The newspaper was today's edition.
Narce must have left it before I arrived.
The contamination disappearing from the hot spring… It wasn't just because they were wary of us.
Looking at these results, that place had been a test site.
They had already figured out what conditions triggered those reactions in people.
So there was no reason to continue their experiments in a region where priests had arrived.
There was a five-day gap between their withdrawal and today's events.
That meant they couldn't afford to get caught back then.
[… All victims reside near major rivers.
In particular, over 100 victims simultaneously emerged near the Saale River in Bavaria….]
"..."
Bavaria.
Demons aside, this concentrated attack on Bavaria confirmed it was the work of Pleroma.
"Pai."
"Hmm?"
"Call Narce. Or Leona or Elias—whoever's available."
"Okay!"
I donned my priest's robe and mask.
Then, as an afterthought, I swept all the medicine from my drawer into my bag.
I couldn't afford to have my Health stat be a liability at a time like this.
As soon as I slung my bag over my shoulder—
A vaguely outlined figure appeared before me.
It was Elias, using perceptual distortion magic.
"Ohhh?"
He grinned mischievously and smacked me on the shoulder.
"Damn, Luca! You actually came back alive? Do you know how hard it was for me to keep my mouth shut?"
"You seem to be doing fine."
I smiled.
Elias, however, scowled slightly.
"Not really. I almost lost it, thinking you'd end up a corpse for good."
"…Hm."
Despite his casual tone, he didn't look well.
Elias couldn't be at ease.
After all, if the Emperor ever changed his mind, he too could be locked away at home forever.
He probably saw his own future reflected in mine.
I changed the subject.
"Anyway, did you have something to tell me?"
"There's no 'assigned topic' between us, man. It just feels best to talk with someone who gets it. But seriously… how was it?"
His tone became serious.
"Nothing happened. I look fine, don't I?"
"What about the future? That bastard came to see how much you've changed, didn't he?"
"He did. I'll fill you in later. But right now, we need to talk about the demon cases. Do you know anything?"
"Hm… I'd rather hear about your brother first."
Despite saying that, Elias immediately answered.
"The newspaper said it all. Over 500 victims across the Empire so far."
"Has an investigation started?"
"With numbers like these? Of course. But how the hell do you investigate demonic possession? They're just talking about how they need the officially recognized Holy Power Mages from the church."
Elias unfolded his half-folded newspaper and showed it to me.
Every article was about demons.
Not a single mention of Pleroma.
It makes sense.
Right now, any unusual event led people to ask, "Is this Pleroma's doing?"
Yet, in Baden, the authorities had immediately classified this as demonic possession and requested an exorcism from the Papal State.
That meant the symptoms perfectly matched demonic possession.
Honestly, when I had first observed the victims, even I had thought they looked possessed.
If no one suspected Pleroma, that meant they could hide behind the 'demon' narrative and commit even greater atrocities.
I need to make some kind of official statement as Nicolaus.
But before that, I needed more information.
I needed to know the exact conditions under which these victims were contaminated.
"Eli, let's go. We need to meet the victims in Baden-Baden."
"Oh? You're going to investigate? I doubt it'll do any good."
Why?
Elias saw my questioning look and continued.
"You wanted to know why only some people were affected, right? So we looked into it… None of the victims remember anything. They don't even recall what happened right before they got possessed."
…They don't remember?
So they do recall drinking contaminated water or eating food before the event.
But they don't remember the actual triggering moment.
That was exactly like the symptoms of possession.
No wonder everyone was convinced these were demonic cases.
At this rate, the real culprit would never come to light.
Then there's only one solution.
If I wanted to determine the contamination conditions, I had to experiment on myself.
I needed to recreate the scenario under controlled conditions.
I needed to drink polluted water under different emotional states and analyze the results.
"…Then, Eli."
"Oh, your expression changed. You're thinking something shady again, aren't you?"
What kind of description is that…?
Elias smirked.
"You gonna do human experiments?"
"Yes."
"No need. You already guessed emotional fluctuation was the trigger, right? Narce already confirmed it."
Huh.
I hadn't even told them my theory, yet Narce had already reached the same conclusion.
That meant I didn't need to use myself as a test subject.
Sometimes, his ability is really convenient.
"Then Eli, let's meet up with the others."
"…Ah."
Elias hesitated slightly, his expression turning a little uneasy.
He then sighed.
"They probably won't be able to talk right now."
"…What do you mean?"
"This article came out four hours ago, right? Even with the church sending priests, they're completely overwhelmed. Those two have been running around non-stop."
"…Hm?"
"I used magic to get here, but I need to head back soon."
So he was planning to leave me behind?
And he's telling me about this now?
***
"This way!"
Contacting the Bavarian Investigation Bureau led me straight to the most critical area.
The scene was horrific.
Even Elias, upon arrival, quickly cast a protective barrier around us.
[AAAHHHHH!]
[PLEASE SAVE ME!]
Bloodcurdling screams echoed from all around.
The air itself had turned black.
A mage from the Investigation Bureau cast a light spell, his face pale with panic.
"Thank the heavens you're here, sir. Both the Papal State and the Imperial Court have been sending mages, but… they keep turning like this. We have no way to stop it."
Elias spoke quietly.
"You've been calling this demonic possession all along… But do you really believe that?"
The investigator turned toward him with a look of despair.
"There's no way! The Lord wouldn't— this can't be happening! Over a hundred people at once… this isn't…"
Of course.
Because this wasn't a natural phenomenon.
This was Pleroma's doing.
I ignored his religious ramblings and scanned the area.
"This is the worst-affected zone, correct?"
"Yes, sir—"
BOOM!
Before he could finish speaking, something that looked exactly like Vitriol exploded in front of us.
The investigator barely managed to erect a barrier, gasping in terror.
He had likely been on-site for a long time with no progress, and fear was finally taking hold.
CRASH—!
Elias immediately swung his wand, breaking through the investigator's barrier.
His magic surged forward, restraining someone in the distance.
[GGAAAAAHHH—!]
BOOM—! CRACK—!
"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done…"
The investigator had lost it.
He was frantically reciting the Lord's Prayer while firing off magic.
It wouldn't work—this wasn't an actual demon.
But I didn't bother stopping him.
If it gave him a sense of control, so be it.
"How many are left?"
The investigator, muttering a prayer, repeated my question aloud before answering.
"Twenty-three."
"What about the mages?"
"Right now, we have 50 mages on-site. But from what we've seen, at least three people are needed to subdue one victim. We're short-handed."
With that, the mage tapped my artifact with his wand.
"I've connected you to the command center. You can speak directly through this."
"Understood."
I glanced around and spoke.
"Are we getting more reinforcements?"
"They said they'll send ten more within 30 minutes. None of them are Holy Power Mages."
Thirty minutes?
I understood that there were multiple critical areas, so they couldn't just throw people here at full force.
But thirty minutes was too long.
Still, there was one thing I could do.
I tapped my artifact and said,
"I'm heading to the epicenter. Send me the warp coordinates."
The investigator's eyes widened in alarm, but I was already gone.
I landed inside the black smoke.
BOOM—! CRASH—!
The sheer volume of explosions and attacks shook my body.
Visibility was nearly nonexistent.
I tapped my artifact again.
"I'm about to halt their movements. Attack them while they're restrained."
A moment passed before someone responded.
[Message relayed.]
Good.
Everyone here was using artifacts, which was fortunate.
If the mages didn't act in time while I bought them a window, it would be pointless.
I spun my wand into a staff and slammed it against the ground.
"If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you!"
Instantly—
All sound disappeared.
The black smoke that had filled the air was washed away in white light.
And at that moment—
Magic from the other mages rained down from all directions.
I reached for my artifact to warp back—
And then—
My eyelids grew unbearably heavy.
***
When I opened my eyes, I was inside a building.
Most likely a Bavarian hospital.
…Shit…
I had forgotten about this risk.
The painkillers had worked too well.
I hadn't realized my body was in worse condition than I thought.
"Yo, Lucas."
A familiar voice came from somewhere.
Leo sat across from me, arms crossed.
Seeing a familiar face, I nodded.
"This is the first time you've greeted me voluntarily."
"You seem fine."
Leo smirked—but it wasn't a pleasant smirk.
He spoke evenly.
"Narce said you were in bad shape. So I told Elias to stop you from coming here… But somehow, you still ended up here."
"How could I not?"
If they wanted to stop me, they should've tied me down.
I sat up and saw that Narce and Elias were also in the room.
"The situation is over?"
"Yeah. The area you were in… It was completely contained within 15 minutes after you used magic. The other sites just wrapped up."
Good.
"I needed to talk to you all anyway. Convenient that we're already gathered."
"About what?"
Now that Pleroma had escalated nationwide, there was no way I could let this go unanswered.
Bavaria's government would act under the King's orders, so that was taken care of.
Other nations would also launch investigations, given the scale of the event.
But with everyone focused on 'demons,' there was no guarantee they would investigate properly.
Right now, since we knew it was Pleroma's doing, it was our job to analyze their intentions first.
That way, I could also make an official statement as Nicolaus.
I spoke slowly.
"You know how Pleroma lures people in, right?"
"Yeah~ They promise eternal life."
Elias answered immediately.
Leo added,
"They also advertise magic to non-mages."
Vitriol actually worked better on non-mages.
Since those with cores already had natural magic, Vitriol functioned like a foreign toxin to them.
But for those without cores, it merged seamlessly—as if it were their own magic.
That was the public perception of Vitriol.
At this point, I needed to check something.
"Leo, bring me the documents we took from Pleroma."
"Sure."
Leo warped away and returned with a stack of papers.
I flipped through them, searching for one specific file.
[Osnabrück Diocese - Exclusion List from 'Blessing']
According to what we learned in Asman, 'Blessing' referred to Vitriol.
I skimmed down the list of names.
[Caroline Bexler] [Reason: Physically Incompatible]
"Physically Incompatible."
The entire page was filled with those words.
I held up the document so the others could see.
"This means that even among non-mages, there are some who can't integrate Vitriol into their bodies."
"But Pleroma was telling everyone they could? That's a complete scam."
Elias shook his head in disbelief.
Exactly.
To recruit more followers, Pleroma had advertised Vitriol as something anyone could receive—but that wasn't true.
In Pleroma's world, "compatibility" existed.
"We need to figure out why some people are 'incompatible.'"
"Seek, and you shall find."
"Wait."
I found it.
I hadn't expected it, since I hadn't fully read through these documents before.
But there it was—glowing under my spell.
A profile of a Pleroma member.
I scanned through it and read aloud.
"Since Vitriol does not transform into a core and instead ultimately evaporates, this individual was deemed incompatible."
"…Holy shit. So that's how non-mages use magic?"
It seemed that in non-mages, Vitriol actually became a magic core.
Those who successfully formed cores became Pleroma members.
Those who failed—were deemed incompatible.
And based on the wording…
Those whose Vitriol evaporated were likely the ones who became possessed in this recent incident.
Leo flipped through more pages.
"The list of incompatibles is way longer than the list of compatibles."
He held up the two lists for comparison.
The gap between them was almost fourfold.
Everyone in the room shared the same realization.
This is how they're operating now.
Pleroma was running out of people.
Or rather, they were unsatisfied with their numbers and wanted to expand.
And thanks to me, their previous recruitment pipeline had been destroyed.
With fewer people, they had fewer compatible candidates.
I smirked.
"So they're trying to harvest compatible individuals from the surface now."
"…What kind of crazy bastards think like this?"
Elias's voice was cold.
It was disturbing.
But it seemed Pleroma was naturally wired for this kind of thinking.
Even in the Catacomb documents I gave the Emperor, Pleroma had already outlined their plan to claim the entire Empire as their domain.
"They must've been impressed by Strauch's mosquito contamination method. This isn't any different."
I spoke quietly.
Pleroma was turning the entire surface world into their testing grounds for compatible hosts.
No—
It was already happening.
This was the worst crime they had committed thus far.
People would unwittingly become Pleroma.
And the number of those tainted by Vitriol would only increase.
Hmm.
A good idea came to mind.
"I need to go negotiate with someone."