"Will you be able to handle things over here?" Alex inquired as he looked ahead to find that the survivors of the train wreck had begun to grow restless.
Turning his attention back to the female Enforcer whose name was Melissa, Alex added. "It might be a whole lot of work to handle alone."
"... I should be fine," Melissa replied after a brief hesitation. "I have trained for such situations anyways, so I guess... this is a chance to put my training to good use."
Her attempt to make light of the situation undoubtedly fell flat.
Alex nodded. "So could you point us in the general direction of... uhmm, what did you call it again?"
"Ah, yes, Krobridge. Could you give a rough estimate on what direction it would be in?"
Melissa pursed her lips as she seemed to fall into deep thought.
Meanwhile, Nadia silently remained at her side, watching the exchange with minor interest.
It took more than a minute before Melissa finally pointed in a certain direction. "It should be in that direction."
"Good enough." Alex nodded with satisfaction as he gestured for Nadia to follow him back into the boxcar to retrieve their luggage.
Hardly had he taken a step forward when he paused, his brows furrowed as he pondered a certain matter.
Pursing his lips, he spoke up. "Tell me something."
"Yeah?" Melissa met his gaze.
"How much of the Abyss is known to the D.O.D.?"
"... I can’t say," Melissa replied.
"Okay, how about the monsters that roam the Abyss?"
Melissa pondered momentarily before she said. "...Well, there’s the Neque Adnales compiled by the TruthSeekers, using information from several hundreds of years of humanity fighting against the Incursions of the Abyss. Though it’s generally stated that the records are only a sliver of the creatures roaming the Abyss."
Then, after a brief pause, she asked. "Why do you ask?"
"That monster... forgive me for bringing it up again but..." Alex trailed off as he glanced back at where the monstrosity had once stood before he continued. "That monster had the pungent smell of the Abyss on it."
"An Otherworldly?" Melissa revealed a complicated expression before she quickly shook her head. "But that doesn’t make any sense."
At this point, Nadia was standing at the entrance of the boxcar, listening to the conversation, not doing well to hide her piqued interest.
Melissa hesitated, seemingly unsure of what she wanted to say but she soon decided to say it as it was after all, Alex was the one that asked for her opinion.
"There aren’t any clear signs of a breach in the layers between worlds at this location so I don’t think that creature... whatever it was, was an Otherworldly."
"What if it happened long before now?" Alex asked.
Melissa replied. "Sorry, I can’t be completely sure but I do believe that no Otherworldly would stay quiet for so long that the traces of its entrance into our world would be completely erased."
Alex nodded in understanding before he remarked. "So how come that creature had traces of the abyss?"
"There is a second reason why it would have the scent of the abyss despite not being Otherworldly." Nadia suddenly spoke up, drawing the attention of the other two.
"Abyss Wheel Mystics, at least those on the higher end of the spectrum, are capable of creating monsters using the body parts of living things in Eventide." She quickly explained.
Alex’s eyes flickered for a moment as he thought of a possibility before quickly pushing it aside. "So we can guess that an Abyss Wheel Mystic was aiming for something on the train."
"Oh no." Melissa blurted out, her breathing uneven as fear flashed in her eyes.
"What?" Alex raised a brow.
"An Abyss Wheel Mystic acting in this area is just as bad as an Incursion!"
"Hmm." Alex’s expression quickly cooled as he fully understood what she meant.
Recalling what had happened with Townsend, just the thought that a stronger Mystic than Mrs. Granger was out here was enough to cause him to worry.
’Why does it feel Abyss bullshit is chasing me everywhere I go?’ he couldn’t help but lament as he sighed.
"For now, we can only make speculations so let’s not allow the fear of the unknown to make us come up with scary analogies," Alex said after brief thought.
Taking a moment to calm herself, Melissa nodded in agreement while Nadia remained silent, her expression unreadable.
Alex nodded in satisfaction before he continued. "For now, try to get across to your superiors to provide aid over here."
"Alright," Melissa replied before asking. "What about you?"
"We’d help out for the time being. Once we get confirmation help is on the way, then we’ll take our leave. If that’s okay by you of course." Alex remarked.
As the corners of her lips curled up slightly, Melissa answered. "Thank you."
"Don’t mention it. You should get to work." Alex said before entering the boxcar with Nadia, leaving Melissa outside.
Heaving a sigh, Melissa glanced first at the headless body of her once vibrant superior.
She wanted to mourn his death but now wasn’t the time to do so.
He would have wanted her to deal with the problems here first.
"I’m sorry." She muttered gently before adding with a wry smile. "And thank you."
With that, she turned and rushed over to where the train commuters had gathered.
In the octagonal hall that served as the meeting place for the 13, now 12 Dukes, Damian sat cross-legged on the center table with the 3rd Duke whose name was Horace.
The gathering he had called had long since ended with the Dukes taking their leave.
Of course after all was said and done, they had all agreed to his plan to cause havoc in the empire.
Not like they had a choice in the matter.
It was either that or a quick death.
None of the Dukes had the faintest illusion that they would be able to best Damian in combat after all, compared to the dukes of the past, the present generation was pathetic and the dukes of the past couldn’t compare to a single Monarch and since Damian was a Monarch, albeit a newly ascended one, that didn’t change his position as their supreme leader.