Chapter 257: The Trap

Eiro was sitting on the ground looking at the flower that simply wouldn't grow all that much no matter how much of his magic he focused onto it directly. He would have to figure this out sometime later then. What was more important was that he had to get a little bit of practice in with the Nature Element so that he could possibly try and restrain the Collector, or even just trip him up somehow by creating an uneven ground.

Eiro managed to make other things grow pretty easily, like the weeds or the grass, luckily. He was able to control them somewhat, like making them flail around or grow into a spiral, and that seemed like he would be able to at least somehow use this magic already, even if it wasn't actually all that strong yet.

"Should be strong enough..." Eiro muttered quietly as he stood up properly and then cracked his knuckles as he mentally went through all of the information that he had on the Collector while trying to figure out a good way to find out his current location so that he may get the jump on him.

Maybe Bahlsen also figured something out by now, and already knew where the Collector was, so Eiro should check in with him first.

Eiro stretched his wings out and flapped them, quickly flying over toward one of the open windows at the backside of the manor, and climbed right through into the room that was there. Sitting there on the ground was Bavet, who slowly turned his head toward Eiro and just groaned, "Are we really going already?"

"Yes, we are. Stop complaining." Eiro said bluntly and stretched his hand out toward the currently humanoid figure. Bavet stood up from the ground where he was currently reading, and then held the Demon's hands before completely changing and compressing his body into a form that seemed relatively normal.

Bavet wrapped himself around the satchel and basically added onto its outer form, creating something like a large backpack that was hanging off Eiro's back. Like this, they could keep Bavet's slime around, since it would probably end up coming in quite useful.

And on top of that, like this, Bavet could act as another layer of protection for Avalin's blood and Eiro's bone-powder to make sure the small constructions wouldn't randomly break in the satchel.

And then, Eiro jumped away from the window and started to fly immediately toward the direction of town. Up ahead, he was able to see a few dark clouds, so it seemed like it would end up storming later. Eiro heard that there were pretty strong snowstorms around here sometimes, and considering how strong it had been snowing over the last little while anyway, that might end up being the case later as well.

Actually, that might come in quite useful for Eiro, although he would need to try and heat Bavet up with a bit of fire magic... But through a thick snowstorm, Eiro might be able to send out pulses with his Ice Magic to figure out everything in his direct perimeter immediately. He managed to do something similar with rain before, so it might work out if he concentrated well enough.

Either way, Eiro looked at the town ahead and continued to fly over there at a quick pace. Not too long afterward, he managed to fly over the town gates.

Luckily, it seemed like the window in Bahlsen's room was open right now, so Eiro quickly picked up his speed a bit more and then wrapped his wings around his body as he shot down, trying to hide himself completely using a bit of shadow magic.

And immediately after Eiro shot through Bahlsen's open window, he spread out his wings. It created a rather strong gust and sent literally all the notes that Bahlsen took over the past little while flying all around in a flurry, but it was still a perfect landing on Eiro's part.

"Ah..." Bahlsen said with a wry smile, "Listen, I'm glad you're here and all, but can't you just take the door..? Now I have to put all of this up again..." The Investigator grumbled to himself, and Eiro took a look around at all the papers.

"It's fine, I got a good look at everything." Eiro pointed out, and Bahlsen looked at him with a frown, "Even if that was possible in that split-second, it doesn't help me figure everything out in the slightest... But come on and help me."

With a slight sigh at noticing that Bahlsen misunderstood him, Eiro flapped his wings to create a strong gust of wind again, but this time around, he was contolling that wind with air magic. And as the pieces of paper started floating around again, it seemed like Bahlsen finally understood what Eiro was getting at.

He placed all the pieces of paper roughly back into the position they were in before, and then looked directly at the investigator, "So, what's all of this? It's all just speculation on what the Collector is and where he's from. Is this really going to help us find him?"

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"Yes, I think so, at least! It filled up a lot of gaps that I had in my mind, and I think I have a rough idea of an actual victim-profile for the first time! Or at least, I have speculations on what he's looking for in his victims that makes them interesting for him!"

"Well, I guess that would help narrow it down a bit?"

"Certainly so!" Bahlsen exclaimed, "So, as far as my theories go, Bahlsen is a Demi-Lich. As if stuck inbetween Life and Lich-hood, practically. Still an Undead, and an incredibly powerful and dangerous one at that. A Lich's powers and abilities will be a warped version of what they were like during the life of the one that became the Lich. That is not the case with a Demi-Lich just yet. So they have the same vulnerabilities as regular Lichs, but their abilities aren't innately infused with necromantic energies, making it easier for them to blend in with a regular populace. But at the same time, it means their powers aren't much stronger than when they were still living. They probably now have a greater array of abilities, however."

Eiro thought about Bahlsen's words and thought about it for a little while, trying to come up with some kind of tactic, "Good that he's a Demi-Lich and not a regular one, then. A Demi-Lich doesn't have a phylactery, right?"

"Indeed! That is the main difference in the nature of a Demi-Lich and a complete Lich!" The Investigator exclaimed with a weird sense of excitement, and Eiro slowly crossed his arms, "Alright, now that I know what I'm going to fight, what's the 'victim profile' you mentioned?"

"Ah!" With a light smile on his face, the Investigator started to speak, "You see, it's quite simple. As a Monster, you must know what it's like to have a Bane, right? I heard that a monster is innately capable of sensing their bane to an extent. In an Undead's case, that would be the 'Life Element', right? Well, I was already playing around with this idea before, but what if all living beings have some kind of instance of the Life Element in them? Possibly, in a wicked way of showing his superiority, the Collector is trying to take parts of people that have an extremely high amount of this Life Element inside of them to create the 'Dolls' he is making. As if he's trying to say, 'Not even my own bane can hurt me, as I am fully in control of it'."

Immediately, Eiro crossed his arms in thought. That might actually be possible somehow. Sure, Life Force and the Life Element weren't the same thing, but they were quite similar to each other. He did read about Undead beings in particular having the ability to sense Life in a similar way to how Spirits are able to sense Magic. It might be a far stretch, but if that was the case, then maybe Eiro was able to cause even more damage to the Collector by infusing his attack with his Life Force. It most likely wouldn't act like Life Magic would, but it would probably help him a bit anyway.

Now, at least, Eiro had some good way to actually damage the Collector properly... If he managed to get a hit on him. And for that, Eiro would need to figure out a good way to find someone with high amounts of Life Force in their bodies.

Eiro took a deep breath as he started to think. What exactly caused Life Force to gather in specific places of one's body? If they were especially healthy or if Life Force was being manipulated somehow.

"The woman that was gutted by the Collector, do you know anything about her? Why were her organs taken specifically?"

"That's what I was trying to figure out! I don't exactly know why yet, but I'll-"

"I know." Eiro said bluntly, having a rough idea of why it could be, "I think she was poisoned somehow. There's a specific kind of herb that acts this way. I know a little bit about healing arts and herbology, and there's one specific plant that in the right dosis can increase the natural recovery speed of certain wounds, or help you fight against diseases. The rest of your body suffers under that, however. In the right amounts that's not an issue in the slightest. When we saw her, the woman had especially dirty hands and a strong smell to her. I didn't recognize it then, but I think it was the smell of that herb. It's rather common, so she might have broken into an Apothecary's garden, thinking it was food, and then ate that herb. It has a pretty good smell and taste, actually... She probably poisoned herself with that, Life Force gathered in her internal organs, and the Collector took notice of that." Eiro figured, and the Investigator looked at Eiro rather surprised.

"Oh, how did you figure that out?"

"I literally told you my process. Just because you have a card that increases your ability doesn't mean you're the only one that can make connections like that. Now, if that's the case, then I think I have a good idea on how to set a bit of a trap for the Collector..." The Demon explained with a light smile on his face, hidden by his mask, and the Investigator crossed his arms.

"I see... You want to somehow increase this 'Life Force' in someone and lure the Collector toward that person?"

"Exactly so. What body parts did he not 'collect' yet?"

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