Both of them stood stiffly at the edge of the road, letting the rainwater seep through the tarpaulin above them and run down through their hair until it soaked their clothes and coats. The rain showed no signs of stopping, as if it were mourning the inevitable deaths.
Yet the cold and the wet were not what filled their minds. Their gazes were fixed on the city square, gathering information about the robed men who were now calmly blending in with others as if they had never dragged anyone into the darkness of the previous night.
They were not the same people as the four robed men earlier, whose groups had each been killed by Ren and Zavi.
At the moment, they might be disguising themselves as merchants in the square. That had only just become known, as they tried to find out who had killed their companions and where their bodies were.
This information had been obtained from the Avatar created by Karl, who had disguised himself as a robed man with a different identity and sacrificed it to escape the barrier earlier.
It might sound strange. Why did the robed men of that sect and their four companions not realize that Karl was a spy?
With the ability of a Sorcerer, a level 2 Magician, he could create an Avatar that was almost indistinguishable from an ordinary human and control it. No matter how far the Avatar was, he would never lose control over it at this level. Even at level two, which he had only unlocked a few months ago, he could control it from several kilometers away.
Karl had grown accustomed to this since he drank an herbal potion that enhanced the spiritual control within his body over his magical abilities and successfully refined it, allowing him to deceive his enemies even through intermediaries, even though he was a "Receivers".
Since joining a year and a half ago, Conwuqoam, the title of the leader of the Finiscya sect that worshiped the Goddess Camilla, the "Ruler of Heaven and Earth", had been excessively cautious. She was one of the nine deities worshiped across various continents, including the Kingdoms of Norn and Yessaka.
He had been closely monitoring Karl by attaching a level three spell, "Addichive", which clung to him and left a small mark with a complex symbol on the left side of his neck.
Karl was unaware of the existence of that spell, because it was invisible to his eyes and he felt no effect after it had been cast.
However, when he fully immersed himself in the role of the robed figure, he unconsciously cursed Zavi, and at the same time he managed to deceive Conwuqoam. He was killed, but not by a bullet infused with the power of the "Controller", fired at the perfect moment. Without anyone realizing it, the spell attached to his neck also disappeared.
Even he could not believe it at the time. By attaching the level four spell "Information Reversal" to his Avatar, information about several sect members who had begun moving toward Moran City was obtained. They were trying to find out who had been involved in ruining their filthy plan.
It was not only the fifteen supernatural abilities that had been known so far. There were also various talismans, herbal potions used to enhance spirituality in order to control those abilities, spells ranging from level six down to zero, as well as Hallio, a medium used to control a person's spirit and soul through water, which had complicated requirements.
Meanwhile, Zavi moved first, searching for a tall structure, the clock tower, to carry out the scenario that Karl had prepared beforehand.
Slowly, the rumble of thunder faded from their ears, signaling that the rain would soon stop. Both of them looked up at the sky at the same time, Zavi on top of the tower and Karl still at the edge of the road, watching the faint blue glow of the moon.
Both of them smiled with satisfaction, convinced that the plan to save the survivors would succeed one hundred percent, convinced that the plan would not fail against the heretical sect.
The blue moonlight reflected off the puddles left behind as the two of them looked down, while the air was filled with the sharp scent of wet earth, a familiar smell after heavy rain, heavy like dust clinging to the skin.
18:30. Tuesday.
More than an hour had passed. The merchants had already dismantled their stalls and brought their goods home, some storing them in their own warehouses, while others transported everything using carts or rented horse-drawn wagons.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
However… the two of them did not see any suspicious signs among the merchants in the city square, as if they already knew that the two of them had come to capture them, or because of their own vigilance.
Zavi was still on the clock tower, about one hundred and thirty meters from Karl's location, who remained at the roadside, sitting on an empty chair in front of a closed café.
Using the binoculars that Karl had previously given him, he also made sure that his mother was safe, watching her carefully step through puddles along the road toward the Chapena district, holding an umbrella in her right hand and a sealed paper bag in her left.
From that distant view, Zavi drew his conclusion, convinced that tonight his mother would cook something delicious, or perhaps not. But for now, he chose to focus on the plan to save the survivors and to watch the sect members in disguise.
However, after waiting for too long, Zavi began to grow suspicious about what was actually happening in the square at the moment.
'Damn… that guy,' Zavi thought, raising the binoculars and seeing Karl still sitting there, not moving even a little from his spot since earlier.
'Is he deliberately doing that to lure the sect members out so they attack him? Interesting. Seeing how relaxed his expression is, I'm not so sure.'
Zavi shook his head.
Not wanting to think about it any further, he decided to shift his focus to the fountain, which was now clear, very different from before when it had been blood-red, and to the long wooden benches that partly surrounded it, the tarpaulins tied together above the circular road, then concentrated his gaze there.
Without warning, the gas lamps in the front row that illuminated the entrance road and the signboard pointing toward the Forgenate District suddenly went out, leaving half of the area trapped in darkness.
Zavi immediately shifted his binoculars to the left, staring without blinking at the now dark road as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
'Did the gas run out? Or did someone deliberately turn it off?' he thought in surprise.
A few seconds later, from within the darkness, a faint orange light appeared, moving slowly but steadily forward toward the buildings beside the standing tents.
Zavi reflexively swallowed.
'Is someone there?' he thought with uncertainty.
Zavi took a deep breath to drive away his panic, trying to remain calm and not act recklessly so that the plan to save the other survivors could succeed.
Yet for some reason, the sight of it made his body shiver. Zavi frowned, slapped both of his cheeks with his hands, then pulled a pistol from the pocket of his coat, which had dried from the cold night wind.
The atmosphere at the top of the tower froze, cold enough to make the feet hidden inside his shoes feel numb. Even as the cold wind pierced through his coat and seeped into his pores, the cold was not what filled his mind. His gaze remained fixed on that orange light, as if the light somehow warmed his body.
Zavi turned around, put the brown pistol back into the pocket of his coat, then began descending the stairs to inform Karl, who until now was still sitting at the roadside.
"Is that a lantern?" he muttered in confusion while descending the dark stairs. "But… could it be… they're the ones over there."
Suddenly he remembered something strange, an embarrassing incident from Earth when he was still in school.
"Huh. If he were here… surely…" before he could finish the thought, his expression changed, staring blankly ahead as the embarrassing memory resurfaced and disrupted his mind.
Zavi continued descending carefully. When he reached the lowest level, there was a neat square opening in the wall that allowed a clear view toward the left side of the fountain. His instinct told him to stop. He turned his head to the right and narrowed his eyes. He was not surprised, but there was nothing there. He looked back at the yellow light that was slowly moving within the darkness.
After waiting for a few seconds without anything happening, he decided to continue descending. His foot lifted slowly, about to step onto the next stair.
Suddenly, a voice without emotion, cold, and in a language he did not recognize, like a language from another continent, sounded clearly inside his head.
—The inevitable sacrifice, from an ordinary Prisoner who became the King of Prisoners of Kiimea—
He pulled his foot back and immediately turned around, staring at the dark interior of the clock tower with his shining blue eyes.
'What language is that? I don't understand it. It's not like Talazze, the common language used in Moran and other cities of the Kingdom of Norn. Is it a language from another continent? The south? Or the west?' Zavi shrugged, completely confused by the language he could not recall from the original Zavi's memories.
Since the first time he arrived in this world, a place where supernatural powers ran rampant and the death toll continued to rise, whether because souls were stolen or because of suicide like what the original Zavi once did, it had convinced his heart that this new world of his was extremely mysterious.
Move a little and you die, stay still and you are devoured by something that should be beyond the logic of human reasoning.
'Damn… the previous transmigration alone was already bad enough. Am I going to get involved in even more troublesome problems that will complicate my life later?'
He clicked his tongue softly, his expression wavering between surrendering to fate and anxiety about whether he would be able to live peacefully after getting through tonight. It seemed unlikely.
Leaving the tower building, he immediately ran toward Karl. One and a half minutes later, Karl had disappeared from his sight. The café was empty, with only the wind blowing the ornamental plants on the fence.
'Where did he go?'
'Has it already started?'
His eyes widened.
'No way.'
He quickly turned around.
Crash!!
Tap… Tap…
Thud!!
The sound of hurried footsteps echoed in every direction. The sound of wooden crates colliding with one another, as if someone had deliberately done it, could be heard not far from where he stood.
Zavi stared sharply ahead, witnessing the commotion among the merchants' tents. He hurried closer, preparing to pull the brown pistol from his pocket.
When he arrived, he stood in the middle of the road, sensing something moving rapidly within the narrow alley ahead that was blocked by wooden crates neatly stacked along the sidewalk for dozens of meters.
Seeing that, he felt puzzled, because the lighting from the entrance road toward Tezny as well as the street lamps around it and the nearby houses were still functioning without any problem.
Yet for some reason, the narrow alley was dark. That only deepened Zavi's suspicion and convinced him that the alley contained the clue he was searching for.
"Should I check it out? Besides, that 'Scenario' guy suddenly disappeared who knows where." He shrugged slightly and decided to approach the crates.
And… when he was only a few meters away. Suddenly… from the side.
Crash!! Whoosh…
Several wooden crates slammed directly into him, scattering in every direction.
Zavi's body was thrown backward by something that burst out of the narrow alley, his back crashing hard against the wall behind him, forming a small crack on a house beside him.
"Ah serious..."
And… as he tried to endure the pain spreading through his body, Zavi looked toward the narrow alley. Not long after, from within the darkness appeared a man wearing a long black coat, followed by two others, one wearing the same suit and the other wearing a dress of an unknown color and shape, running in panic as if something was chasing them from the far end of the dark corridor.
