Impaler Sherlock (Part 2)

Sherlock still had no idea just how much psychological trauma he had inflicted on Yinsen, an ordinary man. After completely wiping out everyone in the cave, Sherlock casually stood at its entrance.

Outside the cave, countless terrorists had long since aimed their guns and artillery at the entrance. The instant Sherlock appeared, a barrage of bullets mixed with RPG shells poured directly toward him.

Facing the countless bullets and RPG fire, Sherlock remained calm. This time, however, instead of acting as he had inside the cave, he held his spear and walked step by step toward the center of the valley.

Wherever he passed, bullets turned into petals, while artillery fire vanished into thin air. Sherlock seemed like the god of guns and cannons; neither shells nor bullets could harm him in the slightest.

Bullets were easy enough to deal with. A simple Transmutation Circle could solve them, and that was practically the most basic foundation of Alchemy.

But when facing shells, Transmutation Circles were not always so useful, because shells exploded.

At that point, the second Transmutation Circle Sherlock had nested within the first began to show its effect.

This Transmutation Circle was a composite design Sherlock had created himself, born from combining Analysis of All Things from the Harry Potter universe with Decomposition Alchemy from the Fullmetal Alchemist world.

Its effect was obvious and simple: Analysis of All Things handled the scanning, while Decomposition Alchemy broke everything down and returned it to nothingness.

When Sherlock had first invented this Transmutation Circle, he had been so excited that he had gone days without sleep. After all, this ability was practically a miracle that combined offense and defense; at the very least, it was an absolute defense beyond all others.

But when Sherlock began testing it, he quickly discovered the problem: the mental strain was almost directly proportional to how long it remained active!

Put simply, the longer it stayed activated, the more his brain had to calculate and process.

If Sherlock truly dared to keep this skill active twenty-four hours a day like Satoru Gojo or Accelerator, there would only be two possible outcomes: either Sherlock's brain would turn into a freshly cooked serving of brain matter, or the transmutation would fail and Alchemy would backfire on him, sending him to see Truth.

If it had not been for securing his peaceful future life and creating an "invincible" image this time, Sherlock would never have activated a skill whose side effects were so enormous aside from looking cool.

With the inner and outer Transmutation Circles interlocking, Sherlock advanced almost completely unhindered through the rain of bullets and artillery fire until he reached the very center of the valley.

Although the terrorists had long realized that the weapons in their hands could not affect Sherlock at all, and that even shells capable of blowing open tanks could not slow his steps, they could only keep pulling their triggers in despair.

After all, that was the only method of attack they had left.

Yet Sherlock seemed to feel that the terrorists were not despairing enough. He had no intention of sparing them. After walking through the barrage atop snowy white petals and reaching the center of the valley, Sherlock drove the tip of his spear into the ground.

The next second, aided by the overwhelming amplification power of the Spear of Longinus, a massive Transmutation Circle that enveloped the entire valley rapidly spread outward from the spear tip.

The instant the Transmutation Circle spread, the firearms in the terrorists' hands turned into white petals that filled the sky. Countless white rose petals danced in the air like rain, beautiful and romantic.

But hidden beneath that beautiful sight was not sweet romance, but layers upon layers of killing intent.

The moment the terrorists' weapons vanished and became petals drifting through the air, and the gunfire throughout the valley fell silent, countless stone spikes erupted from the ground.

The terrorists who had been attacking with weapons in hand had not even understood what was happening after losing their guns when, in the next second, the suddenly emerging stone spikes skewered them into long strings and suspended them in midair.

Blood and filth stained the fluttering white petals with dust, painting an eerie scene in the valley that inspired fear and disgust.

If the people inside the cave earlier had not made such a great impact due to the darkness and the many obstructions, then under the open terrain of this valley, beneath the sunlight, the petals, corpses, blood, and mountains of weapons truly gave this hellish painting shape and soul.

The few survivors—whether through good luck or because Sherlock had deliberately spared them—completely broke down the moment they saw this sight.

Crying out words like "devil," they fled toward the outside of the valley on all fours.

Sherlock paid little attention to these fish that had slipped through the net. After completing this painting of hell, he felt boundless exhaustion.

When John Wick and Yinsen, who had just arrived at the cave entrance, witnessed this scene, they did not even know what to say as they looked at the eerie yet terrifying sight before them.

They could only stare blankly at the cruel, beautiful, and bizarre scene.

"Sherlock!"

After standing dazed at the cave entrance for quite a while, John Wick finally gathered his courage and started walking toward Sherlock.

Hearing John Wick's voice, Sherlock finally turned toward him in exhaustion. The instant he opened his mouth, the familiar Sherlock returned, as though he had not been the one who had created that hellish scene.

"Old John, get over here and hold me up. I feel like my legs are about to give out!"

Hearing Sherlock's words, John Wick hurried forward and supported him. Only then did Sherlock have the leisure to observe his surroundings. The moment he did, his first reaction caught not only John Wick, who was holding him up, by surprise, but even Yinsen, who had approached while trembling.

"Blegh—"

That was right. The moment Sherlock saw the corpses strung up by the stone spikes around him, he immediately threw up. He vomited miserably enough to leave John Wick speechless.

"You did this yourself, and you threw up after looking at it?"

John Wick patted Sherlock's back as he complained irritably.

Hearing John Wick's complaint, Sherlock retorted while vomiting.

"Blegh—nonsense! I—blegh—was blocked by the petals—blegh—I couldn't see anything—blegh—okay?! Blegh—"