Chapter 120: Liquid Mana
After hearing something from Darian, Kael did not even wait for a single second there. Instead, he went straight to her house without another thought clouding his mind.
As soon as he arrived, Darian led him to Arienne's room, the very place where Kael had once healed her.
The room was as spacious as ever, its tall windows lined with long curtains on one side, sunlight filtering through and painting pale reflections on the walls. Toys and books were scattered across the bed in the middle of the room as though she had been playing there not long ago. But what caught his attention was the floor. The once spotless marble was now littered with small shards of glass scattered unevenly, glinting in the sunlight. There was no blood anywhere, no sign of struggle that might explain what had happened here, only an unsettling stillness.
As it turned out, they did not suspect her kidnapping merely because she was missing. In fact, there was undeniable proof standing right before them. Whoever took her had not even bothered to conceal what they had done. On the contrary, they made sure everyone would know she had been taken. It was not an act of secrecy but one of arrogance. Almost like a challenge thrown in their faces.
Kael lowered himself before the broken glass, gathering a few pieces carefully into his palm. He stared down at them, at the reflection of his own face in those uneven fragments. His gray eyes were cold, far colder than he had ever seen them before, carrying a brutality that even startled him for a moment.
His jaw tightened as he gritted his teeth until his temples ached, and before long, his hands closed into fists.
The shards sank deeper into his skin, cutting through his palms as blood began to drip slowly onto the marble.
"It was... all my fault. If I had been more careful, maybe it would've never happened."
The words came out as little more than a whisper, but they struck deep. Kael knew that lately, he had been too reckless. He should have seen something like this coming long before it ever happened, but he did not. He ignored the signs, pretending that everything was fine. He knew that the curse he had once removed from Arienne had been placed there by someone... someone driven by hatred or greed or some reason darker. And if a person was capable of such malice once, then they would undoubtedly try again. Wouldn't they? They absolutely would. But what had he done in the meantime?
Nothing. He had done absolutely nothing.
He was the fool who thought ignorance could protect her, who hid the truth from her father out of hesitation. If he had spoken up back then and warned them that someone was after Arienne, perhaps they would have taken greater precautions. Perhaps she would still be safe. But because of his silence, she was taken. And not by an ordinary person, but by someone bold enough to leave behind clues deliberately, as if mocking them, as if saying that no one could ever catch them.
As blood continued to fall from his clenched hands, Darian, who had been watching him with a conflicted look, stepped closer and placed a hand gently on Kael's shoulder. "Sir... please, restrain yourself. You're hurting your hands."
Kael glanced at him briefly, then removed his hand from Darian's shoulder and stood up. Shaking his bloody hand, he threw away the shards as he spoke. His voice came out low. "I know. Tell me, did you inform the Knight Orders?"
Darian paused for a moment before answering. "We did, sir. Master Albrecht went to report it himself. A few knights already came here to search for clues, though they haven't found anything yet. They're currently checking the cargoes leaving town and abandoned houses nearby. Master is in his office now and told me to inform you."
Kael's eyes narrowed as he turned toward the window. The wind brushed lightly against the broken glass as he studied the damage. "Alright. I'll see what I can do."
He took a final look around the room before stepping closer to the bed where she used to sleep. The sheets were untouched, carrying a scent of her presence. There was nothing helpful, no hidden clue left behind. The way the glass had fallen told him enough. The kidnapper had entered through the window and escaped the same way, silent and precise.
Leaving the room, Kael descended the stairs and stepped outside toward the training ground where he had trained her. The sight of it made his chest tighten as memories resurfaced.
He stood there for a while, scanning the grass and dirt, searching for anything that might guide him, but found nothing.
Darian followed behind and asked, "Did you find something, sir?"
Kael shook his head slowly and straightened his posture. "No luck. Whoever did this was careful... too careful."
With no clue in hand and frustration simmering within him, Kael finally left the mansion. He told Darian to remain calm and wait for the Knight Orders' next report.
As he walked through the sunlit streets, his shadow stretched long beside him. His thoughts tangled like threads, heavy and uncertain.
Arienne had been kidnapped last night. And last night, he was fighting that witch. Arwyn had been asleep, and Seraphina was also occupied in her own battle. That same night, he met the Archwitch Queen... and made the decision to kill her.
Could it be her?
Could she be the one behind Arienne's kidnapping? But why? Was this her revenge for the harm he caused her people or whatever they were? It seemed possible. After all, Kael did not have many people close to him, and the witch could see anywhere she wanted. She knew far too much about him already. Despite knowing his true identity, she had not exposed him. Or perhaps it was not silence at all. Perhaps the Queen knew him far too well for reasons he could not understand yet.
He exhaled slowly, the air thick in his lungs.
"I suppose... if she truly was behind this, then she just gave me one more reason to kill her, not that I needed another. But before that... I must become stronger. I have to."
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Seraphina was walking toward the main research chamber of the MIMR after receiving a message summoning her there.
Last night, she had sent the bodies of the monsters she had fought to this very place because something about them had been deeply unsettling. She still couldn't quite understand why she had been unable to sense their presence during the battle, and the thought of it had lingered in her mind throughout the night. In the end, she had decided it was better to leave the matter in the hands of the researchers.
As she stepped through the tall doors, the familiar sight of the chamber spread before her. The room was spacious and bathed in a green glow that came from the lights above, painting everything in a ghostly color. Several long tables stretched across the floor, cluttered with scattered tools, scrolls, and strange glass vials filled with liquid. Here and there, tall glass tanks stood like pillars, each one holding inside the submerged bodies of the monsters she had slain last night. Their twisted shapes floated in the thick green liquid, and though they were lifeless, the sight of them still felt strangely unsettling.
This time, unlike before, the chamber wasn't empty. There were several people moving about in their white coats, each of them absorbed in their work. The air was filled with the scent of blood and chemical solutions. Seraphina's gaze slowly moved across the room until it stopped at a familiar figure standing before one of the tables.
Linaria.
The woman's medium-length blue hair, usually soft and neat, was now in disarray. The tips of her locks that normally framed her face had lost their shape. Her long azure eyes, usually bright, now looked heavy with exhaustion, shadowed by dark circles beneath them. But the soft blue ears on her head were just as they had been before. From her appearance alone, Seraphina could tell she hadn't slept even a little through the night.
A few of the researchers had paused their work after noticing Seraphina's presence, their eyes quickly darting toward her. With a small sigh, she spoke in her calm and composed tone, "Continue your work."
Her words seemed to release the tension in the room as everyone quietly returned to their tasks. It was then that Linaria finally noticed her. The woman blinked tiredly, then straightened her posture and said, "Oh, Captain. You're finally here. I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll be able to prepare a written report anytime soon, so I thought it would be better if I showed you everything directly instead. I hope you don't mind."
Seraphina stopped in front of her and let her gaze fall on the creature lying on the table. Its chest had been split open, the ribs pulled apart and held in place with metal hooks. She said quietly, "No worries. Tell me… what did you find about these monsters?"
Linaria remained silent for a brief moment, her gloved hands resting against the edge of the table. Then she lifted one hand and pointed toward the monster. "Many things, actually," she said slowly. "You mentioned that you couldn't sense their presence, or rather, the mana circulating through their bodies. Is that right?"
Seraphina crossed her arms over her chest, the polished silver of her armor catching the green light. She gave a short nod. "Yes. Did you find the actual reason behind it?"
Linaria exhaled heavily. "We did. When you first told us about it, we couldn't understand the reason at all. There are many kinds of monsters capable of concealing their mana, but the way you described it didn't match any known case. So, we decided to try detecting their mana ourselves using an orb."
She reached for a mana detection orb resting nearby and rolled it gently against the table before pressing it to the creature's chest. The orb remained dim, showing no sign of light. "As you already know," Linaria continued, "when a human dies, their mana core dies with them and the remaining mana disperses as soon as their body dissolves. However, monsters are different. They don't have a mana core in the same sense humans do. Instead, they have something called a monster core, which functions in a similar way but takes a solid physical form. Because of that, even after a monster dies, the mana inside them doesn't just disappear immediately. It stays as long as the monster core remains intact."
She placed the orb back on the table and gestured toward the open chest of the creature. "Since none of your team removed the cores, we decided to examine them ourselves. But when we did, we were completely taken aback. There were no cores inside them. Not even a trace of where the cores should have been. And we didn't stop with just this one. We checked every single creature you sent us, but not one of them had a core of any kind."
Seraphina's gaze swept slowly across the room, her expression remaining unreadable as her mind processed the information. Her voice, low and composed, finally broke the silence. "If that's the case… what exactly are you suggesting then?"
Linaria stared at her for a few seconds before she spoke, her tone quiet but steady. "These monsters were once human."
Seraphina froze. Her lips parted slightly as her brows drew together in disbelief. "What?"
Linaria took a breath and her eyes softened slightly, though her tone remained grave. "Yes. We're not saying this just based on the absence of a core or the lack of mana. We've examined their bodies carefully, both outside and inside. Their external forms have changed beyond recognition, but their internal structures haven't. The organs, the skeletal frames—some are distorted, some fractured—but the base anatomy still matches that of a human. We're certain of it, Captain. These creatures were once human."
For a moment, Seraphina couldn't speak. Her expression grew distant, her mind struggling to accept what she had just heard. The monsters she had killed, those grotesque beings she had fought with her sword... were once people? The thought alone made her chest feel heavy. Her eyes lingered on the lifeless body before her, and though her face remained calm, there was something tense behind her silence.
Finally, she drew a slow breath and said in a low tone, "But how could a human turn into a monster? I have never heard of anything so vile or unnatural in my life. Is something like that even possible?"
Linaria stared at her for a long while without saying anything, her eyes distant as if her thoughts were still tangled in the mystery she was trying to explain. After a moment, she leaned back against another table and spoke in a low tone, her voice calm. "It shouldn't have been possible, however somehow it did happen. No, in truth... someone actually managed to break the law of magic itself and is capable of turning humans into monsters, into these insidious creatures. Or rather, I should say, the bodies of humans."
Seraphina tilted her head slightly, her voice composed but curious. "Are you perhaps saying that these people turned into monsters after they died?"
Linaria was silent for a moment as if weighing her words carefully before she replied, "Somewhat like that."
Without saying anything further, she turned and walked toward the other side of the room, her boots echoing on the marble floor. She waved her hand gently, gesturing for Seraphina to follow. Seraphina gave a small nod and walked after her.
They moved several meters away until they stood before a large glass tank behind which lay the bodies of the bandits who had died in front of Seraphina yesterday. The greenish light that filled the chamber reflected against the glass, making the corpses appear even more ghastly.
Linaria stopped in front of another table covered in papers and metal tools, then spoke again. "You see, in the report we told you that after researching the bodies of those bandits, we discovered that they had been poisoned. However, there was a problem, and that was the timing of their deaths. It was nearly impossible for everyone to die at the exact same moment just from poison alone. Every person's body reacts differently depending on their muscle strength, blood flow, and resistance. But they all died in the same second, which could only mean it was a type of elemental poison that carried some sort of timer or controlled reaction. That's what we believed at first. But we were wrong."
Seraphina tilted her head slightly again, her tone calm yet edged with curiosity. "In which way were you wrong then?"
"Several ways, actually," Linaria said softly.
She reached out and picked up two small crystal vials from the table. Each one glimmered under the light. Inside them were just a few drops of greenish liquid, thick and strange in color.
Holding them carefully, she showed them to Seraphina. "You see, in my left hand is the poison we found inside the bandits' stomachs, and in my right hand is something similar that we discovered in the creatures' bodies. Both of them came from the same elemental source."
Seraphina touched her chin thoughtfully, her eyes narrowing a little. "Are you trying to say that the people who turned into creatures were poisoned in the same way as those bandits?"
Linaria gave a brief shake of her head and replied, "No, ma'am. At first, we thought the same thing. But after examining both of the liquids closely, we came to realize that only one of them is truly poison—the one from the bandits. The other one may look the same, but it is entirely different. It is not poison at all, but something else completely."
Seraphina raised an eyebrow slightly. "And what is it then?"
Linaria placed both vials gently back on the table and turned toward her, her tone almost hesitant. "It's... mana."
Seraphina looked at her quietly, her tone somber when she spoke. "What kind of mana exactly? If I remember correctly, mana isn't something that can be seen with the naked eye. It is something that can only be felt."
Linaria nodded and stepped forward as she began to explain. "I agree with you. At first, I didn't believe it either. I found it out by accident. When I was taking this liquid out of one of the creature's stomachs, there was an orb beside me on the table. A single drop of the liquid fell into the orb by mistake, and immediately the orb began to glow. Of course, I thought it was reacting to the elemental poison at first, but later when I tested the actual poison from the bandits in the same way, it did not glow at all. That's when I realized this liquid was not poison... it was mana. The mana of the people themselves."
Seraphina walked beside her and looked at her steadily. "That explains a few things, but I still don't get how exactly that could be mana."
Linaria turned to her, her tone thoughtful. "We still don't know the full process yet, but it seems to be a strange kind of transformation of mana, something not natural. Tell me, Captain, do you understand now why you couldn't sense those people when they attacked you?"
Seraphina was quiet for a moment, then replied evenly, "I do, though only partly. It was because those people were already dead. Their mana cores must have perished with them, and because of that, I couldn't sense their presence. That's all I can think of now."
Linaria paused for a moment, then faced her fully. "You're right, but not entirely. Please don't take this as offensive, but I think you've never actually tried to sense a dead person before, have you? I'm sure you haven't."
Seraphina exhaled softly. "No offense taken. And why would I ever want to sense the presence of a dead person anyway? Until yesterday, I had never encountered an enemy like that."
Linaria let out a small chuckle, though her eyes remained serious. "Of course, you wouldn't have any reason to. But dead bodies actually do retain a faint presence. Even without a mana core, there's still a trace of mana flowing within them. It's weak, but it's there. However, when we examined those creatures, we felt nothing at all. Not even a single flicker. Do you know why that might be?"
Seraphina's gaze lingered on the vials for a moment before she replied evenly, her voice low. "Is it because their mana had already turned into the liquid or whatever you found inside them?"
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(Chapter Ended)