The Elusive Sorcerer

Chapter 176

The man, especially his three companions, was stunned when the long-haired man in the bowler hat pulled out a fan that, judging by its appearance, looked like a woman's fan, causing all four of them to burst into laughter.

Looking at their clothes, which were different from those of the auction customers, Zavi came to two conclusions:

First, they were auction staff, but he quickly dismissed that possibility.

Second, they were intruders and thieves who had stolen the auction items.

That train of thought prompted Zavi to swing the Hoisline Fan toward the four of them.

Only today did he realize just how useful the Hoisline Fan artifact was!

Bang...

Their bodies slammed into the gold-and-white corridor wall, leaving cracks before collapsing onto the floor.

Bang...

"Ah... Ah... Ah..."

'Damn it!' the white-haired man cursed in panic.

"...Done laughing?" Zavi asked coldly, his gaze as sharp as a freshly honed blade.

Without giving them a chance to recover, Zavi repeatedly swung the Hoisline artifact at them until all four men went limp from being battered by the wind.

The longer the artifact was used, the colder it became in his hand.

Zavi had already been doing this for five minutes, despite the critical situation and having no idea where their other companions were.

As he swung the fan at them, Zavi thought,

'An infiltration and theft this well executed must have been carried out by a group. Yeah, even though I don't have any experience stealing myself. Back on Earth, I was just a troublemaker who skipped school for one reason: being late. Running around everywhere, hiding in abandoned houses, and messing with that killer teacher. Those were bad memories... and good ones too.'

Zavi swung the Hoisline Fan artifact even harder than before, nearly knocking them unconscious.

'Damn it, I got carried away by my emotions!'

He tucked the fan artifact into a hidden pocket in his coat, then kicked the white-haired man hard enough for fresh blood to spill from his mouth, staining his black shoes.

"Where are your companions?" he demanded.

The man nearly laughed and answered weakly, "Everywhere."

Feeling mocked, Zavi pressed his foot into the man's stomach.

"Ugh..."

The man coughed up blood, feeling something churning inside his chest before vomiting even more blood than before, soaking the clothes he was wearing.

Zavi pulled his foot back and looked at the other two men, who shook their heads fearfully.

The man sitting farthest to Zavi's right cursed weakly.

"Bastard, just die already."

The man sitting between the foul-mouthed man and the white-haired man closed his eyes as Zavi's foot came crashing into his face.

'It hurts and burns, damn it...'

He wanted to say it, but the words caught in his throat.

Then, without giving him a chance to move, Zavi punched the mouth of the man who had cursed earlier, knocking out one of his molars and leaving his mouth bleeding.

Zavi swung his arm, even though he had already coated his hand with spiritual power and the basic abilities of a Prisoner.

He turned to the left, looking at the last healthy person, who sat weakly while watching everything unfold.

"Heh, you think I'll surrender and tell you? No, idiot."

At least in the final moments before dying at Zavi's hands, he chose to protect his companions in his own way so their mission could succeed and they could return home safely.

He didn't care if he died, especially if he died while being useful.

The green-eyed man smiled as he watched Zavi walk toward him.

He wanted to run, but his body refused to obey, so he resigned himself to fate.

Zavi searched each of them one by one and found their weapons: revolvers with golden tips.

Seeing the design, along with the small golden dot above the muzzle, Zavi knew where they came from.

"GreyHeaven Province?"

Zavi's thoughts slipped out aloud, causing the green-eyed man to respond in confusion,

"Huh, GreyHeaven?"

The two stared at each other. As Zavi stood up, he slipped two revolvers into his coat pocket, leaving one in his right hand.

It felt bulky, but it didn't hinder his movements.

Then...

He pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The bullet pierced the man's thigh, followed by a sharp scream.

"Ah... it hurts..."

His chest rose and fell as he stared at Zavi with a sweat-covered face, suppressing his groans.

"Damn, so you're crafty after all," the man said, the corner of his lips curling upward into the faintest smirk.

"..."

Zavi stared at him indifferently while the revolver with the gleaming golden tip remained pointed at him, ready to fire again.

The green-eyed man chuckled to himself one last time.

"Who... who are you?"

Bang!

The bullet tore through and pierced the man's head, causing his body to collapse seconds later.

Zavi remained silent, not mourning the man's death but pondering the question for a long time.

'Liam Tirarty. Zavi Actitus. Salilfai Lamena. James Moriarty, or Arsène Lupin?'

After spending so long playing the roles of others, Zavi no longer knew who he truly was.

"Who am I...?"

His jaw remained clenched for several minutes while the foul-mouthed man breathed through his mouth, tears streaming down his face as he stared at Zavi.

"Who am I?"

Of the four men, only the foul-mouthed one remained alive, struggling to breathe through his mouth.

Every breath felt like a burning ember filling his airways.

In the moments before his mouth finally closed shut, he asked the same question one last time.

"W-Who... are you?"

His lips trembled violently as blood flowed from the corner of his mouth.

Zavi contemplated the question with a confused expression, and several seconds later he answered weakly,

"...Arsène Lupin."

He shifted the revolver to the right, intending to end the man's suffering.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The revolver's cylinder swung open, and the spent casings fell onto the corridor floor before an indescribable feeling washed over Zavi.

He kept pulling the trigger even though the cylinder was already empty.

Then he simply crouched down and stared at his own hands.

'Who am I really?'

The question echoed repeatedly in his mind, louder than ever before.

A whisper that made his knees weak and his heart tremble violently reached his ears.

"You're a vicious murderer!"

The people Zavi had killed, especially the female pedestrians in Hava District, spun through his mind.

"No. I... I'm not a murderer," Zavi replied, loosening his grip until the revolver fell onto the corridor floor.

"...I died because of you!"

The silhouette of a woman appeared before him, crouching down and caressing the four corpses with pity.

"No. That... that's not my fault," Zavi argued, his voice trembling.

Then another familiar voice pierced him from the side.

The silhouette of the slain Karl Vairanz appeared to his left, holding his glasses.

"You bastard. If it weren't for you, I could've enjoyed my life like before."

"No..."

Zavi still tried to deny it.

"A crazy murderer."

A group of familiar people appeared in front of him.

They were the four men he had just killed.

"Arsène Lupin... I'll drag you to hell."

Zavi wanted to say something, but the words never came out because his throat suddenly tightened.

The murmurs of the people he had killed, injured, and ruined echoed around him.

"Despicable thief!"

"Criminal, just die."

"You don't deserve to live in this world."

"Because of you, my home was destroyed."

They were some of the residents of Forgenate District, specifically near the border between Huween Street and Syrp Street.

"I'll drag you to hell for that explosion."

A group of bandits he had once hunted came back to haunt him.

"You destroyed our lives."

"That poison was torture. Even in death I can still feel it."

"James Moriarty is a bastard. Because of you, your death should be like an ant crushed under a human foot."

"Worthless human. You don't deserve to live in this world!"

Zavi bit his lower lip.

"That's what you should've known, you worthless idiot!"

He pulled out the Hoisline Fan artifact, trying to drive away the voices that continued to echo in his head.

A single overwhelming swing shattered the Ountakana auction building from the inside.

Even though the building had taken an enormous amount of time and money to construct, it would collapse from just one swing of the fan.

Another voice, one that awakened painful memories within Zavi, echoed endlessly.

"Liam Tirarty is a murderer!"

"Lazy. Undisciplined. Always late."

"Mother is disappointed in you, Liam."

"Stupid little brother!"

The disbelief that had once spread only through whispers now rang clearly.

"I never thought that lazy Liam was a murderer."

Zavi slowly dropped to his knees, his palm pressed against the corridor floor as he stared at his own reflection and the faces of the people around him.

"No. I... I'm not a murderer!"

"...If you're not a murderer, then what are you?"

His pupils widened when he saw someone he recognized.

"Dennis?"

"I never thought Liam would become a murderer."

Hearing those words from his best friend, at least before prison, made Zavi's breathing grow even more frantic.

Then came the voices of his family, unable to believe his cruel deeds despite their misunderstanding.

"Mother was unlucky to give birth to a criminal like you."

The voice rose sharply, filled with disbelief and regret.

"You're wrong, Mom. I'm not a murderer."

But it didn't stop there. The voices of his older sisters, who had once been close to him, followed.

Now their voices were sharp, unlike the ones he remembered.

"That lazy little brother is actually a murderer?"

"He'd do all that for a woman?"

Zavi growled.

"You're wrong. I... I'm not what you think I am..."

He couldn't answer.

Instead, he screamed with a pained expression as the fan artifact and the Prisoner ability seized control of him.

Now, the consciousness and will of two different powers fought over a single body.

The folding fan was useless.

The Prisoner was not free, but limited and bound.

The Prisoner ability, which should have required three absolute conditions when used by a human, now ignored those laws entirely.

Various supernatural entities created by Zavi appeared, including the fox and the box jellyfish he had grown attached to.

Now the spiritual forms of the entities Zavi always created existed in their perfect state.

Dark purple formed their bodies, while a grayish-white aura enveloped them.

As countless animal entities filled the auction building's corridor, Zavi tried to suppress the two powers stronger than himself with his own strength.

But his efforts failed when the Hoisline Fan artifact merged with his body and began transforming him.

Zavi's appearance was no longer the same. Once a long-haired man wearing a bowler hat, his skin was now marked with white chain-like lines, and the symbol of the Hoisline Fan, representing its signature trait, had appeared in the center of his forehead.

Then the dual-formed figure carried Zavi's body outside, destroying the building and targeting everything, everything it saw.

The diversion team, consisting of Wildan, Owen, Azza, and Culha, along with Rapal and Zojan, who were supposed to be the execution team, were stunned when they saw the figure emerge and destroy the auction building.

"What is that?" Wildan muttered in disbelief.

"James Moriarty?" Culha blurted out.

"I don't think so, but what the hell is that?"

They watched Zavi Actitus, who was flying without wings or the aid of any object.

The atmosphere of the underground black market, the Ountakana auction, and the two thief organizations that had nearly clashed all shifted their attention toward the strange figure that emitted the sound of chains whenever it moved.

The two powers controlling Zavi Actitus's body found something interesting in the distance, where a crowd of people and an organization of legendary artifact thieves were staring at him.

Like a gust of wind, those two powers carried his body before a man standing among the crowd, accompanied by the sound of moving chains.

Even though Zavi's controlled body had no actual chains on it apart from the chain-shaped markings, everyone there, even ordinary people, could hear them clearly.

Lifting its target into the air, it formed a barrier that even the man himself could not repel.

Meanwhile, their leader was carried away by the strange creature. Each of them perceived it differently, causing them to scramble and roll backward.

Amid minds filled with uncertainty, his companions glanced toward their leader, who was carrying the auction goods, while the ancient artifact from the Era of the Tailed Star sought to test the man against that terrifying being.

Strange, incredibly strange. That was what Zavi Actitus thought as his consciousness was slowly eroded, while the battle between the two powers and the thin-framed bespectacled man began.

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