The Elusive Sorcerer

Chapter 167

Aaron did not act recklessly, nor did Hana. The two chose to observe the robed figures first before taking any action.

The three robed individuals moved carefully through the night fog, while the street lamps struggled to pierce the thick mist and lingering steam to illuminate the road.

Tonight was no different from any other night, yet tonight they were pursuing something that had just shaken the city.

As time passed, the robed men's bodies became increasingly swallowed by the dense fog, causing the two of them to instinctively quicken their pace.

A few seconds later, the three mysterious robed figures entered an alley lit only by dim lights. Aaron instinctively slowed down while gesturing for Hana to remain where she was.

Hana nodded in response. She could only stand quietly beneath the tarp hanging overhead, observing her surroundings and trying to make out something through the thick night fog, while Aaron followed the three robed figures.

Within the dim alleyway, the fog did not penetrate. Even so, the lingering spirituality made Aaron's body tremble, while his gaze remained sharp as he secretly followed the three robed figures.

'What exactly are they doing?'

Aaron had several suspicions, but none of them felt convincing enough when he intended to investigate personally.

Upon reaching a corner, the three figures turned right, and Aaron followed.

"...Where now?"

"Just keep going straight," one of the robed figures replied.

From behind them, Aaron speculated that the three belonged to a cult.

That suspicion grew stronger when the three robed figures suddenly stopped.

"...Is someone following us?"

The other two immediately reacted when the firm voice of the man walking behind them spoke up.

Their eyes narrowed as they tried to see through the darkness behind them.

Naturally, stepping forward to investigate would be extremely dangerous. More importantly, the three robed figures had no idea who was following them.

"...It's probably just your imagination."

The robed figure standing on the right moved forward, followed by the one beside him, leaving their companion alone in the darkness.

The robed man who had sensed someone's presence looked back one more time before following them.

Shortly afterward, Aaron emerged. He stepped out from behind a pile of garbage stretching along one side of the alley path.

Using Shadow Extraction, he successfully erased his presence the moment the robed man became suspicious.

'I knew it. They're cult members!'

Since becoming a Receivers of Exorcist, Aaron had never been involved with the dangerous and cunning cults lurking throughout the world. He had often crossed paths with secretive orders instead, particularly the Order of Soas Repena, which genuinely wanted his head.

Moreover, he had no idea whether the bounty on his head had increased or remained the same.

Aaron clicked his tongue, thinking that returning to the inn as the throbbing in his head intensified was probably a good idea.

A strange sensation crept into his mind after he turned around. Aaron pondered for two seconds before staggering out of the alley, reducing the effectiveness of his Exorcist abilities, which normally warned him about devils or other supernatural creatures.

The moment Aaron emerged from the alley, his gaze first landed on the fog before shifting toward Hana, who was making strange movements.

Hana had backed away until her body pressed against the wall behind her, her hands clutching herself. Sweat covered her face as though she had witnessed something horrifying.

Aaron's previously vacant gray eyes widened. His formerly gloomy face was now filled with disbelief.

Aaron immediately looked up. In a place that should still have been covered in fog, countless thin strings hung beneath the sky, resonating in strange patterns. Like a master puppeteer, except the puppet itself was the fog.

A few seconds after both of them froze while staring at the sight, three people fell from the sky, followed by countless thin strings resonating with flat facial features covered in maggots, oozing pus, fading away as the wind swept through.

'This... is the middle stage of Black Death's ability? Who exactly is doing this?'

The thought flashed through Aaron's mind as his brows furrowed and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. A clear and tragic scene unfolded before him: the surrounding fog vanished, revealing three corpses lying in the middle of the street.

'Impossible... didn't they come out of that alley?'

Something he had been holding back suddenly surged into his mouth. He rushed into the alley and vomited.

Meanwhile, Hana stood motionless like a statue. She had seen countless strange thin strings appear, followed by the sudden deaths of three people impaled by them.

The wave of deaths spreading throughout Norn had reached a new peak.

Aaron stepped out of the alley and looked at Hana again before deciding to approach her.

He was already far too accustomed to seeing corpses. At least the strange thin strings with their different ends were no longer hanging above them.

"...Are you alright?"

he asked loudly, not touching her at all.

After struggling to bring her back to her senses, Hana, whose eyes had remained wide open for several minutes, finally relaxed, and her body once again obeyed her commands.

"...Sirius? Did you see that?"

Hana's lips pressed tightly together. Her gaze swept over the three corpses before she asked again,

"Did you see that?"

"..."

Aaron remained silent while massaging his forehead and suppressing a groan.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Hana, who had nearly lost consciousness earlier but had now recovered from the incident.

As the night air grew colder and the shifting fog began surrounding them again, Hana considered taking a step forward. Yet for some reason, her knees felt weak and her legs trembled violently even though the weather was not cold.

'There's something wrong with my body!'

She glanced at Aaron, who was still standing in the same place.

"Sirius?" Hana asked again to make sure.

'Is she talking to me? Damn it, if a Receiver of Black Death is in Semilir, this city will become a mass grave!'

He wrote words through the shadows just a few centimeters from Hana's black boots.

"You're not talking? That's really strange."

Although her expression appeared normal, deep inside she still carried the same fear as before.

Aaron wrote another message through the shadows, telling her to leave this place immediately.

Hana nodded after reading it, noticing that Aaron's face looked as though he were hiding something.

'Is he deliberately staying silent for a reason?' she wondered doubtfully, experiencing the same sensation Aaron was feeling.

....

The night passed quickly even though the tragedy still lingered in the air, while warm sunlight struggled to penetrate the thick factory smoke drifting through the sky.

Tuesday, the 4th, 7:15 AM.

Inside the second-floor lounge, Aaron recounted what he had witnessed the previous night.

Meanwhile, Hana had been behaving strangely, locking herself inside her bedroom and acting like a madwoman as she drove Mine, her longtime friend, out of the room.

After the incident involving the three corpses, Hana had begun displaying strange reactions, which intensified at dawn.

As a result, Mine ended up sleeping in Zavi's room, while Zavi himself slept in the ground-floor living room.

"It'll be bad if what you're saying turns out to be true," Zavi said while stroking his chin.

He immediately rose from his recliner and walked to the right, toward a broad five-foot-tall table polished with resin until it gleamed beneath the sunlight filtering through the vents.

Zavi swiftly wrote a message that Aaron would likely understand, taking his trauma into consideration.

After reading it over quickly, fearing what dangers might come next, Zavi crumpled the paper in his hand and tossed it toward Aaron.

Aaron carefully caught the tennis-ball-sized paper, slowly unfolded it, and read its contents.

After understanding the meaning of the note, he clenched it tightly and threw it into the trash bin beside the table.

"...No, it has nothing to do with that," Aaron said calmly.

Zavi remained standing where he was, hoping that whatever Aaron had said would not spread too quickly.

Thinking about the Death cases spreading throughout Schoutzin and other regions, Zavi grew increasingly uneasy as the words of the fifth-level evil spirit, Mastering, resurfaced in his mind.

'Could it be true that the prophecy of the apocalypse is approaching?'

Reaching back nearly a thousand years, Zavi clearly remembered the dark history of the battle that had brought the world to the brink of destruction.

After dwelling on the possibility of an impending apocalypse for too long, Zavi shook his head, walked back to his recliner, and clenched his teeth because the goal he had worked so hard toward still remained out of reach.

The sound of friction between the chair and his body lingered for several seconds as Zavi lowered himself into the seat.

"As for that, I don't want to get involved. If it truly is connected to the Black Death ability you mentioned, then I'll focus on saving myself from the death that's coming for me."

As silence drifted through the room and both of them fixed their gazes on him, Zavi quickly added,

"The two of you should value your lives as well. Oh? I just remembered, you said those three corpses belonged to cult members. Is that true?"

Aaron sighed and shook his head. His gaze became vacant for a moment as he recalled the scene before saying, "That's only my hypothesis, and a gut feeling that they really did sacrifice their own people."

Zavi considered those words while sitting upright. He glanced at Mine, who appeared gloomy, and said, "Then we'll investigate tonight."

"Hmm, good choice," Aaron replied.

Zavi looked at Mine. He knew she was emotionally unstable at the moment and could not involve her in tonight's investigation.

After considering his plans for the evening, Zavi rose from his seat. He stretched his stiff muscles and walked to the left.

He pulled open the window curtain, allowing a mixture of cold and warm air to brush against his face before filling the second-floor lounge.

"Mine," Zavi said quietly. "Where did you put that fan artifact?"

Mine answered indifferently, "In your room, inside drawer number two."

'Storing an artifact like it's an ordinary fan? Though to be fair, it does look exactly like one.'

As he turned around, Zavi suddenly thought about how such a fan could possess such terrifying power. He noticed Aaron standing up and leaving the room.

He let him go, unwilling to involve himself in Aaron's tangled emotions.

'I'd better send that letter before meeting them this Saturday!'

Zavi chuckled inwardly before walking over to the coat stand where his tailcoat hung. After putting it on, he placed a bowler hat on his head.

"Take care of yourself," Zavi said as he left the room, gently closing the door behind him and leaving only the sound of it shutting.

"Okay," Mine replied, sounding slightly tired.

From that moment on, Zavi believed that lazing around in a critical situation like this was a terrible choice.