Contractbound 54 Denuder

Valentine sat in the dark; his sharp eyes stared at the s.p.a.ce in front of him. He had just finished his second ritual, making him a double Contractbound. He felt that something deep and subtle about himself had changed, besides the new abilities he got, but he couldn't quite put where the change was.

"G, do you also feel that the more powerful we become, something becomes different? I don't know what, I just feel it," Valentine spoke quietly and slowly in that lightless room.

After getting that out of his mind, he began to a.n.a.lyze his new power.

"I would have got night vision from the Deity of Uncovering, but since already have one, it improves my eyesight instead. Now I can see almost as well as you can, and it also works in the dark."

"Besides that, now I have the power to make my target fall under my control to answer all my questions truthfully, but that's it. I cannot make my target do anything else like your power can, although your target doesn't fall unconscious, G. The maximum duration of the control is five minutes, or until I end it. During this time, the target's sense of danger will be tremendously boosted, so if I plan to harm them, they will be jolted awake. This must be the power that the police officer used on us during that interrogation," he remembered the first encounter with the two Police Contractbounds.

"I'll call that power Interrogation. It's easier to remember that way. The limit is, as usual, ten times a day, but I'm sure it will increase after I've pleased the Deity. And also, I cannot control anyone stronger than me."

"The next ability is to reconstruct a past event. I'll call that Reconstruction for short. I am able to use my blood to recreate what has happened previously in a specific spot. The quality of the reconstructed event will depend on the amount of blood used, and how much time has pa.s.sed since it happened. I wonder why a lot of Contractbound powers require blood..."

"Since I'm also in contract with Secrets, my Reconstruction can bypa.s.s anti-divination of a weaker or similar level to myself. That is a very powerful upgrade to this power. No wonder it is highly suggested to form a contract with certain combinations of Deities."

"I also have a pa.s.sive lie detection ability. Whenever someone tells a lie, my spirituality will be warned. It should be very useful in investigations. And the last one is my boosted sense of hearing. No wonder our target could hear your quiet chant from behind a heavy door."

Valentine then stayed quiet. He focused on the sounds of his surroundings in that silent night. He could perfectly hear the ticking of the clock in his bedroom through the closed doors. He could faintly hear the chirping of insects outside, which was usually audible from his bedroom, he couldn't hear it before from his office.

"It's time to test my new abilities," he said with a meaningful smile and got up from his chair.

Valentine exited his apartment and stopped in front of his neighbor's door. He squatted and looked at the wooden floor very carefully. With his improved eyesight, he could see very faint footprints that looked recent, but they were almost invisible, showing how light the steps of the owner were. The footprints were leading away from the door.

He got up and used his knife to make an incision in his palm, which strangely had no deep scar even though he had slit it numerous times to use his power. The cold knife caused a sharp pain on his skin and cut it open, allowing the blood to come gus.h.i.+ng out. He gathered enough blood on his palm and once he thought it was enough, he concentrated on the spot in front of him while thinking of an imaginary clock showing one hour ago to set the duration to one hour. He then asked a question.

"What has happened in this exact spot in the past hour?"

He sprayed the blood that had pooled on his palm over the small spot in front of the door. The blood got splattered on the floor, then it magically moved to form a figure that was shorter than Valentine. The figure was incomplete, however, since the amount of blood was limited. It only formed the parts of the face and some outlines of the body. The face, although only partially complete, could be recognized as Luuk van der Meer's.

Once the scene was completed, it started to move like it was a movie, to show the exact event that had transpired in that spot. It was Luuk walking away from the door carefully, not to cause the floor to creak. The blood figure kept walking several steps away before it vanished completely because it got out of the specified area. The blood, however, didn't return to becoming a pool of crimson liquid on the floor; it evaporated into thin air as if taken away as a tribute by the power that had answered Valentine's question.

"So, he got out within the past hour. However, with my power, there is no way to know the exact time he got out unless there was a clock there. And the amount of blood required to reconstruct just that one event is insane. This ability is useful but it's very situational," he came to a conclusion.

"The fact that the blood evaporates, though, is convenient. It means I won't be leaving bloodstain everywhere I go."

He put his knife back under his jacket and went outside the apartment building. Out in the street, he stopped and crouched down. He observed the sidewalk right in front of the building intently, trying to spot shoeprints that were left there. There were several recent ones, although it was already two in the evening. It made it difficult for Valentine to see which ones belonged to Luuk.

He took out his knife for the second time and created another wound on his left palm. He had a feeling he would need a lot more blood this time, but cutting open his wrist was inconvenient since he couldn't gather the blood then; it would all just start dripping to the ground. The previous wound had almost completely healed, only within the span of minutes, thanks to his status as a Contractbound.

This time, he let the blood gather longer because he needed more. He formed a cup with his hand to gather all the blood and made another cut to let it gather faster. He waited patiently and the pool of liquid started to overflow; some dripped to the ground below. He then imagined the duration of one hour and asked the same question.

"What happened here in this exact spot in the past hour?"

He sprayed the blood all over the spot that he imagined and after all falling on the paved ground, the blood started moving, including the blood beneath him that he had accidentally let drop. It gave him a new insight that he didn't actually have to have all the blood with him, as long as he had some left to splatter.

With that amount of blood, if it had been only one person, Valentine could have seen the figure better than his previous attempt, but now there were several figures being formed. It was totally not enough, so Valentine slit his wrist and supplied more blood to the scene in front of him. The fresh blood got sucked into the figures, making them slightly more complete. When he thought that it was enough, he quickly covered the wound on his wrist with a handkerchief that he had prepared because he didn't want to die of blood loss.

The scene in front of him now looked more clear, albeit was still only partially formed. At least now he could see which figure belonged to Luuk. There were a total of four people there, and only parts of the faces and some outlines of the body were formed with the amount of blood available. Two people whose faces he recognized as his neighbors were facing the direction of the door, while Luuk and the last figure whose face he didn't recognize were facing the east. There was also a small floating part of a cat's head facing the opposite direction from Luuk chasing something that might have been a rat; the thing it was chasing was only reconstructed as a floating bloodstain.

Once the scene was completed, the figures of blood started moving. The two neighbors were walking into Vakbond Apartment and then disappeared once they got out of the zone. Luuk and the other person started walking towards the direction they were facing and also disappeared. The cat moved very quickly chasing the blot of floating blood. He found out the direction where Luuk was going; however, since it showed everything that had happened within an hour, Valentine wasn't able to tell if Luuk and the other figure were traveling together or not.

After all the figures disappeared, the blood vanished into thin air, leaving no stain whatsoever on the pavement. Since the used blood was taken as an offering, Valentine's idea of using red paint instead of blood was shattered.

"Maybe we can steal some blood bags from the blood bank," he ridiculed while regaining his stamina.

Since becoming a Contractbound, his body's ability to regenerate had greatly improved. Losing that amount of blood wasn't a big deal to him, although it still made him somewhat lightheaded, because his body would produce it back quickly.

Valentine followed the direction where Luuk was going after he recovered from his weakened state. He walked lightly and quickly in that cold, moonless night. The barren night street was not so quiet in his ears. He could clearly hear the sound of insects chirping and owls hooting, which after some time started to annoy him. He needed to concentrate hard to block those noises from his brain. He could also hear the faint sound of footsteps walking the same direction as him, but the person was walking slower.

He kept walking and after some distance, he could finally see the owner of the stepping sounds. It was a slender man with all black clothes who was walking slowly and carefully in the shadow of the trees, avoiding the streetlight. The man was still about twenty meters away ahead of him, so he shouldn't have noticed Valentine. Before getting closer to the man, Valentine chanted.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the existence of my presence a secret!"

He then felt a thin layer of yellowish fog surrounding his whole body, which made people instinctively neglect his existence. The sounds of his footsteps, that were light to begin with, had now been erased completely. It was the same ability he had used on Graham when he was about to a.s.sa.s.sinate Daan Holsten. The effect radius was fifty meters, so he had to approach his target before the man got out of it.

Valentine walked quickly with absolute silence. However, he couldn't run because loud noises would still be noticeable by the people around him. He also couldn't talk if he wanted to remain stealthy because his ability also didn't conceal his voice.

The distance between him and the man was quickly reduced until Valentine was only several steps behind him. The man didn't seem to notice anyone walking behind him because there was no presence at all. He kept moving slowly and carefully while looking around. From that spot, Valentine could see that the man was wearing a facemask to conceal his ident.i.ty. Valentine then swiftly got in front of the man to allow him to see his target's eyes and very quickly chanted a spell.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Uncovering, hereby put you under interrogation!"

The man was very surprised by the person who suddenly appeared in front of him out of nowhere, but had no time to react at all. He felt his consciousness quickly faded away. The man was now standing in the spot motionless; his breathing became regular and steady. He had fallen under Valentine's control.

"Tell me what you are planning to do," asked Valentine suspiciously.

"I'm just looking for a house that looks profitable to steal from," answered the man in a monotonous voice honestly. Under Valentine's control, the answer came directly from the man's subconscious.

"Are you acting alone?"

"No. I'm only the scout. The whole team will operate once I've told them the target house," the man's voice remained monotonous.

"Has your team ever killed anyone during your action?"

"No. We only steal. We've never killed anyone," said the man again honestly, but his eyes seemed blank.

"How do you avoid confrontation with the house owner?"

"There is someone in our group who can make people fall asleep. So, whenever we are in action, the owners are guaranteed to be sleeping, no matter how much noise we make," he explained.

"Another Contractbound; the same power as the guy chasing Fabien Arnaud," Valentine muttered, then asked his next question, "Where are your accomplices hiding right now?"

"They are in Oosteindestraat, inside an empty house number 57."

Valentine had obtained everything that wanted to know, so he quickly moved away from the man's field of vision and stood under a tree, watching his target. The moment he moved too far away from the target, he broke free from Valentine's control and let out a short scream while hid hands moved in front of his face, guarding it.

"Aah!"

He then looked around in confusion and quickly controlled himself. He seemed to only remember the last moment before he fell under control, which was Valentine suddenly appearing in front of him. Since there was no one there, he thought that he had only imagined it, so he brushed that thought away. After he made sure that he was safe, the man continued walking while trying to find a suitable house to rob.

Valentine left the man behind and continued to walk towards the east. However, he had gotten a new destination now.