"Huff... Huff..."
Duke Negan leaned against the wreckage of the overturned carriage, gasping violently. Warm blood gushed from his nose and the corners of his mouth, staining his expensive formal wear a dark red.
He had almost lost all sensation in half of his body. At least three ribs were broken, and every breath was accompanied by heart-piercing pain.
If not for the fact that he was a mid-Sequence Beyonder himself, coupled with the several Mystical Items he carried for self-preservation, he likely would have exploded and died on the spot the moment the "Apostle of Desire" detonated his emotions.
"Damn... Demon..." Duke Negan squeezed the words out through gritted teeth; his voice was as hoarse as a broken bellows.
He struggled to look around, only to find his blonde secretary lying motionless on the ground.
It seemed she had been knocked unconscious during the first wave of the impact.
That made sense; the combat prowess of a Beyonder from the "Demon" Pathway was among the strongest of all Pathways.
Even though his secretary was also a Beyonder, it was reasonable for her to be taken down by a sneak attack.
His "Wind-Blessed" bodyguard was still stubbornly entangled with that terrifying Demon, but judging by his gradually weakening aura and the deep, bone-visible wounds covering his body, he wouldn't be able to hold on much longer.
Am I going to die? No, I can't... My power, my status...
The Duke struggled to get up, only to find he didn't even have the strength to lift his arm.
"Ah—!"
Just then, the "Wind-Blessed" bodyguard let out a desperate roar! He used every ounce of his strength to conjure a violent hurricane around him! The hurricane swept up all the dust and debris on the ground, striking toward the "Apostle of Desire" Jason Belia like a sandstorm!
Jason was about to dodge to the side when he suddenly stepped on a piece of metal trim from the carriage.
"What?!"
He stumbled, caught head-on by the incoming hurricane, and was sent flying in a sorry state.
The "Wind-Blessed" had no intention of pursuing. He immediately turned, rushed to Duke Negan's side, hoisted the collapsed Duke onto his back, and ran toward the distance with all his might.
"Hold on, sir! The Archbishop and the others will be here soon!"
Although he said that, the bodyguard from the "Church of Storms" was muttering to himself.
It was too slow. More than five minutes had passed since the distress signal was sent after the ambush. With the temperament and speed of Archbishop "Song of the Wind" Ace Snake, he should have arrived long ago.
No, I can't count on that. I must save myself!
He scanned the surroundings, intending to take the Duke away from this secluded path as quickly as possible and run toward the main road with more traffic. He didn't believe that Demon would dare to use Beyonder abilities recklessly in public!
Even if he dared, the dense crowd could provide some interference and cover.
"It seems the upper limit of the 'misfortune' I can currently inflict is at the level of interfering with actions or causing mistakes."
On the roof of a nearby building, Loen, who had just used a Beyonder ability, was silently evaluating the effects of his current power.
The reason the "Apostle of Desire" hadn't dodged that hurricane was because he had inflicted a small bit of "misfortune" on him at the critical moment.
"Can it only create mistakes, not directly lead to serious injury or death..." Loen thought thoughtfully. If that previous strike could have made the Demon's neck hit a sharp object while falling, or if he had been pierced by some shrapnel in the hurricane, things would have been much simpler. He could have resolved this crisis without even showing his face.
But things didn't go as planned. Watching the Demon who had been sent flying get up from the ground quickly, merely dusting himself off before chasing after the direction the Duke had fled with an expression of unyielding determination.
Fortunately, the other party didn't seem to have noticed his existence. Or perhaps, he had noticed but deemed him far less important than the mission target who was about to escape.
"This won't do. With the bodyguard's current state, he definitely won't be able to escape at that speed. And even if they really ran far away and blended into the crowd, once a fight broke out, the civilian casualties that might be caused—"
"Nobles and killers are dogs biting dogs, but civilians are—" Loen thought of the workers under him and the young girl he had rescued before.
"Sigh—" He sighed, "Who told me to still be wearing the title of 'hero' right now."
"That Monster is likely also at the Sequence 5 level, it should... still be manageable."
"But this time, I'm not saving some distressed beautiful noble lady, but a fat, greasy old aristocrat—tch, I'm inexplicably a bit disappointed."
Although he said that, Loen reached into his coat and took out a ripper from his playing card storage space.
"Click."
The bullet was chambered!
Accompanied by a shrill scream, Duke Negan was thrown heavily to the ground, tumbling several times like a broken trash bag.
His bones were shattered even more, his entire lower body had completely lost sensation, and blood gushed continuously from his nose and the corners of his mouth.
His "Wind-Blessed" bodyguard wasn't doing much better. At the last moment, to avoid the deadly sulfur fireball thrown by the Demon from behind, he had been forced to push Duke Negan off his back, and he himself had taken the blow squarely. At this moment, his back was charred black, emitting a pungent smell of sulfur.
"To think... it took me so much effort." Jason Belia looked at the two people collapsed on the ground, breathing their last, and a cold smile appeared on his face.
"Now, it can end."
Just as he prepared to step forward and finish off Duke Negan, his malice perception, which belonged to a "Demon," suddenly reacted!
"Bang!"
A bullet, carrying a piercing whistle, struck toward him! He subconsciously wanted to dodge to the side, but unexpectedly, he collided head-on with a glass bottle thrown at high speed!
The bottle hit his body and shattered instantly! The clear liquid with a faint glow inside splashed out instantly, drenching him!
"Ahhh!"
"Ahhhhh—"
Accompanied by the strong corrosive effect of the holy water, bursts of pungent white smoke, mixed with "sizzling" sounds, erupted crazily from Jason Belia's body!
"This trick of feinting to the east while attacking the west never gets old no matter how many times it's used."
"Although it's just the lowest-grade holy water, for a Monster covered in wounds like you, the effect seems unexpectedly good."
A calm, slightly teasing voice came from the shadows of the street corner ahead.
Loen walked out of the shadows, holding the "ripper" with its muzzle still smoking. Without hesitation, he fired another shot!
Jason Belia instantly ended his semi-Demon state, and his whole body turned into a pool of viscous black liquid with a "poof," dodging the shot.
Seeing this, Loen continued to fire, suppressing the movements of the pool of black liquid, while splashing another bottle of holy water toward Duke Negan, attempting to temporarily isolate him from the Demon with the holy water.
At the same time, he quickly switched weapons. A submachine gun with a longer barrel appeared in his hands, and he unleashed crazy fire suppression at the constantly squirming pool of black liquid!
"Da-da-da-da-da—!!"
A violent metal storm poured out again! Although the power of a single shot was not as good as the "ripper," the astonishing rate of fire and coverage were enough to make any opponent attempting to charge or cast spells feel troubled.
While strafing and suppressing, Loen moved his feet quickly, closing the distance to Duke Negan.
"It seems the two of you need a little help." He looked down at Duke Negan, who was covered in blood and had unfocused eyes.
"Save... save me..." Duke Negan struggled, squeezing a few words from his throat.
Although he didn't know who this man who had suddenly appeared was, he was covered in wounds and on the verge of death; he couldn't care about that much anymore. He tried his best to grab onto this straw.
"As long as... as long as you save me..."
"Money... women... status... whatever you want... I will give it all to you... I swear... on the honor of the Negan family..." He offered his terms intermittently.
Give everything... sounds very tempting. But one has to be alive to spend it.
Hearing Duke Negan's promise, there was no expression on Loen's face; instead, a trace of gravity flashed in his heart.
The Negan family— He seemed to have gotten involved in some incredible trouble once again.