In the upper city of Igwynt, on the north bank of the middle-upper reaches of the Ironclay River, intense gunfire erupted continuously above Buck’s mansion. The residents of the White River Riverside District were startled awake, throwing the entire area into a state of panic.
Inside the third-floor corridor of the mansion, Dorothy commanded four corpse marionettes, firing repeatedly at the wooden door at the end of the hallway. High-speed, dense bullets pierced through the door and into the study. Buck, standing inside, quickly dodged to the side but still took two shots to his body, causing blood to seep from the corners of his mouth.
"Enemies outside as well!? Someone broke in?"
This was Buck’s immediate thought. Outside the room, the house servants, after emptying their revolvers, didn’t waste time reloading. Instead, they each pulled a piece of parchment from their bodies and smoothly affixed it to themselves. As the parchment burned away, faint Chalice sigils appeared at the spots where they had been placed.
These were Devouring Sigils, nearly standard equipment for members of the Crimson Eucharist. As Buck’s servants and butler, it was natural for them to have such items. Having been turned into corpse marionettes, their bodies no longer needed the Chalice within them, so Dorothy made use of it now.
With the activation of the Devouring Sigils, a red glow emanated from the corpse marionettes’ eyes. Together, they charged at the wooden door ahead, shattering it with a powerful impact.
"What...?"
Seeing the familiar figures suddenly burst into the study, Buck was taken aback. Before he could think further, the four corpse marionettes, enhanced by the Devouring Sigils, lunged at him and Clifford with ferocious speed.
"Ah! What’s going on with these guys!? Aren’t they your subordinates, Buck?" Clifford yelled.
"I don’t know! They must’ve been controlled by something, just like Brandon earlier!" Buck replied.In no time, both Buck and Clifford were besieged by the enhanced corpse marionettes. Buck, though wounded with two gunshots, could still manage to fight back due to the remarkable resilience of a Craver.
Clifford, however, wasn’t so fortunate. Already injured at the dock and further shot by Brandon, his wounds severely hindered his movement. Against the relentless assault of the enhanced corpse marionettes, he was repeatedly clawed and bitten. Large chunks of flesh were torn from his body, leaving him drenched in blood. In no time, Clifford was reduced to a blood-soaked figure, screaming in agony.
Witnessing this, Buck realized the situation couldn’t continue. Seizing an opportunity, he reached for his wristwatch. A concealed mechanism within the watch activated, revealing a folded sigil that imprinted itself onto Buck’s hand before burning to ash, leaving a mark behind.
In that moment, Buck’s eyes also glimmered with a red light.
Hidden within Buck’s watch was a special Devouring Sigil, crafted with layered techniques. A typical Devouring Sigil temporarily granted ordinary people the physical abilities of a Craver by consuming their Chalice. For Cravers, however, the sigil’s effects were minimal unless multiple were used simultaneously to amplify the effects.
In essence, for a Craver to achieve the same level of enhancement as an ordinary user, they needed to use multiple sigils at once. The sigil in Buck’s watch, created through intricate techniques, functioned as multiple sigils in one. This made it exceptionally valuable but also consumed a large amount of the Chalice in a single use. Non-Craver users would likely die instantly without even a chance for a final burst of strength. This was Buck’s trump card.
By consuming nearly all of his Chalice, Buck achieved a massive boost in physical ability, surpassing the corpse marionettes. His form became a blur of speed, almost impossible to track visually. Moving like a shadow, Buck wielded his rapier with precision, slicing through the corpse marionettes. In a series of swift strikes, he severed them at the waist, rendering them immobile as they collapsed to the ground.
"Damn... This guy actually had a trump card?"
Dorothy muttered under her breath from the carriage, watching the scene unfold. Clearly, Buck was far more troublesome than Burton had been.
"This is bad... The corpse marionettes in the mansion are all dealt with. One of them is injured, and the other is gravely wounded. It’s a stalemate now. Leaving things like this would be such a waste..."
Sitting in her carriage, Dorothy contemplated. In her view, Buck’s sudden burst of strength was likely due to a trump card with limitations or side effects. Once its effects wore off, the two would be at their weakest.
"How could I retreat now at the endgame? Strike while the iron is hot. There’s no way I’m letting them escape."
Resolving herself, Dorothy stepped down from the carriage, using the Corpse Marionette Ring to reanimate Edrick, who was slumped over the driver’s seat. Together, they advanced toward the blood-soaked mansion.
…
Inside Buck’s study, corpses littered the ground, blood splattered everywhere. The flowing blood had completely soaked the carpet.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Leaning on the desk for support, Buck panted heavily, the effects of the sigil wearing off. Beside him, a struggling Clifford stood up and asked weakly, "Is it... finally over?"
"Not yet. That person’s abilities are far too strange. We haven’t even encountered their true form yet. It’s far from over." Straightening up, Buck scanned his surroundings and continued, "They—or perhaps they—might still be lying in ambush outside. Leaving directly now would be too dangerous. We need to escape through the hidden passage immediately."
As he spoke, Buck moved to the fireplace and turned a candlestick several times in specific directions. With a rumble, the bookshelf in the study slowly slid open, revealing a hidden chamber. At its center stood an altar with a Chalice emblem.
"Grab everything important, and let’s go!"
Buck and Clifford entered the hidden chamber, gathering their belongings. Before proceeding further, Buck paused, then pulled a rope near the wall. The entrance to the hidden chamber began to close until it was completely sealed.
"Heh, he even remembers to shut the door..."
From the mansion’s first floor, Dorothy smirked at the sight. Activating the Corpse Marionette Ring, she reanimated "Brandon," whose corpse had been left in the study.
Brandon had been killed earlier by Buck’s precise strike to the head, but this damage was insufficient to stop a corpse marionette. Dorothy had released Brandon’s marionette state the moment he was struck, making it appear to Buck that Brandon had truly died.
This served two purposes: to obscure the true nature of her powers and to set up Brandon as a potential trump card. Buck, thinking Brandon was dead, wouldn’t be on guard against him, creating opportunities for a sneak attack.
Though no such opportunity arose, Brandon’s role still proved useful.
While Dorothy approached the third floor with Edrick, she hid herself and positioned Edrick in the hallway, aiming his gun at the study’s bookshelf.
Meanwhile, Dorothy controlled Brandon to rotate the candlestick above the fireplace. Every movement and sequence was identical to what Buck had done earlier, perfectly memorized by Dorothy’s extraordinary memory.
As the correct sequence was entered, the rumbling of the mechanism echoed again, and the bookshelf, serving as the entrance to the hidden chamber, began to open.