Chapter 42: The Beast Unleashed
"Did you find anything?" Angelia urged officer Chen as he worked his way towards the bedroom.
"Found something." As soon as he entered the bedroom, officer Chen caught something amiss in the bookshelf wall.
"There is a passage—"
"There is?" Investigator Angelia interrupted him before he could even finish. Her hopeful voice faded when she saw the man shake his head.
"As I was saying, there is one, but it only leads to the backyard. It could be treated as a secret back door, but nothing that would tell us where they went."
Officer Chen deactivated his power before suggesting, "We should leave this place and search all around the campus; she could not have gone anywhere without the law enforcers at the main gate noticing."
"Indeed." The cold woman seemed to agree and turned around to leave. "Either there are other secret passages we know nothing about, or she is here, in this orphanage."
Her eyes flashed with a cold light as she stepped out of the door. "And my money is on the latter. She is unawakened, and she might not be able to go far with the kids."
Acosta caught up with them from the other side and briefed them on the identities of the missing kids. "One is a ten-year-old girl named Sally, and the other is Kyle," Taking a deep breath, he added. "A six-year-old child."
"Oh lord." Angelia growled with anger, "We have to find that monster before she does anything to those innocent children."
***
"Ha!"
As Geralt charged at him with the sharp end of the wooden stake, Jinn’s smile faded.
With practiced ease he stepped out of his path and used his foot to shake his balance and make him fall.
"Rugh!" rolling on the ground, Geralt groaned in pain. The wooden stick slipped from his hand and fell away.
"Time after time, you have tried to sabotage my grades, but I let it go since those worthless numbers mean nothing to me." Jinn stepped towards the boy lying on the ground and said coldly. "But today, you crossed a line."
Geralt growled in response and slowly stood up from the ground.
Jinn’s eyes narrowed, his steps measured as he closed in on the boy.
Geralt threw a wild punch, his teeth bared, but Jinn slipped it effortlessly and struck him once across the cheek. The sound cracked through the room, sharp and merciless.
Geralt staggered back, but Jinn didn’t give him time to breathe. Another blow, straight to the ribs, sent him reeling against the wall.
"You’ve always been loud," Jinn said, his voice steady, his face unreadable. "Always desperate to prove yourself, to scream the truth you wish existed."
Geralt’s lip split, blood dripping down his chin. He shook his head, clutching at his side, yet his eyes never left Jinn’s. There was fury there, yes—but also something else. A fever that burned like a fire stoked far beyond reason.
"You think you’re better than me," Geralt rasped, his voice trembling with hate. "You think you can keep hiding what you are?"
His gaze slid past Jinn—snapping suddenly to the far side of the room.
A portrait hung there, half-shadowed by the flickering candlelight.
The painting’s colors were worn, its edges frayed, but the image was unmistakable: a monstrous figure with corded blue muscles, claws like blades, and a single, glaring eye staring out of the canvas.
Geralt’s chest heaved. His lips twisted into a grin, too wide, too unhinged.
"Two-Faced Lord," he whispered hoarsely, his hand trembling as he pressed it against his chest. "Lend me your mask."
The air warped. The candle flames bent toward him as though pulled by unseen gravity.
His body convulsed, his bones groaning under the strain. Skin stretched beyond its limit, and flesh rippled like molten wax.
His muscles doubled as his arms swelled; the nails on each finger came tearing out, turning into spike-like claws. Sister Agnes gasped, staggering backward, her eyes darting towards Jinn with worry.
When Geralt lifted his head again, one of his eyes had vanished entirely, leaving a hollow lid. The other, burned, luminous, and inhuman, fixed squarely on Jinn.
The single eye stretched through his face, covering half of his forehead and the space left by the missing eye. Now he looked no different than the monster in the picture he saw.
This was his blessing: turning into any living creature he had only seen once.
"Now," the monster growled, saliva dripping from jagged teeth, "let’s see you smile again, Jinn."
Geralt, now a monster, swept his claws through the air, directly at Jinn’s head.
"No!!" The matron screamed in anguish and pain when she saw the claws passing through Jinn like a hot knife through butter. His head flipped through the air before rolling down the ground; blood sprayed from the body, splashing everywhere.
Her body seemed to have lost all of her strength as she fell to her knees; tears of blood seeped from the corner of her eyes, dyeing her golden robes in red.
She looked at Jinn’s corpse blankly, like a puppet whose strings were cut.
"Ah, this is bliss." Geralt growled in his monstrous form. He closed his eye and extended his thick and long tongue out to savor his blood.
But the next second he froze, hearing a cold whisper reaching his ears.
"No, this is your death."
The single eye of the monster snapped open in shock as it watched every part of Jinn, including the blood, turning into a silver mist before drifting into the air.
That was the last thing he saw before a cold sensation touched his neck and his vision slowly blurred.
Jinn’s body suddenly materialized. His feet were planted on the beast’s thick knees, and his hand was wrist-deep into its neck.
Jinn pulled his small hand-sized claw out of Geralt’s massive body and pushed against his stomach to flip in the air and land on his feet.
Geralt’s body glowed with various colors before it slowly transformed back into its original form.
Thud!
Robbed of his life, Geralt’s body fell face down on the ground with a thud. His blood gushed out of his wound and slid down the floor, touching the pentagram on it.
Looking down at his body, Jinn muttered to himself. "I told you, I am a master at illusion. Your tricks are worthless before me."