The police officers carefully carried the injured worker out of the warehouse so he could be shown to a doctor as soon as possible. So now only the three of us and Vyuk were left there. And it was almost certain that this condition of that innocent worker had been caused by that kidnapper woman, so that she could clear her path.
Vyuk himself confirmed my suspicion. But before saying anything further, Vyuk looked at me very seriously and asked a question that shocked me.
"Jona, do you know about Sequence 3 and the sequences beyond it?"
I looked at him in surprise, but quickly composed myself and replied, "Yes, I know. Sequence 3 is the level where we have to choose one out of eight different pathways, which are called 'Beyond Paths'. But Vyuk, what does this information have to do with this poison incident right now? We should focus on finding that woman."
Vyuk let out a cold sigh and, looking at the scattered boxes, said, "It has a very deep connection, Jona. That woman is not just an ordinary kidnapper. The kind of poison used here—
—this type of toxic and mind-destabilizing abilities are a specialty of the 'Void Pathway'."
The moment Vyuk said that, my mind started racing. Void Pathway… This is the very path known for powers related to darkness and emptiness. I searched through the information Historia and Den had given me and began wondering whether users of the Void Pathway have some uniqueness related to poison-type powers, or perhaps when they reach a higher sequence they gain these poisonous abilities.
Vyuk's statement filled my mind with a barrage of questions, but I knew my knowledge about this mysterious pathway was still limited. Only Vyuk, who himself was an experienced Paragon, could give precise answers.
I looked into Vyuk's eyes and asked, "So does that woman belong to this pathway? Does that mean it's confirmed she's at least Sequence 3 or even higher? And is this poison so effective because of a specific sequence ability that it makes a person afraid of light itself?"
But before I could ask anything else, he himself questioned me,
"Jona, when you fought that woman, what kind of abilities did she use during the battle?"
Hearing him, I came out of my thoughts and began describing in detail the powers I had seen with my own eyes.
"First of all," I began, "she can create shadow clones. She can make shadow copies that look exactly like her and uses them to distract enemies. And I think she can also use those clones for substitution, allowing her to escape direct lethal attacks."
Then I paused slightly and mentioned her second power. "Her second ability is no less dangerous. She can focus a special kind of grey-blue energy into her attacks and then release it with a deadly strike. She used that attack on me too, and I barely managed to counter it."
But I didn't stop there. I also told Vyuk about her Hallowed weapon. "She also has a Hallowed weapon — a hunter. Its special trait is that she can ignite it with some kind of fire. Instead of burning, the weapon's range and accuracy increase several times when it ignites. And when she attacks, the flames make her strikes spread like a whirlwind across a wide area, increasing their speed even more. If even one strike hits someone, they're guaranteed to be cut into two pieces."
After saying all that, I took a deep breath and looked at Vyuk. "That's all I know about that woman."
After hearing everything, Vyuk remained silent for quite a while, as if analyzing every piece of information in his mind. Then he finally broke his silence and said with certainty, "Now I'm sure — that woman belongs to the Void Pathway."
Hearing that, I fell into thought for a moment. My mind admitted that Vyuk was probably right. Her ability to create identical shadow clones and that unique poison that induced a strange terror in the worker — both pointed toward that pathway.
But on the other hand there was Helena, who didn't understand a single word of our technical discussion. She got irritated and suddenly shouted,
"Hey! What are you people even talking about? What are these 'Void Pathway' and 'Beyond Paths' things?"
Her voice echoed, and all three of us — Vyuk, Historia, and I — looked at her. For a moment I was surprised that she really didn't know that after reaching Sequence 3 one must choose different pathways. But then I remembered what Historia had told me: many people become Paragons yet never gain deep knowledge about pathways. That was exactly Helena's situation right now.
Historia also understood from Helena's expression how confused she was.
By now we had walked out of the warehouse. The fresh air outside calmed the mind a little, but I felt this wasn't the right time to explain such complex paths to Helena. We had very little time, and that kidnapper woman could already be far ahead of us.
So I decided it was better to ignore Helena's confusion for now. I turned directly to Vyuk and asked the question that had been flashing in my mind:
"Vyuk, how are we going to find that woman? We don't have any clue where she is right now."
Hearing me, Vyuk looked at me. A faint, confident smile appeared on his face. He slowly raised his right hand, and I saw fresh blood on it.
I was startled and immediately asked whose blood it was.
Vyuk's mysterious smile remained. Calmly he replied, "This blood belongs to that worker who was lying injured inside. When I was checking him, I deliberately took a little of his blood onto my hand."
Looking at the red stain on his fingers, he continued, "Now I will use the poison present in this blood. Through the power of Divination, I will track the source of this poison and directly locate that woman."
I listened and asked in astonishment, "Really? Can we find her location from just a drop of blood?"
Vyuk answered seriously, "Absolutely. We can — provided we do it correctly and there's no interference from 'V-Law'."
As soon as I heard the term V-Law, I became confused and murmured, almost to myself, "V-Law? What is that supposed to be?"
Vyuk sensed my confusion and said, "Yes, I thought so, Jona — you wouldn't know what V-Law is."
"No, I don't. Tell me what it is," I asked eagerly.
Without hesitation, Vyuk began explaining. But before that, he asked one more question:
"Jona, how much do you know about Epochs?"
I immediately replied, "Yes, I know a little. There have been four epochs so far: the first epoch was 'The Pangeon', the second epoch 'The Discordia', the third epoch 'The Relic', and the last, the 4th epoch, 'The Flux'. And right now we are living in the third epoch, the Relic."
After saying that, I asked, "Alright, so what does that have to do with V-Law?"
Vyuk took a deep breath and said, "Alright. Now I'll tell you what V-Law really is."