Shadow's Hand-Chapter 14: Transcendent Path

When Sheila revealed how their investigation had yet to reach such a stage, Jasmine's eyes turned to a new light as she gazed at Damien.

'As expected of the Seventh.' She thought to herself. Time and time again, she suspected Damien to be an impostor despite having no evidence. However, it became clear that she was merely overthinking.

With just a few glances, Damien already managed to figure out the gist of the crime occurrence.

She didn't even doubt Damien's statement would be false since he wouldn't have spoken up without any evidence.

"The Seventh is indeed amazing." Jasmine clasped her hands and praised.

"What's so amazing about it?" Contrary to her expectations, Damien wasn't happy.

"A crime occurred under the eyes of police officers and escaped unscathed. There should have been TIs dispatched at Velgrave as well, but even they hadn't discovered anything until a day had passed. This is a disgrace." He continued, choosing to reprimand them.

By behaving in such a manner and not conceit, he established the image of an authentic Seventh Order TI.

A Seventh was feared and highly respected, which should have meant they held more achievement. To act complacent or joyful at discovering something like this would have been suspicious instead.

Sure enough, the admiration in Jasmine's eyes seemed to brighten in response.

"This is indeed our division's oversight," Sheila admitted. Their inefficiency had resulted in the difficulty of the case.

"So we now know the culprit had a relationship with the wife, but the daughter was defied post-mortem." Jasmine knitted her brows.

Since Damien already mentioned the wife had intercourse but the husband didn't have any signs of such activity. It made sense that the wife was having an affair.

Based on such chronological order, it was safe to assume the culprit was some vile and disgusting bastard.

"The culprit didn't just make love with the wife, but even forced his way on the wife's daughter after her death. This is definitely in line with some psychotic Transcendent." She continued, feeling infuriated by the situation.

Meanwhile, Damien remained stoic on the surface. The truth was that he had already experienced what Jasmine said through the lenses of the deceased wife, Olivia.

He had the supernatural type of action that showed him the scene of Olivia moaning in delight with the culprit who was blurred out completely.

And during their rendezvous affair, the husband returned early with a somewhat agitated expression as he caught the two.

From there, the situation took a turn for the worse which ultimately ended up getting Carlos killed. But that wasn't the end of it when their daughter, Agatha returned from Livingston Academy and witnessed the act.

The rest of the scene was quite disturbing with the wife regretting her action due to the culprit's intent to silence them all.

Once the heat of the crime was committed, it was also at that moment the culprit noticed the allure of Agatha and proceeded to defy her. During the bastardly act, Olivia still had some breathing left. Thus, Damien was able to capture the scene and understand her rage.

'Having an affair wasn't enough, but the man she had it with smuggled their artwork behind their back and even ruined their daughter's future.' Damien's internal emotion was truly affected somewhat.

These people were unrelated to him. But thanks to the link with Olivia, he felt anger and regret when watching her beloved daughter fall under such a heinous deed.

'I'm no saint. I'm just going to do this for my survival.' Damien ultimately decided to chase this culprit personally. Whatever it was, this case should be a door to his locked and unknown ability.

The foul stench that had been affecting him vanished ever since the link with Olivia was completed. His clarity also increased further and he felt his body being very light.

The previous fatigue that was piled up on him also seemed to have healed itself.

"Investigator Damien, what should we do now?" Sheila asked. "We've figured out the crime, but no clue about the culprit."

"Jasmine, give me your tablet." Rather than responding right away, Damien requested Jasmine's tablet to browse through some information.

A few minutes later, Damien finally understood the meaning of the Diamond 3 card. The Diamond suit itself didn't hold much significance, but the number 3 did.

Apparently, Transcendent was seriously just a general term for all those with extraordinary magical power. Within the Transcendent, there were different paths that truly separated the classes.

Ace Path which symbolizes the Ace card, the King Path for Kings, the Queen Path for Queens, the Jack Path for Jacks, and finally, the Number Path.

Number Path was the most unique given it was separated into multiple sections: numbers 2-4, 5-7, and 8-10.

Most people who received the blessing of power usually start in the Number Path and slowly ascend in the path. But naturally, there were some minorities who began in the Special Path from the start.

Special Path being the Ace, King, Queen, and Jack.

However, that was just the simplification, given that each path specialized in different things and could be subjected to change depending on the user.

'So Jasmine is a 6th Path.' Damien felt a headache from trying to comprehend the sophisticated power level in this world.

Nevertheless, he was able to confirm that the culprit was categorized in the Number Path as 3rd.

He took a deep breath, returned the tablet to Jasmine, and stared at Sheila.

Upon being stared at intensely, Sheila felt her body tense up just from his piercing eyes that seemed to penetrate her inner mind and heart.

The 𝘮ost uptodat𝑒 novels are pub𝙡ished on freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.

"Sheila, get a list of every registered Transcendent in Velgrave, specifically in the Number Path between 2 to 5. Also, make sure to tell them that not a single bug is allowed to leave the city. Once caught, make sure they are detained on the spot." Damien commanded.

Although he knew it was the 3rd Path, he couldn't possibly reveal it without having any proper evidence.

It would also complicate the matter if they became curious about how he knew.

"Understood," Sheila saluted and hurriedly left the crime scene to inform her Superior.