Chapter 1.34.

Mike stood in a daze, looking directly into Efi's eyes as she stroked his cheek with her ghostly fingers with a wide smile. He felt her touch, not with his skin, but with his fingers, as if he were stroking his own cheek. His brain tried desperately to resist the sensation. Efi took her hand away from his cheek and soon his senses were back to normal. A daze fell from his body.

"What was that?" He asked in a hoarse voice.

"You've experienced the beauty of soul bonding, my dear familiar," Efi replied. "You have a quarter of an hour to get out of here," she then added, closing her eyes and looking away.

"I...," Mike started to say, but Efi interrupted him.

"All questions later. I need twenty-four hours to absorb his soul. In the meantime, you better not be here," she said and flew away.

Mike noticed that her body wasn't just transformed from the front. Her hair was now longer. Her skin was pale pink on her back, and her tail was more graceful and a little longer.

Efi stopped and half turned around.

"Naughty boy," she said, threatening him with a finger. "Hurry up, you don't have much time."

After a moment she was out of sight, and he left standing bewildered and confused by what had happened. His wandering gaze lingered on Colonel Tirel's body. To Mike's surprise, he felt nothing: no regret, no joy, no anger. Had he wished the colonel harm? Perhaps. Did he want to kill him himself? No.

"You don't have much time," Mike heard the words, but he wasn't sure that it was not his imagination playing tricks on him. Shaking himself, he took the first step toward the lying body. The stiff muscles immediately responded with pain. Grimacing, Mike pulled himself together and kept walking. Once near the body, he slowly leaned over it.

Despite the serious wound on its shoulder, there wasn't much blood under the body. And the body itself was withered with wrinkled skin. Mike was easily able to turn it over. The frozen grimace of horror on its face with glassy eyes was striking. Sighing, Mike covered its eyelids with his hand.

He quickly searched his body. On the colonel's finger was a dark blue shield ring. It was only half charged. Mike thought about swapping it for his half-empty ring but decided to wait. In the pockets, he found a small bunch of keys, a couple of bank cards, and Tirel's personal documents. He also found a strange coin in the pocket that was vaguely familiar to him. But he could not immediately remember its origin. He took the purse from the belt and put it in his pocket without looking. Mike removed a light leather belt with a gold badge with a crest on it from the body. Then he picked up the sword, with its expensive white hilt with gold inlays, that lay beside it. He slid it into its scabbard.

Eric Shtof was waiting for him upstairs. Thinking about him, Mike gritted his teeth in anger. He had no intention of letting him go alive. But he had to prepare for the meeting properly. Besides, Mike was sure that the horse-drawn carriage and the men near his house were also connected with the colonel. And if so, he had to deal with them, too.

Mike walked quickly to the armory. That's what he called the room. Most of his weapons, artifacts, and armor a stored here.

The room was small but densely packed with rows of various goodies. The sword he decided to keep was the one Colonel Tirel had. The shield ring was empty. It needed replace. Mike quickly found where the rings a stored. There were three of them, and they lay in a small jewelry box. Unfortunately, among the three, only one was the right size for him. It looked simple without any fancy details, but it a made of a bright red crystal, which was quite eye-catching. Quickly changing the ring on his finger, he checked the amount of magical energy in it. It has over 80% reserve now. He put his old ring in the jewelry box.

There was also a spare set of uniforms in the room, just in case. The only thing that puzzled Mike a little was what armor to use.

Despite the development of magical technology and the advent of firearms, body armor has not lost its popularity. They even evolved somewhat, going the way of specialization in physical or magical protection. There were a dozen or so pieces of armor in the room, ranging from thin chainmail for concealed wear to plate armor that weighed forty kilos. Mike's choice was a thin plate armor with magically engraved physical protection. Such a set consisted of two parts - a top and a bottom. It could also wear under the uniform. It was a bit restrictive, but in return, it could withstand a close-range revolver and most light melee weapons.

Mike then walked over to the wall, on whom hung a variety of firearms, from revolvers to a rifle capable of destroying an entire city block. His next choice was an 8-round 9mm automatic pistol. The pistol itself was a fairly simple mechanical design. It requires only precision workmanship and a bit of magical engraving. The bullets, on the other hand, varied greatly. They vary from simple non-lethal powder-based bullets to bursting ones, with built-in magical crystals capable of destroying an entire building. Luckily for everyone, these bullets cost 300 gold or more each, so not everyone could use them. Mike loaded the gun with simple steel bullets with magical engraving on them to make them more durable.

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What was left to do was choose protection for his head. Here he had an even more varied choice: from magical headbands and caps to a full steel helmet. Mike chose a lightweight round steel helmet that protected only the top of his head. The back of his head and neck protecting by chain mail. This helmet was also magically engraved with physical protection.

After deciding on his gear, Mike quickly changed right here and then went to get the last missing component. In his room, he found what he was looking for. On the table were the last three gifts from Efi. Mike took the bracelet and put it on without a second thought. He decided to leave the mini-tablet behind. Though he decided to wear the glasses. Even if they weren't needed for their intended purpose, they were still good as extra eye protection. And they looked pretty brutal, too.

All the preparations took him no more than ten minutes, and soon he was standing in the hall near the colonel's corpse. At first, he wanted to leave the colonel's corpse there. But he immediately changed his mind. In a day the corpse would emit a strong putrid stench, and his entire hall would be saturated with it as well. Mike checked the fastening of the sword on his belt, and then lifted Tirel's corpse onto his left shoulder. Surprisingly, the corpse weighed significantly less than he thought it would. A little relieved, he walked to the center of the pentagram.

The next step was to activate the pentagram. Suddenly Efi appeared in front of him.

"I will control the pentagram," she said. "Get ready."

"Okay," Mike replied.

"And don't worry, about your actions. I have evidence in your defense."

"What evidence?" surprised Mike.

Mike wanted to ask about it, but she raised her hand, stopping him.

"You'll find out tomorrow," she said. "That's it. I'm starting the activation."

A few seconds later, the pentagram activated, and Mike transferred.

Captain Eric Shtof noticed the activation of the pentagram immediately and prepared to meet the Colonel. Though he thought the colonel came back somehow early. But he never expected to see Michael de Graaf alive and with the colonel's body on his shoulder. His eyes widened with horror.

Mike found himself back in the hall of his house. The first person he noticed was Eric, with his sword at the ready, standing not far from the pentagram. Doran's body was still lying in Martha's lap, and she was still stroking his hair, sobbing softly.

"What's wrong with the Colonel?" Eric asked in a trembling voice.

"Dead," Mike replied simply.

His answer acted as a trigger for further events. Mike, by this time, had moved his right hand to his side and released the string from the bracelet. Eric, on the other hand, managed to pull out his dagger in addition to his sword. Hearing Mike's words, Eric instinctively threw the dagger at him and then activated his shield to absorb the magical attack. Mike didn't even try to dodge the flying dagger. Even without a body on his shoulder, it was a difficult task at such a short distance. The dagger struck in the area just above his heart. But thanks to the armor there was no penetrating wound, just a slight bruise.

"You killed my father!" Eric managed to shout out and take a step toward Mike as he felt something coiled around his neck.

In the next instant, Eric's shield flashed brightly, but his eyes suddenly went dark.

A surge of magical energy felt everyone a few dozen meters away from Mike's house.

"So that's how it is…," he said as Eric's shield shut down and his head banged against the floor.

Gathering the thread into a bracelet, he walked over to Eric's already dead body and placed Colonel Tirel's body beside it.

"Martha, stay inside and don't come out until I get back," he told the older woman and quickly headed for the front door.

Mike activated his glasses. Immediately the silhouettes of people became visible, and now he saw two people heading toward his door on the street. Presumably Tirel's men. Two more remained standing near the horse-drawn carriage that stood in the street near the entrance.

Mike and the two strangers were near the door at the same time. One of them literally kicked the door in, probably with a spell. Mike was expecting something like that, so he stood a little aside and met the first of them with a short, swift thrust of his sword to the throat. The dead body began to fall backward. And blood began gushing from the hole in its throat. When the second man appeared in the doorway, he and Mike fired simultaneously. The bullet Mike fired punched a finger-sized hole in the man's forehead and blew half of the back of his head off, scattering the bits of his brain on the stairs. The bullet fired at Mike, on the other hand, hit him in the chest without penetration, only causing a new bruise. Only the uniform on his chest suffered, tearing and exposing the armor underneath.

The sound of the gunshot drew extra attention. Everyone on the street turned their heads in its direction. When they saw what had happened, the few people on the street hurried to get the hell out of there.

Tirel's two remaining men froze for a second, not expecting such a situation. This gave Mike time to take a quick look around outside. But the pause was short, and soon the two moved to intercept Mike. One of them drew a revolver, and the other began to weave a spell. Mike activated his shield to absorb magical energy. Soon shield is hit with an air-blade spell. Mike didn't even have to close his eyes. His glasses automatically reduced the brightness of the flashed shield. The bright shield prevented the second one from aiming accurately, and the fired bullet passed next to Mike's head.

Seeing that their attack didn't hurt Mike, one of Tirel's men flinched and ran. The second man fired again. This time it hit him in the torso, in the chest area. When the man saw that his shot had done no harm, he, too, was about to run. Mike had no intention of letting them go alive.

Mike pointed the thread from the bracelet at the man with the revolver and activated the spell at the same time. It coiled around his wrist. Then it burst into flames and cut his wrist off in the next second. The man opened his mouth to scream in pain, and at that moment a gunshot rang out. The bullet Mike fired went through his chest, cutting off his life and scaring the horses with the scraps of its body.

The first man managed to run ten meters away when a string wrapped around his leg. The next second he lost his leg and fell to the ground, screaming and clutching it desperately.

Mike took his time walking up to him and knocked him out with a hard kick to the head.