Looking at the gradually collapsing warehouse floor, Thomas adjusted his slightly askew thick-rimmed glasses and let out a cold laugh.
Estimating that the underground space had already been filled with rubble, he didn't waste precious spirituality to directly return via "Flame Jump." Besides, there were no flames underground now to use as a landing point.
He walked through the secret passage to the underground—the one revealed to him by that mysterious "Mr. C." He hadn't expected to use it tonight, especially not at the moment "Mr. C" met his end.
That dog-son "Aurora Society" divine messenger finally died at the hands of official Beyonders!
Thomas gritted his teeth at the thought as he descended step by step along the staircase, arriving beside the entrance of the cellar.
The door remained wide open, the interior pitch-black. A few rays of crimson moonlight filtered through the warehouse's high windows, casting faint illumination into the cellar with its exposed roof.
But that's fine. I can see...
Thomas's gun-holding right hand pressed against his thick-rimmed glasses, injecting a bit of spirituality into them. The lenses emitted a subtle glow visible only to him, and the dark cellar brightened in his sight.
As a member of "Mechanical Heart," they never lacked such practical items.
Of course, except for potions.
Through the enhanced glasses, the collapsed cellar revealed itself—large sections of ceiling turned to jagged rubble. The wooden sacrificial altar had completely collapsed, and the cross fixed to the wall tilted at an angle. The naked giant hanging upside down struck an almost comical pose.
That statue...
Just a glance made Thomas feel a stabbing pain at the corners of his eyes. He quickly looked away and began searching the ground for Mr. C and those official Beyonders.
The black flesh and blood that Mr. C had transformed into was mostly covered by fallen rubble, with only small portions exposed. These strange chunks no longer burned or squirmed, resembling clumps of dust-covered flour.
Even if the Creator he believed in descended, he probably couldn't resurrect this pile of flesh.
Thomas thought maliciously.
Though Mr. C had given him a potion formula, allowing him to become the Beyonder he'd dreamed of, the man had also used him, forcing Thomas to commit numerous wrongdoings.
Hmph, wrongdoings? Not necessarily.
The left hand in his pocket tightly gripped his "Lucky Pocket Watch," and Thomas's restless heart calmed slightly.
If it weren't for Mr. C ordering him to steal the "Magician" Beyonder characteristic, how could he have obtained this magical item?
Fingering the pocket watch inside his pocket, he carefully stepped around the black flesh and came to the other side of the rubble pile.
A wave of blood stench invaded Thomas's nostrils, making him sneeze uncontrollably.
Even counting the official Beyonder lying by the door, all three people had been crushed into meat paste—yet there shouldn't be such a powerful bloody smell, should there?
He frowned and cautiously searched through the ruins for the source of the stench.
If something goes wrong, immediately use "Flame Jump" to return to the surface and leave… If that doesn't work, there's still "Paper Doll Substitute" and "Damage Transfer."
But the "Lucky Pocket Watch's" effective duration was nearly expired. He gave himself three more minutes—if he couldn't find the Sealed Artifact by then, he would depart immediately.
Thomas made up his mind, holding his revolver at the ready as he made his way to the door on the far side of the cellar.
Fortunately, he quickly discovered a man lying face down beside the door, wearing a trench coat. The man's left hand extended forward, his sleeve violently torn. He appeared to be unconscious, unmoving.
A large-caliber, pitch-black revolver lay discarded beside this man. The nauseating bloody stench emanated from here.
"Could it be a runaway Sealed Artifact..."
Thomas had witnessed the power of this weapon. The skin on his neck still faintly ached, and Mr. C, who had been burned into minced meat, had died under its muzzle.
As a Sequence 8 of the Generalist Path, he understood clearly: the more powerful a magical item, the stronger its negative effects tended to be.
This weapon's owner would rather toss it aside than continue using it in battle—surely because they could no longer withstand its consequences.
He wasn't foolish enough to pick up that revolver.
But why was there only one person on the ground? Where were the other two, or their corpses?
Could they all be buried beneath the rubble?
Thomas's gaze swept the area, but aside from scattered rocks and bloodstains from Mr. C's sacrifice, he found no other figures.
"..."
A faint murmur sounded behind him, causing his already tense heart to go cold. He was just about to activate "Flame Jump" to escape this place.
"…Teleportation forbidden!"
Bang—
An orange flame flashed, but Thomas remained rooted in place, unmoved. His neck, stiff with surprise, had barely turned a fraction backward.
A cold female voice, accompanied by the sound of a blade cutting through air, rapidly approached him.
Just as Angel expected, the cautious Thomas prepared to flee the moment he sensed danger.
To seize this singular opportunity, she activated the "Hand of Declarations" (2-031) to issue a prohibition, placing a "No Teleportation" restriction on the underground space. Simultaneously, she drew a dagger and leapt from the shadows, stabbing at the exposed back of her target.
This was her first time using the "Assassin" ability to hide in shadows—and it performed remarkably well in the underground darkness.
The dagger pierced Thomas's trench coat without resistance, but the feedback made Angel frown. Behind the coat was only air, not the solid resistance of human flesh.
The trench coat rapidly thinned, shrank, and finally transformed into a palm-sized, exquisitely crafted paper doll hanging from the dagger tip.
Paper Doll Substitute!
The "Hand of Declarations" could only issue one prohibition at a time. After forbidding the greatest threat—teleportation—the paper doll substitute proved to be a troublesome Beyonder ability.
The failed strike didn't exceed Angel's expectations. She hadn't even used a charged-up attack.
Such a powerful ability surely couldn't be used repeatedly—it either consumed spirituality or required rare materials.
Flicking away the paper doll from her dagger, Angel continued her advance. Not far from where the doll had been, as expected, stood Thomas, who had already turned around and raised his revolver.
With teleportation forbidden, even the paper doll substitute couldn't take him far from danger!
Bang—
Thomas hastily aimed at Angel's head and fired. She dodged the bullet by anticipating the trigger pull from his finger movement, and with long strides, she closed the distance in an instant, slashing with her left-hand dagger.
Without his teleportation ability, Thomas was like a novice in battle. After missing his shot, he staggered backward, barely deflecting the fatal strike with his revolver. His panicked steps found loose rubble, nearly sending him sprawling, and his revolver was knocked flying by the dagger.
"Tch—"
Due to her injured right hand, Angel could only fight with the dagger in her left. Using her non-dominant hand slowed her by half a beat, allowing her opponent to evade the strike.
She pressed on undiscouraged, continuing to close in. Now that Thomas had lost his gun, he could no longer threaten her.
Angel stabbed several more times, once again turning him into a paper doll.
Let's see how many paper dolls you have left...
She quickly located Thomas's new figure nearby, kicked off the ground, and changed her sprinting direction without losing momentum.
"Wait... I... Flash!"
Thomas, having moved a few meters away using his paper doll substitute, attempted to negotiate, but seeing her determination, he could only grit his teeth and pull out a charm. With no time to throw it, he frantically chanted the activation incantation.
A radiance brighter than the sun erupted from his hand, illuminating the entire cellar like midday.
Angel felt a sharp pain in her eyes. The vision-enhancing potion from her assassin path had become a liability—the exploding charm acted like a flashbang, blinding her, leaving only multicolored afterimages in her sight.
Clenching her teeth, she didn't retreat but instead dove into Thomas's arms, dagger in her left hand stabbing with all her might.
This time, it wasn't the empty feeling of piercing a paper doll.