Outside the glass window, the garden was overgrown with vines, dilapidated and gloomy. The river flowed darkly, reflecting the twinkling stars. Nearby houses emitted a warm and cozy glow.
Everything was extremely quiet, as if welcoming the arrival of night.
Therese, whose features were not particularly refined individually, but when combined together were extremely beautiful, looked away and quickly walked to the coat rack, taking off a black cloak with a hood.
She quickly put on the garment, fastened the buttons, tightened the belt, and removed the hood, transforming herself into an assassin.
Therese raised her right hand and wiped it in front of her face. Instantly, the face hidden by the hood became hazy and blurry.
Then, she reached into the hidden pocket on her waist and took out a glowing powder that flashed with fluorescence. She sprinkled it on herself along with the incantation.
Therese's figure began to disappear inch by inch, the outline lines resembling those drawn by a pencil, being completely erased by an eraser.
Having completed her invisibility, she silently left this bedroom and walked to the opposite room, pushing open the window without a guard.
With a gentle leap, Therese stood on the windowsill, looking down at the lawn behind the small house, at the iron fence that almost blended into the darkness, and at the "corpse collector" Frye who was quietly climbing over the wall.
She took a breath, falling like a feather, stepping on the lawn without making a sound.
Dressed in a black windbreaker, carrying a special revolver, with a high nose and thin lips, Frye cautiously looked around, searching for possible ghosts or evil spirits.
He could see these things directly!
Therese silently approached Frye, circled behind him, and at some point, a knife painted with "black paint" appeared in her hand.
Puff!
She struck the knife into Frye's back with such speed that it was like a gust of wind.
But at this moment, what she saw shattered suddenly, as if in a hallucination.
Therese realized that she was still standing on the windowsill, still looking down at the lawn and the iron fence wall.
Only outside the fence, there was no longer just "Corpse Collector" Frye, but also Leonard Mitchell who aimed at the windowsill, and Dunn Smith who closed his eyes, pressed his brow, and half-bent his body. Around the night watchman captain, there seemed to be a circle of invisible ripples spreading.
Therese's pupils contracted, realizing that it was just a dream. She had fallen asleep at some point!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Leonard and Frye fired three shots in total, accurately hitting the seemingly still in a dream state invisible target.
Click!
The outline of Therese's figure emerged, first splitting, then turning into fragments, becoming rough-surfaced silver mirror fragments!
Inside the house, she, using the substitution spell, turned around and ran quickly along the corridor and stairs, all the way to the first floor.
Whew! On this floor, the cold wind that never stops blowing blows incessantly, and countless invisible, transparent figures wander numbly and blindly in every place.
Every time Therese passed through such a ghost-like existence, her body temperature would drop a little. When she finally reached the altar, she couldn't help but shiver uncontrollably.
The altar was a round table, with a white bone-carved statue of a deity in the center.
This deity was the size of a normal adult man's head, with only faint outlines of the eyes and eyebrows, seemingly a beautiful woman.
Her hair extended from her head to her ankles, each strand clearly and thickly, like a bunch of venomous snakes, with each tip having an eye, either closed or open, densely packed.
Around this strange deity were randomly piled up numerous puppets, poorly made puppets, with names and corresponding information written on them, such as Joyce Meyer.
On the round table were three candles, flickering with yellowish-green flames in the cold, howling wind.
Therese bowed to the deity, quickly reciting incantations.
Then, she pushed aside the puppet, extinguished the candle, and picked up the idol.
Whew!
The wind suddenly became harsh, causing the tightly closed windows to shake violently.
Clang! Crack! One after another, the glass shattered, and the cold wind blew in all directions without ceasing.
Just as he reached the other side, fearing to rush into the altar area rashly, Fry suddenly shivered. He felt his blood cooling and turning into frost, and he felt his movements were noticeably sluggish.
At this moment, his ankle tightened, as if grasped by an invisible force.
A colder sensation spread upwards from the contact point, and for other extraordinary individuals, they would have been paralyzed and stiff, but as the "corpse collector", Fry was not unfamiliar with such states.
He turned the left trigger gun towards the side of his ankle and pulled the trigger, seemingly seeing who the enemy was and where he was.
Bang!
A silver hunting bullet pierced through the wind, accompanied by a mournful cry.
The invisible shadow dissipated, and Fry regained the ability to move freely.
On the other side, wanting to climb to the second floor and avoid the front of the altar, Dunn Smith, also frozen by the expanding cold wind, stopped outside the broken window.
Whew! The dark curtain behind the window suddenly rose, enveloping Dunn, as if a monster opened its mouth to devour the prey.
Dunn's head was immediately wrapped by the life-like curtain, wrapping tighter and tighter, outlining his mouth and nose.
In the state of impending suffocation, Dunn's feet stepped, knees straightened, and the back of his spine turned, and he managed to forcefully tear the curtain apart with brute force.
He grabbed the corner of the curtain wrapped around his head with his left hand and pulled it down, throwing it to the ground.
Bang!
He raised his hand and fired at the half-curtain that was still trying to envelop from behind.
The curtain instantly stopped moving, and a deep red streak quickly seeped out.
Whew!
On the lawn, Leonard Mitchell, who was singing a poem, was also blown by the cold, death-like wind, his teeth colliding and making a clicking sound, unable to speak for a short while.
Just then, the tattered and messy vines suddenly spread, wrapping around his ankle, and a black shadow also crashed over with the expanding wind.
Leonard, whose body was slightly stiff, had no time to shoot and could only hastily pull his shoulders and raise his arms.
Puff! The black shadow hit his upper arm, causing the sharp spines on the flower to pierce into his skin.
This was a delicate, bright red flower, coming from nowhere.
Leonard painfully flung it aside, throwing the flower stained with his own blood to the side.
Bang! He fired at the vine that was wrapping around, spilling dark red juice.
Tiptoeing! Leonard took steps forward, rushing towards the altar on the first floor and the broken window.
And where he was standing before, the vines suddenly retreated, as if avoiding some invisible force.
Therissa, taking advantage of the chaos caused by destroying the altar and interrupting the ceremony, once again achieved invisibility and successfully evaded the clairvoyance, breaking free from the encirclement and arriving behind the three night watchmen.
She stretched out her right hand, and immediately a cold wind blew over, carrying the flower stained with Leonard's blood and dropping it into her palm.
Therissa didn't stop, holding the flower, quickly climbed over the iron fence, heading towards the Tassock River.
At this moment, Leonard, who was about to enter the first floor, suddenly turned his head, as if listening to something.
His face changed immediately, hastily pulling his sleeve, looking at the wound where the flower had pierced.
Given his constitution, the bleeding had stopped there, only with a slight redness and swelling.
Leonard's expression darkened, and he forcefully pinched his left index finger, pulling out that piece of nail!
His face immediately filled with a painful and distorted expression, but the movement did not stop, muttering something while using his nails to scratch the solidified wound, allowing it to soak in the dark red blood, and then pulling out a few hairs and wrapping them around that piece of nail. On the banks of the Tasok River, Thelis slowed her pace and turned her gaze towards the flowers in her hand.
She muttered something in her mouth, and suddenly a black, illusory flame burst out from her palm.
This flame enveloped the flowers and began to burn, turning the other person into ashes.
After all this was done, Thelis stepped into the river and sank into the water.
Meanwhile, Leonard threw out a nail with blood smeared on it and tangled with his hair, watching it fall to the corner and burn in the air, emitting a foul smell of burning.
The nail and the hair disappeared quickly, leaving only a little dust.
Leonard let out a sigh of relief, climbed through the window into the first floor, and told Dunn and Fry who was destroying the altar:
"The target has escaped. Fortunately, our main purpose has always been to prevent the ritual."
Dunn sighed and looked at the numerous puppets on the round table:
"She is very vigilant and very powerful. She detected our approach in advance. Otherwise... She is at least an extraordinary being of sequence 7."
"Send a signal to Klein to come over."
Through a brief dream contact, he judged that the enemy was a woman.