"I declare you shall never find peace!
I see your paradise destroyed!
In all your doings, I see them tarnished forever and ever!"
...
In the dead of night, those chilling words echoed from the mouth of a witch pinned upside down on a wooden cross, her maniacal laughter filling the air.
Not far from her, Benson and his colleague William stood in silence, the faint glow of the burning pyre reflecting on their white crucifixes.
Breaking the heavy silence, Benson brought his crucifix up and said. We've been running into too many semi-cursed lately."
He let out a weary sigh. "If not for this crucifix—gifted to us by Saint Adam of the Church of Retribution—we'd have fallen victim to that woman's curses."
William turned to him with a questioning look.
"Benson, does her speech really have that much power?"
Benson gaze moved back to the flames as he replied, "You don't understand what semi-cursed are. They're people who've turned into curses but still retain a shred of their minds. They're filled with negative energy— think of monsters wearing human faces. It's better to call them hybrids."
He turned away from the burning cross, beginning to walk down the moonlit road. With a faint smile, Benson added,
"And I think there are still more of them out there. A lot more, hiding in this city."
...
In another part of the city, there came a knock — two sharp raps against wood.
A man with slightly balding hair walked forward and opened the door. Through his weary eyes, he saw a figure wearing a hat, a few strands of hair slipping down his face. Beside him stood another man, a crucifix hanging around his neck.
Smiling faintly, the man in the hat pulled out his ID and said,
"Hi, I'm Detective Benson. Mind if I ask you a few questions?"
...
The man looked slightly nervous but tried to mask it with a smile.
"Detective, please… if I may ask, what questions are there to talk about?"
Benson sighed and lowered his ID.
"There are quite a few, but as a guest… you wouldn't mind showing us inside?"
At that, the man's face showed a flicker of panic before he quickly opened the door wider. Inside sat another man in a brown coat and hat.
"See, Detective? There's nothing going on."
Ignoring his attempt to deflect, Benson and William stepped past him and entered the house.
The moment he entered, Benson removed his hat like a man entering a church and surveyed the dimly lit room. The only light came from the small window, casting thin rays across a coffee table and a chair occupied by the man in the coat.
The balding man hurried inside, clasping his hands together with a nervous grin.
"Detective, when will you be through with your investigation? As you can see, nothing is wrong." He gestured toward the seated man.
"See? Even Jamie is having a good time." He chuckled awkwardly.
Benson nodded calmly. "I see."
The man gave another uneasy laugh and shuffled toward the corner. "Alright, let me fetch you both some water."
As he left, Benson and William instinctively rested their hands on the pistols under their coats. The silence became heavy, as the man In coat hadn't moved for a while.
"Hey, sir, are you okay?" William called out, tightening his grip on his pistol.
Benson moved closer and titled the man's head up, revealing that his eyes were wide, blank, and completely white. Then, his mouth twitched... soundlessly moving until they formed one word.
"Help me."
At that very moment, the balding man reappeared beside them with a smile, placing two glasses of water on the table.
"Don't mind Jamie," he said casually. "He's usually shy with visitors."
William's lips parted to speak, but Benson subtly raised a hand to silence him.
The man wiped his palms on his trousers and handed them the glasses.
With the cup hovering near his mouth, Benson spoke evenly.
"Sir, since you're a native of this town, I was hoping to ask you a few questions about some disappearances in the Haven District."
...
The man chuckled and took a seat next to Jamie, saying, "Those locals have been doing a lot of strange things lately, hehe."
Benson smiled faintly. "Yes, I'm sure they have. But from my intuition, I can sense a lot of hostile energy around this area. That's why I came to ask—do you perhaps know a girl named Eva?"
Hearing that, the man who had been scratching his head casually, suddenly stopped.
His eyes grew wider, as the corners of his lips twitched uncontrollably. Then he started muttering through gritted teeth, "Fuck... Eva, that fucking girl... when I meet her, I'll fucking kill her!"
Seeing that, William immediately brought out his pistol and took four quick shots.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
But the bullets simply bounced off his body. The man, whose face was half covered in darkness from the dim light, turned with a terrible smile—revealing that half of his face had already turned into that of a werewolf.
They both took out their shots simultaneously.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
But with impressive speed, he moved, and the bullets only managed to shatter the mirror behind him.
...
Benson and William quickly ran outside but found no trace of the werewolf. Unbeknownst to the creature, on top of a nearby building beneath the pale moon, stood another figure of Benson. The moonlight gave him a ghostly glow before his figure vanished.
In the silence of the night, the half-man, half-wolf sprinted through the bushes. Suddenly, a shadow appeared before it. Their eyes met for a split second before the werewolf struck first, swinging its right claw. Benson ducked and slid backward, narrowly avoiding the blow. Without a moment to breathe, the werewolf attacked again, forcing Benson to roll aside.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Standing up, Benson adeptly dodged the werewolf's strikes — moving left, right, or lunging forward to deliver a counterattack.
From the corner of his eye, he noticed the beast's movements had turned wild, as if it had lost its human "instinct."
Seizing the moment, he leaped over a punch and struck the werewolf squarely in the face with all his might, then quickly moved to the right of the trees.
Just then, he began to notice the ground which he was standing on, began to crumple down. Soon he realized the wolf was cursing him!
Benson leaped away, landing on a tree branch as the ground gave way beneath.
But the werewolf didn't stop. With a crazed smile, it unleashed a volley of sharp claws flying toward him.
Whew! Whew! Whew!
With the agility of a cheetah, Benson dodged them all, until the last one, which he managed to deflect with the handle of his pistol.
Clank!
Knowing he was at a disadvantage, Benson quickly assessed the situation as the werewolf came to a halt.
I don't think the man has lost control yet. He's still smart, so I could probably use his human instinct against him!
But before he could act, more claws came flying. He leaped out of the tree just as it crashed down. Landing near the open ground, Benson tackled the werewolf and landed a solid blow to the side of its head.
Bam! Bam! Kishi!
Knowing this was his only chance, Benson didn't stop, he kept punching the creature's head repeatedly, until it began to swell and ooze out a black, jelly like liquid.
Suddenly, the werewolf raised an arm, caught Benson's fist, and punched him away— sending him flying back to the surface.
The impact made him crash hard, but Benson quickly stood up as the beast emerged again.
Without warning, the werewolf lunged forward, its punches coming faster and stronger than before, turning its image into a blur of black fur. Benson was covered in blood, narrowly dodging a deadly strike that grazed his cheek.
Seeing the image of another fist, Benson quickly sidestepped and twisted his upper body, without moving his lower, to launch a powerful counterpunch straight at the werewolf.
But he quickly stopped just inches from it's face, as he realized that "that" wouldn't be enough.
At that very moment, William and his other self appeared at the treeline.
"Blend!" Benson voice rang out as though he recited an incantation.
The spectral figure beside William dissolved like mist and shot toward Benson, merging with him in a flash of light.
In that split-second, Benson launched forward and threw numerous punches.
Bam! Bam! Kishi! Bam! Kacha! Bam! Kishi!
"His" punches connecting fiercely, tearing through the human characteristics, and exposing "it's" skeleton, as blood scattered involuntarily across the green grasses.
In a final frenzy, the creature dodged a punch, and lunged at him—but "Benson" expecting this outcome, simply vanished like smoke, and outlined behind him.
Without much concern "he" raised his pistol and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The bullet pierced it's "human" forehead. Shockingly it didn't cry nor scream, confirming the fact that it was nothing more than a beast by now.
In it's madness, it turned back and swung wildly, but Benson simply sidestepped and quickly wrapped his arm around his neck, shoving a pistol in his mouth, and pulling the trigger, all in that quick motion!
Boom!
With quick decisiveness, the werewolf's head exploded in a burst of blood and smoke.
...
As the half side of its wolf characteristics blew up, the human side — whose head had been shot before — suddenly had its lips twitch slowly until they formed words.
"What did I do…? Why… why are you targeting me?… Why do you want to kill me?"
At that moment, its human instinct came flooding back like a tide. Images of a happy father with his wife, clutching their child, rushed through his mind as his hands gradually went numb.
William stood silently as Benson kicked the head over, revealing the terrible scene more clearly. Perhaps he didn't want to get his hands "dirty." William sighed and said,
"You know, I kinda feel sad for the guy. If you think about it, we just went into a random stranger's house in the middle of the night and basically killed him."
He paused, then looked at Benson and continued, "Benson, what made you so sure that man was a hybrid?"
Benson chuckled as he slipped his hands into his coat. "You really don't have a clue. The moment we burned that witch, I used a part of my order's power — intuitive thinking — and found out she had lived in that district for a very long time."
He continued calmly,
"So, without much evidence, I split myself into two, sharing my characteristics with my other self, to investigate the house she lived in. That confirmed my guess, that he was a curse."
He smiled slightly and added,
"To put it simply, this was all part of my plan."
They began walking away. William, his face filled with guilt, asked, "But what could have happened to them?"
For a moment, Benson stopped. He looked back at the wolf lying on the ground and simply said, "I don't know."
Then he stretched his body and said,
"I'd better get some sleep. Me and the other officials are traveling to Betyl tomorrow."