Steven "Roadkill" Smith stared at a young woman lying on the ground, her breath was faint and ragged and blood pooled under her body.

Three large holes could be seen on her chest but even that was not enough to take her life.

"Where’s Richard?"

"I told you! I don’t know! Salem does not know! We have nothing to do with that Spawn of MERLIN!"

Steven went quiet, the desperation in the woman’s voice was real and his training told him that she was not lying. Still, even if the woman looked like she was still sixteen and very attractive.

The things that were turned into minced meat around her showed a different truth about the woman.

"So you have nothing to do with them? But I’ll ask you this, how did you create this army of monsters?"

Steven was pointing out the piles of minced meat that had once been humanoid monsters.

Of course, those monstrosities were dealt with by him easily but those beasts did not come out of nowhere.

Although he already knew the answer to his question he still wanted to hear the excuse from the witches mouth.

Whatever bullshit lie she gave didn’t matter, Steven’s goal was to make her confess, a way for him to justify his own actions and evil.

"What? Can’t kill a mass murderer?"

The witch said smugly, her expression twisting to show satisfaction seeing that Steven went silent the witch was about to speak once more when-

*BANG*

Her head was blasted into a million pieces of crushed bone, minced meat, blood and other organic matter.

Minutes later, a group of men dressed in black entered while Steven was resting by a pillar.

"Good work, we’ll take it from here"

The leader of the group nodded at Steven before ordering his men to deal with the corpses.

Steven knew that those men were not going to send the corpses to clearing and bury them in unmarked graves nor will they try to ID the people who those flesh monsters once were.

Instead, those corpses along with the deceased witch would be sent to a secret research facility to become materials for the next batch of weapons.

"You’ve done well Witch Hunter"

A man came up to Steven and patted him on the back, it was his former boss, Addrian Allen Lowe, now he was the head of the information division of the newly established Hunter Network.

The government had secretly started a plan that was set up long before Steven was even born.

It was a well thought off plan that turned soldiers into witch hunters and recruited mystics to hunt down other mystics.

The FMC functioned to maintain bad relations between the various mystical factions.

This allowed for the existence of rogue mystics and people with knowledge of them but have no affiliation with any group.

Simply put, the government was raising its own problems, like growing specific weeds to deal with more dangerous pests.

In agriculture, it’s called "biological control", the government labeled it as a contingency.

To Steven... It was vengeance.

"I don’t hunt witches, witches could be good or bad, what I hunt are monsters"

Steven replied bluntly, his attitude was cold and he didn’t even look Adrian in the eye as he spoke.

But he did shoot a small quip at the man who used to be his boss.

"But I don’t think a man who slept with them would ever think of them as such huh?"

Steven hit Adrian where it hurt most.

Although he didn’t want to add it on his file, Adrian HAD to add all interactions he had with the witches. Even when action was an attempt at subjugation of an enemy.

Before all the madness, people would praise him for surviving a night with a witch.

Now?

He was seen as a traitor who gave up his life for a night with the witch.

As the information on witches that the FMC had were spread, so too were the information of the agents within the FMC.

Adrian, a high ranking officer did not get his position through simple "hard work and effort".

The job of being the leader of the FMC required one to have a direct connection with the mystical world.

Before Adrian, everyone who took the seat were, in their own way, a mystic.

The one who was supposed to succeed Adrian was Kellin but the man died through inexplicable reasons and the last person to come into contact with Kellin was a witch.

That same witch had also been one of the many witches who Adrian had spent a night with.

Steven who was the protege of Kellin and who treated the old man like a father figure would obviously despise the man who was under suspicion of collusion with the witches to take down a talent that would have been a great asset of the government to combat witches.

"You should be thankful that I’m a proper soldier, if I wasn’t- you’d be dead"

Steven spat out as he walked away from Adrian.

Seeing the young man leave, Adrian let out an exhausted sigh as he muttered under his breath-

"Would you believe me if I said that I had nothing to do with Kellin’s death? I even did everything to ensure his lover and daughter were well taken care of until the end..."

Of course, Adrian did not consider the moment when Kyla was kidnapped by Cindy and that black haired witch.

But no matter what he claimed, without any evidence, all signs point to him being a traitor who sold his brother out the enemy.

All Adrian could do was work hard and try his best clear his name but-

’Things are quite fishy- this whole witch hunt feels like it’s been influenced by magic but...’

Claims needed proof and whatever Adrian believed was nothing more than speculation until he had proper evidence of it.

Even when his own guilt was proven through speculation based on missions he HAD to take.

It didn’t change the fact that things were mildly connected.

But as a veteran of the mystical world, Adrian could feel that something was amiss. He had a strong feeling that if he could get that one missing link, that factor that continues to allude him-

If he could grasp that piece- he could surely trace the origin of this mess.

But until then-

’Richard... if you knew this was going to happen, then a heads up would have been VERY helpful... I knew something was up when you suddenly left for Japan. I had multiple chances... damn it...’

Adrian already had a feeling that something was up when Richard decided to leave the US.

His history and the psychoanalysis their experts did pointed to Richard setting up shop in the US. He was the type of person to work around familiarity and strong connections.

But as if he was laughing at their analysis, Richard went to Japan.

A place he was unfamiliar with and where he had zero connections.

Moreover, the country was a hotspot for powerful mystical organizations and at the top of it all was the international information broker from South Korea, Yuna Seok.

Even if one considered that Richard had companions, Hana was a double agent working for Nova Munda and Cindy Lee did not have the best relationship with Yuna.

If he went to other countries like Vietnam, the Philippines or any of the nations where Cindy Lee had ties to, Adrian could have easily written it off as an escape.

But after Richard left, things started to get crazy and before he knew it things started to fall apart.

It was only then did Adrian remember that Merlin was not only famous for being King Arthur’s adviser, he was also known as a seer.

Merlin’s discovery of Arthur was not by chance, he had foreseen it and led the young man to take the first step.

It was his prophecies that helped Arthur succeed and only when Merlin was sealed away was Arthur eventually defeated.

Adrian did not know how much of that legend was true but he did know that the abilities were likely accurate.

If that were the case... Richard should have seen something. Maybe he even predicted the collapse, things were still good in Japan but when he went to the UK...

Moreover, Richard disappeared, he brought with him the infamous cabal lead by Morgana, a century millenia old monster that lived in the same era as Merlin.

If Adrian’s beliefs are correct then-

"Witch Hunter... is started by opening requests to hunt down witches. His first task was to take down Morgana and that led to the revelation of magic... it really feels like a badly written script but... that’s even scarier..."

Adrian couldn’t let go of his thoughts and ideas.

Even if it brought danger closer to him, it made him a target...

’What’s the end goal of this? Why focus on witches? Why hunt witches? The Mystic population consist of more than just witches and the worst of the bunch aren’t even witches to begin with...’

Adrian didn’t know the answers to his question but whatever it was, he didn’t like it.

Yet he still had to try and get to the bottom of it all.

If even he gave up... what would happen then?

’God I wish I was just a regular salaryman’

With great power comes even greater responsibility. While getting a top position meant that he could get awarded more for his work-

But all that reward and authority came with a responsibility and just had to be the one to face one of the biggest events of his era.

Unfortunately, all Adrian could do was sigh and pray that something even worse doesn’t rear its ugly head out anytime soon.