Life hack alert!
What do you do if you can't get a ring off your finger? Just put some grease or soapy water on it, and it'll come right off!
Roy had run into this kind of thing in the past, but back then he used cooking oil. They probably don't have cooking oil here in America, but they definitely have butter. Butter's usually solid, so Jennifer would need to heat it up a little to use it.
"Ashley" seemed to realize what Roy was about to do and struggled even harder, but its physical abilities were no match for Roy. After all, it was just a minor demon, and if it weren't currently bound to Ashley, Roy could have definitely dealt with it in an instant.
"Roy, the butter's here!"
Jennifer brought over a plate of clearly melted butter. The reason she wasn't holding it was because melted butter is too slippery to grip. There's a term called "butterfingers" that describes someone who's so clumsy they can't hold onto anything. When Roy grabbed the butter, it almost slipped right out of his hand, but luckily he was quick and caught it.
Seeing this, "Ashley" made one last desperate attempt. Her neck arched back beyond the limits of human spinal flexibility, almost 90 degrees, and she opened her mouth wide. Countless pitch-black moths flew out of "Ashley's" mouth. This time, these moths weren't just for show; they would attack and bite Roy and Jennifer.
Roy's physical stats were naturally high, so the moths' bites felt like a tickle to him. And Jennifer possessed an incredible healing ability. She just needed to protect her face, which she cared about most; if they bit her anywhere else, so be it. The only real problem was that the moths flying into their faces severely impaired their vision. Roy didn't even dare to open his mouth to speak, as it would be too disgusting if a moth flew in.
Fear Domain, activate!
He activated the Fear Domain again, but this time the effect of the fear aura was very weak. It was possible that "Ashley" had strengthened the moths' physical constitution, making them immune to the first round of mental attack from the fear aura. Once they were immune to the initial forced damage, the moths could ignore the effects of the fear illusions due to their low intelligence. However, "Ashley" herself couldn't resist the fear illusions and instantly stopped spewing out moths as if she had something stuck in her throat. Good opportunity!
Roy closed his eyes and forcefully smeared the butter on "Ashley's" ring finger, then gave it a strong tug, and the ring was in his hand.
Having lost the ring, "Ashley" quickly came to her senses and began to bite and tear at Roy frantically, completely disregarding any harm to Ashley's body. This thing didn't care, but Roy still did, so he had to risk speaking.
"Jennifer, is there any way to get rid of these damn fluttering moths?!"
The only way for Roy to deal with these moths was to transform into his demon form and set them on fire, but doing so could easily hurt Ashley. So, he figured Jennifer was a witch who had been studying with the First Witch Lilith for some time and should have learned some witchcraft.
"Leave it to me!"
A few seconds later, Roy felt the surrounding temperature plummet. The room temperature rapidly dropped below freezing. As the temperature fell, the moths couldn't fly anymore and soon dropped to the ground like flies, freezing to death.
At this point, Roy was finally able to see what was engraved on the ring in his hand. The front of the ring still had the symbol of Leviathan, but on the back it said "Mothman". (The demon's name in the movie was Abisu, but it's been changed here.)
"Mothman? What the heck kind of name is that?"
Jennifer paused for a moment after hearing the name. "I think I heard Needy mention that name before. It seems to be a pretty famous folk legend on the East Coast."
Needy really loves surfing the internet, especially collecting strange and bizarre rumors online. This hobby is second only to playing video games for her.
"Who cares what it's called! Mothman, in the name of God, I command you to get out of Ashley's body immediately!" Roy didn't know the complete exorcism ritual; it was too complicated, so he could only try if the name itself could drive out the Mothman.
After the Mothman's true name was called out, it looked to be in a lot of pain. Ashley's skin even started to writhe and twist, as if a hand under the skin was about to burst through.
"No—I won't leave this girl's body, or I'll die with her!"
This was a bit of a problem. The Mothman seemed to realize that Roy didn't want to hurt Ashley, so it decisively used her to threaten him. However, Roy, who possessed the key to Solomon and its core technology, wasn't afraid of some nameless, worthless trash demon. If the Mothman refused to come out, it would just make things a little more complicated for Roy.
"Jennifer, help me tie up Ashley. I'll get the ritual ready." Roy handed the cursed hair to Jennifer, intending for her to tie up "Ashley" again, while he took out the things to draw a magic circle from his inventory.
"Ashley" glared fiercely at Jennifer, constantly cursing her. Jennifer ignored it, tightly binding "Ashley's" limbs with the cursed hair. Suddenly, blood started dripping from Jennifer's nose, drop by drop, onto the floor. "You bitch, anyone who gets in my way will die! All of you will be devoured by moths..." Jennifer wiped away the blood with a straight face. This little bit of curse damage couldn't hurt her; that's the confidence her witch talent gave her. However, "Ashley's" words had really angered Jennifer, so Jennifer slapped her across the face.
"Shut up, you bitch!"
Yeah, that slap had a bit of personal grudge behind it, but Roy didn't stop Jennifer. After all, the Mothman's language was pretty nasty.
Soon, Roy used his own blood mixed with some gold powder to draw a hexagram magic circle, just big enough to fit Ashley's body inside.
After finishing, Roy stood in front of "Ashley" and looked down at her. "This is your last chance. Leave Ashley's body immediately. At most, I'll just seal you back; otherwise, the only thing waiting for you is death!"
The Mothman was incredibly stubborn and even spat a mouthful of pitch-black saliva at Roy. Naturally, the spit didn't reach Roy, but it still made him very angry.
"You chose this yourself!" Saying that, Roy removed the cursed hair from "Ashley's" body and placed her inside the magic circle. Instantly, "Ashley's" body seemed to be sucked onto the floor, her whole body spread out in a T-shape on the magic circle. Her head, hands, and feet were placed on five corners of the hexagram, with only the bottom corner empty. If Roy were lying on this hexagram, he definitely wouldn't have left that bottom corner empty. Golden chains extended from the corners of the hexagram, completely binding "Ashley". This made the Mothman panic.
Many people take chances, as they say, you don't cry until you see the coffin, and the Mothman was no different. After all, few people really know about exorcism, and Roy didn't look like a priest. The Mothman thought Roy was just trying to scare it. Who would have thought Roy actually knew occult exorcism methods? "Wait, I'm willing to leave this girl's body. Let me go!" Roy looked at "Ashley" with a cold smile.
"It's too late!"
The binding magic circle Roy was currently using was an enhanced version of the one he had used to imprison Sadako and Kayako. Now that the Mothman was completely restricted, the next step was to force it out of Ashley's body. Roy smeared his own blood on Ashley's forehead and began to chant the exorcism incantation. Generally, demons with names have their own specific exorcism words, but the Mothman clearly didn't fall into that category, so a standardized exorcism incantation would suffice. "Fallen spirit, Mothman, in the name of Belial, King of Sloth, I command you to leave this girl's body!" While chanting, Roy sprinkled exorcism powder on Ashley. This powder was made from a mixture of salt, silver powder, and various substances with exorcism properties, and it was generally effective against most demons.
With her limbs and head all bound, Ashley's torso strangely arched upwards, then fell back down heavily after Roy finished the incantation. Ashley's body then began to convulse violently. Suddenly, she opened her mouth wide, and a pair of hands actually came out! (That scene from the movie poster.) A twisted, furry humanoid creature crawled out of Ashley's mouth. This thing was about as tall as Roy and had a pair of insect-like wings on its back. It had no head, but a pair of scarlet eyes on its chest. As soon as it appeared, the Mothman let out a high-pitched shriek that human ears couldn't detect. This shriek made Jennifer, who was standing nearby, cover her ears in pain, but Roy just frowned slightly and continued to control the binding magic circle.
The binding magic circle extended golden chains again to tie up the Mothman. "Call your mom!" Roy directly activated his Dark Touch ability. Four pitch-black tentacles extended from his back and pierced into the Mothman's body. This time, the creature couldn't make a sound anymore.
[Ding! Obtained the Mothman's Fate Treasure Chest! Open it now?]
Soon, the Mothman's body was devoured by the Dark Touch, leaving only some empty shells and wings on the ground, and Roy received a new Fate Treasure Chest. So now Roy had three treasure chests. Should he find a chance to open them? Samantha, who had been outside, heard no more noise from inside the house, so she plucked up her courage and came in to ask, "Roy, is everything okay?"
"Samantha, Ashley's problem has been solved. You can come in." Samantha immediately came in with Mike and Elrêsa. She ignored the moth corpses all over the floor and rushed towards Ashley, who was lying in the magic circle. "Ashley, are you okay?"
As if she heard her mother's voice, Ashley slowly opened her eyes. "Mom... cough, cough, cough, ugh—" Just after saying those two words, Ashley started coughing violently and then vomited a large amount of black mucus, which had things that looked like insect eggs in it.
Samantha looked at Roy nervously. "Roy, what's happening?"
"The evil spirit inside Ashley has been killed. The vomiting is just an aftereffect; she just needs to rest for a bit and she'll be fine." Ashley looked very weak after throwing up, but she still tried to move her mouth and apologized to everyone in a weak voice. "Roy, I'm sorry! Jennifer, I'm sorry!"
It seemed like Ashley was genuinely sorry, even apologizing to Jennifer, her love rival. However, Jennifer shook her head, not to reject Ashley's apology. "You should apologize to your mother more!" To be honest, Jennifer envied Ashley for having a mother like Samantha who cared about her so much. After all, Jennifer's own mother had passed away when she was very young, and she hadn't felt a mother's love for a long time.
Hearing this, Ashley paused, then looked at her mother. Samantha's eyes were red-rimmed, and her face was full of worry. She touched Ashley's forehead. "As long as you're okay, Ashley!" Ashley hugged Samantha. "I'm sorry, Mom!" The mother and daughter embraced and cried. They must have truly made up now.
This scene was a bit much for Jennifer. She, who always seemed like an ice queen, had tears welling up in her eyes, like she was about to lose it. "Daddy, why are they crying?" Elrêsa poked Roy's arm, looking curious.
"They're just so happy."
"Do you cry when you're happy too? But Samantha told me you only cry when you're sad!"
"You can cry whether you're happy or sad. Let's go outside and not bother them." Saying that, Roy put one arm around Jennifer, who was secretly wiping away tears, and picked up the very curious Elrêsa with his other arm as they left the Parker's house.
The Parker family probably had a lot to deal with today, so Roy just decided to take Elrêsa home for the day and bring her back to Samantha's tomorrow. Besides, Jennifer had already seen Elrêsa, and knowing her, she'd definitely tell Needy. There was no way to keep it a secret.
Luckily, Elrêsa had generally been pretty well-behaved, except for that incident with the eight-legged monster when her brother had led her astray.
Since he had already taken the day off, Roy decided not to go back to school and took Jennifer and Elrêsa back to his place.
Not long after getting home, Roy suddenly received a call. At first, he thought it was Needy calling to check in, but when he looked at his phone, he saw it was Gerald. Strange, why would Gerald be calling him out of the blue?
"Hello, Mr. Morin, what's up?"
"Mr. Black, there are indeed some things I wanted to talk to you about." Gerald's voice on the other end of the line sounded pretty relaxed, which was probably a good sign.
"Oh? Go ahead!"
"It's about that situation in Nevada. I really tore a chunk out of Amalgam and also managed to get you a bigger bonus. Soon, that twelve million dollar hush money will be wired to your studio account!"
"Woohoo! That's great news!" Roy couldn't help but feel happy. "That's fantastic!"
"However—" Gerald's voice suddenly turned serious.
"But what?"
"I heard that Amalgam is looking into you. Knowing that company, they might try to cause you some trouble, so you'd better watch out!"
Roy raised an eyebrow. "Would they still dare to mess with a federal agent?"
"They definitely wouldn't dare to do it openly, but behind the scenes..." Gerald's meaning was pretty clear.
"I understand. I'll be extra careful lately."
Just as he hung up the phone, Roy heard a strange sound coming from his front door.