Chapter 22: Kidnapping

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: PlumSauce

Liz broke the binding spell on Mitchel, and she, along with Carolyn, rushed to Sidov’s house to look for evidence of the killings.

Meanwhile, John and Coraci got into the car driven by Wu Jiu and headed to the scene of the fire. The news report hadn’t mentioned the fate of the two girls inside. The Bewildering Monster was skilled in combat and incredibly strong, but it had no talent for magic. If the Farr couple were trapped in the fire, they might find it just as hard to escape as any human would.

By the time they arrived, the fire had already been extinguished. The firefighters were all discussing the strange blaze. It had erupted suddenly and burned fiercely. At first, no matter what they did, it couldn’t be contained. Then, just as suddenly, it weakened, as if a gas stove had been turned off, and finally, it went out.

“John, you should stay out of this,” Coraci said as they sat in the car. “It’s already daylight.”

“It’s not noon yet, so I can still move around. Have you forgotten? I can still go for a run at dusk,” John replied.

“But you should rest.”

“You should rest even more,” John said as he opened the car door. “As far as I know, humans are even more exhausted than bloodkin after staying up all night.”

Coraci smiled at him and let him follow along.

The house had been burned beyond recognition, and the neighboring homes had also been affected. A large crowd had gathered at the scene, almost blocking off the entire street. Coraci and John hid against the wall of a house across the street.

“People have already gone in, and no bodies have been brought out yet,” Coraci whispered. “Maybe that’s good news.”

John glanced at the sky. The sunlight in the early morning wasn’t too unbearable yet. He suggested, “Why don’t you wait outside while I vaporize and take a look inside?”

“Can you do that? No one invited you into the house.”

“I can. It’s no longer a residence, so I don’t need an invitation… but I can only look around; I probably won’t be able to help.”

Coraci nodded, and John turned his body into mist and drifted toward the charred house.

The fire must have been hotter than a typical blaze. That was John’s first thought upon entering the house.

While ordinary fires leave houses destroyed, they don’t usually look like they’ve been melted. Now, everything in the Farrs’ house had lost its shape. It didn’t seem like it had been “burned” so much as “melted.”

The firefighters were searching for any remaining embers and bodies. But in a house like this, it was hard to distinguish one object from another, and any bodies might have been burned beyond recognition.

After a while, the firefighters left, but John continued searching. The Bewildering Monster was a regular life form, not an otherworldly being or spirit. Its muscles and bones would have a scent similar to a human’s, which John could detect, though the odds were slim after such a fire.

Sunlight streamed in through the cracks in the gutted house, making John a bit uncomfortable. It was difficult to maintain his mist form during the day. He found a shadowy corner to return to his original shape, planning to rest a bit before vaporizing and floating out again.

Suddenly, he heard a noise, like something stepping on ashes.

A wave of heat rushed toward him from behind. He threw himself to the ground just in time to avoid a fiery arrow that shot through the air. Before he could get up, a dark figure leaped down from above.

John sprang up and tripped the figure, his fingers tightly gripping its throat. He could feel the heat through his fingertips — this wasn’t a spirit or a human. They wrestled violently on the ground. The noise drew the attention of the people outside; the firefighters planned to come back to check.

The figure flipped over, pinning John with its knee against his stomach and slamming his head into the floor with one hand. But such attacks didn’t faze John. He clamped down on the other’s throat, feeling the hot skin pulse beneath his hand.

At that moment, the figure raised its other hand. There was a click, and a bright blue-white light burst forth.

John screamed in pain. He let go of the figure and clutched his face. The attacker was holding a home-use portable UV lamp.

The fiery arrow appeared again, streaking through the air. It pierced both the attacker’s body and John’s chest.

When the firefighters re-entered the house, the disaster scene was empty, leaving only a charred, pungent smell behind.

The police officers held back the crowd of onlookers, while reporters from various media outlets gathered on Third Street in the New Pinecone Community. The live broadcast vans nearly blocked the entire road.

Coraci waited outside for a long time without seeing any sign of John. He called the Association to report the situation and then contacted Liz to check on the Sidov residence.

“Sidov is extremely poor,” said Carolyn, who answered Liz’s phone. “Just like your vampire, he lives in a basement. Even a self-serve laundromat is a level above his place. The place is decorated like an ancient wizard’s lair, but almost everything is a modern replica. The crystal balls are made of glass, the ritual vessels are resin, and there’s even a PVC unicorn head… Ugh, it’s disgusting! I just found a battery-operated… um, personal device, and it’s pink! Oh, my eyes!”

“More importantly, did you find anything interesting?”

“We did. There are handcuffs by the bed with Abyssal script on them, and the inside is padded with foam. There’s also a nine-tailed whip on the bedside table…”

“I meant anything noteworthy, like magical traces,” Coraci interrupted, rubbing his temples. He hadn’t slept all night and was feeling even more exhausted.

“Liz is looking for that,” Carolyn replied, glancing back at her partner who was busy working. “I’m not good at identifying those things, so I’m relying on her. At least we can confirm Sidov isn’t here. Oh, Liz just found something! It seems Sidov wasn’t as poor as he appeared. He has some gemstones, gold jewelry, and pretty expensive boots and belts. Liz also found a necklace made of women’s pinky bones and a genuine skull… She says the skull’s owner died less than a year ago.

“Wait, we’ve discovered a hidden door! It’s behind a bookshelf filled with adult magazines. Liz opened the door, but… it’s just another wall on the other side? A red brick wall with a drawing of a three-toed sloth…”

“A what?”

In the background, Liz’s voice faintly corrected from a distance, “It’s an Abyss Digger, not a three-toed sloth.”

While searching for any sign of John near the burnt house, Coraci asked, “Carolyn, can you let Liz take the phone?”

“No, she’s analyzing the Abyss Digger drawing right now. Coraci, what exactly is an Abyss Digger?”

“It’s sort of like a mole in our world,” Coraci explained. “They’re good at tunneling through space or creating short pathways between different locations in the same space-time. I’ve heard they’re extinct, so the drawing might be symbolic.”

“Is this some kind of Abyssal spell? Like a portal for demons?” Carolyn speculated, confident that the other side of the wall wasn’t Sidov’s domain but rather an underground utility room.

“Ask Liz. I can’t judge without seeing it myself.”

Liz took the phone. “Coraci, I tested it. It’s not a teleportation spell.”

“Could it be that it only works for Abyssal creatures?”

“I tried that too. I used a spell to temporarily disguise Carolyn as a being with an Abyssal aura and pushed her — she couldn’t go through.”

“What?! What did you do to me?!” Carolyn yelled from beside the phone.

“The drawing isn’t activating,” Liz said. “It’s not even a question of entry — it’s simply not working, like it was drawn incorrectly.”

“Do you think… it was actually drawn wrong?”

Coraci had to consider the possibility. Bone-winged demons had innate bloodline powers but weren’t necessarily masters of spellcasting.

“Anyway, I’ll send you the pictures,” Liz said. “We’ll study them further when we get back. For now, I’m planning to seal this place off.”

Coraci received new messages on his phone as Liz sent the photos.

The image depicted a three-point symmetrical design. The central figure was indeed the Abyss Digger, with an arrow drawn at its heart, and there were additional spells inscribed on the arrow’s fletching.

“This isn’t Abyssal script,” Coraci observed as he zoomed in on the image. “It’s ordinary ancient arcane text… This is a compound rune, combining several spells…”

By now, John still hadn’t come out. Coraci turned off his phone’s screen, preparing to move closer to wait for him. When Coraci pressed the power button, the backlight of his phone dimmed, and two shadows appeared on the dark, reflective screen.

One was Coraci himself, and the other was a red-haired man in a long black coat standing behind him.

“Sidov!” Coraci’s voice weakened before it could fully escape his throat.

Sidov grabbed Coraci by the neck, pressing against the carotid sinus¹. The flaming arrow reappeared, piercing through both of their bodies. In an instant, both men vanished from the spot, leaving only Coraci’s phone clattering to the corner of the wall.

…

“Are you awake?”

A deep, gentle voice sounded nearby. Coraci frowned as he opened his eyes, noticing that the ceiling above him bore the same patterns as those on Sidov’s stone walls.

Sidov sat beside him, his black bone wings fully revealed.

“Why didn’t you return to the Abyss?” Coraci shifted slightly, realizing he wasn’t bound and was free to move.

“It’s the ‘Anchor of Disguise’,” Sidov replied, a hint of pride in his expression. “You’ve heard of it, haven’t you? A result of mixing Abyssal magic with human magic, driven by demon blood. I can set the anchor point anywhere, and when my body is banished, the anchor will transport me to a predetermined location. You were all tricked into thinking I had truly left this world.”

Coraci clicked his tongue in admiration. “Even today, very few exorcists can perform teleportation spells, let alone Abyssal magic. In your world, only demon mystic masters understand this stuff, right?”

“Probably. I didn’t know it before either,” Sidov’s tone was casual, almost conversational, despite having kidnapped Coraci. “Remember when those lunatics from the Arcane Covenant kidnapped me? I endured a lot, but I learned quite a bit too. Ha, I’m a lord-class bone-winged demon — humans always struggle to predict me, right?”

“When I saved you, I didn’t know you got along so well with them,” Coraci said.

“It wasn’t pleasant. And I really did need your help back then, for which I’m grateful.”

“And after that? You started using the spells you learned?”

“Yes, not just the Anchor but many other things. This anchor spell, though complicated to cast, is far safer and more reliable than the ancient legendary human teleportation spells.”

“It’s very reliable. I practically have no idea how to leave,” Coraci admitted. “Are you planning to let me go?”

“Perhaps I’m not planning to let you go.” Sidov smiled.

Coraci propped himself up, sitting upright, and Sidov didn’t stop him.

“If I asked you what this place is, would you tell me?”

“No, I don’t plan on telling you.”

“Then, I want to ask — what happened with the fire?”

Sidov looked directly at him, a smirk on his lips. “Oh, that. Mitchel is getting bolder and bolder.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hellfire, of course. It’s a timed spell — you’ve heard of it, right? Naturally, it’s a demon spell; humans can’t cast it.”

“Can you answer my question directly?”

“Fine. Mitchel used it on the Bewildering Monster. After a few days, the timer went off, and the bomb exploded — setting the Bewildering Monster’s house on fire.”

Coraci secretly clenched his fists. “But why would Mitchel want to kill them?”

“Because they were Bewildering Monsters,” Sidov replied casually. “It’s easier to clean up after than killing humans. Honestly, I never thought that a mortal-born like him could actually manage to cast that spell. Originally, I wanted him to kill someone else — that couple at the Phosphor club who were always chatting with him at the bar. But Mitchel refused.”

Sidov displayed an aggrieved expression. “He’s growing more determined to break away from me. It’s truly heartbreaking.”

“What exactly are you two doing?” Coraci demanded. “Mitchel said you’ve been killing people for the past three years.”

“Mitchel teaches me human magic, and I train him in Abyssal magic. Then, we find suitable targets to practice on together. Ah, we used to be such great partners,” Sidov lamented with a sigh.

Author’s note:

In a different place, John has also been kidnapped — though his treatment wasn’t as pleasant.

As for Mitchel and Sidov’s relationship, it has genuinely fallen apart. Remember that couple from earlier, the Bewildering Monster pair who fought at the drop of a hat yet had a solid bond? In contrast, these two demons… when things went south between them, they dragged the other down with them.

Mitchel genuinely wanted to get rid of Sidov, and while it wasn’t something he’d planned two years ago, it had become his recent goal. That’s why he pinned everything on Sidov. Though Sidov wasn’t innocent either… Honestly, they are both trouble.

Their issues aren’t too complex — things will eventually resolve themselves… This was just an excuse to kidnap the main characters and force them to grow closer (Is it okay to be this blunt?).

Oh, and a spoiler: the Bewildering Monsters survived.

 

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