It didn't take Sean long to find the basement where Ivan and the kid necromancer were hiding. By the time he'd gotten there, there was a significant lack of Destroyers on the streets. Figuring the others must've taken care of them, he pushed open the door to the house, then went in.
'Don said they're in the basement', he recalled, slowly walking across the hallway in search of a door that led downstairs.
One of the undead ran out of the kitchen and slashed at him with a knife, but the man was slow and weak, so Sean dispatched him with ease. The whole situation was a lot harder emotionally than it was physically. He could probably beat Ivan, and the zombies were clearly no threat. The kid himself probably wouldn't pose much danger, either.
But what would he do once he found him?
The kid was clearly on Omen's side of things, for one reason or another. If that reason were a form of mind control, Liu could probably remove it. What if it wasn't, though? Was he prepared to kill a kid?
'Many more kids will die if this one doesn't. It's simple logic.'
He started walking across the living room, having found no door in the hallway. Another zombie flung itself at him, but Sean ripped its head off and moved on, not letting its body make a sound as it hit the floor. The last thing he wanted to do was alert Ivan to his attack. The last time he'd failed at being stealthy could've cost them the battle. Had Omen had stronger guardians, it would've been over.
'What if Omen's just tricking the kid? Will I be able to convince him to turn on him?'
He found no door in the living room, either, so he moved on and went to the bedroom. A corpse was lying on the bed, unmoving, the woman clearly having had been poisoned. He looked under the bed to see if there was a trapdoor there. There wasn't.
When he got back up, the woman on the bed sprung to life, trying to claw at his face. Whatever method the necromancer was using, it was different from what he'd done to Val. These things were mindless, slow and weak. Sean broke her neck in one swift motion, then gently laid her back down and left the room.
'What if the kid doesn't come willingly? I'd be forced to kill him.'
He noticed a shed outside the house through the window, then went to check it out.
'Would I be able to?'
He opened the door to the shed, and immediately saw the trapdoor. Knowing there was only one place it could lead to, Sean pressed his ear to the ground and listened.
No one seemed to be down there. If they were, they were being cautious about it.
Opening the door, he quickly jumped down, not using the ladder, and reached an empty basement.
An empty basement leading into a tunnel.
'Must be Ivan's work. They noticed me.'
He carefully stepped inside, then ran for it. He figured the necromancer must've senses his zombies dropping, which was why they ran.
There didn't seem to be a labyrinth, which meant Ivan's control over the earth wasn't precise enough for him to do it from a distance.
'He's probably only able to form tunnels from the ground right in front of him.'
Then Sean ran across a wall, puzzling him. He was positive they weren't in the house, and there was no way he could've missed them in the basement. Realizing there was only other possibility, he punched the wall in front of him, shattering it and revealing the continuation of the tunnel.
The wall then started repairing itself, after which it broke off into spikes and flew at him. Realizing how well-suited his opponent was to their current arena, Sean chided himself for recklessly following along, and jumped back to avoid the spikes. He swatted a few of them aside, then looked forward and stared at the man who had to be Ivan.
'Their descriptions match, but his scent is off. He's neither a Destroyer nor a regular esper.'
Picking up a rock, Sean flung it forward, only for it to stop just before hitting Ivan, who calmly took a step forward. Sean tried to lunge at him, but found his feet sinking into the ground.
"So... boring..." Ivan said, his left eye moving in an unnatural manner. "I just... want to sleep..." He suddenly swung his leg upward, raising it high enough to hit the ceiling, and the ground under Sean flew up, crushing him against the earth. Several of his bones broke, and he spat out some blood, but it wasn't enough to put him out of the fight. Using his blood as a weapon, he sliced the piece of earth holding him to the ceiling, and it fell to the ground, allowing him to grab the walls and hurl himself at his opponent. Ivan did nothing to dodge, and got his head cut off.
His body remained standing, however, and delivered a kick to Sean's back, using more force than a regular human possibly could. A wall built itself in front of Sean, so he flew straight into it, shattering both it and a few more of his bones.
"Just... want to rest..." Ivan's severed head said as his body bent down and picked it up, then held it like a bowling ball.
"What the hell are you?" asked Sean as his body healed. "You're not human."
Ivan's body shook his head up and down, making it nod. "I was... created by... Erin Gorgon..."
"You're a Destroyer?"
Ivan dropped his head, then bent down to pick it up by the hair. "I was... an experiment... before them..."
Sean didn't understand it. If this man was the prototype, why was he stronger than the Destroyers?
The ground at Sean's feet tried to swallow him again, but he punched his hand through the ceiling, then lifted himself up. In response, Ivan threw his head forward, and it crashed into Sean's chest, knocking him down. "The boy... won't let me... sleep."
Then Sean realized what was happening. "The necromancer?"
Ivan tried to nod, but couldn't, given his state. "His blood... inside me... makes me... immortal."
'There's a simple solution for that.'
Sean grabbed the head by the hair, then threw it at the body. It caught it with ease, but was unprepared for Sean to come flying along with it. He managed to sink his teeth into the body's arm, then started to suck out the blood. The ground tried to swallow him a few more times, but the blood loss was making the use of vapor difficult. Ivan's body shriveled up, then fell to the ground.
"So... tired..." Ivan's head said, then closed its eyes forever.
Without warning, a strange type of attack hit Sean. His body was brought to its knees by an unseen force, and he was unable to resist it. It wasn't like the time with Erin, as his mind was completely unaffected.
He heard a childish laugh from behind, and then a boy walked up to him, holding his hands behind his back. "Jeez, mister. You're already dead, aren't you?"
'Shit. Can he control me, too?'
The boy smiled. "It's all that blood you just drank. That wasn't very smart. I'm Ollie, by the way. Wanna play?"
The boy's scent was off, too, as were his microexpressions. He seemed more like an adult than an actual child. "W-What are you?" Sean managed to get out, still trying to bend his body to his own will.
Ollie clapped his hands together, tilting his head to the side. "There's no getting things past you, is there?" Performing a pirouette, the boy reintroduced himself, "It's me, Sean."
Still unsure, and utterly frightened by the possibilities, Sean bit his lip, trying to get some of the blood out. "Who are you?"
The boy sighed, placing his hands on his hips. "You don't even remember the guy you arrested?"
"I've helped arrest many." None of them had been children, however, so this made no sense. Unless...
The look on his face must've been telling, because Ollie smiled. "Remember yet?"
There had been a case similar to his current situation. It had taken Sean a while to figure out what the esper could do. He'd committed several murders, leaving behind no evidence of himself. It wasn't that he'd left no evidence - there'd been plenty of that - but just that it had always led to other people. Several different arrests were made, with all people claiming innocence, and Sean only figured out what had happened after that; The esper could switch bodies, much like Erin had been able to.
"Charles Ray," Sean concluded. "The man who's killed over fifty people over the span of a single month."
Ollie clapped a few times, moving his feet in a dancing manner. "Bingo!"
"But I killed you."
"Tsk, tsk." Charles swung his finger scoldingly. "Obviously, I witched bodies at the last second. Took me a bit though, since you did leave me on the verge of death, and your body's always been immune. I wonder why that is."
Sean figured it must've been the fact that he was practically half-dead. He was used to being that way, but others weren't. "And you're with Omen now?"
Ollie shrugged. "He has me kill people. It's a win-win."
"Until you're killed." Sean dug his talons into his hip, trying to keep it discrete.
Charles smiled again. "I'll just use another body once that happens. Perhaps I really will go after Dean this time. How about that?"
With his other hand, Sean tore open an artery in his high, and a lot of blood started gushing out. His body worked quickly to replace it. "You'll just fail again."
The boy stomped childishly. "No, I won't! You got lucky last time, asshole, but now you're all mine." He leaned in closer, then licked the side of Sean's face, twisting his stomach. "You are all mine now, after all. You really should've killed me quickly, Sean."
Taking his words to heart, and having lost enough blood, Sean set his morals aside. The boy was clearly gone, and there was no way to save him without releasing a dangerous sociopath. Swinging his arm before Charles could react, Sean lopped his head off. In that instant, the zombies all over Split started dying off.