Sam and Stella were inside the pub.
Sam, who had shouted the moment he saw Evan, was slumped in the middle of the room. His face was covered in blood, and there was scarcely an uninjured spot on his body.
Stella was tending to him with a deep frown.
“You’re bleeding badly. Sam, what’s your condition? Is your system check functioning properly?”
“Yeah. Ugh, it hurts like hell…….”
Evan approached Sam.
“What happened?”
“I saw a group of men heading somewhere together, and it made me nervous, so I followed them. They were going to Lora’s place. They caught me tailing them too…… I barely managed to escape like this, but Lora…….”
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
Evan looked at Stella and spoke.
“They may come here as well, so lock the doors and stay alert. Where is Tumble?”
“He went to the market to buy supplies for today.”
“Contact Tumble and explain the situation. I’ll be back soon.”
Meanwhile, Sam staggered to his feet.
“Lead the way.”
“Y-yes. We need to hurry.”
Lara’s place was in Asle District A, an enormous residential district containing the Old Town.
The scenery resembled a modern-day Kowloon Walled City.
Buildings were tangled together into a web-like structure on the scale of an entire city.
Even someone who had visited before could not possibly find their way through it alone.
“This way.”
Sam moved through the place quickly, as though it were his own home.
An old man on the second floor looked down at Evan indifferently before returning to hanging his laundry.
Soon, the scenery became familiar, and before long, they arrived at the corner of a concrete alley.
“It’s here. Um…….”
Just around this corner was the narrow staircase leading down to Lara’s basement.
“Mr. Mage, I think the number of men over there is…….”
“Quiet.”
Evan stopped at the corner, and a red glow settled over his pupils.
A crimson haze flickered faintly behind the wall and beneath the ground.
“Nine.”
“What? How did you…… Yes, that’s right. I think there were about that many.”
Evan could see ten souls.
One of them would be Lara’s.
That meant there were nine intruders.
He could not yet tell whether they had come because of a grudge or merely to rob her.
It did not matter either way.
Whatever justification they might have possessed, from Evan’s perspective, they were nothing but obstacles.
“Will you be all right? You only have two souls you can use right now, don’t you?”
The hamster joined in from inside his pocket, an unpleasant amusement coloring its voice.
It was right, of course.
However—
“That’s enough.”
“So professionals only carry two bullets? Look at the legendary hitman.”
Evan did not possess only two bullets.
Ammunition could be procured locally.
After all, souls he could kill without concern were scattered right before him.
Moreover, one of them looked especially delectable.
Among the three intruders underground, one soul rippled with a blue light.
‘A mage’s soul.’
A mage’s soul……
Evan unconsciously licked his lips, then stepped around the corner and revealed himself.
As he walked forward, he raised a hand beneath his cloak and summoned one of the two souls he possessed.
‘Sacrificial Rite. Attribute Imbuement: Shadow.’
The summoned soul was refined into a black bead and seeped into the back of his hand.
The black stain spread until it dyed Evan’s entire left hand black.
The staircase was narrow enough for only one or two people to pass at a time, and it was crowded with men leaning against the walls or sitting around.
Several held cigarettes between their lips, filling the area with smoke.
The foul stench of ammonia stung Evan’s nose.
Their conversation reached his ears.
“Once Silver’s done with her…… think he’ll let me have a turn too? She was pretty cute.”
“A turn, my ass. You sick bastard.”
“Hehehe. It’ll be first come, first served, dumbass.”
“Then by the time it gets to me, she’ll be too used up to— What the hell?”
The men spouting whatever filth came to mind glanced at Evan and stopped talking.
“I came to see a friend. Mind moving?”
They looked at one another before bursting into laughter.
“What’s with this bastard?”
“Can’t you read the room? How have you survived this long in Asle?”
“You’re not going to move?”
“……Hey, does this look like a joke to you?”
One man gave Evan’s shoulder a light shove.
Or rather, he tried to.
Evan caught his wrist before he could.
『Soul-Eroding Seal』
“Huh? What the hell! Wh-what…… Ghrrrk…….”
“What did this bastard do?!”
“Is it a cybernetic part? Some jailbroken model?”
“Who cares? Fuck him up first!”
Evan collected the man’s soul and swiftly swept his gaze across the others.
‘How well are they armed?’
One of them drew something and aimed it at him.
Evan quickly concealed himself behind the wall to his side.
“Die!”
BANG— BANG— BANG—
The explosions of gunpowder and the sharp cracks of bullets tearing through the air filled the entire alley.
“Did you hit him?”
“I don’t know. He hid. Shit, rush him!”
‘Three shots.’
The shooter had not panicked and emptied his weapon wildly.
He knew how to conserve ammunition.
“Come out, you bastard!”
The burly men charged out to capture Evan.
Every one of them had now left the staircase.
None realized that this would be the cause of their defeat.
They were better than ordinary street punks, but only by that much.
Evan opened his left hand and placed it against the wall.
『Soulcraft·Polish, Ritual of the Shadow Hand』
The black energy covering his left hand began crawling along the wall before flowing down toward the ground.
The floor turned black.
The darkness spread beneath the enemies and extended all the way to the bottom of the staircase.
“……What is this?”
The men standing on the blackened ground stopped awkwardly.
Confusion appeared on their faces as they failed to understand the situation.
Some immediately decided they had to escape the ominous floor.
However, it was already too late.
SSSSSS—
Small black hands erupted from the ground and seized their ankles.
The startled men screamed.
“Aaaaaaargh!”
“Wh-what the hell is this?! Hands?”
“Let go! Aaargh! Let go!”
Evan steadied his breathing, held his breath, and pivoted out from behind the wall.
The only parts of his body he exposed were his gun hand, braced at the elbow, and the eye aligned with the sights.
He was not an expert marksman, but he was skilled enough to hit targets that could not move.
“We’re so fucking scre—”
BANG—
“Ghurk!”
One shot for each target.
Evan aimed carefully and pulled the trigger.
First, the man holding the gun.
Then the others, beginning with the closest.
BANG— BANG— BANG—
Each crack of gunfire was followed by another man collapsing in a spray of blood.
The sharp scent of gunpowder brushed past Evan’s nose.
Then came silence.
Six burly men lay on the ground.
Evan replaced the magazine and approached the center of the carnage.
“U-ugh…….”
A man who had not been struck in a vital area groaned.
The dead and those who had failed to die were mixed together here……
But to Evan’s eyes, every one of them was merely a weak soul whose will had been broken.
He raised a hand before his chest and opened it.
『Spirit-Sealing Bead』
Grayish-white energies were torn from their bodies, swirling together above Evan’s palm.
The six beads that formed soon began orbiting one another.
After collecting every soul, Evan picked up a new handgun lying on the ground.
He checked the chamber and magazine, then shoved it into his back pocket.
As he began to rise, another weapon caught his eye.
“Hmm?”
It was a type of dagger.
Evan had been in need of a portable weapon, and it looked quite useful.
However, there was another reason the dagger had caught his attention.
‘It looks rather old.’
It was extraordinarily ornate for a weapon.
Both its hilt and blade bore engraved and raised carvings, while the blade itself was dark.
Rather than a weapon, it resembled an expensive antique.
Was it because of its archaic form?
Evan felt strangely drawn to the dagger.
It might also be valuable, so there seemed no harm in taking it.
Holding the orbiting soul beads in one hand and the handgun in the other, Evan headed toward the stairs.
‘There are three left on the lower level.’
Two humans and one mage.
He descended the dark staircase, which had no lighting whatsoever.
The three souls inside the room below must have heard the gunshots, yet they showed no particular movement.
‘It doesn’t seem like they’re preparing an ambush.’
Evan could not tell what they were thinking, but he had no choice but to enter.
He summoned one soul.
‘Sacrificial Rite. Attribute Imbuement. Material Manifestation.’
He granted the soul material properties.
It wrapped around Evan like a shell.
It did not possess the durability of the energy shields used by mages, but it should be able to block several surprise attacks.
Evan entered the room.
The spacious area had already been cluttered with electronic devices and miscellaneous junk, but now it was an even greater disaster.
He first focused on Lara’s condition.
“Are you alive?”
“…….”
He checked whether she was conscious, but received no answer.
Her arms were tied behind her back, and she lay on the floor covered in blood.
Although her face was turned toward the ground, Evan could tell she was alive.
Then it was time to examine the enemy.
Someone sat with his legs crossed in the chair Lara had previously occupied.
He was a young man with long white hair.
His left hand was also made from white metal.
Although shaped like a human arm, it gave the impression that he was wearing armor.
Of course, it was not armor but a cybernetic part.
His soul was blue.
‘This one is the mage.’
A black mage’s powerful attraction toward the soul of a mage was instinctive.
“I wondered what great figure had arrived, but you are nothing more than an unaffiliated street mage.”
The mage chuckled when he saw Evan.
“What gave you the confidence to enter? What would you have done if we had opened fire first? Consider yourself fortunate that I am a pacifist.”
When Evan remained silent, the mage leaned forward and continued.
“I do not know what you came all this way hoping to get your hands on…… but I have no business with an alley cat that rummages through garbage cans. I also dislike needless bloodshed. How about we talk first?”
Evan glanced toward Lara.
Drops of blood gathered at the ends of her hair and fell steadily to the ground.
Lara, whom he had assumed was unconscious, spoke.
“Mage freak? Sam…….”
“He’s fine.”
“Good……. Why did you come? Go. This has nothing to do with you…….”
“I didn’t come because of you either, Lora.”
Lara slowly turned her trembling head and looked at Evan.
“It’s Lara……. Then why did you come?”
“I’m not the type to think much about things like that.”
Still, if he had to give reasons……
The first was his precious data chip.
The second……
Evan looked at the mage before him.
His soul looked exceedingly delicious.
“……To hunt.”
Evan drew his handgun.
The mage reacted to his movement.
An ice spike formed in an instant and shot toward him.
It stopped directly before Evan’s face.
As though it had struck an invisible wall, white cracks spread through the empty air.
The sound of shattering glass echoed across the room.
Evan did not even blink.
He merely aimed at his opponent with a sharp gaze.
From behind the web of cracks, Evan smiled.
“Did you say we should talk?”
What beast spoke with its prey?
He pulled the trigger.