Wait.
The city I stumbled into during the first exchange was Tingen?!
"If I hadn't happened to go to Tingen while sourcing that Faceless Beyonder item for you last time, this would never have come to light."
She quickly summarised the whole incident.
Vincent grew more unsettled the more he heard. "So this person is a member of the Tingen Nighthawks. You intervened just before he was about to eliminate a Demoness Sect Clown — and left him a scroll?"
"...You don't need to repeat everything I just said."
"Do you know his name?"
Bernadette thought. "I believe it was... Klein Moretti."
"...Oh, hell."
Tingen City.
The moment Klein's divination locked onto Old Neil's new position, the Nighthawk team moved out immediately, converging on the street.
"He'll be alright, Klein." Leonard said reassuringly. "Based on what you divined, Old Neil is in a stable state right now. He won't do anything to your sister. She's probably already home by now."
"Right. Right."
"May the Goddess protect her."
"May the Goddess protect her."
Klein forced a thin smile. His fingers tightened around the scroll in his pocket. According to the divination above the grey fog — Melissa was in danger.
He trusted that a rational Old Neil would never harm Melissa. But if he lost control — if he became a raving, monstrous thing — then Melissa...
He refused to follow that thought any further.
Two carriages pulled up near the building from Klein's divination. Everyone jumped out. Dunn's team spread around the building from different directions, closing in on the target.
Meanwhile, at the house itself, Melissa had just seen the old man home and was turning to leave when the figure slumped on the sofa suddenly began to shake violently.
She froze in alarm, rushed forward helplessly. "Sir — sir, what's wrong?"
"Get — get out!"
The old man struggled against the whispering in his ears and the madness rising in his mind, clinging to his last shred of reason to shout: "Get out. Now!"
Old Neil had spent the better part of his life preparing for one thing: to use the Life Alchemy ritual to resurrect his fiancée. For years, guided by the "rituals gifted by the Hidden Sage," he had been gathering the required materials. The one component needed in the greatest quantity was blood — and because he refused to harm others, he had drawn it from himself, over and over, preserving it through ritual magic, inching ever closer to completion.
And then Dunn had assigned him to guard the sealed items at Chanis Gate, keeping him there for extended periods.
He had played along, smiling as though he hadn't a care in the world — but the whispers of that existence in his ears told him his plans had been discovered. So he had fled Chanis Gate, taking back all the materials his colleagues had confiscated from his home. For days since, he had been searching for blood, moving constantly on the guidance of the whispers to stay one step ahead of Klein's divinations.
Until just now, when he had stumbled across a lone girl. In an instant, madness and malice had germinated inside him. The whispers repeated themselves, coaxing, over and over: go on. All you need is her blood. Then the ritual can begin. Then you can bring Celeste back.
Wasn't this what you've devoted decades to? Isn't this the reason you've kept yourself alive?
If you miss this chance — if the Nighthawk team finds you — there will never be another.
He had held the demon at bay. But his body, weakened from blood loss, had betrayed him, and he had collapsed — which had brought the girl to him.
He had told himself: just a few minutes' walk home, let her see him through the door, and it would be over.
But the cut on his palm refused to stop bleeding. The blood loss sapped his body and clouded his mind, until he could no longer hold back the whispers or the urge.
"Get — out!!!"
He shoved Melissa away with the last of his will. "Go."
The sudden change terrified her — kind as she was, there was nothing left for her to do. She bolted for the door.
Her fingers closed around the door handle.
And then a sharp pain struck the back of her head. Darkness flooded in, and she lost consciousness.
Old Neil let the cane fall from his hand. He gripped Melissa's limp form with wizened fingers and dragged her toward the basement. His face was cold, empty, burning with a feverish, desperate craving.
From behind his head, four pitiless, lashless eyes drifted in the void, glowing with a faint, eerie light.
The sky was brightening. The dark clouds had fully retreated. The Nighthawk team reached the building from Klein's divination.
Captain Dunn, staff in one hand and Sealed Artifact in the other, arrived at the front door and attempted to use his Nightmare ability to hypnotise whoever was inside.
It failed.
The entire building was enveloped in a strange, pervasive energy. The Nightmare ability could not penetrate it. His grey eyes grew slightly heavier, but he did not move hastily.
He looked back at Klein and shook his head.
A moment later, Leonard slipped out from around a corner, signalled with a quick gesture, and withdrew again.
Dunn tightened his hand around his staff and walked directly up to the door, knocking gently. "Old Neil. Are you in there?"
No response.
Klein watched the yellow citrine pendulum rotate at his fingertips, his heart growing grimmer by the second. He forced a calm tone: "Old Neil — you know we're not your enemies. We just want to know what happened. We want to help you. We will find a way."
Still nothing.
Dunn glanced back. "Could he have left again — same as before?"
"No. The divination shows Old Neil... and my sister. They're both inside, right now."
Dunn heard him, stepped back half a pace — and then drove his boot into the door with full force. As the door flew inward, he was already through it, moving behind the door. In almost the same instant, Nighthawks stationed at every other side of the building came crashing in through the windows, encircling the ground floor.
Old Neil was nowhere to be seen.
Leonard emerged from a bedroom. "Nothing in here either."
"He's in the basement."
Klein gripped his revolver and went to the basement door first. Through the gap in the half-open wooden door seeped a faint, blood-coloured light.
Dunn pushed it open. "Royale, Frye — Klein, the three of you wait up here. Everyone else, with me."
"I'm going too!"
Dunn was quiet for a moment, then gave a slight nod.
"...Alright."
They descended the old stairs carefully, each step producing a soft groan of old wood. Despite their caution, the sound still crept out — and as they went deeper, the blood-coloured light grew brighter and thicker, as though it were not light at all but actual blood, spreading slowly through the air.
"You've come."
Old Neil's dry, aged voice drifted toward them.
He was kneeling on the basement floor, hands folded in prayer, his face full of reverence and wistful expectation. On the floor around him, a strange ritual circle had been drawn in blood. At its centre, lying perfectly still, was a girl.
Melissa.
"Melissa!!!"
Klein lunged forward — and the instant he touched the edge of the ritual circle, it was as if he had run headlong into an invisible wall. He was flung back.
Old Neil blinked, surprised. "Do you know this girl, Klein?"
Klein said, low and fierce, "She's my sister."
"..."
The smile on Old Neil's face dissolved. He lurched backward, his expression crumpling in horror. "How... how can this be?"
It was as though he had only just woken up. "No! What have I done?!"
Dunn gripped the Sealed Artifact, keeping his voice as gentle as he could manage. "Old Neil. Stop — before it's too late."
"I — I didn't want to do this."
Old Neil clutched his head. "It's the Hidden Sage. It was always whispering in my ear — manipulating me, pushing me. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I only ever wanted to bring back my Celeste."
His expression twisted. "But why? Why are you trying to stop me?"
"Go — all of you, go!"
He seemed to recall something. "This ritual — once started, it cannot be stopped. Everyone nearby will be in danger."
Leonard called out against his better judgment: "Then let go of Klein's sister first!"
"I... can't."
Old Neil said bitterly, "She was chosen by the Hidden Sage. The ritual is built around her..."
Leonard pressed: "But you said you wanted to bring back your fiancée. So why has Melissa become the centre of this ritual?"
Old Neil's expression went blank.
"...Yes. Yes, that's right."
He stumbled to his feet, looking down at the blood-drawn circle on the floor, murmuring: "This ritual... this isn't the Life Alchemy ritual."
"Then what... am I doing?"
To be continued…
No updates for almost 4 days guys, I will be traveling.
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