"More... more..."

The Beast has been going all out, in a fortnight, having bagged about 10 more girls this time, getting reckless and getting more in a shorter time...

"More..."

But it seemed like it was not enough, the power was not enough. The Lust Choker seemed to be screaming greedily for lust it so desires, before it's true power will be unleashed and...

'Girls will be flocking by me one by one...' the Beast thought.

Not that he particularly want that, but it was more for a girl... the girl that truly ignored him starting to approach him but still had that doubtful look upon her. It hurt the Beast.

"Not enough..."

There will be a day that the girl will once again truly accept him and he will make her his...

Yes, his...

"Lotus..."

...

'Who is Lotus?' the Beast thought.

***

"The Beast is really going all out, huh?"

"And soon enough our Founder will be truly awaken, right?"

"Yeah... if what we heard from that demon was true, but it doesn't fancy me to have our founder in some human body, or even worse... an elf's..."

"Hopefully not an elf's. I rather just straight out kill and take the Lust Choker for our true leader..."

"Nevertheless... he still hasn't awaken even with all those girls. Maybe the Beast should aim bigger. Why the child pornography? Why not some real porn?"

"We will never know... but the other reason for no real awakening is because the true bait hasn't arisen yet..."

"True bait...?"

"You know, the slut that seduced our Founder and made him lose! Why not give someone who looks more or less like that bitch and get the revenge he always wanted? That's probably going to awake our Founder!"

"Haha! Probably right, and kill two birds in one stone if that happens, that the Founder gets his revenge, we get our revenge and..."

"Don't worry. Everything will go to plan. We will once again return to our glory days."

***

I shuddered. I have a very bad feeling today, but of course, I did not bother to voice it out.

It's been two weeks, two whole weeks where things simply went downhill.

Right now, I was in John's office along with the man himself and Alex where the former threw his hands up in complete exasperation.

"Fifteenth victim? In a month?" John asked, groaning.

"The Beast must be getting desperate," Alex quipped.

"But that means things are going to get even more dangerous from here on out, and the Beast has been going for so long that everyone was warned and worried about him. Parents won't let their kids out with such a criminal intact," John said.

"About time," I said, "I thought absolutely nothing will stop the so called field trip of ours."

After Articuno Kingdom, more victims of the same group presented itself which the adults could no longer turn a blind eye to. Thus, the trip was stopped indefinitely until the Beast was captured. However, it's been three weeks, more victims, surprisingly from the same group of the field trip despite where they were... It helped the authorities pinpoint that the Beast seemed to be targeting those same people and had warned the girls alike about it.

That included me and my family were admant that I stayed at home until this all blows over, but I was like hell no and before anyone can stop me, I reached CB's headquarters to rendezvous with John and Alex about current situation.

But thanks to that, parents of said girls have become worried of the Beast's defilement and promptly urged the field trip cancelled so that the girls would be safely protected against such atrocities and as I said, about time.

"But... there are so any girls in the group, and we have no idea who the Beast will gun for. Also, it just means the prophecy is about to come true. And... the elf and wolfman..." John said slowly. Alex and I nodded, we all know what he meant.

A death of an elf and wolfman... that can incite war. How is the Beast connected to all that... it can be sadly answered with the Lust Choker, the one thing the Savagery, a pack of wolfman who value the old ways, are gunning for.

Unfortunately for us too, we also don't know their next move, so really, it's anybody's game.

"I wish there was some kind of sign that will help us get some lead against the Beast or Savagery, either is fine," Alex said, shaking his head.

And, as if his words were the harbinger to what will happen moments later, Sloan came busting in the door with letter in hand.

Without even explaining himself, Sloan shouted, "Zelda is missing!"

"WHAT?!" We all shouted.

And even if we didn't know it now, the cogs of the prophecy are slowly spinning into the next phase... a phase we may not like.

***

"Missing? What do you mean, Zelda is missing?" John asked, straight to the point.

"Read this," Sloan said, handing the letter to John. He grimaced at the contents.

It was passed to Alex and then to me. It was a short letter, and addressed simply as:

To anyone who finds this,
Don't bother looking for me, but I promise that I will be back soon. I just don't know when. The reason for my sudden disappearance is because sometimes, after everything that happened, it's better to go head on into the den and do things hands on. What I'm doing is for a greater good and in hopes to resolve things before the untoward could happen.
Zelda.

I looked up from the letter and looked at everyone exchanging glances to each other, before John broke the silence.

"Zelda... is this related to the prophecy?"

Sloan looked stressed, "What do you think?"

"The letter's wording does... so, did you find the letter first, or someone else?"

"One of the maids at the president's mansion, who immediately gave it to the president himself a week ago, but no one heard about the President's daughter being missing because it was kept under wraps except for a select few. Because I'm close friends with both Zelda and John, I have to deliver this letter to you, along with another message," Sloan said.

"Another message?" John asked.

"Yes, the President of Celebi Republic wants to meet you."

***

Ironically, if the field trip wasn't cancelled, Celebi Republic would be the next destination on list after Kingdom Articuno. So, it ended up being a crazy coincidence that me, John and Alex, led by Sloan, were able to visit the place today.

The President, of course, only wanted John, being a renowned detective and all, but John decided that he should bring me and Alex along as assistants if need be asked. Sloan had no complaints of such.

Celebi Republic is one most in tune with nature yet the most technological advanced of all places. And who says that technology and nature do not mix?

"Ah, Holmes, so you are here. Wait... Verne, who are those two following them? I thought the President told you to bring Holmes and Holmes only," a boy of our age greeted us by what could possibly be equivalent to the White House. Unsurprising as this Republic operates on presidency.

I recognized the boy immediately. That was Ash Tempest, one of the suspects pertaining the Beast who was standing in front of us right now and admonishing Sloan with distaste.

John stepped right in, "I brought them here. They are my assistants."

Ash stood for a long while before he nodded briskly and said, "The President is waiting for you. Follow me."

As the rest of us, including Sloan, followed Ash, Alex asked, "Who is he?"

Sloan gave the answer, "He is the son of the Vice President and made to learn how to handle political affairs as a budding assistant of his father. But like his father, he doesn't take kindly to our kind."

"Hmm?" I asked, "I thought that only the wolfmen or specifically Savagery has problems with the elves, but I didn't know there was vice versa to that. Elves helped the wolfmen community a long time ago, right?"

Sloan nodded, "But some elves can be arrogant about it, thinking that brute species like us don't deserve a place in civilization and look down at us... In particular, Tempest holds his father's beliefs about that and is in grudge that I'm very close to Zelda when he doesn't think that the daughter of the president should have friends like me."

I shook my head. How sad. It seemed there might be more political affairs than one could have thought.

Soon enough, we finally had our audience with the President, Zelda's father.

***

"They are here, Mr. President," Ash announced as we entered into a neat office. It was a simple office with sparse decoration and just one big table at the center in front of a glass window on a red snug rug.

Behind the table must be the President. And was actually the spitting image of Zelda.

Link Klef had the same green hair and purple eyes of his daughter but they were wary and sad as he looked at all of us, his eyebrows knitting together.

"I thought I only requested for John Holmes?" Link asked, towards Sloan but it was John himself who answered.

"These two are my assistants," John quickly said.

"Oh?" Link asked as his eyes rested on me and Alex, before finally to John.

He sighed and then said, "Fine. As long as they know to keep this matter private. Ash, Sloan, can you please leave us?"

Ash and Sloan bowed respectfully to the President before they did so.

"Normally I would question if 8 year old kids would merit to be a detective's assistant but then again the famous renowned detective is actually an 8 year old boy," Link remarked.

"But I guess that means we are in an era that age matters little as long as you know what you are doing. I hope Sloan brought you up to speed about Zelda?"

The three of us nodded as the President settled for a grim look.

"Then I don't really need to explain much. I hope your reputation holds water in the task I'm about to give you, John Holmes. I have already asked many CB investigators and private ones during my daughter's disappearance a week ago, but they have garnered no results. So I'm hoping that you guys will have better luck," Link said.

"A week ago..." John mused and my guess is because due to time span, that would mean anything of note wouldn't be as fresh and the longer a missing case goes, the harder it would be to find the same person.

But John went back to business, "Did you notice anything weird about Zelda prior to her disappearance?"

"Nothing that I can remember," Link answered in an affable manner.

John thought a little more before asking, "The letter was found in Zelda's room, right?"

"Yes," Link nodded.

"Then we will start our investigation there, if you will allow it," John said.

"But of course. Anything for my daughter, and this time... I hope you produce results," Link said.

We all nodded, and thus our investigation starts.

***

The trip from the White House look alike (I never asked for the name of the place) to the President's residence was at least a 15 minute carriage ride, accompanied by Sloan, who wanted to help us, and Ash who was made to supervise us.

But Ash wasn't happy about it. It looked more like someone put him up to it. As part of his training? Who knows?

We were welcomed immediately by the First Lady who expected us and was personally ushered into Zelda's bedroom.

"If you need anything, you can ring for the servants. I have other matters to attend to. Thank you for taking your time to help us with Zelda," the First Lady said.

"It's of no problem," John said amicably, as the First Lady smiled and left. Finally, we were left to our own devices.

John was walking around, inspecting the place while mumbling questions to himself.

Alex, Sloan and I decided to help John search anything of note.

Ash was calmly leaning against the wall, eyes resting on us.

"Hmm?" I hummed in thought as I felt something on the wall.

By instinct and using my ghost powers without anyone seeing it, I felt a strange mechanism behind the wall. With a click...

"Woah," Alex said, who was a few feet away from me near a wall which sprung open and revealed...

"That's a holographic diary," Ash said, as he took the miniature device in his hand and fiddled with it. Afterwards, they saw Zelda's face who was speaking an entry.

Zelda first spoke a date, the date she went missing and then...

"Revision to previous entry. Everything went smoothly until stopped by Sloan Verne. But otherwise, things continued to run smoothly, with additional help. The CB and everyone else planned to remain ignorant on the Beast and the Savagery having found no clues and not even one step closer to finding the Beast, let alone finding out the Savagery's dangerous hidden intents. But I have... received a secret message that can flip everything. It's dangerous... it's risky, I don't even know what it entails, but for the sake of getting an upper hand, I will take it."

The diary entry finished there and everyone looked at Sloan who maintained a stoic expression.

Ash was furious.

"You knew this whole time?!" Ash roared, clinging to Sloan, "Why didn't you tell anyone, unless..."

John got in the way between Ash and Sloan, saying, "Before going off on baseless accusations, we better hear from Sloan himself first."

He turned toward Sloan, "Well?"

Sloan shrugged casually before saying, "There was no stopping Zelda, and it was an opportunity, so..."

And he told us something mind blowing that pushed forward to the next stage...

Which hinged on Zelda and Sloan. And a cog turned...