Supreme Magus novel Chapter 434

"I resent the use of the ’disappear’ term." Manohar said with an indignant tone.

"I don’t run away like a spoiled brat, I simply seek the isolation a complex matter like my endless research requires."

"You are a spoiled brat." Jirni replied as she opened the cuffs. Manohar had the habit of gesturing like a hysterical bird while he talked, almost dislocating her shoulder in result.

"Without constant supervision, you’d break more laws in a week than a serial killer in their whole life. You never fill your paperwork and neglect your students to pursue your own agenda."

Manohar wanted to reply, but Jirni scared him. He decided that shutting up and hiding behind Lith was in his best interest.

"I know you said that you’re a fan of my work, but this is more like stalking." Lith said while giving Jirni a bow.

"Don’t flatter yourself, kid. This time I’m here for him." She laughed at the joke while pointing at Manohar.

"Once you geniuses find some answers, it will be my job to decide how to continue the investigation. From now on, you all work for me. Mage Felhorn, explain to us what’s really happening in Othre."

"Gladly." Dorian stepped in the middle of the room and took a deep breath to calm himself. Death and madness plagued the room, making it hard for him to decide if to find more unsettling the corpses or the living.

Aside from the two young women, he had the impression to be the only human in the room.

"It all started a couple of months ago, when the first caravans arrived to exchange goods for food and vice versa. At first, the crime rate spiked. It’s nothing alarming since Othre’s population doubles until winter ends.

"Then, things escalated from the usual routine to crimes of magical nature. People with little or no magical talent turned into powerful mages and settled old scores the worst possible way." He pointed at the corpses on the metal scaffolds.

"The phenomenon started from the outer rim and slowly spread to the whole city. The only thing we know is that receiving those powers is a double edged sword. It makes their wielder very dangerous, but in exchange, they die when struck by a spell.

"No matter the element employed, a tier one spell is enough to kill them. While we were still trying to sort things up, our analysts reported that the number of missing persons had spiked as well.

"It took us a while to notice because most of the victims were foreigners. Once it started to happen in the inner rims of the city too, the missing person reports led us to discover that the situation was even worse than we suspected.

"People come into Othre every day. We don’t know if we are looking for dozens or hundreds of kidnappings." Dorian was crestfallen noticing the lack of reactions in the room.

Tista’s and Kamila’s were genuinely worried, but the others seemed bored as if he had been talking about his vacations.

"We have been able to cover up both these issues and prevent panic from spreading, until these things started to appear." He moved near the stretcher and pulled away the blanket hiding its content.

It was a corpse, but unlike the others on the scaffolds, it was completely dried up. The eye sockets were empty, the nose was replaced by two small holes in the skull, and the skin was so stretched that the mouth was deformed into a crazed smile.

"Unlike the other anomalies, this phenomenon appeared at the same time in all the rims. Also, in some cases we have witnesses, so at least we know what happened even though we have no idea of how or why.