The five investigators from the Seventh Agency were clearly well-trained.
After their budget Nick Fury was sent flying, they didn't waste a single word; the various tools in their hands immediately began to rain down on the enemy.
Colorful alchemy bombs trailed long tails of flame, blooming like festive fireworks against the siren's massive, deformed body.
Specially made silver-plated bullets and crossbow bolts engraved with runes wove into a dense net of firepower, sending shards of the coral-like carapace flying off the monster's form.
That siren, which had already mutated beyond recognition, clearly hadn't expected a group of uninvited guests to crash the party.
Its hatred, which had been focused solely on Elias, was forcibly diverted under such concentrated fire.
With a roar, its tentacle-covered head snapped toward the group in black trench coats; momentarily ignoring a "small fry" like Elias, it swung its massive claws and tail to engage the Seventh Agency investigators in battle.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Elias didn't hesitate; he grabbed the dazed Aaron and moved quickly along the wall in a crouch, stuffing him behind a relatively safe, abandoned drainage outlet.
The ground here was higher, and a collapsed stone slab served as cover, perfectly shielding him from stray bullets from the battlefield.
"Stay right here and don't move,"
Elias said with a heavy, earnest tone while pressing down on Aaron's shoulder.
"I'm going to the flank to look for an opening. If you don't want to die, don't make a sound!"
Aaron nodded seriously, "Okay."
Elias straightened his back.
He took a deep breath, drew his elemental revolver once more, and turned resolutely toward the chaotic battlefield.
Watching that back, which wasn't particularly broad, Aaron suddenly felt a strange surge of emotion.
Was this... the responsibility of an adult?
To face a monster head-on just to protect his client?
However, Elias's internal monologue at this moment was actually very pragmatic.
While checking his cylinder, he quickly calculated the pros and cons in his mind.
Regardless of the situation, the aura erupting from the siren right now had far exceeded Scale Three, reaching a level that even Elias's Spirit Vision couldn't see through.
That sense of oppression was like a living volcano on the verge of eruption.
He likely couldn't escape this godforsaken place anytime soon.
And looking at the scene, these Seventh Agency people seemed to be here specifically for this siren.
Therefore, now was the best time for a finishing blow.
Thinking back, from the first time he saw this siren on the rocky beach of the isolated island, it had only been a slightly stronger monster.
As an ordinary person with no transcendent power, he had been able to drive it away with a normal revolver.
By the time they reached the outer beach of Hastings Port, its size and strength had mutated, becoming much more powerful; even as a transcendent capable of holding his own against a Scale Two, he couldn't completely deal with it.
And now...
It had become even stronger, even evolving continuously by devouring transcendents.
If left alone, and if the Seventh Agency failed to handle it this time, letting this thing survive again and grow even stronger through devouring...
Then the next time they met, he would surely be the one to die!
Perhaps there wouldn't even be a next time...
At the very least, right now, one more person meant one more source of strength.
This damn fish had chased him all the way from Hastings Port to Hope County just for revenge.
It was fucking insane!
Elias didn't want to spend the rest of his life living in fear of being hunted by a mutated siren.
Instead of gambling on luck, it was better to find a way to cooperate with the Seventh Agency, strike while it was weak, and eliminate this thing once and for all!
Besides, no one in the Hope County Seventh Agency should know him for now.
With this mindset, Elias's gaze sharpened.
His two fingers tightly gripped the owl-eye gemstone on the elemental revolver's handle.
With a faint hum, the spirituality within his body felt like a floodgate opening, greedily drained by the gun's frame.
In just an instant, a tenth of his spirituality reserves was swallowed whole.
This was the price of using a transcendent weapon.
The only pity was that they were currently in the pitch-black sewers; there was no bright moonlight to replenish his spirituality.
This was a pure war of attrition.
"Old Ed!"
Elias shouted quickly in his mind while jogging to approach the battlefield and find a shooting angle.
"I might need your support during the fight later."
"Recall your occult knowledge, especially the magic circle parts."
"You're talking as if I know everything!"
Old Ed complained grumpily.
"I'm not an omniscient god!"
"Then tell me whatever you do know!"
Elias gritted his teeth.
"Don't drop the ball at the critical moment!"
"I still haven't settled the score with you regarding the messenger!"
"Fine, fine, fine!"
Just as he finished speaking, Elias had already reached the edge of the battlefield.
He raised his hand, his muzzle locking onto the water surface beneath the siren.
He had originally planned to use freezing bullets to completely freeze the siren's massive body along with the foul sewage.
However, the battle changed in the blink of an eye.
An investigator at the very front of the Seventh Agency pulled out a scroll.
An invisible ripple instantly swept through the entire underground space.
Suddenly, Elias felt his feet hit empty air.
The foul sewage that had reached his ankles, or even his knees in some depressions, actually vaporized entirely in that single instant!
White steam rose up, carrying a pungent smell.
In just two seconds, the accumulated sewage on the ground was completely evaporated, leaving only unevaporable sediment, trash, and bones exposed on the open floor.
The once slippery and muddy battlefield instantly became dry and hard.
"Damn it! I miscalculated!"
Elias cursed inwardly.
"That's the 【Dehydration Spell】!"
Old Ed's voice rang out at the right time.
"It's a spell cast by a spawn of the Raging Sea or a Storm Judge."
"It can instantly evaporate all water deposited on the ground within a certain range."
"This spell is useless in naval battles, but it's a divine skill in damp environments!"
While the dry ground stripped the siren of its home-field advantage, it also caused his flash-freeze plan to die in the womb.
Elias could only change his strategy.
With his Rational Circuit connected, he repeated his old trick, using 【Moonlight Veil】 to lightly hide his figure.
He bet that the siren, currently in the heat of battle with the Seventh Agency investigators, wouldn't necessarily notice him.
His opportunity was now!
"To kill a monster above Scale Three, bullets alone aren't enough."
Elias held his breath, moving silently and quickly along the edge of the battlefield.
"Old Ed, lend me a hand."
"A trigger-type magic circle!"
"I'll talk, you operate,"
Old Ed immediately began giving step-by-step instructions.
He crouched down and pulled several faintly glowing ores from his coat; these were the transcendent materials he had scrounged up this afternoon.
"A Repulsion Array can generate a repulsive field explosion; it requires the glow-amber and blood you bought this afternoon."
Glow-amber, an excellent spirit-conducting material.
Used for drawing some simple magic circles.
Elias immediately used a sterling silver dagger to cut his fingertip, following Old Ed's guidance to rapidly sketch on the dry floor tiles.
Indeed, blood was a spiritual medium in itself, and as a Norse descendant, his blood was especially excellent.
A series of complex Ancient Runic symbols bloomed quietly among the rubble, every stroke accompanied by a violent consumption of spirituality.
If he were just an ordinary Scale One transcendent, he would probably be sent to the Landon Asylum by now.
Mineral powder was evenly sprinkled over the bloodstains.
During the five minutes the investigators fought the siren, Elias was like a diligent spider, weaving a deadly net on the flank of the floor.
Time was limited.
A total of three overlapping force field rune arrays.
By relying on the connection between his spirituality and the Origin Web to feed back into the medium, the spirituality within was compressed geometrically to create a massive area-of-effect force field explosion.
Of course, a fuse was still needed.
A scorching bullet was buried at the center of the array.
This was another use of the elemental revolver; since its ammunition was generated by his own spirituality, it was naturally connected to him.
This allowed him to achieve the goal of delayed detonation for the elemental effects within the ammunition.
"It's done!"
Elias took a deep breath and deactivated the veil.
He stood at the other end of the trap, his revolver aimed at the siren's barnacle-covered nape.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Three elemental bullets left the barrel, trailing red, blue, and white light through the air as they accurately struck the siren's coral-layered head.
The thick coral carapace on the siren's head was instantly blasted into a bloody mess, with marks of charring, carbonization, and freezing interlaced.
"Roar—!!!"
The siren let out a pained roar and whipped its head around.
Those dead-fish eyes, filled with resentment, instantly locked onto its hated old acquaintance.
However, very quickly, the flesh on its head writhed strangely; the coral keratin layer around the injured area began to proliferate wildly, covering the wound in the blink of an eye.
This terrifying self-healing ability was simply despair-inducing!
At that moment, Elias's 【Malice Perception】 suddenly began screaming in alarm.
The siren roared, its eyes burning red with hatred as it bypassed the investigators and locked onto Elias nearby.
Its massive fish tail slammed against the ground, and it charged toward Elias like an out-of-control train carrying a foul wind.
"Perfect!"
Instead of retreating, Elias took a step forward.
The moment the siren rushed into the blood-red rune area, Elias slammed his spirituality into it.
"Boom—!"
The rune array was activated instantly, and an extreme repulsion field erupted from the ground.
The siren's massive body was seemingly hurled into the air by something.
Along with the filth on the ground, foul blood splattered everywhere.
"Holy crap? Old Ed, this thing works pretty well!"
Elias couldn't help but praise.
"It's because the spirituality you channeled was enough; if a Scale One used this, the effect would be mediocre."
The five Seventh Agency investigators were also stunned by this sudden turn of events.
Elias was about to go up and deliver the finishing blow, but to his surprise, the siren's bloodied body began to swell.
Its size grew to more than twice its original bulk!
In an instant, a sharper claw tore through the flesh and emerged from within.
"Wait, there's a fucking second phase?!"
Rate on N.U.
