The Elusive Sorcerer

Chapter 245

Near the city square, on a road to the east, a man dressed in blue and wearing a military hat was walking down the street, followed by three others; two of them were men, while the other was a woman wearing the same attire as the others.

"...Is the captain sure everything will be all right?" asked a brown eyed officer as he adjusted the position of his hat.

The woman, who was their captain, glanced at him.

"Don't worry. I've already prevented it from happening to anyone else," she replied skeptically.

"I see..." The man stared at his captain for two seconds before turning toward his two companions on his right.

The disappearance of the Eistender members' traces for several months, when they had been designated as suspects in a series of murders connected to the conspiracy surrounding James Moriarty's disappearance, had proven more difficult than they had imagined. Moreover, out of the six members, the Cevenose Department, together with the church and cathedral, could only track the locations of Maeressa and Elvira, who were hiding in the historic city of Layana.

Like a fish lost on the streets, waiting for the right moment to find and catch them.

Unexpectedly, today, the 30th, a Wednesday, they managed to track down both of them, despite nearly losing their trail. They also did not know that elsewhere, another organization was equally determined to bring down its target.

As they walked along the quiet, dimly lit streets, Vaetan Gevano's focus sharpened as his fingers moved as though he were controlling something invisible.

Vaetan knew that he had killed at least six people with the Black Death ability by spreading a dense black mist with a gray aura, which was actually composed of microscopic destructive particles that devoured anything in their path or within their vicinity.

Not only that, they had also carried out this act in secret, prepared to accept the consequences once the night had passed.

"Are you afraid of walking in a place like this?" Vaetan muttered, addressing Aswin.

Aswin smiled bitterly.

"The vice captain really does like to joke," he replied calmly.

"However, aren't you worried that the higher ups will find out that the vice captain has that 'ability'?" Velnard called out, feeling that something was wrong with how calm the situation was.

Vaetan knew that after using the Black Death ability, traces would be left behind that could be tracked by the holy soldiers of the church or cathedral. However, Vaetan would never recklessly use it so openly, and he was aware that he was under someone's protection, even though that person was a woman.

To mediate the matter, Queen Seon Arzen immediately clarified the reason behind this blatant action.

"For the past few months, I've been telling Vaetan to raise his level as soon as possible. You all know why I told him to do that..." Queen Seon Arzen's eyes, glimmering beneath the flickering streetlights, were fixed on the three of them as her steps gradually slowed.

"Yes, the cultural festival is the reason the ritual will be held," the two of them answered in unison.

Both of them had already learned the mystery behind the unresolved mysterious deaths thanks to Queen Seon Arzen's departure from the dead city of Moran several months earlier.

Those words echoed briefly in his mind before Vaetan fell silent for quite some time. It was not because he was thinking about that matter, but because the difficulty of the "role" he had taken on while advancing from the first to the third level within six months had truly tormented him physically and mentally.

Moreover, after performing the ritual, Vaetan was haunted by an indescribable figure whenever he slept, and the disturbance became even worse whenever the sun set.

Not only that, Vaetan also heard whispers and words in strange languages that disturbed his mind, until he could no longer distinguish what was real and what was not.

Although the problem disappeared toward the end of September, it was replaced by his third level Black Death ability, Parasite, which occasionally went out of control and destroyed random objects.

Vaetan was grateful that Black Death did not target the people around him, but instead inanimate objects that were already no longer fit for use.

He endured difficult days for the day when a great battle might occur, one that could trigger a devastating domino effect beyond imagination.

Moreover, in a place like this, a ritual to advance an ability's level, especially from level 3 onward of the same ability, made for the perfect night for the blood ritual to succeed.

Vaetan, together with Queen Seon Arzen, only knew the rituals for advancing to levels two and three, along with the roles that Receivers had to perform so that the ability would not attack its user, or worse, attract the attention of a mysterious entity that wanted something from them.

Fortunately, none of that had ever happened to Vaetan, as though 'he' had been blessed by the two faced god Rasomon, allowing him to ascend from an ordinary human into an extraordinary being.

"This answers, while also raising the question of why this cultural festival became the place of escape and where everything is happening. Why not Kuranda or Yorkshire?"

Queen Seon Arzen tried to find the answer, but the more she searched, the more the answer seemed to elude her. This made the investigation even more difficult, especially because they had to face dangers that could not be logically explained.

"I hope all of this goes according to plan," Queen Seon Arzen said with a sigh.

Their reason for leaving their hiding place after spreading the black mist was none other than to identify the people who had been declared dead as a result of the ability.

Upon arriving there, near the tram tracks, beside a tree at the roadside whose canopy partially extended over the street, six corpses lay beneath it.

The air felt increasingly suffocating as their vacant gazes shifted toward severed legs, heads, and fingers piled up on the right side of where they stood.

They restrained themselves from exploding in anger that very second as their steps brought them to stand beside a pile of black clothing remnants that formed a mountain.

None of them spoke. They focused on the search, trying to identify who the people who had died were. After arriving at the crime scene, they had confirmed that six people had died from the Black Death ability's attack through the pile of remnants of their clothing.

The investigation seemed futile, at least that was what they knew before one of them, Aswin, discovered something shocking amid the tension in the square.

The discovery led them there, to an alley several dozen meters from where they had previously been, where the discovery was leaning against the trunk of a tree.

"...Who is this woman?" Velnard asked while stroking his chin.

Captain Queen Seon Arzen tightened her black gloves.

"Could you have killed an ordinary person?" the Queen exclaimed in disbelief as she confirmed that the woman had nothing to do with the people who had been killed.

How could she know that the woman had no connection to the members of the Ordeal hunters?

The answer was simple; no Receivers or Hollow could escape the scan of the Scatter ability.

As the three discussed why a civilian had been dragged into the situation, Velnard, overwhelmed by curiosity, did not hesitate to brush aside the bangs covering the woman's face.

As the hair shifted until the end of her bangs was exposed near her ear, Velnard's eyes widened. It was not because he was captivated by the woman's beauty, but because he discovered something that made his heart feel as though it had been slashed by thousands of knives when he saw her face.

'What actually happened? Is this because of... the vice captain's ability?'

Holding his breath, Velnard felt his heartbeat suddenly slow before his gaze turned toward the others, who remained unaware of what he had discovered.

After deciding to tell them, Velnard glanced at the woman after sensing movement from her body.

"Is she still alive?" he muttered, his voice barely above a whisper.

The three of them immediately noticed it as their gazes turned toward her, their eyebrows raised.

"What's wrong? Do you want to talk about something?" Vaetan stared at him carefully, then looked at the woman, who remained exactly as he had seen her before.

Vaetan saw nothing hidden on the woman's face as the night wind blew her hair back over her face, as though the woman did not want anyone to see just how terrible her appearance was.

"It's nothing," Velnard replied hesitantly before shifting his gaze back toward the woman.

'Didn't they see the blackened burn marks on the woman's face? Come to think of it, shouldn't Black Death also be capable of doing this to a desired target? But strangely, why didn't the vice captain notice anything unusual about the woman?'

"Seriously..." Velnard unconsciously voiced his thoughts.

The three of them looked at him with even greater confusion, despite his sudden change in behavior, although they already knew that a fanatic had been impersonating Velnard.

"If something is wrong, just say it." This was the first time Aswin had acted seriously while carrying out a mission with him as he approached him and gently patted his shoulder.

Velnard, who was known for having an easily angered personality, for some reason did not react at all after the pat.

He wanted to speak, but it felt as though something was preventing the words from leaving his mouth.

"I... I..." Velnard tried to convey what he meant, while his index finger pointed toward the woman leaning against the tree trunk with her head hanging down.

Aswin almost furrowed his brows.

"Aaaa, you what?"

The captain and her vice captain exchanged glances before both their mouths fell silent, contemplating what was actually happening as their gazes suddenly became vacant.

Meanwhile, Aswin was shaking Velnard's body, who shouted in a weak voice.

As the blinking of his eyes slowly drove away the blankness in his mind, Captain Queen Seon Arzen, who found the situation familiar, glanced around with full vigilance before her hesitant gaze settled on the woman.

She slowly stepped backward, summoned a sword artifact, then gripped it tightly.

"Stay away from that woman," she ordered, her voice a mixture of unease and trauma.

'There's no way she's a Receivers of Sorcerer! What level is she? Two, three, or four?'

She did not rush to conclude that the woman was a Receiver, especially because the Scatter scan had shown that she was a civilian. Not only that, Queen also wondered why Black Death had not targeted someone who emitted spiritual energy from her body, like this woman.

'This can't be mere coincidence. If that's the case, then there are still Receivers around here.'

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