Good Head had even started boasting. It seemed he really had grown a lot more confident.
"I'll feel better with you along. If I went on my own, I might only have one option."
"That is precisely why the Holy Light exists!"
Evan knew what Mulan meant. If Mulan went alone, he might have no choice but to kill the possessed person. With Evan there, they might still be able to save the victim.
Having agreed to help Mulan, Evan told another priest in the Holy Temple where he was going, then left with Mulan and Handel.
The carriage only stopped at their destination half an hour later. The driver climbed down to open the door for them.
"Reverend Priest, gentlemen, we've arrived. The carriage can't get into that street."
During the ride in the hired carriage, Mulan had explained everything he knew to Evan in detail. Now they climbed out one after another, facing a gloomy street that sloped downward.
There was a step down roughly every few yards. Old buildings lined both sides, descending with the slope. Ropes crisscrossed the already narrow spaces between them, hung with clothes and bedding that blocked most of what little daylight remained. Water even dripped down from time to time.
Mulan turned toward the driver and was about to take out his money when Handel beat him to it, handing over the fare. Mulan gave him a small nod without saying anything, deciding that if his police salary proved decent, he would make it up to Handel.
"Evil breeds easily in a place like this!"
Evan spoke after studying the street for a long while. Mulan glanced at him.
"It's just that too many people are struggling to survive. Let's hope God pays this place more attention. Come on."
The carriage behind them had already driven away. With those words, Mulan led the other two into the street.
Despite its name, Ladder Street looked more like a slightly wider alley. Not only did the street extend a long way, but every alley branching off it ran deep as well. Each alley led to stairway entrances serving many households, and every building housed numerous families.
"Handel, are there many neighborhoods like this in Digo?"
Handel kept looking overhead, taking care to avoid the falling drops of water.
"I rarely come to places like this, but there should be quite a few neighborhoods like it across Digo."
There were few pedestrians on the street. Occasionally, they saw children playing, but all of them instinctively ran away at the sight of Mulan and his companions.
"This way."
Mulan checked the signs outside the alleys on either side until he finally found the one he wanted: buildings 72-88.
The three entered the alley one after another. Several children playing farther inside scattered, and after walking twenty-odd paces, they found building 82.
Smiling, Evan took a few sweets from his pocket and held them out to the children, but none dared come over to take them. Mulan and Handel had already entered the building, so he had no choice but to follow.
Outside one home on the third floor, a chain had been wound between the ring-shaped door handle and an iron bar set into the adjacent frame, with a padlock hanging from it.
"This is it."
Mulan could already feel the intense, sinister chill, and Evan's expression grew solemn too. Even Handel felt cold and tugged his collar tighter. He peered through the fairly wide gap in the door. The darkness inside suggested that all the windows had been boarded up.
"Sir Jonester, it looks like the people inside have gone out, but the patient must be locked in there. Should we wait?"
"The person inside can't wait!"
The situation was considerably worse than the officers had described. Through the gap in the door, Mulan could already faintly see that "black smoke" beginning to seep out through the wall of one room.
"Stand back."
Evan and Handel immediately retreated two paces. Mulan drew his cane sword with a metallic shing, focused his will, and swung hard.
Clang!
With a sharp metallic ring, a link in the finger-thick chain snapped.
He could cut through even that?
Handel's eyes widened. Even Evan froze for a moment, while Mulan had already begun unwinding the chain. After a series of clinks and rattles, Mulan pushed the door open.
"Uh, Mulan, are we just breaking into someone's home?"
"I'm a police officer now!"
"All right, then..."
The home was dim. The living room and kitchen shared a space of less than ten square meters, and its only window had been boarded shut. There were also two rooms. The one with the closed door was where their target lay.
All three gathered outside that room.
"Once the door's open, restrain him first."
With that, Mulan kicked the door open.
"Roar!"
A roar erupted as a figure lunged from the bed, his eyes blood-red and his fingernails covered in blood. Before he could land, Mulan seized him by the neck and slammed him back onto the bed.
"Evan!"
Evan opened the Book of the Holy Temple and lightly tossed it onto the "patient."
Thump!
All four bed legs shuddered slightly, stirring up dust. The patient was pinned firmly to the mattress, as though the book weighed far more than a block of steel the same size.
"Ah-ah-!"
The patient howled on the bed. A gust swept through the room, sending dust flying.
With his hands crossed before him, Evan slowly entered the room. Mulan stepped aside.
"He's all yours."
Evan nodded slightly, never pausing in his sacred prayers.
"Crack, crack..."
The man's limbs made sounds of twisting bones and muscles. Evan could no longer afford to hesitate. He climbed straight onto the bed, pinned the man's feet beneath his own, pressed down on his hands, and stared directly into his red eyes.
"I am a believer in God, one bathed in the Holy Light. Where I stand, the Holy Light shines. Evil cannot hide here..."
Evan glared at him, but his anger was directed not at the patient, but at the Evil Spirit.
"Hisssss..."
"Ah-!"
White smoke began rising from wherever the Book of the Holy Temple touched the patient, as though it had become a red-hot branding iron.
Mulan stood beside the bed, his sword now in his left hand and his right poised to draw his gun at any moment. Black smoke had enveloped the entire room. Even he felt tense at the spectacle. Having seen an Ancient Fiend did not mean he could afford to underestimate an Evil Spirit.
Standing near the doorway, Handel trembled uncontrollably. He could see that something was wrong with the patient, but he did not understand why he felt so cold, or why such intense terror gripped him. Looking at the priest on the bed and Mulan standing motionless beside it, he gritted his teeth and forced himself to stay.
"Handel, go stand guard outside the front door. If the patient's family comes back, don't let them get too worked up. Make sure you stop them."
"Yes!"
As though granted a reprieve, Handel hurriedly turned and left the room, reaching the front door in just a few quick strides.
"Huff, huff, huff, huff..."
Only then did Handel realize his forehead was drenched in sweat, and even his back was damp.
Evan's sacred prayer was nearing its end, and the patient's struggles were growing more violent.
Evan began to feel anxious too. Judging by the situation, if he could not drive out the Evil Spirit when the prayer ended, the patient would be in grave danger.
"In the name of God, by the power of the Holy Light, evil, I command you to return to the Otherworld!"
"Raaaargh!"
The patient let out a beastlike roar on the bed. Evan could barely hold his arms down, and the force of his roar blew Evan's hair upward. A strange face even emerged on the patient's forehead, as though mocking and jeering at him...
Evan's eyes widened, and he slammed his head straight down.
There was a thunk.
The world fell silent.
Mulan had already tightened his grip on his sword, only to find that the room had suddenly gone quiet. He stared openmouthed at Evan, who was getting up and rubbing his forehead.
"You won't be able to argue next time I call you Good Head, will you?"
Evan gave Mulan an irritated look, then closed the Book of the Holy Temple on the patient's body and retrieved it.
"I was just a little short. I didn't have a third hand to hold his head down, and I was reciting the prayer, so I couldn't call you. I just hit him with my head instead. I didn't expect it to work."
"Hahaha! Well done!"
Just then, Handel came in with a woman he had been holding back outside. Both had heard the laughter within.
"Keli! How are you? Who are you people? What have you done to my son?"
The woman rushed to the bedside but did not dare approach any closer. Though she challenged Mulan and the others, she did not dare raise her voice much. Judging by their clothes, they might all be important people, and her family could not afford to offend them.
"Madam, we're police officers. Your son is all right now."
Evan bowed to her, soothing her with the distinctive bearing of a priest.
"We've driven out the evil. All that remains is for him to get more sunlight and eat something nourishing."
"Really? Really?"
The woman was overcome with emotion. Only after Evan reassured her repeatedly did she calm down. Once she confirmed that her son was merely asleep, she thanked Mulan and the others over and over.
It took quite some time before Mulan and his companions could say their goodbyes and leave. Before he went, however, Mulan looked back at the room. A large patch of wood had been clawed away from the board at the head of the bed. At first, he had thought it was nothing more than random scratching. Only just before leaving did he vaguely make out its shape: the better part of an eyeball.