Marseille Harbor Labyrinth Mystery

Sending Reinforcements

Jean didn't use the salt shield; it was too slow. He used the residue of Salty Mist Potion remaining in his body to accelerate his perception, grinding time into fine powder.

The bullet Le Requin fired sliced through the air, seeming to move in syrup. Jean didn't have time to retrieve a new Potion bottle. He had to use what was in his hand: a transmuted silver screwdriver.

He swung the screwdriver upward, hitting the bullet dead center.

*Clang!*

The screwdriver didn't stop the bullet, but deflected it a fraction of a degree. The bullet missed Jean's ear and slammed into the crystal chandelier above Le Requin's head.

The chandelier shattered, and a rain of crystal shards fell.

Le Requin, physically strong but slow to react, was momentarily stunned. Jean seized this split-second advantage.

"You won't shoot me again," Jean said, his voice as cold as the ice he had just broken.

Le Requin snarled. "Damn it! You're the dead Valéry! How are you that fast?"

"I told you, I'm not the Valéry you knew," Jean countered, leaping onto the table between them.

Le Requin aimed his pistol again. "Shut up! I don't care what magic you’re using; I'll put holes in your body until you stop moving!"

"I won't stop moving," Jean hissed, reaching into his jacket pocket. He pulled out one of the Level 1 Transmutation Potion bottles he had just stolen. The pale green liquid shimmered.

"That's my Potion!" Le Requin roared, his eyes wide with surprise. "You don't know how to use it!"

"I know how to make it," Jean corrected, twisting the bottle. He wouldn't waste this precious Potion on defense.

Jean looked at the floor, at the scattered crystal fragments of the chandelier. They were made of leaded glass—an excellent material for focused transmutation.

Jean focused the alchemical energy, amplified by the Salty Mist Potion in his system. He channeled his intent into the crystal shards on the floor.

Transmutation. Leaded Glass into extremely dense Crystal Salt.

In an instant, the scattered shards around Le Requin’s feet transformed into thousands of sharp, compacted grains of crystal salt. They didn't explode, but solidified and elongated.

Le Requin felt his footing suddenly change. His feet were now standing on a pile of thousands of salt needles.

"Aaargh!" Le Requin dropped his pistol, grabbing his feet, which suddenly felt like they were being pierced. Blood immediately seeped from his punctured soles.

Jean jumped off the table, landing on the clean marble floor. He kicked Le Requin’s pistol into the corner of the room.

"Explain to me," Jean requested, his voice calm, "who made you this Level 1 Transmutation Potion?" He raised the green bottle in his hand. "A harbor criminal like you doesn't possess the knowledge for this."

Le Requin leaned his back against the wall, trying to manage the pain. His face was deathly pale, not only from the pain but because he realized he was facing a power he didn't understand.

"That's... none of your business, Valéry," Le Requin spat, trying to maintain a shred of dignity. "I have contacts. People out there who know how to do business."

"Contacts?" Jean leaned forward, his eyes locking onto Le Requin's. "You're working with the Neptune Cartel." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

Le Requin fell silent. Fear crept into his eyes.

"That Cartel wants to destroy the Nexus beneath your icehouse," Jean continued. "They just gave you this garbage Potion as a little treat to keep you a obedient guard dog. You think you have magic, but you only have poison."

Le Requin shook his head frantically. "No! They just need raw materials. The rare minerals! They said they'd buy them, they paid cash!"

"They don't buy, they pillage," Jean said coldly. "And now I've taken their stolen goods." Jean patted his jacket pocket, where the briefcase of rare minerals was secure.

Le Requin looked at the green Potion in Jean's hand, then at the salt needles in his feet, and finally at the stolen briefcase. Despair flooded him.

"What do you want?" Le Requin crawled backward. "Take whatever you want! Leave me alone! I'll tell them you're dead!"

Jean smiled faintly, a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Unfortunately, I can't let you go. You are a stupid gatekeeper, but you are an important one."

"I'll serve you!" Le Requin offered, now pleading. "I'll be your henchman! I'll lead Marseille for you!"

"I don't need your dirty leadership," Jean rejected. "I need structured chaos. Chaos that keeps Neptune busy."

Jean looked at the Level 1 Transmutation Potion he held. It was the perfect raw material for sending a message.

"You've spent your career collecting and hoarding the filthy garbage of Marseille," Jean said. "I'll give you a gift. I'll give you the absolute purity you despise."

Jean uncorked the Level 1 Transmutation Potion bottle. He dripped the green liquid onto the floor, mixing it with Le Requin's dripping blood and the marble dust from the deflected bullet.

Le Requin saw what Jean was doing and began to panic. "Don't! Don't touch my blood! I beg you!"

"Too late," Jean said.

Jean channeled massive purification alchemical energy into the collected liquid on the floor. The Transmutation Potion acted as a catalyst, accelerating a process that usually took hours into mere seconds.

The liquid on the floor sizzled. It changed color from green to milky white, then emitted a blinding, bright blue light.

Jean aimed the light at Le Requin.

"I am transmuting everything disgusting about you, Le Requin. The greed, the fear, and the filth. All drawn here."

Le Requin felt a horrifying sensation. His entire body, every cell, every drop of sweat, every ill intent, felt as if it were being forcibly drawn out.

He let out a long, inhuman scream.

Jean didn't kill him. Jean didn't want his death.

As the scream subsided, the blue light vanished. Le Requin was no longer leaning against the wall. Where he stood, there was now a perfect statue.

The statue was not made of salt or marble. It was made of pure, transparent crystal salt, like ice, and inside, the terrified silhouette of Le Requin was trapped, immortal. The statue emitted the scent of clear seawater, the smell Le Requin hated most.

Jean looked at the statue. "You are a monument to criminal hubris."

He picked up Le Requin’s pistol, touching it. The pistol hissed and transformed into fine rust powder, which he allowed to blow away.

Mission accomplished. Le Requin neutralized. Level 1 Transmutation Potion stolen. Nexus safe (for now).

Jean walked to the window. Down the hill, he could hear police sirens and shouts. The chlorine gas and Salty Mist had created perfect chaos. Undercover Neptune operatives would now have to deal with the angry local police, and they wouldn't be able to find Jean.

Jean turned to the statue of Le Requin.

"The chaos you made will be my strength. Marseille will be mine. And you, Boss Shark, you were the first to see it."

Jean leaped out of the window, landing on a clay tile roof. He ran across the rooftops, heading toward the darkness of the pier where Triton awaited him.

As he ran, he felt the energy of the rare minerals he had stolen pulsing in his pocket. The energy was so potent he felt he could transmute the entire city into gold.

"No," Jean muttered, clenching his fist, "not gold. Into protection."

He looked down toward the Vieux-Port. The chaos had already begun.

Suddenly, in the distance, he saw a strange light. It wasn't the city lights, but a faint green glow coming from the open sea.

Jean stopped at the edge of the roof. The light was moving, and it wasn't a ship. It was a tactical submarine, much larger and more advanced than the drone he had destroyed at the Icehouse.

The submarine was heading toward the harbor, very fast and very silent.

"Neptune isn't waiting," Jean hissed. "They're sending reinforcements. They know Le Requin has fallen."

Jean realized that by transmuting Le Requin, he hadn't just won a local fight. He had just called forth a bigger war.

He had to get back to Triton. He had to start mass-brewing Potions.

As he jumped from the last rooftop onto a dark street, he heard a low rumble from the submarine. The sub released two small torpedoes.

The torpedoes were not aimed at Triton, but at the main pier in the middle of the Vieux-Port—Le Requin’s remaining logistics hub.

*Fwoooom!*

Two explosions occurred in the water, but they weren't kinetic explosions. They were alchemical blasts.

The water around the pier changed instantly. Not into acid, but into a thick, black, sticky liquid, like extremely viscous crude oil. The fluid spread rapidly, swallowing the small ships nearby.

Jean felt the Nexus beneath the icehouse scream. That black liquid was the Neptune Cartel's Anti-Transmutation Potion. It was designed to neutralize Jean's ability to manipulate water.

"They know my weakness," Jean muttered, panicked. If the harbor water turned to oil, he couldn't perform alchemy—