Magician in Type-Moon

Page 149

Dealing with the monsters in the center was easier than he had anticipated, even easier than slaughtering the peripheral predators.

These creatures gathered in the center showed no basic reaction, not even the thought of struggling or escaping. Their consciousness was completely dominated by hunger, and even their instinct for survival had vanished.

Matou Ike quickly cast a spell to isolate himself from the flames. Pale blue magical light flickered around his body for a moment, forming an invisible barrier.

Ignoring the ever-burning phosphorescent flames around him, he steadily stepped over the gradually turning ashes of the remains, approaching the center of the "feast".

He sensed the presence of a living person inside, which must have been the "food" being devoured.

The fire in the center was not large to begin with, and Matouchi finally got close to the source of that aura.

He looked down and saw a half-crippled body curled up on the ground.

A young woman in her early twenties, with long brown hair and wearing a red men's top.

I had seen this human-shaped Tongchi before, during those two weeks of "wandering".

Because I was wandering alone through various remote paths, this woman struck up a conversation with me.

She's a drug dealer, and probably saw someone like Matou Ike late at night and assumed he was suffering from drug addiction and couldn't buy his medication.

Matou Ike's first impression of this woman was that she was a woman who seemed to have a switch in her head that could change her emotions.

After learning that Matou Ike was not the one who bought the medicine, she wanted to "escape".

But on that day, Matou Ike used magic to talk to this cautious woman for a while.

Since they didn't get any useful information, they let her go.

I never expected that our next meeting would be here.

Brushing the dust off the woman's face with your hand, you feel a sticky sensation.

It is a mixture of tears, ashes, and blood.

"Is he still alive?" Matou Ike whispered.

The other party still had a breath of life, this was something Matou Ike was certain of.

Although the woman's lower body had disappeared from the navel area, she was still alive.

It seems that the saliva secreted by those monsters acts like an "anesthetic," numbing the concept of death.

"Cough...cough cough." A mouthful of blood spurted from the woman's mouth. She was still relatively conscious and able to reply, "It's you..."

"Do you remember me? With your level of caution, how could you have fallen into this situation so quickly?"

Matou Ike sat down directly next to the woman, not minding the filth on the ground.

"I...I'm the last one, everyone else has already been eaten..."

The woman's voice was intermittent; even under the monsters' potent "stimulants," the massive blood loss made it difficult for her to maintain a clear mind.

"Is that so... what's going on with these things?"

Matou Ike continued to ask, noting that he had not used magic to stop the woman's life from fading away.

"I don't know... they just appeared out of nowhere. At first... nothing happened, they just... used a card-based drug to take over our market, until..."

"until?"

"Until... half a month ago... they forced others to swallow that stuff... anyone who resisted even slightly... would be... eaten!"

The woman seemed to have suddenly regained her spirits, but Matou Ike knew this was just a temporary respite before her death.

"Then why not join them? At least you could save your life..."

Although it will eventually turn into a monster.

Matouchi did not say the second half of the sentence.

"Are you kidding me! People who use drugs to numb themselves can't fly, they're only after they can fly, that stuff... that stuff will only make you fall!"

The woman was somewhat crazy, and somewhat pathetic.

"Really? That's hard to understand." There was nothing more to say; the thought of saving the person before him had never crossed his mind.

Matou Ike dusted off the dust on his clothes and turned to leave the dark alley.

He's very busy tonight.

I don't have time to linger here for long.

The woman behind him kept speaking incomprehensible words with her remaining consciousness, words even more difficult to understand than the prophecies of the Mother of Cloth.

The intermittent sounds rose and fell in the center of the "banquet".

In the end, only one sentence came—

"I just want to fly..."

Chapter 193 Deliberate

Matou Pond is located one step below.

My mind is processing the information I currently have.

There was something that the drug dealer said that really bothered him.

That group of people started going berserk about two weeks ago.

Half a month ago?

Wasn't it the very day he arrived in Guanbuzi City?

What was so special about that day?

Did I encounter Ryougi Shiki?

Or is it Araya Sōren who arrives late?

And if those Dead Apostle-like monsters only started going berserk after he arrived, why was he completely unaware of it during that time?

It was as if it had been deliberately avoided.

...It feels like it was all pre-planned.

This incident was already unusual, and the suddenness of its development made it even more uncertain.

The murder process, which gradually became clearer, was presented to us before we could even begin to explore it.

The information gathered bit by bit led to the identification of the murderer even before the investigation began.

It's like when you're at a Texas Hold'em table, and you're ready to play mind games with your opponent, but they just go all in.

This is simply...

"Like a childish kid getting worked up while playing a game," Angra Mainyu thought to Matou Ike.

Matou Ike didn't mind that her words had been spoken before she could say them.

He now had a guess.

So who exactly is the mastermind behind this incident?

He had previously linked Shirasumi Rio and Araya Sōren together, even though there must be some inexplicable connection between them, they were ultimately two people with independent personalities.

Their ideas are not necessarily aligned.

Having made up her mind, Matou Ike quickened her pace without hesitation, preparing to enter the new "monster-hunting map".

Although he was still covered in blood, his attire didn't seem out of place in this chaotic neighborhood; rather, it looked like the everyday wear of unemployed thugs and homeless people.

It was past 2 a.m., and the streets were as quiet as corpses.

There were no pedestrians on the road, nor were there any noisy cars.

The buildings blocked out the light; it was a night when both moonlight and starlight were shrouded in clouds.

As Matouchi walked from the building into the alley, he sensed a noisy incongruity.

This is something that didn't happen in the alley before.

A few guys were scattered around in the alley, puffing out smoke.

The pungent and acrid smell of cheap cigarettes is very unpleasant.

Matou Ike felt he was being hypocritical; he wasn't this disgusted when Aozaki Touko smoked.

Pulling her thoughts back, Matouchi was currently hidden in the shadows at the corner of the alley, out of the sight of those people.

I became a listener.

"That woman I ran into on the street today was really something, with that big butt and tiny waist, wow."

"Yeah, yeah, if I could get my hands on it, I'd want to stuff my balls in it too."

"Araki, you're such a lewd guy, hahaha."

"Hahaha, Araki, you've only been out for such a short time, you haven't really had any good pork to eat."

"Heh, what are you pretending to be so good for? I don't believe you can resist that woman."

It was all meaningless talk, filled with decadent men's erotic fantasies about women.

Matou Ike even wondered if he was wasting his time staying here.

"How about we set our sights on that woman next? It's almost time to pay tribute anyway."

"Araki, you little brat, you not only want that woman's body, you also want her life."

Good, finally something useful. Matou Ike suppressed the urge to go out and punch each of them.

"So, are you guys interested or not? I know where that woman lives."

"You said you had an upset stomach earlier, did you secretly follow her? Tell me, where does that woman live?"

Another voice rang out, and judging from the sound, there were four people in total, just as Matou Ike had seen.

"It's a rebuilt abandoned building. That woman opened a doll shop there, I think it was called Garan no Tsukai."

"Oh, he's rich? Then we can make a quick buck."

Matou Ike was speechless at this point, and he didn't want to listen anymore, because the following conversation revolved entirely around the topic of how to play with women.

At that moment, he emerged from the shadows and walked past the four people, pretending to be a passerby.