Her left hand held the dagger steady against his throat while Angel's right hand reached for his waist, confiscating his undrawn blade.
The invisibility didn't fade due to these actions. In Angel's view, the subdued man simply stood there dumbly, hands raised, head tilted back involuntarily to avoid the icy sensation he could feel but not see—the dagger.
"Who are you? Why are you tracking me?"
Seeing him cooperate obediently, Angel asked in a soft voice.
The man swallowed, but the movement of his Adam's apple caused the dagger at his neck to cut him. A line of dark red blood spread from his throat to beneath his shirt, staining it crimson.
"I, I just wanted to ask about the price of the potion. I mean no harm, truly no harm!"
Potion price? The "Witch" potion?
This was obviously a lie. If it were only about inquiring after prices, he could have done so at Mr. A's Extraordinary gathering. If he found the price too high, he simply wouldn't buy it—no need to follow her.
Angel shifted the dagger slightly, widening the wound on his Adam's apple, and continued pressing: "How did you know I was the seller?"
"Because I was watching everyone at the gathering, and after you submitted your note..."
The man's voice grew quieter and quieter. Angel was about to lean closer when she suddenly felt a sense of alarm and unhesitatingly slashed the dagger across his throat.
Bang—
A tremendous force deflected Angel's hand. She immediately steadied herself, holding her own dagger in her left hand and the one confiscated from the man in her right, both thrusting toward his back.
The sharp daggers only managed to slice through his windbreaker. The man's agile body escaped the restraint with remarkable speed and ran forward, then rolled on the ground, dodging two black flames that flew toward him.
He's also an Assassin? No, stronger than that—an "Instigator"?
Angel discovered the man's movements possessed an agility beyond ordinary people's reach. She stopped using the daggers to attack and instead continuously summoned numerous black flames, sending them flying after his figure.
The black flames traced elegant arcs through the narrow alley, but the man seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, dodging left and right to avoid every attack. Then, with a sidestep, he slipped into an adjacent passage.
By the time Angel rushed after him, only an open sewer entrance remained in the passage—the man had vanished without a trace.
He went into the sewers? Or is it a trap?
She first activated her spirit vision to examine the surroundings, finding no hidden spiritual entities. Only then did she look toward the pitch-black sewer. In her dark vision, sewage of indeterminate composition flowed through the channel—the man she'd been chasing had clearly left.
"Something's wrong. Retreat immediately... This doesn't seem like the official Extraordinaries' style, and he's very familiar with East Borough's environment," Angel didn't rashly pursue into the unfamiliar sewers but remained vigilantly at the alley entrance, her gaze falling on the dagger stained with his blood. "He said he was watching me in the dim Extraordinary gathering—he very likely has dark vision and is interested in the 'Witch' potion. Could he be an 'Instigator,' or simply an outer member of the 'Witch set'?"
She channeled her spirituality, her right hand wiping across the blood on the dagger as her lips recited the curse words belonging to "Witch."
The blood quickly began to boil, then formed into charred ash that scattered in the wind.
This meant the same effect had taken hold on her opponent's body.
For a Sequence 8 Extraordinary, a curse transmitted only through blood wouldn't be fatal, but it would certainly serve as a profound warning.
Given that she still needed to make contact with the "Witch set" later, killing this "Instigator" wasn't the best choice.
Next came dealing with the scene...
Angel carefully manipulated black flames, burning over every spot where they had fought, clearing away traces in the mystical sense. She didn't even spare the few drops of blood that had fallen to the ground.
If he was from the Witch set, then within a few hours, magic mirror divination would lock onto her location. Though she wanted to find the Witch set, she didn't want it to happen in such a passive manner.
The black flame curse combined with anti-divination from her mystical items would ensure she maintained the initiative.
After finishing all this, Angel left the alley. Several homeless people attracted by the commotion had gathered at the entrance. Having visited East Borough many times, Angel was well-versed in handling such situations. Simply displaying her dagger and letting the blade reflect flickering moonlight was enough to make those with ill intentions clear a path.
After leaving, she didn't immediately return to her residence on Red Rose Street in the Bridge area. Instead, she took a detour to a dilapidated apartment building in East Borough and headed to her safe house.
After learning how Dominic had rented a safe house to hide Sonia, Angel had also prepared a temporary residence for herself in East Borough. Three soli per week for a sparsely furnished one-room apartment, but sufficient for hiding.
Upon entering the room and locking the door behind her, she immediately removed the "Ring of Madness" from her hand. Several hours of wearing it had perfectly concealed her appearance, but had also accumulated considerable desires from deep within—including hunger, thirst, and certain other needs.
Fortunately, the time hadn't been too long and was still bearable.
Taking out her magic mirror, Angel performed divination on the confiscated dagger, asking about its owner's current location. But the mirror remained pitch black, showing no images and transmitting no sounds.
"The divination failed... Someone helped him with anti-divination measures?"
This essentially confirmed that a stronger "Assassin" pathway Extraordinary backed the man—at minimum a "Witch," since "Instigators" didn't possess anti-divination abilities.
This virtually confirmed his "Witch set" identity.
Angel's plan had been to use the Witch potion formula as bait to attract the Witch set's attention. But being tailed by an Instigator on the very first day she posted the listing was somewhat beyond her expectations.
If he had tracked her to her real residence and exposed her true appearance, that would have been disastrous... Fortunately, she had discovered him in time, repelled him, and performed corresponding anti-divination measures.
Angel's fingers deftly played with the confiscated dagger while her eyes gazed at the pitch-black surface of the magic mirror, deep in thought.
Now that her urgent financial difficulties had been temporarily resolved, she currently had only two tasks: First, to act as a "Witch" and advance her sequence to gain the power for self-protection and revenge. Second, to approach and infiltrate the Witch set to find traces of Ince Zangwill.
The latter already showed promise. Having deliberately let the tracker escape, the next time she attended Mr. A's gathering, someone should approach her. No matter what, the "Witch set" wouldn't allow someone who knew mid-sequence potion formulas to remain outside their control.
As for acting as a Witch, Angel had also gained some insights.
When the "gas explosion" incident in Tingen spread nationwide and she was witnessed at the scene and treated as a suspect, her potion had shown significant signs of digestion. This indicated that "Witch" acting could proceed from the concept of "spreading calamity"—even false, misunderstood actions could fulfill acting requirements. Or rather, such "misunderstanding" might better align with the core concept of "Witch" acting.
Additionally, based on the potion's name and the extension of "Instigator" acting, perhaps creating her own sense of mystery and deceiving or manipulating others could also serve as corresponding acting methods.
"Creating calamity" wasn't simple, but "mystery" and "deceiving others" might be combined. For instance, learning from a certain talented diviner—performing magic mirror divination at a divination club, or completing commissions like "magic mirror person-finding," leaving impressions in others' minds of a profound Extraordinary.
Thinking of this, Angel recalled the short woman she had encountered at Mr. A's gathering today and decided to try that low-success-rate commission.
What if it worked? She could earn pounds and test whether this acting method was viable...
She set down the dagger and wiped her hand across the magic mirror's surface again, restoring the pitch-black mirror to normal, reflecting her face restored to its original appearance.
Using pen and paper to transcribe the "target characteristics" she'd seen today, Angel performed a second magic mirror divination.
"Magic mirror, magic mirror, tell me where this woman currently is?"
The mirror's surface rippled like water, but was soon stubbornly covered by blackness, becoming deathly still.
"As expected, if she's a mid-sequence Extraordinary of the 'Assassin' pathway, she naturally has corresponding anti-divination measures..."
Watching the confrontation between divination and anti-divination in the magic mirror, Angel felt somewhat dejected. Though she had anticipated this result, the two-hundred-pound reward still tugged at her heartstrings.
Finally, the blackness receded, and the mirror's surface once again reflected her own face, wearing an expression of deep disappointment.