The Sharp Bastards
The lodging the city had arranged for them was the largest inn in Pribil.
The front door was locked, of course.
Bang!
After letting themselves in with a courteous knock, they announced the mayor's name and their identities to the innkeeper who came bolting out in a panic — and found themselves welcomed with open arms.
After all, the Mukwol Squad had come to solve the city's problems.
They stabled their horses, dumped their bags upstairs without much ceremony, changed out of their soaked clothes, and gathered again in the first-floor dining room.
Leon, Riel, Aria, and Fenril took seats around a single table. Bowls of carrot stew, still steaming, were set before each of them.
No one reached for a spoon.
"Aria."
Leon spoke her name quietly.
"Yes."
Aria spread open the map of Pribil she had brought from city hall — the one marked with red dots at every victim's location. From the dimensional storage pouch inside her robe, she drew a pen. She set a finger against it and channeled mana; the ink shifted, curiously, to a vivid red.
Ssshk— saaah—
Her hand moved at once, tracing lines across the map. Clean, elegant curves and straights — not a single stroke wavered or went astray.
"What's she doin'?"
Fenril's eyes went round. Leon scowled and waved him off — sit still and wait.
Ssshk— shiiik—
The lines and shapes unfurled by connecting the red dots. Points that had seemed scattered without order were joined and touched at her fingertips, and little by little a pattern began to emerge — a rule, a structure.
Ssshk—
It did not take long before Aria's hand stilled. A red circle filled with geometric sigils lay revealed on the paper.
Leon brushed his fingertips across his mouth.
"This is… don't tell me."
"Yes."
Aria nodded.
"A large-scale magic circle. One targeting the whole of Pribil."
"Huh."
Leon let out a short, humorless laugh and stuck a cigarette between his lips.
"The mediums are blood, life — and fear."
"Fear?"
"Yes. Fear is effectively the most important component."
"Hmm."
Leon's brow tipped slightly.
Fear. An emotion any living thing could feel — and one with no clear physical form. Could something that vague really serve as a medium for magic?
"We'll set that aside for now. So what's the circle actually do?"
Riel and Fenril both leaned in, equally curious. Aria's red lips parted, precise and cool.
"The moment this circle activates, every person within range who has been steeped in fear is identified as a target. In this case, that would mean every resident of Pribil."
"…"
An ominous opening. But she pressed on as if the next part mattered more.
"And once marked, their souls are all extracted…"
"…!"
"…and offered up as sacrifices."
Hooo—
A thin ribbon of white smoke curled upward.
"Thousands of souls, all at once — drained dry?"
Leon was less shocked by the horror of it than impressed.
That's incredible. How the hell did they even build something like that?
He was more taken with the fact that the Demon Realm's lot could pull it off. Extracting a soul whole enough to offer as a sacrifice was far harder than simply killing someone. Truly remarkable craftsmanship.
He took another drag and asked Aria — using a mana message, a technique also called telepathic speech, sending the words straight into her mind. He still didn't trust Riel or Fenril in the slightest. Why bare everything just because they'd shared a few hours of work?
— You saw that in the Manmarok too?
Aria nodded as she answered.
— Yes. Mazias likely researched and created it himself. I estimate it was completed relatively recently.
Hmm.
A brand-new technique and magic circle Mazias had finished just before his death — and the Gonghyeol Group here was using it?
"…"
A question mark floated over Leon's head. What the hell were these people? Had Mazias gone around bragging about it in a fit of excitement? Was that why everyone on the Demon Realm side already knew?
The doubt was still swelling when Hera appeared.
Blood on her face, as usual. A faint gleam lingered in her eyes.
"Done talking already?"
"Not yet. What did they have to say?"
Scrape—
Leon pulled out the chair beside him as he asked.
"Hmm, thanks?"
Hera smiled sweetly as she sat.
"Well, the usual. Family taken hostage, threats, they only did as they were told…"
"Trite. And what exactly did the Gonghyeol Group order them to do?"
Hera leisurely recounted the interrogation — everything she had learned from their conversation. That the officials had been in contact with the Gonghyeol Group and receiving orders. That they had controlled and agitated the citizens to keep them trapped inside the city. That they had deliberately sent the Forest Owls mercenary company into the woods. That under the pretext of there being nowhere to post a request, they had refused to hire reinforcements despite having the funds.
Leon nodded once. The pieces were starting to fit.
"They need every soul in this place, so of course they'd fight tooth and nail to keep the citizens from leaving."
"Hmm? Souls? What's that about?"
Leon quickly repeated Aria's explanation for Hera.
"Ahh. So that's why…"
Hera's smile deepened.
"But what are the sacrificed souls used for?"
"…I don't know that far. But it would have to be something worth thousands of human souls."
Pribil's population was roughly three thousand. Whatever required that many souls was not going to be trivial.
"Anyway, Aria. I think I know what you're getting at."
Leon reached out and tapped several spots on the map — places where the lines broke off unnaturally.
"The circle still has gaps that need filling before it's complete, right?"
"Exactly. But not many. Finish the work at just five more sites and it will be done."
Aria drew five circles with her pen.
"And by 'work' you mean…?"
"Killing people through a specific process and method. The cruelty of their methods wasn't only about generating fear."
"What, they gotta drain every drop of blood or something?"
Fenril cut in abruptly.
"Can't we just clear the residents outta these spots?"
Leon shook his head.
"It doesn't have to be people who live here, does it? Kidnap someone from elsewhere, drag in hostages they already have — as long as the killing happens inside the circle, it counts. And these lunatics might just start carving each other up if they have to."
"Correct. And it's already too late to drag every hidden resident out for evacuation. That would only sow more chaos."
Everyone accepted that. Then Riel spoke.
"Will we need additional support?"
The lives of an entire city hung in the balance. The situation was more serious than any of them had first assumed.
"Well…"
It was evening, and outside a violent storm of rain and thunder was still raging. Leon couldn't easily think of anyone who would ignore the hour and the weather and still arrive in time.
"Whether we need them or not is secondary. Is there even anyone who could get here that fast?"
"What about using the city guard stationed at city hall?"
It was Hera who dismissed the suggestion.
"Ah, those cumbersome, tiresome dead weights. Better to just loose a few dogs."
They could force the soldiers out by sheer strength if they wanted to. But what use were troops already half-paralyzed with fear? Hard to control, useless in a fight — the moment they met the enemy, the only thing that would multiply was corpses.
And as Leon saw it, their own strength wasn't seriously lacking. Whatever the Gonghyeol Group amounted to, they had Hera — a Master — on their side. And if something truly absurd happened, if things got so bad their lives hung by a thread, there was always the last resort of snapping the brooch.
Satisfied, Riel summarized the situation.
"Then we move quickly. Divide into five teams and stay in contact via communicators."
Leon flicked away the shortened butt of his cigarette.
"Let's do that. Aria and I take one team, unnie goes alone, and we split the rest into three."
Divided by combat strength, that was the right call. The group nodded. In moments they had sorted their numbers and begun to scatter into the rainy night.
Roughly ten hours later.
"Tsk."
Leon clicked his tongue and shoved back his hood in irritation. The rain, weakened to a thin drizzle, tapped against his face.
"At this point, I figure they're not coming tonight."
From the previous evening through to the hour when dawn should have broken, they had kept watch and held the perimeter across all five districts of Pribil. And yet the Gonghyeol Group — who had been snatching and murdering people every single day — had gone suddenly quiet.
Obviously because of Leon's party. It was hard to believe the cultists had sensed their presence at the ambush sites themselves. More likely the mere fact that the group had entered the city had been enough to freeze all activity.
"Didn't expect them to be this spineless."
Hera had drifted over at some point, tongue flicking across her lips.
"Little brother, what do you want to do? Shall we go check what's in the forest?"
"Tempting, but…"
Leon's gaze shifted to Aria.
"Aria, how are you coming along? Think it's doable?"
She opened her eyes. She had been sitting in formal meditation through the night, developing a formula to dismantle the magic circle — devising, on the spot, a counter-formula for a high-dimensional large-scale array. Alone. As a four-circle mage.
It was, frankly, absurd. And yet—
"Yes. I think it's possible."
The top student of Elprime's magic department, a once-in-a-generation genius, had found a way.
"But I need a little more time. I should have it before tomorrow morning."
Fast enough. Leon shrugged at Hera.
"You heard her. Not even two days. Let's sit tight until then. They might show the second we leave."
"Hmm. Fair enough."
And so Leon's party chose to wait.
But Aria never got the chance to use her counter-formula.
"Ah, fuck. These sharp bastards."
The assault began the following night.