C16 Red Eye Disease(16)

Unlike the brawny man who found me hiding in the dark the last time, this guardian didn't seem to notice me. Even until the moment I attacked him, he was focused on the book in his hand; And then... He was hit in the vitals by the fruit knife I shot out with the Psychokinesis and fell to the ground. He didn't move again.

Did I kill him?

Even after seeing the scene of him being killed by me, I didn't dare to act rashly. The overly relaxed assassination made me feel that it wasn't real.

Perhaps the one I killed was just a substitute, or perhaps it was just an illusion. Or something else... Maybe, this guy has an extraordinary ability that he wouldn't die even if he was hit in the vitals. Right now, he is pretending to be dead, waiting for me to take the initiative to walk out. After all, compared to the Psychokinesis, Fireball, and the strengthening of the physical body, these Supernatural Power... The ability to not die even after being stabbed in the head wasn't that unbelievable. In fictional stories, the main character and others often thought that they had killed the antagonist, but found out that it was just a story of their own delusions.

Even so, it was not possible to keep in a deadlock like this. Perhaps he was really dead?

I waited for more than ten seconds. When I saw that there was still no movement from the corpse, I cautiously walked out.

Very quickly, I arrived at the corpse's side.

Because the distance was shortened, I could clearly see his face.

He was a young man in his twenties, his skin was wheat colored. He had a handsome appearance. Maybe the assassination came too suddenly and didn't give him time to react. His expression when he died wasn't fierce, and his eyes weren't closed either. I think that he might have waited until the moment of his death... I think, until the moment he died, he probably didn't even realize that he was going to die - - assuming that he really was already dead.

I looked at the book that fell beside the corpse. It was a fantasy novel.

Because he was Heretic, I thought that he was reading some strange book, but I didn't expect it to be so normal.

Is he really dead?

With the intention of probing, I made a gesture of waving at the fire beside me.

The iron sword that was inserted into the fire floated up into the air and floated to my side.

I caught it.

When I was fighting with the brawny man last time, he told me... If I don't kill him, I won't be able to pull out the iron sword from the bonfire. I think that the ritual node here is the same structure. Since I can pull it out, does that mean that the guardian is really dead?

I looked at the corpse again, it still didn't do anything out of the ordinary.

To be on the safe side, I first retreated to the back of the warehouse where I was hiding, then took out the black phone in my pocket and checked the map.

There were only two red forks left on the map, and the red fork at the school's location had already disappeared. This meant that the Black Hand had recognized me as the one who destroyed this stronghold. Strictly speaking, I only killed one person and pulled out a sword.

Looks like the guardian really died.

Only at this moment did I finally heave a sigh of relief.

Actually, I also know that I might just be worrying for nothing, that's all. After all, even Heretic, who knew how to use magic, might not be able to prepare for any situation. Because he was not prepared for assassination, he died from assassination. Wasn't this very normal? Take me for example, if I don't have a keen intuition... Even a girl like Aoba who doesn't even have the strength to truss a chicken, as long as she has a scheming heart... I can also use a knife to kill this Superpowered of mine from behind.

If my opponent was the brawny man from last time, my assassination would definitely fail. But this time, it seems that my opponent doesn't have the ability to discover the hidden enemies, so I succeeded.

I wonder what kind of magic he knows.

I carried the iron sword and left the school.

On the way, I vaguely heard a commotion behind me. It should be the corpse of the guardian that was discovered. I quickened my pace and increased the distance between me and the school to avoid being discovered.

After a while, I arrived at the rooftop of a shop.

The black phone suddenly vibrated.

I took it out and checked it. There was a new message.

I've already completed the last command of the Black Hand, so this time it's a new command. I opened the message and looked at it.

"Destroy the core of the ritual."

The message from the Black Hand was as simple as ever.

The message also sent a picture, which was still a map of the Beaver City. I clicked on it and enlarged the map. A red cross was drawn in the center of the five strongholds.

These five strongholds, or rather, the ritual nodes, were connected by lines. It would form an inverse pentagram, which the brawny man had told me before. At this moment, The position of the red fork is exactly at the center of the inverse pentagram.

This location was not far from Yukio's villa.

Anyway, it was also on the way, so I decided to return to the villa first and rest for a while.

...

I knocked on the door using the secret code we agreed upon earlier.

Soon, the sound of footsteps could be heard from the other side of the door.

Aoba opened the door for me.

"Wow!"

She was suddenly frightened and took a step back. Then she accidentally lost balance and fell to the ground, as if she had seen something terrible.

I asked puzzledly, "What's wrong?"

"Eh? This voice..." She was stunned for a moment. She blinked her purple eyes and asked tentatively, "Is it Ning Hai?"

" It's me. " I said.

"You... why are you wearing a mask?" She patted her chest, still in shock, "I thought Heretic came to visit..."

Seeing her say this, I was two seconds late to react.

Oh, it's a mask.

I forgot to take off the mask, and the black robe I used to disguise myself didn't take off either.

After leaving the school that became Heretic's stronghold, I didn't take off my mask. There were two reasons. First, even if I wore this mask, it wouldn't affect my vision. Second, This mask had a very important role in the current Beaver City.

What was this role?

That was... as long as he wore it, he would not be attacked by the patients.

This was also something that was discovered after leaving the school. On my way back, I suddenly noticed that the surrounding patients didn't attack me for some reason. For a moment, I suspected that there was some unknown change in the Red Eye. After a while, I realized that it was because of the mask I was wearing. It seems that as long as I'm wearing it, the patients will treat me as a rock or a tree by the roadside... No, to be precise, it should be the same kind of person? The red eye symbol on the mask seems to be hinting at the Red Eye.

It will be very convenient for me to travel with it, so I didn't take it off. In the end, I forgot to take it off.

"Sorry." I took off my mask. "Did I scare you?"

"Scared me to death." Aoba complained.

I stretched out my hand and pulled her up.

"Did you receive a new message?" I asked.

"Yes." She nodded.

"Next, I'll go to the core of the ritual and end this." I said, "As long as the information I received is correct, then the ritual can be canceled"

"The Red Eye only exists because of this ritual, right?" She perked up, "Is it that as long as the ceremony is canceled, Yukio and Mr Miwa will recover to their original state?"

"Probably." I'm not very sure either.

Even if the Red Eye appeared because of the ceremony, it might not disappear because of the end of the ceremony. It was like a piece of paper that had been burned to ashes by the flames. It would not be restored to its original state because of the extinguishing of the flames. I don't know if I'm being too pessimistic, but will things really go so smoothly? In the story, the innocent who fell asleep because of the Great Devil King... Often, they would wake up because of the devil's death, but reality was far from that convenient.

It was useless to think about it now, the most important thing was what was happening in front of him. Even if the patients did not recover from the end of the ceremony, at least it could help Aoba and I escape the danger of becoming patients at any time.

I took out the mask and handed it to Aoba, saying, "This is for you."

"This is?" Aoba took it.

"This is a mask." I said.

"I know it's a mask." She said.

"As long as you wear it, you won't be attacked by patients," Wang Yao said. I said.

Aoba was shocked and carefully looked at the mask.

"But... if you wear it, you won't be able to see it, right?" She asked.

"You'll know when you put it on." I said.

Aoba hesitated for a moment and tried to put the mask on.

"Ah." She said in surprise, "I can see outside!"

Aoba, who wore this mask, had her face covered by the mask. Her appearance immediately became strange.

I looked at her and more or less understood the shock she received when she opened the door and saw me wearing the mask.

"Such a precious thing, is it really alright to give it to me?" She took off the mask and revealed her cute face once again. With a hesitant expression, she said, "You need it more when you're outside, right?"

"I don't care." I said, "I can move at high altitudes, and the patient is not my match."

Aoba rubbed the mask in her hand, as if she still could not let go of it.

However, since it was already sent out, there was naturally no reason to take it back. Furthermore, compared to me, Aoba, who lacked resistance to patients, clearly needed this even more.

I took off the black robe that I was using to disguise myself and rested for a while in the villa. After that, I left for the core of the ceremony.

...

Fifteen minutes later, in the city center.

I arrived at the front door of an office building, surrounded by a dozen or so patients who were lying on the ground.

This should be the location of the core of the ritual.

I walked into the office building.

The first floor of the building was an empty lobby. It looked a little messy and there were dried blood stains on the floor.

It was different from the stronghold I went to before. This should be the core location of the ceremony, but there was no Heretic who was in charge of guarding it. There was not even a single patient.

The elevator seemed to be working normally, but I chose to take the stairs.

I walk up the stairs layer by layer. Along the way, I can't see anyone, nor is there anything that seems to be the core of the ritual.

When I reached the seventh floor, the phone in my pocket suddenly vibrated.

I took out my phone and looked at it. It was a call from Aoba.

"Aoba?" I answered the call and asked, "What's wrong?"

Aoba, who was on the other side of the phone, was silent for a moment before she said, "No, it's nothing..."

For some reason, her voice was extremely low.

I was just about to ask, but she immediately hung up.

Since she's fine, why did she call? I couldn't figure it out.

I'll ask him when I get back.

I turned my attention back to the scene in front of me.

After a long time, I arrived at the top floor of the office building.

The top floor was a very empty space, and the walls in all directions were transparent reinforced glass. In the middle of the top floor, there was a ball of light the size of a soccer ball floating two meters high. It illuminated the surroundings especially brightly.

There were two people standing beside the ball of light. One of them was a man in a black robe, and the other was a tall armored man.

"Welcome" The man said loudly.

I stood in front of the staircase and looked at him.

He was probably the leader of Heretic, the so-called Priest. The armored man beside him should be Alphonse Elric.

"Alphonse?" I called out tentatively.

However, Alphonse did not respond to me. He just stood there silently, as if there was no one in the armor. It was as if he was just an inanimate object.

The brawny man said that he was defeated by Priest and brought away. I thought he was imprisoned, but I didn't expect him to look so free and free, as if he wasn't bound. Don't tell me... he turned his back on me?

I don't think it's possible. No, it's impossible.

"You know him?" The man asked loudly, "I knew it. You're his partner, right?"

I looked at the man again.

He was about 40 years old and his appearance was average. His expression was full of confidence, like a high-spirited and outstanding entrepreneur. He was not a dark Heretic. There were many red totem patterns on his black robe, but the style was more complicated than the guardian I assassinated.

"You care about him a lot, don't you?" The man patted the armor beside him. "He attacked the stronghold that Kuriyama was in charge of, but unfortunately, I was there too. As you can see, he was captured by me."

Alphonse did not say a word.

The Kuriyama that the man was talking about should be the brawny man that I killed?

"He is very strong, even Kuriyama found it difficult to deal with him. According to my observation, he seems to be able to decompose and reconstitute matter. This is an ability with a very promising future. " The man revealed a regretful expression," Unfortunately, after I took control of him, he couldn't use this ability anymore. People who are controlled by me can only passively carry out my orders without any subjective ability. If his ability belongs to the natural Superpower, then he only needs to use his instincts to activate it. But... But now, it seemed like... It seemed to be a kind of spell, a type of knowledge... Unable to activate it when one's mind is under control. "

His words make me become vigilant.

Controlling his mind was undoubtedly referring to Alphonse's current condition, and it also hinted at this man's true ability. He is able to control the mind of the opponent, making the opponent his slave.

The reason why Alphonse did not respond to my call was also because his mind was being controlled.

"Since you are his partner, then... So your ability, In principle, you might be similar to him? " The man slowly said, "If that's the case, I can't control you at will. Even if this armor loses its ability to cast spells, it can still barely fight. But your words... Once you lose your spell, you'll just be an ordinary person, right?"

He seems to have mistaken my Superpower for a magic technique.

" Let me think... Let's do it this way. " He says, "Join us and become one of us, how about it?"

"Do you think I will agree?" I asked.

"You will agree." He smiled. "That girl... is her name Suzukaze Aoba? I have already let my hand go down to grab her. Although I don't know what your relationship is, you have been protecting her until now. I don't think you want anything to happen to her, right?"