"It's coming!"
Lu Ze shouted, jolting awake from the sofa bed. His tone was panicked, and his loud voice echoed through the quiet lounge, waking up the few people who had been sleeping.
Luo Yao, across from him, put down her newspaper and looked at him calmly.
"Had a nightmare?"
She asked faintly.
On the other beds, Klein had woken up, and Cecilia was also sitting up groggily, rubbing her eyes.
Lu Ze's heart pounded violently against his ribs, and his breathing was ragged. He looked around blankly; the few people who had seemingly disappeared were still in the lounge, and there were no strange sounds in the corridor.
Was it a dream?
It seemed like a dream.
Lu Ze instinctively wanted to sigh in relief, but a sudden wave of anxiety washed over him.
No!
Something was wrong!
A sense of danger kept stimulating his nerves, like seeing a steel needle suspended before his eyes, slowly approaching, about to pierce his head. Though not yet pricked, an extremely uncomfortable, illusory pain had already developed between his brows.
"It wasn't a nightmare! There's real danger!"
Lu Ze shouted at Luo Yao, "I don't know how to describe it, but, but, something is coming!"
He explained, pale and gaunt, waving his arms futilely, looking utterly unbelievable. At first, Lu Ze thought Luo Yao would think he was crazy. But to his surprise, she merely frowned, then swiftly stood up, and with a whoosh, drew her revolver from her waist holster.
"Which way?"
She asked, "Which direction do you feel is wrong?"
Which way?
Lu Ze was stunned for a moment, unable to answer. He only instinctively felt danger, but what it specifically was, and where it came from, he couldn't say.
"Did you see any images? Tell me, I can try to divine it," Klein also stood up, saying seriously.
"Who are you! Don't come any closer! Ah—!"
Just then, a girl's scream came from outside the lounge.
"Rosanne!"
Luo Yao's expression changed slightly. She quickly ran towards the lounge door, not forgetting to instruct Lu Ze, "Protect your sister, hide well here! Klein, you come with me!" Before Lu Ze could respond, she charged out with her gun raised.
Lu Ze jolted, quickly pulling Cecilia to squat down somewhere.
Klein gripped his revolver and rushed out of the lounge, following closely behind Luo Yao.
Rosanne was still screaming outside, which inevitably made him anxious. After all, there were only two Nighthawks present, and one of them was himself, a newcomer. If the enemy was too strong, he worried the situation might become dire.
Luo Yao, who was ahead, had already rounded the partition, holding her gun with both hands, aiming it in a certain direction.
"Stop, don't move!"
The elegant and aloof lady let out a loud, undignified roar.
Klein ran past the partition, holding his revolver, aiming its muzzle in Luo Yao's direction. The situation in the hall immediately came into view. Rosanne was sitting on the ground, unharmed, but looking very frightened, dragging her feet across the floor, desperately moving her body backward.
In front of her stood the intruder.
When he clearly saw who it was, Klein couldn't help but be startled.
"Haynes!"
He cried out.
"He's Haynes? Did Captain and the others not catch him—I said don't move! Move again and I'll shoot!"
Luo Yao said, the first part asking Klein, the latter warning the unwelcome intruder.
"I don't know."
Klein was very surprised, not only because he saw Haynes, but also because of his current state.
Dark circles under his eyes, thick, stiff brown hair, a serious and anxious middle-aged man—this was Klein's original impression of Haynes. But the Haynes before him, apart from his unchanged appearance, had undergone a drastic change in his overall demeanor. His face was filled with an unprecedented look of ecstasy, as if immersed in immense happiness. His eyes were unfocused; despite being held at gunpoint, he didn't even glance at it, instead staring in a direction where there was nothing, muttering to himself with a smile.
Even more terrifying, his entire body was covered in fresh blood, as if he had just been showered in a rain of blood before entering. On his face, hands, and the black classical robe he wore, fresh red blood was continuously dripping.
Looking at such an anomalous Haynes, Klein felt a chill run down his spine.
Just then, he heard Haynes speak.
"The Lord guided me here."
His tone was hazy, and beneath his robe, something was bulging and squirming, as if he was hiding something alive. "He is right, the Lord's aura is here, my salvation is here. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord!"
Haynes's expression gradually became fanatical. He ignored Luo Yao's repeated warnings and stepped towards the partition. The corridor behind the partition was where Lu Ze and the others were hiding.
Luo Yao gritted her teeth.
"Rosanne, get up and run inside! Klein, you shoot with me, understand?!"
She shouted.
Klein immediately responded, and Rosanne also recovered from her fright, got up, and ran past the partition. Seeing Haynes approaching step by step, Luo Yao pulled the trigger without hesitation, and Klein followed suit.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
Gunshots and gunpowder smoke immediately filled the Blackthorn Security Company's hall. Haynes stopped, his body swaying back and forth as if struck by a hammer. He even took a shot to the face, the bullet piercing his eye socket, and red and white matter splattered out.
Seeing a familiar face in such a state, Klein felt a wave of nausea. He instinctively stopped shooting.
"Don't stop!"
Luo Yao, however, shouted.
But he was shot in the head, Klein thought. Then he saw that Haynes, despite his gunshot wounds, did not fall down! Amidst a sticky, dense, disgusting sound, fresh red tumors squirmed and grew from Haynes's wounds. Even the bullet embedded in his eye socket was pushed out by the tumors. The still-hot metal bullet head sizzled as it burned Haynes's flesh, then clinked and clattered to the floor.
Under their astonished gazes, Haynes bared his teeth at them, revealing a ferocious smile.
"Are you going to stop me?"
With a tearing sound, he reached into his overgrown eye socket, tore off the tumor and crushed it, then raised his arm.
"Watch out!"
Klein suddenly felt his body lighten, then involuntarily shifted to the right. It was Luo Yao pulling him away from his original spot. He looked closely; the place where he had just stood was now covered in splashing flesh and blood. Those disgusting things were corroding the floor and the partition, emitting smoke and sizzling sounds!
My goodness…
Klein's scalp tingled. This Haynes guy had mutated, impervious to handguns, and his flesh could corrode things. How were they going to deal with him now?
Besides his revolver, he still had a "Slumber Charm" in his pocket. There were also two Sealed Artifacts stored in the Captain's office behind them. If he could get away to retrieve them… no, those two Sealed Artifacts were not offensive; they could only be used to detect whether a target was harmful. Was there any other way?
Klein's mind raced, while he also had to constantly dodge the flesh and blood Haynes threw at him, occasionally returning fire with his pistol. The hall quickly devolved into chaos, severely damaged.
Maybe use the power from Above the Gray Fog.
The situation was slightly desperate, and Klein even had such a thought for a moment.
Fortunately, Luo Yao called out to him, "Klein! I need to switch to demon-hunting bullets. Can you buy me a few seconds?"
"Okay!"
Klein's eyes lit up at the words. Right, their revolvers were currently loaded with ordinary bullets. Switching to demon-hunting bullets, specifically designed for evil, might just work!
So he quickly pulled out the "Slumber Charm" from his pocket. It was a silver plate the size of a baby's palm, inscribed with Hermes incantations, as well as various symbols and spirit numbers. Just holding it in his hand, he could feel the calm and peaceful power it emanated.
"Crimson!"
Klein shouted in Ancient Hermes Language, channeling his spirituality into the charm, then swung his arm, throwing the charm at Haynes.
"Bang!"
The silver plate exploded into a dark red flame, enveloping Haynes's head. His body swayed, the twisted smile that seemed fixed on his face quickly faded, and his eyelids involuntarily drooped.
It worked!
Luo Yao took the opportunity to empty the cylinder, loading silver bullets inscribed with exorcism patterns and the Evernight Goddess's holy emblem into her revolver. She softly chanted the Goddess's prayer, and the Evernight's calm, hidden power silently manifested, resonating with her and the revolver.
After the prayer, Luo Yao's eyes were serene, and the muzzle of her revolver was aimed at the still slumbering Haynes.
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