Then, Iver Moriarty Began the Hunt

"—It's a curse."

Iver's expression turned solemn as he immediately identified its type. "It's the Filthy Blood Curse."

This was a painful curse cast using poisonous scorpions, venomous snakes, and live poisonous toads as materials, with menstrual blood as the medium. It caused its victim to continuously experience pain three times worse than menstrual cramps. Depending on the victim's curse resistance, it could torment them for anywhere from half an hour to six hours.

Sherlock's expression immediately turned solemn, and a Deep Blue radiance blossomed in his pupils.

A cold, rational, mysterious light shone from the depths of his eyes. He extended the little finger of his left hand and traced a cane-like rune through the air.

"Water overcomes blood, just as the pure must overcome the impure."

He chanted softly as he picked up the bottle of pure water from the table.

Sherlock turned it upside down and poured it out, but the water did not fall to the ground. Instead, it filled the rune.

When the rune was full, it suddenly contracted into a ball of water. Then it flew forward and slapped Lu Lu across the face.

As the water splashed, the pure water spraying from her face transformed into foul-smelling blood, which dripped onto the floor.

Lu Lu's pained whimper abruptly ceased. Yet she continued vomiting, endlessly coughing up blood.

Iver reached out to test her and found that the back of her neck and her chest were abnormally cold.

He knitted his brows tightly. "You didn't dispel it completely. You only removed half of it."

Sherlock glanced over and judged from Lu Lu's symptoms. "This curse is somewhat complicated. It looks like her esophagus and stomach are being corroded by the curse. Menstrual blood probably isn't the only medium. This is a compound curse. You handle it... Professionals should do professional work."

"Mm. I'll handle it."

"Do you still have enough mana?"

"I have enough to heal her, at least."

Iver answered.

He helped Lu Lu up and sat her half-upright with her face pointed downward, preventing the contaminated blood she coughed up from causing her to choke.

Then Iver extended his left hand. His five fingers sank into the thick, dense platinum-blond hair of his "wife." He gripped the slightly cold back of her neck with the heel of his palm and pressed the tip of his left middle finger against the back of her head.

His expression was solemn and grave. A dazzling sunset-like radiance ignited in the depths of his Deep Blue eyes.

When he resonated with his Path, the light that blossomed was deep red tinged with gold, symbolizing the excess Fire Attribute of the Dedication Path.

—This was the clearest treatment response Iver's Illumination Spell had ever produced.

Black smoke hissed continuously from the back of Lu Lu's head, even staining her platinum-blond hair somewhat dull. Her body convulsed violently, trembling at an extremely high frequency. Yet she gritted her teeth and made no sound, afraid of waking Little Iver... Only a few muffled groans escaped her despite herself.

"We have a guest. And it isn't friendly."

Sherlock said darkly, "Leave it to me. Continue the treatment."

He picked up the Sulfuric Acid on the table and threw it directly at the wall.

But at the instant the bottle shattered, he clenched his right hand into a fist and abruptly punched toward the bottle from a distance.

The transparent, oily concentrated Sulfuric Acid did not splash outward. Instead, it filled with some deep-green gas, swelling slightly... like a fist, or a beating heart. It was more viscous than Sulfuric Acid, yet its volume had increased considerably.

In the next instant, Sherlock spread his right hand into a claw and made a grabbing motion toward a corner not far from where the bottle had landed.

An unnatural mass of shadow occupied that spot. It was gradually becoming clearer, taking on a reddish hue.

Long-distance instantaneous movement required time to manifest. After Lu Lu was cursed, Sherlock had kept watching his surroundings.

"Fox" had chosen a good location. In this enclosed factory, the lighting should have been uniform.

If any area suddenly became darker or brighter, that would be the sign that the Iron Hook Demon was teleporting in!

The oily green, viscous liquid suspended in the air simultaneously formed a sharp claw and grabbed toward that spot!

The sound that came from there resembled a baby's wail, yet also the mating cry of an old cat. It was exceptionally shrill... a high-pitched sound that could pierce the eardrums and make a person feel as though something was buzzing inside their ears.

Even so, the sleeping Little Iver did not awaken. He only struggled in pain as if having a nightmare.

"I hate rude children."

Sherlock said in a gloomy whisper, "Especially the loud ones..."

His spell dealt highly effective damage and control—

Only as tall as a calf, entirely scarlet, with two legs and four arms... the little demon had a head resembling both a bald, fat man and a vicious infant. The moment it appeared, it was tightly seized by the Sulfuric Acid claw! Hissing sounds of burning rang out, and for the moment it could not break free.

The claw formed from liquid seemed to contain something solid within it. It pinned the demon firmly in place and continuously burned it! The situation seemed excellent, but Sherlock felt not the slightest joy.

Because he could clearly sense that as he guided and maintained the spell, the Water Attribute and Earth Attribute mana within his body was burning away at high speed.

When he had purified the curse on himself earlier, he had used some Water Attribute mana. Only two points of Water Attribute mana remained.

Even though he used his own Path Trait to forcibly substitute his most abundant Earth Attribute mana for Water Attribute mana, activating the concentrated Sulfuric Acid, constructing the Water Demon Hand, and shouldering half of the mana cost required to maintain it afterward, the spell still required at least half Water Attribute mana to remain active.

Two points of Water Attribute mana plus two points of Earth Attribute mana could maintain this spell for only forty seconds.

That was more than enough against humans of flesh and blood.

An activated Sulfuric Acid claw capable of reaching a maximum speed of twenty meters per second could easily kill a squad of ordinary people. A Water Demon Hand constructed from pure water could briefly melt and penetrate the inside of armor, while one constructed from Earth Attribute mana could effortlessly snap a tree and tear apart leather armor.

Even so, this would most likely not be enough to kill the Iron Hook Demon. He could only hope to injure and scare it away.

As long as "Fox" quickly dispelled the compound curse from "Lu Lu," it would count as a victory!

Without a cursed person nearby, the Iron Hook Demon could not teleport instantly. Its threat... at least, would not be so great.

...Wait? Sherlock's expression suddenly changed as he realized something.

A curse?

Although he did not know much about this, he knew one principle.

The difficulty of cursing the same person increased each time. Curses also increased the target's curse resistance, and a medium that had already been used could not be used again.

In other words, within the limited four-hour period, the enemy might only be able to curse each of them once.

If that was true, Ke Ke might not have constructed an Anti-Demon Magic Array... She might instead have dispelled the curse on herself, like he had, causing the tracking to fail! Among Alexander and his wife, the first person to be cursed had not been "Fox."

—It had been "Little Iver"! Now that he and Lu Lu had both been cursed... Fox would be next! At that thought, Sherlock's heart sank.

This was bad.

This was the weakness of the Dedication Path.

He could easily remove other people's curses, but he could not use the Illumination Spell on himself. It was a secret technique that burned oneself to illuminate others.

That's right, priests could use Sacrificial Fire!... But there were no candles here!

"Fox!"

Amid the Iron Hook Demon's shrill screams, Sherlock suddenly shouted, "Can you use Sacrificial Fire on burning wood or chemical reagents?"

"...You think too highly of me."

Iver replied helplessly, also shouting, "Besides, the healing power of the Sacrificial Fire Method is far weaker than the Illumination Spell. Even if I could use it, as a First Level, I couldn't dispel a Second Level curse!"

...That was true.

Sherlock was not very familiar with the Dedication Path. But he had just remembered... Iver Moriarty was also a priest, yet he still needed to use a wheelchair. Presumably, the source of his injuries was too high-level, so Sacrificial Fire could not dispel them.

A priest's Sacrificial Fire was essentially "restoration," rather than "healing" or "regeneration." This meant that the higher the level of the source that caused the damage, the harder it was to heal. True "regeneration"—the ability to rely solely on the body's own healing power to recover—belonged to the Path of Adaptation and the Equilibrium Path.

However, after hearing Fox say this, Sherlock understood that this clever and cunning young man had also realized the problem.

"What do you plan to do?"

Sherlock asked.

"What else can we do?"

Iver replied lightly. "Aren't we already guaranteed to win?"

As he spoke, he successfully dispelled the curse from Lu Lu.

At that point, Sherlock knew what Iver intended to do.

The Iron Hook Demon's screams abruptly ceased.

This clearly was not death—its condition was still healthy. It had probably been recalled by its master.

Iver relaxed slightly.

"Don't look over here, Mr. Sherlock."

He gave a reminder, then undid Lu Lu's coat and changed her position to lying on her side. He slipped his left hand beneath the waistband of her skirt and directly touched the skin over her chest. Using the small amount of Light Attribute mana he had left, he activated the Illumination Spell.

"You're one to talk."

Sherlock did not turn around. Instead, he retorted, "You're the one who shouldn't be touching her randomly—Miss Lu Lu is still a young girl."

He added inwardly: And a princess, at that.

"Of course I know."

Iver answered irritably. "What do you take me for? A beast who preys on children?"

He had instinctively treated Lu Lu as a child.

Out of courtesy, Iver touched the area behind the side of her heart rather than the front.

The blazing Light Attribute mana flowed through her limbs and organs along with the powerful pumping of her heart. The corroded mucous membranes in her throat and stomach rapidly regenerated. The injuries Lu Lu had suffered were easy to restore and only consumed a little of Iver's mana.

After Iver withdrew his hand, the first thing Lu Lu did upon sitting up was straighten her clothes.

"...Thank you, Mr. Fox."

Lu Lu's face reddened slightly, but she still thanked Iver seriously. "You didn't originally have to save me..."

"You mean kill you?"

Sherlock was the first to understand.

"I refuse."

Iver replied lazily. "If it had been Luo Le here, she might have done that. But I wouldn't."

After saying this, he walked alone toward the route they had come from.

"—Mr. Fox?"

Lu Lu was startled. She instinctively wondered whether she had said something wrong or done something wrong again.

Iver stopped and turned back, saying leisurely, "The demon can no longer find you. But it can still find me... There's another hour before the ritual ends. So as long as I don't stay with Little Iver, we've already won.

"Since a sacrifice is needed to achieve victory, it can only be me. Stay here obediently, and don't move around."

As he spoke, Iver looked toward Sherlock and asked casually, "Oh, right. Do you have a dagger? I want to take a few personal items with me. Otherwise, I feel a little uneasy."

"...Will a paper knife do?"

Sherlock took out a small knife.

It was a paper knife carried by a newsboy, utterly lacking in power.

But it would be enough for suicide.

Sherlock thought Fox wanted the knife so he could kill himself after luring the demon out—that way, he could at least avoid the pain of being disemboweled.

"That works."

Iver took it. "Better than nothing."

"Do you want me to help? I can make your death more painless."

"I'd rather die outside. Otherwise, Lu Lu will be frightened."

Iver said lightly.

Of course, he definitely had not asked for the knife to commit suicide.

As long as it could cut him and make it convenient for him to use the Shepherding Method, it would do... Otherwise, he might have to bite himself.

—That's right, the Shepherding Method.

The Shepherding (Flesh and Blood) skill belonged to the Dedication Path. Most likely, because he had read the Shepherd's Secret Covenant and possessed the Shepherding Method, the ritual had assigned the Iron Hook Demon as their enemy... It believed they might be capable of killing a powerful enemy and finding the mastermind.

That was because the difficulty of this mission also took into account the Shepherding Method Iver possessed, as well as his knowledge of demons, in addition to Bone Carver and Sherlock! As long as he successfully completed the Shepherding Method, he could control this Lower Demon.

Even the Shadow Demon had been unable to resist Iver's blood... The Iron Hook Demon was far weaker than the Shadow Demon.

Furthermore, the Iron Hook Demon's intelligence was like that of a three-year-old child. Even among Lower Demons, it was an outstanding example of stupidity.

This Iron Hook Demon had not received any special intelligence training. Its master clearly either did not possess that technique or did not believe anyone in Avalon was familiar with the Iron Hook Demon's traits.

After Sherlock caught it, it only screeched wildly, never realizing that it could use instantaneous movement to escape its restraints—a trained and specially enhanced demon could do so.

Jack the Ripper had received such enhancement, which was why he had become much more troublesome.

According to the original, ideal development, the Iron Hook Demon should have descended before "Little Iver" and then been controlled by Iver.

After Sherlock used his wisdom to find everyone and assembled a nine-person team with clearly defined roles, they should have followed the Iron Hook Demon's clues to its master.

That would truly have been the easy difficulty.

But just as Bone Carver had refused to cooperate with them...

The ritual had also failed to determine that Iver "didn't want to reveal that he possessed the Shepherding Method"—especially that he did not want to reveal it before Sherlock.

Because of this, the difficulty had risen for no reason.

After all, the identity of Fox had to remain pure and blameless. It was a superficial identity Iver had deliberately created to be exposed.

That was why he had deliberately maintained his image before the two of them.

What he wanted was to use the identity of Fox to hide his other identity—the identity belonging to the Path of Transcendence! Iver had been right just now.

For Sherlock and Lu Lu, this ritual was already over—they had achieved victory.

Ensuring Little Iver's survival and maintaining his role until the end meant that the two Necessary Tasks were essentially complete.

But for Iver, who sought higher scores and wished to uncover the truth... his adventure had only just begun.

With his back to the light-transmitting door, Iver concealed his killing intent, smiled, and gently nodded and waved.

To Sherlock, whose expression was complicated, and Lu Lu, who looked sorrowful and reluctant to part, he gave one final farewell and delivered the "last words" they believed he was leaving before heroically sacrificing himself: "Take good care of 'our child,' Lu Lu. Sing him another lullaby. He doesn't seem to be sleeping very peacefully. It looks like he was disturbed.

"And, Mr. Sherlock. If I have time, I'll come find you... If I have time."

They would definitely remember me deeply.

—And now, I'm going to begin the hunt.

Iver thought silently.

That's eight thousand words for today's update. I wrote until seven-thirty in the morning...! Leave a comment if you spot any typos; I'll fix them when I wake up! The dungeon ends tomorrow! The number of readers following the updates has reached seven thousand! Please keep voting and following!