Chapter 105

Gray poked the carcass of the fallen lizard hybrid, the blood dried and crusted into brown stains on the grass and dirt. Side-stepping the brown patches, El-Melloi knelt and placed his gloved hand against its hide.

The body was cold to the touch, the winter night it had gone through freezing it and preserving the flesh so it didn't fall apart. Even so, parts of its body had disappeared, namely the sensory organs such as the eyes. When Kirei had broken it, they had gone up in black flames, turning into smoke and vanishing. It wasn't clearly visible, but most of what could pass as internal organs for the monster were gone as well, leaving a husk of bone and flesh. Only the rigid muscles prevented the body from collapsing like a deflated balloon, the flesh frozen stiff. Reaching into his pocket, he took out a small wooden box and opened it, withdrawing a pinch of powder that he scattered over the chest of the beast.

The powder changed color once it settled on the body, going from blue to red.

"Looks like it was killed at most a day ago, judging by the condition of the corpse and it's stiffness. There are still traces of the necromancy Kairi used in its body, so it's relatively fresh. Did you find anything, Gray?"

Gray nodded.

"There were some horse hoofprints around the area, around that area near where the trail ends."

She pointed to the far end of the furrow in the ground that ran through Kairi's camp.

"Not just there, but around the area where the big patch of blood was as well."

Assassin chipped in, giving her own observations as well.

Further away, Flat leaned against a tree, placing his right palm against his chest.

"Play Ball."

Closing his eyes, he opened his ears and listened.

Or rather, he opened his mind. There were no other magi who could do what he did, and in magical detection he was peerless. The best way to describe it was that he could perceive magical energy the same way a normal person would use their eyes to see things, or their ears to listen. It was completely natural to him, as effortless as breathing, like he was supposed to be able to do it from the day he was born. But such talent was most definitely unnatural, a result of the long dream passed down in his family.

Threads of energy hung in the air, various colors staining the threads, with different thickness and shape to them all. Sounds drifted into the ear, some honeysweet like a perfectly tuned violin serenading in the night, some as harsh as screeching fingernails scratching against a chalkboard. Myriad smells drifted into his nose, a banquet of all cuisines from the East to the West. The description didn't do justice to what he perceived, and he would be unable to describe the world he could 'see', but suffice to say it was an amazing and bizarre place.

Within the mess of strands, colors, sounds and smell, he could spot something that seemed to be out of place among them. It didn't really look out of place honestly, since the whole thing was just a riot of colors, but he had a gut feeling that it wasn't supposed to be there. Reaching out with his hand, he grasped the thin thread, slimmer than the hairs on his head.

If Gray or El-Melloi had turned around to look at him, they would've seen him close his eyes, then reach out and grip the air.

He managed to get a hold of it, and slowly followed the thread to one of its ends. It twisted around, going back and forth, then terminating at the stump of a tree, which Flat walked right into.

If Zouken had been watching, he would have been perturbed by how Flat had just replicated his entire walking path from manifesting his body, stealing Kairi's corpse and then disappearing again.

Kneeling, Flat opened his eyes and dispelled his magical senses, staring at the dirt and the darkness below the tree trunk.

Yep, there's definitely something there.

Carelessly, he dug into the space between the roots and dirt to find the source. His hands closed around a slimy ball, buried in the darkness.

"Yosh!"

With a tug, he pulled it free from the dirt, the ball firmly encased in his hands. Opening his hands, the source of the energy trail he followed earlier was linked to this. A grub of a worm, a pale green that dripped with slimy liquid, curled up into a ball. Disturbingly, it looked like a certain organ from the male human body. A slender tail stretched from what seemed to be the bottom, wrapping around the ball it made as well.

Flat ignored the implied shape and went to work fiddling with it.

"Alright, let's see. A little bit here, then move this, release that…"

Just like that, he was able to hack into the thread of mana connecting the familiar to it's master, Matou Zouken.

Zouken paused on his way to the Ryuudou Temple. Sensing something wrong, he checked the connection to the familiar he had left at Kairi's campsite to survey the area if anyone went there.

"Ah right, should probably hide this."

Waving his hands around several times in an exaggerated manner, he disguised his work. The hand waving was purely optional as well, not really doing anything to help his magecraft function at all.

Zouken scrutinized the world through his familiar, the insect becoming his eyes and ears.

In front of Flat's eyes, the worm uncurled itself and mewled on the ground, seemingly looking left and right.

"Looks pretty cool , like a small-fry game mob."

That was Flat's honest opinion as he stared at it, looked around, then it curled back into a ball again, entering an inert state.

Must've been an animal. Zouken withdrew his consciousness from the worm and continued to Ryuudou Temple.

Flat smiled at when the worm didn't react to his presence.

"Guess it worked!"

Then he bent down and continued to 'hack' the stream, gaining a rough understanding of what Zouken was and where he was, while keeping his presence and actions hidden from the old man.

Just like that, he easily grasped the secret to his immortality and how to defeat it, all in an hour's work. Though he'd most likely forgot about it in a month. He had never been able to do the same spell twice in a row, with his magecraft so wildly inconsistent, yet strangely reliable as well.

In the process, he also found out that several were located in their very own mansion, and when he hacked into their senses, he found a very alarming scenery, instead of the usual mansion that he expected.

"Teach! We gotta head back to the mansion right now!"

Hearing the tone he was using, El-Melloi knew that Flat wasn't lying. In the past, Flat's actions had always turned out for the better, and he knew to trust his instincts. The three of them plus Assassin headed for the car, driving through the mountains back to the city.