But the surge of anger that burned so hot it felt like it might give me a headache lasted only for a moment.

    Emotional actions tend to lead to worse outcomes than rational ones.

    I knew that well from my experience with Drakel — I’d nearly ended up a cold corpse after letting my rage get the better of me back then.

    So, I forcibly suppressed the bubbling heat rising within me and focused on thinking calmly.

    ‘Given the current situation, no matter how well I can see these contracts, it’s impossible to just walk through this passage. The contracts forcibly bind you to them, even at the cost of your life. Flying over it with telekinesis wouldn’t change a thing.’

    Looking closely at the red letters engraved all over the underground track, I noticed that the conditions for activating the contracts didn’t just involve touching them. Even just passing nearby was enough to trigger the contracts.

    This was probably set up to target anyone who tried to use vehicles to get through.

    This meant that even if I used telekinesis to hover without touching the ground, I could still end up triggering one of these contracts.

    On top of that, if the letters were damaged, they would just regenerate. And without the Contract Eye, I wouldn’t even know where or what kind of letters were engraved.

    It was no wonder the police, who were supposed to be maintaining order in Nighthaven, were struggling so much against a single demon.

    Sure, if they had a powerful sorcerer who could brute-force their way past the rules of contracts, or an android immune to contract magic, it would be a different story.

    But from my perspective, if someone like that appeared, I wouldn’t even get the chance to intervene.

    ‘In other words, it’s a race against time.’

    Once the police manage to enter, it’s game over.

    While they’re still tied up like this, I have to break in and resolve the situation.

    To do that, I needed an approach that wasn’t ordinary — something that maybe only I could pull off.

    But how was I supposed to come up with something like that in this short amount of time?!

    As I gripped my head in frustration, I noticed something strange about the letters.

    ‘Wait, are those letters... moving?’

    I focused my right eye, which still had the active effect of the Contract Eye, and stared intently at the wall.

    Sure enough, the densely packed letters were subtly shifting.

    Why are they moving?

    I tilted my head, feeling puzzled. Then, I noticed that the letters were slowly crawling from the inside of the underground track outward.

    And that’s when it hit me.

    ‘Ah, so that’s how the letters were engraved here. This is how they did it!’

    Thinking about it, it made sense.

    There was no way Anser had meticulously engraved each of these letters by hand. The sheer number of them was far too great.

    It was far more logical to assume that the letters were extending outwards from a central point, spreading like creeping vines.

    Of course, if you asked me how that was possible, I wouldn’t have a clear answer.

    But still...

    ‘Wait. If the letters can move... doesn’t that mean...?’

    An idea crossed my mind.

    With a hint of hope, I extended my telekinesis and cautiously tapped one of the letters that seemed relatively harmless.

    Then something incredible happened.

    The letter I touched was one that, according to the contract, should have caused unbearable itching.

    But even after tapping it with telekinesis, nothing happened to me.

    ‘...Does that mean telekinesis isn’t counted as physical contact with me?’

    I pieced together everything I’d learned so far.

    The moving letters that weren’t fixed in place but rather creeping along the walls and floors. The way telekinesis wasn’t recognized as “touching” the contracts. And the ability of the Contract Eye to reveal the locations and meanings of the contracts. R??a?о?E?S?

    What if I used all of these elements together?

    I might be able to do something with this.

    I carefully spread out my telekinetic power like a thin sheet of vinyl, then placed it near the direction the letters were moving toward.

    That’s when something... fascinating happened.

    The letters, as if mistaking the telekinetic force for part of the underground track, began to crawl over it.

    The very letters that were supposed to regenerate if damaged remained perfectly still, showing no signs of resistance.

    Instead, the letters freely moved onto the telekinetic surface.

    ‘Just as I thought.’

    A grin crept onto my face.

    ‘I see now. This is a type of automated magic, like a kind of pre-programmed spell! It moves according to the conditions set at its creation, without needing direct control from the caster. And since telekinesis doesn’t exist in either this world or on Earth, it doesn’t even recognize it as something to react to!’

    The letters.

    The countless red letters filling the underground passage — they were all flowing out of Anser’s body.

    Her tears were turning into letters.

    I felt as if I’d been slapped in the face by the sheer unreality of it all. Slowly, I waded through the sea of crimson letters and approached Anser.

    Up close, she looked even worse.

    Her body was eerily motionless, like a lifeless doll, only shedding those endless red tears.

    And in the center of her chest, where her flesh had been violently dug out, I spotted something lodged deep within.

    It was a silver shard.

    At a glance, I could tell what it was.

    ‘A Fragment... and it’s way stronger than the one Raven had.’

    The sight was so grotesque that it felt like a blunt object had struck me in the back of the head.

    That’s when it hit me.

    I’d misunderstood everything.

    I thought I could clear up the misunderstandings with the police. I thought maybe the Invaders had brainwashed her.

    But I was a fool.

    Why would people who want to destroy the world settle for something so half-hearted?

    The Fragment of an Invader had been forcibly embedded in her body, driving her to use power far beyond her limits.

    Then they just left her like this.

    This wasn’t any different from throwing logs into a human body, setting it on fire, and using it as fuel.

    ...At this point, it was already too late to save Anser.

    The woman before me wasn’t Anser anymore. She was no more than a puppet acting out the last orders burned into her mind.

    Even if I poured in recovery magic strong enough to regenerate her shredded body, her soul had already been scarred far beyond repair.

    “....”

    I reached out and placed a hand on Anser’s face.

    Her skin was ice-cold, like touching a corpse.

    Brutal as it sounds, I didn’t feel overwhelming sadness.

    After all, we’d only met today.

    In Nighthaven, people dying wasn’t exactly rare.

    If I mourned every tragedy like this, I’d run out of tears within a week.

    But even if I wasn’t overwhelmed with sadness, that didn’t mean I felt nothing.

    No, I felt something.

    It was a regret.

    Regret that someone like her had to suffer something so senselessly cruel.

    She didn’t deserve to be treated like this.

    So, I wrapped my hand around Anser’s hand and prayed for her.

    Hoping that, at the very least, her soul could return safely.

    That was all I could do for her.

    ‘Let’s end her suffering here. That’ll be the best thing for her.’

    Swallowing my bitterness, I steeled my resolve and reached toward the shard embedded in her chest.

    Right now, the only reason she was still moving was because of the vast energy flowing from that Fragment.

    If I broke her connection to it, this nightmare would end.

    I carefully extended my hand, fingers trembling slightly.

    And just as my hand touched the Fragment—

    BZZZZT!

    Suddenly, it felt like a massive electric current surged backward into me.

    A torrent of unfathomable energy flooded in through my arm and shot straight to my brain.

    At that moment, an influx of memories that didn’t belong to me poured into my mind.

    Memories belonging to Anser.