The lead officer cautiously approached and knocked on the window. "Get out of the car! You’re needed for an investigation!"

Baron saw officers crouching by the doors in his side-view mirrors. From the trunk of the cab, he heard breathing and the distinct CLICK of a magazine being loaded.

He paused for a second.

Baron suddenly grabbed Lankao, who was slumped in the passenger seat, vaulted into the driver’s seat, and slammed his foot on the gas, speeding away from the scene.

To keep Lankao from escaping, he drove with one hand, the other holding a revolver to Lankao’s head. He didn’t stop until the sirens had faded completely. Then he got out, hauled Lankao with him, and disappeared into a sewer.

’Feels like coming home.’

Baron silently griped to himself after closing the manhole cover.

He then threw Lankao—who had been speechless and dazed ever since his Magic Staff was broken—to the ground. A sharp slap brought him back to his senses, and Baron grabbed him by the collar.

"Stop spacing out! Tell me why you chose to frame me! Why me!"

When Lankao remained unresponsive, the Dragon Knight didn’t grow impatient. He simply snapped one of Lankao’s fingers as easily as if it were a dry twig.

The intense pain shocked Lankao back to his senses. He broke out in a cold sweat, but even as he twitched, he sneered, "It’s no use. I won’t talk... And even if I did, you wouldn’t understand."

’How am I supposed to understand if you don’t tell me? Can you stop speaking in riddles?’

Baron snapped a second finger.

Lankao hissed in a sharp breath but kept smiling, his grin full of mockery. "Mr. Constantine, don’t waste your energy. You think you’re the first to have these ideas? I’ve made a pact. The moment I speak, they’ll know."

He clutched his two broken fingers. "Then we’ll both be caught by those terrifying people, and what they do to us will be just as bad as the Inquisition, if not worse."

Baron asked, "Is he telling the truth?"

Lankao froze. From the shadows behind the Dragon Knight, a figure emerged. He looked like a Golden-haired Baboon stuffed into a suit and tie—though a bit more human-like on closer inspection. He was wearing a headset connected to a small box.

Jack nodded. "He’s telling the truth. The ’Truth Detector’ didn’t flash."

Lankao understood. Baron had come prepared, even bringing a Taboo Item that could detect lies.

But he just gave a dry, cold laugh that sounded like a broken-down bellows.

Baron looked at Lankao, stroking his chin. "If you can’t talk about that, then there must be something you *can* talk about."

He pressed the muzzle of the revolver to Lankao’s hand again. "Talk. Tell me what you can. The blood ritual. The people you killed. Why you did it."

Lankao remained silent. Without hesitation, Baron pulled the trigger. A gunshot echoed, leaving a bloody hole in Lankao’s palm.

The Blood Biter’s face was ashen. Beads of sweat dotted his brow, and he bit his lip so hard it nearly drew blood.

Jack sighed. "L, you’re being a little too brutal. Let me handle this."

With that, Jack pulled a photograph from his coat, took Baron’s revolver, and pressed the muzzle to the picture.

"Eleanor Morgwen. For her sake, you used the blood of others to endlessly sustain the Soul Spirits of that family of three. If L were to kill her... well, what’s one more crime on the pile, brother?"

Seeing Baron’s glance, Jack gave a reassuring shrug. Then his expression hardened as he glared at Lankao. "Still not talking? My brother has killed people, you know!"

’It was true.’

Baron thought of the Nun and the Baron. Jack wasn’t wrong.

"Go on, kill her," Lankao said flatly.

He didn’t believe Jack.

Or rather, you couldn’t trust a word from a Westminster Commissioner.

"Is that so."

Baron saw a troubled look on Jack’s face and figured he was out of ideas. Just as Baron sighed and prepared to take over, Jack suddenly turned and went back into the shadows from which he’d appeared.

With a grunt and a heave, he dragged out four people.

Baron recognized them at once: Lady Eleanor and her family. He saw the young girl whose appearance Carmen had once "borrowed," as well as her grandparents.

All of them present and accounted for. Not one more, not one less.

They were all unconscious.

Lankao’s expression finally changed. It was the second time his composure had broken; the first was when Baron revealed he knew about the Dragon Eater Association.

"Spit out what you know! My brother here is a wanted man; he doesn’t mind adding a few more murders from the Outer Side to his tab!"

As Jack uttered his threats, he smoothly passed the revolver into Baron’s hand.

Baron: "..."

’He wasn’t wrong, for the most part, but I still feel like I’m being played for a fool and set up to take the fall.’

This time, however, Lankao’s composure didn’t waver, even as blood dripped from his hand.

He simply let out a long, deep sigh, and then spoke.

"Have you heard of Swedenborg of the Spiritual Vision? On the Inner Side, he founded the Soul School. He divided the human soul into the spirit, representing consciousness, and the soul, which carries the spirit..."

"My research with my mentor, Bagins, is an extension of the Soul School."

He said, "My mentor and I called it Twin, a concept that could mean one body with two souls, one soul with two spirits... or one spirit with two souls."

A chill went down Baron’s spine. ’One spirit, two souls... That sounds... an awful lot like me right now.’

But before Baron could ask, Lankao began to speak of his own accord, describing his past research into the Twin concept and the inspiration he drew from the High Tier Blood Race, who could be "reborn from a single drop of blood."

From Lankao’s explanation, Baron began to understand. His motive for everything was his family. His relationship with the Dragon Eater Association was purely collaborative, and he knew nothing of Anthony’s death.

After listening, Jack looked at the unconscious girl and elders. "So you killed all those people just to steal their souls with blood, all to sustain *their*... your family’s... spirits?"

Lankao said nothing. His silence spoke volumes.

Jack said, "I’m sorry your family of three died in that car crash, I truly am. But you killed so many people. You robbed others of their happiness..."

"Even if the ones I killed were the families of criminals?" Lankao interjected. "And they were all beneficiaries who knew full well what those criminals were doing."

"Criminals..."

Jack was at a loss for words. He didn’t seem to know how to respond, so he looked to Baron.

Baron stepped forward and shot Lankao’s other hand. As the Wizard stared in disbelief, Baron said flatly:

"I don’t care how criminals die. The problem is, *I’m* the criminal you framed."

He crouched down, pressing the gun to the Wizard’s jaw. "Talk. I’ve thought it over. Let this Dragon Eater Association you speak of come for me. Plenty of people want me dead. What’s one more group?"

’Besides, the Dragon Eater Association are Law Judges. If I unleash my Baron Dragon Flame, by the time the Inquisition shows up, they won’t even know who to target.’

The Wizard looked into the Dragon Knight’s eyes, then turned his head away after a moment.

"I can agree to tell you everything I know about the Dragon Eater Association. In return, I need you to let me watch my family’s spirits ascend."

"Spirits ascend?" Baron didn’t understand.

The Wizard explained, "The soul is the vessel that sustains the spirit. Without a soul, the spirit will gradually detach from the body. It will either dissipate or ascend into the boundless Spirit Realm."

"The Spirit Realm?" Jack said. "Isn’t that just some made-up spiritual world from the Alchemists? You’re not saying it actually exists, are you?"

"I don’t know," the Wizard said. "Just as I don’t know whether the spirits of those I killed ascended to the Spirit Realm, descended into the earth, or simply vanished from the world."

"You might as well just say you don’t know anything, other than how to use blood as a poor substitute for a soul to turn your family into Living Dead for a couple of months. You make it sound so profound..."

Jack scoffed. "So after all that, you’re just some back-alley mystic, and a university professor, no less... I have no idea what Lancelot’s Family was thinking... One spirit with two souls, one soul with two spirits... no wonder the Alchemy Realm banned that kind of research. It deserved it."

Baron saw the veins on Lankao’s forehead bulge. Ruling out the pain in his hands, there was only one explanation: Jack’s words had infuriated him.

’I never realized Jack had such a sharp tongue. I always just thought he was a motormouth.’

But Lankao, though tormented by pain and anger, suddenly calmed. He looked at Baron. "I think Mr. Constantine should understand what Twin is truly about."

Baron was confused. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"After all, having Dissociative Identity Disorder must feel quite similar to one soul with two spirits," he said languidly. "Am I right, Mr. Constantine? Or... should I say, the *other person* inside you?"

Baron’s heart sank.