Chapter 22: Riina family [1]

Heavy rain poured outside the Appetite of Heavens, washing the blood from the pavement as sirens echoed through the streets of Nova City.

Police vehicles surrounded the building, their flashing lights illuminating the rain-soaked streets. Behind the barricades, reporters struggled to capture footage of the scene while armed Awakeners stood ready to enter the restaurant.

Then, a scream came from inside.

"WE NEED MEDICAL ASSISTANCE! THERE ARE WOUNDED PEOPLE IN HERE!"

The voice came through a police officer’s radio.

"Move! Move! Get the medical teams inside!" the commanding officer shouted.

Several paramedics rushed toward the entrance, carrying stretchers and medical supplies. Behind them, Awakeners from the World Government’s special forces entered the building with their weapons raised, searching for any remaining threats.

They had expected to find a massacre.

They hadn’t expected what awaited them in the main dining hall.

Eight terrorists lay dead.

The hostages were alive, but most were too terrified to speak. Some were crying, others were tending to the wounded, and a few sat motionless, staring at the bloodstained floor.

Then the special forces discovered the terrorist leader.

Or what remained of him.

"What the hell happened here?" one of the officers muttered.

Their team leader, a tall man with a scar running across his cheek, remained silent for several seconds.

He was Marcus Scout, an A-ranked Awakener and an A Master.

He had seen plenty of gruesome sights throughout his career.

But this was different.

The man on the floor had been deliberately mutilated. The cuts were precise, almost identical on both sides of his body, as though whoever had done this had followed a specific pattern.

"Captain!"

One of his subordinates called out from the other side of the hall.

"We found a survivor who witnessed the incident!"

Marcus approached a young woman sitting against the wall. Her face was pale, and she was trembling so badly that she struggled to hold the blanket a paramedic had given her.

"Miss, I’m Captain Marcus. You’re safe now." He crouched in front of her. "Can you tell me what happened?"

The woman stared at him.

Then her eyes shifted toward the entrance.

"He..." Her lips trembled. "He killed them."

"Who did?"

She didn’t answer. Instead, she slowly raised her hand and pointed toward the other side of the hall.

Marcus followed her gesture and spotted a young man hugging a woman.

From a distance, it could have been mistaken for a young man comforting his injured girlfriend after a terrifying ordeal.

But as Marcus looked closer, he noticed something strange.

The young man was covered in blood.

His clothes were torn, and several injuries were visible on his arms and legs. Despite his condition, he stood perfectly still, holding the woman as though he had no intention of letting her go.

The woman, however, wasn’t hugging him back.

Her arms hung stiffly at her sides, and her face was turned away from his chest. Even from a distance, Marcus could see the fear in her eyes.

She wasn’t relieved.

She was terrified of the man holding her.

"Captain, should we approach them?" one of his subordinates asked.

Marcus didn’t answer immediately.

His gaze shifted toward the mutilated corpse before returning to the young man.

Eight dead terrorists. A dozen bullet casings scattered across the dining hall. Several injured hostages. And a terrorist leader who had been tortured with such disturbing precision that Marcus couldn’t help wondering what kind of person could do something like that.

The young man was clearly responsible for the deaths, but whether he had acted in self-defense or gone beyond what was necessary remained unclear.

Something isn’t right about him. I need to find out what happened.

Marcus gave his officers a signal.

Immediately, they turned their weapons toward Lorenzo and Sofia. It was standard procedure when approaching an unknown combatant covered in blood, especially one standing beside a mutilated corpse.

At that moment, a woman stepped forward with her daughter and positioned herself between the officers and Lorenzo.

"Don’t!" Her voice was sharp and protective. "He was the one who saved us. He took them all out alone!"

The officers hesitated.

Marcus looked at the woman.

"...We can see that." His voice was gravelly. "But the way he handled it..."

At those words, several hostages flinched.

Marcus noticed their reactions. Whatever had happened in the dining hall, the young man’s actions had left some of the survivors just as frightened as the terrorists had.

He turned toward Lorenzo.

"Step back, young man. We have a few questions to ask you. Come with us—"

"My Young Master isn’t going anywhere else..."

The voice came from nowhere and everywhere at once.

WHOOSH!

Salvatore suddenly appeared between Lorenzo and Marcus. Nobody had seen him enter or tracked his movement across the room.

One moment, the space had been empty.

The next, he was standing there, one hand resting gently on Marcus’s shoulder.

Marcus froze.

It wasn’t surprise that stopped him. The moment Salvatore touched his shoulder, every muscle in his body refused to respond. His mana wouldn’t mobilize, his legs wouldn’t move, and his breath caught in his throat.

What the hell? Why is Salvatore here?

Recognition struck him a moment later.

Salvatore... Aldric Riina’s right-hand man. One of the Overlord’s most trusted subordinates.

Marcus’s eyes widened slightly.

He glanced at Lorenzo, who was still holding the woman without showing the slightest concern for the armed officers surrounding him.

Then the pieces began falling into place.

Don’t tell me...

Sweat beaded at Marcus’s temples.

Behind him, the other security personnel raised their weapons toward the man who had suddenly appeared.

No! Don’t raise your weapons at him!

CLANK—!

SWOOSH—!

SWISH—!

Before Marcus could give the order to stand down, numerous individuals appeared throughout the dining hall, seemingly out of thin air.

They all wore black suits and carried weapons ranging from swords and spears to axes. Several were mages, already prepared to unleash their spells at a moment’s notice.

Marcus swept his gaze across them, his expression growing increasingly grim.

Every single one of them was at least an A-ranked Awakener, an A Master in their own right.

And Salvatore?

An S-ranked Awakener.

A Saint.

A chill ran down Marcus’s spine.

He had faced monsters capable of tearing apart entire buildings. He had fought criminals who could level streets with a single attack. Throughout his career, he had encountered countless dangerous individuals.

Yet, he had never found himself in a situation quite like this.

The sheer number of powerful Awakeners surrounding him was alarming enough. What made matters worse was their composure. None of them appeared particularly concerned about the government forces or the weapons pointed in their direction.

They weren’t acting like reinforcements arriving at a dangerous scene.

They were acting like they had already taken control of it.

And every single one of them wore a black suit.

The Riina family’s signature attire.

Marcus swallowed.

Damn it. Of all the people who could have been involved in this incident, why did it have to be the Riina family?