"You... how could a demon like you know the secrets of Heaven?!"
But Sephirot no longer had any desire to waste words with him; he knew all too well that villains died because they talked too much.
The ground beneath the angel's mangled remains suddenly collapsed as Hellfire flared up.
Several rusted wires shot out from the flames, tightly binding the angel's body.
Feeling the terrifying dark power within the wires, a look of undisguised terror finally surfaced on the angel's face.
He twisted his body desperately, struggling in the sewage: "Kill me! Demon! I command you, kill me now!"
Sephirot watched the other's panicked expression and spoke flatly: "Since you can't be killed, then you can enjoy yourself in my world."
This was an idea that had just occurred to him.
A Silent Hill fused with the Jotunn origin would be a complete waste if it were only used as a storage space for loot.
Trapping him in the Otherworld would not only prevent him from reporting back to Heaven but also allow Alessa to continuously drain the angelic origin from his body to nourish and upgrade Silent Hill.
As for why he hadn't bound the demon from earlier...
The current Silent Hill was still too fragile. Being able to assist him in dealing with a greater demon and being able to imprison a greater demon alone were two entirely different matters.
If he threw that greater demon directly inside, it would be like dropping a red-hot iron ball into butter; it would most likely burn right through the space of Silent Hill.
Conversely, this weak "power bank" containing an angelic origin was perfect for experimental testing.
"You cannot do this! This is a profanation of the Gods! You demon!!"
The angel's shrill screams echoed through the Otherworld; a defeat like this was even harder for him to accept than being sent to Hell.
But Sephirot had already severed the mental link between reality and the Otherworld, leaving Alessa to give him a proper welcome.
With everything resolved, Sephirot searched the entire basement thoroughly once more.
After confirming there were no new discoveries, he followed the passage back up to the surface.
Outside the house, Andre and Clancy stood on the road, looking at the old mansion with expressions of horror.
Both were deathly pale, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.
Seeing Sephirot walk out of the house, they craned their necks like startled birds to peer at the old mansion behind him.
They were terrified that the horrific masked man would appear again, and that Peter's tragedy would repeat itself with Sephirot.
Clancy swallowed hard, his voice shaking: "Sephirot... uh, Peter... how is he?"
Sephirot shook his head, his expression calm: "Long dead."
Even if he hadn't been completely dead, his body had first undergone deep contamination by demonic power and was later baptized by an angelic aura. Even if he had survived, he would have ultimately become nothing more than a walking dead.
Besides, Sephirot had specifically delivered a few extra stabs before leaving to prevent any future trouble.
Hearing the result, Andre covered his face in agony and slowly crouched to the ground.
Regret and fear intertwined in his heart. If it hadn't been for his pursuit of better ratings, his obsession with bringing the team to explore this haunted house, Peter wouldn't be dead, and they wouldn't be caught up in this nightmare.
Sephirot looked at the two shell-shocked men and asked, "What's the plan? Do you still intend to stay here and continue your investigation?"
"If you're planning to leave, how about giving me a ride back to Los Santos on your way out?"
"..."
Ultimately, the group booked a few rooms at the town's motel to rest for the night.
Mainly, Sephirot simply couldn't stand the smell on his body anymore.
Even though most of the sewage kicked up during the fight in the sewer had been blocked by his magic, the stench of an enclosed space that had been fermenting for decades, further agitated by the combat, was overpowering.
It felt like spending an entire night soaking in a hot pot restaurant; the smell clung to him, and one whiff was enough to make him feel nauseated.
After taking a comfortable shower, Sephirot lay on the bed and began to review the system information in his mind.
Killing the greater demon had rewarded him with 1,500 points.
All his previous points had been spent to exchange for Alastor, so now he only had these 1,500 points left.
Sephirot suppressed the urge to spend them, deciding to save his points for now and reconsider when he encountered a problem later on.
By contrast, another system notification was what truly made his heart race.
[Bloodline awakening degree increased by 1%]
A flicker of excitement flashed in his eyes. It turned out the way to increase his bloodline awakening degree was this simple and violent...
Combat.
The Sparda family was a race born for battle.
The opponents he had encountered before were all too weak; they couldn't give him any sense of crisis.
The only one who had been troublesome was Maria, but back then, he hadn't even activated his bloodline, so how could it awaken?
Only by facing demons that presented a genuine threat, like today, could the blood in his veins boil during battle and increase the awakening degree of his Sparda bloodline.
It seemed he would have to go out and wander around more in the future.
Early the next morning, the three of them, now fully rested, left the town of Haddonfield and set off on the journey back to Los Santos.
The atmosphere inside the van was exceptionally oppressive.
Andre, in the driver's seat, looked exhausted. His eyes were bloodshot, making it clear he hadn't slept at all.
Clancy, in the passenger seat, fared slightly better. After a night of processing the trauma, his emotions seemed stable, though he would still zone out occasionally.
Sephirot leaned back against his seat, watching the scenery outside the window as his mind raced.
He thought back to the demon that had crawled out of Myers' brain yesterday and the red light that had initially appeared on that demon.
Clearly, there was a group of people who possessed a special sealing technique.
They could forcibly seal a demon's origin core, preventing the demon's scent and demonic power from leaking out.
Then, they placed these origin cores into human brains, using the human body as a vessel.
Since most demons lack sanity of their own, they are influenced by the host's original thoughts and lingering habits when controlling a human body.
Ultimately, this created monsters like Myers, muddled, mindless things that appeared to be psychopathic serial killers.
Furthermore, as long as the demon core deep within the brain remained intact, these monsters could slowly reassemble and recover using demonic power, even if their flesh was ground into dust.
The cost for this was likely something that could be covered just by consuming fresh flesh and blood.
The so-called demon core was the product of highly condensed power within a demon's body.
It was somewhat similar to the Golden Core of a cultivator or the inner pellet of a Great Demon in the immortal cultivation novels of his previous life.
"So, those notorious serial killers are actually all vessels parasitized by demons?"
Reaching this conclusion, Sephirot looked somewhat disappointed.
While this trip to Haddonfield had successfully revealed how these demons evaded the detection of angels, he still didn't have the slightest clue as to who was pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Those hiding in the shadows were more cautious and sophisticated in their methods than he had expected.
Now, he needed to get back to Los Santos as soon as possible and hand the corpse samples over to Constantine and Papa Midnite for study, to see if the two of them could uncover any new clues.