Hearing this, Guss pulled his lips back into a mocking smile.
“My commission isn’t finished yet. Maybe next time.”
The demon’s low voice echoed in the night wind, thick with ridicule. He casually tossed the severed metal arm at his feet.
“My employer needs me to keep an eye on this door.”
“But if you’ve already rolled out of there yourself...”
“Then I’ll just have to keep an eye on you.”
Across from him, the face that Luke had kept elegant and composed finally cracked. He looked as if he had just heard the most absurd joke in the world.
“You damn demon, why are you being so stubborn?!”
Luke had completely lost his cool.
“I’m only a Scale One!”
“Why the hell are you keeping an eye on me?!”
He stared fixedly at the mountain-like infernal creature before him, his face full of disbelief.
“And that’s double! Double the soul coins!”
“Doesn’t that tempt you at all?”
Luke pointed a trembling finger at Guss’s nose, his voice rising in exasperation.
“Aren’t you a demon?!”
“How the fuck can you turn down money?!”
In Luke’s worldview, these things that crawled out of the Abyss would sacrifice their own fathers if the price was right. He truly felt like he was seeing a ghost today.
Facing Luke’s hysteria, Guss merely flicked the sparks off his greatsword with deliberate slowness.
“We infernal creatures value the spirit of contract above all else!”
He spoke in a muffled, booming voice, his tone actually carrying a hint of sacrosanct solemnity.
Luke nearly choked on his own breath.
To hell with your spirit of contract!
Who are you trying to fool?!
As a senior agent of the Seventh Agency, he knew the nature of these bastards all too well. The so-called "contracts" these infernal creatures spoke of usually referred to predatory terms that were purely in their own favor. Exploiting loopholes, playing word games, and eating someone alive before skipping out on the bill—that was their true expertise.
If they ever encountered a contract where they stood to lose out, these demons would run faster than anyone!
There was something definitely wrong with this infernal demon. Twenty shades of wrong!
Luke narrowed his eyes, his gaze flickering. This guy had definitely made some sort of shady, special deal with Elias.
However, Luke was only half right.
How could he know that Guss wasn't actually greedy for those double soul coins? Who would ever complain about having too much money?
But Guss was more afraid of dying. He was terrified that his greed would lead him to accidentally offend some forbidden existence he absolutely should not cross! Standing behind that human named Elias was the Lord of the Spirit World!
What use was money if your life was gone!
“You broke my puppet!”
Seeing that bribery wouldn't work, Luke immediately shifted to an accusatory stance. He pointed at the pile of scrap metal on the ground. “Don’t stand in the way of me reclaiming the Soul Pendulum!”
“Pendulum?”
Guss paused, his coarse face looking utterly confused. What pendulum? What was this human babbling about?
Just as he thought the human was about to try and swindle him, Luke’s expression changed again.
One second he was fuming with rage, and the next he was casually shrugging his shoulders with an air of ease.
“It doesn’t matter.”
A cold, wealthy sneer curled at the man’s lips. “As for alchemy puppets like this one...”
He spread his hands like a nouveau riche flaunting his toys. “I have seven more!”
The moment the words left his mouth—
“Crash—!”
The magnificent stained-glass window of the convent behind him shattered! Another metal killing machine, identical to the one that had just been cut in two, slammed heavily onto the ground from mid-air with a violent mechanical roar!
A Scale Four alchemy puppet.
Its heavy body smashed a crater into the ground, sending dust flying. The crimson mechanical light in the puppet’s eyes locked firmly onto Guss.
“Now, you have no reason to stop my puppets, do you?”
Luke lifted his chin triumphantly. Since he couldn't buy his way through, he would use numbers to crush him.
However, his boastful words had barely faded when the mountain-like demon moved with a sudden burst of speed!
A violent gust of air instantly swept away the surrounding debris. Only a perfectly enunciated retort remained in the air:
“Really? I don’t believe you!”
Dragging the flaming greatsword, Guss charged like a maddened bull, fearlessly initiating an interception against the newly arrived alchemy puppet!
“Clang—!”
A deafening metal collision rang out. Sparks flew everywhere as a shockwave rolled outward.
Luke was forced back two steps by the gust, the elegance on his face completely vanishing. “I thought you valued contracts?!”
He cursed loudly, his voice cracking with rage. “Didn’t my ‘dear colleague’ ask you to take out the puppet? You already took one out!”
In his fury, Luke gnashed his teeth and waved his hand forcefully again.
“Click-clack, click-clack—”
The grating sound of mechanical gears meshing echoed from deep within the convent. Two more fully armed alchemy puppets smashed through the crumbling walls of the church. Like two streaks of silver lightning, they charged straight for Guss from the left and right!
Three against one.
A cruel, cold light flashed in Luke’s eyes.
Facing three Scale Four killing machines, Guss didn't retreat a single step. Instead, a savage, violent light ignited in his eyes. The demon let out a thunderous roar. He swung the Ever-Burning Sword in one hand and gripped the silver greatsword he had just looted from the previous puppet in the other.
With his massive frame and two heavy weapons, Guss whipped up a literal blade storm, engaging the three iron lumps in a chaotic melee. The roar of clashing metal was incessant.
“Sorry, human,” Guss grinned broadly while effortlessly parrying the attacks of the three puppets. “If my employer sees me just standing here, he’ll think I’m not putting in any effort.”
He violently kicked away a puppet attempting a sneak attack and used the momentum to cleave off a mechanical leg with his greatsword. “So, I’ll just have to dismantle all these big toys of yours!”
“Damn infernal demon!” Luke cursed venomously from a safe distance.
However, he was no longer in a hurry. He simply crossed his arms and watched coldly. He wanted to see just how long this brain-dead demon could last against the attrition of multiple alchemy puppets. Regardless, everything would be billed to the company’s accounts; he didn't care how many were destroyed.
Besides, he was determined to get that pendulum. As long as he kept this demon occupied, time was on his side.
...
On the other side.
The main battlefield in the center of the cemetery.
The situation had deteriorated to the brink of collapse. The thick black mist was spreading through the tombstones like a living thing. Vision was completely stripped away, with visibility reduced to less than half a meter.
The air was thick with the nauseating stench of rotting flesh mixed with cold negative spirituality. Several investigators stood back-to-back, gasping for breath, cold sweat soaking their clothes. The surroundings were deathly silent, save for the rolling black mist.
“Shhh...”
A faint scratching sound was hidden within the mist, waiting for the right moment.
In the blink of an eye!
A smooth, strange tentacle suddenly lunged out of the darkness!
“Watch out!”
Someone let out a desperate scream through the mental channel. But it was too late. The tentacle coiled around an investigator’s thigh with the precision of a viper.
A slurping sound followed. Before the investigator could even scream, his muscular body shriveled at a visible rate!
In the blink of an eye, a desiccated corpse, completely drained of blood and spirituality, collapsed into the cold mud. But soon, the corpse stood back up and stumbled toward the depths of the mist.
This mountain of flesh was truly disgusting!
Desolation was the only thing left in everyone’s hearts.
“Is that 【Life Siphon】?!” an investigator shouted in disbelief over the mental channel, his voice filled with unmasked panic.
“You disgusting bastard!”
In the distance, the investigator holding the Sunlight Scepter felt his eyes nearly burst with rage. He immediately stepped forward, pouring his remaining spirituality into the scepter and shouting an obscure, ancient incantation.
“Hum—”
The golden runes engraved on the scepter instantly erupted with blinding light. A sphere of light, like a miniature sun, was generated at the tip of the Sunlight Scepter!
The orb, carrying the brilliance to dispel all evil, plunged straight into the thick black mist. Everyone held their breath, waiting for the mist to be scattered.
However, a scene of despair beyond anyone's expectations occurred.
The black mist did not dissipate under the intense light! On the contrary, the moment the light orb entered the mist, the strong light pierced through the dense, suspended particles of vapor. Beams of light became clearly visible within the black mist, creating a strange and spectacular sight.
It was exactly like the Tyndall effect of light passing through a morning forest.
“Wait!”
An experienced investigator suddenly realized something. As if a bucket of ice water had been poured over him, he shouted to his teammates in despair: “This is 【Create Water】 used for mist! It’s not a 【Darkness Spell】!”
Radiance could only dispel "darkness" on a supernatural level; it had no effect on physical mist. Worst of all, the intense light didn't restore their vision. Instead, it turned them, standing within the mist, into the most obvious targets!
No sooner had he spoken than a tentacle, using the light beams as cover, latched onto the back of the shouting investigator without resistance!
“Urgh—”
In an instant, the sound of crushing bones came from his body as it shriveled up. Within a few minutes, two people had fallen, joining the mountain of flesh’s army of corpse armor.
The casualties were mounting. No one knew how many more of those lethal tentacles were hidden in the black mist. The remaining investigators in the cemetery had their nerves stretched to the breaking point. Fear, despair, and extreme physical exhaustion made it almost impossible for them to grip their weapons.
Just then.
At the ruined gates of the cemetery, a figure running so fast they were a blur charged back into this death zone, carrying boundless fury.
Elias’s speed was currently irrational. The moment he entered the range of the black mist, the brass orb hanging at his waist suddenly flashed.
【Arcane Step】.
His speed reached a terrifying new peak beyond his previous limits. He transformed into a streak of light that the naked eye couldn't track!
In an instant, he flickered behind an investigator who was about to be ambushed by a tentacle. His hand rose, and the blade fell. The sharp knife drew a cold, red arc.
“Splat!”
The thick tentacle attempting to siphon spirituality was severed mid-air with extreme precision! The severed piece writhed frantically on the ground like a dehydrated loach.
Elias turned his head, his face devoid of expression. “Do me a favor.”
“Don’t die and make things harder for me.”
He gripped his weapon and turned to face the massive, squirming mountain of flesh deep within the black mist.
“I’m going to settle the score with this heap of meat once and for all.”
Rate on N.U.
