Ian picked up Hans’s brain from the floor and carefully placed it on the table.
The squishy texture was quite unpleasant, but damaging it would cause problems in various ways, so he needed to handle it as carefully as possible.
Although he would end up crushing it brutally anyway when putting it into the vessel for the soul… still, an intact brain had higher value as a material than a damaged one. Even being an esper didn’t exempt one from this rule.
‘The problem is holy water, then.’
For magicians, the corpses of espers held little value. Even weird sorcerers or cannibalistic sorcerers didn’t particularly prefer espers. Their value as materials was lower than that of ordinary people, even beasts, so it was only natural.
Thus, to use them as materials, holy water had to be incorporated into the magical process. You could consider it a kind of purification ritual.
Fortunately, Ian still had some holy water he had prepared in advance.
Without hesitation, he took out the holy water from the refrigerator and poured it liberally into the vessel for the soul. Into it, he cut up Hans’s brain and put it in.
Perhaps because it was smaller than Eddie’s brain, Hans’s brain softly plopped into the holy water and sank.
Now, if he waited about five minutes in this state, the purification would be complete. Ian started cleaning in the meantime.
When he stepped out into the corridor, a relatively clean scene met his eyes.
Thanks to the Schemer having devoured all the blood and corpses, there were no parts that needed separate mopping. Still, there were many damaged spots here and there, so he thought if the building owner saw it, they might faint in shock, foaming at the mouth.
‘I could just leave it and request assistance from the Management Bureau; it wouldn’t matter much. But to do that, I’d have to explain what happened here. Then, naturally, my workshop’s location would be exposed.’
It was a result Ian wanted to avoid.
Having his home address revealed was something he could laugh off. But not the workshop. There were many spells that could only be performed here, and all important materials were stored in the workshop. Each one had considerable value, and from the Management Bureau’s perspective, they looked quite bizarre, so it might stir up unnecessary trouble.
Moreover, due to the workshop’s unique nature, if it attracted a lot of attention, part of the ether concentrated in the workshop itself would inevitably disperse.
Bearing all these losses just to ask for one cleanup didn’t balance the books. So Ian gave up on calling the Management Bureau completely and repaired the corridor himself.
“Be reborn.”
Crrrack.
As he chanted the spell holding his grimoire, the half-destroyed walls, ceiling, and floor began to return to their original state.
Avoiding the use of recreation magic that interfered with space while having been covered in black seawater was proper, but there was no other way.
It wasn’t a scale that could be fixed in a few hours by hiring some workers, was it? It was much better to endure the headache and fix it with magic himself.
Thinking so, Ian slowly restored the corridor and even returned the elevator to working order.
He didn’t check if it worked properly. If he got trapped inside the elevator, it would be a disaster.
The elevator’s restoration was just for show anyway. It was better to leave functional repairs to the building owner.
Still, just in case, Ian sent a message to the building owner saying the elevator seemed a little broken. With that, at least he could prevent her from falling while using the elevator.
“Now I just need to decide on the next course of action.”
Ian leaned against the wall and put a cigarette in his mouth. As he lit it, a sweet lemon scent spread out.
He didn’t think, ‘I’ve overcome the crisis, so it’s resolved!’ They showed their fangs first, so he needed to hold on until he pulled out all those fangs.
If possible, total annihilation. If that’s hard, then crush them so they can never rise again.
Either way, it wasn’t that difficult.
The problem was a lack of information. Even if he decided to catch and kill them, it meant nothing without knowing their location or abilities. It was no different from just flailing at the air.
So first was gathering information.
Fortunately, one soul that would spit out information was waiting inside the workshop, so there was no problem.
“Hoo… it should be about done.”
Ian blew out a puff of smoke and entered the workshop with the cigarette in his mouth. A migraine from the magic’s side effects stabbed at his head, but it was bearable so he ignored it and moved.
Inside the dark workshop.
The Schemer had long since returned to the Outer Sea. Though a fairly strong creature, it had almost no mobility to move on its own, so it didn’t require much food. There was a reason he had taken it all out.
Creeeak.
Ian lit the lamp placed in the corner of the table and checked the state of the brain in the vessel.
The brain submerged in holy water was continuously emitting bubbles. Watching the holy water boil like carbonated water, Ian nodded.
‘This should do.’
Sploosh.
He poured the holy water from the vessel into the sink. It would mix with water and dilute on its own, so there was no need to think about disposal.
The shriveled brain was crushed finely with a pestle. Blood spattered slightly, but he ground it all without concern.
After a while, the brain had turned into something like a smoothie. Ian added his own drops of blood onto the pinkish flesh and chanted the spell.
“By the name of the great one, I command you, being within the vessel of the soul. Reveal yourself.”
Gurgle.
The blood that had seeped into the flesh clumped together like a spider’s web, covering the brain fragments. A moment later, smoke crept up from the bottom of the vessel along the inner wall and formed the shape of Hans.
[I greet the consort of the great one.]
He uttered it in the exact same voice as Hans. Since Ian already knew the result of the magic, he wasn’t particularly surprised and spoke.
“First, tell me your name, ability, and affiliation.”
[My name is Hans. My ability is never-tiring stamina, and my affiliation is Florence.]
Hans answered obediently. Ian blew out a puff of cigarette smoke.
“What does Florence do?”
[It’s an esper organization founded in Switzerland. Mercenary work is its main business, and currently they have set foot in Korea for the Twilight Hour. Their primary target is the owner of the Lemegeton; all other magicians are secondary.]
The owner of the Lemegeton. As soon as Ian heard the word, he thought of Yu Eun-ha’s face. His brow furrowed.
“……Did you kill the owner of the Lemegeton?”
[No. We haven’t found a trace of them yet. The number of magicians we have hunted so far is zero; you were our first prey.]
“Hoo, that’s a relief.”
He let out a sigh of relief and leaned his upper body forward slightly.
“How did you find out this location? An ability?”
[There is someone in the mercenary group who can visualize residual ether left by magicians and pinpoint its origin. Her name is Louise. She is now permanently deceased.]
“……Permanently deceased? Is there a death that isn’t?”
[Yes. Florence’s leader has the ability to bring dead people back to life. To be precise, it’s restoring the biological data of the deceased human.]
“Hoh.”
Ian’s face changed to one of interest. He stubbed out his cigarette in a portable ashtray and tapped his grimoire with his finger.
“Explain properly.”
[The name of the leader who leads Florence is Laura. She was a hybrid of a vampire and a human, but she became a mutant esper, so she has no vampire traits except for a preference for blood. She is estimated to be in her mid-twenties, and her ability is, as I mentioned, the restoration of data.]
“……Hybrid?”
[What she can restore isn’t just biological data. She can restore all information existing in this world, and this is done in different ways. In the case of biological data, restoration is only possible if the death was from physical trauma. If the mind is broken, it cannot be restored. The vice-leader Maia provides the restoration data.]
“....”
Instead of answering, Ian organized his thoughts.
Setting aside the intriguing nature of the ability for now, the word ‘hybrid of vampire and human’ was extremely bothersome.
‘Camilla clearly said that the birth of vampires has nothing to do with reproductive acts. Hybrids cannot be born in the first place; that’s how the system works.’
The child born from a vampire having sex with a human is human. Occasionally, a monster is born, but basically, only humans are born. Hybrids don’t just appear out of the blue like in some fantasy novel.
‘The way vampires are born is through evolution. Corpses killed by bloodsucking become ghouls, and they gradually evolve into intelligent vampires. It’s impossible for one to be completed in a womb.’
Then, what is Laura?
A late-stage chuunibyou patient who thinks she’s a vampire hybrid? Or a crazy bitch with schizophrenia and delusions at the same time? Could a group with such a person as its leader have survived until now, logically?
“....”
Numerous questions arose in his mind, but none of them felt like the exact answer. In the end, Ian let out a deep sigh and leaned back against the chair.
The duration of the soul vessel was five minutes. There was too little time to keep agonizing over an unsolvable problem. For now, the right thing was to continue gathering information.
“Tell me all the abilities of the remaining espers in Florence. And give me Laura’s current location too.”
Ian murmured in a low voice.
[Yes, understood. First, Anna’s ability is...]
Hans told him one by one the abilities and strategies of those who had been his comrades. He also revealed the place Laura had made her last refuge.
Exactly four minutes later, his form vanished as if it were a lie. Ian stared briefly at the empty vessel, then slowly rose to his feet.
Now that he knew the location, there was no reason to hesitate.
When he faced Laura, he would probably get to hear about the hybrid matter. He’d listen to the details in Chinatown where she was.
Thinking so, he dusted off his coat.
“Shall we go?”
Wooong.
The grimoires responded in accordance with his will.
*
“Is that Eric’s house...?”
A large man from Florence. Victor muttered with a cigar in his mouth.
The place he currently stood was an alley about 10 meters from Eric’s house. Getting soaked in the pouring rain, Victor blew out a puff of cigar smoke. A few mercenaries coughed from the acrid smoke.
“Just looking at it gives a terribly ominous feeling. Are all magicians’ houses like that?”
“We haven’t even gone in yet, Victor. And from investigating the magician Eric, I hear his combat ability isn’t particularly strong. At most, he can handle a bit of wind, water, and earth. Once we disable the traps, it shouldn’t be difficult.”
The intellectual-looking woman standing next to Victor said. Victor grimaced.
“Isn’t that being able to handle three of the four elements?”
“It’s a different concept, Victor. The magic he can use merely mimics fragments of natural disasters. Controlling earth, at best, is just lightly shaking the ground.”
“Ah, really?”
“Yes. Wind and water aren’t much to worry about either. As long as we’re careful of hot water and strong gusts, we’ll be fine.”
“That’s a relief. I was thinking a monster like the one Anna faced might pop out.”
At his words, the woman burst into laughter.
“Magicians of that level aren’t common. If there were even one more similar guy in this land, Korea would have been an otherworldly hellscape.”
As they conversed, light flashed in the sky. A blue bolt of lightning roamed through the clouds then disappeared.
Boom!
Victor listened quietly to the belated thunderclap and threw his rain-soaked cigar to the ground. With a sizzle, the cigar sank into a puddle.
“Let’s go in.”
Splish.
He took the lead and started walking. About ten people followed him.
The front door of the house where Eric lived was made of metal. Victor traced the entrance to the yard with his finger and gave an order to one mercenary.
“Open it.”
“Yes.”
The young mercenary walked forward without hesitation, grabbed the door handle with his hand. After taking a deep breath, he pushed the door open.
At the same time, the magic circle engraved on the front door activated. A thin beam of light shot up from beneath the door gap and precisely pierced through the mercenary’s head.
The light that went through his jaw and out the top of his head disappeared in a second, but the mercenary lost his life just as futilely. Blood and rainwater trickled down through the punctured hole.
Splat.
The fallen corpse half pushed its upper body past the front door. Then, a trap engraved in the yard activated, and intangible ether fell like a guillotine through the door gap.
Squelch.
The corpse’s upper half was cleanly severed. Victor grinned and stepped inside past the front door.
“We’ve disabled two traps with just one guy. This is going smoothly.”
“Please be careful. Attacks could come from the windows.”
The woman said as she followed Victor in. Victor nodded.
Just then, something faintly squirming at the second-floor window caught his eye. Victor instinctively activated his ability.
Whoosh!
His expanded senses detected everything around him.
The sound of breathing from the first-floor living room. The metallic sound of handling firearms.
And the scent of a child’s skin from the second floor. A breath that felt flustered. The smell of rough leather. The peculiar bland yet musty scent of new parchment, as if just made.
“Ha.”
Victor burst into laughter.
A nosebleed flowed from the side effect of his ability, but he didn’t care and drew the machete from his waist.
“Seems there were two of them, huh?”
A bloody smell wafted from his torn mouth corners.