Wind whistled past his ears.
Enduring the agony of every muscle spasming, Elias Rockland forced his body to twist mid-air.
Then, he performed a Webster flip and twist.
Under the stunned gazes of several Seventh Agency investigators, he landed steadily.
The pose was absolutely perfect.
One knee slammed heavily into the ground.
His right hand held the black-blood-stained dagger in a reverse grip, the blade driven deep into the gaps of the stone pavement.
His left hand extended naturally behind him, fingertips slightly curled.
His head was lowered, sweat-soaked hair masking half his face, revealing only a sharp, cold jawline.
Cool.
Ruthless.
His aura was off the charts.
The investigators nearby exchanged looks, a strange silence filling the air.
The same thought rose in everyone's mind simultaneously:
This guy is such a show-off!
This landing pose was quite a stunning sight, even in the entire supernatural circle of Landon City.
If a fellow transmigrator from the Blue Star were standing there right now, they would definitely point at him and shout, "Holy shit, the classic superhero landing!"
But in all honesty, Elias swore he didn't mean to show off in front of these colleagues.
It was purely because the electricity had numbed his nerves.
The moment he landed, his legs had turned to noodles.
Combined with failing to maintain his balance during the flip, he had to force himself into this pose just to avoid a faceplant.
"Hiss—"
Elias sucked in a breath through his teeth.
This 【Slow Fall】 wasn't as "slow" as he had imagined.
His knee hitting the stone sent a sharp, stabbing pain through him.
But he gritted his teeth and stood up as if nothing were wrong, acting completely unbothered.
He casually pulled the dagger from the ground.
“Where is Ms. Cecil?”
No pleasantries, no small talk.
The moment he landed, Elias started striding purposefully toward them.
His first priority was finding his backup.
The mystic from earlier quickly stepped forward.
He swallowed hard and pointed toward the exit.
“Oh, Ms. Cecil isn't here.”
“I heard she's on the path outside the monastery, treating two civilians.”
Civilians?
Elias raised an eyebrow imperceptibly at the news.
A deep sense of confusion flashed in his eyes.
What kind of joke was this?
Tonight was the night of the Spark Festival!
At this hour, shouldn't all the citizens in the city be crowded in the center for the parade?
Why would civilians be in this godforsaken place?
Did they have a death wish?
“Yeah,” an investigator with a handlebar mustache sighed, his tone tinged with regret.
“Two very pitiful girls. It looks like they were caught in the negative spirituality here.”
“One of them is a Norse.”
“That fiery red hair is just too striking...”
Norse?
Fiery red hair?
BONG!!!
Elias's head felt as if a massive bronze bell had been rung inside it.
The deafening roar instantly stripped him of his hearing.
His vision began to shake uncontrollably.
A bone-chilling cold shot straight to the crown of his head!
The investigator with the mustache didn't notice Elias's change at all and continued sucking up to him.
“Speaking of which, sir.”
“I always thought the informants in our agency were just thugs who only cared about money.”
“I really didn't expect an informant to be such a beast, taking on a mountain of flesh monster single-handedly...”
“Tell me now!”
A roar suddenly exploded!
Elias grabbed the investigator by his collar.
“What happened to the Norse?!”
He demanded, nearly screaming.
The other investigators were startled by this sudden outburst.
They all cast wary glances at him.
Some even moved their hands to the revolvers at their waists.
This informant's state... didn't look right at all!
With such intense emotional swings and those crazed eyes, it was a clear sign of a plummeting sanity after spiritual overextension—a symptom of imminent loss of control and descent!
The mystic from before broke into a cold sweat and hurried forward to smooth things over.
“Everyone, don't be nervous! Don't draw your guns!”
“This gentleman just fought such a terrifying monster alone; his spirituality must be overextended.”
“It's normal for his emotions to be a bit out of control, it's a natural reaction...”
“I'M ASKING YOU!!!”
Elias stared at the man with the mustache, his eyes nearly splitting.
He couldn't hear any of the nonsense right now.
He only wanted a definitive answer!
However, before the terrified investigator could stammer out a reply, Elias suddenly let go.
He shoved the man aside and turned his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the monastery building.
There, Guss was engaged in a fierce close-quarters battle with the alchemy puppets.
He dropped a bombshell on the investigators:
“That infernal demon over there is an ally.”
Without giving anyone a chance to process this shocking information, he slammed his foot down.
The property of the 【Wind-Chaser Boots】 was activated.
His entire being turned into a blurred afterimage, tearing through the air.
Like a cannonball, he raced madly toward the path outside the cemetery!
He left the investigators standing there, staring at each other in shock.
The cold wind blew, swirling a few withered leaves.
Everyone stared at each other, lost for words.
What did he just say?
That red-skinned infernal demon fighting the alchemy puppets... is an ally?!
If anyone was an ally, shouldn't it be the alchemy puppets?!
You're calling a demon an ally?!
Since when did the agency's business expand to the infernal realms?!
...
At this moment, Elias couldn't care about any of that.
His mind was a complete mess.
Only the whistling wind and his drum-like heartbeat echoed in his ears.
At this moment, only one pleading thought remained in his mind:
Please don't let it be Charlotte!
God, you can play any joke you want, but please don't let it be Charlotte!
Please don't let it be her!
The icy night wind near the cemetery whipped against his face like knives, making his bloodless face even paler.
Memories of the past surged through his mind like a bursting dam.
“You're dead meat!”
The little girl stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at him with puffed-out cheeks.
“When we get back, Arthur is definitely going to beat you up!”
The scene shifted.
“Eh? Did it hurt?”
“Let's go! Home!”
“I asked if you were being bullied, and you said no.”
The little girl curled her lip, looking like she saw through everything.
“But I can tell you're just talking tough!”
“You were definitely bullied, weren't you?”
Those crisp calls seemed to still echo in his ears.
“Al!”
“Pretty please!”
Her hands clasped together, her big eyes blinking as she acted cute.
“I promise I'll be good, I definitely won't run around!”
“It's a holiday, I'll be so bored staying home alone...”
“Yay!”
...
For a moment, Charlotte's voice, Charlotte's smile, and all her little habits filled with mundane warmth turned into sharp knives.
They surged from his memories, relentlessly cutting into Elias's frayed nerves.
“No... it can't be...”
Elias shook his head violently.
He tried to cast those chaotic thoughts out of his mind.
His pace grew faster and faster, nearly exceeding his body's physical limits.
He kept trying to convince himself:
It might not be Charlotte.
There were so many Norse in Landon City; she wasn't the only red-haired girl.
It had to be a coincidence.
It must be!
But once the seed of doubt had taken root, how could it be so easily removed?
Fear, like thorny vines, tightly constricted his heart.
Finally.
After stumbling out of the cemetery for some distance, Elias saw the scene ahead.
Ms. Cecil was kneeling on the muddy ground, surrounded by various supernatural materials.
Her hands emitted a soft light as she performed some kind of purification spell.
In front of her lay a small figure.
That fiery red hair was as striking as dried blood in the darkness.
Elias's legs went weak, as if all the bones had been removed from his body.
His eyes instantly reddened, the bloodshot veins looking as if they might drip blood.
He stumbled and came to a halt just a few steps away.
“Lottie...”
His voice trembled.
“Elias...”
Hearing the movement, Ms. Cecil turned her head.
She saw the young man who was usually full of nonsense now standing precariously in the wind.
Ms. Cecil lifted her face, which was covered in dust and blood.
Her expression was filled with grief and helplessness.
“I've already checked...”
She opened her mouth, her voice dry.
“The situation isn't good.”
“They were hit directly by an extremely high concentration of abyssal aura; their spiritual circuits are on the verge of collapse.”
“I've already notified the people from the Ascetic Society.”
“But...”
Ms. Cecil lowered her head, not daring to look Elias in the eye.
“I'm afraid she won't last that long...”
Elias listened to these words silently.
There were no hysterical questions, no emotional breakdowns.
At this moment, he didn't even want to ask how Charlotte had ended up in this living hell.
What was the point of asking?
He remained silent, like a puppet that had lost its soul.
He slowly turned his stiff neck and glanced at Victoria, who was also unconscious and horribly corrupted nearby.
A thick cloud of negative spirituality was slowly drifting out of the two girls' bodies.
That sickening aura was one and the same as the negative spirituality emanating from the mountain of flesh inside.
Elias didn't speak.
He walked to Charlotte's side and sat on the ground.
He carefully pulled his sister's cold body into his arms.
The little girl's face was a deathly ashen-grey, her breathing so weak it was almost imperceptible.
In that moment, the emotions suppressed deep in his heart finally erupted.
A single scalding tear fell onto Charlotte's bloodless cheek.
However, it was only for a brief moment.
He chewed up his vulnerability in a near-masochistic way and swallowed it back down.
He suddenly looked up at Ms. Cecil.
In his gaze, the previous panic and fear had vanished without a trace.
Before she could ask anything, Elias reached for the 【Gluttonous Stomach】 at his waist.
He pulled out the bottle of Scale One spirit vision potion.
Then, he grabbed a large handful of the spirit restoration potions John had stockpiled.
“These should be useful.”
His voice was strangely calm, as calm as the deathly silent sea before a storm.
“Look after her for me.”
He paused, his gaze sweeping over Victoria.
“Try to save that girl too, if you can.”
Elias slowly stood up.
He held the black-blood-stained dagger in a reverse grip and placed his other hand on The Roaring Cane at his waist.
He turned around, facing the roaring darkness deep within the cemetery.
“The monster inside, I'll deal with it.”
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