The moment he realized that something was wrong, Taryn didn't have time to think about it, and subconsciously twisted his waist and hips to drive his body back, and barely dodged the punch that went straight to the door at the cost of losing his glasses.

Creak.

The lenses encased in thin metal frames emit a faint wail under the tremendous external force, inevitably twisting, shattering, and flying out in pieces.

Losing a pair of camouflage flat mirrors would have been no hassle for Taryn.

The real trouble was Douglas, who showed up at a moment he didn't expect at all and threw punches at him.

No......! How could it come so quickly?

Didn't I get rid of him a long time ago?

Tyron's pupils constricted, and the sore fist wind immediately made him give up the idea of hand-to-hand combat, and then quickly rolled to the side with the force of his turnaround, trying to distance himself from the opponent.

But a scorching bullet through his thigh immediately interrupted his next movements and train of thought. Taryn snorted and scolded the opponent for not playing his cards according to common sense. When raiding, he did not choose to shoot once and for all, and established a close advantage, but instead drew a gun and fired......

This inexplicable rhythm of attack, coupled with Douglas's appearance without warning, suddenly broke the situation of the battle. The two women tangled in the distance shifted their attention almost simultaneously.

Walls of ice grew rapidly across the wet ground, scrambling to stand between the two. This also led to Douglas firing six shots in a row, but only the first shot was hit at such a close distance.

Although in just a short moment, several fire ravens that came from nowhere smashed and melted these lines of defense with their bodies, the distance between the two was still further widened, making Douglas lose the advantage of sneaking first, and the milky white mist formed by the fusion of ice and fire weakened the vision of both sides.

Click! Douglas shook off the magazine of the revolver, allowing the six empty cartridge casings to fall naturally, and the other hand skillfully filled with new bullets, while briefly casting his gaze on Cortina who was making the block.

To be honest, if it weren't for this scene of clear distinction between friend and foe, he would never believe that the monster that could barely see the human form was a "witch" who was once very seductive to the opposite sex.

Even if you look at it, you will feel numb on your scalp...... But he didn't want to dwell on why. After the bullet was loaded, Douglas took a step back and quietly drove the "Wriggling Hunger", and his figure became dim, melting directly into the shadows of the night, causing the black flame lit by Cortina to fall into the air.

Three times......

Wandering in the shadows, Douglas estimated the number of times his remaining spirits would be able to activate the seal. He walked around the wreckage of the ice wall to capture Tyron's figure from a dim perspective, and found that the direction of the other party's escape was the center of the chaos where the witch and the hunter were going back and forth.

Just as he was about to chase up, Douglas suddenly saw Winkel, who was covered in blood but still alive, and opened the distance between him and Cortina in a few breaths, and his face was particularly grim under the reflection of the firelight.

Taryn, meanwhile, stumbled faster and faster, running towards Cortina almost unguardedly.

Opportunity, or trap?

Before he could tell, Douglas suddenly felt a hot head, and suddenly heard his own sudden quickening, dense and dull heartbeat like a drum!

Those emotions such as anger and irritability that were suppressed under calm thoughts were instantly detonated! Douglas recklessly leaped out of the shadows, caught up with Tyron, who was wounded in the leg, and roared like a beast out of the cage to knock him to the ground, clenching his fist and smashing it hard.

One time, two times...... It was as if he had forgotten the loaded firearm and the seal in his hand, and his eyes widened with rage, and he slammed his opponent into the head with one punch after another.

Despite the heavier and harder breathing, the bulging tendons in his forehead and the pin-and-needle pain in his brain, Douglas did not notice any difference, and carried out the atrocity in the midst of the violent desire that filled his mind.

Tyron, who was suppressed on the ground by him, was also affected, falling into some kind of inexplicable emotion, unable to control his body and behavior, but relying on his survival instinct to raise his arms to protect the door.

For a moment, the behavior of the four people present did not show the slightest trace of human reason and dignity, but more like beasts driven by instinct.

But soon, Tyron, the "sheriff" with high mental resistance, and Winkel, the "conspirator" who summed up the experience of dealing with it in the previous battles, were the first to get rid of the influence.

The former tried to stop the mad Douglas, and the latter, too, left behind Cortina's attack in his frenzy and rushed forward, quick to ...... Or rather, he quickly raised his leg and kicked at his ally.

Douglas, who had been hit hard in the ribs, snorted, unable to resist the strange force, and was kicked five or six meters away, rolling in the mud a few times.

The pain was so intense that he finally squeezed the strange and irritable emotions out of his mind, and Douglas was covered in cold sweat and gasped for breath, unable to believe that he had just gone as crazy as if he had just been possessed by the devil.

"What's the ......" he opened his mouth dizzily to ask, but saw more than a dozen ice picks burning with strange black and blue flames shooting towards him, and immediately closed his mouth to urge "Wriggling Hunger", and his figure disappeared vaguely, flashing out in another direction.

There are only two left...... Holding his side, Douglas, who was slightly rickety, saw that Cortina, who looked like a monster, threw away all kinds of abilities that belonged to the witch and those that did not belong to the witch, and rushed to Tyron, who was beaten to the ground and couldn't get up, and used the vaguely slender silhouette of the body to put Taryn in his arms in a protective posture.

The facial features, which were originally dignified and beautiful, but now they are not too torn apart, seemed to show some kind of angry emotion, and together with the gray and thick gray hair covered with scales on the back of the head, they danced wildly, like entrenched pythons, which were dazzling and swimming.

Winkel, who was also temporarily forced back by Cortina, shouted on the other side: "Her cane! Snatch that cane! ”

Time was short, and she didn't have time to explain in detail. The "conspirator's" instincts were constantly warning her that allowing Cortina to continue using the horn-shaped seal would lead to some terrible results.

With that, Winkel took the lead in unleashing a large stream of blazing flames and rushing towards Cortina.

Douglas, who couldn't see where the cane was, didn't bother to ask, and staggered and ran, while holding up his gun and shooting continuously, trying to contain Cortina's movements.

At this time, he was particularly depressed about the fact that "Wriggling Hunger" didn't have any long-range attack capabilities.

But he still has the ability to assist.

With the switch of souls, the surface of the human leather gloves gradually became pitch black, with a sense of dignity and evil. Douglas stared at the battle situation, and at the moment when Cortina swung a piece of frost to resist Winkel's flames, he stretched out his left hand wearing "Wriggling Hunger" and aimed it at Cortina, activating the "twisting" ability belonging to the "Corrupt Baron"!

The witch's short-term defensive behavior was suddenly "distorted" into a passive defense that did not take the initiative to attack, greatly reducing Winkel's pressure.

Layers of frost and silk threads resemble a large, transparent cocoon that envelops Cortina and Taryn in the center. But such a defense could not last long in the face of the extremely ferocious firepower of the hunters.

Tyron, who had been hit to the head one after another and was not very conscious, was protected by Cortina in her arms and struggled to lift her head. His sloppy gaze gradually condensed, sweeping inch by inch over the shattered face.

His breath stagnated for a moment, and he raised his hand tremblingly and stroked the side of the witch's face.

The latter lowered his head with a sense of feeling, and his cloudy pupils reflected Tyron's dejected appearance.

“……”

The monster had a soft murmur rolling in its throat, as if it was about to say something, but it no longer had the physiology to organize speech, and could only spit out muffled syllables.

But Taryn seemed to understand the words, and the muscles in his cheeks twitched, trying to put a smile on, but he couldn't.

Looking at the fire outside the ice cocoon, looking at Cortina's body that was still transforming into an inhuman monster, Taryn coughed up the blood clot between his nose, patted Cortina on the top of his head again, as if to soothe the child, and whispered, "Enough, enough......"

Then, with all his might, he reached out and grabbed the horn-shaped staff that was almost sunk into Cortina's flesh.

Only a closer look reveals that each line on the spiral's horns is made up of mysterious symbols that make you feel dizzy just by looking at them. The scepter, imbued with evil and depravity, seemed to merge with its user, and Cortina's grip on the staff had turned into a pitch-black liquid that hid emotions and desires.

Taryn gripped the claw staff and pulled it outward.

A scream of pain that seemed to pierce the soul exploded through the forest. Winkel and Douglas's offensive and containment were interrupted in an instant, and both of them fell to the ground in convulsions, clutching their ears and rolling in pain, blood oozing from their ear holes running through their fingers.

The ice cocoon shattered without warning, and Tyron, who was holding a short staff, was thrown out by Cortina, who had lost the last of her senses, and fell to the ground, instantly losing consciousness.

No one noticed that at this moment, the heavy clouds and rain that originally covered the night dissipated strangely, and a wisp of blood-colored moonlight quietly passed through the gap in the rain curtain and shrouded everyone.

In the depths of the dense forest, a crow with a circle of white fluff in its right eye saw this, silently shrunk into the thicker shadows, avoiding the blood-red moonlight, and observed from a distance.

A second before pulling his head out of the muddy water, Winkel didn't realize what he was about to witness.

It wasn't until Cortina's completely out of control, distorted body came into view that the red-haired hunter's near-malfunctioning spiritual instincts made a faint sound.

But, it's late.

The witch's eyes were pitch black, her hair was raised one by one, part of it was slippery and wicked, the top was either inlaid with black and white eyes, or a serpent-like head, and her mouth was slightly open, spitting letters.

The other part is a large black and sticky liquid, the smooth surface reflecting the blood-colored light, constantly dripping to the ground, eroding the ground into one crater after another.

The completely indistinguishable human body was reduced to a carnival of flesh and blood, wriggling in the shattered and cracked skin, as if some kind of monster was about to tear open this skin and come into the world.

The lower half of her body was like a strand of hair, swallowed by the liquid filled with all kinds of violent desires, spreading out in all directions.

Looking directly at the moment when the out-of-control Cortina revealed some of the mythical creatures, Winkel, who was only in sequence six, was inevitably on the verge of losing control due to too much mental shock and the secret knowledge he was forced to receive.

In the extraordinary world, hidden knowledge represents both power and pollution!

"Demon", "Apostle of Desire", "Devil", "Witch ......of Pain", "Witch of Despair", "Witch of Scourge", ......

A lot of knowledge that does not belong to this path rushes into my mind, and there is no room for rejection. Winkel's expression stiffened for a moment, his gaze dimmed, and his bloodstained and muddy skin had a faint tendency to melt and crack, and even the churning flesh could be seen floating down the skin.

She wanted to scream, she wanted to escape, but her body was firmly pinned to the ground, as if the whispers from the depths of her soul made her brain rumble like boiling water.

At this moment, she finally knew the purpose of the claw staff, and the reason why Cortina was obsessed with killing her, even though it was all meaningless.

Winkel tried to close her dissolved eyelids, but the blasphemous knowledge easily shattered the last of her sanity, and it showed her the "abyss" strewn with corpses, and the true appearance of the "red moon" more than 300,000 kilometers overhead......

Suddenly discovering something from the projection of the silent vacuum of the stars, Winkel's pupils trembled and dilated. Instinctively, she curled up and clutched her head, resisting the truth from the stars.

"Nope! Not ......"

"Here, here'......"

"How could it be...... Heh, haha......"

The murmurs gradually became slurred, more like staccato choks squeezed out of the depths of the throat than words.

The hunter's body began to disintegrate in pieces, her eyeballs rolling down the mud with a click, and the next second it burned itself into gray embers. Her long dark red hair, her slender and powerful arms, and her straight back were all shrouded in the flames that boiled from the inside out, dismembering herself and eating away at herself.

Then, a man staggered forward, and without hesitation, reached out and picked up her body, which was almost engulfed in flames.

The bizarre spiritual realm flashed by. Using the last bit of spirituality to launch a "trip" to the forest not far from the battlefield, under the severe dizziness and headache, as soon as he stepped out of the spiritual world, Douglas weakened his legs, and fell to the ground with Winkel in his arms.

The blistered skin of the flames soaked in the wet mud and puddles, and there was a hint of cold comfort. Douglas scratched at the dirt with his fingers, forcing himself to brace himself up, and looked up at Winkel, a blank look still on his face.

It was happening so fast that he didn't understand it at all.

His memory was still stuck in the moment when the scream rang out and the ice cocoon shattered. In that moment, he thought he was one step away from victory.

Then, Douglas thought he had fainted briefly for a second or two, his vision and consciousness completely dark, and he had not captured any information.

Then, his ally, the Hunter Winkel, a fellow Earth traveler, literally "burned".

Before seeing this scene with his own eyes, Douglas had never imagined that the blazing flames could flow like a stream of water in a gentle and irregular way.

Despite knowing that this was probably a very serious "loss of control" of the Extraordinary Being, his first impression of the flame was one of incomparably beautiful, beautiful that could destroy everything.

"Damn...... You, Winkel! Wake up! Look at me! ”

Kneeling beside the flame, Douglas stretched out his arms in confusion, trying to discern the part that was still human. The tongue of fire licked at the still-intact skin, bringing a sharp pain that melted his brain, but he tried to catch the chaotic fire again and again.

"What the hell is going on...... Can you still hear me? Winkle! ”

He was answered by the sound of flames crackling and bursting. In the center of the flame, where the silhouette of a human figure could barely be seen, several flames danced and twisted wildly, like a giant mouth that opened and closed, saying something to him, but not making the slightest human sound.

But the vision lifted Douglas's spirits.

There is a reaction, at least it means that Winkel's consciousness is still there, and there is still a chance......

Is there still a chance?

He took a deep breath and recited quickly in the ancient Hermetic language:

"A hand that plays with time......

"Wander the shadow of fate......

"The ...... of Fraud and Mischief"

So, a young man walked slowly out of the dense forest.

The visitor was dressed in a dark classical robe and a peaked hat of the same color.

He has black curly hair, dark eyes, a wide forehead, a thin face, and wears a crystal-polished monocle in his right eye.

Amon stepped forward unhurriedly, the hem of his mopping robe unstained.

Scanning the chaotic scene at the moment, his expression was as usual, and there was no emotion to be seen except for the corners of his mouth that were hooked.

This kind of performance made Douglas subconsciously feel reliable and felt that things must have a turnaround.

Ignoring the so-called decency and etiquette, he held the scorching flame in his arms, and asked in a trembling voice:

"You...... Do you have a way to save her? Please...... I can, I'll pay the price! ”

"Me?" Amon smiled and straightened his monocle, "It's just out of control, of course I have a way to ......"

Looking at Douglas's suddenly lit up eyes, he paused deliberately and slowly spat out the second half of the sentence:

"But I can't save her."

The corners of the mouth of the "......" that had just been ignited and the upward trend suddenly froze, and Douglas stared at Amon's dark eyes, his voice sharp and almost questioned, "But, why ......?" ”

"Forgotten? I have made a pact with you that cannot be broken. ”

Amon's smile didn't waver in the slightest, and he leaned over slightly, observing his expression with interest.

"And your request is that I can't do anything to the people around you.

"Whatever, whatever, anything."

As he understood the meaning of the syllables that had been emphasized, Douglas's consciousness suddenly went blank. He seemed to think a lot, and he didn't seem to think about anything.

And in the crook of his arm, in the thinning rain curtain, the red flame swayed smaller and smaller, and was completely extinguished after the last wisps of white smoke were blown away by the wind.

A gust of wind swept across the sky northwest of Beckland, and the large dark clouds that had been scattered were suddenly spurred back together by the gust of wind, blocking the blood-red moonlight projected.

Immediately afterward, several lightning bolts as thick as silver snakes thundered down! They landed densely in a clearing in the woods, and struck the runaway Cortina one after another, shattering the desecrated body into powder.

The archbishop of the Church of Storm's Bakerland parish hovered in mid-air with the raging currents, looking down. His majestic voice reached the ears of every substitute on the ground: "Every three people form a team and scatter to search the surrounding area!" Don't let go of any traces! ”

The punishers showed their courage and loyalty by punching their right fists to their left chests, and soon their teams were well trained, as they explored the surrounding woodland.

Seeing that the scene was basically under control, the archbishop slowly landed on the ground, thought about it, and called a member of the team to instruct: "Take someone to Meige Manor to investigate, but pay attention to proportion, and report anything wrong to me immediately." ”

The Manor was too close to the site of the incident, and although the owner of the manor and most of the servants believed in the goddess of the night, the archbishop felt that it was necessary to investigate and eliminate the hidden dangers.

While the servants in Rose Ge Manor were startled by the sound of falling thunder and frantically checked to see if the manor had any damage, most of Beckland heard the dull rolling thunder and saw the bright silver arc in the dim rain. The rainstorm exceeded their expectations, and many people were already worried about tomorrow's commute before going to bed.

And in the North End, at 9 Covent Street, in a window on the second floor, Veretti propped her hands on the edge of the window, and her face scanned the street with a slightly sad face.

The loud thunder and lightning did not frighten her, she was used to spending dark and rainy nights alone, not to mention that Thomas and his maid Emma were in the living room downstairs. Now there are very few things that can worry and fear this girl who has been strong since childhood.

She was just waiting, expecting the man who occasionally missed the appointed time, but never broke his promise, to make it through the rain and return home.

Just like thousands of days in the past, come back safely.