Chapter 38 Bloodbath

Before he could give another brand a try, a knock suddenly came to the door of the suite, catching him off-guard as he sighed to himself.

"Well, that's probably not good, is it?" He muttered.

He was hesitant to open the door, knowing it was no good, but after the knocking didn't stop, he finally gave in and opened it.

Behind the door was a disgruntled looking middle-aged man with a bushy mustache, wearing a neat tuxedo with a nametag on it stating his name–"Harold." It was clear by a single look and the attire he wore that this was the person responsible for running the establishment.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave before I call the cops," the hotel manager said sternly.

"Give me a break, man, I just woke up…" He sighed, rubbing his own head.

The manager held a disgusted expression, waving his hand in front of his nose as if trying to dispel an unwanted stench.

"Your breath…have you been drinking? I don't know who you are and how you got in, young man, but that's it! I am calling the police here right this instant!" The manager said, jabbing his finger towards him.

Though he was willing to go, word of the police getting involved changed things as he groaned, raising his hand.

'It's a drag, but I guess I'll have to make him think I'm an esteemed guess,' he thought.

["Absolute Hypnosis"]

–Or so he thought.

Attempting to conjure the spell, nothing came as the pitch-black grimoire of his didn't manifest itself either.

'What?' He thought.

The hotel manager stood in the corridor, looking at him like he had a few screws loose as Noah had been standing there with his hand outstretched, though no spell was born.

"What're you doing, sir?...Are you drunk?" The hotel manager asked with a disgruntled expression.

Ignoring the man's words, he tried again to invoke his hypnosis spell, then tried anything–fire conjuration, teleportation, the whole nine-yards, but nothing came.

'What's going on…? The grimoire isn't appearing…I can't access any of my spells!' He thought.

While he was left perplexed by this unexpected problem, he glanced up to see the middle-aged man taking a phone from his pocket, tapping "9-1-1" on the keypad.

"No–!"

Without thinking as his mind was left in knots from his current predicament, he reached forward, attempting to reach for the man's phone, but the manager looked over in horror as Noah's hand accidentally went directly towards his face.

Forgetting his own strength in the absence of his magic, Noah found a sickening crunch resounding through the hotel as his hand slammed the manager's head against the wall, breaking through it and stumbling into the room across the hall.

"Huh–?" Noah let out, realizing what he had just done.

Falling onto the carpet, the manager's body was limp as his skull had been caved in flat with fragments of it mixing with the rubble of the wall, forming a blood of crimson beneath.

"Aaaaagh…!"

A bloodcurdling, feminine scream met his ears as he stood there in momentary confusion, looking over to find the current resident of the hotel room witnessing the brutal manslaughter.

"I didn't mean to–" He quietly tried to explain himself in shock.

"---Aaagh!" The woman continued to scream.

Again, his first instinct was to attempt to cast a hypnosis spell or stop time, but no such solution was at his fingertips in the moment as he looked down at his blood-soaked right hand then at the body of the manager.

As the screams continued and the sounds of doors opening around the halls met his ears with curious murmurs of hotel residents, he ran out of the room, sprinting down the halls with his superhuman athleticism.

At the very least, despite the current absence of magic, he found respite in the fact his stats remained the same, allowing him to bolt down the hotel halls, finding people drawn towards the source of the crime he abandoned.

'I don't know what's going on, but…I need to find Yukio–I have to get home! He's had a system longer than me–he might know what's going on!' He decided.

"What happened here?!"

"Somebody call the police!"

"Already on it!"

He could hear the shocked voices of people finding the fresh crime scene as he raced swiftly down the halls, forcing a hotel worker to have to move out of the way as Noah kicked down the door to the stairwell, slamming it off its hinges as he wasted not a single moment moving.

'I don't know what could be causing this…!' He thought.

Racing down the spiraling staircase of the hotel, there were many floors he had to descend, and quickly, hearing it grow increasingly noisy within the hotel itself.

There was a part deep inside of him that was utterly frightened at this inexplicable issue: deprived of his spells for unknown reasons, he couldn't hide behind them any longer–there was no twisting the truth or simply warping away.

In the eyes of those around him, the truth was unable to be blanketed.

Finally reaching the lobby of the illustrious hotel, he arrived amidst a crowd of shocked people who looked at him in horror as if he were a monster.

As he looked around, he realized the looks came from his disheveled appearance with sweat dripping down his chin and a blood-soaked fist that leaked onto the marble flooring.

"That's him!"

"Somebody stop him!"

"Hold him until the police get here–!"

People recognized him as the killer, getting in his way as he was desperate to get home and find Yukio.

"Move…! Move–!"

In his desperation, he wasn't gentle, once more accidentally unleashing his innate strength as he grabbed the shoulder of the burly man in front of him, yanking him out of the way and in the process slamming him hard enough into the marble to crack it.

Such an impact was an instant kill for a normal person as the bald-headed man laid there in a quickly-forming pool of blood as screams and gasps of horror echoed in the lobby.

"I–"

​ Before he could try to make an excuse for himself, two men, despite witnessing the strength he possessed, attempted to restrain him by grabbing onto both of his arms, though he easily resisted.

"--You idiots!"

Enraged by the continuous acts of folly from those who were merely ants in comparison to his power, finding himself flooded with anger at his own situation and the obstacles in front of him, he threw one of the men off before punching the blonde-haired one directly against his nose.

The strength behind the blow splattered the man's head, prompting him to huff as he looked forward, finding nobody else daring to block his path as he slammed through the locked front doors of the hotel.