Elias stared intently at the mass of twisted flesh speaking to him in his hallucination.
He didn't hear the other party's scream.
He must have missed.
On the surface, Elias maintained a cold expression.
His chin was slightly raised, and his eyes were as deep as a dry well.
In reality, he couldn't see the situation in front of him clearly at all.
"The same question as before."
At this moment, only he knew how hollow the aura beneath his skin actually was.
At the same time.
Inside this ravaged treatment room, the burning effect of the bottle of alchemical fire Elias had thrown earlier was gradually fading.
The bright yellow flames capable of burning spiritual bodies began to shrink.
They were replaced by ordinary fire caused by the old wooden floors and dilapidated furniture that had been thoroughly ignited by the high temperature.
On the other side of the wall of fire.
Guss, the infernal demon who had been watching coldly, was observing everything with interest.
Cruel and playful light flickered in its vertical yellow pupils.
Guss keenly sensed the waves of eerie spiritual fluctuations in the air.
Its massive body leaned forward slightly, its gaze piercing through the flickering firelight to lock onto Elias and Mester.
Because the ordinary fire produced a massive amount of black smoke as it burned the wooden floor.
The thick smoke gradually blocked the demonic spectator's view.
This caused Guss to feel a hint of dissatisfaction.
How could a play be blocked by a curtain?
It slowly turned its red head and looked toward an inner room connected to the treatment room.
Guss reached out a massive hand and beckoned casually toward the air.
In a dark corner of the inner room, an object slowly flew out and landed steadily in Guss's wide palm.
It was a small coin press, entirely pitch black.
It emitted a hair-raising aura of misfortune.
Guss flipped open a metal lid at the bottom of the small coin press.
The moment the lid popped open.
Even from a distance, one could clearly see a roaring fire silently raging inside the mechanical chamber.
The moment that lid was completely opened.
A strange suction erupted from inside the small coin press.
The airflow inside the entire treatment room reversed instantly.
The raging fires were all ruthlessly stripped away at this moment.
They were all sucked into the palm-sized small coin press.
When the fire and thick smoke blocking the view had completely disappeared.
Guss gave a satisfied grunt and casually closed the lid.
It tucked away the small coin press and once again turned its gaze toward Elias and the other man with interest.
This time, without the interference of the firelight, Guss could see even more clearly.
A rare flash of astonishment crossed its cold demonic eyes.
This human boy who had made a deal with it was actually entangled by a dream demon curse?
That spiritual aura carrying deep dream pollution was quite obvious to its senses.
"Rare..."
Guss let out a low murmur in its heart.
It couldn't remember how many years it had been since it last encountered a human cursed by a dream demon.
As a creature that also lived in the spirit world, it knew very well.
Dream demons had no reason to actively harm humans.
And yet, a person cursed by a dream demon had appeared right before its eyes.
What did that mean?
Guss reached out its wide, rough palm and lightly stroked its stubbly chin.
"Interesting..."
A cruel arc spread across the corners of its mouth, and its interest grew even further.
On the other side.
Elias's nerves were still stretched to the limit.
In his distorted vision, the teenager "Herm," who was slumped on the ground like a pile of mud, slowly spoke.
Herm's voice was hollow and distant, carrying a sickly sense of weakness.
"Brian?"
Herm repeated the name, seemingly trying to piece something together from fragmented memories.
"That detective... I've seen him... extracting his soul!"
"Who extracted whose soul?"
Elias frowned and took a step closer.
"Mester!"
Herm's voice was filled with extreme fear and resistance.
"When that guy named Brian came to the treatment room."
"There was negative spirituality lingering on him."
"Mester believed his mind would collapse under the erosion of negative spirituality anyway."
"It was better to extract his soul to use for making soul coins."
Elias's heart jolted violently.
It was only at this moment that he completely confirmed one thing.
The teenager before him calling himself "Herm" was not merely a meaningless hallucination caused by the dream demon curse.
Rather, through this layer of distorted hallucination and the intersection of spirituality, he seemed to have accidentally caught a glimpse of something deeper within Mester's mental world!
"Are you one of his personalities?"
Elias spat out these words coldly.
This was an extremely bold yet currently the only logical guess.
Otherwise, there was no way to explain all this.
How ironic.
Elias let out a cold laugh in his heart.
A psychiatrist was actually a patient with personality dissociation?
"Yes..."
Herm's blurry face twitched slightly, as if he were crying.
"I am Herm... I am the host personality."
Under the influence of the hallucination, Elias only saw Herm's limp arm reach tremblingly into his own chest.
"It's all because of this thing..."
Elias rubbed his eyes hard, trying to clear his brain.
Just then.
A sharp Soul Scream exploded in the depths of Elias's mind!
This time it was much clearer than the last.
"Hiss!"
Elias sucked in a breath of cold air, feeling as if a cold steel needle had stabbed his brain.
However, this produced an unexpected effect.
Under this intense spiritual stimulation, the frantic hallucinations before his eyes were actually forcibly dispersed!
What a miraculous cure, Doctor!
His vision returned to a brief state of clarity.
Only then did he finally see clearly.
The person slumped before him was not some noodle-like teenager named Herm at all.
It was still Mester in his white coat!
The only difference was.
The expression on Mester's face at this moment was not gloomy and venomous like before.
Instead, it was filled with an extremely jarring cowardice.
And the object his trembling hand had pulled from his chest was finally exposed to the air.
It was the small plaster statuette that looked exactly like himself.
"A containment object?"
Elias tightened his grip on the revolver again and asked in a cold voice.
"That's right..."
Mester (Herm) gasped for breath, his voice hoarse.
"I obtained this containment object... in a black market deal years ago."
"It can separate lifelike illusions with physical attack power from the host."
"However..."
A flash of despair appeared in Herm's eyes.
"Its negative trait is that it acts like a parasite, causing the host's personality to gradually dissociate and split..."
"Splitting is good!!!"
Without warning.
An extremely perverse roar suddenly erupted from Mester's throat!
"By splitting, I can completely break free from a cowardly, useless waste like you!!!"
One second, "Herm" was peacefully recounting the origin of the containment object.
The next second.
The muscles on his face began an extremely terrifying distortion!
The previously cowardly gaze was instantly replaced by a venomous look that seemed like it wanted to skin a person alive.
Elias's nerves jumped.
He recognized it immediately.
This was the real "Mester" who wanted his life!
A personality switch had occurred.
Right before Elias's eyes, two souls within one body began a frantic struggle for power.
"Stop it! Mester!"
From Mester's throat, Herm's nearly pleading tremolo sounded again.
Even the left half of his face tried to maintain a compassionate expression, while the right half was as distorted as a fierce demon.
"The souls inside the soul coins can never turn back into humans!"
"That devil lied to you!"
"You are dragging everyone into the abyss!"
Herm's voice was filled with desperate accusations.
"Shut the hell up!"
The right side of Mester's face twitched frantically as he roared viciously.
"First, kill this nuisance in front of us!"
With this roar.
The spirituality that had recovered due to the potion began to frantically condense again on Mester's body.
Spirituality gathered rapidly in his right hand, showing signs of using Moonfire again.
Elias's eyes sharpened.
"Trying to counter-kill even when death is at your door?
Do you really think my gun is just a piece of firewood?"
His thumb instantly pressed down the hammer.
Elias was prepared to blow this madman's head apart with a single shot.
However, before Mester's right hand, which had just gathered lethal spirituality, could be raised.
His left hand suddenly grabbed his own right wrist in a counter-grapple!
"You stop it!"
Herm was screaming shrilly.
"Get lost! You waste!"
Mester was roaring frantically.
Immediately following that.
The left hand belonging to Herm death-gripped the right hand belonging to Mester.
With a violent yank, he smashed the fist that was originally intended to attack Elias right into his own head!
A dull sound of physical impact echoed.
But Mester was no pushover either.
At the critical moment before the fist hit his temple.
His head actually tilted violently to the left in an extremely distorted posture, attempting to dodge his own right hand.
He moved his head.
He dodged the fist.
But because of the excessive force, his body completely lost its balance.
That head slammed solidly into the cracked stone wall beside him.
Then, the entire man continued to engage in an internal struggle on the ground.
Elias stood in place, stiffly holding his gun.
He tried to shake his dazed head.
He was extremely confused right now.
"Am I actually awake or not?"
Just like that, in one treatment room, there were three creatures.
Two were watching the show.
One was fighting himself.
Rate on N.U.
