Sacred Flame

It seemed the whole world had lost its light. All she could see was an indistinguishable blackness. Eve walked through the dark corridor, still longing for the light to come, just as Lorenzo had said: when someone who had lived in darkness for a long time finally saw the light, they would descend into a hysterical frenzy.

Lorenzo and Eve were deeper inside now. Ever since the Stomach-Chewing Grass had broken free, they had kept moving without stopping, until they reached this place.

The great detective had no idea where they were. The deathly darkness all around them made it impossible to tell which way they were going, and now a maddening sound rang out without pause.

It came from behind the walls, strange and indescribable, sending chills down their spines. It was as if thousands of steel needles were lightly scraping against the stone, or countless venomous snakes were shifting their scales, making a rustling sound.

"It's the Stomach-Chewing Grass. It's a mass of flesh and tentacles. It's called grass only because it has certain plantlike characteristics, but at its core, it's still a Fiend. Now it's broken free."

Lorenzo's voice came from the darkness, but Eve couldn't see him. The feeling was truly awful.

"What should we do?"

"Head up. We need to find a way out. If we stay here, the Stomach-Chewing Grass will eat us alive sooner or later."

A hand reached out of the darkness and grabbed Eve. It was Lorenzo. He lit another cigarette so she could tell where he was.

The corridors branched in every direction, but finding their way was simple enough: they only had to keep going up. Yet as they climbed, the passage began to shake violently. It had happened in the hall, too. It seemed someone was shelling the Underground Palace.

"Could it be someone coming to rescue us?"

In this life-or-death situation, Eve had already forgotten that Lorenzo had used her. All she wanted now was to escape this nightmare of a place.

"Probably not. The Suaran Hall shouldn't have heavy weapons like cannons. But they're the only ones who know we're here tonight. To mobilize weapons like those, they'd need to apply to the War Department. Even if they had, there's no way they could have arrived this quickly."

Dust fell from the corridor walls, one layer after another, as if the whole place might collapse at any moment.

"Unless... unless there's another group..."

The whole situation seemed to be falling into place. Lorenzo struggled forward, trying to find an exit.

Tonight had nothing to do with Lorenzo. This was a struggle between Sabo and another faction. Those Fiends hadn't been meant for him, but for the people attacking this place. Lorenzo and Eve were merely lambs who had wandered into the middle of the battle.

"Do you smell anything?"

Eve sniffed the air, as if she had noticed something.

Lorenzo took his cigarette from his mouth. The fragrant tobacco had been interfering with his judgment to some extent.

A clear breath sounded in the darkness. Silence held for a moment before Lorenzo spoke again.

"One piece of good news, one piece of bad."

Lorenzo grabbed Eve and started running down the corridor, paying no attention to the sounds made by the Stomach-Chewing Grass. They ran as if they were rushing to their deaths.

"The good news is that a group of professionals has come to rescue us. They know to use fuel oil to seal off the Underground Palace. Fiends fear fire, so that should weaken them considerably."

Lorenzo shouted.

"The bad news is that we're inside the Underground Palace, too. They'll burn us along with everything else!"

The heavy smell of smoke had grown unmistakable. They could smell it even this far underground. It was hard to imagine how bad the fire was above them.

"Should we still keep going up?"

Eve panicked. If they kept climbing, they would run straight into the sea of flames. But if they kept going down, they would only be prolonging the inevitable.

"Down! The Underground Palace is so deep, and it has so many people living in it. It must have its own drainage system. We need to find it."

Lorenzo quickly thought of a new route. He had made thorough preparations before coming to the Underground Palace.

"Old Dunling's underground drainage system serves the entire steam network. It runs through every corner of the city. The steam from the underground engines rises up, and the accumulated rainwater flows back down. In the end, all of it returns to the Thames River."

After spending so long in Old Dunling, Lorenzo had long since committed everything about the city to memory.

"There must be a hidden channel for wastewater in this place. If we find it, we can follow it straight back to the Thames River!"

When it came to escaping with their lives, the detective proved unbelievably reliable. He didn't bother to hide his abilities now. He swung his Cane Sword and cut down the iron door at the end of the corridor. They had been running for so long, and it was the first door Lorenzo had seen. Whatever was behind it, he had to take a look.

The iron door shattered, and thick smoke poured into the corridor. As soon as they stepped inside, they were struck by a wave of heat.

It seemed to be beneath the hall. At the far end of the darkness, flames flared to life and rushed toward them.

It was on fire. As it advanced, it let out a mournful wail. Its tentacles scraped against the walls, making a sound like scales rubbing together.

"I'm guessing that's the Fiend that lives alongside the Stomach-Chewing Grass."

Lorenzo's expression darkened. Just like flowers in nature, the Stomach-Chewing Grass could shelter Fiends. But its seeds could also take root in their bodies, sprouting iron-branch-like red grass across their monstrous forms.

Lorenzo raised his Shotgun and pulled the trigger. Countless pellets struck the creature's flesh with tremendous force, spraying blood everywhere. But even more tentacles sprouted from the wound, driving the malformed Fiend forward with pain and hunger for flesh.

"Run! If you see anything that looks like a water channel, hold your breath and jump in!"

Lorenzo didn't retreat. He only spoke to Eve in a cool voice.

"What about you?"

Eve didn't understand. Was Lorenzo going to fight that Fiend alone?

"Run! You'll only get in my way if you stay!"

The Fiend charged forward. Lorenzo shouted furiously, then shoved Eve away. The girl staggered a few steps. She looked at the figure standing before the flames as if she had made up her mind, then turned and ran as fast as she could, shouting as she went.

"I'll wait for you up ahead!"

In a situation like this, someone had actually said they would wait for him. In the past, Lorenzo might have been so moved he'd have burst into tears, but things were different now. The danger was too immediate to leave him time to think about anything else.

Hunting Fiends was an extremely dangerous job. Everything about them corroded the human mind, and fighting them at close quarters—bathing in an enemy's blood—was even worse.

Even Lorenzo couldn't be sure he would remain sane in circumstances like these, so Eve had to leave. There were other reasons, too, such as the fact that what happened next absolutely could not be witnessed by anyone else.

Lorenzo gripped his sharp Cane Sword. Just as the Fiend was about to crash into him, the detective's body twisted in an uncanny way. No ordinary person could have bent that far, but he did it anyway. He found a blind spot in the creature's massive form and darted through it, his Cane Sword slicing into its body and drawing a spray of blood.

The Fiend let out a hoarse scream. The tentacles on its body seemed to awaken, coiling and writhing like a nest of snakes as they surged toward Lorenzo. All that met them was a flash of sharp white light.

Lorenzo leaned on his Cane Sword. Wisps of pale vapor rose from beneath his clothes, like steam.

His gray-blue pupils contracted until they became narrow slits like a beast's. Something seemed to writhe beneath his skin, though his clothes only revealed faint bulges. He slowly raised his sword, its tip angled slightly downward. He was still on the edge of reason.

A moment later, the Fiend charged with a roar, its tentacles lashing like swords. The tiny mouths along them would devour any flesh they touched, but the sword's lightning-fast flash fell like a thunderbolt, cleaving through everything like a guillotine.

Lorenzo's body moved in a blur. In that uncanny state, his physical abilities kept growing stronger: he ran faster and swung his sword more quickly. He could even clear the Fiend's enormous body with nothing more than a standing jump.

Then the Shotgun attacked from above. A barrage of pellets struck the Fiend's head with pinpoint accuracy, blowing a hole the size of a bowl in it. Lorenzo tossed the Shotgun aside, letting it fall wherever it might.

All of this deadly violence unfolded in just a few seconds. Lorenzo's body still hung in midair, his legs braced against the wall. Using it to propel himself, he gripped the sword in both hands and drove it down with a ferocity as swift as lightning.

It was falling lightning, a flaming sword passing judgment on the Fiend.

The sharp Cane Sword plunged straight into the hole left by the Shotgun and pierced the Fiend's skull. But by then, the Stomach-Chewing Grass had caught Lorenzo. Countless mouths clamped onto him, like a pack of wolves descending on their prey. At the feeding speed he had seen in the pit, he would be devoured within seconds. Even if he escaped now, the Stomach-Chewing Grass would already have infected his body. He was doomed.

An endless stream of blood poured from his body, until all that remained on the Fiend was a gaunt skeleton. That was what should have happened next—but none of it did.

He was terrible to eat, at least for the Stomach-Chewing Grass. Its mouths bit through Lorenzo's skin and greedily sucked at his warm blood. But soon, the Fiend's already meager intelligence realized something.

His blood disgusted Fiends. And Lorenzo's body was giving off the same aura as theirs. It was as if he had become a Fiend in that brief moment. The creature was confused, but then a searing pain swallowed everything else.

Blood-red tentacles wrapped tightly around Lorenzo, but through the gaps between them, endless white flames surged out and burned every inch of the Fiend.

"That hurts, doesn't it?!"

In the white flames, Lorenzo's expression was wild. His blood was burning like some kind of chemical agent. It had no effect when it flowed outside his body, but the moment it touched the Fiend's flesh, it began to burn furiously.

He clung tightly to his Cane Sword. Blood ran along the grooves in the blade and beneath the Fiend's flesh, igniting an even more violent blaze. Every inch of the Fiend's body burned to ash in the holy flames, yet they couldn't harm Lorenzo himself.

The huge creature charged wildly, trying to shake Lorenzo off. But the detective clung there stubbornly, nailed to its skull. The Stomach-Chewing Grass surged up in wave after wave, only to be swallowed by the growing inferno.

The crashing continued for a long time, like a trapped beast fighting for its life. At last, the Fiend slowly came to a stop. It was dead.

The sacred white flames burned through its shell. Only unburned flesh and ashes remained inside its massive corpse. Lorenzo stayed still for a long time before slowly pushing himself upright with his Cane Sword. His face was deathly pale, and he could barely stay on his feet.

When he fought Fiends, he usually made plenty of preparations beforehand. But life in Old Dunling had made him forget everything from his past. He had thought the Fiends were all dead, but today they had come for him all the same.

Lorenzo's blood had burned the Fiend to death, but he was also dazed from losing too much blood. He picked up the Shotgun and used his Cane Sword as a cane as he slowly moved on.

He gently felt the small of his back. That was where Lorenzo's spine was, but unlike an ordinary person's, his had a pronounced bulge.

"The Silver-Binding Bolt is still intact..."

He let out a long sigh, though he wasn't sure what he was relieved about.

But just as Lorenzo was about to let down his guard, the warning of instinct rose again. It came from ahead of him, in the direction Eve had gone.