It has been more than ten seconds since the battle with the sheep-headed demon, and there have been dozens of back-and-forth battles at high speed, and I have gradually tested the wisdom, behavior, physique and mystery of the sheep-headed demon, trying to see if it is possible to use conservative defense to let it take out the hole cards it may have. The improvised targeted weapons using the fourth-level Demonic Pattern have already shown their effect, and while the Sheep-headed Demon is getting used to my quick sweep, I'm also testing how much of a difference my abilities can be for this fight. Knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent is always one of the keys to victory.

The sheep-headed demon may seem irritable and has rough and simple behavior, but matching its body and mystery, it can achieve an extremely stable effect in battle. Each blow of the Sawtooth Broadsword does inflict damage on it, and if you look at the injuries from the perspective of the human body, the sheep-headed demon seems to be at a disadvantage, however, the sheep-headed demon is not human, even if it has a humanoid profile. The fact that it is scarred on the outside does not mean that it has become weak.

In fact, it is difficult for me to determine when it will become truly weakened if it continues to be entangled in this way, and how the situation in the gathering place will change if time drags on like this. I don't think the fire-burned gathering place I see today is the real gathering place for everyone. I don't know what Doomsday Shinrikyo did, but there's no doubt about it.

If I had been deceived and delayed, even if I had defeated the sheep-headed demon here, I might not have been able to prevent the result that "all the people in the gathering place would be sacrificed". There is an assumption that if the plans of the various mysterious organizations are faced with the situation that it will be difficult to complete the sacrificial ritual without "turning the people in the gathering place into sacrifices", then what will happen if the sacrificial ritual cannot be completed? I can't answer such a question, fundamentally. Not being able to complete the sacrificial ritual would also have a considerable impact on my plans.

I have a very ambivalent attitude about the sacrificial rite and the people who are sacrificed. And even if you are conscious and decide to be a wicked person, there are many people and things that are difficult to ignore.

I've always been resolute in killing, but it's only a reflection of the time, and in a very short time. Who can see the hesitation in my heart?

Just like now, I am still hesitating, but in the eyes of others, this is just a hesitation in a "dozen seconds" battle.

However, no matter how hesitant I was, I still had a clear limit on my time. For example, "a decision must be made in seconds, tens of seconds, or a minute", even if the decision may be wrong.

I can't be sure that every choice I've made is the right one, but I can't allow it if I don't make up my mind within the time limit I have.

Whether it is the judgment and choice of the whole mysterious event, or the judgment and choice of the battle in front of me, I give myself time to hesitate. It's coming to an end. For others, "more than ten seconds", for myself. It seems like days, months.

I shifted sideways again, using my shield to block the tail of the sheep-headed demon that followed. The giant's whip was so hard that my arm tingled. However, the serrated broadsword in his right hand once again severed the tail. Before that, the weapon had already severed the tail, arms, and calves of the sheep-headed demon. And more than once, but it didn't work, the gray mist that filled the entire gathering place was the source of recovery for the sheep-headed demon. Its recovery ability is also observed in a speed-swept state. It is also capable of exhibiting a "quick recovery" characteristic.

For other opponents, I can take advantage of the injuries to hit the vital point, and even if the opponent has the ability to recover from the injury, it is still too late. However, the Sheep-headed Demon is different, and its mysteries cover all sides, whether it's normal or fast-looting, and I can't make sure that I have enough time and speed to pull off this one-hit kill.

The stalemate in the war situation stems from its elusive, all-encompassing, and mysterious nature without too many flaws. If I abandon all my caution and go straight to the point in less than half a second. To be honest, I think I can do it, this serrated broadsword, even if it only has a tenth-second chance, can cut off the neck of the sheep-headed demon, or pierce its heart--but is this fatal part of the human body really the key to the sheep-headed demon? In other words, the humanoid silhouette of the sheep-headed demon must have some meaning, but does that mean that it has the same key points as the human body?

Will the Sheep's Demon's adaptability and pertinence in high-speed combat still be the case where "there is a definite limit to resistance to high-speed attacks"?

The Doomsday Shinrikyo may not be able to fully measure the explosive power of the fourth-level demonic emissary, but in the past various temptations, they will inevitably collect my combat habits and combat thinking, I don't think that I have made much progress in these habits and thinking compared to the past, so in the actual battle, they will still have the same resistance to my habits and thinking as in the past?

I think there is a sixty percent chance that the key points of humanoid structures such as sheep-headed demons have also set traps. I'm not sure what kind of trap that would be. I'll definitely be able to hit, but what exactly happens after I hit? It is not possible to confirm at all. This is also the reason why I have been tempted to attack those vital parts several times, and I have not completely killed it - even if it is only a little harder, its neck will be cut off, and its heart will be pierced, but I will still subconsciously reserve more energy and use it to dodge the counterattack that may appear suddenly.

I don't want to take risks, but taking risks is always a last resort.

The time limit of more than ten seconds for thinking is already the maximum time limit I can accept.

I leaped, rolled, and accelerated sharply, and as I passed under the sheep's wrist, the serrated broadsword pierced through its wrist and sliced along the center line of the arm towards the shoulder. This level of pain and injury is completely incomprehensible to the Sheep Demon, but it can still make its movements incoherent. This time, I jumped on its arm and lunged it down the throat, and as I had done on previous occasions, the sheep-headed demon was still open in front of my eyes because of the incoherence of its movements.

I could feel the sheep-headed demon withdraw his arm. That swift and steady retraction. However, precisely because it is a little slower than before, it will take a full "half second" to recover this backwardness.

Half a second was enough for me to complete the final sprint.

The sheep-headed demon was in flames, and its mouth was already open towards me. The next moment, there will be a fierce scorching breath in the face. But before I could do that, I had leapt upwards and swung my serrated broadsword deep into its throat.

This time, I didn't keep my hand again. The feedback from the blade made me clearly feel that the wildly rotating serrated blade had completely cut its throat. Hit its cervical vertebrae. The sheep-headed demon's bones were so hard, but in front of the serrated broadsword that swept back vigorously, it looked like a rotten iron sheet.

Before the sheep-headed demon could finish its defenses, I had swept past its neck, and the serrated broadsword cut through the flesh at the back of its neck, and fell to the ground with me.

The sheep-headed demon's giant axe clattered, and with a twisted, painful look, the huge sheep's head snapped. It's the strongest emotion I've ever seen in its eyes. And this kind of emotion almost made me think that I had really won. At the same time as I landed, the head of the sheep-headed demon fell to the ground, gurgling and rolling, and then turned to ashes in the rolling. The ashes turned into a gray mist, but no new sheep's heads were created.

The huge body of the sheep-headed demon suddenly stiffened in place, and I didn't dare to be careless, because I heard a strange sound. Throbbing in its ribcage. Countless images flashed in front of my eyes, and I felt as if I was walking through the darkness, and with it, pain all over my body, and for a moment, I felt like my neck was about to be cut off by something.

However, this terrible experience came and went as fast as it came. My forehead started to heat up, and at the same time as I was warm, I was already awake.

I realized that it was the Hunter Seal at work, and in the next split second, the Hunter Seal shattered. I can't see it directly, but I have such a clear perception. At the same time as cutting off the head of the sheep, some kind of sudden malice tried to do something to me in a way that I could not prevent in advance - specifically, about some kind of change in the "head", but it is difficult to determine whether it was "I cut off the head of the sheep, so I have to lose my head with it".

All in all, it was a malicious attack that I would never be able to resist under normal circumstances, and in the occult way, it was an extremely strong and terrible curse.

However, the hunter seal on the forehead resisted this curse, and the price to be paid was the complete collapse of the hunter seal. The Hunter Seal, which had been effectively preventing the fourth-level magic pattern from operating at full strength, collapsed unprepared. In other words, if it weren't for the Hunter Seal, I might have died again when I cut off the sheep's head.

I can't tell you what kind of mood I was feeling at this moment. The Hunter's Seal curbs the play of the magic pattern, but it is not only a relic of Old Hawke, but also must have some profound meaning in this deepest night.

Old Hawke's ability as a hunter, his eerie death, and his anomalous tomb of Takakawa all seem to hint at something. And the Hunter Seal was the only thing he left me.

I have the feeling that this meaning is definitely not the current situation, not a curse that will deter me from death.

However, no matter what the purpose of Old Hawke gave me the Hunter's Seal, and what the original meaning of the Hunter's Seal was, at this moment, it could no longer be fulfilled.

The fourth-level demon pattern lost its shackles, like a wild horse that had escaped from the leash, recklessly absorbing the gray mist around it. It was instantly more efficient than ever, allowing the gray mist to coalesce into a huge vortex that covered the entire gathering place. The violent flow of the gray mist caused the wind to blow, making the fire more violent. The ceiling and walls of the church, the buildings that had been burned to ruins, and even the large and small stones, began to tremble uneasily, and before they could breathe, they were lifted off by the hurricane.

Immediately afterward, the earth was swept by this hurricane.

The only ones who weren't affected were me and the sheep-headed demon body in front of me.

What I saw was nothing more than a picture of a catastrophe.

As the heavens, the earth, and the visible things were torn apart by this terrible storm, I found that the vision of the catastrophe vanished as an illusion.

In its place, there is an entire complex of buildings. Just as I did when I left, the gathering place that had not experienced fire or fighting was in view. In the deep night, a little light is shining through the room not far away. There is a faint sound in the ears, strange and fanatical, but it sets off the silence and depression in the streets and alleys. It's as if there is an unknown madness breeding in a dark corner, it is invisible, invisible, but can be clearly felt.

This is the real gathering place, and I'm finally back here. However, the battle in that hallucinatory gathering place was real, for the outcome of the battle was in sight, and the burning gathering place did not disappear with it—the demonic body that had lost its sheep's head, armed with a great axe, lay quietly in the criss-crossed alleys, scarlet blood flowing from the broken neck, dripping all over the ground.

I heard, the ominous stream.

It's like a huge amount of blood that is bigger than the body in front of you, penetrating every crevice around you, flowing farther away through channels that are impossible to observe with the naked eye.

It's-!

It dawned on me that my act of slaying the sheep-headed demon was seen as a prerequisite for another sacrifice. The malicious assault I received when I beheaded the sheep was only one of the counterattacks I had to withstand. The plan of the Doomsday Shinrikyo is not just to kill me, but to let my actions advance their plans.

The sacrifice to the gathering place began at this moment, signaling the end of the previous battle. The blood of the sheep-headed demon is a medium, and activating this medium does go through "specific steps". From this means, it seems that the Doomsday Shinrikyo believes that I have some connection with the Deepest Night - it is not inconceivable that the tomb of Takakawa has been excavated by occult experts for some time, and the tomb robbers cannot be just from the fifty-first district. What's more, even if it was really just the people of Area 51 who did this, the Doomsday Shinrikyo that had a close connection with them would inevitably get a part. The entire sacrificial ritual is not the act of one mysterious organization, but the tacit understanding of multiple mysterious organizations. (To be continued......)