As for what those investigators hiding behind the cover thought of his self-introduction...
That was no longer within Elias’s range of concern.
The alchemy puppet simply stopped wasting time on fancy dodging maneuvers.
At its brass-textured arm joints, arcane light flared like boiling lava.
Sizzle—
The harsh sound of electricity tore through the air.
A violent surge of eerie blue lightning traveled down the metal arm, instantly coating the silver greatsword that belonged to Finn.
Arcs of electricity danced and flickered wildly along the blade.
The alchemy puppet gripped the hilt with both hands.
It lowered its center of gravity.
Its metal feet dug two deep pits into the mud, settling into a flawless, powerful charging stance.
As for the bullets and spells continuously striking its brass shell?
It ignored them completely.
It let the sparks bloom fruitlessly against its metal surface.
It seemed the volume of fire from the investigators had exceeded its original expectations.
So, it intended to resolve the matter at hand first.
At the exact moment the alchemy puppet’s charge was about to reach its peak.
Elias’s feet gradually left the ground.
“What the hell?!”
He couldn't help but curse.
“The suction is this strong?!”
He exerted all his strength, his ten fingers like iron pincers, death-gripping the opening of the Gluttonous Stomach.
His nails dug into the rough texture.
His palms were slick with cold sweat.
Feeling the pull coming from the darkness of the cemetery.
He felt more clearly than ever.
The entity deep within the cemetery was getting desperate.
At that moment.
The alchemy puppet on the ground moved.
The eerie blue light condensed on the blade had reached a blinding intensity.
In this dim cemetery, originally lit only by the cold moon.
This ball of electricity appeared exceptionally bright.
It even cast long, stretching shadows from the surrounding tombstones.
Then.
A domineering horizontal slash followed.
Boom!
Immense energy erupted along the blade.
A half-moon-shaped violent blade light, like a red-hot steel knife cutting through tofu.
It swept across the ground, carrying mud and gravel, reaching the barrier maintained by the investigators.
Facing this devastating strike.
The investigators turned pale and scrambled to dodge to either side.
In that life-or-death moment.
The rookie named Henry, under constant healing, finally finished treating his wounded alchemical craftsman teammate.
The two immediately dove behind the cover protected by the barrier.
The moment they landed.
The healed alchemical craftsman didn't dare delay for a second.
His hands slammed onto the cover in front of him—the white wall of the cemetery's underground entrance.
The spiritual light within him flared without reservation.
It flowed from his palms into the masonry.
Visibly, a layer of shimmering arcane energy coated the weathered wall.
Hanging in mid-air, Elias saw this scene clearly while upside down.
He deduced.
That must be some kind of high-level fortification spell.
Without suspense.
When the slash arrived, the barrier shattered instantly.
Fortunately, because the entrance to the cemetery basement was slightly off-center.
The massive flash of lightning didn't destroy the small entrance building.
However.
Elias could only silently give them a thumbs-up in his heart now.
Because he himself was barely keeping it together.
With the violent wash of this arcane energy.
The Arcane Obstruction seal previously placed on the living corpse, Finn.
Completely vanished.
Nearby.
After the baptism of Moonfire, the living corpse looked like a demon straight out of A Nightmare on Elm Street, like Freddy Krueger himself.
Its head suddenly twitched.
In its previously dimmed eyes, that bone-chilling green light flared up again.
This killing machine was active once more.
Seeing that charred face with green fire looking toward him.
Elias’s heart tightened.
His fingers instinctively loosened.
Just as he intended to let go, abandon this damn stomach, and save his own life.
An unexpected scene occurred.
The living corpse didn't fixate on him as before to continue its slaughter.
Finn only gave him a hollow glance.
Then he turned around.
Like the other broken corpses rising from the ground.
With stiff, mechanical steps, he walked toward the depths of the cemetery without looking back.
It was as if something there was summoning all the dead.
Having escaped a disaster, Elias didn't even have time to catch his breath.
As the pulling force continued to intensify, Elias was dragged higher and higher.
His vision broadened accordingly.
He also clearly discovered the abnormality beneath his feet.
In front of each crumbling tombstone.
The cold soil was slowly writhing in a way that defied common sense.
It was as if something beneath the mud was breaking out of a cocoon.
But soon.
The answer was revealed.
Corpses—some rotting, some shriveled, some reduced to skeletons—pushed through the dirt and slowly crawled out of their graves.
The sheer number of them made one’s skin crawl.
It was a carnival of hell.
Except.
In Elias’s eyes, which were deeply polluted by the dream demon curse.
This necromantic resurrection ritual, which should have drained his sanity.
Suddenly took a turn in style.
These zombies crawling out of the ground.
Some were missing limbs, some had rusted buckets on their heads, and some were holding tattered newspapers.
They had all turned into the art style of a classic tower defense game!
That limping, mechanical movement with bulging eyes.
Combined with the eerie cemetery backdrop.
It was absurd to the extreme.
Even at the same time.
Elias discovered to his horror that it wasn't just the zombies.
His entire field of vision had taken on the same cartoonish art style.
A bizarre thought surfaced in his mind.
That is, he desperately needed some well-armed plants to help.
He really must be sick...
And currently.
Who knew what kind of monster would be created deep in the cemetery after absorbing so many corpses!
“Watch out!”
Deep in his mind, Old Ed suddenly shouted a warning.
Elias strained his neck to look beneath him.
Currently.
He was being pulled by the stomach, already at least five meters off the ground.
His legs dangled in the air with nothing to brace against.
However, that alchemy puppet had already reached the spot directly below him.
In a posture that defied the laws of physics, it flew straight toward him.
The reason it seemed to be flying.
Was because this guy, despite its heavy brass body, seemed to be unaffected by gravity.
The force of its jump was staggering.
Soon, a cold palm grabbed Elias’s ankle.
Even through the Wind-Chaser Boots, he could feel his bones being squeezed painfully.
The massive weight of the metal began to drag him down.
One force pulling up, one pulling down—two opposing forces used Elias as the rope in a tug-of-war.
“Ssss—”
Elias hissed in pain.
Even with his current physical strength.
Without any leverage, he was starting to lose his grip on the Gluttonous Stomach.
His fingers were slipping bit by bit on the leather.
At the same time.
He unceremoniously raised his other foot, wearing the tactical boot.
He kicked hard toward the alchemy puppet’s expressionless brass face.
The sound of metal clashing echoed in the air.
Unfortunately.
Given the opponent’s hardness, this counterattack was futile.
“Elias!”
In this mid-air stalemate.
Luke’s voice came from below.
“We’re colleagues after all!”
Hearing this address, Elias nearly spat blood.
Who the hell is your colleague?!
You’re a Seventh Agency mole, why are you trying to act close with a lighthouse keeper like me?
This phrasing sounded just like that old man.
No sense of boundaries at all.
However.
This nonsensical attempt at a connection did prove one thing indirectly.
The man was indeed from Wayland.
But Elias had no time to analyze the situation.
He heard Luke’s voice again, tinged with arrogance.
“I suggest you give the thing to my puppet!”
“Otherwise...”
Hearing that drawn-out trailing note.
Elias raised an eyebrow, thinking the bastard was about to pull out some ultimate threat.
Instead.
“Otherwise, I’ll just have to go back to the church and wait for you all to finish!”
Luke spread his hands and shouted those words.
?
If you can't win, you just go AFK?
You’re just going to slack off?!
Before Elias could even complain.
“In your current situation, you can't compete with John!”
Luke stood below, hands cupped around his mouth, continuing to shout loudly.
What?
John?
Elias’s brain momentarily stalled.
“I don't recognize you as a colleague!”
He gripped the stomach and shouted back unceremoniously.
“What? John is still alive?”
“I shot him myself, and I saw him burn up.”
“Then you swatted him away.”
“He can still be alive after that?”
Hearing Elias’s questioning.
Luke laughed loudly below.
“I see you understand nothing about that thing in your hand!”
His tone was full of superiority born from the information gap.
“But it doesn't matter!”
Luke waved his hand, seemingly not intending to explain.
“You guys carry on, I’m leaving!”
He righteously announced his departure.
“When I come out later, I’ll just collect the fruits of victory.”
With that.
This guy actually turned around with total indifference.
With a swaggering stride, he walked straight into the nearby church.
He didn't even look back once.
The remaining members of the Mist Veil Society on the periphery were trembling.
Seeing the tide had turned, they immediately scattered like startled birds.
They scrambled and fled the cemetery, quickly disappearing into the night.
At this moment.
The atmosphere of the entire cemetery dropped to the freezing point.
Negative spirituality, so massive it was suffocating, began to brew wildly in the depths of the cemetery like thick ink.
Even the air became viscous.
And Elias, hanging in mid-air, finally reached his physical limit.
Under the constant pulling of the alchemy puppet.
He ultimately could not maintain his grip on the slippery Gluttonous Stomach.
His fingers, which were squeezing the opening shut, suddenly slipped.
When he instinctively reached out to fix his grip.
What he caught was only the very bottom edge of the stomach.
The opening had completely broken free from its constraints.
The suction vanished instantly.
He immediately began to free-fall toward the mud below, along with the heavy alchemy puppet attached to his leg.
In that moment of weightlessness.
The stomach opening burst wide.
During that split second of the fall.
Elias’s Darkvision finally saw clearly the eerie thing that had been hidden in the darkness of the cemetery.
That thing was growing larger by fusing with other living corpses.
And, it was actually a—
Dr. Zomboss!
Rate on N.U.
