‘It’s a 5-story building.’

It would take time to climb to the 5th floor by stairs.

But no choice.

I grabbed the railing and jumped up while infusing mana into my arms and legs. The sounds of Heike and the victim confronting got closer.

I sent a signal through the artifact.

‘5th floor.’

As soon as I arrived at the destination, my eyes met the victim standing in the middle of the hallway.

At the same time, with a roar, mana that seemed to destroy the building hit the outer wall. It was Heike’s help in response to my signal. The moment the victim’s gaze reflexively turned to the window, I swung my wand.

Kwaang—

The sound of a person being pushed by mana and falling rang out.

From here, it wasn’t hard.

I rushed to the fallen victim while wrapping my whole body in a physical veil. He roughly grabbed my coat collar. Vitriol splashed on my face and eyes, and the grotesque scream I heard in Baden-Baden was reproduced here again, piercing my ears. It happened every day, but adapting was hard.

I pressed his thigh down, held his neck with one hand, and brought the wand to his heart.

[Aaaaaak! Euaaaak!]

[Dear friends, when you face trials of many kinds, do not consider it strange. …The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.]

Pajik— Jjeojeok—

The Vitriol core formed around the Old Human’s heart shattered.

The victim, who had been screaming and flailing wildly, opened his eyes wide, looked at the air, then soon dropped his neck to the floor. I briefly touched the Vitriol flowing in his body, felt it gradually weakening, and closed his eyes.

‘One down for now.’

The other one seemed to have been found by Heike. Roars continued from the next building.

Already outside, several medical personnel and supporting mages were standing. All were wearing gas masks to avoid Vitriol damage.

I carried the unconscious victim and went out. As soon as he saw me, an imperial mage I had seen a few times before ran toward me.

“His Excellency Askanian!”

“Yes. Transport please.”

“Quickly move to the berserker hospital!”

He gestured to his subordinates and took the victim I was holding.

Since Heike also finished and sent a signal through the artifact, a few mages ran toward the next building.

If that side was done too, now it was time for cleanup.

[Look to the heavens and gaze at the earth below.]

I changed the wand tucked in my waist back to a staff, swept the air thick with Vitriol once, and slammed it into the ground.

Kwaaaaaang—!!

Due to the explosion, I felt eyes turning this way from around. I finished the spell while processing the remaining Vitriol in this area.

[For the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.]

The air completely cleared, the remaining Vitriol seemed to sink to the ground, then disappeared. Other mages noticed and started removing their gas masks.

Heike’s voice came from right behind, having arrived at some point.

“…This time too, it really seems like divine power.”

“Yeah? Thanks.”

I simply greeted and fell into thought.

There was something to point out and move past now.

‘…Coincidental.’

Wasn’t something off?

The point that this place was only 500 meters from the lodging barrier.

There were more suspicious points, but let’s set those aside for now. Why did a berserk incident happen right in front of the VIP lodging? And two at once.

Also, why did the problem erupt right when we were passing.

It meant the berserk source was around here, but was all this mere coincidence?

Thinking that, I approached the building where the berserk happened again.

‘Perhaps this now is….’

“Lucas. Come follow me for a sec.”

The moment I was about to continue thinking, Heike came close and tapped me.

“Heike. I have something to think about for a moment.”

“There’s no time for that.”

Now looking, Heike’s complexion wasn’t great. She was scanning around with wary eyes.

“…….”

This wasn’t like her. I silently followed as she led.

Heike led me and stood quietly on the first floor of the commercial building I had intended to go to.

She pointed to the floor. A heterogeneous white match head was fallen in one corner of the hallway.

‘White phosphorus match.’

It appeared again.

I picked it up and checked the back.

“…This time it’s S.”

T, A, S.

Three so far.

If not an acronym for something, it didn’t make particular sense.

Heike said in a half-soulless voice like rapid fire.

“If Ast, it can be interpreted as branch. What could this mean, from the berserk happening here, something’s off. Lucas, in your opinion, this….”

“Heike.”

I stood up from the spot and stood still. I placed a finger on my lips and sent a sign to listen quietly, and Heike made a gasp and shut her mouth.

I looked at the floor and said quietly.

“Strange.”

“…….”

“Listen carefully.”

Heike looked at the floor expressionlessly.

After a while, she opened her eyes.

“…Rats?”

Yes. Faint rat sounds.

‘Could be heard faintly.’

‘Only the size is faint, but.’

Faint, but heavily overlapped, so no guess how many there were.

I exchanged glances with Heike and went down.

Heike stood by my side with wand drawn.

I silently opened the door to the basement.

“…!”

Heike frowned and stepped back.

But the rat cries clustered and sounded loudly like a berserker’s scream.

Dozens of boxes placed here and there.

I entered and lifted the cloth covering one box.

‘As expected.’

A stench pierced my nose. Contaminated rats filled one cage without space to step, and something presumed to be Vitriol was flowing out from under.

What this meant.

“Is my guess right?”

Heike said without beginning or end.

“Probably.”

It was for terrorism.

They probably planned to release this on the streets. High probability around Pentalon time.

Then what would happen.

Yes.

I looked around.

An open cage was visible. Nothing inside.

Heike’s expressionless face started turning pale.

“Heike. Can you relay this upstairs?”

Heike went up silently, then turned back and tapped me again.

She picked up something fallen in one corner and showed it to me.

Another white phosphorus match.

I checked the back.

A, E, E, G, L, L, N, S. And then… even matches with unknown holes in a row in the wood part, until, traces in matches total nine.

‘…….’

Heike looked down at it with a hardened face, then looked at me.

The matches that hadn’t reached us yet were here.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep