Gantz watched the man's expression shift slowly. Alistar undid the drill and paused for a moment as if deep in thought.
— "So, you have something against Olete?" Alistar said, tapping his fingertips against his chin.
— "He killed my family."
— "Is that so? He's killed many families… I
think we can help each other, perhaps?"
— "What did he do to you?"
— "Do you think this is a convention for sad stories? Just know that you are lucky."
Alistar stood up and left, leaving Gantz paralyzed. He ran his long, white fingers across a brown leather case, feeling its texture before opening it. Inside, lined with black leather, were several compartments—some strange cylinders containing herbs of various colors and odd liquids, others appearing to carry small life forms that scurried anxiously as Alistar's hands passed over them.
With his thumb and forefinger, he grabbed one of the larger cylinders containing what looked like a strange, twitching black squid with purplish streaks. Closing the case again, he relished the sound of the metal latches clicking shut. His ghostly footsteps began to echo in the room once more.
— "So, here it is." He grabbed a curved metal brace with both sides joined. He placed one of his large, icy hands on Gantz's forehead while fitting the device between his jaws, forcing his mouth wide open as he twisted a screw on the side of the equipment.
Gantz watched in terror as the smiling face looked as if it were preparing a delicious meal rather than whatever he was actually doing. Alistar held up the cylinder to Gantz, tapping the glass with his fingertip to make the creature move.
— "This is a parasite. Its name… well, the name doesn't matter, only what it does. It will enter through your trachea and lodge itself in your chest. Its tentacles will wrap around your heart, and at my command, it will crush and destroy everything inside."
Alistar opened the tube slowly, savoring Gantz's expressions. The little creature tried to push its tentacles out, but Alistar gave them a light flick, forcing them back in. Slowly, he tipped the tube into Gantz's mouth. First came a foul, viscous liquid sliding down his throat—it tasted of something rotten and knotty. Then he felt those tentacles clutching his mouth, pulling on his tongue as they felt for his throat, then sliding down and filling his trachea. It made Gantz nauseous; his eyes watered and his body trembled, his red, soaked eyes darting from side to side. Finally, the sensation ceased, followed by a squeeze—like a hand clutching his heart directly. He felt an unbelievable discomfort.
— "Ah, you have two hearts, right? Then here goes another one."
The process repeated. In the end, his vision blurred, and he was pulled into the darkness of unconsciousness.
— "Awake?" The irritating voice sounded in his right ear as he sat up from the cold table.
— "You son of a—!" Gantz lunged at the man before both his hearts were squeezed simultaneously. He fell to the floor, agonizing.
— "Seriously? That's it? How cliché! Don't you read books? Don't you know how these things end? What an idiot!" Alistar was sitting cross-legged in a leather armchair beside the table, watching Gantz writhe on the floor while his black tail flicked from side to side.
— "Fine, I'm tired of your mediocre company. Here's the deal: I'll show you where Olete's mansion is, and how to enter and immobilize him. After you've had your childish little hero revenge, I'll let you go."
Gantz looked strangely at Alistar before standing up. Alistar raised his hand. — "If you're going to ask if you can trust me, the answer is no. And no, you have no way of knowing if I'll keep my end of the bargain. But if you don't want to go back to the table, you'd better just follow."
Gantz spent a few seconds staring at the man sitting with his legs crossed, looking at him with disdain, before sighing.
— "Fine. What should I do?"
— "I have one of Olete's employees in my pocket; he'll get you inside, where you will administer this liquid." He took a small blue, diamond-shaped vial from his pocket. — "It's a poison for Sages. It blocks the mana in the body. Put it in his food or drink, and presto—he becomes a useless man."
— "That's it? And the guards?"
— "My puppets will take care of the rest. Just focus on killing Olete."
— "It seems too easy. Why don't you do it?"
— "Too many questions! Irritating questions!" He tapped his chin. — "Let's just say I have an agreement with Olete too, just like yours. Now go. Oh, wait—here is a map of the way to the mansion." Snapping his fingers, a map emerged from green flames. Alistar handed it to Gantz before he exited through the door leading to the tunnels.
Gantz walked the path in silence. He didn't feel so excited now, even being only hours away from his goal. Running his hand over his chest, he felt a sense of dread at the thought of those things coiled around his hearts. The path seemed darker as the fates of the avenger and the culprit met, fused once more.
Exiting the tunnels through a tight squeeze in a manhole on a beautiful street surrounded by mansions, Gantz wondered how much a priest earned to have a house in such a place. It wasn't hard to find. On one side of the gate stood a statue of two women clinging to each other in a tight embrace, their lips touching and their expressions showing lust and desire. On the other, a large fish seemed to want to leap over the gate, a wave following its tail upward.
— "It's definitely here."
— "Yes, it's here," a voice said beside him.
He leapt back and looked to his left. A butler stood next to him, a ghastly smile on his face. — "Come, we don't want to draw attention."
Gantz watched as the man followed a corridor along the side of the gated wall. As he observed the man walking, he noticed his features: short, well-groomed hair; a pale face with no expression lines; teeth that were almost too white; dark eyes like a pitch-black room. His nails were long and delicate, very well-trimmed, and his gait was calm but swift, with his back always straight and shoulders broad.
As he passed, he noticed through the fence a group of shirtless men digging something in the middle of the grass. Their muscles were particularly large and well-defined, their sweat making them glisten in the sun.
A middle-aged woman in a red dress lay in the shade. Her green eyes seemed to appreciate the view as she sipped something cold. Her wavy red hair was loose around her shoulders, and her dress made a point of revealing her ample breasts, which looked as though they were always about to spill out.