Chapter Eight: The Sixth Presence
The beasts didn't change all at once.
It started subtly—too subtly.
A twitch.
A tremor beneath their skin.
Then it spread.
Vael stood still, his body lowering instinctively into a fighting stance, his breathing steady but sharp, eyes locked onto the five beasts before him. Their bodies twisted unnaturally, muscles bulging and shifting as if something inside them was trying to break free. Veins darkened, spreading like ink beneath their skin, pulsing with something alive.
Something wrong.
Their bones cracked.
One of them let out a guttural sound—not quite a growl, not quite a scream—as its jaw stretched wider than it should, teeth sharpening into jagged points.
Another's limbs elongated slightly, claws digging into the stone beneath it as its spine arched.
Vael's fists clenched.
"…D-rank," he muttered under his breath.
Five of them.
All at once.
His instincts screamed at him.
This wasn't like the cave.
This wasn't something he could handle alone.
Slowly, his gaze shifted.
Lucien.
The man stood there, calm as ever—but not passive. His eyes moved across the beasts, observing, calculating. There was no urgency in his posture, no tension in his stance.
Only thought.
"...I could erase them," Lucien murmured to himself, almost absently. "A single release of divine light would be enough."
Vael blinked.
"…Then do it," he almost said—but didn't.
Lucien tilted his head slightly, still thinking.
"No… that would be too easy."
Vael stared at him.
Too easy?
These things were D-rank.
Each one of them could tear him apart in seconds.
And Lucien was… hesitating?
"…He's thinking about how to kill them?" Vael thought, disbelief flickering through his mind.
Before he could say anything—
The beasts moved.
But not toward them.
They scattered, Fast.
One darted left, claws scraping across the stone as it sprinted toward a cluster of fleeing civilians. Another leapt forward, its distorted limbs propelling it straight toward a merchant who had tripped and fallen, desperately trying to crawl away.
A third locked onto a woman clutching a child.
The child dropped something—a small object hitting the ground with a faint clatter—and froze.
The mother turned.
And saw it.
The beast was already there, closing in.
Vael's eyes widened. "Hey—they're going after them!"
His body moved before his mind could catch up.
One step forward—
"Stop."
Lucien's voice cut through everything. Vael froze mid-motion, his muscles locking up instinctively. "Don't worry about this," Lucien said calmly. "I have it under control."
Vael turned sharply. "Under control?!" he snapped. "They're about to—"
"Watch."
That single word, quiet, absolute.
Something shifted.
Vael felt it before he saw anything.
The air.
It tightened.
Not physically—there was no wind, no visible distortion—but something invisible pressed against his skin, against his senses. It was subtle, yet undeniable. Like the world itself had just been placed under tension.
"…What the hell is this…?" Vael whispered.
Lucien raised his hand slightly.
Not high, not dramatically, just enough.
"Sanctum: Binding Dominion."
The words fell softly.
And the world responded.
A faint glow spread across the ground beneath them.
At first, it looked like nothing more than thin lines of light—cracks, almost—but they began to expand, stretching outward in intricate patterns, forming a network that spread across the area.
Like threads, like something weaving itself into reality.
The beasts didn't notice at first, they were too focused on their targets.
Too consumed by the corruption flooding their bodies.
Then—
It hit, one by one.
Their movements stopped.
Abruptly, Violently.
The first beast—mid-lunge—slammed into the ground, its body crushed under an invisible force. The impact cracked the stone beneath it as it struggled, claws digging in, muscles bulging as it tried to move.
It couldn't.
The second collapsed next, its legs buckling as something forced it down, its body trembling violently under pressure it couldn't fight.
The third.
The fourth.
The fifth.
All of them—
Pinned.
Their bodies shook, strained, writhed—but they didn't move, they couldn't.
The civilians—
Safe.
The merchant collapsed fully onto the ground, breathing heavily, unable to process what had just happened. The mother clutched her child tightly, falling to her knees as relief crashed over her.
All around—
People stopped.
Watched, silence fell.
Vael stood there, staring.
"…What…"
His eyes slowly shifted toward Lucien.
"…What did you just do?"
Lucien didn't answer immediately, his gaze wasn't on the beasts.
It was… elsewhere.
Focused, sharp.
"…Something's wrong," he said quietly.
Vael frowned. "What?"
Lucien's eyes narrowed slightly. "There should be five."
Vael blinked. "…There are five."
Lucien shook his head slowly.
"No."
A pause.
"I'm binding six."
The words sank in. Slowly.
Vael's body tensed.
"…Six?"
A cold feeling crept up his spine, Lucien's gaze lifted then shifted toward a building.
Not far, Second floor.
A window.
Vael followed his line of sight, at first, he saw nothing.
Then—
A figure, standing behind the glass.
Watching.
Inside the building, the man exhaled sharply "…Damn it." His voice was low, irritated. "Looks like I've been caught." His hand tightened around something—
A dagger.
No.
Two.
Their blades were wrong, black and red, pulsing faintly as if they were alive. The surface of the metal shifted slightly, like something beneath it was breathing.
The man smiled faintly.
Then—
CRASH.
The window shattered.
Glass exploded outward as he leapt through it, his body twisting mid-air before landing smoothly on the ground below.
And then—
He dashed forward, Fast.
Vael's eyes widened.
"—!"
Lucien didn't move, he simply watched. "…Thank you for coming to me," Lucien said calmly. "You've saved me the trouble of chasing you."
The man stopped a short distance away.
Up close—
He looked wrong.
His posture was uneven, his movements slightly delayed, like his body wasn't fully under his control. His eyes were unfocused, yet locked onto Lucien at the same time, his breathing was irregular.
"…What's wrong with him…?" Vael muttered.
Lucien's expression didn't change.
"That," he said, "is exactly the problem."
A pause.
"…And also what makes this interesting."
The man raised his daggers slowly.
They vibrated.
No—
They pulsed.
Dark red energy seeped from them, crawling up his arms, slipping into his body like veins of light. His muscles tensed violently, his entire frame shaking as if resisting something that was forcing its way inside him.
"…Let's see…" the man muttered, his voice strained, unstable. "…what I can do… against a Church operative…"
Vael felt it.
The pressure, the corruption.
It was different from the beasts.
More controlled, more dangerous.
"…That looks painful," Lucien said calmly.
"…Yeah," Vael added. "That definitely looks painful."
The man laughed, broken sound and then he moved.
Not toward them, toward the beasts. His arm swung—
A single slash and the daggers cut through the air.
And something else.
The invisible threads snapped.
All at once and the pressure vanished.
The beasts roared.
Freed.
Lucien's eyes sharpened.
"…I see."
The man grinned, his body trembling violently now.
"Can't have you… ending the fun too early…"
The demonic energy from the daggers lingered in the air, clashing with the faint remnants of Lucien's technique.
Repelling it.
Overriding it.
"…You need to be detained," Lucien said calmly. "Questioned."
A pause.
"Unfortunately…"
His stance shifted.
"I need to deal with them first."
And then—
He moved.
Fast.
Not explosive.
Not flashy.
Just—
Efficient.
The first beast didn't even react before Lucien's fist connected with its head.
CRACK.
It didn't explode.
It didn't shatter.
It simply—
Stopped existing as a head.
The body collapsed instantly.
Blood sprayed.
The second beast lunged—
Lucien stepped in.
A single strike.
Its neck snapped cleanly.
The third—
A pivot.
A strike.
Its body folded in on itself unnaturally before dropping.
Vael watched.
Frozen.
"…What the hell…"
This wasn't a fight.
It was execution.
Lucien moved toward the fourth—
Then—
The man was there.
His daggers slashed toward Lucien's side, fast, unpredictable, the red energy around them distorting the air.
Lucien shifted.
Dodged.
Clean.
But the movement—
Cost him.
The fifth beast remained.
Alive.
Lucien's gaze flickered for a split second.
Then—
"Vael."
Vael blinked.
"…What?"
Lucien didn't look at him.
"Take the last one."
Silence.
"…What?"
Vael stared at him like he had just said something insane.
"That's a D-rank."
"Yes."
"I'm F-rank."
"I'm aware."
Vael's eye twitched.
"…You want me to fight that?"
Lucien stepped back slightly as the man pressed forward, drawing more of that red energy into his body, his movements becoming sharper, more erratic.
"Hold it off," Lucien said calmly. "Until I deal with him."
Vael looked at the beast.
Then at Lucien.
Then back at the beast.
"…You've got to be kidding me."
The beast growled.
Its body lowered.
Ready.
Vael exhaled slowly.
His fists clenched.
"…Yeah…"
A faint, grim smile formed on his lips.
"…I'm dead."
The beast lunged.
And Vael moved.