Carnal Immortal
Chapter 164: Ritual Killing

Chapter 164: Ritual Killing

Juliana finds Amon extremely suspicious right now, though he brings her hope of finally finding a break in this case. It’s all too convenient.

How can someone who knows a language that even the best prehistoric language experts in the world can’t figure out suddenly happen to end up in her station?

Plus, his intimidating and dominating aura also makes him very dangerous. Juliana’s gut tells him he will not pose any danger to her, but the years of experience tell her to keep a close eye on him.

Juliana blares her sirens and weaves through the traffic as they make their way to the crime scene.

They arrive at a secluded area of the city, which is right near its border. The whole area consists of abandoned warehouses and godowns.

Police are already everywhere, uniformed officers, detectives, and even two bureau investigators.

"Let’s go," Juliana says parking her car to the side and getting out. Amon follows right behind.

She walks up to the yellow tape and shows her badge to the officer on guard to let her pass through.

"He is with me," she says pointing to Amon and they let him pass through as well.

Amon’s presence is instantly noticed by some of the officers as they always stay hyper-vigilant of their surroundings, but seeing that he is with the lieutenant, they don’t question his presence.

Juliana and Amon walk into the warehouse and see a brutal sight in front of their eyes.

They see a harrowing mess of dissected body parts placed in a pattern around an ancient-looking diagram on the ground.

A few forensic experts are looking around collecting any evidence they can find.

Juliana approaches the diagram alongside Amon. As she looks at the pile of dissected body parts, she feels a tightness in her chest. No matter how many times she has seen this same scene, she can never get used to it.

The pale, bloodless, decapitated heads with their eyes and mouths wide open, frozen on death, haunt her dreams.

But unlike her, Amon isn’t affected one bit. In fact, he is very interested in what he is seeing.

He sees sixteen decapitated heads placed in the middle looking in all different directions. The heads are then surrounded by a circle of ancient words, then there are thirty-two arms spread around in a circle, which are again surrounded by a circle of ancient words. The pattern follows with the sixteen torsos and then the thirty-two legs.

It is not just the dissected bodies that interest him, but the lingering magic in the air. As an omnipotent being, how could he not sense a higher form of energy?

As Juliana looks at the horrifying scene in front of her, two men approach her. These men are the agents of the crime bureau and they are not happy with her bringing a stranger inside the crime scene.

"Lieutenant, who is this man and why is he here? Don’t you know that civilians are not allowed inside the crime scene?" one of them questions Juliana.

Juliana finds these men’s attitude towards her infuriating. Just because they are from the crime bureau, they look down on her for being a state police officer and a woman.

"This is Mr. Amon. He is going to help us solve this case," Juliana says.

The two men turn their heads to look at Amon and begin sizing him up. They look at him from head to toe and can’t help but feel a little intimidated.

It’s not always that they feel intimidated by a man, no matter how big he is, but with Amon, they do. So they instantly put their guard up in front of him.

"No need to be so tense gentlemen, I don’t bite," Amon says seeing them tense up their bodies in front of him.

The two men don’t listen to him and remain vigilant. Juliana smirks seeing their reaction to Amon. She finds it hilarious that these two men who always looked down on her are now puckered up in defense, just by being in the presence of Amon.

"How can you help us in this case, Mr. Amon?" One of them finally speaks up.

"Amon here says that he understands the language in the diagrams," Juliana speaks up for him.

As soon as the two agents hear her words, they too become a little excited.

"Are you a language expert?" one of them asks.

"You could say that," Amon says.

"What are your credentials?" the other one asks.

"Well, I am a teacher," Amon replies.

Juliana, too, is surprised to hear Amon’s answer. She knows Amon is rich, so why would he be a teacher? ’Why is he lying?’ Juliana thinks but decides to stay silent for now. She doesn’t want to create an unnecessary scene here at the crime scene.

"Where do you teach?" the agents continue to interrogate Amon and he answers them straight.

One of the agents then leaves to see if everything Amon said is true or not while the other continues talking to him.

"Since you say you are a language expert, help yourself. Tell us what this is all about," the agent lets Amon approach the magic circle.

Amon gives him and smile and approaches the magic circle while Juliana follows right beside him.

Amon walks around the circle reading the letters and smiles under the vigilant watch of the bureau agent.

"What does it say?" Juliana can’t wait anymore and asks Amon.

"You see, the circle surrounding the heads?" Amon questions pointing at the very inner circle. "Yes, what is it?" Juliana asks.

"It calls upon the name of a very powerful demon," Amon says.

"Demon?" The agent approaches Amon and gives him a mocking look.

"Well, you aren’t very bright, are you?" Amon makes fun of him in return. The agent seethes in anger hearing Amon’s words, which also make Juliana chuckle. "We are literally standing in front of a ritual killing. Why would you question the name of a demon?" Amon asks, putting on a mocking smile.

The agent doesn’t say anything.

"What’s its name?" Juliana asks the right question.

"Diathashes," Amon says.

"Diathashes?" Juliana questions.

"It’s the name of an ancient demon who has been worshiped across multiple continents. She is a very powerful demon and her worshipers were granted extraordinary powers for pleasing her," Amon says.

"What is this nonsense? There are no such things as demons. This is just the work of a very sick man," the agent yells angrily. He believes Amon is putting on a performance and wasting their time.

Amon smiles at the idiot. Little does he know how wrong he is. There are demons everywhere, and it’s not just demons, all kinds of mythical things walk this planet. They are just very good at hiding and when they get found, the person who saw them ends up dead, burying the secret again.

"It is indeed the work of a very sick man, but I am just telling you what I know from the tales I have read. It is up to you as to how you interpret them. It is, after all, your duty to catch this sick man. He is a demon worshiper, after all. It doesn’t matter if demons exist or not, if he believes they exist, he will continue to kill now, won’t he?" Amon questions the agent, shutting him up once again.

"What about the rest of the diagram?" Juliana continues to ask the right questions. Amon smiles at her and begins speaking again.

"The heads are placed close to her name in belief that the demon would hear his calling. The hands are placed in such a way so that they can reach out to the demon and guide her to this place. The torsos and legs are offerings for her feast," Amon says.

"What does this killer want by conducting all this ritual?" Juliana asks.

"What everyone wants, Immortality. He believes that the demon Diathashes can grant him eternal life," Amon says with a chuckle.

"Where does it say?" Juliana asks.

"Right here, the circles surrounding the torsos and the legs, he begs her to grant him immortality by accepting these offerings," Amon says.

"So immortality, huh? This monster has already killed two hundred and seventy-six people. When will he stop?" Juliana asks in frustration and anger.

Since this is the sixteenth ritual they found, there are sixteen dead people here, and the number of bodies corresponds to the number of rituals they have come across. The first ritual site had only one body, the second one and two, and the third one three, it follows the pattern all the way to this sixteenth killing site.

A hundred and thirty-six people died. This is too many deaths.

"He won’t stop anytime soon," Amon says.

"How do you know?" The agent asks.

"Because I know of this ritual. He needs to perform this ritual a hundred times to please Diathashes," Amon says.

Hearing the number hundred sends chills down both Juliana’s and the agent’s spine.

"You are not kidding, right?" Juliana asks, as fear begins to creep up inside her.

"I am not, so to complete his ritual, this sick man will have to kill 5050 people. Still, 4914 people to go. He must have chosen this city because it’s the most populated one. Easier for him to kill in large numbers," Amon says.

"How can someone be so evil?" Juliana asks, shuddering.

"Sometimes ones desire outweighs the entirety of humankind,"

"This man is willing to kill thousands of people just based on some stories?" the agent asks clinching his fists as tightly as possible.

"Stories are powerful as they can influence the minds of thousands, some more than others. This man has lost himself in the story far more than anyone else," Amon says.

"How do you know all this? What is this story you are talking about?" Juliana asks. She has been paying attention to everything Amon has said, and she realizes that Amon knows all about this a little too well.

Amon looks at her and smiles. "No need to suspect me. I don’t have any use for eternal life, as for how I know all this is because I have read it," Amon says.

"Read it? where?" Juliana asks.

"My personal library," Amon answers.