A soft click sounded from behind Matthes.
He stood frozen, dumbfounded as he looked down.
He saw the wound that had suddenly appeared at his chest, blood slowly trickling out from it.
But more terrifying than the wound itself was the bullet that had entered his body from behind.
The Numbered Curse Bullet.
Sequential ST-173.
A convenient weapon meticulously crafted by the Astronomical Society for high-threat targets, each bullet pursuing extreme lethality and power at any cost, willing to raise the price tenfold, even a hundredfold, to increase its might by a minuscule degree.
Now, the bullet filled with cursed poison shattered in his chest, causing the skin around the wound to rapidly pale, dehydrate, and turn into a handful of snowflake-like ashes that fluttered down.
Even if it hadn't killed him, it still left a gruesome, gaping hole in his chest.
The transformation of the Secret Ritual was interrupted.
