The Sin of the Flesh (4/5)

Deep in the night, He Shenyan opened his eyes as he lay on the soft bed of the inn.

He was not asleep, nor had he chosen to meditate. He had been lying with his eyes closed to ponder certain matters while waiting for dawn, but a sudden surge of magic forced him to cease his thoughts.

That magical energy erupted from the lower city district he had visited earlier that day—gloomy, bloody, and reeking of lingering malice. He Shenyan sat up, blue light igniting in his eyes as his Far-Sight vision pierced through the window, scanning all the way to the lower district. In a narrow alley, a man wearing a brown and black hooded robe held a small knife, cornering a woman. Two blood-red tentacles extended from beneath his feet, binding the woman so tightly she could not move.

Without delay, he opened a portal and stepped through, appearing in the alley in the blink of an eye. Sensing the movement behind him, the man did not stop his actions; instead, he accelerated. The knife in his hand continued its arc toward the woman's throat, only to stop dead in the next instant.

His body began to float. The woman had fainted the moment the blood-red tentacles bound her, which fortunately spared her from witnessing what was to come.

The knife fell from the man's hand as he hovered in mid-air. He struggled to speak, his tone unnervingly relaxed: "You had best let me go, mage."

He Shenyan frowned. He stepped forward, black magic gathering in his right hand, and plunged it into the man's chest to rip out his heart. Amidst the spraying blood, a strange, eerie smile spread across the man's face: "You shouldn't have done that, mage."

His limbs began to twist, turning thin, long, and white. His once-handsome face shed its human features, splitting into a four-petaled mouth that dripped crimson, blue-tinged saliva. Hideous horns and four scarlet eyes sprouted from his head. The indescribable monster stood up, facing the black-robed mage, and spat out blurred, icy words: "You are going to die soon, mage."

"Is that so?"

The black-robed mage regarded the monster with a look of disdain. He offered no explanation, nor did he choose to end the fight immediately, even though he was clearly capable of doing so. Instead, he allowed the monster to vanish into a mist. It hid itself in the darkness, moving at high speed through the fog under the moonlight, its massive, hideous claws striking at He Shenyan's back.

"Clang!"

A sound like metal striking metal rang out as the monster's claws collided with a black magical barrier. Seeing the attack fail, it immediately dove back into the mist. But the black-robed mage would not let it have its way again.

"Stop."

He uttered a word in an obscure, incomprehensible language. In an instant, his magic locked the surrounding space, and the monster was frozen once more. He Shenyan walked up to it and unleashed his telepathy at full power. The monster resisted with all its might, seemingly possessing decent mental defenses, but it was to no avail. He saw every one of its memories—which brought a cold smile to the black-robed mage's face for the first time.

"You truly deserve to die."

"A Higher Vampire, is it?"

The black-robed mage pointed out the monster's identity with utter contempt. He took off his black robe, letting it float in the air, and cast a spell on himself, followed by another on the Higher Vampire.

This spell was called Titan's Might, and just as the name implied, this buff significantly enhanced the recipient's strength and physique, nearly rivaling that of a true Titan.

"Isn't it strange why your strength has suddenly increased so much? No matter, you will understand soon enough."

He waved his hand to unfold the Mirror Dimension. Immediately after, the combat arts of Kamar-Taj, bolstered by Titan's Might, unleashed power comparable to fifty Steve Rogers. He punched the monster in the face, causing it to shriek as a chunk of flesh was torn from its thin cheek, sending hot blood spraying out. He Shenyan did not stop; he threw another punch, snapping off the right horn on the monster's head.

He grabbed the horn, weighed it in his hand, and suddenly asked: "Is this how you tortured them? Those people?"

The monster roared but said nothing. He Shenyan sneered: "Not talking, are you? Very well."

Black magic instantly altered the nature of the broken horn. The technique he had once displayed at Ollivander's wand shop appeared again, though this time he was far more serious. The horn took on a metallic sheen, elongated, and spiraled into a long, sharp nail. He Shenyan poured his magic into it as if it were worthless, casting dozens of Flame of Demon-Breaking arrays upon it. To put it bluntly, the nails used to crucify Jesus himself likely weren't of this quality.

He took the nail and drove it into one of the monster's four eyes, then twisted and rotated it with brutal force, driving it deep into the creature's brain amidst its agonizing screams. Golden flames erupted across its body. The Flame of Demon-Breaking was usually poison to fire-weak Higher Vampires, but thanks to Titan's Might, the creature did not die; instead, it slowly healed its wounds even while in the throes of agony.

It stared at the man with its three remaining eyes, suddenly realizing what he intended to do.

He Shenyan watched it calmly and said: "Yes, that is my goal."

For the first time in its life, it begged for mercy: "I can give you my wealth, the accumulation of centuries. You would be wealthier and more knowledgeable than the mayor of Novigrad. Don't you mages love knowledge above all else? I can share the locations of the Higher Vampire libraries with you."

"As long as I let you go?"

"Yes, just spare me. I will leave the human world and never return."

"Ha."

He Shenyan let out a scoff. He pulled out the nail, and as the stinging pain in the Higher Vampire's brain eased slightly, it suffered an even worse blow before it could recover. The nail was driven straight into the top of its head, the very nexus of its magical power. Its form gradually shifted, reverting into a naked human male with a nail still protruding from his skull.

"Isn't it strange why you can no longer use magic, yet have reverted to a human form?"

He Shenyan crouched down and whispered.

The vampire looked at him in terror. He Shenyan held a finger to his own lips: "Shh."

"Because killing you is not enough, Mr. Hubert. Don't you love the praise people heap upon you? Don't you love seeing the high regard people have for a successful, handsome scholar? I am going to destroy it all."

He said patiently: "I am going to completely dismantle the Hubert Family you spent two hundred years building. You care so much about this surname, appearing as grandfather, father, and son in succession. Completing your studies at the university, hmm, a coroner? You have a clear understanding of your own perverted habits. Before I found you, you had already killed twenty-seven people. Do not try to argue, Mr. Hubert. I saw your plans in your mind; you wanted to make a grand display, didn't you?"

"Get ready, Mr. Hubert. You are going to die soon, and you will die without a shred of dignity. When the undertaker finds your cold corpse in the alley tomorrow, they will go to your home to inventory your belongings. That is when they will find the souvenirs you didn't hide away. The eyes, the hands, the intestines. Oh, perhaps that wouldn't be enough—after all, everyone has their little quirks, and you are a coroner, after all. But your diary is sitting right there in your desk drawer, isn't it?"

"That is when they will discover that the respected scholar, the coroner who speaks for the dead, Mr. Hubert, was a monster through and through. Not only did you kill twenty-seven people bit by bit over three years, but you also planned to kill fifty more women in the coming year to warn people of the sins they carry."

"It is a pity, but you are not worthy."

Despair filled the vampire's eyes. He Shenyan delivered the final blow: "And, honestly. Who writes a diary if they're a normal person?"