Security and Containment Center.
A researcher staring intently at the screen suddenly looked up, reporting with a frantic expression, "Sir! Asset #59 Signal Source has also been lost."
"What happened? Equipment failure?"
Sitterson walked quickly to the console.
The annual sacrifice to that Ancient Evil God had just been completed these past few days, and the higher-ups had allocated a new batch of funding and resources, so his mood had originally been quite good.
"No... it's not an equipment failure."
The researcher reported cautiously, "It looks like it was intentional..."
"Bring up the surveillance," Sitterson ordered with a cold face.
The last time personnel had been stationed at that branch in West Virginia was over ten years ago.
Nominally, those two researchers were there to monitor the Black Forest Demon from nearby.
In reality, they were expendable assets abandoned by the organization.
Or rather, observing how humans were gradually eroded and mutated within a demon's domain was an essential part of the entire Containment Project.
It was thanks to the self-sacrifice of these people that the technical department could collect enough data to develop the Field Generators capable of shielding against demonic aura, which in turn allowed for the successful construction of this massive underground containment center.
If not for that, with such a large number of monsters and spirits from Hell imprisoned in the underground facility, the staff working here day in and day out would have mutated long ago.
The researcher pulled up the surveillance footage.
Sitterson watched the familiar figure on the monitor, the corner of his eye twitching slightly.
The last time, it was because that Ogre went mad and slaughtered the police station that things were exposed.
This time, the demon was hidden in the deep backwoods; they had even deliberately left online public opinion unmanaged for fear of attracting attention.
He gritted his teeth, squeezing out the words: "Find out! Was he just passing through by chance, or did he have another objective?"
"I just compared his recent travel route."
The researcher's hands tapped rapidly on the keyboard, and a red trajectory appeared on the screen. "Starting from Los Santos, there were no detours. He stopped a few times mid-way, likely for rest..."
"It looks like he went straight for this demon."
"Are we exposed? How is that possible..."
Cold sweat broke out on Sitterson's forehead.
At the thought of the secret research conducted in the base, the captive monsters, and the unethical sacrificial experiments... if any of it were exposed, a death sentence would surely await him.
Sitterson's gaze gradually became sinister.
The things the research center had developed at the cost of countless lives and resources did indeed give them the confidence to stand against these Devil Hunters.
However, these things were currently still in an unstable testing phase and had not yet reached maturity. If exposed prematurely, it would inevitably disrupt the strategies they had spent years preparing.
He took a deep breath, forcing down the panic in his heart, and quickly issued an order: "Archive the data."
With that, he grabbed his coat and hurried out; he had to report this development to his superiors immediately.
—--
The Otherworld.
Alessa sat on the ground with zero regard for her appearance, letting out a satisfied burp.
She had completely absorbed Jotunn's corpse, leaving nothing behind.
She patted her stomach and tilted her head as she looked at the spot where the demon's body had vanished.
This was prey that Sephirot had worked hard to hunt down, yet she had not only eaten the whole thing but hadn't even left him a scrap of meat.
That didn't seem right.
Feeling somewhat guilty, Alessa decided to give Sephirot some substantial compensation.
She raised her hand, shearing off half the control over Silent Hill and transferring it directly to Sephirot.
Having done this, Alessa looked at the bones and antlers Sephirot had specifically asked to keep.
With a slight shift of her will, a burst of Hellfire rose from the ground, completely surrounding the bones.
The falling ash from the sky flew toward the bones, constantly merging into them as the fire blazed.
Under the dual tempering of Silent Hill's laws and the Hellfire, the impurities within the originally pitch-black bones were gradually smelted away, turning them grey-white.
Once finished, Alessa let out a yawn and sent a thought to Sephirot through their mental link, indicating that she needed to fall into a short slumber to properly digest the energy gained from Jotunn.
—--
On the highway.
Inside the car, Sephirot suddenly received the message from Alessa.
He could feel that Alessa's consciousness had entered a deep sleep.
However, his perception of the Otherworld was clearer than ever before.
Previously, he could only summon the domain of the Otherworld within a small radius of a few meters around himself.
Now, as long as he wished, he could forcibly drag everything within a several-thousand-meter radius into the domain of Silent Hill in an instant.
With a thought, a pair of antlers and several heavy leg bones appeared out of thin air on the passenger seat.
The antlers hadn't changed much, but the grey-white bones were covered in a network of crisscrossing cracks. Faint flickers of fire flowed deep within those fissures, like subterranean magma.
Sephirot looked at these demon materials, their quality now significantly improved, and felt a hint of anticipation.
He wondered what kind of tricks Nico, that Genius Mechanic, could whip up with these things.
He withdrew his gaze, stepped on the gas, and sped off toward Los Santos.
—--
Los Santos.
By the time Sephirot returned to the Agency, Lady had already left.
Inside the van parked outside, Nico was flipping through a magazine out of sheer boredom.
The moment she saw Sephirot return, she kicked the door open and hopped out.
"Look who's back!"
Nico adjusted her glasses, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, as she looked Sephirot up and down with a feverish glint in her eyes.
"God, I can already smell that demonic stench on you! It's absolutely intoxicating!"
"Hurry up and tell me, did you bring back the materials I asked for?"
Sephirot shook his head as he watched her look like she was about to shove her hands into his pockets. "You research types have an obsession more terrifying than any demon."
"Damn right!"
Nico took a drag of her cigarette, her voice buzzing with excitement. "If I wasn't waiting for you to get back, this genius would've already been on the road to her next destination!"
"I didn't bring back the full demonic corpse, but the core remains and those antlers are all here."
Sephirot walked to the back of his car and threw open the trunk. "Besides, they've undergone a bit of special processing."
Inside the trunk lay a pile of remains Sephirot had taken out earlier; the ashen-white bones radiated a dangerous aura.
Nico took one look, and the cigarette dropped straight out of her mouth and onto the ground.
She lunged at the trunk in a frenzy, her breathing growing ragged.
"My god..."
She stroked the bones with an obsessive touch.
"Simply incredible! What on earth did you do to them? This level of fusion, this embryo won't need any post-processing at all!"
However, after a brief moment of mania, Nico's rationality gradually returned.
She let out a sigh of regret. "Sephirot, I suggest you store these bones properly for now."
"I don't have many demonic materials on hand. If I use only these for the forging, the finished product's attributes will be too one-dimensional, and the lethality won't even come close to expectations."
"That would be a total waste of such top-tier material."
"Once we get some better materials later, like the heart of a Lord-class demon or something, I promise you, I'll be able to craft an ultimate masterpiece that'll make every demon out there piss their pants!"
At that, Nico shifted gears and looked at the pair of massive antlers nearby:
"As for right now... we can have some fun with these big horns first."
(Translated by yourtl.app)