Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1793.12.--] [New Year Celebrations]
Zeph and Sangsu visited one of the rooms that was too far away for the putrid aerosol to fully reach it, and made a few more copies of the woman’s fingerprints using the severed arm. The doors to all rooms were mostly airtight – courtesy of Ghrughah – so it was just a matter of cleaning up the appendage and their own equipment instead of worrying about the colloidal suspension of particles in the air… and their contents. Or any biological hazard they could bring, for that matter.
Zeph didn’t like the fact that they had to remove the woman’s arm, but he would rather have some evidence that she wasn’t a Hannyajin as no one should be able to find out about that from the Soul fragments alone. Yet, that information was an important part of the puzzle, too. Besides that, even if Aisha’s ‘purge’ wouldn’t melt the body, he was almost sure it would change into putty by itself soon enough.
After making more copies of her fingerprints, they compared them to the ones from the handles. Thankfully, the small amount of bloody aerosol that landed on the fabric wasn’t enough to influence the powder traces encased in hardened glue.
They found a match for three of the seven fingerprints taken from the external handle and two of the four fingerprints from the internal one. The superimposed imprints weren’t perfectly aligned, but the sheer amount of light that managed to squeeze through the gaps was enough of an indicator.
As expected… Zeph smirked internally. “Sangsu, check the arm for anything strange,” he ordered his assistant, who nodded resolutely.
As expected, the man immediately found discrepancies in the elbow joint. Hannyajins had physiology very similar to normal human races, but their bodies were built to sustain their increased strength. Their bones and joints were built much more solidly. It wasn’t hard to find evidence even without cutting the arm open, especially in the absence of the sickening fluids that previously covered the entire body of the deceased woman.
After a quick exchange of insights, they covered the arm in one of the useless glues, just in case, and packed up. Zeph used a combination of Stabilized ‘Air Sphere’ and ‘Force wave’ to keep the air clean as they exited and quickly followed after the others. They didn’t worry about small amounts of the putrid substance they would bring along, as nobody would be able to fully clean themselves after crossing the corridor, but their equipment had to stay as clean as possible – thus the precautions.
They weren’t the last ones to enter the third floor’s main meeting room. Even as they tried to push through the small crowd, Aisha was interrogating the last of the workers at the entrance.
In the meeting room, an improvised stage was formed from tables and set by the wall to the right – the current objective of Zeph’s floundering through the mob. Woongar – Aisha’s commander – was already waiting for them there, but even with his shouted commands, their journey was painfully arduous.
People were highly stressed and scared; looking around haphazardly like a flock of chickens waiting for their turn at a butcher’s coop. Zeph was sure that the only thing keeping them from panicking or outright rebelling was the presence of the Warrior Priestess and their two commanders. Or maybe he was wrong and they could keep it together by the sheer hardness of their thick sculls, it was difficult to tell.
Either way, it took them a good minute to arrive at the stage. Zeph hopped on the meter-high platform as soon as he saw it. He was quickly followed by his ‘trusty’ assistant carrying their supplies.
He sighed in relief after finding some personal space. Even if the improvised platform was small, it was still much better than being squeezed by the crowd.
Ah.. right… the Veils, he finally found the source of his discomfort. The space was much too small for that many people. Their Veils were clashing with each other, stripping everyone from their natural perception range the more the denser the crowd was. But Zeph was not going to back up now. Not after Aisha’s efforts; not after what he found.
The last member of the building’s personnel entered the room a few minutes later, followed quickly by Aisha and her retinue. The double doors were shut, making an atypical, sucking sound right after.
People’s heads immediately snapped in the direction of the new sound—some of them even hopping up to get a better view—but the visage of the Priestess seemed to placate their raising anxiety.
Aisha grimaced as soon as she entered the room.
Instead of moving through the mass of bodies, she shrugged and took a stance.
Zeph only managed to grimace slightly as she threw her warhaxammer at him like a javelin. Despite the surprise, he easily grabbed the handle as it passed above his head and—after feeling that it was dragging him along—released the grip on his spear to force a backflip. He strained his muscles to change the warhaxammer’s head movement into a downward circular swing, pulling down hard with his right hand while pushing the back of the weapon’s shaft up with his newly-freed hand. As a result, he heaved his whole body up in a counter-balance act. Thankfully, he managed to catch the weapon near its head with his right hand. Otherwise, the maneuver would be impossible.
It ended up better, and worse, than he expected it to go. Better, because not only he didn’t break anything in his body just yet, but he also succeeded in keeping the weapon from destroying the wall or the improvised platform. Worse, because after the half-somersault that he managed to make, his shins and straightened-out feet dug deeply into the wooden panels of the wall as his body was thrown at it by the impossibly large momentum generated by Aisha’s throw.
If not for the additional plates that Ghrughah inserted into his armor, his legs would be broken. For sure.
Using the remnants of the weapon's velocity, he managed to finish the upward arc of the swing and brought it above his horizontally-planted body. Then, he pulled it toward himself to free his legs from the remnants of the wooden paneling. The weapon’s mass, his strength, and the flexibility of his body were enough to drag him out. He tried to land straight on his feet.
Alas, he miscalculated the strength necessary and landed on his backside while bonking his own head with the shaft.
At least he couldn’t feel that through his armor this time…
After taking a few deep breaths, he realized that there was a strange silence in the room.
Blinking, he looked around. With stupefied faces, the gathered were looking right back at him. Even Aisha had had her mouth slightly open; her hand still reaching forward after the throw, suspended.
Ugh… I wasn’t supposed to do that? he asked himself while clumsily placing the warhaxammer on the stage’s floor. Even with his strength being multiplied three times over, the 20 kg of metal on a long and similarly heavy shaft was just too unwieldy.
He looked up once again, only to see Aisha’s running form. She was using people’s shoulders as stepping stones to reach the podium. Her movements weren’t as graceful as he had grown accustomed to because she had to constantly fight for balance, but the method served its purpose – in but a moment she was standing beside him.
Going by the grimaces of the Hannyajin warriors she stepped on, it was clear that she wouldn’t be able to use the same method with an additional thirty-something-kilogram weight in her hands. Not without breaking some bones. If that’s the case, why did catching her weapon cause that strange reaction? he thought, a little lost.
“You should re-evaluate your reaction times,” Aisha said to him, lifting her weapon from the podium’s floor. “And, by the way, good work! You even managed to uncover the real wall for me,” she said with a smile and lightly kicked up his spear for him to catch.
What’s with my reaction times? he wondered, frowning slightly as he snatched his weapon from the air and stood up.
Gru? he tried, but his companion stayed silent.
“Stop being stupid and minimize the size of your Veils!” Aisha shouted to the crowd. “Push them through the amulets and into the Mana gathering system! This room is isolated from the rest of the building so Mana density is getting too high!” She gestured to the wall that Zeph just peeled himself off of. “Stop whining and get to work. Also, are you finally satisfied?” she asked, squinting her eyes. “Or are you going to complain again?” she asked, glaring in a challenge at the people below, but no one seemed eager to even look her in the eyes. “No? Then you better take seriously Einar’s report. Sangsu was there as well, for your information. You can solve your trust issues later – our situation is too serious to allow for insubordination. Are we clear?!”
Zeph looked back at the destroyed paneling. Behind the wood that his legs smashed apart, was a solid, silvery-gray metal. There was not even a scratch on its smooth surface.
His eyes opened wide when he processed what Aisha just said. N-no way… right? Just because I caught the weapon… He looked back at the people. Despite being crowded, they were now much more relaxed. He even spotted a few nods of respect. These… His jaw clenched. These fucking musclebrains! he screamed internally.
Meanwhile, Aisha was continuing with her speech. “You already saw that one of yours was involved in the murder. No more empty speculation! Being prideful and being blind are two different things! Don’t make me regret putting so much faith in you…” she sighed and leaned on her weapon. The room was silent. People’s gazes hardened with resolve as their shoulders sagged in embarrassment. Aisha was no longer shouting. “There is a long relationship between us… I have a deep respect for your group. So please, don’t prove me wrong…” The last words were spoken in a whisper, but Zeph was sure everyone heard her despite that.
The ensuing silence lasted only for a few seconds.
“Zeph,” she finally addressed him. “What did you find?” All eyes turned to him.
He looked down, weighing his options. It didn’t take him long to arrive at a conclusion, though. Aisha, thank you. Maybe we can finish this without any drama… He looked up, straightening up. “I want to… ask something first…” He looked around, receiving curious looks from everyone. “Can any of you use advanced external Mana manipulation?”
There was a pause before everyone looked at Aisha’s commander, who was standing to their left. The man was slightly taken aback.
“Well… yes. I sure can help if you need something,” Woongar said, getting a hold of himself.
Sangsu nodded. “I’m not quite there yet, but I am getting close, so I can also try to help. What needs to be done?” he asked, looking back at Zeph.
“Nothing,” he shrugged. “I’m asking because the culprit is a Hannyajin with—”
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Aisha’s weapon was faster than his words. A loud crack interrupted him.
Woongar’s limp body hit the wall after a lightning-fast strike with the weapon’s shaft. Zeph was almost sure he saw an electrical discharge for a moment there. Aisha was by the body the next instant, touching his head.
The difference in strength was ridiculous, even if her level was, most probably, much lower than his. No wonder they respect her… But she had to be ready to strike this whole time… Zeph realized.
Startled by the sudden attack, everyone was just gaping. Thankfully, no one made a move before she spoke out. “I’ve made sure he will stay down for a whole day,” she declared, turning to the crowd. “We will hear his part when the time comes.”
People gulped, probably realizing how close they were from making wrong assumptions and, subsequently, taking an even worse action.
“Is he the only one?” Zeph asked, carefully scanning people’s expressions.
“Y-yes,” Sangsu said, now much less confident.
“Then, let me explain what have happened back in that room…” He crossed his arms while leaning against the wall. His spear was pressed against his shoulder as he still was holding it with one hand. “First, let’s confirm how it looked from an outside perspective. The narration of the past events should go something like this: ‘Two infiltrators from the Temple of Pure Souls took out a handful of our people with the purpose of sowing distrust between us all. They have killed themselves to set a trap for our commanders, while making sure nothing was left of their bodies to investigate. Thus, we would start looking among ourselves for traitors. Most probably, it was a reaction to our private conversation stating that this whole scenario was a trap. And, as it turned out, a working trap. Mijalo was found lying to our Priestess. And was eliminated. She also exploded herself. This suggests that the two already-dead spies weren’t capable of her level of disguise but possessed similar methods of self-destruction.’ Is that right?” He looked around, receiving only nods in response.
The problem with exploding bodies was – it wasn’t really doable to produce such an effect on a carcass. Booby-trapping a corpse with Spells? That would be a hell of work, even without it being fresh. A working physical grenade would do the job, but those were all Mana-powered explosions without any evident item causing them.
In normal circumstances, freshly deceased flesh was still saturated with the entity’s Mana, and with a density much higher than the atmosphere would allow for. Add to that the amount of liquids still present, and you receive the worst, hangover-inducting material to work with. Those traces on the bones – the ones responsible for the explosion, according to the System Onji – couldn’t be done with his Shamanic enchanting. Trying anything like that without directly opening the body was almost impossible for people below level 100. Not to mention, it would leave traces; ‘magical’ and physical. Additionally, the culprit had 15 minutes to do all this, and only in the best-case scenario. Enchanting anything this complicated in that timeframe was a ridiculous notion.
And people here understood all of that very well.
Moreover, the trigger mechanism supported that theory. An active, Self-sustaining Spell had to be placed on the bodies. There was no other way for the bomb to react to the touch. Of course, it was somewhat suspicious that no one triggered them during the fight with the two Zombies, but the exact setup wasn’t that important when Skills and Spells were involved. Be it a timer, or another method of timing the activation, it just showed how well the enemy was prepared.
That’s why everyone thought that the infiltrators just bought or created the necessary Body Enhancements or Enchantments beforehand. That’s why everyone assumed that the two exploding bodies belonged to the infiltrators. This notion was additionally strengthened by Mijalo’s spectacularly explosive death.
“But!” Zeph shouted, pushing away from the wall and slowly pacing along the podium. “What would that achieve?” he asked rhetorically. “In the long run, there would be no damage. Trust can be rebuilt. We have the tools necessary to ascertain where people’s loyalties lay. No, the impact of this attack isn’t even close to what it could have become.” Zeph shook his head. “If I was in their place, I would detonate near someone important instead of setting up this whole scenario. Done correctly, it would have the potential to sow even more chaos, as it would imply that we are unaware of the bombs inside of our bodies; that we are mentally manipulated, so to say.”
That was another thing. Straight mind control wasn’t possible, but their opponents were Soul specialists. It was easy to imagine – and assume – that they could modify Soul memories or somehow manipulate the existing Soul links connected to a living body. With enough preparation, a lot could have been done. Theoretically. No matter how unbelievable it sounded, Soul Arts were always shrouded in mystery. Of course, the System should be able to block such Soul manipulation attempts, but until someone traveled to a higher stratum, it was very difficult to find reliable sources of information on the topic. As so, people feared the unknown, ignoring the impossibility of it all. Just as they always tend to.
Well, that knowledge was available. But not without a ludicrous amount of UP and money.
“They didn’t even attack the warriors. Just our personnel. It was the first and most important clue! A clue showing that it was merely a cover mission!” he shouted, turning to the crowd. A murmur started to reverberate in the room as people discussed his words. “And the timing couldn’t be better!” he raised his voice even more. “Our two commanders were in the middle of interrogating the staff. And who would be interrogated at the end?” he asked rhetorically.
“The commanders themselves…” Sangsu weakly stated, his eyes wide.
Zeph nodded, pointing in his direction. “Exactly. The trap was set for you specifically. After you were injured, Woongar continued with the ‘interrogation’ by himself. Hiding Mijalo. Or rather, setting up another distraction for us. Check his fingerprints, by the way. None should match, if I am not mistaken.” He looked directly at the crowd as his assistant jumped for the supplies in the crate. “But let’s start from the beginning. That’s what happened according to the evidence we have found…
“After hearing about the trap set by our Guild, Woongar panicked. He started prioritizing his own survival, of course. I can’t tell if he was manipulated, or if this was his own conscious decision,” he said before people started to ask questions. Thankfully, the random talks subsided. “It’s something we will check later. Anyway, during the early stages of the investigation period, he had found a perfect timing to enter that room. He is a commander, so timing his moves should have been trivial. He was receiving all reports from the watch, after all.
“Of course, Mijalo was the one to open the doors.” He looked to the side. Sangsu, hearing the pause, looked back from his inspection, then shook his head. As predicted… Zeph thought before returning to his speech. “Not only that, I think Woongar didn’t even touch the furniture, glassware, or people that were inside. Our Priestess here is a no joke.” He nodded at Aisha, and some people laughed nervously at that. “The reason he visited them instead of the warriors was threefold. Firstly, I think he still didn’t want to kill his direct subordinates. Secondly, our personnel was drinking freely at the time. By coming to that room, greeting the ‘lowly’ workers, nobody would object against a free drink offered by Mijalo when he ordered her to prepare something.”
Zeph paused, looking around the room to see if they managed to connect the dots or if someone would object. Sadly, it was a resounding 'no' to both. He clicked his tongue silently in disappointment. “The only intact body in that room… We checked it, and she was killed by a neurotoxin,” he said, using a Rui word. Some people seemed to understand what that meant, their eyes widening. “Except for the explosion-inflicted wounds, the body had no injuries of any kind. They ingested a poison. It also explains why nobody heard them struggling. And why the two non-explosive bodies were turned into Zombies – forcing you to destroy their heads… but about that in a moment. I know how rare such poisons are. But you need to remember that our personnel isn’t that high in levels or rich in UP. And that our opponents were prepared!” he shouted the last part, as the crowd’s murmur was getting loud again. “They had a commander on their side! Mijalo confirmed her involvement directly under the full scrutiny of Zora! Remember that! That leads us to the third reason he visited that room! Energy Enhancements!”
The crowd fell silent once again.
“The only reason that woman’s body didn’t blow up, was because of her Energy Enhancement for Power milestone that she chose. It’s impossible to tell if the two exploded bodies belonged to infiltrators. I can easily see him sacrificing the obvious spies for the cause, but nothing was left of them. Either way, that doesn’t change the outcome! The ‘Bone invulnerability’ that that woman took as her EE is sustainable during Mana depletion!” he declared and started sending the Effigy of the System information packet on the EE that he bought. “Sadly, I was unable to ascertain if she was geared with this exact EE. But! We confirmed an existing EE on the bones that was blocking other traces from activating! It’s either this or a variation! And, most importantly, we have found traces of post-death enchantment imprinted on the bones. System Onji confirmed this finding personally!” he, once again, started to send Effigies of the message recorded in his Interface.
Without System confirmation, it would be very difficult to present this detail as a piece of evidence. After all, nobody knew about his abilities in external Mana manipulation. He thanked the greedy god, even if they were an ass for the most part.
It took a while to send the Effigies to everyone. Thankfully, he was able to use the trick to send them without physical contact. It required him to touch someone’s body with a Mana tendril. His Mana generation wasn’t up to par with the dissipation rate, sadly. But when he finished, the mood in the room changed.
He spotted a few warriors that were gripping their weapons so hard, their fingers started paling.
“Also, according to my knowledge,” he continued after taking back the crowd’s attention, “there is only one way someone could imprint an enchantment on the bones without leaving traces inside of the body. They Zombified them all,” he said, glancing at Aisha.
She was still near Woongar, keeping a hand on his head. Hearing him, she frowned, but nodded a moment later.
He took a deep breath and looked forward. “As you should know, Undead bodies are vulnerable to changes directed by the Soul conglomeration linked to them, and vice versa. My standing theory is that they had a pre-prepared Soul conglomeration at hand that was filled with the information on that one bone enchantment. And those, by nature, wouldn’t be able to truly move the body. So instead of leaving them in that state, they disconnected them after making sure the imprint on the bones was finished. Mind you, it’s just a theory…”
“A very unlikely theory,” Aisha interrupted. “Even if that was what happened, imprinting the bones in just a few minutes isn’t easy. You also ignored the fact, that I would definitely feel the conglomeration if it was close…”
“I already proved he wasn’t working alone,” Zeph shook his head. “Is it doable, or not?”
Aisha frowned, thinking deeply. In the end, she just sighed. “Doable. But you have no evidence.”
“Actually,” he smirked, “I think I may have. Raising Undead would require not only specialized Soul Arts, but an enormous amount of Organic Magicules along with potent Spells and Skills, correct?”
Aisha nodded.
“Well then. That’s probably why someone brought a Hydrargyrum-based Manasolid and allowed it to dissipate on a chair…”
People shouted in disbelief. That was exactly the reason he asked about advanced Mana manipulation. Only people with that ability could potentially bring a Manasolid into the building without being noticed. The compression boxes were big and bulky – there was no way someone wouldn’t notice one. Even if Woongar used a miniaturized version of the box to help himself keep the Manasolid stable, he would still need to be able to perform at an advanced Mana manipulation level to bring the thing inside without anyone noticing a thing.
“Moreover!” he shouted, fighting for attention in the ensuing commotion. “Not only did I find a chair with visible signs of Mana deterioration and in the exactly right shape, but the room and its vicinity had a perfectly uniform Mana consistency! Believe it or not, but even after the fight with the Zombies and the two explosions, I felt as if I was moving through a Manaless zone! The traces of HydrargyrumI I have found in the cracks of the chair’s seating also speak for themselves!”
This one was risky. He didn’t have any evidence, and taking into account what was happening outside this room, there would be no evidence to present in the future either. Now, it was all about trust. Thankfully, he saw people confirming his own experiences.
It was also easy to guess what had happened to all that Mana produced by the dissipating Manasolid – the Mana gathering system was able to channel the abundance of Mana if the density was high enough. Or rather, the ‘pressure’ was high enough. And all the rooms in this building were quite airtight, even for Mana.
People started to quiet down slowly, and he continued. “We have confirmed that Mijalo was the one who visited the room. I will explain the fingerprints later, but we have evidence. The last part of the puzzle is the fact that she wasn’t a Hannyajin!” That shut them all immediately. Using a normal volume this time, Zeph pushed forward. “We have her arm. Sangsu already checked it, as can you. It’s not Hannyajin’s arm. Whatever Woongar had planned, he was working with an external group. A group that, now, should be easy to spot! We will start with a physical examination.” He looked at Aisha for confirmation and received one immediately. “Check your teammates. Check their joints. Most Humans can lie easily, that’s why Woongar used her as the last-ditch attempt to mislead us and cover his own involvement. But it’s a trivial matter now! His shenanigans fell short. And remember! Always check the corpses! As our protocols dictate! Mijalo’s body was probably one of the most disgusting things in this world, but that’s exactly why they used this type of explosion! Be vigilant!”
Finished with his spiel, he left the people to talk between themselves. He omitted some details, but they didn’t have the physical evidence at hand either way. The rest was in Sangsu’s hands. His testimony about their findings would be the key, and that’s why Zeph had tried so hard to make sure that the man wasn’t involved in all of this drama.
Now, he just hoped that whatever method Aisha and P’pfel were using to clean the building wouldn’t leave them stuck in a death trap.