There was only one word for behavior like this: lunatic.
Riiip!
The sound of tearing flesh sent chills down the spine.
"Aah!"
Wade stood in stark contrast to the lunatic opposite him. He clutched his head and rolled on the floor in agony, his screams piercing and grief-stricken.
Joey had little time to spare for Wade, because Wayne was staring at him with blood-red eyes.
Bang!
He did not even see Wayne move before he was sent flying backward. His body slammed into the wall, and the intense pain left him dazed.
Dizzy and disoriented, he struggled to his feet. Everything in his vision had doubled.
A metallic sweetness rose in his throat, and he spat out saliva mixed with bloody foam.
Glancing at Wade, who had stopped screaming, Joey breathed an inward sigh of relief. He had finally bought enough time.
Just as he was about to relax, fear welled up from the depths of his soul, making his body tremble instinctively.
And that sense of danger came not from Wayne in front of him, but from behind.
He turned his stiff neck and stared unblinkingly at Wade. His mind exploded with a buzz.
Vade Wisker was now enveloped in a pitch-black substance. His facial features had vanished. There were no eyes, ears, mouth, or nose-only a dark, hollow void on his face.
A single glance seemed enough to draw someone inside. The instant Joey looked at it, his thoughts abruptly stopped, and he froze in place.
"Turn away!"
Wade's voice burst into his mind, echoing from every direction. Joey snapped out of his stupor and hurriedly turned his head, not daring to look at Wade again.
How terrifying. What on earth was that?
Still shaken, Joey exhaled and forced down his turbulent emotions.
Wait, that wasn't right. 0-013's Decree prohibited supernatural powers here.
Wade was clearly using his powers. How had he managed that?
Joey looked at Wayne, who stood nearby in the same stupor he had experienced. His mind raced, and suddenly, a possibility occurred to him.
Only a god could oppose a god. Only supernatural power could resist supernatural power. Against the divinity of 0-013, only someone of an equal standing could contend.
A demigod?
Sequence 4?
Good heavens, who exactly was the captain?
The more Joey considered it, the harder his heart pounded. This was madness.
Even after seeing it with his own eyes, he still found it unbelievable.
A squad captain of the Survey Corps was actually a High Sequence demigod.
He had no real understanding of demigods. Everything he knew came from rumors.
What was a demigod of the pathway of light called again?
"Trembling Black Hole! I think that was the name." Recalling the black hole that had replaced Wade's features, he shuddered involuntarily.
As a demigod, Wade already possessed certain divine traits. He could not be looked upon directly.
Crack, crack, crack!
Still trapped in a stupor, Wayne forcibly twisted his neck. Strange noises came from every bone in his body as it contorted.
His head turned 180 degrees backward, and the joints of his arms and legs bent the wrong way. Using the traits of the Living Dead, he broke free of Wade's power.
"You can't escape!" Wade's voice rang out from every direction, filled with authority.
There were no footsteps, but Joey could clearly sense Wade slowly approaching him.
"Tell me. Where is she?"
All he could see was Wade's imposing back, with the enemy's wretched figure farther ahead.
Wayne did not dare look directly at him either. But Joey noticed something else: the surrounding light was fading little by little, and the flames in the gas lamps were growing weaker.
The scant luster on Wayne's already sallow skin was rapidly diminishing at a terrifying rate.
An intense desire to survive drove him to keep crawling forward.
"Is this how terrifying a demigod is?" Witnessing a demigod's power for the first time, Joey felt a yearning stir within him.
Just then, a mechanical voice abruptly rang out through the empty castle.
"Killing is prohibited here. Fighting is prohibited here."
Vade Wisker stopped dead. His featureless head lifted slightly as he looked into the darkness, where footsteps were approaching.
Joey turned to look as well. In the darkness, the click of high heels against the floor sounded unusually clear.
A woman? Who was she? If he remembered correctly, that direction led to the study. Joey pressed a hand to his forehead as he tried to recall.
As the person drew closer, Wade's faintly trembling voice followed:
"Leila!"
Even without seeing his face, the excitement was unmistakable in his quivering voice.
Blond-haired and blue-eyed, she wore a court gown studded with glittering gems. She approached slowly, a serene, faint smile on her face.
She seemed utterly out of place, like a princess appearing in a beggars' den, making anyone who saw her feel ashamed of their own inferiority.
She extended her pale arm and gently stroked Wade's featureless face, over and over.
"Wisker, I'm the one who hurt you. You shouldn't have come."
Joey's curiosity blazed. It was hard to imagine the rugged Vade Wisker, well over six feet tall, having any connection with such a delicate woman.
0-013, you're an excellent director.
Wade backed away, his body trembling. Then another furious shout exploded:
"Who are you?"
As he spoke, he raised a hand and reached toward Wayne, who was still sprawled on the floor. As though caught by an invisible force, Wayne was dragged backward through the air.
With his throat seized, he could only struggle desperately.
"Tell me! What have you done to her?"
In contrast to his fury, the other voice was as warm and gentle as sunlight.
She raised her hand lightly, pressed her lips together, and said slowly:
"Time is prohibited here."
To Joey's astonishment, everything around him seemed to fall into a kind of stasis. The gaslight no longer flickered, as though someone had pressed pause.
His eyes widened, and his pupils abruptly contracted. He tried to move his feet, only to discover he had lost control of his body.
Everything had stopped. Only the woman continued forward, step by step.
She came up beside Wade and embraced him from behind. After holding him for several seconds, she slowly let go.
Her slender, pale hand rested on Wade's, and the hand gripping Wayne's throat slowly loosened. Only then did the frozen time resume.
"Hah..." Joey gasped for breath.
"What was that? 0-013's Decree? Can it really be that terrifying?" Still shaken, he patted his chest.
Joey realized he might have underestimated 0-013.
Only in the right hands could a weapon unleash its full strength.
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He had never imagined that 0-013 could be so terrifying with an owner.
Having narrowly escaped death, Wayne knelt on the floor and prostrated himself, saying in a trembling voice:
"I will follow you forever, Bishop Leila."
That unexpected title left both Wade and Joey frozen in place.
Bishop was a title used by the Necromancer Sect. Its ranks were Disciple, Priest, High Priest, and finally Bishop.
Disciples were the most numerous. Like maggots clinging to bone, they lurked in every corner of Senegal. There were thirteen Priests, while the number of High Priests was unknown. As for the Bishop, that figure had always been the most secretive of all. Some officials even suspected that no such person existed, and that the Bishop was merely a powerful figure invented by the Necromancer Sect to attract followers.
Yet Wayne's words were earth-shattering, like a stone dropped into a tranquil lake that sent towering waves surging up.
"Bishop? How could that be? How is that possible?" Wade's trembling voice came from every direction, making their eardrums ache.
Every last one of them was a handful. Joey thought these Transcendents who released their power at the slightest provocation had terrible manners. Could they not consider the Sequence 9 Fortune Teller still present?
To keep his mind from collapsing under the impact, Joey silently meditated on the Hermit's honorific name and diverted part of his consciousness there. Only then did his strained mind ease a little.
A gentle voice suddenly reached his ears:
"There's nothing impossible about it. No one would have imagined that a captain of the Survey Corps was a Sequence 4 demigod, either."
"In fact, just yesterday, I truly was only Leila Aaron, an ordinary earl, and the Leila who loved you deeply."
Wade turned his head away, as though he did not dare face Leila's beautiful, delicate features.
"What are you afraid of? Why won't you face me? Why won't you face what you truly feel?"
"Tell me. You love me, don't you?" Leila pressed him with her words, seemingly determined to get the answer she wanted.
At that moment, Wayne's voice interrupted at the worst possible time:
"Bishop, don't forget your position."
"Hmm?" Leila said coolly. "Are you telling me what to do?"
Frankly, Joey felt that tonight's events were more riveting than anything he had experienced before, with one twist after another.
First came the revelation that Wade was a demigod. Then Earl Aaron turned out to be the Necromancer Sect's Archbishop. Most unbelievable of all, the two seemed to have once been lovers.
Only after a long silence did Wade's low voice sound, tinged with faint sorrow.
"Leila, you are my only light in this dark world. You should be dancing freely on sunlit grass. You should be singing your heart out on the rolling sea. I wanted to take you away, take you out of Senegal, and show you the world beyond."
Leila's cheerful voice quickly added:
"And build a thatched cottage, and have a whole brood of children. I'll fill the courtyard with flowers."
They seemed to be painting a beautiful picture that belonged to them alone.
Eyes, ears, a mouth, and a nose reappeared on Wade's featureless face.
Standing on opposing sides, both knew that dream could never come true.
Just as before, one was an earl, while the other was merely a squad captain of the Survey Corps. Their positions had made it impossible for them to be together.
However lovely the picture they painted, it could exist only in their imaginations.
Dong, dong, dong!
In Senegal's main city, the bronze bell in the bell tower suddenly rang, shattering the stillness of the night.
The bronze bell belonging to the Church of the Sun possessed unparalleled carrying power. Its tolling echoed across more than half the city.
Wade and Leila were pulled back from their beautiful fantasies into reality.
She gently embraced Wade, rose onto her toes, and kissed him. Their lips touched, then parted.
The dim yellow gaslight illuminated her delicate face, making her look especially beautiful.
She pressed her lips together in a faint smile, the two little dimples in her cheeks revealing her playfulness. Her deep eyes brimmed with love for Wade, along with a profound reluctance to part.
She opened her mouth but made no sound, merely gazing at Wade with tender affection.
Riiip!
Without warning, a dagger gleaming with cold light pierced Leila's heart from behind and emerged through her body.
"No!"
Wade's features, which had been returning to human form, once again became a black hole.
This was the fury of a demigod-a demigod running amok.
Rumble!
Rolling thunder, accompanied by the tolling bronze bell of the Church of the Sun, woke every resident in the main city.
Soon, gas lamps lit up in house after house. Windows opened, revealing one bewildered head after another.
"What happened?"
"Are we under attack?"
Many others shouted curses at the top of their lungs.
"Are you going to let anyone sleep? Damn it, stop ringing that bell!"
"Those are the Imperial Knights! What happened? Where are they going?"
Soon, people noticed orderly columns of mounted soldiers galloping down the streets.
They rode in haste, their expressions resolute and filled with a grim, murderous air.
Meanwhile, the ground beneath the entire castle of Earl Ailu began to shake. A hideous fissure opened in the earth, splitting the castle in two.
Everything around Wade was hurled away by an invisible force. Holding Leila in his arms, he threw back his head and roared.
Wayne and Joey flew backward like kites with severed strings. The collapsing castle's rubble soon buried them both.
Restless, rampaging power poured out of Wade, wantonly destroying everything around him.
His featureless face was a hollow void like an abyss. The energy it released drew in the surrounding elemental energies like a black hole, consuming the energy particles of reality.
As those energy particles vanished, the earth around Wade began to turn black. The intricate, mottled furniture, chairs, and paintings lost their colors little by little. The gas lamps lost their flames, and stones became so brittle that a touch would shatter them.
Joey could not move. His whole body was rigid, as though bound by some force. The stones and rubble pressing down on him left him in excruciating pain, unable to breathe.
He could even feel the blood inside him being drawn out of his body in some incomprehensible way.
No. If this kept up, he would be sucked dry!
Everything he could see was pitch-black. Joey had no idea where he was, but he could sense that the source of the rampaging energy was not far away.
Could he do nothing but wait to die?
He tried to regain control of his body, but reality was cruel. Some force seemed to have complete control over him, leaving him able only to watch his life drain away.
After several attempts, he finally gave up.
Joey had come to understand that escaping a demigod through his own strength-especially a rampaging demigod-was nothing but a fool's dream.
To break free, he could only rely on outside help.
"Where am I supposed to find outside help?"
Suddenly, something seemed to occur to Joey. His lips moved as he slowly recited:
"The great being... Above the Ashes..."
"The Witness... of the Historical Torrent..."
At present, the only outside help he could think of was the Round Table Hall.
Just as he had expected, his consciousness successfully entered the Round Table Hall.
Looking at the endless gray mist, Joey finally let out a long breath of relief.
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