[757] The Doctrine of Evil (4)
"Who is that woman?"
As the military police moved to encircle her, their captain raised a hand to stop them.
"Hold."
It was a strange sensation.
And the fact that he felt it at all meant the captain's senses were far keener than the others'.
What on earth is this?
He felt like he was going to vomit—then, the moment he realized it, a blinding vertigo swept over him.
"What are you doing! Ask her, now! Hiss! Hiss!"
At the commotion from the Su Guard, he slowly turned with a stone expression.
It was a shocking sight.
"W-what's wrong with that thing?"
The mutant venom hounds, repeatedly bred and modified using Garas, were fiercer than any beast and engineered for absolute obedience to their masters.
"Move! I said move!"
But no matter how they lashed the hound's rump with whips hung with leather straps, it simply stared off into the distance.
As if desperately refusing to acknowledge the woman in front of it.
It's terrified.
The nauseating aura the captain had felt—their bodies recoiling at something indefinable—was radiating from her.
"The dogs have more sense than the people."
When Minerva stepped forward, the mutant hounds sidled away toward the edge of the grove as if suddenly summoned elsewhere.
Their blank, motionless fearlessness resembled the temperament of those who fed Garas in the warehouse.
Ugh!
When Minerva passed, the captain could not hold it and vomited bile.
"C-Captain?"
The men looked bewildered, but the captain felt no envy for those who did not sense fear.
I vomited, therefore I live.
In about three minutes his men would be crushed by the woman's aura and die without knowing why.
"Come here, you cute puppies."
If they were caught, they would be killed.
Sensing that instinctively, the mutant hounds tried to act nonchalant, sniffing at flowers as if nothing were wrong.
One of the venom-spewing hounds edged away cautiously, but eventually it came to rest in her hand.
It didn't even try to run on its powerful legs; accepting her touch, its broad hindquarters folded to the ground.
A death god.
How many lives must one take to carry such an aura?
Beautiful face, witch's garb.
Mirak Minerva.
The captain realized Amy's life was doomed.
"Oh my."
The hound trembled, its hind legs splayed flat, and hot urine began to drip onto the ground.
"Scared? Of me?"
Hruun, hruuueng...!
Water poured from the dog's eyes, nose, and mouth as if it had aged twenty years in an instant, and one by one the Su Guard and military police rolled their eyes and collapsed.
Let's see.
Minerva walked to the hound's rear and bent to look at where the urine was falling.
"It's a male."
Kyang! Kkae-gae-gang!
The hound let out a final scream.
Die.
As if someone flipped a switch, the dog's eyes rolled back and it slumped to the side.
W-what on earth...
Jacy, leaning against a log, watched the sudden deaths around her with unbelieving eyes.
The Su Guard and military police coughed blood and fell; finally the mutant hounds convulsed and died.
Even if it's the Ivory Tower...
The sole surviving captain of the military police drew ragged breath and glared at Minerva.
"You cannot be stopped now. Under Commander Igor's grace, the North Aymond Republic will rule the world."
"Yes."
When Minerva snapped her fingers, the captain's life slipped out of his body.
Go rule the world plenty in the afterlife.
Jacy, the only one left breathing, panted and asked, "Are you... from the Ivory Tower?"
Minerva drew a long pipe from the broomstick's hollow, put it to her mouth, and lit it.
Is she mocking me?
Jacy spoke again. "Then hurry and attack North Aymond! Otherwise the Garas will invade the world."
Minerva exhaled smoke with a hollow amusement. "I know."
She stepped closer, brought her eyes level with Jacy's, and in an instant slapped her cheek upward.
The smack sent Jacy's head whipping to the side; she froze, stunned, then spat angrily, "Why did you hit me! I can't even move!"
Minerva disliked humans.
If humans think, "If I say it this way, they'll respond that way," the very idea made her skin crawl.
I'd rather roll in the dirt with dogs.
Still, Minerva did not show it. "Sorry. I thought this might loosen you up."
Jacy ground her teeth in indignation, but she had no intention of defying a witch who had subdued a mutant hound with nothing but presence.
"I know you. The High Witch, Mirak Minerva."
Most of the Ivory Tower's five great stars were shrouded in mystery, but Minerva had made the most spectacular debut in its history.
"What will you do now? Go to Igor and tell him to stop the experiments? Or—"
"I'll handle it."
She had no concrete plan yet, but once she reached the capital and met the commander, she expected things to be settled.
"Please take me with you."
Minerva's eyes went cold. "...Why should I?"
"Because I know something you don't. If you go to the capital as things stand, you'll be in for a disaster."
Kekekekek!
The witch's laughter rippled through the trees.
"Hey, little miss—ah, sorry, you're younger than me. Of course, by appearances I'm far younger."
"..."
"If you knew what kind of life the High Witch Minerva led, you wouldn't dare call it a 'disaster.'"
Death exuded from her.
"You think that even if your limbs don't move, as long as your mouth does you can do anything. That's you lot. Keep making me miserable and you'll join those people."
"Kill—"
A voice choked with sobs burst out. "I want to kill them! The damned northerners who killed my husband! I want to kill every last one of them!"
Jacy twisted her face and begged, "Please take me! There's nothing left for me! If I can kill even one more, I'll give you my soul...!"
Anger.
It was the one human feeling Minerva did not despise—pure human rage.
"...Tell me what you know."
Jacy snapped to attention. "You said the captain mentioned eyes that see where you can't. The North is using the other world. Otherwise my identity wouldn't have been discovered."
"You might have just been sloppy."
"What do you take me for! I've mastered every spell related to espionage!"
No matter how loudly she protested, Minerva didn't flinch. "Sigh. Fine. So you're saying there's a chance Igor colluded with the demon race."
It wasn't quite catastrophe, but it was a troubling possibility.
"I'll take you."
Minerva drew in smoke deeply, held it between her lips, and whispered, "Open your mouth."
Entranced, Jacy parted her lips. Minerva tilted her face and kissed her.
Ah...
The smoke that entered Jacy's lungs smelled like burnt herbs, and she fell into a rapture she had never known.
Detox magic—the witch's breath.
She lost consciousness for a moment, but it was only an instant.
"Done. You'll be able to move now."
A tingling ran up from her toes, and muscles regained strength as if nothing had happened.
Jacy rose awkwardly to her feet, speechless.
"U-um..."
It wasn't the kiss that troubled her.
She couldn't raise her face because she had felt the exquisite pleasure through her whole body.
"Do not lie with a witch."
Minerva had seen countless humans ruined by the sweet offerings of witches.
"...I hate humans."
Without waiting for Jacy to respond, Minerva focused magic into the broomstick.
The shabby wood popped and transformed into a two-meter staff with a propulsion engine on its back.
As the price for abandoning , the intelligence of Taeseong produced humanity's greatest launcher, the Jet (Z).
Registered with the Ivory Tower, it was an unquestionably legitimate means of transport.
"Get on. We'll stop by a military facility, then head into the capital."
Minerva swung herself lightly onto the Jet, straddling it as it hovered a meter above the ground.
"Ah, yes."
Introduced in history books as the fastest thing in the world, the Jet made Jacy swallow and take the rear seat.
"Um, should I press—what if I fall—"
"No need."
The Jet glowed violet for a moment and cradled her as if set in soft mold; she didn't need to hold on.
"Going."
The instant Minerva spoke, the Jet's propulsion roared to life in a sheet of flame.
"Kyaaa!"
Though there was almost no sense of inertia, the sky rushed toward them so fast Jacy screamed.
Too fast!
The Jet swung through the sky and then accelerated in earnest; within four seconds a concussive sonic boom cracked.
They were traveling at Mach speed.
* * *
Verdi's mother covered her mouth in tears when she saw Vasseto's stunned face.
"Honey..."
What could have happened to leave him like that?
"You vile children..."
Vasseto stared, stunned, his face swollen from crying.
"I must fetch my husband. He'll die like that."
As Verdi's mother, bereft of reason, took a step forward, Shirone said in a cold voice, "Don't move."
She startled and stopped.
"He seems unharmed for now. Be patient and watch. If you make a scene, more people will become victims."
One cannot sacrifice others to save Vasseto—that was the spirit of universal love.
This is really strange.
But Shirone had a larger reason for waiting.
There are too many demons.
Through Bakji's senses, the other world overlapped the scene and demons patrolled in pairs.
But this is outside the spirit zone?
The other world shares spatial coordinates with reality, but since the altar opened they tended to keep their distance.
Realizing he couldn't take everyone with him, Shirone looked back at Albas. "Protect Verdi and her mother. I'll follow them and bring Mr. Vasseto back."
"But how will you go? There's nowhere to hide now. This is a supply route storing large logistics."
A vast plain stretched on, wide enough for ten wagons to pass side by side.
"In terms of space, yes."
Albas tilted his head, but he wouldn't understand an explanation anyway.
Choeuni Bardo.
As Bakji and Siphok linked, reality and the other world overlapped, and Shirone's figure vanished.
"This can't be..."
Albas looked around, puzzled. "Where did he go?"
Of course Shirone was still beside them; he scanned the demons' positions and stroked Verdi's head.
"Wait a bit. I'll get your father back for sure."
Something swelled in Verdi's chest and an answer flashed into her mind.
"Where did he go?"
Why did her heart suddenly feel so full?
"Of course—he's gone to save my father."