Chapter 74

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“Hahhh... Hng... Uh!”

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The loud panting and the intense knocking alternated at first before overlapping, making Klein and the others extremely nervous, as though they’d heard some evil murmur.

Taking advantage of Ayer, Dunn, and Lorotta’s brief distraction, the tuxedo clown suddenly pulled a long slip of paper from his pocket.

Pa!

With a snap of his right hand, the slip of paper ignited into a long whip burning with black flame. He lashed it toward the side of his ankle.

A fleeting but shrill scream sounded as the tuxedo clown escaped the invisible shackles and backflipped away.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Dunn, Ayer, and Lorotta’s shots missed simultaneously, striking the wooden crates instead.

The tuxedo clown did not linger. With his right hand pressed against his wound, he bolted in a direction away from the cluster of warehouses.

He moved so fast that, in the blink of an eye, all they could see was the back of his receding figure.

Before he vanished, his right hand, held against his abdomen, swiped abruptly toward his left arm. With that, the wound on his stomach vanished as if he hadn’t been hurt at all.

Meanwhile, the spot on his left arm where he had touched suddenly became badly mangled, and a silver bullet was embedded in the torn flesh.

Dunn and the others didn’t chase after him, as the panting from the innermost warehouse had grown so loud that it triggered their spiritual senses and made their nerves quiver.

Bang!

With a sudden explosive sound, the door of the warehouse burst into pieces, flying in all directions.

Then something wrapped in a tattered cloth flew out through the door and landed not far from Klein.

When Klein cast his gaze over, he realized it was an arm. Its bloody flesh had been chewed, and its pale bones were cracked irregularly as they jutted out.

Splat! Splat! Splat!

One after another, more similar objects were flung out from the warehouse. First came a bloody, dilated eye, followed by an ear that had been brutally ripped off, and finally, half of a beating heart and intestines filled with a yellowish-brown substance.

If Klein hadn’t seen the even more gory, bloated cadaver in Ryer Bieber’s home, he would probably have vomited on the spot again.

His nerves were on the brink of breakdown. After a great effort to hold back his urge to shoot into the pitch-black entranceway, he ejected the empty shells from his revolver and reloaded it with new demon-hunting bullets.

Bang!

Dunn drew close as he sent a steady shot into the warehouse.

But it was as if his bullet had sunk into the sea—there was no sound of impact at all.

“Hahhh... Hng... Uh!”

The loud panting grew more fervent as grayish-white colors filled the open doorway.

With another two loud shots, Ayer Harson’s and Borgia’s bullets tore through the whiteness, yet they were unable to prevent the “color” from spilling outward, nor did they leave any wounds that caused liquid to seep out.

Klein held his breath, restraining himself from shooting blindly. He watched as a complete outline slowly emerged from the grayish-whiteness.

It was a humanoid creature more than two meters tall. The joints of its limbs were bent in unnatural directions, as though they had been forcibly snapped.

Broken white bones jutted out from beneath its skin. The entire grayish-white surface was covered in grooves, reminiscent of a human brain stripped of its shell.

A rotting, sticky substance covered the monster’s body, yet its head looked relatively normal, marked by deep smile lines and pale skin.

As it opened and closed its mouth, Klein could see inside the cavity a porcelain false tooth on the brink of falling out, a few strands of bloody saliva, and tiny pieces of bone and flesh.

Ryer Bieber... Is he even human anymore?Klein drew a silent gasp as his heart pounded rapidly.

Bang!

Leonard’s demon-hunting bullet struck Ryer Bieber’s forehead, tearing right through it and leaving behind a deep hole.

Grayish-white liquid flowed out and dripped onto the ground. The liquid writhed and sizzled, transforming into fat, milky-white maggots.

Yet the monster appeared completely unaffected. It was neither fast nor slow as it lunged at Borgia, who was closest, though its actual target seemed to be the black chest containing Sealed Artifact 2-049.

“Loss of control of Beyonder powers!” Dunn shouted in a deep voice. “Lorotta, it looks like a dead soul. Try to find its weakness!”

“Got it.” Lorotta said no more as she raised her hands and pressed them to her eyes.

Her pupils turned gray, then colorless, as if she had entered the world of spirits—the kingdom of dead souls. From that higher vantage point, she scanned the enemy, searching for the key “node.”

Klein saw that a normal gunshot was ineffective, so he refrained from wasting more bullets. He tapped his brow to activate his spirit vision, assisting Gravedigger Lorotta.

In his view, only one color remained in Monster Bieber’s aura—a dull grayish-white filled with madness. Apart from that, Klein saw nothing else.

At that moment, Ayer Harson and Leonard Mitchell began singing in unison:

“Oh, the threat of horror, the hope of crimson!

One thing at least is certain—that this Life flies;

One thing is certain, and the rest is Lies;

The Flower that once has bloomed forever dies...”

...

The power that ushered in a peaceful slumber extended outward. The twisted, grayish-white monster suddenly slowed, as if unable to resist the charm of the poem.

Then it opened its mouth and let out a shrill cry, one that ordinary people could not hear.

“Aaaaah!”

...

Boom!Klein felt a sharp pain in his head as he automatically exited his spirit vision. He sensed warm liquid flowing from his nose and, when he subconsciously wiped it away, discovered his hand was covered in blood.

Ayer and Leonard fell backward simultaneously, with blood visible at the corners of their lips, noses, and eyes.

Borgia, Dunn, and Lorotta each stepped back as their faces paled and color drained away.

The monster had screamed only once, yet its roar exceeded what the six Beyonders could withstand, leaving them weak and defenseless.

Wham!

It closed in on Borgia and suddenly swung its twisted arm.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Borgia and Dunn shot twice each, but neither was able to damage Monster Bieber.

Wham!The blow sent Borgia flying, his long-barreled revolver clattering to the ground.

He struggled a few times to stand up but was unable to do so at that moment.

A sticky substance seeped from the corner of Monster Bieber’s mouth as it lunged toward the black chest.

Bang!

At that crucial moment, Ayer Harson’s bullet struck the chest and sent it flying far away. Monster Bieber missed its grasp, and its momentum carried it forward by more than ten meters.

A small crack appeared on the surface of the black chest, and as the thumping from within grew more intense, the crack became even more obvious.

“Found it!” the dark-haired Lorotta finally spoke. “I need you to control it for at least three seconds.”

“All right.” Without further preamble, Dunn pressed his hand against his brow and closed his eyes.

As he seemed to fall asleep, ripples of shapeless waves slowly spread out one after another.

Monster Bieber paused for a moment. The madness in its eyes quickly receded, and its thin, transparent eyelids began to droop uncontrollably.

Dunn’s body started shaking as long, writhing shapes bulged from underneath his coat like slippery, scaleless snakes.

Lorotta raced over and, with a roll, slid beneath Monster Bieber’s body.

She supported herself with one hand and launched a clenched fist upward, landing a blow on Monster Bieber’s crotch like a cannonball.

Plop!

Ignoring the corrosive pain in her hand, she braced herself against the ground and pushed upward, drilling her fist deeper inside.

Rip!

Lorotta pulled out her forearm, dragging out a length of intestine, trailing a brownish-yellow substance and blood.

Within the intestine, one could faintly see an ancient notebook.

“Aaaaah!”

Monster Bieber let out a blood-curdling scream. Its body flared brightly, as though it were melting.

“Get down!”

Just as Ayer Harson’s hurried shout ended, Klein saw Monster Bieber suddenly swell up.

Boom!

With a loud explosion, the shockwave tossed Klein—as far away as he was—into the air before he fell back down hard.

He struggled to stand against a swirling headache and nausea, watching as Monster Bieber turned into a pile of putrid, rotting flesh. He could see Dunn and Lorotta a dozen meters away, looking as though they had been knocked out.

Ayer Harson, Borgia, and Leonard Mitchell were on the ground, too—a mix of groaning in pain and struggling to stand but failing.

Klein was just about to let out a breath of relief when he suddenly saw a familiar object about two or three meters away from him.

The black chest had stopped rolling, its cracked side facing up toward the sky.

A skinny brown arm reached out from within.

Sealed Artifact...2-049... Fuck!

The blast from before had dropped the black chest near him!

Klein’s heart leaped to his throat as he immediately prepared to jump in the opposite direction, away from 2-049’s effective range.

But just then, with a ringing in his head, his mind suddenly turned sluggish.