Chapter 90: Unchanged
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: PlumSauce
The enemies broke in through the doors and windows, using the corpses of servants and security guards. The wounds of the bodies oozed black substance, the same as what was on Coraci, only not as destructive.
Coraci sat on the high ladder with his eyes closed, as John had instructed. He could hear the whistle of bullets through the air, the splintering of wood, the cracking of bones…mixed with Liz’s screams whenever Carolyn accidentally hit a book.
He also heard someone’s phone ringing. Soon, the chaotic sounds of battle subsided. Carolyn and Liz were panting heavily, and John approached the ladder, saying, “Coraci, you can open your eyes now. Come down.”
The intruding things could no longer act, because the soul and body are synchronized. Just like the past Coraci — the demon fragment — who had once been fixed to stone and buried deep underground until the Arcane Covenant prepared a flesh golem to house his soul; only then could he move and learn like a human. The same applied now: his soul was fixed in a human body, and if the body was destroyed, the soul wouldn’t disappear, but would lose the ability to move.
So when the bodies before them were damaged enough to be unable to move, the things inside would temporarily lie dormant.
The corpses looked disgusting. Coraci thought that if it were himself a few years ago, he would have already vomited.
Apparently, Liz thought the same. She frowned, gesturing to Carolyn to answer the call, as if speaking would really make herself vomit.
“Oh my…” Carolyn answered the phone, stunned, unsure what she had just heard. “You’re serious? Not joking? They really all went?”
John and Coraci exchanged a glance, unable to tell if it was good or bad news. Carolyn said to wait and handed the phone to John. Coraci tilted his head to listen together.
The call was from Lathander. He first complained, “Why do I have to explain this again?” then repeated what he had already told Carolyn.
Roy, Zola, and Jane were all safe. Hearing the good news, John and Coraci both let out small exclamations. Though not perfectly safe — Zola was fine; Roy was injured and a couple of blood bags wasn’t enough to fully restore him; and Jane, even in her blackout robe, still experienced discomfort from prolonged exposure to daylight. All three were now in daytime sleep and receiving treatment from other bloodkin.
When John met up with the Association personnel and arrived at the Blackmoon house, he had mentioned the possibility that his family was under attack. Lathander and a few human hunters went there, but they shouldn’t have been able to locate John’s family so quickly.
Indeed, it wasn’t them — it was other mortal-born demons and hunters. Lathander first contacted some demon friends — those who enjoyed life together in their free time and lived near the target location. Many demons in the city knew Lathander and the Association members, though they weren’t staff. They said that for the sake of IDs and licenses, they’d help.
Carl, who was staying near the Association’s ruins in a temporary shack, contacted the Bunker prison which belonged to the Demon Hunter Society. They dispatched hunters near the Lockland territory, some of whom were werewolves.
Lathander said the Bunker prison had a very enthusiastic Guard Captain, who knew John and Coraci, and promised that if John’s family were threatened, he would contact the Demon Hunter Society for assistance.
“I hadn’t even arrived yet, and they had already taken care of everything!” Lathander’s voice was a bit excited. “There were plenty of werewolves on the Demon Hunter’s side, clashing perfectly with the Arcane Covenant’s werewolf thugs. John, a big wolf battle must have broken out in your local forest, with even a few demons mixed in! Though we’re only mortal-born, we were still quite useful — like using blood to save your family…”
John listened in shock, struggling to imagine the scene. Lathander continued describing it, though his voice was not entirely clear… This guy was probably riding a motorcycle while calling. He told John to first return to the Association office (now just a makeshift structure).
After hanging up, John looked around the large library. Liz sat back down to continue her calculations, while Coraci leaned against the bookshelf, lost in thought.
“Lizbeth, let’s leave here,” Coraci said. “Take the necessary books with you. John can carry many on his own.”
He gave John a slight grin. Just a small expression, but it made John feel as if the room temperature had warmed up.
Liz shook her head. “No, I need to finish this as fast as possible…”
“How fast is ‘fast’? We can’t stay here forever. The devil will keep coming to infiltrate. It’s not strong yet, but it’s still dangerous. Lizbeth, you must leave.”
The last sentence Coraci spoke forcefully. Everyone understood what he meant: Lucian’s fate was uncertain, and the devil urgently wanted to kill Liz quickly.
John also said, “Liz, you can go back and continue your work. Meanwhile, we’ll assign people to stay here in shifts, making sure the possessed corpses don’t get away.”
Carolyn patted Liz’s shoulder. “You’re not calm right now, Liz. How fast can you calculate alone? Faster than a computer?”
Liz glared back. Carolyn continued, “I mean, why do it alone? The Association and Hunter Society both have exorcists. Also… I want to ask, when you say ‘calculate’, do you mean it metaphorically or literally, mathematically?”
“What? You know how to calculate?” Liz asked.
“I don’t, but,” Carolyn pointed to the papers full of geometric diagrams and formulas, “if it’s literal math, then — why not have someone write a program to calculate it? It’d be faster than you with a pencil.”
After she spoke, the other three were stupefied, as if they were people from the 13th century who had just seen a modern human.
…
When Coraci returned to West Bay City, everyone in the Association was astonished.
Out of habit, Erica stepped forward wanting to hug him, then remembered he was a devil and stopped in place.
They stood in a makeshift building not far from the ruins. Forget isolation rooms — there wasn’t even a bathroom left. The exorcists whispered anxiously about the devil and kept glancing at Coraci cautiously.
“No need to be so tense,” Coraci said with a smile. “Whether you accept it or not, I’m here to help. You can’t expel me, nor can you defeat me. So just relax — you’ll have to tolerate me for the time being.”
John leaned close to his ear. “Your tone is terrifying.”
“It’s the truth,” Coraci replied. “The situation is unusual now. I won’t let myself be locked up without resistance like before. Don’t waste time worrying about me.”
“So you’re Coraci!” Carl shouted from behind a group of hunters, both nervous and excited. “I’ve heard of you — you’re…”
With a wry smile, Coraci faced a group of anxious hunters and gave Carl a wave. He expected Carl to say something like, “You’re the one who destroyed the entire building” or “You’re an Umbral,” but instead, Carl organized his words and said, “You’re the one…who helped my mom with her high school enrollment issues!”
“Your mom?”
“Bloodkin mother,” Carl explained. “She appears to be a teenage girl but is actually several hundred years old. You handled all her legal paperwork. She mentioned you to me, and John often brings you up too.”
“I remember her…” Coraci nodded. The bloodkin woman with a youthful appearance had needed help with school enrollment while avoiding various physical checks. Coraci had assisted her, probably a few weeks after the Atwood Manor incident.
Instructor Jere pushed Carl back and approached Coraci. He hesitated, then placed a hand on Coraci’s shoulder.
He furrowed his brow. “Earlier, I heard Liz say…”
Coraci understood his question. “Yes. The devil once buried by the Blackmoon family shares the same true name as me.”
“What do you make of it?”
Coraci shook his head. “What can I make of it? I was never a fully powered Umbral. Earlier at the Blackmoon house, we also found devil fragments gradually seeping out of their cages, but those things were much weaker than me…”
The surrounding people listened silently. Coraci smiled, “It’s strange to talk about how terrifying I am myself. But it’s true — I’m much stronger than those fragments that move via corpses without self-awareness. I’m not an accidental remnant of a devil; I was deliberately left behind by the spellcasters of the past.”
“Who would do such a thing…” muttered one of the exorcists.
“Who knows?” Liz said, sitting against the wall in the corner, using her knees as a desk, continuing her translation and calculations. “For people now, that’s all ancient history. After all, I can’t question our ancestors’ thoughts, that they would actually use a devil as a sacrifice like that.”
She shook the scroll case she held — the one Charlotte had brought — and tossed it to Coraci.
Coraci nodded at her, deciding to reveal the conclusions they had discussed on the car ride back to the city.
“This is an ancient scroll held by the Arcane Covenant,” Coraci said, taking out and showing the parchment to his Association colleagues. “It contains two languages: arcane script and wizard cipher. Moreover, it has the true name of the sacrificial devil. Simply put, it’s a contract.”
Several spellcasters gasped, realizing the scroll’s significance.
Coraci continued,“Ancient magic is characterized by combination and control, while sorcery emphasizes sacrifice. Making a pact with a devil is a form of sacrifice — the wizard offers something in exchange for the devil’s service…”
“Wait, that’s not quite right,” Lathander raised his hand, making the room feel like a classroom. “Long ago, Abyssal demons also made pacts with devils. The ritual calls the devil’s true name, while the contract bears the initiator’s name — typically their human one. The devil doesn’t sign.”
“Exactly,” Coraci said. “So the Arcane Covenant’s contract is a deceitful, insidious agreement. It has been used before — in the distant past, wizards had controlled this devil. Later on, during the witch hunts, spellcasters and supernatural beings launched the Double Hunt, eradicating devils one by one… Everyone knows this. So the devil captured and sacrificed by the Blackmoon family’s spellcasters is the very one the Arcane Covenant once controlled.”
Another exorcist asked,“Then what about you…”
“A wizard deliberately split a small fragment of the devil’s soul,” Coraci answered. “How could they allow a portion of what they considered their power to remain dormant? Shortly after, the wizards lost track of me as well.”
He had once lost all five senses, left with only consciousness, sealed within a spell crystal and buried deep underground, enduring a long, dark time. It wasn’t until decades ago that someone from the Arcane Covenant found him again.
“I understand,” Instructor Jere nodded. “In modern times, the Arcane Covenant was besieged by multiple forces, too preoccupied to deal with this. Later, when they found you again, they…”
“Studied me,” Coraci said. “Because they wanted to regain the devil’s power. Over thirty years ago, Mira, Zoltán, and I escaped. My soul was transferred, I lived as a human, grew up…and eventually…” He glanced around at everyone in the Association office (ruins). “I came here to work and met all of you.”
“The wizards wanted to use the contract to control the devil again, right?” another exorcist asked. “So once they confirmed your identity and got close enough to the Blackmoon family, they were ready to release the devil… Wait, if the contract can control the devil, now that we have it, can we?”
Coraci shook his head. “No.”
“Really?” the exorcist questioned. “You’re part of the devil about to awaken. If someone used the contract, wouldn’t it affect you too? Maybe that’s why you’re holding back…”
Hearing that, John felt a bit frustrated — he couldn’t explain the spell mechanics clearly. Liz stood up, walked to Coraci, and took back the ancient scroll.
“What he says is true,” she told her colleagues, unrolling the parchment. “First, the contract only applies to Arcane Covenant wizards — the rules carry magical effects; not just anyone can impersonate the holder. Second, and most importantly…the contract has already been damaged. Enchantress Charlotte’s blood contaminated part of the writing; it can no longer take effect.”
Carolyn looked at her pitifully. “What? I fired the gun… Was it my fault?”
“I never said it was your fault…”
Instructor Jere patted a nearby exorcist on the shoulder and looked at Coraci. “So, Coraci, will you tell us the true name?”
Coraci nodded lightly. “Of course. Just not now — I can’t speak it outside a proper spellcasting environment.”
John squeezed his shoulder. “Hey, I’m not against it. But…”
“I know,” Coraci smiled at him, then turned to all his colleagues, familiar and unfamiliar. “When necessary, we will use the devil’s true name to create spells. If it weren’t for this, I wouldn’t be standing here now.”
He looked around. This was the Association’s new office area, and it was his first time here, though it had already become a fire-ravaged ruin. Sunlight streamed through the holes in the ceiling above the blackened rubble, and fine dust floated in the air.
“It’s okay,” he muttered as if to himself. “Whether you believe me or not, I trust you — that’s enough. Because I am not just a devil fragment, not just Deville Coraci — I am also a member of the Unthreatening Creature Protection Association. So I know this is the right—”
Before he could finish, a staccato of applause sounded from a corner. Everyone turned to see Carl and Lathander. They stopped, grinned, and placed their hands behind their backs.
Coraci turned to John. “Now, can you continue partnering with me to handle some things?”
“Of course!” John immediately replied.
“And me?” Carl raised his hand — after all, he was John’s intern.
“You, go to sleep!”
Carolyn leaned in. “Where are you going? Really to find someone to code a program?”
“Yes, really,” Coraci said. “We need to speed up calculations to determine how long it will take for the devil to break free as the bindings weaken. But look at what Liz has over there,” — Liz had already resumed her work sitting against the wall—”it’s not just a matter of spellwork; it’s also massive, complex mathematical computation.”
“We can all help,” one exorcist said.
“Of course, you can help as much as possible,” Coraci said, “but the person I need is not an exorcist… It’s a programmer.”
“You already have someone in mind?” John asked.
“Yes. He can help. He not only knows how to design programs, but also understands spells — and he’s not human.”
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