The nauseating stickiness once again spread through his nerves without warning.
The dream demon curse's hallucination, after being briefly suppressed, returned with full force.
Elias's world began to twist again.
The once solid wooden floor once more took on that fleshy, soft sensation.
To prevent his senses from completely collapsing and falling into chaos again.
Elias bit down hard on his tongue until a metallic, rusty taste of blood filled his mouth.
He needed an anchor.
An anchor that could forcefully nail his sanity to reality with pure physical pain.
He took a deep breath, leaning on the Roaring Cane with both hands.
He moved toward Mester.
He looked down at the other man, his gaze as cold as a surgeon's knife.
“My patience is limited.”
Elias spat out the words coldly.
“Die, or answer the questions.”
Before he finished speaking.
Elias unceremoniously lifted the Roaring Cane and brutally pressed its cold, hard metal tip onto Mester's right hand.
“Crunch.”
A faint sound of bones being forcibly compressed.
“Ah—!!!”
Mester immediately let out an extremely shrill scream.
However, the next second.
A morbid delight suddenly flashed across his face, twisted in agony.
Herm's voice eagerly squeezed out from that mouth.
“Yes! Just like that!”
Herm's voice even carried a hint of eerie excitement and fanaticism.
“That spell you just used... or whatever other ability it was!”
“Do it again! Hurry!”
Elias's grip on the cane suddenly paused, and his expression instantly became somewhat strange.
Since the client had such a special request.
As a freeman who took commissions for the Society, Elias always delivered.
It was something he needed to do for himself as well.
He expressionlessly raised his cane.
Once again, he stomped down hard on that right hand!
Immediately after, Elias abruptly pulled up the Roaring Cane and then plunged it back into the ground.
What followed was a terrifying eruption hidden deep within the flesh.
The next moment, the expression on Mester's face instantly became even more agonizingly twisted than when he had endured the pain of broken bones before.
It was the torment of flesh tearing.
Even the bones in his limbs let out mournful cries of being overwhelmed under the arcane fluctuations that burst forth from within.
The power ignited by the resonance stacks violently trembled.
“Boom!”
The entire human body was once again sent flying uncontrollably like a rag doll.
However, behind him was the hard wall of the treatment room.
There was no escaping it.
“Bang—!”
He was violently slammed against the wall by this irresistible force, emitting a sickening thud.
The entire wall even trembled along with it.
When he struggled to raise his head from the ground, like a puddle of mud.
It was a truly wretched sight.
Red blood uncontrollably seeped from his eyes, ears, nose, and even his slightly parted mouth.
Because this time, Elias had detonated a full two resonance stacks.
The superimposed internal destructive power was even more brutal than any single-layer detonation before.
Mester could no longer stand up, even with his body enhanced by transcendent power.
His face had reverted to Herm's, the host personality's, which should have appeared timid.
However.
At this moment, no matter how harmless his features were, combined with his face covered in viscous bloodstains, it looked extremely eerie.
There was no gentleness left at all.
“Well...”
Herm lay sprawled in a pool of blood, gasping for breath, his voice so weak it seemed it could break at any moment.
“Well done...”
His gaze was unfocused, seemingly sensing the state of the other soul within his body.
“He's un...”
His words were cut short.
Herm's body suddenly stiffened, as if he had perceived something utterly shocking in his mental landscape.
“No!”
Herm's eyes widened suddenly.
“He's dead?!”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he paused for half a second, as if in disbelief.
Immediately after.
“He's dead!!!”
Herm's voice rose at an incredible speed, filled with a morbid repetition!
His expression became extremely twisted as he clearly perceived the complete death of the sub-personality, Mester, who had tormented him for so long.
“Hahahahaha!”
“That bastard is finally dead!”
Tears mixed with blood poured from Herm's eyes, carving two muddy streaks down his face.
“He killed so many people!”
“He used living people to make soul coins!”
“So many people!”
“So many innocent people!”
Herm thrashed like a dying worm, writhing frantically on the ground littered with glass shards and blood.
He suddenly looked up, staring intently at Elias.
“You, kill me!”
“Kill me, hahahahaha!”
“I can't escape my sins, kill me!”
Herm shrieked hysterically on the ground, radiating bone-chilling despair.
And amidst his mad clamor.
Elias finally faced the terrifying price of detonating two resonance stacks at once.
—Soul Screams.
Elias's original intention wasn't to help the damned host personality find release.
He knew better than anyone that at this critical juncture, he had to maintain absolute clarity.
Otherwise.
Ahead, an evil transcendent with a split personality could retaliate at any moment.
Behind him, the unfathomable infernal demon watched intently.
Once his senses were completely devoured by the dream demon's hallucinations, it would be a certain death trap!
So, he had to hit himself with something even stronger.
To fight magic with magic, using the excruciating pain of the soul to suppress the madness of the hallucinations.
It came.
This time, the backlash force unleashed by the Soul Screams was clearly more brutal than the previous single-layer detonation!
The piercing shriek, like something from the deepest hell, was no longer a distant echo.
Instead, it was directly pressed against his brain nerves, roaring madly at close range!
This continuous, high-frequency shriek, like thousands of steel needles, frantically vibrated his cerebral cortex.
“Ugh!”
Elias grunted, his legs weak, barely leaning on the cane to avoid collapsing.
That bone-deep pain, piercing into his soul, was like an extremely sharp file.
It forcibly scraped away the sticky hallucination shrouding his perception.
Once again, it completely roused his muddled mind!
However, the price of this clarity was immense.
He suddenly opened his eyes, the whites completely bloodshot, turning scarlet, like a fiend.
Intense physical discomfort made his Adam's apple bob violently, bringing on a wave of nausea.
“Huu... huu...”
Elias gasped for air.
“Dead?”
Elias looked at Mester, who was sprawled on the ground.
No.
Now it should be Herm.
“Dream on.”
Elias sneered.
“You haven't finished answering my questions.”
Elias dragged his cane, advancing another half-step, creating an intense oppressive presence.
“Listen closely.”
“Is that bastard Mester using the souls of ordinary people to make soul coins?”
He raised a finger stained with ash.
“Yes or no. Answer incorrectly, and I will continue to torment you.”
This cold threat, like icy water in winter, poured over Herm's head.
Herm, sprawled on the ground, trembled violently upon hearing it.
His mad laughter abruptly ceased.
Although the insane Mester personality was indeed completely dead.
Nonetheless, he was now the sole master of this body.
He was, in effect, the current Mester, and he was genuinely enduring all the pain of this broken body.
Just as the deceased Mester had cursed him in life.
Cowardice was the indelible backdrop of Herm's existence.
His frantic plea for death earlier was merely to seek release from this extreme suffering.
But the man before him, leaning on his cane, was clearly not someone to be trifled with.
Herm painstakingly shifted his eyeballs.
His gaze passed over Elias's body.
And landed not far behind Elias.
There stood the massive infernal demon.
The devil completely ignored his desperate cries for death.
On the contrary.
A look of intrigued amusement hung on the infernal demon Guss's hideous face.
Its dark yellow vertical pupils stared unblinkingly at everything unfolding before it.
As if witnessing humans struggle in pain and despair brought it immense pleasure.
Herm couldn't help but shiver violently, an indescribable chill erupting from the depths of his bones.
He had no escape.
“Yes.”
Herm swallowed with difficulty, a mouthful of blood-tinged saliva.
He forced himself to speak, enduring the bone-deep pain throughout his body.
“Good.”
Elias nodded expressionlessly.
“Next question.”
His gaze was sharp as a knife, piercing directly into Herm's fear-filled eyes.
“What's with the negative spirituality on Brian?”
“No... we didn't do it!”
Herm shook his head wildly.
“He had a trace of negative spirituality belonging to the Mist Veil Society, but not much.”
“Oh?”
Elias narrowed his eyes.
“What is the relationship between the Mist Veil Society and Mester?”
Herm dared not hide anything.
“Co...”
He stammered, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.
“Cooperative relationship.”
Elias narrowed his eyes.
“Third question.”
Elias paused.
“What does the Mist Veil Society want with soul coins?”
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