

As he stood amidst the aftermath, contemplating the depths of human darkness, Sia returned with Hero police with a stern expression.

"No usable recordings left. Figures… places like this one only exist because they value the privacy of their clients. And the few cameras they did have show nothing but darkness."

Lucas looked at her, then sighed:

"Not much to tell from the victims, too. The murderer just used their fists."

Sia remained silent for a moment, then she turned to the Hero police officer and asked:

"Any survivors? Do we have witnesses?"

He hesitated for a bit, then gave her a strange look.

"That… yes, actually, there are a few. But…"

The officer didn't finish the sentence and just stared at them with an uneasy expression.

Lucas raised an eyebrow.

"But what? Is something wrong with them?"

The Hero policeman shook his head slowly.

"No, they're not refusing. They just… I don't know, something is wrong with them. They just don't speak, or even react really. They just air in the air without any response. Honestly, we don't know what to do with them, It gives a chill down my spine."

Sia was silent for a moment and then said:

"Is that so? Then lead the way. I will see myself as what's wrong with them."

The officer sighed, then escorted them to the back of the club, where an inconspicuous door led to the service rooms.

There were five of them, all sharing the same blank, strangely peaceful expression on their faces. They were completely silent, motionless, and still. They did not react to the arrival of new people at all.

Their eyes were calm and empty.

Lucas paled.

'How… how is this possible?'

It only took him a second to recognize what was wrong with the survivors, of course.

They weren't survivors at all. These people were dead.

The realization hit Lucas like a wave of icy dread. These supposed survivors were lifeless, yet their eyes held an eerie calmness, devoid of the vitality one would expect from living beings. The atmosphere in the room grew heavier as Sia and Lucas exchanged uneasy glances.

Sia's voice broke the silence, though it seemed to carry a weight of concern, "This... this isn't the work of a typical psychopath. There's something more sinister at play here."

The Hero police officer stammered, "We... we checked their pulses, ma'am. They're alive, but it's like they're in some sort of trance."

Lucas felt a chill running down his spine. The macabre scene unfolded before them, blurring the lines between life and death.

Sia, ever composed, examined one of the motionless figures. Her gloved fingers lightly touched the woman's wrist, seeking signs of life. After a moment, she looked up, her expression unreadable.

"I've encountered something like this before. It's a manipulation of the mind, a dark form of control."

Lucas couldn't hide the concern in his voice, "Can they be saved?"

Sia sighed, "It depends on the depth of the manipulation. We need to replace the source, the one responsible for this."

The officer led them back to the main area of the club, and Sia scanned the surroundings, her eyes narrowing as if honing in on an unseen threat.

"I sense a dark presence," she muttered, more to herself than to Lucas. "Stay close, Lucas. This isn't just a mission to apprehend a killer. It's a battle against a force that twists the very fabric of reality."

As they delved deeper into the club, shadows clung to the corners, seemingly alive with malevolence. The air grew thick with otherworldly energy, and Lucas couldn't shake the feeling that they were stepping into a realm where heroes and villains were mere pawns.

Suddenly, a voice echoed through the darkness, chilling and distorted, "Welcome, Sia Talen. You dare tread in my domain."

The villain responsible for the chaos emerged from the shadows, a figure draped in darkness, his eyes gleaming with a malevolent glow.

Sia tightened her grip on her weapon, ready for the confrontation. The battle against a psychopathic Hero had evolved into a confrontation with a force that defied the boundaries of the known.