The thick white mist spawned by the cloud bullet was gradually dispersing.
Elias narrowed his eyes, staring coldly at Mester not far away.
In his blind spot not far behind him, the air rippled eerily.
The remaining two illusions, which had lost their target due to the mist earlier, were silently closing in again.
Elias didn't even turn his head.
His fingers reached into the pocket at his waist.
His fingertips brushed against the cold glass of a bottle.
With a sudden backhand flick, he smashed that bottle of alchemical fire toward the area behind him.
"Clatter!"
The crisp sound of glass shattering was exceptionally piercing in the dead-silent room.
In the next second.
"Boom—!"
Violent, blazing bright-yellow flames erupted like a greedy beast finally breaking out of its cage.
It roared, sweeping across the large area behind Elias without restraint.
The high temperature instantly distorted the air, turning that space into an impassable wall of deathly fire.
Mester had just struggled to scramble up from the ground.
He had originally intended to use the illusions for a sneak attack, but now he could only stare fixedly at Elias through the flickering firelight with an extremely venomous gaze.
He didn't dare let his two illusions continue forward through the alchemical fire to support him.
Elias was in no hurry to pursue.
He simply stood there quietly, feeling the scorching heat radiating from behind him.
His gaze passed through the rolling heat waves and landed on the flickering 【Moonlight Barrier】 in front of Mester.
The cold radiance flowing on the surface of the barrier carried a sense of aloofness that kept everyone at a distance.
Looking at this shield that had even deflected enchanted bullets earlier, a reasonable guess formed in Elias's mind.
He was gradually beginning to understand.
He thought back to his experience in the sewer yesterday.
At that time, he had also passed through the Moon's Protection cast by Blaine without any hindrance.
"Doctor... Mester."
Elias finally spoke.
His voice carried a cold hardness that brooked no argument.
"If you hadn't wanted my life from the start, I wouldn't be trying to kill you."
He took a step forward.
"First question: Detective Brian in the central district has had his soul separated from his body, and his spirituality is nearly dry."
Elias's gaze pierced the other man like a blade.
"Was it your doing?"
Mester finally stood completely upright.
Hearing Elias's words, a twisted sneer suddenly bloomed on his gloomy face.
"So?"
Mester's voice carried a hint of hysterical madness and contempt.
"You think... this is the end?"
Seeing his stubborn attitude, Elias returned the sneer.
"Answer my question!"
Before his voice even faded.
Elias slightly raised The Roaring Cane.
A cold glimmer flashed across the quartz on the cane's head.
Then, he struck it heavily against the hard floor.
"Thud!"
At the exact moment the cane hit the ground.
The resonance stack on Mester was instantly and completely triggered!
The damage was detonated from within!
"Boom—!!!"
Accompanied by a dull roar that felt like it was going to explode inside his chest.
A violent wave of arcane energy erupted without reservation from the center of Mester's body, blasting outward!
The sneer on Mester's face froze instantly.
He didn't even have time to make any defensive movements.
This terrifying sound did not act on the air but struck directly at his flesh and the depths of his soul.
Mester felt himself go deaf instantly.
The extreme tinnitus felt as if ten thousand red-hot steel needles were frantically stabbing into his brain.
Not only that.
A powerful wave of dizziness hit him like a mountain-collapsing tide, and his internal organs felt as if they had been stuffed into a meat grinder and frantically churned, completely displaced.
A large mouthful of blood mixed with bits of internal organs gushed uncontrollably from his mouth.
In an instant, the entire man looked as if he had been struck head-on by an invisible battering ram.
He was blasted into the wall behind him by a massive force, crushing everything in its path.
"Crack!"
The wall fractured, and dust rustled down.
And the 【Moonlight Barrier】 he was so proud of shattered instantly under this impact.
Collapsed in the corner, Mester's mind was a chaotic mess.
He was still struggling desperately.
He tried to frantically squeeze his dry spirituality, wanting to control the two illusions behind Elias to charge through the risk of being burned and kill him.
But it was ultimately futile.
The moment the illusions touched the scorching edge, they let out shrill, silent screams.
They were ultimately unable to pass through this wall of high-temperature alchemical fire and could only twist and wander helplessly outside the flames.
At the moment the resonance was detonated.
Elias wasn't feeling particularly well either.
The price of supernatural power is always paid in kind.
He felt a sharp, faint whistle suddenly echo from the depths of his soul.
It was a slight tremor that caused a biological sense of nausea.
However, it seemed that the soul scream brought by only a single stack of resonance was not severe.
Elias took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed it.
This also put him at ease.
Subsequently, he picked up the cane from the floor.
One step, two steps.
His leather boots stepped heavily on the floor like a reaper's countdown.
He walked up to Mester, who was slumped like a pile of mud.
He raised The Roaring Cane and pressed the cold metal tip firmly against Mester's violently heaving chest.
"The same question."
Elias looked down at him, his voice like the cold wind from a polar ice cave.
"Either answer, or we do it again."
"You..."
Mester gasped with difficulty.
He exerted effort to raise a hand covered in blood, death-gripping The Roaring Cane pressed against his chest.
A trace of genuine fear finally surfaced in his eyes.
"Just... what kind of monster are you!"
As he roared, he uncontrollably coughed up a few drops of startling dark-red blood.
It splattered onto the smooth body of the cane.
Elias looked at him, his gaze not showing even a hint of pity.
"Wrong answer!"
Four cold words were spat out.
Elias suddenly pulled the cane away from the man's chest.
His arm swung up, carrying a sharp whistling wind.
Once again, he struck it heavily against the floor right next to Mester's ear!
"Thud!"
"Boom—!!"
The resonance detonated again.
Mester was once more sent flying by this violent arcane force.
His head slammed hard into the corner of the wall, his eyes becoming bloodshot and crimson.
Elias was about to breathe a sigh of relief when he felt an extremely familiar viscosity wash over all his senses!
"Dammit!"
Elias's veins bulged as ten thousand curses ran through his mind.
The dream demon curse!
Why the hell did it have to trigger now?!
This broken curse really knew how to pick the worst possible moment—it was like looking for a latrine in the middle of a meal!
Elias bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, trying to use the sharp pain to maintain a shred of clarity.
But the world before his eyes had already begun to shift uncontrollably and frantically.
The physical laws of reality were completely torn apart at this moment.
The originally hard and flat wooden floor now began to writhe eerily.
The texture became soft and damp, even carrying a kind of fleshy elasticity.
Stepping down on it felt like stepping on the belly of a bloated, waterlogged corpse.
Elias lost his center of gravity and almost stumbled directly into this pile of "rotten meat."
Fortunately, he held onto The Roaring Cane tightly.
The heavy cane acted like a pillar of stability, sinking deep into the writhing ground, allowing him to barely stand steady.
However, in his distorted vision, the wood grain on the entire floor wriggled like tens of thousands of living maggots.
He turned his eyeballs with extreme difficulty.
In his peripheral vision.
The area behind him that should have been a wall of blazing alchemical fire had also changed its appearance.
The flickering flames had turned into a mass of bobbing human heads.
It was a sight enough to drive any sane person mad.
Elias forced himself not to look at that hellish spectacle again.
Directly in front of him.
Slumped on the ground, Mester's face began to turn blurry like a melting wax statue.
His features looked as if they had been thrown into a blender, mixed into a disgusting mass of meat.
His limbs elongated infinitely on the ground, writhing.
The extreme physiological discomfort made Elias break out in a cold sweat.
He ground his molars, gripping the cane with both hands to support his body.
"Are you going to talk..."
Elias gasped for breath.
"Or do we keep going?"
He forced himself to endure the absurdity and nausea, gesturing with the cane in his hand toward the direction where Mester had turned into a pile of mud.
The moment his words fell.
Mester's monster-like form suddenly changed again in his eyes.
The mass of noodle-like flesh contracted violently.
In the blink of an eye, it actually turned into a thin teenager!
However, the teenager's limbs and posture still maintained a soft, distorted quality, just like Mester's had moments ago.
He slumped on the ground, raising that blurry face to look at Elias.
The voice he spoke with also became incredibly distant, as if coming from the other side of the deep sea, carrying a hollow echo.
"I..."
"I am Herm..."
Not just the form, even Mester's voice had completely changed.
He was no longer that gloomy and venomous transcendent; his voice became shaky, reflecting an extreme, desperate humility and fear.
"Are you... here to punish me for my sins?"
The voice was shrill and ethereal.
"Please, kill me."
Cold sweat slid down Elias's forehead.
Elias's brain was frantically overloading.
Everything before him was absurd to a heinous degree.
For a moment, he couldn't tell if this was a mad hallucination caused by the curse he carried.
Or if it was some kind of bizarre escape trick Mester was pulling before death.
"Don't play tricks!"
Elias let out a wild roar.
He didn't care what kind of ghost this noodle-like distorted teenager was.
His free right hand unhesitatingly pulled out the heavy revolver from his waist.
The cold metal grip was the only thing he could feel as real at this moment.
Without even looking, he aimed directly at the monster's suspected leg position on the ground and pulled the trigger.
"Bang!"
A piercing flash of fire erupted.
He didn't know if he hit anything, but the other party's voice became urgent.
"I'll talk!"
"I'll tell you whatever you ask!"
"I only ask that you give me a quick end afterward!"
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