Battle

With a series of creaks, Aster's arms were constricted by the tightened skin, almost shrinking by an entire size. Yet Aster seemed unable to sense the pain and calmly watched the scene unfold.

As if a certain moment had arrived, the erosion suddenly accelerated. Masses of disgusting flesh buds burst from the cuffs of the gloves, wrapping around Aster's entire body and contracting inward.

His original height of nearly six feet three inches was continuously squeezed down by the flesh buds until he stood at less than five feet three inches.

The pink flesh buds wriggled apart and seeped into Aster's body, revealing his now-black, waist-length curly hair.

As the flesh buds gradually fused with the body, Rachel Jones opened her golden eyes. The vacant look in her gaze slowly became tinged with cunning and delight.

A strange feeling suddenly surged up within her, as though she were looking down upon her current body from a higher position, while her original body had already been occupied by another personality.

Having used the gloves several times, Rachel knew very well that Evelyn Carlo's virtual personality was controlling the body. Of course, she could sense that control of the body still belonged to Aster's soul. That virtual personality merely helped ensure that she would not give herself away through subtle movements and behavioral habits, effectively helping him play the role of a woman.

"All right, it was time to make some preparations before acting... Not only for tonight's trap, but I couldn't slack off on my real job—finding Lanevus..." Smiling pleasantly at the girl in the mirror, Rachel unhurriedly picked up the black lace dress and underwear beside her and put them on.

On the night of July 12, mysterious figures draped in black robes began entering Red Moon Bar through the back door one after another.

"How are the arrangements?" Rawlins had also disguised himself and mingled among the attendees. He was speaking quietly with another masked man.

"They've all reached their positions in advance. I've seen that Silver Eyes man before. As long as he enters my field of vision, my intuition will naturally tell me who he is." The masked man answered confidently before quietly asking:

"Sir, Alro hasn't returned yet..."

"He must have already been killed by that Silver Eyes man. The only thing you can do is avenge him." Rawlins replied expressionlessly and pointed toward a corner. "Go sit over there. When that guy comes, give the signal. The others will work with you to make a move."

"...Yes." The masked man silently took a seat on the southern side of the room.

Rawlins glanced at his pocket watch without any impatience.

Alro's disappearance had made him realize that his opponent was not so easy to deal with.

That made sense. Anyone capable of following Lanevus's trail all the way here must have formidable Beyonders behind him.

But Rawlins did not care, because from the very beginning, he had decided not to clash with the Beyonders behind his opponent!

He had already arranged people at today's Beyonder gathering. Even if the few subordinates he had recruited could not defeat the other side, they could at least buy him some time. Rawlins had no intention of remaining here any longer.

My Serial Killer potion has already been fully digested. It was time to return and prepare for my advancement... As for that contract I signed with Lanevus, heh. As long as I have my men surround and kill that pursuer, the contract will automatically judge that I have begun fulfilling its terms. Once tonight's gathering ends, regardless of whether that pursuer appears, I will no longer be bound by the contract...

By then, I will leave Kuman City directly and never come into conflict with him at all...

With a cold smile, Rawlins had already treated those relatively loyal Beyonder subordinates as expendable pawns.

Seeing that the hands were about to point to eight o'clock, Rawlins had already gone up to the first-floor hall through the hidden door.

After glancing at the still-rowdy drinkers, he quickly climbed the stairs and arrived at his room on the second floor, where his luggage had already been packed.

Rawlins grabbed the handle of his suitcase and pushed open the window, preparing to jump directly from the second floor into the deserted alley beside the bar with his luggage...

Then he swiftly shielded his chest and bent backward at an absurd angle.

A faint buzz sounded in the air, and Rawlins's arms were already slashed bloody!

Had he not been a Sequence 7 Serial Killer whose body had been strengthened three times by potions, his arms would likely have been severed in that instant!

Although he noticed the attacker outside the window, Rawlins did not retreat into the room. Instead, he suddenly twisted around, pressed both hands against the ground, and shot out through the window.

He knew very well that the first vicious attack had been intended to force him back into the cramped room!

Rawlins was not at all afraid of close-quarters combat indoors, but since the enemy wanted him to return to the room, he absolutely could not comply with their wishes!

After rolling twice across the ground, Rawlins rose and leaned against the wall, drawing two daggers from the sheaths strapped to his body. His casual jacket was badly torn, and several bloody cuts marked his cheeks.

Rawlins raised his head to look at the window of his room, his eyes turning completely black.

From that perspective, he finally saw the attacker.

It was a petite black-haired girl in a bodysuit. She hung from the window by a transparent thread, smiling faintly at Rawlins.

"Mr. Rawlins, where do you think you're going?" Rachel Jones curled her lips upward. She extended a finger, and transparent threads rapidly spread through the alley, sealing off the exits.

Demoness of Pleasure? Or Demoness of Affliction?

Rawlins had some understanding of the abilities of other Pathways, and his expression was extremely ugly.

After staring at the woman's face for several seconds, he suddenly asked in disbelief, "Evelyn Carlo? What are you doing here?!"

"Denied. I am not Evelyn Carlo. My name is Rachel Jones." Answering Rawlins's feigned surprise at an unhurried pace, Rachel jumped down from the high windowsill. Several black flames fell alongside her. "True Name Curse? That won't work on me."

Rawlins dropped his pretense of surprise and swiftly dodged several Black Flames shooting toward him before charging at Rachel herself.

He felt quite helpless. From their brief exchange just now, he could tell that the other side held a complete advantage.

A Serial Killer possessed the ability to investigate a person's true name. Combined with the True Name Curse ability he had obtained through a sacrifice to a Devil, as long as he spoke the enemy's true name and received a response, he could directly burn the enemy with Devil's Fire. Any target below high sequence would be severely injured by this ability.

Yet the ability he had treated as his trump card had been effortlessly countered by that Demoness, as if she had dealt with it countless times before—if the target denied their true name when he prepared to use the True Name Curse, Rawlins would lose that ability for a full twenty-four hours!

Other than that, the only ability of a Serial Killer that could be considered useful was gaining unlimited physical enhancement for a certain period by killing multiple people in a short span of time.

He had already planted some explosives in the bar. Together with the hard liquor stored in the cellar, the blast would be enough to kill most of the patrons.

But that was precisely the problem: their battle was taking place right next to the bar!

Rawlins dodged a Black Flame with a forward roll, but staggered when he tried to stand—the ground had already been covered with a thin layer of ice. If not for the balance enhancement granted by being a Serial Killer, he would have fallen just now.

Even if I detonated the cellar, never mind whether the shockwave would injure me... I have no way to detonate the explosives right now!

The device for detonating the explosives was still in his suitcase, and the suitcase was still in the room on the second floor of the bar.

"What is this?!" Just as Rawlins overcame countless obstacles and finally closed to within fifteen feet of Rachel, he suddenly discovered in shock that his legs could no longer move.

Instinctively curling up to avoid a possible attack, Rawlins looked down at his legs and found two spirits clinging to them.

An Earthbound Spirit... How could one appear here? No, she can control spirits too!

As Rawlins's eyes turned black, the two spirits clutching his legs let out silent screams and were pressed into the ground. Freed from their restraints, Rawlins exerted force through his legs and prepared to pounce on the Demoness.

Even if the enemy was a Sequence 5 Demoness of Affliction, she would find it difficult to gain an advantage in close combat. This was his only chance to escape!

Unfortunately, this was also Rawlins's final struggle. With a gunshot, a bullet grazed Rachel's long hair and entered Rawlins's skull. His eyes lost their light, and his corpse toppled heavily to the side.

Rachel's purpose in using the spirits to seize his feet had merely been to stop him from moving around and make it easier for someone else to shoot him.

"Nice coordination, Miss Jones."

The burly middle-aged man with a black beard put away his revolver, indicating that he had no intention of stabbing his ally in the back.

"Mr. Black Wolf, I'll leave Rawlins's corpse to you." Rachel sighed pitifully. "I'm not very accustomed to facing corpses."

Black Wolf fell silent for several seconds, seemingly stunned by Rachel's affected performance. After weighing the gap in strength between them, he swallowed his urge to complain and replied with apparent respect, "I will gather Rawlins's subordinates, conceal news of his death, and take over his Beyonder gathering. Please believe me, I will never betray you."

"Do as you like. Our cooperation ends here. I'll take whatever is extracted from Rawlins's corpse. It won't be of much use to you anyway." Rachel smiled seductively.

In fact, the burly man whom Aster had thoroughly beaten yesterday was not as honest as he appeared. He had attempted to have Aster negotiate with Rawlins in Black Wolf's name—Black Wolf was Rawlins's sworn enemy.