Chapter 46

“Wait! Don’t hurt him!”

It was a higher pitched voice, belonging to a woman. I didn’t recognize it and I turned to look over my shoulder. Theseus seemed equally puzzled by the sudden cry as he leaned over, groaned, and narrowed his eyebrows. An Apostle was running up to us, somehow having avoided Tsuki’s onslaught. She didn’t have her hood up, her face visible and not hidden by shadows. She also held her hands up, showing that she was conjuring no spells and had no weapons.

“Hikari?” Theseus gasped out as more blood spilled from his mouth. “What are you doing?”

The Apostle ran over to us, and she dropped to her knees and begged me to not kill him and to spare him. She looked up at me and seeing her face made me recoil slightly. She had a deep and thick X-shaped burn across her entire face that looked like it was done recently. Her skin was ghostly pale, and she had dark bags under her eyes.

“You want me to spare him? Why should I?”

In truth, I was already going to spare him. He was going to be patched up and knocked out to be handed over to the agency, but this Secular peon didn’t need to know. Hikari prostrated herself as she continued to beg.

“Please, don’t hurt him anymore. I can give you anything.”

“Hikari, don’t... I lost, this is how these things go.”

“Anything? As in information?” I said, taking my shot at her knowing something about where the Elder and main Japan compound is located.

“I know more than any other Apostle. I’ve reported to the Elder personally on many occasions.” Hikari looked up at me and fear welled in her eyes. But it wasn’t a fear of me. “I’ll trade you whatever it is you want to know if you let him live.”

I looked between the two and then down the street toward Tsuki, who had finished killing the last of the Apostles. She was surrounded by a mountain of corpses and was walking through puddles of blood. It was astonishing to see the number of Apostles the Secular apparently had to use as fodder in the Japan region. I knew we needed to move soon as they could use that necromancy magic once again. And with the number of corpses, I don’t think even Abyss could take them all out.

“Will you be willing to come with us while we negotiate?” I finally said to the scarred girl.

“Yes, I promise. You can even put rhenium chains on us if you wish.”

I just smiled at her. “Only he will need the chains. I believe you.”

***

Hours later, we were back at our safe house. Theseus was unconscious, but we had used minor healing magic to stop the flow of blood, and Marie stitched up his wound. Healing magic was still a large unknown, and most mages didn’t bother training or studying it as it used an incredible amount of mana, and most mages didn’t have the natural capacity to use even the most basic of spells. I only managed to use a spell thanks to Ichiro for having made one on a whim when he got bored years ago. We had both his arms clasped in rhenium chains, and he was bound to a bed. Hikari, however, was free and sitting with us. She was no longer wearing her robe, wearing a simple white T-shirt that Tsuki gave her and shorts. Both of which were too small as Hikari was considerable taller than Tsuki and Marie refused to share her clothes. She didn’t seem to mind as she seemed content in knowing that Theseus was safe and alive.

“So, Hikari, why are you willingly giving us this information?” Marie asked after handing her a cup of tea. “Oh, don’t worry, it’s not poisoned.

Hikari was about to sip the tea but second guessed it after Marie’s comment. She put the cup down and clasped her hands in her lap.

“It’s in exchange for Theseus’ life. I’d give and do anything for him.” She said, a small blush filling her cheeks.

“We weren’t going to kill him, though.” Marie said as she sipped her tea.

I shot her a glare, trying to silently tell her that we didn’t need to say that, but Marie just shrugged me off.

“Oh. I figured. Thought I would play along with you keeping that from me.” Hikari said, lowering her gaze.

“You realized I wasn’t going to kill him? Then why act and beg like I was?” I asked her, genuinely confused by her play.

“I watched the fight between you two. Despite how strong Theseus was, I can tell you are much stronger. I know you are. You weren’t fighting him with killing him as your goal. You were always looking for ways to incapacitate him.” Hikari said with confidence in her voice. “But I also thought that if I pleaded with you to save him, you’d take us both away from there and I could give you the information I wanted to give you anyway.”

“Very cunning. Are you like Ichiro and Tsuki, can you see mages mana?” I asked, intrigued by the girl.

“No. You just look like him. So, I knew.” Hikari said as if she was speaking common knowledge.

“Him? Who are you talking about?” My eyes widened and a cold sweat drenched my forehead. Deep inside, I already knew who she meant. I knew what she was implying. But I needed to hear it. For it to be confirmed.

“The Elder. You have the same face as Kirin.” Hikari said, her face was filled with determination. “I wanted to tell you where he is. So, you can kill him and free me and Theseus.”

I clenched my jaw and grinded my teeth. This was serendipitous. Finding this Apostle that was also looking for us so she could tell us what we were hunting the Bishop for. And best of all, I could tell she wasn’t hiding anything or lying. But at the same time, my stomach dropped. The other me, the one born into this world, not created, was an Elder.

“Hey, Hikari, who is this Theseus guy to you anyway?” Tsuki spoke out, breaking the silence.

Hikari blushed hard and placed her hands on her cheeks as she looked over at the sleeping man. “Oh, him? Well, he’s... my lover.”

“Called it.” Tsuki said, hitting Ichiro in the arm. Ichiro reached into his pocket and pulled out an indiscriminent amount of yen and handed it to her.

“I was guessing brother.” Ichiro said, but then he suddenly sat up. “Wait, is he your brother, too?”

“No way! Right?” Tsuki said with a scoff.

Hikari just smiled at them, her blush deepened.

“No way? R-right?” Tsuki repeated herself, unsure in her words.

“No, he’s not.” Hikari finally said. Tsuki and Marie both let out a sigh.

I snapped back to reality and shook my head, focusing my gaze on Hikari. She must have felt my glare on her as she snapped her head over to look at me. She gulped as she stared at me, sensing I was about to ask something. But just then, the door to our safe house opened and Tsuki, Marie and I all jumped up into a combat stance, Tsuki and me both conjuring katana manifestations.

“Hey, don’t copy me! I only let you copy it to use in desperate times!” Tsuki yelled at me.

Through the door walked in a man and a woman, both dressed in a black suit with blue dress shirts underneath. They were from the agency. We contacted them the moment we got home and told them the situation. The three of us relaxed and sat back down.

“Hikari, these people are from the agency. They’re going to ask you some questions.”