Chapter 70: True Power of Technology

A black bird flew out from the void. It landed on the branch of a roadside tree, pecked at its wing feathers, and relayed a message to Edward: "Found him." 

After a pause, it added, "I wasn't discovered!" 

"Good." 

Edward pulled out another wand—walnut wood with a phoenix feather core—and tossed it to the black bird. 

The bird clearly hesitated this time. Instead of swallowing it in one gulp like before, it flew up and grabbed it with its claws, voicing its doubt: "Why are you giving me another stick?" 

"I want you to keep watch near that house. If my friends fall into mortal danger, step in and save them." 

The black bird hesitated. "But I sensed a very terrifying guy over there…I can't beat him." 

"You don't need to fight him. Just save people. Once it's done, I'll give you five more!" 

The black bird's eyes lit up and it quickly nodded. 

"Deal!" 

Still worried Edward might go back on his word, it confirmed once again: "Five sticks?!" 

"Correct!" 

Whoosh! The black bird vanished. 

Edward closed his eyes. In his mind, the image transmitted by the black bird gradually became clearer: a dim room…a desk by the window…a man in a black robe…a one-eyed man...

CRACK. 

His figure distorted and disappeared.

———

In a bedroom about five or six hundred meters from the Blackthorn Security Company.

Ince Zangwill sat at a desk behind the window, his pale fingers gripping a quill as he scribbled words onto paper with a rustling sound. 

His body was already riddled with needle-like wounds. Blood dripped from his skin and soaked into his clothes, pooling red on the ground. But he seemed completely numb to the pain. 

"Lanevus realized he was losing himself. Desperately wanting to escape this state, he decided to gamble everything when he learned about the Abraham family's treasure. That was reasonable." 

"...In order to obtain the key to unlock the treasure, he returned to Tingen. But by then, under the influence of divinity, he had already lost his rationality. He had only one thought left: to go to the Nighthawks of Tingen and retrieve the key."

"Edward was killed by a summoned spirit-world creature..."

Crossed out. 

"...He managed to escape, but there was no time to return to the Nighthawks." 

"...Klein sent a call for help via Azik's messenger, but it was intercepted in the spirit world by an old enemy, causing a delay. This was reasonable." 

"...Klein successfully used a charm to block Lanevus, but this only enraged him further." 

"When Lanevus repeated 'the key' over and over, Klein remembered the old key Edward had left him. With no time to think, he replaced a partition door with the Door of Death and threw the key into the room beyond. Lanevus, without hesitation, chased after it." 

"Though the Door of Death was fatal, Lanevus had divine power and resisted death. But even so, he suffered heavy injuries. To truly kill him, Dunn would have to..."

Just as he reached this part, Ince Zangwill's spirituality suddenly trembled. He immediately stepped back, still holding the paper and pen, while all the tables, chairs, and decorations around him came alive, turning into vines that tried to entangle him. 

The mark of the Gate of the Underworld on Ince's forehead glowed. Behind him, a hooded figure appeared, swinging a scythe to sever the vines. 

Ince didn't pause. His fingers twitched rapidly, and with each movement, a spirit appeared, surrounding him in layers. His hawk-like single eye scanned the surroundings.

"Fiendfyre!"

Scorching flames surged outward, engulfing the spirits near Ince—only to be sucked into a suddenly appearing Gate of the Underworld. 

At that moment, Ince finally saw the attacker clearly—a stranger with black hair and red eyes, strikingly handsome. 

Though they had never met, from the way the stranger used powers similar to Edward's, it was clear they belonged to the same "organization".

"Why?! Why do all of you have to keep ruining my plans?! WHY?!" 

Ince stomped fiercely. Spirits surged from the floor, walls, and ceiling, all lunging toward Edward. At the same time, his arm and forearm elongated unnaturally, stretching across the distance as his pale palm clawed at his opponent. 

Even before being touched, Edward felt his body stiffen—his blood seemingly frozen.

"Protego Diabolica!"

Black flames enveloped him. Edward quickly swung his wand, hurling every object nearby toward Ince Zangwill. But none of it got close—everything was torn to shreds by the spirits protecting Ince. 

"Die!"

Ince spat the word with venom. Edward felt as if his heart had been seized in an iron grip, on the verge of exploding. 

CRACK! 

He disapparated just in time, reappearing on the rooftop across the street. Holding his chest, he panted heavily. 

"I came, I saw, I recorded." 

The notebook seized from Christine floated before him, pages flipping rapidly as it tossed out one extraordinary ability after another— 

Even if they were only mid-to-low sequence abilities, what he needed now was raw firepower! 

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!

After unloading everything at once, Edward raised his wand again. 

"Bombarda Maxima"

BOOMMM!!!

This spell consumed nearly all of Edward's spirituality. He had forcefully compressed the explosion and confined it to Ince's room.

Even so, the blast inevitably spread outwards. Nearby buildings collapsed with a thunderous crash, and the small building Ince had been in was completely annihilated—fragments rained down from the sky like scattered ash.

Within the ruins, countless undead spirits layered upon each other, forming a dense wall that shielded Ince Zangwill at the very center.

"Huff...Huff...Huff...So, which is harder to kill—a Sequence 5? Or a Sequence 5 carrying a Grade 0-Sealed Artifact?"

Edward was gasping violently.

"As expected, it's come to this…In that case, let me show you the true power of technology!"

A few portable cassette players suddenly appeared in his hands. His figure flickered several times as he placed the players in a circle around Ince.

Then, as the undead began to disperse, Edward looked up at the sky and drew the symbol of the crimson moon counterclockwise over his chest.

"May the Goddess bless me—conceal my presence, and conceal the nearby residents."

CRACK! 

His figure twisted and vanished.

Just as Ince Zangwill emerged from the dense protection of his undead spirits, he saw Edward disapparate again. Ince's brow furrowed, and he commanded the undead to remain on alert while he swiftly resumed writing in his notebook.

At that very moment, a chorus of voices began chanting loudly in strange tongues—Hermes, Jotun, Elvish, and other mystical languages—

"Leodero!" 

"Leodero!" 

"Leodero! You got the guts to respond to me?" 

"Leodero! Get over here!" 

"Leodero! Your mom's calling you home for dinner!" 

"Leodero! Daddy's home!"

"Leodero! Leodero!..."

These voices came from many different people, yet none of them existed in this world. 

Had Audrey been present, she would have recognized them all—Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, the Weasley twins, Cedric Diggory, and more.

A terrifying pressure descended from all directions. Ince's expression changed dramatically.

The next second—

BOOM! BOOM!! BOOM!!!

Hundreds—no, thousands—of thick silver-white lightning bolts rained down from the sky, transforming the area into a forest of thunder, radiating a terrifying aura of destruction.

Within moments, the cassette players were vaporized into powder by the lightning. Having lost their intended targets, the bolts redirected themselves toward the only remaining person on site—Ince Zangwill.

With a world-shattering roar, the thunderbolts fell.

RUMBLE!!!

The sky lit up several times brighter than before. Those hundreds and thousands of lightning bolts spread like a spider's web, illuminating all of Tingen in a brilliant glow.

——

Moments later, as the lightning storm faded, Edward reappeared.

After the tempest of divine wrath had passed, the streets and surrounding ground looked as though they had been plowed—charred black and utterly devastated. Thankfully, it seemed the most lightning strikes deliberately avoided the residential building, most likely due to the Goddess concealing them from the wrath of the Lord of Storms.

"...Tsk. No corpse. He escaped, huh? As expected of a Grade 0-Sealed Artifact—truly useful." 

A cold glint flashed in Edward's eyes. 

"But you dodged it once…think you can dodge it again?"

———

[Outside of Tingen City]

With a ripple in space, Ince Zangwill stumbled out of the spirit world, his body covered in severe burn wounds. His clothes stuck to his scorched flesh, matted with blood. He looked utterly drained, clearly suffering from grave injuries.

His hand clutched the quill pen tightly, and his lone hawk-like eye was filled with madness and rage. 

"No! No!! Why is there always someone ruining my plans?! Why?!"

He lowered his head to look at the notebook. The topmost line now read:

"Just before the lightning descended, a spirit-world creature with a favorable impression of Ince Zangwill happened to pass by and carried him through the spirit world, enabling his escape."

Gripping the quill with bloodied hands, Ince endured the pain wracking his entire body and began to write again. Compared to before, his handwriting was clearly more erratic and distorted:

"Due to an unknown and inexplicable cause, a meteor shower arrived thirty days earlier than expected, and most of them..."

Clink. 

At that moment, he suddenly heard a sound—a small object falling to the ground. He turned his head and saw a strange box he had never seen before.

Square in shape, with several buttons on one side, the 'box' contained a rotating gear-like mechanism inside that made a faint clicking sound.

Smash! 

Without hesitation, Ince stomped on it, shattering it underfoot. But in the next moment, he noticed a fine needle embedded in his clothing rapidly shifting form—within the blink of an eye, it transformed into another identical 'box' and fell to the ground.

Then came a third. 

A fourth. 

A fifth...

Ince's pupils shrank abruptly. He immediately crossed out the last sentence he had written and frantically scribbled:

"That spirit-world creature with a favorable impression of Ince Zangwill passed by again…"

"Leodero!" 

"Leodero!" 

"Leodero!" 

"Leodero! Get over here!"

RUMBLEEEEEE!!!

Thunder fell from the heavens once more.

As a slender spirit-world hand reached out, grabbing Ince Zangwill's right wrist in an attempt to drag him back into the spirit world, a lightning bolt struck down with perfect timing—severing his hand at the root.

The quill pen he held fell away, and Ince plunged into the depths of the spirit world in utter despair.

———

[Backlund]

Suddenly, space rippled. The colors of the surroundings became strangely vivid as a long, slender finger stretched out from the spirit world and casually tossed the quill away.

The feathered pen spun gently through the air and fell to the ground, where it lay quietly, utterly unremarkable. People passed by all around, yet none took notice of it.

Until—

A woman's hand reached down and picked it up.

"Huh? A feather quill? People still use these these days?"

———

[Note]: Don't forget to VOTE. It keeps me motivated.