I ended up burning my clothes and scattering the ashes, after which I took a very long bath and scrubbed myself clean. Victor, or whatever his name was, hadn't bled on me directly, but the dude's blood got splattered all over the damn street and a lot of it, I knew, got onto my clothes, the same way it got everywhere else. I wondered, briefly, if his invisibility spell worked even if he was dead. If it did, then no one would ever find the smoking remains of his corpse. If not, then the Crime Scene Investigators were about to have a field day, trying to figure out the murder weapon, because – as far as I was aware – Laspistols didn't exist yet, not even in the US military.

So, yeah, good luck to them.

I ran back home as quickly as I could, taking lesser-known routes to minimize the number of people who might see me.

After bathing and scrubbing myself clean for maybe over an hour, I hopped on my computer and scrolled the internet, hoping to see some news. Nothing. Someone should've already seen the man's remains and reported it and a bunch of reporters should've already gotten on the scene and written stuff about it. But there was nothing. The most exciting news from Portland, Maine, was that Stephen King was here for a book signing or something in the local library. Actually, that was some pretty cool news; I had a bunch of his books here I'd love to have signed.

But, wait, I was getting sidetracked.

No news about a smoking, headless torso. Nothing about murders. Nothing. And so I arrived at two possible conclusions: Victor's spell worked even after death or someone, somewhere, had quietly disposed of his body. The latter possibility was probably the reason why I've never seen a werewolf carcass or something. Not sure if either of those were true, however, and – if nothing else – I was glad that it wasn't on the news. That meant no one saw the body and no one could trace it back to me. No one would know that I'd killed a man – or, something that dressed like one and looked like one. No one would know that I pulled the trigger.

No one would know that I didn't feel anything when he died. Sure, my limbs froze up, but now I just... I wasn't feeling anything. No shock. No regret. Killing him was a favor to the world.

Wait... what about the people at the bank-

I browsed the internet even further and, cleverly hidden several pages away from Google, was a very brief article that detailed some kind of gas leak that caused several deaths in Portland, Maine, hours ago. About thirty people died. And, somehow, this wasn't a headline. This wasn't going viral and it definitely wasn't on the news. The article had around three views, mine included. My eyes narrowed. Someone, somewhere, was making sure to hide this, making sure no one would ever know or care about it. And that left me with a startling conclusion.

The Supernaturals were deeply embedded in human society. No one knew about them, but they controlled the media and who knows how many other things that people very much depended on. Did they control the police? The military? Was every government in the world somehow in the pocket of supernatural creatures? They had magic. Humans didn't. As Victor said, they could do anything they wanted, whenever they wanted, because there was nothing anyone could do to stop them.

Humanity was a puppet, dancing on their strings.

But I was gonna put a stop to that. I had power. I had... something close to magic, I guess. I had power. And, as Spiderman's dead uncle once said, 'With great power, comes great responsibility'. And that meant I had the responsibility to humanity to save them from the clutches of these supernatural beings. And it seemed like the System was going to reward me for killing them, the same way it rewarded me for killing Victor. The path forward, then, was for me to stand as the guardian of humanity, to be its safeguard from all supernatural threats.

I had to become even stronger. I killed Victor, but I didn't win against him. I shot him from behind. I was pretty sure I'd be dead now if I didn't wait for him to lower his guard and turn around. Could I even have taken him in a melee fight if I rushed him? No idea. The dude looked absolutely roided up to the gills. So, I killed him, but I would've lost. What a frightening thing to think about – even more so when I had to consider the fact that Victor the Necromancer probably wasn't too high up on the totem pole. At some point, I'd expect to go up against literal angels and devils, creatures that could smite me out of existence with but a stray thought. I had to be ready to go up against such beings.

And so, that was why, all things considered, I was glad that I killed him, because his death granted me the greatest boost I've ever had since I awakened with this power. And because he was a genuine threat to humanity, killing people without an ounce of regret or remorse. If every single Necromancer was anything like Victor, then they were all my enemies.

6900 War Points wasn't anything to scoff at. Quite literally, the System unraveled before me; things and options that'd previously been grayed out and unavailable were suddenly available. Things that were previously expensive were suddenly within my budget. Hundreds of new items appeared in my 'For You' section, a whole bunch of things that were almost immediately useful. Many of them were certainly powerful, such as weapons that could obliterate entire city blocks or flames that burned anything and everything from anywhere – Phosphex. There were even super cool sci-fi Power Armors here and physical augmentations that would make me even more superhuman. I could even buy one or two units of these Space Marines, Ork Nobz, Tyranid Warriors, Aspect Warriors, Necron Warriors, and a whole host of other things that would fight and kill at my behest.

I could even afford a bunch of monstrous things now as something called a Carnifex would cost me only 6500 War Points – a veritable monster that was supposedly capable of shrugging off artillery fire and explosives, and was powerful enough to rip apart sci fi tanks to ribbons. Or literal dinosaurs.

However, one caught my eye almost instantly – a very particular unit that, I figured, would suit my needs perfectly. It was a little expensive, but based entirely on its description, I knew it'd be worth it.

[Culexus Assassin] - The Culexus Assassins are the most sinister, feared, and hated of all Imperial Assassins. They are null-entities in the warp, and their unnatural lack of a presence inspiring a sense of unease even in non-psykers. To psykers their mere presence is terrifying, invoking panic. In the confusion caused by this fear, the assassin can move in on its target and eliminate them. To purely psychic entities like daemons, they are invisible. For this particular universe, they are the perfect anti-magic combatants. Their very presence disables magical effects and causes spells to fizzle out. This anti-magic aura, however, can be overpowered by a sufficiently powerful magical attack in the same way a hole in the ground can overflow if filled with too much water. Costs 5500 War Points.

Yeah, I was taking this one. Purchasing it would leave me with 1400 War Points, which was enough for me to purchase something rather interesting.

[Tempestus Scions Training] – Tempestus Scions, otherwise known as Stormtroopers, are the elite shock troops of the Militarum Tempestus. As far as regular humans go, they are the best of the best, trained to the absolute peak of human perfection; their combat skills are unmatched by any Guardsman. There are many variants of Stormtroopers, but this training module will impart the knowledge of all of them in an instant. May or may not cause you to pass out. Costs 1400 War Points.

I did not hesitate or second guess my choices this time. I spent all my existing War Points and bought the [Culexus Assassin] unit and the [Tempestus Scions Training]. And then I blanked out and fell unconscious almost immediately afterwards, my vision turning black and empty. I did not dream. Instead, within what I'd call my dreamscape, I ran through what was essentially a training montage – running and surviving across different environments, carrying and handling various weapons and explosives, how to kill, how to fight, how to sabotage enemy equipment, how to kill a target in hand to hand combat, and how manage my emotions during the heat of battle, to remain cold and steady, to kill without remorse or hesitation.

Ten years' worth of training must've flashed through my mind in an instant, filling me with knowledge but none of the actual experience. It was a jarring thing, even in my sleep.

I awoke to the sight of the Culexus Assassin staring down at me. The front of its helmet was that of a stylized skull with lengthened teeth, blue visors glowing within the dark eye sockets. Around its neck was a... machine of some kind, likely a weapon. The assassin wore a skintight dark blue suit that was almost black in appearance. It just stood there, looming over me. I coughed a few times and realized that I was on the bed. I'd been on the floor when I fell unconscious. The assassin must've placed me on the bed. Hmm... curious. Was that some kind of automated programming? Did my summoned units possess a limited sapience?

Well, I was gonna have to test that for myself. I pushed myself up and turned to the clock. It was 7:00 am; I missed the morning run with mom. She was probably halfway through her track by now. Not that it mattered, however, since I'd outgrown that particular exercise and no longer benefited from it. I turned to the Assassin, realizing just how that the dude must've been over six feet tall. "Did you put me on the bed?"

The assassin nodded wordlessly. The descriptions mentioned something about a great discomfort about being in the presence of a Culexus Assassin, but I honestly didn't feel anything. It was possible that, as the summoner, I was immune to the passive negative effects of anything I summoned – maybe. I stood up and, seeing as there was nothing for him to do at the moment, sent the Culexus Assassin straight into my Inventory. My training told me to scan my immediate vicinity, before scanning the perimeter, which meant my room and then the house, and outside the house. I surely would've made plenty of enemies in killing Victor, after all; redundancies in protection and detection were a necessity.

Huh... all these thoughts weren't mine, but they came so naturally I couldn't even differentiate what was and what wasn't originally mine – or maybe there was no difference at all. Whatever the case, I secured my room first, looking for anything that was out of place. I scanned every crevice, searching for even the smallest sign of tampering – the faintest sign that anyone other than myself or the Culexus Assassin had been here. My parents never entered my room without my permission. I found nothing.

After that, I scanned the whole house and, once again, found nothing amiss. I did the same with our lawn and the grounds, also finding nothing in particular. Well, I did find a lot of hairpins that, no doubt, came from mom, which was weird since she's always running out of them. And also some old, dust-covered jewelry that probably also belonged to mom. Honestly, I also found a bunch of things I'd lost a few years back, bracelets and such.

But, nothing supernatural or out of the ordinary.

Huh, maybe Victor just wasn't that important?

And then... I saw it, a flicker on the wall on the back portion of our house – an odd symbol, etched in red, about as small as a nail, the shape of an eye and, around it, the flickering form of something kind of looked like an owl. My eyes narrowed. This definitely wasn't normal.

But what the hell was it?

Helena Stolas raised a brow as the scrying ward she'd placed to spy on that peculiar human boy suddenly went dark. She smiled. "Interesting."