They decided to split up for everyon to be able to investigate different areas of the building and find as many traces and clues as possible.
Ken's observation proved to be corret so far and only bodies of Garth could be found, of which many seemed to be left in the same spot for a longer period of time, while blood got so mixed up in many places to the point where it would not be possible to discern between human and demon blood without a proper equipment. This state of things made it impossible for them to perform any quick field analysis, thus they could not easily measure the flow of aura - a special energy every living being had.
In attempt to discover some hidden traces, Kenichiro tried to use his special skill, enhancing the sense of smell, but the only thing he achieved by doing so was making himself feel nauseous because of foul stench covering all the other smells. Before bringing his sense of smell back to normal, Ken already started coughing like crazy.
"Ken-chan, you okay?" Stella, who was investigating the closest area, approached him "Is everything alright?"
He waived his hand in a reply to show there is no problem.
"Don't worry, I'll be back on feet in a moment. This was not the best idea I had here, that's for sure."
His eyes' whites got reddish in a matter of seconds. Tears were flowing for a moment, but everything went back to normal once Kenichiro wiped them with his sleeve. Then, upon him raising head, captain of Echo V noticed a fist-size hole in the wall - he immediately recalled seeing a very similar trace just while back.
"Stella, have you seen a similar hole anywhere in this building?" he asked.
She first looked at him surprised to investigate the damaged wall afterwards.
"Hm, now that I'm looking at it" Stella touched the edges of the hole "it does kinda look similar. Why does it matter though?"
Ken moved forward, approaching the wall, and pointed at the lines covered with blood.
"Initially, I though these are just traces left due to fighting" he started explaining "but after looking at them from below, these look like connected lines shaped as some kind of web."
"Wait a minute" Stella suddenly understood what this was about "It was a barrier. Look, these symbols are from Garth's language. If it was that hunter who took care of this, he indeed knows his trade well. The guy destroyed a seal which was supposed to gather aura required for the ritual."
Shapes they found were combining into a complex web, covering the whole building. For sure, these were placed for gathering strong enough energy to begin a ritual involving magic manipulation - based on the knowledge Echo V member had, Garths were using this method for applying highly advanced mystic arts, where aura of a single individual was not sufficient to reach the desired result.
Even in the legends known to humans, there were stories of making sacrifices for gods or witches being known for using blood as the main resource in sorcery. It was all about the energy blood was carrying, reinforcing magic power of the person dealing in such arts.
In this place, a strong concentration of aura could still be felt even by those who were not sensitive to it, thus it was simply unimaginable for both Ken and Stella as to how it was before the seal was destroyed. That hunter must have felt that and reacted - it was impossible something of the sort could have been done accidentally.
Their suspicion was likely spot-on and demons very likely were aiming to forcefully create a portal - in other words, a passage through barrier separating the two worlds. In normal, natural conditions, such portals, often referred to as gates, could be found in places where barrier, commonly known as interworld, was much tinner and often damaged by natural phenomena emanating a strong energy - such passages could appear in areas affected by earthquakes.
Fortunately, from the perspective of keeping the balance between the worlds, such spots were appearing rarely, and the process itself could easily take hundreds of years, thus the natural gates were possible to be tracked and secured before a disaster happened, which could not be said about ruptures created by magical rituals - not only these required sacrifices to amass enough energy to open a path in any place, but were short-lived at the same time. The spot where these appear could only be found either during preparations or just after a ritual happened, so when the traces accompanying the aura surge were still present. Those who possessed strong enough aura could sense such surges simply by being in some proximity to the place.
"If it was indeed the case, we should be able to find a 'container' somewhere in the center of magic circle" Ken concluded "Kyoko, Ada" he then called other girls through personal communicator "These peculiar marks on the walls appear to be connectors of the seal. We noticed holes in the walls, which caused the connections to be broken. If our theory is correct, we should be able to track the location of the seal by finding a spot with the highest cummulation of the energy in the whole building."
"This whole building is moistened like some kind of a sponge" he heard Ada's voice "I don't thing it's going to be that easy to find the spot."
Captain of Echo V looked at his watch and cursed aloud.
"I'll speak with major, you continue looking" he instructed others.
Since investigation so far did not bring expected results, conversation with Serkas seemed to be the best way for reaching the source they wanted to find.
"Before cleaning was done, was there a spot inside the building with lots of corpses in one place?" he asked straightforwardly just for Albert Serkas to look at him narrowly "Or maybe somewhere nearby?" Ken quickly added a follow-up question as major's behavior threw him off.
"You found something?" Perseus' officer replied with a question of his own.
While captain of Echo V did not like such approach as the man showed, there was no room to cause a scene by arguing as it was almost dusk, thus he decided to ignore that rude behavior.
"Traces of preparations for ritual. A seal inside the building was destroyed for sure, but if what we think is true, we still need to make sure that aura inside was dispersed enough. There should be a "container" inside the seal, a spot where the main energy was gathered.
Serkas scratched his beard.
"You are talking about a spot with a pile of corpses" he appeared to be recalling something "We did have such one place."
"Where exactly?"
"In one of the old industrial tubs."
"How do I get there?"
"From the upper level, you need to use a maintenance elevator to reach he spot."
Ken was ready to go and turned away immediately.
"Hold on a sec there" major stopped him "What's more important for this energy gathering? A sport where corpses were stored or just corpses?"
Captain of Echo V stopped in his tracks and turned back to the man.
"What do you mean? Weren't the corpses already taken care of?"
"That's why I'm asking you here. All the corpses of people were moved to the old warehouse to be prepared for burials. Other creatures remains are only to be disposed of on a later date."
Kenichiro quickly contacted others from his group.
"Stella, come outside, you will go with me" he ordered "Kyoko, Ada, you will go to one of the industrial tubs. Sending the coordinates your way now."
Warehouse the guy from Perseus mentioned was found by Ken and Stella about three hundred meters from the building they were originally supposed to investiage. Here, there were definitely less soldiers present, but - at the same time - they noticed some fresh traces in this area, which was disturbing. Of course, the blood already sunk into the ground, though auras were not as mixed as in the previous building, thus it was much easier to identify the seal's layout from the get-go.
Being in an open area, Ken used his enhanced sense of smell. This time, nothing caused him to feel bad, though he picked up a familiar smell. Led by this smell, he was checking traces of blood and cuts visible on the bodies.
As Kenichiro was walking, getting to some conclusions by investigating the traces, he heard Stella's voice through his communicator and noticed as she was waving at him. Once he got to her and looked at her finding, captain of Echo V became speechless. A body of some Garth was there, on the ground, and it would have been nothing out of ordinary if i ws not for a characteristic armor that demon was wearing - powerful and definitely expensive.
"Looking at the armor, this was not a regular soldier" Stella concluded as she already managed to have a good look at this dead Garth "That one looks strong and yet someone..."
"... was stronger than him" Ken finished what she was about to say "Someone like that would have been useful for Shadows."
He took a moment to check the wounds of dead demon in complete silence. Attack impetus must have been extremely strong for a blade to pierce such armor, while the finishing blow was precisely aimed. In his entire life, he has seen something similar maybe twice.
"... is alright. Energy dispersed, density within norms. Ken, can you hear me? Ken?"
Ada's voice forced him out of his thoughts.
"That's great" he replied "That plant is clear then. Go out and head towards the warehouse."
Alongside Stella, they passed by the guards and entered the warehouse full of policemen. Inside, they could feel noticeably denser aura.
"Let's check if there are any traces of magic in hear. Look for any seal markings."
Warehouse was a tall building with a simple form without any levels and having only one, vast room where officials were placing the corpses next to each other. With a short look, there were about one hundred bodies gathered in one place.
While there was no seal, thus it did not seem any circle was placed in the warehouse, the sole density of the aura made Ken uneasy, therefore he reached to one of his pockets and took out a small silver plaque.
"It doesn't feel that safe, right?" Stella reacted and moved few steps behind him.
Captain of Echo V took a deep breath and chanted secret words in Garths' language - the plaque's color changed to red first before becoming completely black.
Moment later, Kyoko and Ada joined them, looking around and Kyoko immediately noticed what Ken was holding in his hand.
"Who would have thought people from great Perseus could make such a newbie mistake" she commented "All the effort that hunter made to clear the place would have been all for naught. I wonder if they are that unaware of freed aura running amok."
Kenichiro shrugged.
"I can't really say what's their deal, but there is a bit I will tell guys in charge here."
"Well, at least we did a bit of sightseeing and learned about the nearby area to some extent" Kyoko summed up "Whatever Perseus and policemen messed up here, the guy who took care of these demons must have been a hell of a beast himself."
"And I wonder whose great idea this warehouse was" Ken spoke to her "These guys do need some talking, both Perseus major and director. I'm going to call this Markowski's office."
Secretary picked up and connected him to her boss after short verification. Kenichiro referred all the details to the man, suggesting they better demolish the building sooner than later and that there was no longer any immediate danger of a gate appearing in the area. Afterwards, Markowski's secretary provided details on the man, who was a proxy for hiring the mysterious hunter.