Immediately after, a blinding silver light flashed across Diana's eyes. A thin line of blood appeared along her jaw joint, stretching across her entire gray-white face.
Ten Commandments sliced off her tongue and lower jaw without resistance, like cutting through paper.
"So ghoul blood is red too?"
The blade light followed close behind, surgically precise as it shattered Diana's knee joints.
Her body pitched forward and she fell to her knees like a hunched wild dog.
"Sucking brain fluid, devouring flesh, changing into the appearance of food to breed in dark corners, unable to coexist with humans. Standard execution method: weapons soaked in the blood of the dead... No wonder the European Division chose to exterminate you all indiscriminately."
Faced with L's methodical assessment, Diana desperately tried to make a sound but could only manage hoarse whimpers.
"Don't give me that pitiful look. Cannibals deserve death—that's an iron law."
L showed no extra emotion as he aimed Oath at the ghoul's heart and pushed it in as slowly as possible.
"When you took Diana Pollier's life, did you show even a trace of mercy?"
Blood gushing from the wound began to evaporate rapidly. Though it was a cold blade, cutting through her flesh felt like a red-hot iron. The invisible power's accompanying heat even burned her plump muscles until they shriveled.
For most undead beings, mithril was both invisible poison and a soul-burning spear.
"I snuck into the police station to investigate her records. Michigan State University graduate, honest, brave. She probably would have been an excellent officer in the future."
L looked down at the cannibalistic demon from above, his voice calm and cold.
"That shouldn't have been a good person's ending, so someone had to avenge her, right?"
The next second, he viciously twisted the handle. The blade pierced straight through her heart.
The hunched body gradually carbonized to ash in violent struggles, floating and scattering with the flowing air like a snowfall.
But as the execution was carried out, the wind became increasingly clear. The stirred air began rustling like flying paper.
L stared at those withered, aging pupils and reached out to pinch a grain of ash, seeming to realize some danger was approaching.
But just as he turned his head, something had already landed heavily behind him, piercing through his chest without hesitation and crushing his beating heart.
It all happened too fast—clean and efficient, like it had been planned all along.
L tried to break free in that final moment, but the massive blood loss from the instant made his resistance laughable.
"Human... you shouldn't have come here... and you definitely shouldn't have... ruined my hope of breeding offspring!"
A low voice rang out from behind L—the killing intent erupting from deep in his soul, almost squeezed out through gritted teeth.
The middle-aged man wearing a conductor's uniform raised his other hand and gripped L's throat tightly, tearing at the bloody flesh like an executioner punishing a criminal.
"Oh, Ashariel... my poor Ashariel."
The conductor threw aside the corpse and gently caressed his fellow creature's remains, then suddenly pressed hard with his hand, driving his five fingers into her skull.
With a slight explosion, that deformed head cracked like a sea urchin, oozing greenish brain fluid.
"I... can't waste any... precious food... that would be... blasphemy against Mother Goddess Eve." It viciously bit into the skull, its forked tongue probing into the cracks to greedily suck.
"Ashariel? I thought it didn't have its own name."
A calm voice rang out from behind, interrupting the conductor's feeding.
Like a startled beast, it quickly turned around, pupils contracting to pinpoint size: "You... this is impossible... you're not—"
"Save the 'but you're already dead' talk, Mr. Conductor. I'm glad you didn't choose to run away."
L, who should have been a corpse, pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. The exposed flesh and bone at his chest rapidly healed with writhing motion.
"I was waiting for you the whole time. Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered killing time with that lady. After all—I don't like walking dogs."
"Who exactly are you!" Faced with L's deliberate provocation, the enraged conductor howled like a wolf who'd lost his mate.
It had always been very careful. From the moment Ashariel called for help, the trap targeting hunters had already been set.
The train entering the abandoned platform would create an ideal hunting ground, while it would sneak into the car looking for a chance to enjoy this wonderful feast with Ashariel.
Although it hadn't expected this hunter to possess a precious mithril weapon, which made it hesitate and lose its companion.
But it had definitely killed this lowly human!
"That's not important," L said quietly. "Because you're about to die."
A mighty roar echoed through the silent car.
If the conductor's eyes had still held a trace of reason before, now they had transformed into pure brutality.
It approached L step by step, getting faster and faster. Its bulging muscular body leaned forward like a mix of hunting dog and bat.
But facing the beast about to pounce on him, L remained unmoved. Golden light began flowing in the depths of his eyes.
"Mors ultima ratio." (Death is the final accounting)
The next second, an astonishing high-speed airflow whipped up L's black hair, fierce enough to seem like it would devour everything around. But the pouncing shadow froze in front of him, unable to move, even its suppressed howls choked in its throat.
Time seemed frozen in place. Some invisible domain enveloped the person and beast.
Everything was like a movie in slow motion.
Actually, the conductor only needed to advance one more step to tear open L's throat. But the invisible force kept restraining it, like red-hot iron chains on a lion.
"I told you—you're about to die."
Only then did the conductor realize L had raised his head.
But it couldn't see that indifferent face clearly, only a pair of ancient, stern, seemingly burning golden pupils.
L slowly raised his hand. The boiling shadows at his feet dissolved into liquid, drop by drop suspended in his palm, gathering into a circle, extending into a blade.
This was the great power bestowed by truth, the miracle that pierced matter and spirit.
Truth Path: Alchemy.
"An alchemist... you're actually an alchemist!"
Tremendous fear exploded in the conductor's heart. The hunger, hatred, and wishful thinking deep in its soul all collapsed in that moment.
Time began flowing again—or rather, the moment L gripped that sword, the conductor was finally freed from its frozen senses.
It turned and fled in terror, but immediately heard something terrible pursuing it.
L's form hadn't arrived yet, but his attack had already covered the entire car. Dense blade light like black birds, relentless until death.
Piercing wails were drowned in the sound of breaking wind—the sound of bones shattering and muscles churning together, though it sounded like chewing on rotten shoe leather.
The conductor didn't even realize it had lost both legs and was crawling pathetically.
"By the way, before it's all over, I have a question for you."
The wind suddenly stopped.
L slowed his pace, dragging the black sword behind him across the floor, sending up sparks.
He'd returned to being that polite British young man, but the conductor didn't dare look back.
The violent slashing had dismembered its entire lower half. The healing factor Mother Goddess had granted undead beings was losing activity from rapid consumption, as if even the bone marrow had been drained.
"Ever heard the name 'Boreas'? Though I can't say exactly what it is. But as far as I know, it briefly appeared in Orland."
L's voice carried no emotion. He released the sword handle, letting it liquefy and flow away. A ring of thorn branches rotated in his golden pupils, beautiful beyond description.
"Don't come closer... I... need food... food." The conductor hoarsely roared, its incredibly strong will to survive driving it to keep crawling.
"That's a funny answer. Want me to order you a Subway?"
The blinding golden pupils reflected that ferocious face caught between human and beast.
L casually waved his hand. The boiling shadows condensed into sharp chains that wrapped around the conductor's entire body, drilling into wounds like snakes.
Then came the sound of blood gushing, bones fracturing under pressure, mixed with crying.
"Which way do you prefer to die? Guts on the inside, or spilled all over the ground like Judas?"
He bent down indifferently, grabbed that bloody tailbone, and slowly dragged it along, leaving a thick, bloody trail.
"I... I... don't kill me... please... please!"
The hard tailbone scraped against the floor with a grinding sound. The conductor writhed like a catfish, its voice distorted by sobbing.
"You have five seconds to answer before I decide to dissect you."
He pulled out Oath from Ashariel's chest, casually destroyed the remains, grabbed the conductor's hair, and lifted the cowering creature up.
"I don't know! I swear! I swear by Mother Goddess's name!" It almost used its last strength to scream, the wounds burning with pain.
L didn't respond, staring at that deformed, even pitiful face, falling into long silence.
"Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Conductor." After a while, he suddenly smiled and lowered Oath from the creature's throat.
Then he stabbed it into the heart, twisted, pulled out—all in one fluid motion.
"Sweet dreams, then."
In one swift movement, the lights went out. The spurting blood and flesh dissolved into collapsing ash.
In that swirling ash, the brilliant golden eyes suddenly went dark.