Ryan acted as if nothing had happened. He slowly swept his gaze over the four of them, the smile on his lips growing wider.
“Can't even handle this?”
“I haven't even started yet.”
The middle-aged doctor gritted his teeth and suddenly looked up.
“Kill him!”
Just as the remaining few were about to make their move, Ryan had already raised his left hand, The Glory continuously swirling along his lens.
In the next instant, the heavy drapes by the window suddenly burst into flames.
Pure white flames rapidly spread along the fabric, and within a few seconds, the entire curtain was completely incinerated into a dazzling fireball.
The blazing light instantly illuminated the entire office.
The light of the gas lamps.
The light of the flames.
The sky's light reflecting off the snow outside—all the light seemed to converge at this very moment.
Ryan stood quietly in the center of the firelight.
His lenses constantly reflected the dancing flames, and the Glory in his left eye grew brighter and brighter along with them.
He could clearly feel that all the light around him was responding to him.
Lantern.
It inherently belonged to the light.
The stronger the light, the stronger the Lantern.
They realized that the young man before them was no longer the minor clerk they had been hunting in the shadows just yesterday. Standing there, he looked more like the true hunter.
Ryan slowly spread his arms, the flames casting a warm glow on his pale face.
He let out a soft chuckle.
“Come.”
“Let me see.”
“How many mouthfuls you'll make for me.”
In the next instant, the silver patterns on the inner side of the temple arms, which were usually almost invisible, lit up one by one, as if someone had lit a lamp inside the frame.
Light flowed continuously along the patterns, finally converging on the left lens. The eye behind the lens grew brighter and brighter.
An unsettling silence enveloped the entire office.
The old man stared intently at the glasses, his pupils contracting slightly.
“A relic...”
He had barely uttered those two words when Ryan looked up, his left eye suddenly bursting with a blinding white light.
A straight beam of The Glory instantly swept across the entire office.
Wherever the white light passed, everything seemed to be gently wiped away by an eraser.
Before the two weakest Grail disciples could even scream, their bodies were torn in half by the beam of light, crashing heavily into the walls and bookshelves on either side. Half of the office instantly turned into ruins.
Papers fluttered through the air, and wood splinters continuously rained down.
The two collapsed in the debris, unable to get back up.
Yet, they were not dead. The bright red Grail aspect still wrapped around their bodies, writhing continuously in an attempt to repair their severely damaged physical forms.
“Hahaha, this is even more thrilling than playing video games! This is the proper way to start in a bizarre, otherworldly realm.”
The old man and the middle-aged doctor paled in shock. They ignored Ryan's nonsensical rambling, believing he had completely lost control.
“Damn it, I only enticed someone to assassinate him. How did he suddenly go mad?”
“'Only'?! All of you deserve to die.”
Without wasting words, Ryan slowly lit up his other eye. The relic made of a lens, blood, and a white candle vibrated gently.
A wisp of grayish-white light and shadow slowly spread outward. It silently landed on the two Grail Apprentices.
The Grail aspect that had been recovering suddenly paused for a moment.
In the next moment, the recovery resumed, but what reformed was no longer what they desired.
The Grail was still trying to repair them, but the Moth kept altering the direction of the repairs.
The two forces clashed and interfered with each other, throwing the aspects in that area into complete chaos.
Suppressed, painful groans echoed from the ruins. Their flesh began to twist, and their bodies gradually started fusing together.
The old man stared blankly at this scene.
His lips trembled slightly.
“Madman...”
Before he could finish his sentence, Ryan had already walked over. His steps were very light, his leather shoes making soft clicking sounds on the charred wooden floor.
The entire office was so quiet that only the crackling of the flames could be heard.
The old man and the middle-aged doctor did not move. It wasn't that they didn't want to, but rather that they didn't dare.
They watched helplessly as Ryan walked up to the two Grail Apprentices and slowly squatted down.
The two were still struggling, and the Grail aspect continued to operate.
But the Moth had already rendered all recovery meaningless.
They couldn't even reorganize a complete aspect structure.
Ryan reached out with both hands and gently pressed them against their foreheads, the Glory in his left eye lighting up once more.
In the next instant, two faint glows of spirituality slowly emerged.
Leaving the minds of the two, they drifted like tiny sparks toward Ryan's palms.
Ryan did not feel he had done anything wrong; he was merely purging evil.
As the glowing spirituality merged into his body, Ryan gently closed his eyes.
In his mind, many more unfamiliar scenes appeared, and the light of The Glory grew even stronger.
Contact information for peripheral cultists, several hidden strongholds...
...and an incomplete ritual diagram.
Within a few short seconds, the consciousness of the two was completely extinguished.
With a wave of soul-deep relief, the office fell silent once again.
Ryan slowly stood up, gently rotating his wrists and cracking his neck.
After absorbing the spirituality of the two, the Glory in his eyes became more stable and profound.
He turned around, his gaze slowly landing on the remaining two.
The old man was deathly pale, and cold sweat drenched the middle-aged doctor's forehead.
They suddenly realized that from the moment Ryan walked into this office until now, he hadn't even made a serious move, yet half of the four of them had already fallen.
Ryan gently adjusted his glasses.
The corners of his mouth slowly curled upward.
“Now,”
“it's your turn.”
The old man was the first to break.
He stumbled back two steps, the wrinkles on his face twitching continuously as his previously calm expression was completely replaced by terror.
“Don't... don't come any closer.”
“We can talk.”
Ryan glanced at him.
“Last night,”
“you didn't seem to want to talk.”
The old man gritted his teeth, and the Grail Principle instantly went into motion. His aging body began to undergo changes: his withered skin filled out again, and his gray hair gradually regained a bit of color.
But all of this was merely on the surface.
His movements remained sluggish, and his steps were still unsteady.
After all, he was old.
His pursuit of the Grail was not for power, but simply to keep living and to enjoy beautiful bodies.
Over the years, using his position as a hospital doctor, he had continuously targeted patients who went unnoticed, secretly performing Grail rituals to steal life from the flesh of others, escaping the end of his lifespan time and time again.
Unfortunately, that stolen life was ultimately not his own.
Ryan walked over step by step. Unable to withstand the pressure any longer, the old man turned, intending to jump out the window and flee.
But before he could take even two steps, a beam of The Glory shot out from Ryan's fingertip.
The old man's body shuddered violently, and he crashed heavily to the ground, unable to get back up.
He struggled to turn his head, his eyes filled with pleading as he repeatedly knocked his head against the floor.
“Please... I beg you...”
“I can get you any little nurse you like! Just spare my life, I beg of you!”
Ryan said nothing, merely waving his hand gently.
A beam of light pierced through the back of his head, burning his brains to mush.
The light in the old man's eyes quickly faded, though his body continued to twitch.
Rate on N.U.
