Late at night, on a rooftop, beneath the crimson moon.
A small black cat was curiously looking toward the location of the sewer below.
The battle happening there was far too interesting. Even from a great distance, it could sense, from one of the figures, an aura of resentment and terror that made one shudder.
It was just that this power was still being suppressed for the time being and had not erupted fully. Otherwise, it would already have fled to a much farther place.
Meanwhile, several hundred meters away from the sewer, Mr. A, who was riding the raging wind on his way, was suddenly stopped.
Before him stood a figure clad in armor, wielding a great sword, with a blurred and indistinct face.
Just moments ago, as he was passing through here, this person had suddenly emerged from the void and slashed at him with a single strike.
The blow tore open a gash across his back. Fortunately, he possessed the ability to control flesh and blood, and by stopping the bleeding in time, he avoided suffering a severe injury.
His eyes were sharp like those of a hawk as he stared at the figure before him, one that was clearly not revealing its true identity.
This person must know him. Otherwise, they would never have appeared out of thin air just to slash him.
"Who exactly are you?" Mr. A asked.
As he spoke in a low voice, he continuously used the Beyonder abilities of a Rose Bishop to heal the injuries he had just sustained.
"You can call me Mr. B." The voice was dry and hoarse, obviously disguised.
"..." The flippant tone only added to the anger in Mr. A's heart. This person clearly knew that he was Mr. A of the Aurora Order; otherwise, they would not have casually fabricated a "Mr. B."
However, he still forced himself to calm down, trying to stall for a bit more time so that his condition could recover further.
"Heh heh, I've met Mr. B before. You're not him."
"Is that so? Then I'm Mr. C."
"There's only Ms. C. There is no Mr. C."
"Then I'm Mr. A."
Mr. A said nothing, only feeling it was strange. Who exactly was this person? Did they have some grudge against the Aurora Order?
Judging from his manner of speaking, he had a certain understanding of the Aurora Order, but it was very limited. For example, the one codenamed with the letter C was indeed called Mr. C, but she was a woman.
This was something many people outside the Aurora Order could not understand, as there was no rule stating that a woman could not be called "Mr."
Thus, within the Aurora Order, merely asking this single question was basically enough to determine whether the other party was truly a member.
"If you want to become Mr. A, that's not impossible. As long as you're willing to join us, believe me, this will definitely be your best choice."
Mr. A slowly finished this sentence. Then his eyes lit up as he unleashed the Beyonder ability of a Sequence 7 Nightmare, attempting to intimidate the other party on the mental level for an instant.
At the same time, with the raging wind as support, his figure shot forward explosively. Countless spider silks wrapped in freezing currents surged in from all directions.
A sudden assault, Nightmare, Wind-Blessed One, and the disease ability originating from a Witch, multiple Beyonder abilities working together in perfect coordination.
Mr. A thought he could take the opponent down in one go, but the other party seemed to have been prepared long in advance. Their figure drifted backward, and with a casual sweep of the great sword, they shattered the spider silks.
The figure turned into a small alley, then suddenly vanished without a trace.
Mr. A froze for a moment. Had the other party just left like that? Weren't they here to stop him?
Mr. A opened his Spirit Vision and carefully scanned the surroundings. Indeed, he found no trace of the opponent.
Not seeing the other party only made him more vigilant. After waiting a while longer, the figure still did not reappear.
Maintaining a limited level of alertness, Mr. A quickly hurried toward the location where Lanevus was.
He could already sense the aura belonging to the Lord. Although Lanevus had been suppressing that power all along, this aura would definitely have drawn the attention of other powerful Beyonder. He had to take Lanevus away immediately!
He had not even gone fifty meters when Mr. A's rapidly moving figure abruptly came to a halt. He urgently dodged to the right.
Ahead of him, a great sword carrying the light of dawn slashed down from above!
If he had not sensed the danger in advance and stopped, he would definitely have been split in two by this strike!
Just as Mr. A was about to counterattack, the person swiftly turned into a small alley once more and disappeared from his sight again, leaving not the slightest trace to follow.
"A witch's invisibility technique?"
Mr. A was not entirely sure. He had dealt with those witches more than once before, and had even personally hunted one and shepherded her, gaining the Beyonder ability to spread disease.
A witch's invisibility technique absolutely could not achieve this level, much less evade his Spirit Vision.
Moreover, that mysterious person was clearly a man, and the Beyonder ability he used should have belonged to the Warrior pathway, Sequence 6, Dawn Knight.
"A mystical item that can conceal one's whereabouts?"
Mr. A arrived at a guess. His mood grew considerably heavier. In this situation, the opponent was practically a top-tier assassin.
Appearing and vanishing without a trace, extremely difficult to pin down.
To prevent being ambushed again, Mr. A, on one hand, spread spider silks all around. If anyone approached, he would definitely be able to sense it in advance. On the other hand, he intensified the danger perception originating from a demon.
With this double layer of protection, Mr. A continued rushing toward Lanevus' location.
Halfway through, his spirituality began to issue warnings. He stopped in his tracks, yet he still could not see the mysterious figure anywhere.
This made Mr. A extremely irritated. The opponent's strength should be inferior to his, yet he was unable to locate them at all.
He possessed power but had no target on which to vent it.
He also wanted to patiently track the opponent down, but the aura coming from Lanevus in the distance was becoming more and more unstable.
This indicated that Lanevus was in extreme danger and might release his suppression at any moment, allowing the Lord's power to erupt completely.
Once it erupted, it could never be suppressed again. Now was not yet the time for the Lord to descend; more negative emotions still needed to be absorbed.
"Damn it!" Mr. A no longer bothered with the opponent and fully activated the Beyonder abilities of the Wind-Blessed One to hurry onward.
Along the way, his perception never stopped issuing warnings, which meant that the other party had been following him the entire time.
When he passed a corner, a dazzling light violently exploded ahead. Mr. A instinctively condensed an ice shield from freezing currents to protect himself.
"Not good!" Mr. A suddenly turned pale with shock and hurriedly shifted the position of his heart slightly to the left.
The great sword carrying the light of dawn pierced through his back, nearly stabbing straight through his heart!
Fortunately, he had already moved his heart in advance; otherwise, he would have suffered a severe injury.
Coughing up blood, he turned his head toward the figure holding the great sword and spat out a small pieces of his internal organs.
Flesh and blood sprayed out, accompanied by rampant disease.
The figure did not look back and hurriedly left. Mr. A took a deep breath, pressed his right hand against the wound that had been pierced through. Flesh wriggled and gradually enveloped the injury.
If not for the fact that this sword strike contained the attributes of a warrior, a kind of holy power, this kind of wound would have been nothing to him.
With the flesh regeneration ability of a Rose Bishop, even losing an arm could be recovered, it would just take a bit of time.
"No time to waste."
After stopping the bleeding, Mr. A accelerated toward Lanevus' location at full speed.
....
"Cough cough, Mr. A is really troublesome."
Inside the room, Hastur's spirit body had already returned to his physical body. With that final strike, although he had inflicted considerable damage on Mr. A, he had also been affected by the flesh and blood mixed with disease that Mr. A spat out.
Even after his spirit returned to his body, he still suffered a certain degree of disease infection.
With his barbarian physique, he estimated that he only needed to sleep through the night and would be back to normal by tomorrow.
This price was something he could afford. Tonight's battle had allowed him to witness the terror of Mr. A's Shepherd sequence.
In just three brief exchanges, Mr. A had used Beyonder abilities involving wind, disease, demons, nightmares, and his own sequence.
This was probably not even all of the abilities Mr. A had shepherded. If he remembered correctly, the Shepherd sequence could shepherd up to seven souls at its maximum.
As the sequence advanced, the number of souls that could be shepherded, and the Beyonder abilities that could be used, would also increase.
He himself also possessed the Creeping Hunger, but each use required devouring a soul. Without encountering a suitable target, he would not use it.
"The Shepherd really does deserve to be the strongest combat sequence below demigod level."
Hastur sighed with emotion, then coughed heavily again, his gaze turning toward the distant sewer.
He estimated that with Klein and the others' strength, it would be very difficult for them to kill Lanevus, who possessed the divinity of the True Creator within his body, unless they had other arrangements.
Under normal circumstances, they would report to the Red Gloves squad before taking action.
And he had already helped them block Mr. A for quite some time. If they still could not end the battle, then their revenge for Tingen would end in failure.
Hastur waited by the window for a while longer. Only when Ariella returned did he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Without needing him to beckon, Ariella jumped straight from the window ledge into his arms, meowing nonstop, as if eager to share everything it had seen and heard that night with Hastur.
Hastur silently listened. After Ariella finished its stream of meows, he lifted it up and took it to have a bath.
"Meow?" Ariella struggled in displeasure. It had never been very fond of bathing.
"Are you trying to say that you didn't pick up any strange smells tonight, so there's no need to bathe?"
"Meow."
"Don't you sweat when you run around like that? If you sweat, you need to bathe."
"Meow…" With its head drooping, Ariella was handed over to a maid for cleaning. Hastur himself also went to soak in a hot bath to dispel the chill within his body.
After washing up and returning to his room, Hastur tightly shut the window and hung up the paper crane that Will had given him in front of it, to prevent Mr. A from paying a midnight visit by knocking on the window.
Only after finishing all this did he lie down on the bed, wrap himself tightly in a thick quilt, and fall asleep.