"Sleep!"
That was the first thing that Lucas could think of. They met at the connecting corridor between carriages, so luckily, there was no one else around.
The man in front of him could plant a bomb inside the carriage floor, and based on Lucas's experience, only at least a Tier 3 or 4 Unnatural could do it. As a Tier 3 himself, that meant that the man was at least as strong, if not, stronger than Lucas.
"What?"
Seeing the man in front of him suddenly falling asleep, Lucas became confused. Someone as strong as he was should at least show resistance to the sleep spell, especially since it was only a memorized spell and not the real one.
However, the truth was the man was now stumbling and then fell asleep on the floor. His serious-looking face was now showing a peaceful expression, and a faint sound of snore came out of his mouth.
Without wasting any time, he grabbed his gun and shot the man right in the head. He did not want to risk getting close to the enemy in case the man was only pretending to be asleep and waiting to catch him off guard.
Bang!
The hot bullet penetrated the man's skull, drilling a hole before lodging itself there.
Lucas squinted to see better. He was expecting to see blood coming out of the hole. However, no such thing happened. The man showed an expression of pain, but besides that and the hole, there was nothing else to show for it.
Suddenly, the man's body became distorted like he was a paper doll getting crumpled. His limbs contorted, and his whole body twitched, before becoming a ball of crumpled paper.
"An Illusionist?!"
Lucas's heart sank. An Illusionist was a Tier 4 Magician, so his enemy was one Tier higher than him.
He had always chosen his fights carefully, only fighting winnable fights and avoiding those he would have no way of winning. Even then, he had always prepared well before the fight.
"The real body must have felt where his double was killed," he started running, swiping his hand over his face and changing his appearance back to Vincent the mercenary.
Lucas wanted to hide or blend into the crowd of passengers, but an Illusionist's body double would transfer their last memory when killed. Lucas was still wearing the appearance of one of the terrorist members, so the 'big man' would be able to guess that the enemy could disguise himself.
Another point that made up Lucas's mind to fight was that an Illusionist could use Spiritual Detection, so the enemy would be able to detect where he had gone off to as long as he didn't take too long to arrive at the scene. Because of that, Lucas knew that he had to fight, and his best chance at winning was to prepare.
"Let's see. If he's an Illusionist, he must have passed the Fire and Water Mages phase. His abilities would include..." he thought out loud as he opened the toilet door where he had hidden his luggage. Dan and the other attendant were still sleeping innocently there, and Lucas renewed the sleep spell on them.
Lucas began recalling every piece of memory from his experience, as well as reports and notes that he had read in the past at an insane speed. Even if he had only read something in passing, as long as it has been registered in his memory, he could bring back the information at any time.
"Card magic; he could use any cards as lethal weapons,"
"Fire and water conjuration; he can conjure fire and water using his spirituality as fuel,"
"Fire and water manipulation; this allows him to manipulate those things in his vicinity, but luckily, he cannot manipulate water inside living beings."
As he was thinking out loud, Lucas was also busy rummaging through his luggage, looking for items that he would need.
"Since he has learned Duplicate, he should have learned Illusion too. I should remain focused. As a memory mage, I will be able to discern discrepancies in reality, so I have an edge in that aspect. I just hope he hasn't learned Dread yet."
He picked up five candles and a vial of golden liquid. This time, he also took out a combat knife and several bullets. He wanted to take out his rifle, but he wouldn't have enough time to assemble it, and then set up a ritual.
After that, he quickly left the toilet and ran as fast as he could toward the back of the train.
"Magicians have a lot of spiritual energy, so dragging the fight would put me at a disadvantage. I should end the fight as quickly as I can, and if I'm lucky, maybe I can memorize a spell or two."
"Leap!"
He did not want to waste time, so he used leap repeatedly, ignoring the stupefied passengers that he passed.
The moment he reached the location, he took out the knife that he had stolen from the enemy before and began dissecting the leader's skull.
"This knife does come in handy. No need to ruin my beautiful combat knife for something like this," he felt proud, "And I am glad I didn't shoot her head and ruin her brain,"
Using the bloody knife, he carved a word on the brain, before filling the cavity with the golden liquid. After that, he placed the brain on a makeshift altar, created from the woman's dead body that he had rearranged.
Lucas placed the five candles around the 'altar' and drew a sigil using blood. Once everything was ready, he began the incantation while lighting them with his lighter.
As soon as the ritual was finished, an ethereal smoke rose from the candles and filled the area, blanketing it with its mystery for a short time. Something seemed to have been forgotten from the area the moment the smoke dispersed.
"I only have enough spirituality for this, but it should be enough,"
After his ritual is finished, Lucas dashed into the empty space at the back of the train again.
By setting up another ritual, the first ritual's effect was canceled, so the passengers started freaking out the moment they realized there had been dead people in the carriage with them.
"Someone, call the police!" a woman shouted.
"We are on a train, Madam! Call the attendants!"
"They're here! Help!" a man shouted.
"What happened?"
"These people are dead! There are some suspicious people going to the back!"
The chaos caused the Unnatural terrorists to get swept in it. They could no longer stand guard and had to blend in into the crowd to avoid the real train attendants who were busy calming down the passengers.
Lucas ignored them all and kept on running to the battlefield that he had chosen.
"I will need to finish this before they call in the train security."
...
My copy was killed.
Suddenly, a man in a uniform felt a tinge of shock as memory flowed into his brain.
It was a man... Melvin?! It can't be. Did someone threaten him?
"Hey, can you take over here? I have to check something," the man said to the fellow uniformed person next to him.
"Sure. Just don't take too long," he nodded.
The uniformed man left the train manager's room and made a beeline towards the back of the train, where he felt his copy was killed.
The carriages he passed were emptied of passengers, but it was full of people in uniform searching for something. He ignored them all and made his way to the barricaded door.
"Where are you going, Mr. Meyer?" someone guarding the barricade asked him.
"There is something I need to check at the back. Hurry up and open the barricade," he replied.
"Sure! Just give me a signal later when you need to get back here," the man nodded.
With a motion of his hand, the metal barricade deconstructed, falling onto the floor in the form of the original pieces used to construct it.
Meyer opened the door and as soon as he closed it, the barricade was reconstructed, preventing entry to that side of the train.
My copy was killed around here.
He closed his eyes and began concentrating. Slowly, a vision appeared, and on it, the spiritual sources around him became visible. It was like looking at lanterns shining in the dark; some gave off a dim light, while others shone brightly.
A lot of the spiritual dots were moving around as if dancing in chaos.
Opening his eyes, he began adjusting to his new vision.
The man saw a faint trail of spiritual energy leaving the spot where his copy had been killed. The trail was heading to the nearby toilet, and then to the back carriage.
There is only one trail, so Melvin was either controlled or threatened, but why the toilet? There is no way he was doing his business after killing my double. I should...
He was thinking of checking the toilet, but suddenly, he felt like he was forgetting something.
Nevermind. What's important right now is to go after the guy.
Brushing off the thought, he quickly ran after his target but was stopped by the chaos happening.
"Sir, these people have been killed!" a female attendant tried to explain what happened amidst the noise that the passengers were making.
"Call in the security. I am tracking the suspect right now," he said, ignoring the attendant and focusing only on the trail of supernatural energy.
He saw some of the secret members of the terrorist blending in with the passenger, and he wanted to take them with him. However, the idea was quickly forgotten and he ended up going alone.
The moment he arrived at the door leading to the empty space at the back of the train, he felt like he had to do something first, but he could not quite remember what.
The spiritual source is coming from behind this door. There is only one, so if Melvin is alone, I should be able to handle him easily. But the fact that he could kill my double alone is abnormal, so I should still be cautious.
Meyer opened the door and saw a man at the end of the corridor wearing a bloody shirt. The man was tall and his black hair was shining in the sunlight. His eyes looked cold and his handsome face was wearing a strange expression.
He was smiling at Meyer!