After the attack ended, Evan looked down at the ground.
The scraps of flesh blown apart were still slowly writhing in the moonlight.
A piece of heart tissue, a lobe of liver, half a finger—each twisted among the blades of grass as though it were alive.
Squelch.
Evan stepped on one.
It was a fragment of an atrium. Beneath his boot, it was crushed like mud.
But when he lifted his foot, the scrap still twitched. Its muscle fibers visibly strained to reconnect.
"That still won't kill her?"
Evan frowned.
Hong Si leaned against an old birch tree nearby and pulled a tin cigarette case from an inner pocket of his Postal Service uniform.
With practiced hands, he tore off a strip of rolling paper, tipped out some tobacco, rubbed it between his fingers, and rolled a thin cigarette.
He lit it and took a drag.
"What makes something Beyonder is, at its core, that it goes beyond the ordinary."
Smoke curled around his mouth before the night wind carried it away.
"If ordinary means could kill it, it wouldn't be Beyonder."
"The Bloodthirsty Species' core Beyonder Characteristic is Undying Nature."
"That means they can recover even if ordinary methods reduce them to pulp or burn them to ash."
"The only difference is how long recovery takes."
Evan scratched his head.
"But you blew her apart with the Tuning Fork. Wasn't that a Beyonder method?"
Hong Si smiled and took another drag.
"My method is Beyonder, but it doesn't contain the Beyonder power needed to destroy her Undying Nature."
Evan understood at once. "Like using magic to fire an ordinary, unenchanted lead bullet."
Hong Si nodded. "Exactly. Different Characteristics have different strengths and weaknesses."
"The Bloodthirsty Species' Characteristic is good for survival, but much weaker in other respects. Their souls, for instance, or their ability to accommodate other powers."
He pointed his cigarette at the scraps still writhing on the ground.
"My method works well against Professions that aren't built for survival. Against the Bloodthirsty Species, though, physical destruction can make wounds, not death."
He paused and blew a smoke ring.
"But don't worry. Hold out until dawn, and the sun will take care of her for us."
Relieved to hear they still had a way to finish her, Evan nodded and turned to what worried him more.
"Oh, right. My senior apprentice brother... is he all right?"
Hong Si took a drag and coughed twice out of habit.
"He's fine. Other than being a slow runner, that guy has no real faults."
The two of them kept watch on the hillside for a full two hours.
Every half hour, Hong Si struck with the Tuning Fork, blowing apart the chunks of flesh the Female Assistant had painstakingly drawn back together.
He timed each attack precisely before she reached the point of rebirth, never giving her a chance to move again.
A cold wind blew in from the sea. Even with his Physique up to 3.4, Evan could feel the hem of his shirt pressing against his back, chilled by the wind.
At eight forty that evening, hurried footsteps and ragged breathing finally rose from the foot of the distant slope.
Richard had arrived at last.
But the man who appeared before Evan looked like someone else.
He had close-cropped brown hair, chestnut eyes, and a square face.
A little over six feet tall, he had broad shoulders but otherwise ordinary proportions. He looked like a discharged sailor or a harbor foreman, the sort of man you could pass on any street.
The moment Evan saw him, he understood.
That absurdly exaggerated, comic-book inverted-triangle build was not Richard's usual form.
It was a Beyonder state brought on by his Demon Hunter inheritance, much like Evan's Secondary Brain.
It manifested in battle and receded afterward.
Richard reached the top of the slope, bent over, and braced his hands on his knees, panting like a bull.
Sweat streamed down his temples and the back of his neck. When the night wind caught it, wisps of white vapor rose from his skin.
Blood had rushed to the surface of his skin, leaving him as red as a freshly boiled prawn.
"Senior apprentice brother, are you all right?" Evan hurried over.
Richard waved him off and forced a few words through clenched teeth.
"I'm fine. Just a lingering Side Effect of the Magic Potion."
He raised his head and drew several deep breaths, his chest heaving.
"I just need to sweat it out and drink plenty of water."
He straightened up and walked halfway around Evan, carefully examining his junior apprentice brother, who had just completed his transformation.
Silver-white tousled hair, golden slit pupils, and a body smeared with dirt and dark red blood.
A pleased smile slowly spread across Richard's face.
"Well done, kid. You assimilated it remarkably smoothly."
He gave Evan's shoulder a firm pat.
"Everything got passed down except Master's enormous head. Not bad."
Beside them, Hong Si finished his cigarette, crushed the butt underfoot, and spoke with a smile.
"Charlie, this junior apprentice brother of yours is something else. He took down that Bloodthirsty Species himself, without me lifting a finger."
"Oh?"
Richard turned to Evan, surprise flashing across his face.
"How did you do it?"
Evan scratched the back of his head and smiled modestly.
"Just luck. I happened to get two bottles of medicine that work against the Bloodthirsty Species a few days ago. I used a little trick to get her to drink them."
Richard nodded and did not press him.
By the old Demon Hunters' rules, everyone had a trump card they would rather not explain.
Keeping a few secrets from one another meant one person's betrayal could not bring down the entire faction.
Hong Si tucked the rolling papers back into his case and straightened his Postal Service uniform.
"That's settled, then. I won't keep you two. I still need to report back to the post office."
Richard patted him on the shoulder, his voice sincere.
"Thanks for this. Drinks are on me in a couple of days."
Hong Si smiled and headed down the slope.
He mounted his bicycle with its copper bell. The bell's ringing faded across the dark countryside, then disappeared at the end of the path leading south into the city.
Evan watched him go, then turned to Richard.
"Senior apprentice brother. What happened with Pulis?"
Richard's smile faded a little.
"I gave him a thorough beating. Unfortunately, he still got away."
He sighed.
"Can't be helped. He's far too good at escaping."
"And running is what I'm worst at."
Evan frowned.
"Will he come after me again?"
Richard thumped his chest, certain of his answer.
"Absolutely not. He's in trouble himself now."
"To get at you, he's secretly broken too many of his contracts with those Capitalists over the past two days."
Richard's voice took on a note of rueful wonder.
"The Capitalists gave him status and standing, not so he could study how to win his freedom."
"If nothing unexpected happens, within a couple of days—maybe even tonight—he'll... disappear for good."
"Disappear for good?"
Evan's eyes widened.
Richard's expression turned grave.
"Yes. Because he violated his contracts with the Financiers, the Judges will carry out the sentence completely. He won't even leave behind his Beyonder Characteristic."
He looked Evan in the eye and spoke one word at a time.
"So remember this, junior apprentice brother."
"Even if you can't go on, even if you're starving, even if your only other choice is to jump off a cliff, never sign a Beyonder Contract with those Capitalists."
"Especially a so-called Characteristic Loan. Otherwise, you'll never be free of them."
Evan swallowed.
Even Pulis—a Bloodthirsty Species who taught at Sage University and was plainly of noble birth—couldn't defy the Capitalists' contracts in this age?
This world was even more insane than he had imagined.
He pointed at the Female Assistant's remains, still slowly writhing on the ground.
"What about her? Do we stand watch until dawn?"
Richard grinned.
"This is easy."
He took a thumb-sized glass vial from inside his jacket.
The bottle looked old, and an embossed sun emblem marked its cap.
A little golden liquid lay inside, glowing in the moonlight with the warmth of winter sunlight shining through amber.
Richard handed it to him. "Here. You do it yourself!"
Evan took the vial and asked curiously, "I just drip it on her?"
Richard nodded with a smile. "Right! Three drops are enough. Don't use any more!"
Evan unscrewed the cap and tilted the bottle, letting the golden liquid fall one drop at a time where the Female Assistant's chest had been.
Hiss. Hiss. Hiss.
The instant the three drops touched flesh,
the scraps that had been slowly writhing reacted like white phosphorus exposed to air.
White smoke swiftly rose wherever a drop of golden liquid landed.
Skin, muscle, organs, and bone burned fiercely from each point of contact, crumbling into gray-white powder.
Flames ignited inside the pieces of her body.
It was no ordinary fire, but a cold, brilliant golden flame that gave off almost no heat.
As though it had a will of its own, it spread along the paths of her blood vessels, igniting everything stained with Sanguine Tainted Blood.
Even the Female Assistant's blood on the surrounding grass, even the dark red traces left on Evan's body, caught fire one by one.
This was Beyonder power, not merely a Beyonder method!