Sharon's dagger burned with black flames as it thrust toward Silas's chest.
Her assassination technique was sharp and vicious, and her grasp of timing was far superior to Trissy's.
Having just dodged the ice spear, Silas's body was in a state difficult to adjust to.
Seeing the dagger stab toward his chest, he could only twist his waist muscles with all his might.
Accompanied by the crisp crack of bones, he forcibly turned his upper body to evade.
"Boom!"
The pitch-black flames grazed past his chest, the terrible heat making his face feel scorching hot.
Taking advantage of the opening when Sharon's strike missed, Silas rolled forward and then bounced up like a ball.
At this moment, he seemed to have become the most skilled acrobat, continuously somersaulting to dodge the ice spears shooting at him one after another.
Sharon, having fired a volley of ice spears, sneered coldly.
Just as she was about to continue chasing with her dagger, she saw a metallic glint suddenly flash from under Silas's armpit.
"Bang! Bang!"
Gunshots suddenly rang out in the quiet night.
While curling his body in midair, Silas had already drawn the revolver from his holster.
After landing, two demon-hunting bullets thundered out from Sharon's blind spot.
He fired these two shots not to hit Sharon, but to cause her a bit of trouble and slow her down.
Moreover, firing guns on a late-night street would naturally disturb the residents with the noise, and Sharon certainly wouldn't want people to see her appearance.
At this point, Silas had abandoned his ambush plan.
Sharon was obviously more formidable than Trissy, possibly of a higher sequence, and she'd been prepared for his attack all along.
At this moment, he'd changed from hunter to prey.
And what prey should do most is flee from the hunter!
The bullets from the revolver blocked Sharon for an instant, and faint sounds of commotion came from the surrounding residences.
Seeing his goal achieved, Silas delayed no longer and accelerated his escape forward.
His sealed artifact only had a one-minute time limit. Before that ran out, he needed to flee as far as possible!
Fortunately, the East Borough wasn't far from the Tussock River.
If he could run another dozen meters or so and cross one more block, he could jump into the river.
Just like those two assassins had done when escaping before, the river water at night would be his greatest protection.
So while relying on his keen hearing to dodge the black flames and ice spears Sharon occasionally fired at him, he fled with all his might toward the Tussock River.
When the "Clockwork Clown" had only a few seconds left before stopping, he finally saw the pitch-black river water flowing in the deep night.
Saved!
Silas's spirits lifted. His body accelerated again. He rushed up the embankment, then leaped into the river water...
"Clang!"
The imagined scene of being embraced by water didn't appear. He crashed onto a hard ice surface.
Unable to react in time, his knees, head, and arms all hurt terribly from the impact.
This is bad. Sharon froze the river surface!
Silas's heart jumped in alarm. Ignoring his body's pain, he tried to roll over and get up.
However, the ice surface was releasing bone-chilling cold that made his movements extremely sluggish.
Just as he got up, he saw Sharon had already appeared on the embankment.
Accompanying her cruel smile were seven pitch-black flames floating around her, along with an ice spike.
"Click."
The clockwork on the clown's back had reached its end.
The piercing laughter and the swaying of the head stopped together, making Silas's heart sink with them to the cold bottom of the Tussock River.
"Whoosh!"
A cold white light struck.
A powerful force pushed his body backward and to the right. Silas fell again, sitting on the ice surface.
He instinctively looked toward where the force came from and discovered his right leg had already been pierced by the ice spike, pinning his entire body to the ice surface.
Intense pain and bone-chilling cold extended upward along his spine, exploding in his brain.
"Ngh..."
He couldn't help but groan. His vision went black for a moment, and the crimson blood flowing out congealed on the white ice surface.
Sharon descended from the embankment and circled around him a few times, then revealed a smile.
"Good thing I kept Trissy's blood. I finally caught you. I seem to have hurt you. I'm truly sorry."
Sharon spoke in a seductive tone. "However, this is much lighter than the harm you brought me."
She stroked her scars as she spoke.
What is she talking about?
Silas looked up at Sharon. From her wounds, he seemed to detect a somewhat familiar scent, as if it came from himself.
Could it be that she's the person I cursed last time at the transport company?
No, that person definitely died. So does that mean she was the one who stopped me then?
"The curse you gave me carries the True Creator's aura. You should be a Secrets Suppliant, right? I'm very curious.
Why would a Secrets Suppliant become a Nighthawk? But you came here alone to track Trissy without bringing your teammates.
What's the reason for that?"
Sharon asked.
Silas only gasped painfully without answering.
Beside him, Miss M's eyes calmly watched all of this, seemingly having no intention of rescuing him.
"Unwilling to speak?"
Seeing this, Sharon gently stroked her ruined face, her tone gradually becoming venomous and cold.
"No matter. I'll take you back and question you slowly. But before that..."
The seven flames around her flew out one after another, falling toward Silas, who had nowhere to escape.
"Let me make that handsome appearance of yours become just like mine!"
The pitch-black flames landed on Silas and began to burn, swallowing his body in the blink of an eye.
"Aaaahhhh!!"
It hurts!
The sharp burning sensation stimulated Silas's nerves.
Every part of his skin bathed in extreme heat, making even him, who was accustomed to pain, unable to help but scream miserably.
He struggled on the ice surface, trying to extinguish the flames, but those black flames seemed to have attached themselves inside his flesh. No matter what, he couldn't put them out.
Instead, they spread into his oral cavity and throat, preventing him from even crying out.
Most peculiar was that only Silas's body was burning. His clothing was still intact!
Sharon appreciated Silas's struggles, her eyes full of cruel satisfaction.
Only after there wasn't a single patch of intact skin anywhere on Silas's body did she satisfactorily wave her hand and recall the black flames.
Silas curled up on the ice surface, no longer moving. Only his slightly heaving chest proved he was still alive. The air filled with a burnt smell, but it was quickly dispersed by the night wind.
"Don't think you can die easily. I'll keep you alive until I've extracted all your secrets and tortured you until I'm satisfied."
Sharon said the most terrifying words with a beaming smile, slowly approaching Silas. Invisible spider silk began to appear around her, as if preparing to wrap Silas up and take him away.
The residual pain was still tormenting Silas's nerves. He awoke from brief unconsciousness and struggled to open his stuck-together eyelids.
Below was the quietly flowing Tussock River. Above was the deep black sky dotted with stars. Time seemed to freeze in this moment.
Why did it turn out like this?
Silas asked himself in confusion.
Having transmigrated to another world, he'd accepted it. He asked for nothing else, only wanting to live quietly with Cecilia.
But the Aurora Order, evil gods, the Goddess, Miss M, the human trafficking organization... everything was forcing him to move forward.
The threat of death had always loomed overhead.
Even now, he was still doing everything he could for his sister's life, and this was the result he got in return.
A fierce, violent rage gradually surged from his heart!
"Go die."
He said softly to Sharon through his damaged throat.