Impossible, surely. Even the three major Churches haven't traced it back to me — how would Mr. A know? Besides, with his level of ability, why would he spend this long following me without making a move?
Vincent slipped a hand inside his coat and closed his fingers around a small handful of Scrolls. Whoever it is — Mystery Pryers on the Hanged Man Pathway are all lunatics. If it comes to it, I'll just greet him with a barrage of Scrolls and be done with it.
The thought had barely formed before Vincent felt the figure hidden in the shadows move ahead of him. Then, quickly, a tall and lean man stepped out of the darkness and reformed into his full shape — quite handsome, except that his bloodshot eyes gave his face a faintly feral edge.
"Do you know where Mr. A is?"
The tall man stared at Vincent and asked coldly.
???
Why would you ask me where Mr. A is?
Vincent was genuinely puzzled — but the next moment, something clicked. The fingers around the Scrolls loosened slightly. Wait — this fellow must have seen me shadow-jumping along the way and taken me for a member of the Aurora Order as well.
Actually... that tracks perfectly.
Looking back through the entirety of the original story, every single Mystery Pryer who appeared — barring one of Bernadette's adopted crew members and a woman from the Forsaken Land of the Gods — was an Aurora Order lunatic without exception.
"..."
After a brief pause, Vincent said coldly: "Who are you? Why are you looking for Mr. A?"
"I carry a letter from Mr. Z, intended for Mr. A. But upon arriving in Backlund, I learned that Mr. A was subjected to an official raid several days ago and has been missing since. Are you one of his men?"
Mr. Z.
Vincent had no idea who that was, but the naming convention alone told him it was an Aurora Order Emissary of God. And Aurora Order Emissaries of God tended to fall somewhere between Sequence 7 and Sequence 5 in power.
If this man claimed to be acting on Mr. Z's orders, he was naturally one of Mr. Z's subordinates — almost certainly no higher than Sequence 6.
After a rapid assessment, Vincent said: "I am indeed one of Mr. A's men — but I don't know where he is either. The situation was chaotic. I'm one of the few who made it out."
He paused, then added: "Do you know what Mr. Z wanted with Mr. A?"
"That's none of your concern."
The tall man gave Vincent a flat look. "But I strongly suggest you help me locate Mr. A quickly. If you delay matters of importance to the Lord, the consequences are yours to bear."
"That's..."
Vincent feigned contemplation. "I've just thought of a location he might be. Would you prefer to come with me, or wait here?"
The tall man watched him for a few seconds, then said flatly: "Lead the way."
Vincent gave a nod and started forward — and then the tall man struck without warning, seizing control of Vincent's shadow and sending it lunging at him.
In almost the same instant, Vincent's silhouette twisted and vanished. He blinked behind the tall man, and his pale grey revolver fired three shots in rapid succession:
The first was loaded with Shock. The second with Frenzy. The third with Slumber.
The tall man had no time to react. Before he could dive into a shadow, he was hit by the Shock and Frenzy effects in quick succession — losing control of both body and mind.
Then came the Slumber, and he went still where he stood.
Vincent asked quickly: "Why did you attack me?"
The tall man murmured: "You're not a member of the Aurora Order."
"What makes you say I'm not?"
"Heh. A subordinate of Mr. A wouldn't ask why Mr. Z wanted to meet Mr. A. That kind of information is above your pay grade. Still — I just wanted to test you."
That...
"So what does Mr. Z want with Mr. A?"
"The Lord—"
A single syllable out — and then the tall man's eyes snapped suddenly, terrifyingly clear.
Vincent didn't hesitate. He locked the remaining three rounds onto the man's head and fired them one after another without pause.
With a wet thud, the tall man's head erupted into a spray of crimson mist.
And yet — he didn't die immediately. The scattered flesh began moving on the ground, squirming slowly, crawling back toward his headless body.
A Rose Bishop!
Vincent understood at once. His hand was already reaching into his coat for a Scroll.
In that moment the tall man's body awoke fully, flinging out an arm. It dissolved into a mass of thick, adhesive flesh that flew toward Vincent.
Boom — boom — boom!
The scattered flesh detonated in midair, the explosion becoming a storm that ripped outward in all directions — while the tall man used the cover to melt into the nearest shadow.
Crack!
Vincent's body shattered like a broken mirror. He reappeared directly above the shadow the tall man had slipped into, and hurled a Scroll.
In an instant, a blaze of searing light ballooned outward above the shadow — burning it away in a flash, forcing the tall man out of the darkness. And in the time it had taken, his already destroyed head had already begun slowly reforming.
What terrifying regeneration.
"Fire!"
The word left Vincent's mouth in Hermes — red powder kindled into flame and crawled up the man's body, and then a gust of wind surged in, fanning it until fire engulfed him completely.
But even that much fire was clearly not lethal enough to a Rose Bishop. He flung out another wave of burning, blazing flesh — a worse explosion than before — and sent it crashing toward Vincent.
Vincent blinked away, but the man had anticipated it — he followed the arc of Vincent's shadow, blinked with him, and seized control of Vincent's shadow again for another assault. Simultaneously he burst free of the darkness himself and lunged forward with both arms spread wide, moving in for a grapple.
The next second, Vincent's legs moved faster than conscious thought — one instinctive sweep kick.
Bang.
That single kick hit the Rose Bishop's body like a collision with a steamroller, caving it inward in an instant and smashing him flat to the ground in a sticky, shapeless heap.
???
Oh. Right.
Vincent had only just remembered — this body was a Sequence 3 Saint's.
Toward the latter part of the story, Mystery Pryers tended to play more like pure mages — but a Sequence 8 on the Hermit Pathway was called the Melee Scholar for a reason. That made it a close-combat class, at least in part. Every advancement on this Pathway brought physical enhancement along with it.
That one kick had been worth considerably more than everything else Vincent had done in the fight put together.
Even so — the mashed flesh on the ground was still wriggling, still regenerating, however slowly. That was a Rose Bishop for you: as long as the flesh was not fully spent, there was no death.
As the flesh writhed and a grotesque, twisted face gradually took shape within it, the mouth forced itself wide open and bellowed: "Lord who created all things—!"
Oh no.
Vincent blinked in and stamped down hard before the rest could come out, then pressed his hand to the ground as his palm blazed with the light of stars.
This was a damaging astral ability he could just barely access since advancing to Sequence 8 — Stellar Burst.
In an instant, dazzling beams of starlight erupted from within the flesh, generating streams of intense, burning heat that seared the shredded mass from the inside out, vaporising it completely.
When the brilliant starlight finally faded, all that remained on the ground was a charred, blackened lump — no trace of life left.
Phew —
Vincent let out a long breath. That single attack had drained nearly every last drop of his spirituality. If it hadn't finished the job, he'd have had no choice but to call for backup.
"Time to get out of here — that was anything but quiet. It won't be long before official Beyonders arrive."
He hesitated for a few seconds, then slipped into the shadow of a nearby building and watched the scorched remains.
In under two minutes, a slick, membrane-and-vessel-covered mass of raw flesh separated itself from the charred lump and emerged — the Rose Bishop's Beyonder characteristic.
Vincent stripped off his outer coat and scooped it up, then made a rapid series of shadow-jumps under cover of invisibility, heading back toward the Zoutenberg Restaurant.
Not long after, a squad of five or six people arrived on the scene. The one at the front wore a gold mask — a Beyonder of Military Intelligence Section 9.
They fanned out quickly and conducted a methodical survey of the site. Their conclusion came swiftly: the deceased appeared to be a Rose Bishop, and the opponent... had apparently deployed a mirror phantom.
"A mirror phantom?"
The gold-masked man reflexively touched his shoulder, where the scar from the last encounter still faintly lingered. "Could it be that Demoness again?"
To be continued…
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