The unfortunate girl's body was found restrained on the bed in the room, showing signs of having suffered before her death.

What was most striking at first glance was the overall loss of mass. Once a large and energetic woman, according to her acquaintances and online profile, she was now in a skeletal and gray state, something her estimated time of death would not be able to match. Occasional movements among her bones in the abdominal area showed the presence of decomposition gases, sometimes making it appear as if the girl was still breathing.

Most of the time, drastic physical changes in deceased people indicate the use of magic at the time of losing their life.

The most alarming were the marks left by the extraction of the soul, invisible traces only detectable by those blessed by some god, endowed with divine power or abilities that could as well be called sacred.

Priests of multiple religions were always the first to arrive and leave the morbid scenes in human countries, regardless of their species, sometimes competing to give their verdict first in search of solidifying the reputation of their god by identifying, or failing at that, providing a list of the possible entities responsible, based on the residual energy left during magical attacks or energy, vitality and soul thefts.

In this case, none of the three sacred people, who had gone to the site before the arrival of the detectives, managed to even identify the classification of the creature that devoured Jane's soul.

Before this, four other similar cases had occurred. All the victims had appeared in uninhabited houses, tied to a bed, soulless, with an unidentifiable criminal and, what Jake noticed as soon as he entered the room, with stains of a black, viscous substance around and on top of the corpse.

“This is already a pattern” said Arles “we are dealing with a serial killer.”

He stared at Jake's face, immersed in thought, waiting for his reaction. Whatever he was, he would surely break with this, one way or another, there was no person who could continue as if nothing had happened after witnessing such a disturbing scene on only his second day, on his first case as a detective. The obviousness of a serial, systematic killer, the suffering the victim had gone through, still visible in her expression of anguish, and the powerful stench of death.

Jake bent down to look closely at one of Jane's hands that was covered in the black substance, he turned to look at the goblin officer and spoke to her with a slight tinge of joy, as if the corpse in front of him did not exist.

“Can I have some of this black substance to analyze myself, please?”

«WHAT?!»

“Of course, Detective”.

The officer waved her hand at the ones in charge of collecting evidence to get their attention. Quickly and careful not to disturb the scene before obtaining all the evidence they required, they took a sample with a specialized swab.

“Thanks, this will be very useful. Good work here, by the way, it is clear that the scene is in good hands”.

“Oh, thanks, Detective”.

Jake’s calm voice, his soft but noticeable smile and his flattery lightened the mood somewhat. He spoke a little more with the people in charge of the site, willing to share everything they knew and even offering more samples of other evidence.

«Really? ...»

After finishing their work at the scene, both detectives began the trip back to the station.

Lady insisted on climbing onto Jake’s lap, playing with his gloves and the glints of silver plates on them, as she moved from the backseat to him. Jake also played with her nonchalantly.

“When we arrive I’ll start some tests, but I also need access to the files of the other cases. If you have it”.

“How are you so calm after that?”

“Huh?”

“You’re a rookie, but you seem pretty calm after what you saw there”.

“Oh, that” his tone of voice began to lose its warmth, “it isn’t my first encounter with such a shocking death, that’s all.”

“But you’re a child, you’re not even half my age, how come-”

Jake's face puzzled Detective Arles. His eyes lacked the natural glow of the living, instead they seemed to emit a subtle light of their own, his gaze lost, he seemed somewhat blinded, as if observing something beyond what was perceptible to the human eye.

For a moment even the soft smile he always showed, the one that made everyone around him feel calm, vanished leaving a stoic gesture in its place, impossible to read.

The cat on his lap bristled and fluffed her fur, growling softly at the young man with her claws out, her dilated pupils carefully watching his movements. She seemed to prepare to attack if necessary. The young man turned to Arles, his eyes fixed on him.

“No sir. I stopped being a child a long time ago, and it has nothing to do with age”.

The heavy atmosphere and Jake's unsettling expression changed in less than a second, the young man turned his gaze to the road in front, his regular sweetness returning to his smile and voice.

“But I guess that kind of experience works very well for me in this job”.

«What the hell is going on with him?»

They both remained silent for the rest of the way.

Back at the station Jake hurried to register the samples so he could perform the tests he wanted, while Arles watched Lady, still with her tail puffed, carrying her to prevent her from scratching the door of the laboratory where the young man had entered.

“Thanks, I promise it will only be a minute.”

“Yeah, yeah, hurry up.”

After putting on his coat, now free of cat hair, locking the door and closing the blinds on all the windows, Jake placed the sample on the central table, turning his back to the security camera.

Glancing, he focused on covering it by summoning the growth of a small vine to surround it, making it grow just enough to cover the lens. Another of his abilities.

Using a small controlled amount of his power was more complicated and tiring than using it in huge quantities. He sighed and began to take off one of his gloves to free himself from his silver-engraved seal, which held back his power and restricted his access to it.

His veins began to turn black.

The type of healing that Jake possessed was based on accelerating the natural healing process of the body, by providing it with enormous amounts of white essential energy, that which every non-demonic entity possessed. The blackening of the veins was a side effect of this uncontrolled healing, oxidizing the blood within the body, replicating scabs and causing great pain by randomly activating the immune system mechanisms in undamaged areas.

Since Jake controlled his abilities primarily with his eyes, his face and eyes themselves were the most affected parts. Because of this, all the remaining scratches, wounds and bruises on his body were also healed, in an instant, releasing a slight vapor from the heat produced during the acceleration of the cells in his body.

When the burning on the skin where these wounds used to be and on his right arm, the one with the bare hand, began to fade, Jake knew he had stabilized enough to work.

The release of his powers also caused an involuntary release of white essential energy, making his pupil shine with such intensity that his iris looked completely white. Focusing his energy on his right hand, he pointed a halo of light towards the sample of the black substance still inside the bag.

That substance began to scream sharply and shake with such aggressiveness that the bag it was in opened. It let out a shriek loud enough to cause pain in Jake's ears, but not enough to alert those a few feet outside the lab.

Using another of his abilities, he recorded the essence in his memory, with this he could track the entity that had left the substance at the scene.

At that point, a sharp pain in Jake's back told him that he could not continue for much longer without his seal, if he did not want to cause a ruckus in the lab, due to the force of that which wanted to come out of him. He also did not want to tear his shirt, if the blood that came out from containing that inside was not too much he could simply wash it to keep wearing it.

The young man continued to illuminate the substance until it evaporated. It had been purified. He quickly put the glove back on and dropped onto the table, resting from the pain that had previously invaded his entire body, leaning on his left arm.

His veins and body temperature returned to normal. With a glance the camera lens was uncovered, without capturing any evidence of what had just happened.

Arles opened the door with a spare key, still carrying the cat, worried about what was happening inside after hearing the screams of the substance and the slam of Jake's body on the lab table.

When he entered, the first thing he saw was the young detective's bloody back, two large stains on his shirt at the level of his deltoids.

“What was that? What are you doing?”