Too late? Too late for what?
Did he an that if Xiao Lü was stolen and not recovered imdiately, «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» she would be lost forever? Or did he an sothing else entirely...?
One question gave birth to countless more. Vieya’s mind was drowning in them, and even trying to sort out a single thread felt unbearably difficult.
She looked toward the cleric, intending to ask him for details. But the words reached her lips and instead turned into a sharp—
“—Watch out!”
The cleric whipped around. A figure lunged at him, tackling him down—shhk!—the dagger pierced into his body.
At the sa instant, the cleric swung the thick bound prayer-book in his hand, smashing the attacker and sending him flying.
He pulled the dagger out of his torso, twisted his head toward Vieya, and snarled through clenched teeth, “Don’t mind . Go find the Artifact Spirit! Their target is the man-made Demon God project sealed deep in the Artifact Spirit’s mory!”
As one of the very few survivors of that experint years ago, he imdiately understood that they had been deceived. Whether the enemy was disguised as a Royal Capital special envoy or truly was one... none of it mattered.
Only one solution existed: find the Artifact Spirit—or kill the mastermind behind all of this.
Vieya understood that as well.
She turned at once and sprinted along the rembered path toward where Xiao Lü’s main body was stored.
But—
Passing by the guest hall, she glanced instinctively toward the place where she had been drinking tea monts ago.
Aurora was still sitting there, holding her teacup, head lowered and silent. The chaos raging through the building did not touch her—there was a strange distance around her, as if she existed in a different layer of reality.
“Aurora!”
The girl with the green ponytail lifted her head slightly, looking at Vieya. No movent. No expression. Just quietly watching.
In her empty pupils lay endless sorrow, pressing toward Vieya like a deep ocean.
Their gazes t—ti froze. The chaos, the screaming people all faded out, solidifying into a still backdrop behind them.
Tap.
Vieya stepped, changed direction, and rushed toward Aurora. At that exact instant, sound and motion snapped back—chaos roaring around them once more.
But—
The girl who had been sitting on the sofa just seconds ago vanished without a trace, like a phantom dissolving into air.
Vieya rushed forward and crouched down. The sofa was perfectly smooth, without so much as a dent. She touched it. No warmth remained.
Her confusion only deepened.
Was it an illusion?
From the mont she entered the lounge—was the tea, the conversation, all of it an illusion?
No. Absolutely not. The Mirage Beast was still inside her stomach. It disliked helping, but its life and hers were tied together; if Vieya died, it would also suffer. It would have warned her if sothing abnormal was happening.
It hadn’t.
Which ant Aurora had been real—both before and just now.
But now she had simply disappeared.
Vieya looked around blankly, then suddenly noticed sothing horrifying: every collapsed, unconscious person had one—or multiple—flies clinging to their bodies.
Flies. The kind associated with rot.
She tore her gaze away, pushing her thoughts of Aurora and Xiao Lü to equal priority.
She turned and continued running.
The closer she got to the chamber where Xiao Lü’s main body was kept, the fewer people she saw. And, correspondingly, fewer flies.
By the last stretch—no people, no flies at all.
She arrived.
The alloy door was wide open. Vieya rushed in, shouting—
“Xiao Lü!”
But the room was empty. No reply. Even the lights—normally always on—were dead, leaving only darkness.
The worst case had happened: Xiao Lü was gone.
But this place was sealed, with only a single entrance—the one Vieya had used. And she had seen no suspicious person on the way.
Where had the thief escaped? Why steal Xiao Lü? Why had Aurora vanished?
And maybe—maybe she shouldn’t have forced Aurora away back then, hiding her identity. She could have afforded to keep one more mouth around...
Vieya flicked on the lights, scanning the large chamber.
The storage room was wide, empty—nothing extra. Not even furniture.
But the walls were lined with connector ports—Xiao Lü’s routes for accessing and influencing the outside world.
Now all of those ports were covered in flies. Dense, writhing, like a heaving black sphere.
And the enormous circular transparent glass capsule—the protective shell for Xiao Lü’s erald core—was intact. No damage at all. Only the erald inside was gone.
This ant Xiao Lü had unlocked it herself—voluntarily. Then had been seized instantly, without a single mont to send a distress alert.
The more Vieya discovered, the more questions multiplied.
She wanted to be Sherlock Hols, finding clues, identifying the culprit. But reality was that she was just a sli with limited ntal bandwidth.
Her investigation hit a dead end. The search ended without result.
Helpless, she turned to the barely-mastered tracking spell she’d been practicing.
Ever since solving her student’s disappearance case last ti, she had begun studying these highly practical “find person, find item” spells.
The sli girl spat out a gold coin, held it in her palms, and whispered incantations. When the coin glowed, she tossed it hard into the air.
Clink.
The coin landed, spinning furiously.
“Tell —Is Xiao Lü still inside the Tribunal?”
Clatter.
Tails. aning Xiao Lü was no longer in the Tribunal.
Vieya picked it up, repeating the spell, tossing again.
“Tell —Is Xiao Lü still within Talin City?”
Clatter.
This ti, heads.
“So the culprit hasn’t had ti to get her out of the city—or intends to use her for sothing within the city.”
Vieya nodded to herself and tossed the coin once more.
“Tell —Is the culprit’s target the entire city?”
Clatter—
The coin stood upright.
Vieya frowned deeply. She tried multiple angles, multiple questions. Each ti the coin remained standing.
No answer—but enough for a chilling guess.
Searching inside the Tribunal would accomplish nothing. She needed to get out.
She turned, letting her gaze sweep over the room one last ti—only to suddenly freeze on the capsule.
A fly.
A huge fly—nearly half a ter long—hovered inside the glass shell. The bristles on its body were clearly visible. Its wings buzzed softly, its giant compound eyes quietly observing.
That feeling again. Being watched.
Just like back on Mount Aisa, when those bird-beast-trees monitored everything. But this ti was even more blatant.
Every move she made was being recorded by the fly’s eyes—sent who-knew-where across the land.
Bzzz...
The massive fly stared at Vieya from behind the glass, mocking, provoking, disdainful.
Already irritated, Vieya’s patience snapped. She raised her hand and pointed.
Power of Authority No. 12 gathered at her fingertips. Normally used for a “Holander eye-beam cosplay”—the 【Cut】 light. But this ti she directed it through her finger.
A faint golden beam pierced the thick glass in an instant, skewering the fly.
Her finger sliced downward.
The fly split in half.
“re vermin.”
Vieya lowered her hand and left the room.
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