Joey acted with extreme caution along the way. Dragging his feet for a good ten minutes, he finally arrived at the Earl Aaron estate, where the destruction caused by Wade's previous loss of control was now even more severe.
Holding his breath, he hid in the shadows and silently observed the scene unfolding at the point of engagement.
Beneath the colorful Great Fog, two figures stood opposite each other like two insurmountable towering mountains, intertwined with one another while generating a storm-like energy field around them.
One man had an upright posture, sharply defined facial features, and a full beard.
The other man was hunched over with a head of white hair, forming a striking contrast between black and white.
"Long time no see, Teacher."
"Golas, you've grown old."
"Indeed. Without entering the ranks of a Saint, no one can break free from the shackles of lifespan. Not everyone can be like you, ageless and immortal."
Wade's gaze suddenly turned icy, fixing on Golas with a look that seemed ready to devour someone alive.
"Are you still doing those things?"
Golas laughed out loud. "Shouldn't you have guessed that long ago?"
With a mix of shock and anger, Wade roared:
"You people are insane! I already thought Charles's matter was suspicious, and sure enough, you were the one behind it, Golas. Do you have any idea how many people will die because of this?"
"As your teacher, I must correct your mistakes."
Golas seemed to catch a hint of some dangerous aura.
With a flash of his figure, he retreated abruptly. Right where he had just evaded, a bolt of lightning appeared out of nowhere, instantly sending dust flying in all directions.
"You think you can still manipulate me like before? Teacher, I will prove that you are the one who is wrong. You are too naive; mercy cannot save this country, and proper sacrifice is necessary."
Golas's eyes shimmered with starlight. Every movement of his was like dancing, and every time he managed to dodge the thunderbolts falling from the sky.
After dodging another attack, he leaped up into mid-air.
His originally hunched body twisted and deformed at an incredible angle, and red fur began to sprout from his skin as his wrinkled flesh tightened.
The clothes on his body were ripped apart by bulging muscles, his hands and feet turned into the claws of a Magical Beast, and a human head transformed into that of a wolf.
When he landed again, he was already a three-meter-tall humanoid Magical Beast.
Hiding in the shadows, Joey clicked his tongue inwardly. So this is what the Mythical Creature Form of the Dark Moon Wolf looks like.
Golas's entire body was covered in red fur, leaving only a pair of blazing eyes exposed.
He roared up at the sky, emitting a non-human howl from his mouth, and with a push of his hind legs, he vanished from the spot in an instant.
When he reappeared, his figure was already right in front of Wade, his swinging claws wreathed in pale-green flames.
Wade's hair was whipped about by the fierce wind of the attack, and his robes fluttered noisily behind him.
Not a trace of an unusual expression could be seen on his face. Gradually, his facial features were replaced by a rotating black hole.
Just as Golas's claws were about to touch Wade's head, they seemed to be blocked by an invisible barrier, freezing mid-air with a sound like a metallic clash.
Two powerful forces collided, the blackness of the Trembling Black Hole intertwining with the pale-green flames. A tyrannical energy storm formed with the two of them at its center.
Bang, bang, bang!
Zzt, zzt, zzt!
Their battle was like the collision of two incompatible energy bodies, each exchange producing a spine-chilling sensation.
The spot where Joey was hiding was inevitably affected, and he had no choice but to retreat again and again.
The battle between demigods was even more violent than he had imagined.
Their movements were too fast for the naked eye to capture; he could only see the surrounding energy violently churning.
Finally, following a sharp wolf howl from Golas, the two separated, and Golas cast a wary look at Wade opposite him.
At this moment, Wade was no longer just missing his facial features; the entire area of his head was completely occupied by a continuously rotating abyss black hole.
Following its rotation, everything around him seemed to pull toward his side, as if attempting to devour all.
Seeing this, a trace of panic flashed through Golas's eyes, but instead of retreating, he raised his head and let out a roar, his eyes flashing with madness and a yearning light.
"Teacher, you aren't the only one who dares to fully unfold your Mythical Creature Form."
The term demigod placed emphasis on the word "semi."
They were humanoid creatures who had grasped a portion of a deity's authority, and in a certain sense, they could no longer be completely counted as humans.
If they lost themselves within their divinity, they would completely turn into mythical creatures.
Therefore, short of Sequence 3, anyone in their right mind would never let their own divinity overwhelm their humanity.
Golas's body grew drastically once more, expanding from its original three-meter height until it finally stopped at a towering five meters.
Comparing the two, Wade looked much more like the disadvantaged party.
While Joey was still marveling at the terror of the battle between demigods, the corner of his eye suddenly caught sight of a figure lunging toward him.
The ultra-strong inspiration of a Sequence 8 Transcendent allowed him to spot the opponent at the very first moment, dropping to the ground with a roll to dodge.
If it were before, he wouldn't have been able to evade an attack like this. But after his advancement, Joey found that his sensory perception had not only expanded in range, but his bodily control and agility had also reached a terrifying level.
If it previously took three seconds for his brain to issue a command and his body to execute it, now it only took one.
A pitch-black short blade was startlingly stabbed right into the spot he had just occupied.
He wobbled as he slowly climbed up from the ground, only then having the time to see clearly just who had attacked him.
"It's you?"
Two voices rang out simultaneously, one after the other.
Joey never expected to run into an acquaintance here.
Katrin Winter, wearing a tight leather skirt, was looking at him with a bewildered expression.
This was their first meeting since they parted ways at the Carson Silver Mine. Only a few months had passed, but their statuses had undergone heaven-shaking changes.
"Are you alright? I didn't expect it to be you; I thought you were a disciple of the Necromancer Sect."
Katrin hurried over with concern, the worried look on her face not seeming fake at all.
Joey forcefully suppressed the turbulent emotions within his heart, trying his best not to let any abnormalities show on the surface.
Through their brief exchange just now, he had already determined that the current Katrin was not someone he could handle.
She might have already advanced to some Sequence he was unaware of.
"I'm fine. I'm also a member of the Survey Corps now."
After joining the Survey Corps, Joey had once privately inquired about Katrin's whereabouts.
Rumor had it that she had entered closed-door study with the powerful figures of her family in order to improve her strength.
Joey stared vigilantly into her clear and pretty eyes, which showed no trace of being tainted.
If not for that, he probably would have thought Katrin had also been bewitched by the Color Out of Space.
After all, judging by the attack just now, she hadn't held back in the slightest and had aimed straight for his vitals.
If he hadn't dodged quickly, that blade would probably have split Joey's head open by now.
He stood rooted to the spot, keeping a safe distance between himself and the other person.
Katrin looked at Joey's face, abruptly lowering her head as she spoke in a very soft and low-spirited tone:
"I'm sorry!"
Naturally, Joey knew what she meant by those words; this was an apology for implicating his family and leading to the old man's death.
Although there was a myriad of anger burning within his heart, he could not show the slightest bit of it on the surface.
The experiences of these past few months had stripped away his youthful greenness; he was no longer that impulsive boy who acted without regard for consequences.
Everyone, if you encounter ads asking "Are you a real person?", there is no need to pay attention to them-just close them and absolutely do not scan codes or send text messages!
When you lack sufficient strength, do not expose anything, for that will only make you die faster than others.
With a Transcendent's control, he easily regulated his own muscles.
"That wasn't your fault."
He had no desire to be entangled with Katrin; the more he spoke, the greater the chance of his flaws being seen through.
Immediately, Joey shifted his gaze back to the fighting Wade Wisker.
"Joey, actually, after that, I went to look for you, but I didn't expect that you had already left."
Joey had no desire to refute anything; instead, he felt Katrin was being hypocritical in his heart.
His joining the Sheriff's Office was no secret. As long as one paid a little attention, it wasn't hard to find.
The reason there had been no news for several months was most likely because, in the eyes of great nobles like Katrin, even a savior was nothing more than a commoner from the streets.
Much like a stray dog by the roadside-you might toss it some food if you met it, but you wouldn't go out of your way to look for it if you didn't see it.
Without shifting his gaze away even a fraction, he asked without turning his head:
"How many people did you bring?"
He wanted to use Katrin to inquire about the current situation in the Imperial City.
No matter what, Katrin was a direct descendant of the Great Noble Winter ducal family, and the information she had access to was naturally much more than what a small sheriff like him could reach.
There was also one more thing he didn't understand: why did everyone seem to tacitly ignore the existence of the Great Fog?
No one even blamed the chaos in the main city on the Great Fog.
Ordinary people couldn't reach high-position entities, but surely the kingdom's upper echelons hadn't failed to notice?
Why hadn't any measures been taken up to now?
There were some things he couldn't speak of; doing so would easily get him captured and treated as a white mouse.
If a low-sequence individual opened their mouth about deities, not only would the other party fail to take it seriously, they might even treat you as a lunatic.
Several times, Joey had wanted to report the matter of the Color Out of Space to his superiors.
But every time he pictured that scene, he ultimately dismissed the thought.
Did he expect to walk down the street, point at the "fog" overhead, and say: Be careful, that's a deity, and He will bewitch you?
Seeing that Joey didn't show the anger she had anticipated, Katrin's nervous mood eased considerably.
"This time, a formation of the Knights Templar has come, along with eight Saint Knights."
Hearing that there were Saint Knights, Joey was genuinely startled. He hadn't expected the kingdom to dispatch as many as eight Sequence 6 Transcendents.
It seemed they hadn't been taking a laissez-faire approach toward the riots after all.
He had even been wondering: even if the Second Prince had taken away the majority of their forces, it should have been impossible for the kingdom to fail at controlling the situation in the main city.
Now it appeared that the reason they had let things run wild all this time was most likely to lure the enemy out.
Standing from the perspective of those in high positions, this wasn't wrong, but Joey still found it deeply repulsive.
Using the madness of an entire city to draw out the upper echelons of the Necromancer Sect-viewed from a long-term perspective, this deal looked quite cost-effective.
Once the situation was stabilized, the disciples eliminated, and the enemies in the rear cleared out, all their forces could be concentrated in one place.
However, were those abandoned civilians used as bait worth dying?
They would rather dispatch a formation to lie in ambush here than go quell the riots in the main city.
Katrin seemed to hold no guard against Joey whatsoever, answering whatever he asked.
Meanwhile, the battle between the two mythical-creature demigods had also reached a white-hot stage.
With the same rank, many factors decided victory or defeat, but Joey could tell that the captain was not using his full strength, and the attacking party had always been Golas.
The two men had different directional abilities; Golas was like a warrior, while Wade was more like a mage.
A warrior could not break a mage's magic and could only waste physical stamina in vain.
Wade seemed to be planning precisely this.
This battle had lasted a very long time, and both men were utterly exhausted, but both sides understood that neither would easily fall.
Golas stopped blindly attacking, and with that, the battle fell into a stalemate.
What was being tested now was endurance-seeing who could hold on longer in their Mythical Creature Form, and who would lose control first.
Gradually, Joey noticed something was amiss.
After fighting for so long, why did he feel like the surrounding energy was growing increasingly dense?
It was as if it were being intentionally gathered here.
Disregarding the fact that Katrin was right beside him, Joey quietly activated Spirit Vision, scanning back and forth with his gaze before finally locking onto the ground beneath the two men's feet.
On the ground, a hazy shadow had imperceptibly appeared-the shadow of a door.
Those gathered energy molecules were slowly converging and pouring into it.
Was 0-09 absorbing the energy produced by the demigod battle?
If 0-09 had appeared, what about 0-013? What about Wayne?
It was only at this moment that Joey abruptly realized he had been drawn in by too much of Wade's attention.
From beginning to end, he had never considered that Wade might be guarding this place alone, possessing the strength to crush Golas yet dragging things out repeatedly.
Thinking of this, Joey turned his head, looked at Katrin, and said anxiously:
"Quick, let's go join up with the Knights Templar."
"They are currently setting up a formation. Capturing a demigod is very difficult."
"Hiss-" Joey drew in a sharp breath. This was too insane; they actually wanted to capture a demigod.
Compared to killing an opponent, the difficulty of capturing one at least doubled.
When Katrin said those words, her expression remained utterly calm.
This gave Joey a lingering illusion that demigods were nothing much after all.
They had allowed the main city to riot, and even ignored the Living Dead advancement ritual of the Necromancer Sect, and now they actually attempted to capture a demigod.
Where on earth did they get this kind of confidence?
Saints?
No, given Senegal's conditions, it couldn't possibly support the foundation required for a Saint.
Sequence 3 Saint, Sequence 2 Angel, Sequence 1 Archangel.
When the sun set, in the beginning, there were still Saints and Angels walking the mortal world to preach.
No one knew what happened afterward, as all the high-position entities had gone missing.
Wait, no!
As if recalling something, Joey's pupils abruptly constricted.
Nur Maimaiti Plato was a high-position entity.
Following Katrin, they soon arrived at the spot where the others were lying in ambush.
"For this operation, the royal family has brought out their trump cards."
"What cards?" Joey was extremely curious. What on earth could give the other party the confidence to capture a demigod?
Katrin did not speak, instead returning a mysterious and unfathomable smile.
At that moment, the steps of the two advancing people abruptly halted.
The Knights Templar who should have been stationed here were all lying on the ground, fresh blood soaking the entire area.
"How could this be?"