The Point of No Return
In the midst of the continued ambush, the man could not even scream.
A violet radiance sealed off his eyes, nose, and mouth. His veins bulged like earthworms on the verge of bursting, and his entire body twisted into a deep shade of purple. Poison.
.
Even so, Solomon’s work was not finished. At the last moment, a shadow that mimicked his strike surged upward and drove in the third ambush.
For the third and final time, the shadow blade swung. Resistance was no longer possible. The man’s body was shredded apart, exploding outward in a shower of blood that painted the mansion corridor crimson.
A top-grade invisibility potion paired with a poison of matching lethality. In essence, he had yanked forward the future of the power build he had envisioned in his head.
“Kya, you really drilled a clean hole through him.”
“Hoo.”
“Whoa, from now on I’d better watch my back around you, bro. You’re straight-up a wizard who punches knife holes in people. Wait, now that I think about it, you are a wizard, aren’t you?”
“……”
Ignoring the fairy’s nonsense, Solomon steadied his ragged breathing. His heart hammered as if it would explode. And that was when it happened.
“!”
The moment the narrator’s voice continued, Solomon’s heart nearly stopped dead.
Fuck. Scaring the shit out of me.
Solomon swallowed the curse and thought. He had sprayed spectacular fountains of blood in every direction; there was no way to cover it up if anyone saw this.
No matter how much an assassination required zero witnesses, “assassination” was no longer a viable option for Solomon after this. It would never end.
Can’t drag this out.
In the end there was only one thing left to do. Without hesitation, Solomon left the corpse behind and opened the door.
He didn’t forget to down one more invisibility potion beforehand.
From Solomon at the center all the way to the bloodstains layered over him, everything once again lost its shape and melted into the empty air.
Three bottles left.
In that state he opened the door behind the corpse—the place where, with high probability, his retrieval target would be.
Creeeeak.
With the groan of old wood, the door swung open. What waited beyond was not the mansion’s antique interior… but rather a damp, dark scene that resembled the underground prison of an ancient castle.
Between stone walls saturated with moisture instead of wood, rows of iron bars formed cells. They stretched quite deep.
The man was imprisoned there.
A bluish, floating stereotypical spirit—just like the magician who had become dog food and died earlier.
It was not the appearance of the corpse collector Solomon knew. This looked like a fairly ordinary person. The reason was easy to guess. No matter how many human torsos or limbs had been crudely stitched onto his past self, that could not possibly be how the soul had looked from birth.
Even so, the face clearly bore the traces of the corpse collector Solomon remembered. Surprisingly scholarly.
— HUUUUUAAAAGH!!
At that moment, Dr. O’Neil’s soul let out a wail. Could he see this side? Solomon’s heart plummeted.
— It hurts, it itches, it itches, my body itcheeees…! Fly eggs, the fly eggs are…!
No. Dr. O’Neil was not looking at Solomon. He trembled like a madman terrified of hallucinations. Perhaps he was still suffering the trauma from when he had fallen into hell.
This place was Ghosttown, and the mention of hell made it clear: in this world, death was not the end. The death of the body was only the beginning.
How the hell am I supposed to retrieve that guy?
He had been told to retrieve the soul, yet what exactly did “retrieve” mean here? The man did not look like he would obediently follow. Nor could Solomon beat him into submission and drag him away.
When soul retrieval is unavoidable, bring back the brain tissue responsible for memory storage.
Solomon looked around. Yet nowhere could he see O’Neil’s corpse or anything that could be called a brain. Nothing but the terrified, trembling soul before him.
“What are you dawdling for? You’re making this fairy impatient as hell.”
Oberon, perched on Solomon’s shoulder, spoke up. Before Solomon could panic and respond, the fairy fluttered his wings and flew forward.
“Hey, you. Sinful bastard.”
— Hiiik!
“No…!”
Just as Solomon was about to spit a double curse, the fairy spoke first.
“We’ll take responsibility and bust you out of here. So shut your fucking mouth and follow us, yeah?”
— Hiiik! W-who the hell are you!
“Let’s just say I’m the motherfucker the Haunting family fucking despises. Why, you don’t wanna escape? Then stay put.”
— Y-you’ll really get me out of here?!
“Yeah. Only if you bounce from here can we screw those bastards over.”
At Oberon’s words, Dr. O’Neil nodded more obediently than expected.
— P-please! I’m begging you, please get me out!! I-I really don’t know anything! I swear I don’t know! What the City Council bastards did to that woman on Raspberry Street…!
“Good. We have one request too. Shut your trap and just follow.”
More compliant than expected. Solomon swallowed his words in disbelief. He soon realized.
Right. He can’t see my face because of the invisibility spell.
All things considered, it was better for Solomon to stay quiet. There was no benefit in revealing that he was the one who had handed the man a one-way ticket to hell.
So Solomon moved forward carefully without a word. He could not hide Dr. O’Neil’s soul right now. Moreover, it was impossible to conceal the catastrophe that had already unfolded here.
In the end, the fact that an intruder had entered was destined to come to light whether they liked it or not.
Only one thing remained.
To leave this mansion without looking back.