The dark clouds in the sky slowly dispersed, but the cloud layer forcibly driven apart by the meteorite remained unable to recover for a long time. Looking up from below, it looked as if a hole had been punched through the heavens.
An armed helicopter rapidly approached from the distance.
Sephirot looked up at the aircraft in the sky as a warm current surged within him, replenishing his physical exhaustion and the demonic energy consumed by manipulating the Faust Hat.
He glanced down once more at the deep crater beneath his feet.
*Time to split.*
He didn't care for being surrounded and observed like a monkey in a cage.
Moreover, the commotion this time was far too massive. If he were actually taken in by the authorities for questioning, he would likely get dragged into a mess of tedious political socializing.
He looked at Valak's demonic corpse; light flickered across the body's surface, seemingly transitioning into the form of a Devil Arm.
He wondered what kind of Devil Arm this fellow, one of the seventy-two pillars of the demon gods, would ultimately transform into.
Generally speaking, the Devil Arms that demons transformed into would retain their combat style and certain characteristics from when they were alive.
In mythology, Valak ruled over serpents in Hell, possessing the ability to control venomous snakes and profane the Gods...
*This thing wouldn't end up turning into a venomous snake-bone whip, would it?*
Sephirot thought to himself as he tossed Valak's corpse into Silent Hill.
Taking advantage of the fact that the dust filling the air had not yet settled, he pulled up the collar of his trench coat and, with a flicker of his silhouette, vanished from the pit.
Shortly after he left, the dust cleared, and several rope ladders were tossed down from the armed helicopter.
Fully armed special forces descended from the sky, establishing a perimeter.
In the outer blocks, several troop carriers and SUVs emblazoned with FBI lettering blocked off the main roads as a large number of agents and military personnel flooded the scene.
Although the incident occurred in the suburbs, it was right next to a global metropolis like Los Santos.
With an event of this magnitude, the authorities' reaction speed naturally wouldn't be slow.
A special ops captain, among the first to descend to the bottom of the crater, held his rifle at the ready and stepped onto the rubble, carefully observing the environment.
"HQ, this is Alpha Squad. No meteoritic body has been found at the scene for now, and no life signs have been detected..."
The captain pressed his headset, reporting the situation in a low voice.
But all these subsequent developments no longer had anything to do with Sephirot.
He was currently leaning back in the rear seat of a taxi.
The driver was a talkative white middle-aged man, excitedly striking up a conversation with Sephirot: "Man, did you see those dark clouds and the red light falling from the sky just now?"
"FUCK! The news is saying it was some sudden localized thunderstorm, but I swear, that was definitely a meteorite that almost hit Los Santos! Or maybe an alien spacecraft crashed!"
Sephirot gave a noncommittal response, focusing most of his attention on the system messages popping up in his mind.
[Side Quest: The Profane Nun]
[Objective: Completely slay the demon Valak]: Completed
[Rewards: 3000 Points, bloodline awakening degree: 3%, Hell Demon Origin (Spirit) × 1]
[Current points: 10,000]
[Demonic Bloodline bloodline awakening degree: 9%]
Looking at the five-figure balance, Sephirot felt a surge of excitement.
After saving up for so long, he could finally exchange for the Devil Arm [Alastor] that he had been pining for.
Recalling the struggle of dealing with Valak just now, if he had a decent weapon in hand at the time, he wouldn't have been reduced to beating it down with just his fists.
Once he got back to the Agency, he had to make the exchange immediately.
After the excitement faded, Sephirot looked at the bloodline awakening degree, his brow furrowing slightly.
The system's kill reward had clearly only given 3%. Combined with his previously accumulated 5% bloodline awakening degree, the total should have been 8%.
Yet the panel now displayed 9%.
*Where did this extra 1% come from?*
Sephirot closed his eyes, carefully reflecting on his experiences over the past two days.
Was it because the battle against the demon god Valak had stimulated his bloodline? Or perhaps...
Alessa had devoured the Black Woods Spirit's physical form. Had the growth of the Otherworld fed back into his own body?
This suggested that beyond the fixed rewards from system missions, there must be some overlooked method for awakening his bloodline on his own.
Since he couldn't confirm it yet, Sephirot could only keep these thoughts buried in his heart.
After this battle, he also had a clear understanding of his standard level of strength.
Against low-to-mid-tier demons, he could completely overwhelm them.
When facing high-tier demons, if he had a suitable Devil Arm, he was confident he could slay them.
But against a lord-level demon god like Valak, he was still somewhat outmatched.
Success this time was not only thanks to the assistance of Constantine and Papa Midnite, but also because he had struck while the opponent was forcibly crossing between realms, with less than one percent of its power remaining.
Even so, he had been unable to inflict any substantial damage in a short amount of time.
Therefore, if he wanted to fish in troubled waters during the upcoming descent of Mammon, he had to find a way to get stronger as quickly as possible.
At that moment, he suddenly thought of his unreliable uncle, Dante.
As the biological son of Sparda, Dante's situation was entirely different from his.
From the moment he was born, the demonic bloodline in Dante's body was in an awakened state, merely sealed away by a lock.
Being impaled by the Rebellion Greatsword back then had essentially been the key that turned that lock, triggering his Devil Trigger and unlocking the Sparda family's traditional talent for getting stabbed.
His own current state, however, was more like a heavy alloy wall he had built at a great cost; he had to chip away at the wall piece by piece to release what was trapped inside.
As he pondered, the scenery outside the car window suddenly blurred, and a heavy fog silently swallowed the highway whole.
"Dammit, where did all this fog come from in the middle of the day?"
The driver grumbled, switching on the fog lights and beginning to gently tap the brakes.
Suddenly, a tall, dark silhouette appeared in the fog not far ahead of the car.
The shadow had a triangular head and held something unknown in its hand, standing motionless in the middle of the road. "Dammit!"
The driver, scared out of his wits, slammed his foot onto the brakes.
But they were too close, and the speed hadn't dropped much at all. The taxi crashed straight into that dark silhouette.
There was no impact, no sound. The taxi drove right through the dark figure and came to a stop at the side of the road, completely unscathed.
"Shit... did I just see a ghost?!"
The driver gripped the steering wheel tight, breaking out in a cold sweat.
Sitting in the back seat, Sephirot watched the scene and called out internally, *Alessa, are you awake?*
He was more than familiar with this fog and that dark silhouette.
Previously, their appearance generally accompanied the arrival of the Otherworld, yet now they could appear independently.
It seemed that after Alessa absorbed the Jotunn's corpse, the changes to the Otherworld were far more significant than he had anticipated.
"Mm..."
Alessa's voice echoed in his mind.
"I have synchronized the changes in Silent Hill to you."
As she spoke, a massive surge of information flowed through their mental link into Sephirot's mind, which he fully received.
He instinctively closed his eyes.
—--
This time, he was no longer like before, only able to toss things into Silent Hill from afar.
Sephirot's consciousness descended directly into Silent Hill Town, just as it had when he first entered the town.
"It feels a bit like carrying a small world inside my body..."
He looked around; the changes to the town felt slightly alien to him.
The desolate town, originally shrouded in thick fog with ash constantly falling from the sky, was now covered by a dense black forest.
Pitch-black trees grew between the houses, their vines wrapping around the buildings.
It appeared that the Jotunn consumed by Alessa had not only become her nourishment but even its inherent traits had been perfectly integrated into Silent Hill.
—--
Sephirot opened his eyes and looked back at the fog outside the car window.
This fog was the result of power leaking from the Otherworld when Alessa woke up and her energy became briefly uncontrolled.
With a slight thought, he exerted his will.
A tall figure slowly manifested on the seat beside him.
Pyramid Head sat bolt upright, hands placed obediently on his knees, looking exceptionally cramped within the confines of the small taxi.
On top of his iron triangular helmet, a pair of small antlers had sprouted.
Sephirot's eye twitched as he looked at this somewhat "cute" new look.
*Was this... Alessa's twisted sense of humor?*
He waved a hand, dispersing Pyramid Head's form.
Processing the information in his mind, Sephirot roughly understood the changes brought about by this Otherworld upgrade.
In the current Otherworld, monsters could directly break free from the shackles of Silent Hill and be summoned by him into reality as projections to fight.
Even if these monsters were dispersed in the real world, they would not suffer any actual damage.
He could still use magic power to summon them again.
As for this thick fog, he could summon it in reality as a domain-type skill.
Once enemies with insufficient willpower inhaled this fog, they would fall into a mental illusion, facing the deepest fears in their hearts or repeatedly experiencing their most desperate memories.
Like a meeting right before finishing work...
Like a computer suddenly shutting down without saving after typing a mountain of text...
Even if your will was firm enough, it would continuously manipulate illusions to interfere with your mind, attempting to drag you down into the abyss of corruption.