Necromancer Of The Black Bible (63)

After vanishing from Equinox and the mysterious stranger,

Lactea was hiding in the shadows of the market alley, recovering her strength.

“Haa, haa…”

She wanted to let out a string of curses, but her body lacked the strength to do so.

Her face was constantly cracking and healing in a repetitive cycle, and the light enveloping her body was steadily weakening.

The only fortunate thing was that, with the sun nearly set, no one approached her location.

‘I thought resting would help me recover…’

But instead of improving, her condition only worsened.

Lactea looked at her deeply wrinkled hands and instinctively realized one thing.

‘I can’t hold on any longer.’

Honestly, she thought her meeting with Raiernov today would provide some answers.

She believed Raiernov’s newly awakened powers could help her too. If he could heal paralysis or cancer, she thought he could restore her as well.

But he wasn’t Raiernov.

Just a wretched stranger wearing Raiernov’s guise.

Yet that stranger was with Equinox and wielded strange sorcery.

That energy was something even Lactea, who had lived for thousands of years, had never felt before.

This person is the one to take his place anew.

Equinox’s single sentence pierced through her heart.

‘Replace him?’

The God of Light, Kallios.

He is already dead.

Equinox wouldn’t be unaware of what it means to replace the one who created this world, the mother and father of all living beings.

Because Equinox, like her, was created in the beginning.

‘Kallios’s shadow, Equinox.’

Kallios had once described Equinox as such.

A being who stands at his opposite to maintain balance.

The meaning was clear.

‘Kallios is light, Equinox is his shadow. Thus, light and darkness coexist to balance the world.’

But the light vanished with Kallios.

And the shadow disappeared with the light. With the light gone, the shadow is merely darkness.

‘What can darkness do on its own?’

As far as she knew, darkness was simply the absence of light.

With the light gone, there is nothing darkness can do on its own.

This world only holds the remnants of Kallios’s Light and will continue to be consumed by Darkness until all Light vanishes.

As she gathered her thoughts, Lactea grew more curious about Equinox’s intentions.

‘What exactly is that guy trying to do?’

But her thoughts couldn’t continue for long.

Because her condition worsened.

“Cough, cough-”

Each cough brought up blood.

Along with it, an unknown desire seeped from deep within.

“Ah-”

Lactea tried to suppress that desire, but she lacked the energy to do so.

Her divine power was barely enough to heal her wounds.

At that moment, something appeared at the end of the alley.

Sniffing the air, she realized it was a person.

A person who had sensed Lactea’s presence and approached.

He found Lactea collapsed and hurriedly approached.

“Are you badly hurt?”

But the only thing she could say to him was one word.

“No.”

Lactea felt her consciousness fading.

At the same time, she sensed the darker side of herself, which she had suppressed until now, beginning to consume her mind.

“Ah.”

Overcome by sudden dizziness, Lactea touched her forehead.

Along with it, her desire began to erupt.

The divine power she had forcibly maintained to fill Kallios’s absence.

As that divine power faded, the essence that originally formed her began to envelop her body.

Disorder and chaos.

And the aura of darkness.

Having reclaimed her original nature, Lactea felt intense thirst and hunger.

‘I’m hungry.’

Her consciousness cut off there.

Her wide-open eyes glowed with crimson light, reflecting the man who was watching her with concern.

Sanchez’s assignment to the First Monastery ended as the number of patients fell below a hundred.

Today was his first day back at the Bureau of Investigation in a long time.

The priests at the Bureau warmly welcomed Sanchez upon his return.

“Hey! Sanchez, First-Class Investigator! How was your trip?”

“Come on in, Investigator. There’s a mountain of work piled up.”

“With you gone, no cases were getting solved. Please take care of things here too.”

Sanchez was known as a problem-solver at the Bureau.

That was because even long-standing unsolved cases would somehow get resolved once he took them on.

Sanchez, the Solver.

That was his nickname.

Some believed that even Raiernov’s great healing incident was a product of Sanchez’s problem-solving nature.

Of course, Sanchez himself didn’t think so.

“Haha. Coming back after so long makes me feel even more pressured, doesn’t it?”

Sanchez’s jest was met with a sly response from Assistant Investigator Mobin.

“You’re feeling the pressure of late-night work too, aren’t you?”

“Hahaha.”

Sanchez laughed, but his heart wasn’t in it.

At the First Monastery, he could often leave on time, allowing him to steadily court Elin, the librarian at the Grand Library.

But once late-night work started at the Bureau, meeting her would become difficult.

‘Well, work comes first.’

Sanchez steeled himself with that thought.

At that moment, an Investigator called out to him.

“Investigator Sanchez, the Director General is calling for you. Hurry to the Director’s office.”

“Yes, sir!”

With a short reply, Sanchez exchanged a glance with Mobin and headed to the Director General’s office.

In the Director General’s office, two investigators with serious expressions stood before Director General Albarus.

Seeing Sanchez arrive, Albarus called out to him.

“Come here quickly.”

“Yes, sir.”

Sanchez approached with large strides. There were several documents containing detailed sketches of incident reports.

Albarus handed the documents to Sanchez.

“Take a look.”

Sanchez carefully reviewed the documents.

‘A case presumed to be murder…’

A tremendous amount of blood and small pieces of flesh left behind.

It was difficult to conclude definitively without identifiable parts, but those at the scene were convinced it was a murder.

Having reviewed all the documents, Sanchez spoke.

“There’s insufficient evidence to call it a murder.”

“That’s right. The bigger problem is that these incidents keep happening.”

At Director General Albarus’s words, one of the Investigators nearby pulled Sanchez to the desk.

A map of the entire Theocracy was spread out, marked with circles and X’s in various places.

“There was a third incident here yesterday. And this morning, a fourth incident occurred right here.”

Below the circles and X’s were written dates.

Seeing this, Sanchez spoke.

“It’s happening almost every day.”

“That’s correct.”

The Investigator nodded with a serious expression, and Sanchez looked at Albarus and asked,

“This doesn’t seem like an ordinary case. Has the Pope said anything about it?”

“It’s not yet reported to her.”

Director General Albarus continued with a grave expression.

“Because we haven’t yet grasped the nature of these incidents.”

Though it was a brief response, Sanchez understood the Director General’s concerns.

There was insufficient evidence to conclude it was a murder.

Since no identifiable items were found.

It could simply be the brutal killing of livestock or animals.

“Have any presumed family members of the victims been found? If we interrogate them…”

“None yet found.”

At Albarus’s words, Sanchez closed his mouth and looked at the documents again.

There was a note that read, “Clearly the smell of human blood.”

‘But distinguishing human blood from animal blood by smell alone is difficult, even with the Power of Detection.’

The Power of Detection only amplifies the five senses; it doesn’t identify whether it’s human or animal blood.

Especially the blood of livestock like pigs, cows, or sheep, which is hard to distinguish from human blood by smell alone.

The deeper they dug, the more difficult the case became.

As Sanchez stroked his chin, Albarus spoke.

“I called you here because of the report to the Pope.”

“A report?”

“Go to the scene and write a report. Make it clear whether this is a murder case or a simple livestock destruction case. If you determine it’s a murder, I’ll report it to the Pope immediately.”

Sanchez nodded.

“Understood.”

To him, Albarus handed a blue Bureau of Investigation seal and said,

“It’s a special-grade seal. Use it when necessary during this investigation.”

A special-grade seal that could summon twenty Investigators and ten Holy Knights.

It was rare to be entrusted with such a seal at the start of an investigation.

It showed how seriously the Director General took this matter.

‘Since there’s a possibility a demon is involved.’

Sanchez accepted the seal with a stern expression.

“I accept the order.”

After speaking, Sanchez made the sign of the cross toward the Director General and stepped outside.

Sanchez didn’t hesitate.

He took his assistant, Mobin, to the site of the first incident.

They arrived at the alley after traveling by carriage.

It was an alley in a densely packed market area.

The scene there was worse than the sketches had depicted.

Thanks to the Investigators who had preserved the scene, it was almost identical to what was depicted in the sketches.

Mobin closed his eyes and used his Power.

The Power of Detection, which he had recently awakened.

It was a Power he gained as his previous Power of Hearing advanced to the next level.

As he activated the Power of Detection, a soft light settled over his body, and Mobin’s five senses began to sharpen.

After examining the scene for a while, Mobin spoke.

“As you said, Investigator, it smells like blood, but it’s hard to distinguish whether it’s from pigs or cows. And…”

“And?”

“There’s something mixed with the smell of blood. This is…”

Sanchez waited for Mobin’s words.

After sniffing for a while, Mobin spoke.

“Divine power? No, it’s the smell of demonic energy.”

“Demonic energy? How can you be sure?”

“It’s similar to the smell left in that village offered as a sacrifice.”

At Mobin’s words, Sanchez also used the Power of Detection.

Mobin was right.

The metallic smell of blood was mixed with the sweet scent of demonic energy.

It was so faint that only a seasoned Investigator could detect it.

Having confirmed this, Sanchez headed toward the dried blood puddle at the scene.

As he touched the blood with his fingers, blood dust crumbled at his fingertips. And at the edge, he discovered tiny particles.

Sparkling black dust.

Powder that couldn’t be found in ordinary blood dust.

Seeing this, Mobin’s eyes widened.

“No way…”

“Your guess seems right, Mobin.”

Sanchez took an empty small vial from his pocket and shook the dust from his fingers into it.

“This is demonic dust.”

“Then…”

“It seems this case is indeed related to a demon.”

Sanchez tucked the vial back into his pocket and continued.

“But it’s too early to conclude. There are four crime scenes in total, and we’ve only investigated one so far.”

“Then we should go check the other sites too.”

“Right. Let’s go.”

The two nodded and left the scene.