The black stele that had fallen before Eddie. A colossal stone pillar, a little over two meters tall, glowed as it scattered a voice in every direction.
[Hear me, sinner.]
Ian instinctively realized the identity of that mystery.
The Code of Hammurabi. An ancient Babylonian code of law famous for “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” and notorious for its exceedingly cruel and merciless judgments. If he simply stood there and waited until the verdict was handed down, one of his limbs would surely be blown clean off.
There was no reason to let that happen. Ian opened the grimoire he had summoned and recited a spell.
“Vermin crawl upward, and the mortal world falls into disorder. Beneath His name, the world shall be purified.”
Magic was originally divided into two broad categories. Ritual magic, which activated simply by chanting a specific spell or performing an action, and ceremonial magic, which required lengthy preparation, magic circles, and materials. These two were the most fundamental principles by which magic was invoked, and the natural order of all aether.
But the magic of an Outer God paid no heed to such things. Magic from beyond the cosmos could be invoked in whatever form its master desired; though the risks differed, the effects themselves did not.
Thanks to that, he could respond even to a surprise attack for which he had made no preparations.
“Erase it.”
Grrrrrrrk……!
At Ian’s utterance, liquids like pure white candle wax began to fall from the ceiling. Eddie, who had been quietly listening to the code’s judgment, frowned when he saw the liquid dripping down.
“Ritual magic. No, the scale’s a bit too large to call it that.”
He skillfully stepped backward, putting distance between himself and the white paint.
The Code of Hammurabi could not do the same. In an instant, the code was covered in white and corroded, melting away without leaving a trace. It was an end far too anticlimactic for a fairly powerful mystery, but no one paid that any mind.
“What’s the name of that grimoire?”
Eddie asked as he took a bundle of teeth from his pocket. Instead of obediently telling him, Ian gave a faint smile and showed him the cover of the grimoire.
“If you can read it, go ahead.”
“……Ha.”
A title written in an incomprehensible language. Eddie took out another cigarette and put it between his lips, then threw the teeth in his hand onto the floor.
“Quite the catch.”
Crack, crack, crack!
The teeth split open like eggs, and tiny creatures crawled out from within.
They had wings, like fairies. But their large heads and bodies that were pitifully small by comparison made them come across as grotesque rather than cute, wings or not. All of them looked around with bloodshot eyes, grinding their teeth with a harsh clatter.
“……?”
However, the mystery failed to detect Ian’s location and merely kept circling in place. Ian guessed the reason and smiled inwardly.
‘The magic on the coat.’
A spell that removed him from the sight of those who had lost their reason. The defensive spell had already served its purpose back on the cruise, but this particular magic still remained intact.
“……You son of a bitch.”
A crack appeared in Eddie’s face, which had remained calm from beginning to end.
He did not know exactly what method Ian had used, but rage welled up in him at the fact that his magic had failed to produce its proper effect twice in a row.
Back when he still lived in the Clock Tower, Eddie had been widely renowned as a fairly skilled mage. When it came to handling mysteries, he was on a level where he would not lose even to his own master. His name had not been nominated as a candidate for elder of his school for nothing.
And someone like him.
Was struggling against a worm who had not even been a mage for long, in a tiny East Asian country that did not even possess a proper institution for magical education?
“Ha!”
At the absurd thought, Eddie let out a hollow laugh.
“You’re lucky, young mage. Seems you’ve got some kind of rare artifact that lets you evade the eyes of mysteries?”
“……What?”
Ian narrowed his eyes as if asking what nonsense he was talking about. Whether he did or not, Eddie drew a dagger and murmured in a chilling voice.
“There’s no point hiding it. I’ve already figured it out.”
“…….”
“I’ll kill you, and take not only the grimoire but that artifact as well. Treasures are meant to go to those who can use them for greater value.”
It was an unbearably arrogant statement. Ian considered saying something in response, then simply shut his mouth and calmly organized his thoughts.
Ian did not know the man’s identity. Judging from the circumstances, however, he was probably the mage who had been manipulating the Monkey’s Paw. Through the spell formula left on the Monkey’s Paw, he had discovered Ian’s identity, realized the existence of the grimoire, and had come here to hunt him personally.
It was not a result Ian had intended, but now that it had happened, there was nothing to be done.
If he did not want to die, he had no choice but to kill.
He had never killed anyone before, but at this point, he did not feel any aversion to it. He had already finished steeling himself from the moment he set out to hunt vampires.
Since the other side had bared its teeth first, he would not stop until he had pulled every last one of them out.
“Record.”
Having sorted his thoughts, Ian murmured in a calm voice.
There was no thrill of battle, no fervor, no excitement. Those were fruits to be seized only when victory was nearly in hand. Right now, it was time to think, thoroughly and mechanically, only of how to kill his opponent. Ian was more confident in that than anyone.
“Access.”
Frrrrrrp!
At Ian’s voice, the pages of the grimoire turned.
The number of sheets bound within the grimoire was finite, but its pages were not. The contents recorded in this grimoire had no end, and even now, in this very moment, blank pages were being newly created and new magic was being written.
Those blank pages. Those pure white sheets of drawing paper, still unstained by a single drop of ink, Ian had long used as a notebook. He had recorded the magic circles of spells he had learned and completed the groundwork so they could be used instantly when needed.
This was his first time putting them into actual combat, but Ian did not hesitate as he drew out a portion of them.
“The law is null before me; where I stand is the path.”
The moment he spoke, a dagger flew toward Ian. He barely ducked to avoid it, then stretched his foot out toward the wall.
Ordinarily, the moment his foot touched the wall, he should have failed to overcome gravity and fallen over. But Ian placed his foot on the wall without any sense of resistance and stood there perfectly fine.
He then ran along the wall and charged toward Eddie. At the appearance of magic he had never seen in his life, Eddie’s brow twisted, and he bit down on a capsule from his pocket.
Hssssss……!
Black smoke spread thickly. Within it, unidentified insects squirmed while letting out bizarre cries.
Ian paid them no mind.
The moment his hand touched the smoke, Ian used recreation magic and erased the smoke wholesale.
The smoke and insects vanished in an instant. Eddie, who had never imagined this too would be overcome so easily, recoiled in shock and stepped back. Immediately afterward, white paint erupted from beneath the spot where he had been standing.
The amount of liquid surging upward was not very great, but Eddie, who knew what it could do, felt a chill run down his spine. If even a little had splashed onto him, that part of his body would have melted away entirely.
When his thoughts reached that point, Eddie had no choice but to conclude that something had gone wrong. He decided to be a little more honest with himself.
‘I underestimated him too much.’
A backwater nobody. He had treated a mage from a tiny patch of land in distant Asia, with no connection to magic whatsoever, far too much like an utter cripple. No, he probably was a cripple in truth, but he was somewhat less crippled than expected. Attacking him with only the bare minimum of preparation like this was proving unreasonable.
Of course, Eddie had considered everything that needed to be considered. Since it was a residential area, he had waited until Ian left his home, and he had selected mysteries meant to deal with him decisively.
But none of it had meant anything. To secure certain victory, he first needed to withdraw and then attack again.
“Khk!”
His judgment was quick, and his actions were even quicker. Just as Ian began to recite a new spell, Eddie drew the dagger in his hand across his own palm, bursting blood from it.
Red blood spread. Eddie put it in his mouth, swallowed it, and shouted loudly.
“Boogeyman!”
The instant he spoke, an arm like rotten flesh burst from Eddie’s maw and pressed his body down from above. But Eddie’s body did not burst; instead, it vanished as if being absorbed into the floor.
He had fled. Ian stopped the magic he had been about to use, sighed, climbed down from the wall, and closed the grimoire.
‘For someone who showed up out of nowhere and attacked me, he sure runs fast.’
He clicked his tongue and walked over to the spot where Eddie had been standing. When the door to the neighboring apartment suddenly looked as if it was about to fly open, he kicked it shut with his foot, then carefully dipped a finger into the blood pooled on the floor.
‘No need to let him go.’
Ian briefly returned home, brought back a bottle, and carefully collected the blood pooled on the floor.
It was not a large amount, but this would be enough. He immediately poured the blood into the compass he had made.
Creeeeak!
The compass greedily devoured the blood flowing into it. The needle was instantly dyed red, and the blood pooled at its center rippled as if pulsing, turning the needle.
At last, the compass needle fixed itself toward the east. Ian smiled faintly, slipped the compass into his pocket, smashed the CCTV camera mounted in the hallway, and returned home.
Since he had decided to kill, he had to kill thoroughly. A dog that bared its teeth should, in the end, have even its limbs severed. Not even the slightest future trouble could be left behind.
So he would prepare thoroughly. Thinking so, Ian slung a bag filled with alchemy supplies over his shoulder, took two grimoires, a handgun, and cigarettes, then left the house.
And he began to walk, following the compass.