Chapter 14
It wasn't too hard for Ryder to find his way home. With his extraordinary jumps, he got to his village faster than he would have imagined.
Each leap carried him dozens of meters through the air, his enhanced body moving with a swiftness that would have amazed him if only the circumstances was different.
But now, all he could think about was the smoking ruins of the FSG base behind him and Lucian's accusing scream.
Upon reaching the village, he sighed and relaxed his shoulders while lazily walking through the bushy path.
He wasn't tired physically—his enhanced stamina meant he could probably run for hours without breaking a sweat—but he was mentally exhausted in a way that went beyond ordinary fatigue.
He was overthinking once again, like in the past, whenever he got into a mess. But this wasn't just some minor failed exam or something along those lines, this was something that would most likely ruin his life.
The explosion at the FSG base would have consequences, and he knew it. The government wouldn't just let this slide, especially not when their most advanced facilities within the FSG base had been reduced to smoking rubble.
Ryder could tell he was just minutes away from home when a sudden scent flashed past his nose, something that made his blood run cold, and his enhanced senses were capturing it with crystal clarity.
'What the hell is that?' he wondered as he narrowed his eyes. He wasn't exactly too familiar with the scent of blood, he could only tell since he just came from the FSG base due to the blood of people he had unintentionally injured.
Ever since he had contracted with Luxy, his physical capabilities had increased. Every single thing he could do normally, he could now do at a superhuman level.
His senses of sight, smell, and hearing had all been enhanced, but this enhancement came with drawbacks he was only now beginning to understand.
When something truly horrible happened, his heightened senses made sure he experienced every detail with crystal clarity, especially foul smells.
The scent grew stronger as he approached his house. With each step, his nose picked up new additional smells—torn flesh, blood, and above all that, a familiar floral perfume that made his heart skip a beat.
It smelled unmistakably like roses. His mother's perfume.
The floral scent was one she'd been wearing yesterday when she welcomed him home with tears of joy.
By the time he reached his front door, the smell was so overwhelming that he had to steady himself against the doorframe. Now, it was as clear as day that the smell was originating from his house.
His hands trembled as he reached for the doorknob, every instinct screaming at him not to open the door, like he wasn't ready for what lay behind but he couldn't turn away.
This was his home, his family—whatever was waiting inside, he had to face it.
Opening the door, his eyeballs shook intensely in pure terror, frustration, regret... Every single negative emotion that existed was flashing through his head.
On the wall, directly across from him, was his mother's body, plastered to it with a pool of her own blood right under her, the dark stain spreading across the wooden floor.
Her eyeballs were missing, revealing empty dark sockets with blood splatters painting her face brutally.
The sight hit him like a physical punch to the gut, causing his heart to thump loudly.
His mother, who had spent yesterday evening preparing his favorite meal and worrying over him like he was still a child. His mother, who had cried tears of joy when he returned safely from the Astral Shadow Plain. His mother, who had worried that his new power would make him forget about his family.
His mother... now has her body plastered to the wall, and not even in one piece. It had been severed at her limbs joints, as if someone had taken their time dismantling her.
The precision of the cuts suggested this wasn't the work of some mindless beast—this had been deliberate, carried out to inflict maximum trauma on whoever found her.
His pupils shook as tears streamed down his face in hot streams that blurred his vision. He couldn't even breathe as he stood there.
This wasn't some nightmare he could wake up from. This wasn't a hallucination brought on by stress. His mother was really dead, murdered in the most brutal way imaginable, and he hadn't been here to protect her.
With his enhanced senses, he could tell his father was currently not in the house. There were no sounds of breathing or heartbeat coming from the other rooms.
Either his father had escaped which is unlikely, or... he had been abducted.
Ryder averted his gaze, there was an envelope right on top of the dining table.
The envelope bore a logo, and it was something he only need one glance to give and guess where it came from.
"What business does the Dracogon have to do with this?!" he screamed, his tear-filled voice cracking as he fell to his knees, clenching his fist.
Yes, it was the logo of a dragon, but not just any dragon, it was a humanoid dragon.
"Why am I going through all this?!" he screamed into the air while tears continued to stream down his face, soaking his shirt and the floor beneath him.
"I contracted a beast—the same thing many other humans have done. Nearly every other human on this freaking Terra planet! So does mine have to be different?!"
But even as he screamed the question, part of him knew the answer. He wasn't like other humans. He wasn't even like other summoners.
He was the first person in several centuries to successfully contract a creature from the demon plane, not to mention, demon monarchs were practically fighting each other in a struggle to be his familiar.
"The familiar contracts that change lives for the better are destroying mine! Why?!" his voice lowered this time, growing hoarse by now as he sniffed.
For everyone else, contracting a familiar was a step into adulthood and power. His father's gravity-controlling familiar had assisted his family in chores and all that.
His neighbors' creatures helped with their daily life routines.
Familiars were supposed to be partners, companions, sources of strength and comfort.
But his familiar, contracted and non-contracted, had brought nothing but chaos.
First, a chase by demon and devil creatures from the astral shadow plain, then the explosion at the FSG base, now this.
Ryder, out of anger and frustration banged his hands against the ground. For a moment there, he had forgotten about his enhanced strength and paid the price tge next instant.
The moment his hand made contact with the ground, a loud bang resonated like a cannon blast, cracking the earth in spider-web patterns that spread outward and sent a powerful ripple of wind outward.
BWOOOM!
It tore through the house, blasting furniture and picture frames and other precious items and hurling them into the air in a violent, windy explosion that lasted only a few seconds.
However, those few seconds seemed too long since they were enough to cause a little too much destruction.
When it all finally subsided, Ryder found himself standing in the center of complete destruction.
The walls had been blown outward, the roof had collapsed in sections, and everything that had made this place home was now scattered across fifty-meter radius.
Ryder, who had been inside a shelter, was now outside under the afternoon sun, surrounded by the scattered objects.
He had just destroyed his family's precious home, containing all their valuables out of frustration.
"Arrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!!"
Ryder screamed into the air causing birds flee from trees in all directions.
Getting up from the ground among the debris of his former home, Ryder's face was drained of all emotion.
The crying had stopped not because the pain had lessened, but because the emotions had disappeared.
He approached where the dining table had landed, now split in half but still recognizable.
Flashbacks of recent events flowed through his mind with clarity—how his mother had treated him like royalty, rushing around to bring him food and comfort; how his father had run to get him a jug of water, his round belly jiggling with the urgency of his movement; how he had promised to never forget them, never knowing it would be the last conversation he'd ever have with his mother.
Ryder walked towards the envelope on the ground to pick it up, finally getting a good glance at it. He stared at the envelope's exterior one more time, especially at the logo.
The dragon figure was more detailed than he had first realized. It showed the dragon in its humanoid form, standing proud with six additional heads writhing behind it like serpents.
This is the Dracogon, it cannot be coincidental.
"Luxy," Ryder called out in a low, emotionless tone. "Do you, perhaps, have a clue about this?"
Luxy, however... remained silent, refusing to answer for some reason.
Opening the envelope with steady hands and deliberate gentleness, Ryder read the contents written in blood.
"Do what must be done if you want to save your father."
The letters large and crude, boldly written in blood.
"Yes," Luxy finally replied after a long moment of silence. "This is most likely the doing of Dracogon."
"Are you certain it was him?" Ryder asked for clarification.
"Yes," Luxy replied again. "It's just a hunch though, but it is most likely the case. The residual energy is unmistakable."
Once again, Ryder asked. "Can you track them with the residual energy?"
From his left shoulder, black mist began to escape, materializing into a small ghostly figure of Luxy, like an intangible projection.
He could somehow use his sense organs in this form even though he only couldn't make contact with tangible objects.
Narrowing his eyes, Luxy's gaze emitted a red glow as he enhanced his sense of sight beyond even his normal devil capabilities.
The red light from his eyes swept across the destruction like a lighthouse beam, revealing traces invisible to normal sight.
Energy residues lingered in the air like ghostly mist, and the footprints glowed faintly on the ground with an orange blaze.
After a while, he spoke.
"The actual violence and killing itself wasn't done by Dracogon directly. He was never really here; however, I believe he used an intermediary.
Someone or something else carried out the physical act while he watched."
The devil creature paused as if allowing the information to sink into Ryder, then continued. "I cannot decipher anything specific about the one who did this. I cannot tell if it's a human or a familiar, or they are stronger than me."
Luxy's projection turned to face Ryder directly. "I'm sorry, Ryder. Based on what I can detect, we have no choice but to wait. We have to hope that they will communicate with us again."
"Hope that they will be back? To ruin my life even more?" Ryder glared at Luxy.
"Ryder, listen to me," Luxy said, his voice taking on a patient tone. "I am already aware that, other than your parents, you have nothing else."
"Right now, you have accidentally destroyed your home and all the physical reminders of your family. You have nothing left that they can use against you, so I don see what you should be afraid of."
"You can search for them, or let them come and confront you head-on. If they do come for you, then it's checkmate. I am currently the strongest familiar on this entire planet from what I've understood. In a direct confrontation, we cannot lose."
Adjusting his feet on the ground among the debris of his destroyed house, Ryder didn't even know where to go. The village that had been his entire world for eighteen years suddenly felt so empty to him.
"What do you think we should do now, Luxy?" Ryder asked, his voice carrying no emotion.
They couldn't stay in the village—too many innocent people who could get hurt.
They couldn't go back to the FSG—he was probably wanted for questioning at minimum, and execution at worst.
"You don't have money or sustenance now, do you? You should relocate to the city and find a way to earn while keeping a low profile," Luxy advised after a moment of consideration. "There must be loads of tasks summoners can do there."
"You do remember that I am supposedly on the Red List of the FSG, right?" Ryder reminded his familiar, voicing his words flatly, his tone devoid of emotions.
"Who cares? They aren't a threat, are they?" Luxy's response carried the casual dismissal that was nothing short of prideful.
"You are already so strong you do not need to summon me out before handling anything that comes your way. Your body alone now carries enough power to handle entire squads of their best summoners."
"Yeah right."