Elias froze.
He heard an ear-splitting sneer from the infernal demon’s throat.
“Human!”
Guss looked down at him, his dark yellow vertical pupils filled with the smugness of someone who thought they saw through everything.
“You’re trying to imitate Mester, that damned pig!”
“After signing a contract with me, as long as you don’t kill this fellow at your feet, I won’t be able to kill you!”
Guss’s face, covered in red cuticles, twisted into a cruel sneer.
“Or, if you keep stalling and don’t open these cabinets full of coins, I also won’t be able to kill you!”
“You want to use a loophole in the contract to bind me forever?”
Upon hearing this, Elias was completely dumbfounded.
?
That’s it?
'Is that really why you’re unwilling to sign a contract with me?!'
Elias was profoundly shocked.
Alright.
He admitted that this creature wasn’t as cunning as he’d imagined.
Originally, he had gone to great lengths to provoke Guss, operating under the premise that they both had a certain understanding of exploiting contract loopholes.
Such was the nature of schemes and intrigue.
Elias had assumed Guss was fully aware of this when he initiated the provocation.
His true intention was to rely on the infernal demon’s Calovius arrogance and the practical difficulty of finding another Moon Lord believer in the current world.
He aimed to force Guss to compromise and agree to his terms.
Just moments ago during the negotiation, Elias’s heart had been pounding frantically, fearing that Guss would impose a time limit for contract completion.
His real goal was simply to sign the contract and stall for time, waiting for the Seventh Agency’s reinforcements!
Who would have thought that this damned infernal demon would just blurt out the truth!
Now, there was almost no room for negotiation.
Since the art of language had failed, it was time for physical salvation.
Elias’s right hand, hidden in his trench coat pocket, clenched tightly around the cold bone flute.
“Well said.”
Elias forced down his exasperation, maintaining his cold facade.
“But I still say, it’ll be hard for you to find another person who dares to kill him and can help you open those boxes!”
At this point, Guss had clearly lost the last shred of patience.
Flames began to swirl wildly around its massive body.
“Enough talk!”
Guss’s voice boomed like muffled thunder through the treatment room.
“Rather than being repeatedly toyed with by you cunning humans, I’d rather find someone else who isn’t so full of tricks!”
Before its words had even faded.
Guss’s thick arm suddenly exerted force, lifting the burning Ever-Burning Sword it held.
The sword’s tip pointed directly at Elias.
Hmph.
Elias sneered inwardly.
'You want my life, but you talk as if I’m just trying to fool you and take advantage.'
Since negotiations had collapsed, it was time to run!
Seeing this, Elias didn’t hesitate.
He forcefully poured his spirituality into his feet.
“Whoosh—!”
Scalding heat radiated from the bottom of his Wind-Chaser Boots.
He shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, propelled by a raw, brute force, fleeing directly towards the treatment room door.
In virtually an instant, Elias had reached the doorway.
Just as he thought he would escape to freedom.
“Boom—!!!”
An earth-shattering roar suddenly erupted behind him!
It was the sound of the Ever-Burning Sword, carrying destructive power, smashing solidly into the floor.
Guss’s strike hadn’t pursued Elias at all.
Instead, with an incredibly brutal physical force, it had directly smashed through the second-floor planks of the old building!
Violent hellfire instantly incinerated the wooden planks and support beams into ash.
Massive collapsing sounds continued relentlessly.
Elias felt the floor give way beneath him.
A powerful sensation of weightlessness instantly overwhelmed his senses.
Due to the lingering inertia from his Wind-Chaser Boots, he couldn’t change his posture in mid-air.
And so, he plunged violently towards the first floor along with the debris of the entire second floor!
The first floor housed the barbershop.
“Thud!!!”
A dull impact echoed.
Elias crashed into a pile of sawdust and bricks, utterly disoriented.
Vast amounts of dust and wood shavings furiously filled the narrow barbershop.
“Cough, cough!”
Elias coughed violently, staring intently through the swirling smoke at the enormous hole above.
At the edge of the hole, he could vaguely see the flickering flames on the giant Ever-Burning Sword.
Like the eyes of death.
He quickly pulled his mask back over his face.
After regulating his breathing.
Elias shouted through the thick smoke towards the hole on the second floor:
“Guss!”
“Are you really just going to abandon the soul coins?!”
His voice echoed through the empty ruins, carrying a desperate bravado.
“The deal was: you don’t kill me, and I’ll do your bidding.”
“You just had to make things difficult!”
“Now look, you’ll have to spend more time searching the streets to find someone else to collect Mester’s debt!”
From above.
Guss’s thunderous voice pierced through the smoke, carrying an unsuppressed fury.
“Human!”
“If you hadn’t played tricks with me and just done your job honestly, I might not have killed you!”
“You were the one trying to trick me!”
“Calovius tolerates no deceit!”
Elias listened, silently shifting his position amidst the ruins.
He swiftly channeled his remaining spirituality, his fingertips rapidly tracing patterns in the air.
A layer of 【Moonlight Veil】 flowed over him like water.
Under the cover of the pervasive smoke, his figure instantly vanished.
After confirming his successful stealth, Elias changed position again and shouted.
“Bullshit!”
“I just asked for a formal contract!”
“That’s called business etiquette!”
“We should have signed a contract just now, but you stubbornly refused to acknowledge it!”
Elias’s voice came from all directions within the smoke, making his true location impossible to pinpoint.
“And we need to settle accounts clearly.”
“To be honest, you initially asked me to kill Mester.”
“Mester is indeed dead now, so I’ve met the quota.”
“As for Herm on the ground…”
Elias’s tone became self-righteous.
“That should, logically, be a separate charge!”
“You greedy bastard!”
Faced with Elias’s demands for more payment.
Guss on the second floor was thoroughly enraged.
The demon wasted no more words.
It leaped down from the remaining platform above.
Standing on the first-floor ground, its enormous hand swung suddenly!
“Whoosh—!!!”
A gust of fierce wind, without warning, materialized in the narrow barbershop.
The hurricane swept up shattered bricks, sharp razors, and broken chairs from the floor.
Along with the thick, impenetrable smoke in the room, it all blasted out through the barbershop windows with a destructive force!
The wind pressure was terrifyingly extreme.
It even carried Elias, who had thought himself perfectly concealed in the smoke.
Against absolute power, any flashy spells seemed pale and ineffective.
“Holy crap!”
Elias was sent flying like a kite with a broken string, forcibly lifted by the immense power.
Elias landed heavily on the flagstone street outside the barbershop.
The 【Moonlight Veil】 on him, which relied heavily on environmental concealment, shattered instantly.
By now, the thick smoke had dispersed.
Guss’s massive, tower-like body slowly emerged from the barbershop ruins.
Its inverted yellow eyes fixed on Elias, who lay powerless on the street.
Its gaze was filled with contempt for an ant.
“I’ve wasted too much time on you, worm, today.”
Guss rumbled, its voice laced with icy death intent.
“Now, feel the hellfire of Calovius and die!”
Saying this.
The demon slowly raised a finger.
At its fingertip, a ball of terrifyingly hot flame was rapidly condensing.
It was about to point it at Elias’s heart.
At this moment, the 【Malice Perception】 deep within Elias’s brain utterly exploded.
Screaming alarms felt as if they would tear his brain nerves apart.
The shadow of death had tightly gripped his throat.
'It’s over.'
This also signaled the complete failure of his strategy to stall for time by talking his way out.
The Seventh Agency’s reinforcements were out of the question.
“All or nothing!”
Elias endured the excruciating pain of his splitting headache, and with a trembling right hand, he swiftly pulled out the pale bone flute.
Now, who cared about thinking what damned negative consequences blowing this thing would have?
He violently brought the bone flute to his lips, ready to blow with all his might.
“Wait!”
A thunderous roar suddenly exploded on the deathly silent street.
But this time, it was the infernal demon, moments ago filled with killing intent, who called for a halt.
Elias’s movement froze in mid-air, and he looked up in confusion.
He saw the haughty demon staring intently at the unassuming bone flute in his hand.
Its yellow vertical pupils, which had been filled with cruelty and contempt, now suddenly widened.
Deep within its eyes, an unbelievable shock flickered.
Guss’s massive body trembled slightly.
It swallowed hard, and its voice instantly became extremely gentle.
“May I ask, esteemed sir…”
Guss bent slightly, its attitude frighteningly good.
“This bone flute… where did it come from?”
As it asked with an incredibly polite demeanor.
It unhesitatingly threw away the Ever-Burning Sword in its hand.
“Clang!”
The heavy, massive burning greatsword crashed to the ground.
The high temperature and gravity smashed a huge charred crack into the flagstone street.
Guss didn’t even glance at the sword.
It tried its best to force a fawning smile onto its ferocious face.
Its huge body leaned slightly towards Elias.
“I… apologize for my earlier rudeness.”
Rate on N.U.
