The speeding bullet streaked across the long distance, tearing through the pitch-black tunnel with a thunderous roar like Death Knell as it pierced the Fiend's body. But that wasn't the end. Lorenzo's blood coated the spinning bullet, and it was like highly flammable oil, exploding inside the Fiend.
Blazing white flames burst from its twisted body. As if possessed of a will of their own, the pure-white flames tore at the Fiend, scorching and carbonizing its stinking flesh. A tiny spark caught in its blood, then grew more and more intense.
At the end of the pitch-black tunnel, Lorenzo seemed to be muttering something. He raised his Shotgun, and every squeeze of the trigger came with a dazzling flash.
"Secret Blood awakened: 3%. Within stable range. Mental assessment normal. Silver-Binding Bolt intact..."
A faint glow shone in his eyes as Lorenzo murmured those cryptic words. He fired at the Fiend while striding toward it.
Like a grand fireworks display, the Fiend let out a shrill cry as it was engulfed in pure-white flames. They were probably holy flames that could never be extinguished, sworn to burn away all evil.
"Eve! Get back!"
Lorenzo roared. Eve used all her strength to shift herself a little farther away. The Fiend then slammed violently against the surrounding walls as it charged toward Lorenzo. Unlike the space where Eve was, this was a straight tunnel. The charging Fiend and Lorenzo were bound to collide, but Lorenzo didn't seem to care at all.
The Fiend's grotesque form came hurtling toward him, trailing white flames. It clashed with the dark figure in an instant. A flash of white, and Lorenzo slid beneath the Fiend at the last moment, then raised his Cane Sword. Its bloodstained blade blazed like a torch in the sun, slicing open the creature's soft underbelly. An endless torrent of white flames surged out and devoured the Fiend completely.
Lorenzo slowly got back to his feet. He hadn't fought a Fiend in years, and suddenly he felt much older. He didn't even look back at the howling creature. Its burning body had lost the ability to move. It could only vomit blood and collapse helplessly, until the white flames burned it to ash.
"Can you still walk?"
Lorenzo looked at the battered girl in surprise. He'd thought Eve would die at the Fiend's hands. After all, for most people facing a Fiend for the first time, that was the most likely outcome. But Eve was clearly different. In the end, the terrible pressure hadn't broken her. Instead, it had summoned the courage to wield her sword.
"I think I might have broken something..."
Eve endured the pain and tears as she struggled to her feet. Before, she'd had no way out, so death hadn't seemed frightening. But now that she'd survived, a bone-deep chill crept over her.
The feeling of narrowly escaping death was truly complicated.
"What was that thing?"
Lorenzo helped Eve as they made their way deeper into the darkness. Though she hadn't said so outright, he knew what she was asking about.
"Forbidden technology from the old era... You saw for yourself. Those Fiends run faster than leopards and are stronger than bears. Some of them even have intelligence on par with humans. And that's not to mention how incredibly hard they are to kill, or their demonic nature, which can shatter the mind."
Sometimes Lorenzo found it ironic. Compared to them, Fiends were the more perfect creatures. He spoke casually, leaning on his Cane Sword as he kept watch on the darkness around them.
"In the past, fighting Fiends meant piling up human lives. It was a cruel era. To survive the night, humanity paid an unimaginable price, and this technology was one of the things that price bought."
To win, the Order had done things no less vile than the Fiends. But as Lorenzo's Mentor had once said, some evils were necessary. Only cruelty in the present could ensure others survived.
It sounded like a fallacious argument, but Lorenzo agreed with it. He didn't feel much nostalgia for Florence, yet sometimes he still thought of his somewhat neurotic Mentor.
They had both lost a lot of blood, but Lorenzo was holding up better. As someone who had come from the Order, the training he'd undergone had long since made him different from ordinary people. Eve was another matter. Her face was deathly pale, and she looked like she might collapse at any moment.
"I can hear water nearby."
Eve's voice was faint. She was already struggling to speak.
"I know. We should be near a drainage channel. Stay alert, Eve. You don't want to drown in the water ahead, do you?"
Lorenzo patted the girl's cheek firmly. He had a bad feeling. Eve looked awful.
A spiral iron staircase descended beneath them, coated in rust from the damp air. The murky atmosphere reeked of iron and something sour, as if food had rotted nearby.
Lorenzo felt he'd found the right place. In the Lower District, this was called a drainage channel if you wanted to be polite; otherwise, it was a filthy ditch. Most household garbage and factory waste flowed straight into the channels, which eventually emptied into the Thames River. In Old Dunling's history, the Thames had once become a dead river. Only after the City Hall introduced various drastic reforms had its waters gradually become clear again.
But the people of the Lower District clearly weren't going to listen to City Hall. At the thought of jumping into water mixed with everyone's shit and piss, Lorenzo felt like throwing up.
Hoarse cries still echoed in the darkness, sometimes near and sometimes far. They were all Fiends—countless Fiends, most of them gathered above the Underground Palace, trying to break through the soldiers' defenses. The few Lorenzo had encountered were probably just unlucky stragglers who'd gotten lost.
The danger remained. No one could guarantee that those were the only two Fiends that had lost their way.
"Hang in there. We're almost there. We'll drift all the way to the Thames River, then wash up on shore. After that, you'll still be the princess of Phoenix, and I'll still be a detective. No one will ever know we came here tonight."
His Cane Sword slashed through the chains, and the sealed iron door swung open. A thick stench hit them, accompanied by the rush of fast-flowing water just ahead.
It wasn't quite what he'd expected. Beyond the iron door was a tiny dock, with a small wooden boat moored on the filthy river.
"Now that's a lucky break!"
Lorenzo shouted with delight.
The Lower District was chaotic and filthy, but it was full of wealth. Wealth was one thing; getting it out was another. Lorenzo had expected a narrow drainage channel where the two of them could easily suffocate if they weren't careful. But Sabo had clearly gone to a lot of trouble.
During the years he'd managed the Underground Palace, he'd expanded it considerably, turning it into an underground river. It wasn't very wide, but it was large enough for a small boat to pass through. This was a hidden route for secretly transporting wealth out of the Underground Palace. And with the Thames River so long, no one could know where the boat would emerge.
"Let's get out of here."
As he spoke, Lorenzo lifted Eve into the boat. Standing on the dock, he took a small ledger from his coat, wrapped it tightly in several layers of his clothes, then placed it in the boat as well.
"What's that?"
The girl clutched her clothes. The blood loss and damp air made her feel cold.
"Sabo's ledger. I found it in the room behind the stained glass."
Lorenzo explained it to Eve.
"We don't have enough clues from tonight yet, but this changes things. Every manager keeps a ledger like this. Once you have enough people under you, expenses get chaotic without one. And a ledger can reveal far too much."
Lorenzo picked up an oar from the shore. It looked like this dangerous night was finally about to end. He was bleeding, but the detective was in high spirits.
But then the air stirred in the dark, damp space, as if someone were plucking the strings of their hearts with a razor. The strings tightened, then suddenly snapped.
The girl in front of him shrank her pupils. She seemed to have seen something terrifying. Her mouth opened as she tried to warn him, but her exhausted body slowed her down.
In an instant, all his senses seemed to sharpen. He heard the water churning and felt the breeze brush the fine hairs on his cheek. Close by, he clearly heard a third person's heartbeat.
In the girl's eyes, Lorenzo saw his own reflection—and in that reflection, he saw the thing behind him.
In a split second, Lorenzo made his choice. He could have turned and struck back, but instead he kicked the wooden boat away. At the same time, a sharp blade pierced his chest.
The girl screamed and dragged her exhausted body toward Lorenzo, trying to save him. But the boat carried her farther and farther away, until it disappeared into the darkness.
"So it was luck again this time, Mr. Lorenzo Holmes?"
The voice came from behind him. Lorenzo gave a bitter smile and gripped the rapier tightly. The thrust should have pierced his heart, but at the last moment, his kick had sent the boat away and shifted the blade just enough to spare him the fatal blow.
"Of course not. You have to stay alert instead of relying entirely on the Goddess of Luck."
"So that's how it is?"
The man spoke, then drew out his blade. But no blood flowed from the wound. It seemed that the body called Lorenzo had already run dry of blood.
My mental state hasn't been great lately, and I've also been busy running around to various job fairs. I have to go out of town tomorrow, too, so updates may be late. Once I've taken care of all this next week, I should be able to get back to my usual update schedule.
Before you continue