Nastion wanted to touch his forehead.
To be precise, his limbs—including the brain—held little significance. He primarily took on human form, but his essence was that of a shadow. His body was an amorphous entity unbound by shape.
It had been far too long since he transcended the typical format of having two arms, two legs, and one head.
But right now, Nastion felt a headache in his nonexistent brain.
“…”
He knew that ever since the ancient times, after the ten traitors committed unspeakable sins, the spirit of the Ten Towers had been endlessly corrupted.
But how could it come to this?
Nastion himself had sacrificed several allies to ensnare the entire Hydra Corporation. So how did only Hydra manage to slip away every time?
‘No matter how much Hydra bribed Panoptes, this level of revelation cannot be ignored.’
It was clear that Orthes was connected to the Divine Cult. Otherwise, how could the hunters from the Divine Cult have been dispatched to Algoth City immediately after the mental biological entity clashed with Orthes?
It was impossible to conduct dealings with an entity as powerful as the Divine Cult in complete secrecy. There must have been traces of the cult—whether relics or something else—left somewhere within Hydra.
Or perhaps even within Orthes himself.
According to the executives of Argyrion, Orthes was cunning and sinister, adept at manipulating others rather than getting his hands dirty himself. He preferred to harm others using other people’s magical staves through a method known as ‘borrowing the staff to kill.’
Those who were so treacherous tended to keep their most important secrets hidden. If Orthes were captured and interrogated, there must be some clues that would surface.
However,
Despite the numerous reports pouring in, Orthes had not been harmed by Panoptes in the slightest.
Rather, the Panoptes gathering in Algoth City began to move to root out “the reactionaries tarnishing the purpose of the holy Mage Tower Master’s decision with false information.”
The pursuers of the biological entity had merely switched from the Divine Cult to Panoptes, but the fact that they were being tracked remained unchanged.
While it was easier to evade than when the Divine Cult was directly pursuing them, there had been multiple times when they came shockingly close to his hidden sanctuary.
When coincidence occurs repeatedly, it becomes inevitability. Nastion assumed that Orthes had figured out his location and was leaking information to Panoptes.
But one question lingered.
‘Surely my existence was not known to the Divine Cult while they were tracking the biological entity. How did they come to know of me?’
*
“Senpai, please tell me. What exactly are we chasing?”
Niobe, diligently shoveling away—well, more like using her staff or engaging in mental labor—for the fireproofing operation near Algoth City, seemed to struggle to understand why she was summoned here.
“Um, I believe I mentioned before that I’m borrowing the face of a friend named Orthes from Hydra Corporation.”
Niobe nodded. It wasn’t a lie. This face was indeed different from my real one in the real world.
“The thing is, it’s a bit complicated. During a certain job, I ended up killing the original owner of this identity, and since the identity proved useful, I’m using it as my own.”
“So… You’re saying that L13 is using Orthes’ identity for identity laundering?”
More accurately, L13 was laundering Orthes’ identity, but in the grand scheme of things, it was the same. I nodded.
Although Niobe was technically older than Kine, from my perspective, they were both equally inexperienced. Niobe had more societal experience than Kine but, given the current situation, I could easily come up with an excuse to deceive this budding newcomer.
“After all, don’t superstition followers usually act like it’s not a big deal if they can make use of relics? I’ve also used some illicit means to track down Argyrion.”
“How did you end up getting caught by Argyrion using illicit means, leading them to expose your cover identity?”
Niobe tilted her head in confusion. ‘If Argyrion was in their right mind, they wouldn’t have thought to report Blasphemia’s agents to Blasphemia…’ her expression seemed to say.
“Argyrion is also a traitor to Blasphemia. If they believed it to be a treacherous faction, they would have expected Blasphemia to investigate even more sensitively.”
Niobe tilted her head again. Damn. Just a few months ago she was so innocent, but perhaps working under the Auditor General has tainted her too much.
“Oh, it can’t be helped. This is confidential, so just keep it between us, Niobe.”
“Okay?”
*
“Niobe, do you really think Argyrion allied with superstition followers?”
Niobe fell into thought. In an era where Argyrion was treated as synonymous with superstition followers, she would have naturally answered “yes.”
But her revered senpai didn’t seem like the type to ask such a straightforward question for an obvious answer. Niobe’s contemplation deepened.
Orthes opened his mouth as if trying to help Niobe with her deduction.
“There may be practitioners who deal with such ‘superstitions’ within Argyrion. They might be heirs of the ancient priest’s legacy. However, not all superstition followers would have signed a treaty with Argyrion.”
“Not all superstition followers? Are there hostile superstition followers?”
“To be precise, it’s uncertain whether there are superstition followers antagonistic to Argyrion.”
The pieces of the puzzle began to fit together. Why had the exemplary agent L13 resorted to illicit means to track down Argyrion?
Of course, it could be argued that the method was simply effective. But a brilliant agent would always weave multiple meanings into a single stratagem.
“The existence of hostile superstition followers isn’t important! Argyrion only needs to perceive it that way!”
Realization struck Niobe as she jumped up and shouted. Orthes nodded slowly.
“I set up several schemes to make Argyrion view me as a hostile superstition follower. Hence, Argyrion will become less proactive in merging with other superstition factions, and the position of superstition followers within Argyrion may weaken, inciting fractures.”
It was indeed a brilliant scheme. If Argyrion saw L13 as a superstition follower and Hydra Corporation as a cover for those followers, it could effectively target them through Blasphemia.
“But did you foresee it this far? Is that why you were moving in Algoth City?”
“Of course not. How could I think Argyrion would submit a public interest report?”
Orthes wore a broad smile. To Niobe, it looked more like a simple gesture of humility.
*
In reality, contrary to Nastion’s suspicions, Orthes had not noticed Nastion’s arrival. The reason Nastion was inadvertently being pursued was due to Kine’s idea.
“You spoke of it as the holy power of tracking your prey, right?”
With just a catalyst, the holy power boasted an extensive range, capable of tracking biological entities living in the mental realm. Kine naturally thought of using this to pursue Argyrion.
However, there was a difference between mental biological entities and Argyrion.
As a result of the clash between Orthes and the biological entity, they had been able to secure a piece of the body the entity inhabited. Even if there were several bodies for the biological entity, its essence was one; thus, tracking such an entity with a single sample was feasible.
But Argyrion was not a singular entity like the mental biological entity. Acquiring a trace of someone would mean that they could only track that individual, not the entire group.
Moreover, Kine had yet to find any traces of Argyrion infiltrating Algoth City. Having heard from Orthes about how the holy power operated, Kine, with a sullen expression, chewed her lips and pulled out what could at least serve as a catalyst.
A sample of Silver Threads.
The empirical deduction that wherever a Silver Thread Host is present, an Argyrion dealing with Silver Threads must exist. It was the idea to try indirect methods to find the Silver Thread Host instead of Argyrion.
For Nastion, it was truly unfortunate.
He possessed a Mage Tower Core synthesized to carry the mental biological entity.
Thus, in Algoth City, a truly bizarre situation began to unfold.
The Divine Cult would conduct the collection of location data for both the biological entity and Argyrion – and Orthes had told Niobe in advance that even if holy power were detected from Hydra’s building, it would merely be an effect of “illicit means.” – while the actual tracking would be handled by Blasphemia.
The two factions, each viewing the other as a nemesis, moved under Orthes’ guidance to encircle Argyrion.
Orthes himself merely found it convenient to boss others around without moving directly.
However, Nastion could not help but feel a sense of near terror from the shadow of the Divine Cult behind Blasphemia’s pursuit.
This speed of tracking couldn’t be explained merely as “leaking information.” To achieve such rapid tracking, one had to be receiving information directly from the Divine Cult.
It felt as though Panoptes were pursuing them on behalf of the Divine Cult, who could not openly intervene.
Who exactly was Orthes? Or what was he?
How could he possess both the Divine Cult and Panoptes, maneuvering them to his will?
