The vertical crimson blade tore forward from above, scraping along the floor of the alley.
It happened just as they rounded a corner.
The pursuers swung around it violently in an attempt to catch Evan and Jurgens.
The lead vehicle had no time even to react to the enormous blade of blood flying toward it.
KRA-BOOM—!
“Hah.”
Jurgens, who had been stealing glances through the rearview mirror, let out a disbelieving laugh.
“That was intense. You took them out in one shot!”
“It isn’t over yet, so keep your eyes on the road.”
“It isn’t?”
CRASH! THUD!
The first pursuing vehicle, split halfway apart and reduced to a mass of scrap, rolled into the second vehicle.
The two vehicles became one as they tumbled violently across the road.
Debris, dust, and people flew through the air. Behind them, the setting sun glittered through the rising cloud of dust.
The third vehicle emerged through it.
SCREEEECH—
The modified vehicle, covered in layers of steel plating, forced its way beneath the wreckage bouncing like a rugby ball. Flames blasted from the six exhaust pipes protruding above its hood.
“What the hell? That crazy bastard drove through that? Does he have two lives?”
A red glow returned to Evan’s eyes.
The souls inside the final pursuing vehicle were denser and more viscous.
A soul with greater density contained more information.
And the owners of souls containing more information were those who knew more and had taken more.
The two elite pursuers Evan had noticed earlier were riding in that vehicle.
“Save the bullshit for later and focus. It’ll be a pain if you make a mistake.”
“You’ve got some nerve when you aren’t even wearing a seat belt. Hold on tight!”
Evan waited while watching the pursuers behind them. Soon, he raised his left hand and muttered.
“Turn right.”
“What? How the fuck can you tell me that now……!”
Jurgens wrenched the steering wheel at the intersection.
Inertia pulled at Evan. He gripped the vehicle’s chassis with the strength of the exoskeleton suit attached to his right arm.
A blue soul floated above his raised palm.
He had summoned the anonymous soul of someone with no one to claim it.
That alone was enough.
“Sacrificial Rite.”
SCREEEECH—!
The rear wheels scraped violently over the cracked and gouged cement.
At the same time, a vast wasteland of garbage opened before them.
Asle District C.
A hilly region made of refuse.
The place where the church where Evan had met Hammy stood.
Even the few roads that existed gradually disappeared. Garbage making up the ground scattered into the air, and the tires began to spin.
GRRRAAACK!
The pursuing vehicle had been modified to traverse places like this without difficulty.
The distance between them rapidly narrowed.
“They’re catching up! Either do something or stop so we can finish this! You had a reason for telling me to come here, right?”
“I did.”
A vast garbage dump.
Among the things that had become trash were beings that still retained traces of the lives they had once lived.
This place was filled with them.
To a dark mage, a place where unclean things gathered was an ideal site.
All of it could serve as an offering for a black ritual.
The pursuing vehicle drew closer.
The instant Evan saw the passenger raise a sniper rifle and aim at them, he placed his blackened left hand against the car.
『Soulcraft·Polish, Ritual of the Shadow Hand』
Black energy began at his hand and crawled along the vehicle before spreading across the ground.
It was the black-magic ritual Evan had used when rescuing the elf Net Runner named Lara.
However, its scale was different this time.
The ground, which had been a dull and filthy color, turned pitch-black in an instant. It became a pool of shadow that rapidly expanded.
The pursuing vehicle noticed the abnormal phenomenon and tried to turn away, but it was already too late.
The moment its front wheels touched the pool of shadow.
SSSSS—
Hundreds of black hands surged upward.
They seized the front wheels first, then crawled up the body like snakes in an instant.
Like a ship dropping its sails while traveling at full speed, its rear wheels rose with a deafening crash.
CRACK! CRRRAACK!
The vehicle, hanging half in the air, was bound by hundreds of hands and crushed.
It stopped abruptly.
At the same time, one of its occupants smashed through the windshield and flew out.
CREAAAAK…….
Jurgens stopped the car without needing to be told.
Silence arrived all at once.
The only sound was that of the vehicle, still suspended halfway in the air and entangled in the black hands, being slowly crushed.
While Evan approached the nearby scene at a leisurely pace, Jurgens cautiously climbed out of the driver’s seat.
“What…… the hell is that?”
The black hands continued to writhe while holding half the vehicle in the air.
Jurgens had seen all manner of things in his life, but never anything like this.
Meanwhile, Evan lightly moved his left hand.
It was the Seal of Release.
At that signal, the black hands vanished, and the vehicle dropped to the ground. It landed with a THUD, sending up a small cloud of toxic dust.
Jurgens let out an incredulous laugh as he watched Evan do all of this as though it were nothing.
“I’ve heard some rumors about you, Brother. Honestly, I thought they were just slum-dweller bullshit, but this…… This is impossible.”
Ignoring the unusual tone in Jurgens’s voice, Evan looked down.
The two pursuers who had been thrown from the vehicle lay beneath his feet, their bodies mangled in various places.
“These are the ‘elite’ ones you mentioned, Brother?”
“The other two vehicles were meat shields. They planned to exhaust me first, whether that meant mana or bullets.”
“And then they intended to jump us once it was easy.”
The strategy Evan inferred was rational.
It would have worked if Evan had not been the variable in this fight.
Their prediction had been wrong.
Absurdly wrong.
And this was the result.
“U-ugh…….”
Both pursuers were still alive.
Even a glance at the cybernetic parts installed throughout their bodies made it clear that they were on a different level from ordinary street mercenaries.
“Cybernetics really are useful. They’re still alive even after ending up like this.”
Evan crouched down and approached the one who was relatively intact.
“Answer if you’re alive. I’ll give you three seconds.”
“Ghk. What the fuck kind of situation is this…….”
“You’re in better shape than I expected.”
A faintly satisfied look appeared on Evan’s face.
“I want to finish before dinner, so let’s make this easy. Who sent you?”
“The sun’s already going down. What the fuck do you mean, before dinner…….”
“Answer.”
The man’s face twisted, and he raised an arm.
The mechanical arm, its joints completely ruined, twitched with a crackle before snapping its middle finger upright.
“Hah. What the hell do you think you’ll accomplish with that pathetic threat? Do I look like some fucking suckeeeeee—GHHK!”
Before he could finish, Evan tore out his soul.
Evan stared briefly at the dark blue energy gathering in his hand, then turned his head.
This time, he spoke to the second pursuer, who had been watching the carnage from a short distance away.
“Answer.”
***
“That is everything I know…….”
“Mm. Mm.”
Evan nodded as he organized the information.
They had not intended to strike first before Evan could act.
They had merely received intelligence that Evan possessed the Golden Cross and tried to steal it.
In other words, this had not been an attack intended as retaliation against Evan. A gang of robbers had simply chosen a strangely coincidental time to make their move.
It had been nothing more than an accidental clash.
However, the situation had taken an ironic turn.
Jurgens, whose face had gone pale, questioned the pursuer again.
“So…… Hanesaki sent you?”
“Y-yes.”
Evan dusted off his cloak and turned his head.
“You know that name?”
“Yeah. He’s our target too.”
“……That’s quite an interesting twist.”
Jurgens’s soul, which had remained calm even under gunfire, trembled for an instant.
“Right, Brother? Small world.”
“We’re fortunate. It saves us from searching on foot. In that case, I believe there are a few more things to ask. The man we’re hunting is hunting us in return?”
Evan looked between the pursuer and Jurgens before continuing.
“You interrogate him. This seems like your chance to earn your keep.”
Jurgens nodded as though he had been waiting for those words. His right hand transformed with a mechanical whir into a shape suited for interrogation.
Evan watched the arm for a moment, then left.
Part of the reason was to let Jurgens concentrate.
However, there was a more important reason.
「Let me eat that soul.」
「Then I’ll help you extract the information you need from it.」
From inside his cloak, the gluttonous hamster that was always looking for a chance to devour souls had made an enticing proposal for the first time.
Evan needed time to discuss it.
***
Some time passed.
Night settled in completely. Clouds thick with pollutants covered the moon, leaving the world pitch-black.
When Evan appeared again, Jurgens had finished his work.
Whatever had been done to the pursuer had left his eyes unfocused.
“Did you hypnotize him or something?”
“I hacked his System Implant. Bastards addicted to modifications like this are especially vulnerable to hacking.”
Evan glanced at Jurgens’s right hand, which still glittered in the form of an intricate sensor array.
“What did you learn?”
“These men are mercenaries hired by Hanesaki. They aren’t his subordinates. Apparently, he’s operating with a unit of locally recruited mercenaries. His defenses are tighter than we expected.”
“Is that all?”
Jurgens nodded.
“That isn’t particularly useful. Was there nothing better?”
“There was nothing I could do. He couldn’t talk.”
“You mean the interrogation failed? That’s rather underwhelming after the grand display.”
Jurgens firmly shook his head.
“Sometimes it feels like you know far too much, Brother, and other times you know nothing at all.”
Jurgens turned the pursuer’s head and showed Evan the back of his neck.
A small chip made of transparent plastic was embedded near his cervical vertebrae, blinking with a faint green light.
“It’s called a ‘Certificate of Trust.’ If he reveals unauthorized information, it’s a kill switch that fries his brain on the spot. Clean, reliable, and one of Palwang Tech’s perennial bestsellers.”
“A hired mercenary goes that far? He isn’t a slave.”
“Hanesaki didn’t install it. This bastard chose to install it himself.”
Evan stared at Jurgens’s face.
His smile looked vicious.
“If you want to become an attractive product, you need attractive features. If two robots have identical performance, wouldn’t you buy the one with an added self-destruct function? These bastards are merchants trying to make a living too. Their own bodies just happen to be the merchandise.”
They installed self-destruct devices in themselves to increase their own competitiveness.
Evan was reminded once again that this was that kind of world.
“Crazy bastards.”
“If he hired only people like this, torturing a hundred of them would just waste our strength. We’ll have to search on foot to find where he’s hiding. Of course, I came along as a guide because I know a few places…… but checking all of them will take at least several days.”
“We don’t have several days to spare. He’ll notice something is wrong soon.”
“You aren’t wrong. Do you have another plan?”
Evan stared at the pursuer, who was beginning to awaken from the hypnosis and regain his senses.
The pursuer seemed to grasp the atmosphere. He abandoned his servile demeanor and began grinning again.
“You know killing me is useless now, right? You scared the hell out of me. I thought I was really going to die. Let’s just go our separate ways. We might end up working together someday. People in this business are supposed to keep things civil, right?”
Evan looked down for a moment at the pursuer, who had pushed himself upright and was snickering.
“……You may not be wrong. But you see.”
Evan recalled the conversation he had held with Hammy while giving Jurgens space.
「I realized something when you fed me that soul. It has been so long since I served as someone’s Familiar that I had forgotten.」
「The stronger and more delicious the souls you provide me, the more of my power I can permit you to use.」
「The moment a dark mage and a Familiar form a contract, they become one soul, whether they like it or not. The stronger I become, the stronger you become. And the stronger you become, the stronger I become.」
After hearing that, Evan had asked a simple question.
Could he trust those words?
Black magic was filled with unknowns, and when one pulled back the curtain, what emerged was more often a monster trying to kill him than a friend.
The hamster inside his cloak had merely snickered and left him with a single reply.
「Since when has black magic required proof? Do you still not understand that black rituals are a path walked by those willing to bear risk and challenge? You don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to. How deeply you delve into the unknown is the practitioner’s choice.」
Evan thought about it.
No one had taught him this truth, but everything he had experienced since falling into this world had been one continuous succession of danger and challenge.
This was no different.
The pursuer kept grinning as he looked into Evan’s black eyes.
He seemed to believe Evan would truly let him leave.
Before he could even recognize the contradiction in that thought, Evan placed a hand on his head.
A dark blue soul was torn out with a scream.
Up to this point, it was the ritual of the Spirit-Sealing Bead.
What came next, however, belonged to a realm of the unknown that Evan did not understand.
Evan closed his eyes and accepted the knowledge granted by his Familiar’s soul.
Fear tried to raise its head within the mental image where the unknown had surfaced.
Evan steadied himself.
‘Novelty and fear are illusions.
No ritual is truly new. Each is merely another form of the origin.’
When he opened his eyes again, the soul flickered as though it might lose its shape at any moment, then spread open to both sides in an instant.
Countless characters covered its surface like writing on parchment.
A soul was a vast body of data containing everything that composed a given being.
The demon from the church had been able to read that data by devouring it.
And the dark mage who had made that demon his Familiar could do the same.
When the ritual succeeded, a new form of black magic was clearly engraved into his mind.
『Soulcraft·Polish, Adam’s Journal』
Evan began reading, one by one, the pieces of information inside the soul that the man had been unable to speak aloud.