Six Hundred and Forty-Fifth Chapter: Hidden Hunt
In the underground forbidden book repository of St. Hymn Cathedral, the enormous demon wolf let out a furious roar due to the despicable sneak attack. The four eyes on its two large wolf heads focused on one direction, looking at the suddenly appearing black-clothed attacker. The other three members of the Amniotic Sac who were in the forbidden book repository also looked in shock towards the target.
“Who is this… When did they appear?”
“Why didn’t I sense their presence before?”
Braun and others watched the mysterious figure standing amidst the rubble, wearing a dirty old trench coat. Their eyes were filled with astonishment. As werewolves, they possessed extremely powerful and sensitive senses; no creature’s scent should have been able to escape their notice.
Yet, that mysterious person had managed to successfully launch a sneak attack and steal the “True Crimson Holy Mother,” which Duval had already seized. Knowing Duval was a Fear-eating Demon Wolf with a much stronger sense of smell than ordinary werewolves, this feat was already an extraordinary achievement, yet the attacker succeeded anyway.
From the perspective of the several werewolves present, the mysterious person wasn’t without a scent; rather, the scent only appeared at the moment of the attack, and there was no trace of the person’s existence prior to the attack.
“d*e! Thief!”
Duval, having his stolen item taken away and being cut by the attacker, felt extreme anger. At that moment, he didn’t care about the identity of the mysterious person or how they managed to successfully attack him. The right head of the demon wolf roared and took a step forward, swiping with its claws towards the tiny figure below, aiming to crush them into pulp. The speed of the wolf’s claw was incredibly fast, as if it could flatten the person in the next second.
Facing Duval’s fierce assault, the mysterious person standing amidst the ruins showed no sign of fear. Instead, they calmly sidestepped backward, leaping into the air to precisely dodge the swipe of the wolf’s claws. Watching the rubble they had been standing on shatter with a loud explosion, the mysterious person landed safely. Seeing their attack miss, Duval immediately followed up with another swipe, aiming for the side of the mysterious person. The mysterious person quickly rolled forward to avoid the wide-ranging attack.
Duval’s claw shattered countless racks within the forbidden book repository, but when he saw that the mysterious person was still unharmed, he couldn’t help but feel even more enraged. Raising a claw, he intended to stomp down, trying to crush the person like a mouse. However, the mysterious person once again dodged perfectly.
Duval’s immense force caused the entire underground book repository to tremble violently, making Braun and others struggle to maintain their balance. Yet, the mysterious person managed to keep their balance amidst the shaking. Not only did they stand steadily on the floor that had been cracked by the impact, but they also raised a meat cleaver, striking the wolf’s leg fiercely, leaving a deep gash from which bl**d gushed out profusely.
Due to the severed tendons, Duval knelt down on one knee, supporting himself with his claws in front of the mysterious person. Seeing this, the mysterious person immediately leaped forward and slashed again, severing the large amount of tendons and muscles that supported the massive body. This caused the arm to lose strength, and the huge body collapsed further forward. The two massive wolf heads slammed down toward the mysterious person. Dodging the deadly bite, the mysterious person drew a slender sword from their waist and stabbed directly into the right eye of the giant wolf, piercing through the pupil.
“Roar!!!”
One eye burst with bl**d, causing the terrifying demon wolf to emit a painful roar. Driven by rage, the wolf summoned spirituality and rapidly healed its wounds. Then, it began to attack everything around it wildly, as if losing all reason. It didn’t bother to locate where the mysterious person was, instead attacking indiscriminately. Stone pillars were smashed, bookshelves toppled over, and deep claw marks appeared on the walls. The intense shaking made the entire space sway, causing the underground forbidden book repository, designed to withstand heavy artillery bombardment, to appear unstable. Braun and others watched in horror, desperately dodging to avoid being hit.
“Calm down! You can’t k*ll him like this!”
At this moment, the left wolf head spoke harshly, seemingly suppressing the raging demon wolf, which then gradually calmed down. Its attacks became less frantic, and both heads began scanning the surroundings, searching for any signs of the mysterious person.
“Where did that guy go?!”
Duval’s two wolf heads scanned the area, but found no trace of the mysterious person. Except for the spot where they stood, illuminated by sunlight from above, most of the underground repository was shrouded in darkness. Duval tried to use his powerful sense of smell to locate the person, but found that the scent had disappeared again, just as it had before the attack. No matter how hard he sniffed, he couldn’t detect anything.
“What’s going on… Can’t smell… Can’t smell… Where did he go?!”
“Normally, the scent shouldn’t disappear so quickly. What special method did he use?”
Duval sniffed intensely, trying to find the trace of the mysterious person, but found nothing. He scanned every corner of the darkness with his eyes and listened carefully, but still found no clues.
Suddenly, in a dark corner of the forbidden book repository, another shadowy figure flashed out, attacking Duval’s blind spot with lightning speed, leaving a large gash on his back and spraying a great deal of bl**d. Roaring in anger, Duval turned and lunged towards the sudden source of the scent, only to be engulfed in shadows again, attacking wildly. After smashing several large craters into the ground and collapsing part of the ceiling, he realized he had failed once more. The sound and scent vanished again into the darkness.
The mysterious person kept darting out from the dark corners, inflicting damage and then quickly disappearing into another dark spot. No matter how Duval chased, he couldn’t completely catch sight of the person. Once the mysterious person vanished into the darkness, Duval couldn’t detect any trace of them. Duval could only counterattack futilely while accumulating anger amidst the constant ambushes.
Meanwhile, Dorothy sat calmly in the carriage near the Church District, silently watching the drama unfold in the underground forbidden book repository. She smiled as she observed the tormented demon wolf, commenting lightly:
“The performance exceeded expectations… Isn’t it fitting for a legend of a big city? Much stronger than places like Gramorn…”
Dorothy adjusted her hat slightly and continued softly, “Yes, the mysterious person currently engaging Duval, the Red Tier Werewolf, is none other than my created Extraordinary Being, inspired by the urban legend of the Night Demon in Tivyan.”
The Night Demon, a notorious serial killer in Tivyan, had become one of the most well-known urban legends in recent years. Since the previous year, frequent murders had occurred in the noble district of Tivyan, all committed by the same person. With each report, the murderer was increasingly referred to as the Night Demon.
Among the citizens of Tivyan, the legend of the Night Demon had a high level of recognition, filled with legendary elements, almost to the point of stopping children from crying at night. Although the legend was strong, Dorothy knew the truth behind it: the Night Demon was a special assassin created by the Eight Pinnacle Nest, with the purpose of assassinating nobles related to their plan to infiltrate Pritt. However, this reality did not prevent Dorothy from utilizing the widespread rumors of the Night Demon to create her Extraordinary Being.
In fact, Dorothy had started planning to create an Extraordinary Being based on the Night Demon legend long ago. Upon returning to Tivyan, she began experimenting with the concept, but encountered a problem.
The Night Demon legend was too widespread in Tivyan, known by too many people, leading to inconsistencies and a vague image across different regions. This variation and vagueness made it difficult for Dorothy to consolidate the Night Demon’s image and power. Thus, she spent time using zombie puppets to spread stories about the Night Demon in various bars and casinos, leveraging the affinity of the Enchanting Path to gather thousands of citizens and discuss specific details and imagery of the Night Demon.
Due to time constraints, while the image of the Night Demon in Tivyan was far from mainstream, it was much clearer compared to other rumors. This allowed Dorothy to use it as the foundation to consolidate the collective power of the Night Demon legends in Tivyan and create the Extraordinary Being. During this process, Dorothy added some new elements to her Night Demon Extraordinary Being, including a small amount of arcane knowledge.
These pieces of knowledge were unexpected gains from a large-scale medical knowledge exchange in Crown University. Due to the advanced medical system in this world, Dorothy acquired some interesting things using her profound medical knowledge, such as a rough outline of a technique called “bl**d therapy” and detailed diagrams of monstrous beasts undergoing beast transformation.
The key use of these diagrams seemed not entirely for medical purposes but more for guidance on how to hunt similar creatures, including some hunting techniques for these transformed monsters. Dorothy incorporated these techniques, originating from “Yharnam,” into her created Night Demon Extraordinary Being, equipping it with relevant weapons, giving it the attributes of both a murderer and a hunter.
Given the Night Demon’s legend was widely spread in Tivyan, a city with millions of inhabitants, and Dorothy summoned the Night Demon Extraordinary Being within Tivyan, the being’s strength was incredibly high. It possessed agility and speed comparable to a fourth-tier Shadow, akin to a Red Tier werewolf with excellent combat experience and remarkable hunting skills. The blade it wielded could also carry the corresponding “Shadow” enchantment, slicing through flesh and bone effortlessly. Additionally, it had a special ability: invisibility through vision.
This ability stemmed from the common perception of the Night Demon in Tivyan, being elusive and having high anti-reconnaissance capabilities, capable of perfectly erasing evidence of its crimes, making it impossible for anyone to find any clues at the crime scene. Despite the police’s efforts, they could never catch it, a source of shame for the entire Tivyan police force.
This common perception manifested as the ability of the Extraordinary Night Demon. In dark environments, once it escaped the line of sight of its pursuers, it would instantly enter a state of invisibility. Under this state, the Extraordinary Night Demon would completely disappear, along with its scent and sounds, even leaving no footprints. No one could perceive its existence through any sensory means.
While in the hidden state, the Night Demon would leave no traces. Only the power of “Lamp” could detect it, and even Red Tier Extraordinary Beings couldn’t discover it. Dorothy was unclear about the situation above Red Tier.
This ability originated from the perfect evidence erasure of the real Night Demon. However, Dorothy understood that the real Night Demon’s complete lack of traces likely wasn’t due to its sophisticated methods but because the Eight Pinnacle Nest continuously erased evidence due to their strong infiltration capabilities in Pritt. Newspapers exaggerated the Night Demon’s evidence erasure ability, but for Dorothy, it didn’t matter—she could make it true simply by spreading the word.
To some extent, the Extraordinary Night Demon created by Dorothy might be much stronger than the original Night Demon…
Relying on its superb speed and ability to become invisible through vision, Dorothy controlled the Extraordinary Night Demon to swiftly move around the underground repository, inflicting repeated injuries on the massive demon wolf. Duval, repeatedly wounded by the Extraordinary Night Demon, felt his anger rising with each failed attempt to catch the elusive attacker.
Another instant later, the black shadow emerged from the shadows atop another bookshelf, leaping onto the demon wolf’s back. Holding a meat cleaver, the black-clothed person slashed several times at the back of the wolf’s neck, causing bl**d to spurt. The right paw of the demon wolf lifted without hesitation, aiming to crush the Extraordinary Night Demon like swatting a fly.
“d*e! Fly!”
However, the Extraordinary Night Demon moved with incredible agility, leaping down before the wolf’s claws could reach it. Landing on the ground, it quickly retreated into the darkness, avoiding direct sunlight. The demon wolf’s right claw struck its own flesh, shattering large chunks of it. The right neck was shattered by the powerful blow, causing the right wolf head to detach and fall off. Fortunately, it was caught by the left paw and pushed back into place, the wound healing rapidly. The damage dealt by the demon wolf’s last attack far exceeded the cumulative damage previously inflicted by the Extraordinary Night Demon.
“Calm down… Don’t let him trick you!”
After reattaching its right head, the left head of the demon wolf roared. With the right head now slightly stabilized, the massive demon wolf seemed to regain composure. Duval, recovering from his uncontrollable rage and frenzy, began to seriously consider how to deal with this troublesome enemy.
As he surveyed his surroundings, his gaze finally settled on a direction, where Sander, covered in dust and dirt, was struggling to climb out of a pile of rubble.
Seeing Sander, Duval’s eyes lit up. Driving his massive body forward, he grabbed Sander with one claw, pulling him close to his face and protecting him with his other arm to shield against any potential attack from the Extraordinary Night Demon. The bewildered Sander exclaimed in panic upon seeing this sudden change.
“What are you doing!? Elder Sir?”
“What I’m doing… I need your contribution to the unity of the three teachings…”
Staring at Sander in his hand, Duval’s left head slowly said. Hearing this, Sander immediately struggled fiercely, shouting,
“Contribution… Do you mean… No! I am a servant of the Plague Lord, not someone from the Wolf bl**d Association! You can’t do this to me! If you do…!”
“Don’t worry, I will send chalk to apologize afterward…”
With that, Duval’s jaws opened, swallowing Sander whole, then began chewing mercilessly. Soon, Sander’s agonized screams faded away.
As Duval’s throat moved, his left eye changed color, turning from red to a vivid green. With a mouth full of bl**d, he muttered,
“Devour… Mutate…”
