"Bang, bang, bang!"
The whistling sound of countless air cannons echoed in the pitch-black subway tunnel.
"Damn it!"
The Nighthawks drew their guns one after another to fight back. However, the number of those bizarre dolls was simply too great, and their movements possessed unexpected flexibility and agility.
The most critical point was that the iconic Dream-Inducing and Requiem abilities of the Sleepless Pathway were all targeted at targets with spirit bodies.
Against these cold dolls made of machinery and metal, they were completely ineffective!
"Lord Sezimah has already entered from the other side of the subway! We must break through here as quickly as possible to support him!" Soest shouted loudly while dodging the bombardment of air cannons in a sorry state.
"But, Captain! These dolls are just too troublesome to deal with!"
"Our abilities are useless against them, and even Demon-Hunting Bullets can't penetrate their shells!"
"These little things are called 'Fall Experts.' If you are hit head-on by their air cannons, you will immediately fall to the ground—"
"Unless they are completely destroyed, they will absolutely not stop acting until they achieve their preset goal."
Listening to Pallez's slow explanation in his mind, Leonard was left speechless.
"Old man! This is completely different from what you said!"
He pointed at the wall to the side, which had been smashed with hideous cracks by an air cannon, and retorted: "How is this the power to make someone fall? This is clearly lethal power, okay!"
"Hehe—so many years have passed, perhaps those guys from The Society made some small improvements to them, who knows."
"Besides, I'm old, my memory isn't good, maybe I misremembered it myself."
"Then do you know how to stop them?" Leonard asked anxiously.
"In the past, you just had to insert three gold coins into the coin slot behind them, and that would be it," Pallez's voice came.
"Gold coins?"
"Where would I find gold coins now! And there are so many of them, how many gold coins would that take!"
"Besides, even if I had gold coins, I couldn't even get close to them!"
Leonard's expression grew increasingly ugly; the method the old man mentioned was completely useless.
"Then there's nothing I can do. In the eyes of high-Sequence beings, these little things are just interesting toys. But in the eyes of you little guys—hehe."
"Old man! Why do you like to make snide remarks so much today!" Leonard couldn't help but complain.
"It's rare to see things from the past, I'm just a bit sentimental—"
"Besides, you should be thankful that you didn't encounter a Fall Expert Z. That thing is something even ordinary demigods can't handle."
"Demigods?!" Leonard was a bit surprised. "Old man, just what were you in the past—"
Just as the Nighthawks were being forced to retreat step by step by this group of bizarre puppet legions, a thick and dazzling bolt of lightning suddenly struck in from the entrance of the tunnel, instantly knocking the few "Fall Experts" blocking the front flying!
"The Church of Storms's reinforcements have arrived!" Soest was the first to react, his spirits lifted, and he shouted loudly.
He saw the "Singer of Divine Songs" Ace Snake, leading a squad of fully armed Mandated Punishers, striding over from the entrance.
"Bang, bang, bang!" A few holy water bullets with purification effects were directly swallowed and evaporated by a sulfur fireball coming head-on.
Loen was dodging in a sorry state while continuing to look for opportunities to counterattack.
At the same time, he also began to unsparingly consume the "luck" he had accumulated for a long time.
"Damn! He has fireballs, can transform, and in close combat, he even has a sword that can slash out lava!"
"This is what you call a 'Monster'!"
"We're both Sequence 5, so why is there such a big difference!"
This brief exchange with the "Apostle of Desire" had already allowed Loen to probe quite a few abilities of the "Demon" Pathway.
He unexpectedly discovered that the Beyonders of this Pathway were just too damn comprehensive! They had close combat, long-range attacks, spell damage, crowd control abilities, and they could even transform at critical moments. While being incredibly tanky, their damage was also ridiculously high!
The most critical point was that Loen discovered that the opponent seemed to have an ability similar to his own "Premonition of Disaster," which could, to a certain extent, predict the direction and timing of his attacks.
Except for a clear lack of resistance to the abilities of the "Sun" Pathway, this Pathway basically had no obvious weaknesses.
The only fortunate thing was that the opponent seemed to have suffered not-insignificant injuries and appeared somewhat impatient. Moreover, with the support of "luck," the opponent couldn't take him down for the time being.
"Damn it! What the hell is going on with this guy?!" Jason Belia became increasingly irritable.
He could feel that this suddenly appearing opponent's actual combat strength wasn't particularly strong, at least in a head-on confrontation, he definitely wasn't his match. But the opponent had an extremely troublesome characteristic—he was hard to kill!
He had been constantly changing his attack patterns, lava, poisonous gas, filthy words—yet not a single one had actually managed to hit the opponent!
Either he was subjected to some inexplicable interference, causing his ability to fail, or the direction of the attack was clearly correct, but it just grazed past the opponent's side, simply failing to hit!
And once he tried to charge forward for close combat, he would be covered by the insane firepower of the long-barreled, rapid-fire gun the opponent used!
The handmade submachine gun lacked precision due to craftsmanship issues. But once the target got up close, it lacked nothing!
"Da, da, da—" A burst of rapid footsteps approached. Loen looked with his peripheral vision and discovered that the people coming were a group of people in uniform, looking like a private guard.
It looked like they were the bodyguards of the old noble he was protecting behind him; they were friendly forces!
Seeing this, the "Wind-Blessed" who was already on the verge of death used his last bit of strength to crawl up from the ground.
"You take him and go quickly! I'll hold off this Monster!" Loen shouted.
"Alright!" The "Wind-Blessed" didn't waste words. Gritting his teeth, he came to Duke Negan's side, hoisted him up again, and then, with all his might, ran towards the direction of the guard squad.
"Don't think about running!" Seeing that his target was about to escape, Jason directly tanked a few bullets fired at him, once again condensed a fatal lava fireball, and violently threw it in the direction of the "Wind-Blessed"!
Seeing this, Loen immediately released an invisible "Mental Storm" at Jason, then took out his pocket watch and pressed it hard!
A storm of snow mixed with biting cold suddenly appeared out of thin air! This was the "Wraith" ability belonging to Sharron that Loen had previously recorded!
The snowstorm and the lava fireball violently collided, and scorching water vapor instantly filled the air, enveloping the entire area.
"Why is it just you few—" The "Wind-Blessed," carrying the Duke on his back, finally rushed into the guard squad.
Besides a few guards from the Negan family who had rushed over upon hearing the news, he only saw a few ordinary Mandated Punishers colleagues who were patrolling nearby.
"Where is the Archbishop?! Why hasn't he arrived yet!"
"Something big happened in the Southern District! There's a terrorist attack! The Aurora Order did it, the scale is huge, many people died, the Archbishop received a call for help and has already rushed to the scene himself!"
"But don't worry, reinforcements have already been called, and the main force will arrive soon."
"The Southern District—of all times, now!" The "Wind-Blessed" cursed under his breath, then immediately looked at those few Mandated Punishers and issued an order.
"You few go deal with that Demon! The rest of you, immediately escort me and the Duke to the Holy Wind Cathedral! Quickly!"
Loen and Jason continued to grapple in the dense fog filled with the pungent smell of sulfur.
"How unlucky—the good luck I've painstakingly accumulated since I advanced is almost used up today—"
Watching the opponent barely miss him with his lava due to a mistake, Loen gave a wry smile and launched another "Mental Storm." At the same time, he quickly pressed the pocket watch twice in succession!
"Wraith Entanglement"! "Wraith Screech"!
These two moves were both core abilities of the Sequence 5 "Wraith." The former could summon a large number of relatively special undead creatures to fix the target firmly in place, making him paralyzed and stiff, unable to move easily. Combined with his "Mental Storm," it had the miraculous effect of one plus one being greater than two.
And the latter was a move that could bypass the "Demon's" formidable physical body and directly attack its spirit body!
"Ah—!" Taking advantage of the interval when the Demon was injured and knocked into a short stun, Loen decisively opened fire!
Under the blessing of luck, several shots accurately hit the wounds that had previously been scorched by holy water and had weaker protection, bringing out several spurts of blood!
At the same time, he also noticed that there were a few bullets coming from other directions, as well as a few Charms flashing with electric light, attacking in the direction of the Demon.
"Boom! Crackle—!" The effect of those "Lightning" Charms was quite good, exploding directly on the black mud, knocking it far away.
"Hiss—" Jason struggled to crawl up, his aura significantly withered. He glared fixedly at Loen, who was looming in the white fog, and then looked at the direction of Duke Negan, who was being escorted away by guards in the distance. A flash of extreme unwillingness crossed his eyes, but it was ultimately overcome by reason.
He did not try to counterattack again but quickly escaped into the surrounding fog, attempting to retreat.
The mission had already failed. He had no way to take down that troublesome spoiler in a short time. If he continued to drag it out, the opponent's reinforcements would only keep coming.
"Hoo—hoo—" Jason panted heavily, leaning in a sorry state against the shadows of an alley.
He used all his strength and finally managed to run a safe distance.
"Damn it! Who exactly is that guy!"
Originally, his mission was almost successful. Although the first wave didn't directly kill Duke Negan, as long as he spent a little more time, he could have killed him by force. Who would have thought that such a troublesome spoiler would suddenly pop up!
Not only did he have a strangely shaped long gun, but he was also weirdly impossible to kill!
"However—that Duke suffered such heavy injuries, his spine is broken, his internal organs must be severely damaged too, he might not be saved. Even if he luckily doesn't die, his fate won't be much better than death."
"Da—da—da—" A burst of unhurried footsteps suddenly came from the alley entrance.
Jason's pupils contracted instantly! He quickly turned his head to look, but when he saw who it was, he subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's you—Director Charles."
The person who came was none other than his partner, Charles, who had also provided him with the Mystical Item for this operation.
"You came just in time! Take me away quickly!" "Send me away from Backlund according to the plan," Jason urged.
"Hurry and take me away! The Mandated Punishers are about to catch up!"
"Hmm?" This powerful "Demon" just wanted to get up but suddenly discovered that his body couldn't move at all!
He seemed to be subjected to some kind of invisible, rule-level restriction!
"In this place, the existence of Demons is prohibited." Charles issued a commandment word by word.
"Charles, you actually—Ah—" Jason wanted to speak, but discovered that his throat wasn't listening to him either, and he couldn't utter a single word!
Impossible! Clearly, he hadn't felt any malice from him! Why!
Charles took out from his bosom a Charm that emitted dazzling golden light, as if it were condensed from pure sunlight.
"Patrick, our interaction has always been very pleasant. You helped me handle quite a few things that were inconvenient for me to show up for, and I also gave you corresponding rewards and help. But it's a pity that you broke the rules first."
"Moreover, your operation also failed—"
"Not having the ability isn't your fault. But, you arrogantly accepted a mission that couldn't be completed, and even tried to drag me into it, that is your problem."
"Goodbye, Patrick Jason—no, I should call you, Jason Belia."
Accompanied by the gradually dissipating golden light, Charles tidied up the scene.
He had just left and walked a few steps when he suddenly keenly sensed that there seemed to be a gaze falling on him from not far away.
"Damn! I should have placed another 'No Approaching' commandment just now!"
He just wanted to turn back to deal with that potential hidden danger.
"No—over at the subway station, I still need to provide support. If I delay too long here, I'll be suspected."
In the distance, Loen, who had chased all the way by relying on "Premonition of Disaster" and spiritual intuition, happened to see Jason's corpse from afar, as well as Charles's back as he hurriedly left.
"It seems there's trouble again.