A cold, stabbing pain pierced his lower back.
The roaring Clyde Joshua was filled with a mixture of shock and fury.
These two were his sworn brothers, men who had gone through hell and back with him.
And now, they were literally stabbing him in the back.
'Is this betrayal, or something else?'
The shocked and furious Clyde Joshua had no time to figure it out.
He raised his right hand, and crimson flames, like flowing blood, erupted, illuminating the Flaming Crow that dwelled within his fiery pupils.
The source of the Arsonist Sequence mostly originated from the Flaming Crows that inhabited Doomsday Volcano.
Under normal circumstances, the flames covering his palm should be at least two feet high.
But in the pouring rain of the night, they only reached about a foot high.
Arsonists are severely hampered on rainy nights.
Clyde Joshua couldn't be bothered with that now. He slammed his palm down violently.
KACHA!
The chest of the goon on his left caved in visibly. His body flew backward, slamming hard into the wall.
A line of fire, like a venomous snake, erupted from the crushed chest and spread rapidly, threatening to engulf his entire body.
Arsonists release and fuel flames, harvesting Flame Essence from the things they burn.
Living beings were excellent fuel, and the Flame Essence they yielded was exceptionally rich.
He showed no mercy in response to his brother's betrayal, striking with lethal force.
Just as Clyde Joshua was about to finish off the other goon...
...a black Magic Ball crackling with blood-red arcs of lightning shot toward him from the front at incredible speed.
'Damn it, that guy's a Transcendent!'
Clyde Joshua's heart pounded with terror.
The betrayal of his two goons had consumed his full attention.
He hadn't even spared a thought for the man across from him.
He certainly hadn't expected the man to be a Transcendent who could wield Extraordinary Magic.
Now, faced with this Surprise Attack, he was powerless to resist the direct assault of the Extraordinary Magic.
BOOM!
A massive explosion sent a tearing shockwave blasting through the alley.
Clyde Joshua was sent flying backward like a kite with a broken string.
In a daze, Clyde Joshua seemed to see Death swinging his scythe at him.
THUD! He crashed heavily against a wall three or four meters away.
As he fell, he shoved against the wall with one arm, barely managing to steady himself.
The front of Clyde Joshua's trench coat was violently shredded, hanging like tattered rags. Every inch of his body ached, and his hands trembled uncontrollably.
The pouring rain and the blast from the Extraordinary Magic had blurred his vision completely.
Before, he could still make out the path by the dim light from the windows.
But now, the world before him was a blurry, shattered image, as if it had been torn apart and haphazardly pieced back together. He could no longer see clearly.
'Run!'
He gritted his teeth and forced his heavy legs to move, staggering back the way he came.
Watching the Homer Mafia Boss flee, Zorn was a bit surprised.
'He wasn't killed by the blast?'
The literal stabbing by two of his goons, plus a Destruction Magic Ball—a blast of Evil Spirit Magic—that Zorn had unleashed from a prepared position. The power of that combined attack was nothing to scoff at.
After all, the destructive power of a Destruction Magic Ball was staggering.
'He must have some decent means of Defense.'
Even among those of the same Sequence, the Sequence Talents and Extraordinary Skills they acquired could vary.
'But, judging by the state he's in while fleeing, he's most likely just struggling in his death throes.'
Zorn quickly gave chase.
Sure enough, after stepping over two corpses—one killed by the Mafia Boss, the other by his own Destruction Magic Ball—Zorn reached a wider section of the alley.
About twenty meters away, the Mafia Boss, Clyde Joshua, had collapsed to the ground.
The flames that originally flowed over his hands were now gradually dissipating in the rain and puddles.
The pouring rain seemed to be the final blow, extinguishing his life's flame.
Zorn took a deep breath and gently rubbed the space between his eyebrows.
As a hardcore veteran, he'd killed hundreds, if not thousands, of gang bosses.
He knew all too well the last-ditch "tricks" these dying Mafia Bosses pulled.
They might feign death, waiting for their enemy to get close before launching a desperate counterattack.
They might pretend to surrender, only to launch a Surprise Attack or look for another opening.
Or they'd feign a heroic last stand while secretly gathering their strength, waiting for their opponent to lower their guard to either escape or strike back.
These ruthless Mafia Bosses, with their many tricks, wouldn't go down so easily.
Zorn didn't approach. Instead, from a safe distance, he slowly activated his Evil Spirit Authority.
Evil Spirit Wizards were, after all, noble Mages.
As long as they maintained enough distance to kite their enemy, they could toy with most ordinary Sequences as they pleased.
He had the Ability of Resurrection, but it wasn't something to be wasted lightly. Every time he was resurrected, he lost a certain amount of his Evil Witch Spirituality, and just recovering that lost Spirituality took a significant amount of time.
The invisible power of his Evil Spirit Authority plunged into the dying man's Extraordinary Spirituality like a blade.
The next moment.
The Arsonist, Clyde Joshua, felt the power of his Life Spark suddenly flare to life.
He shot up from the ground as if launched by a spring.
Scorching flames instantly engulfed his body, illuminating the rainy night alley and vaporizing the falling rain on contact.
RAAAGH...
His face twisted into a ferocious mask as he howled in agony.
At the same time, two fist-sized bottles of fire oil came hurtling toward Zorn.
SMASH! SMASH!
The two fire oil bottles shattered in mid-air.
WHOOSH...
A torrent of fire instantly roared through the narrow alley, so intense that even the downpour couldn't immediately extinguish it.
If Zorn had been closer, this fire oil would have drenched his entire body.
But Zorn was far enough away.
The surging flames formed a wall of fire, separating the two of them.
Clyde Joshua's expression was grim. He stared through the flames at the young man's calm, cold face—the face of a Demon—and his heart trembled.
'My original plan was to suppress my Life Spark and fake my death. I was going to wait for him to get close, then kill him in one explosive burst. It was risky, but it was my only chance to turn the tables and kill him. But my opponent... his experience is terrifying. He didn't just keep his distance—he actually attacked my 'dead body' from afar. What a cunning, shameless bastard.'
'Thankfully, I drank that expensive potion I bought from the Transcendent black market. I only pretended to collapse and die; in reality, I was buying time to recover. It stabilized my injuries and helped me recover a good deal of my strength.'
The price of 120 gold pounds had pained him deeply, but today, it was worth every penny.
'Go!'
With the wall of fire providing cover and a sharp pain lancing deep in his soul, Clyde Joshua knew he couldn't linger.
He turned and ran quickly towards the tavern.
Watching Clyde Joshua escape, Zorn smiled coldly, like a Death God Hunter in the rain.
"Have you... really escaped?"
"You should know... prey wounded by an Evil Spirit Wizard never escapes."
'As a World-level boss, an Evil Spirit Wizard's Insight into Spirituality is second to none.' He had already pierced Clyde Joshua's Spirituality. For a time, it would slowly leak away, and the trail of that leakage would be perfectly clear to an Evil Spirit Wizard's senses.
Besides, Zorn had plenty of other methods.
He extended his palm and twisted it slightly.
His middle finger detached and fell, tumbling into the water below. A moment later, a six-foot-long, Twin-Ringed Serpent emerged.
"Absorb the bloodstains over there, and sniff out its master's location."
HISSS~~
Flicking its forked tongue, the Twin-Ringed Serpent slithered swiftly away.
Zorn, on the other hand, went over to the two corpses.
They were dead, but to Zorn, their Wandering Souls were fresh, not having even left their bodies yet.
'If these Mafia members were ever brought to trial, they'd all get the death penalty anyway.' Zorn was just here to send them on their way. Forgiving them was a job for God.
He held out one hand and activated Life Absorption.
Within Zorn's sight, two Wandering Souls, tainted with black impurities, were slowly drawn out from the corpses.
His palm became a great vortex, sucking both Wandering Souls inside.
Only then did the two dazed Wandering Souls seem to realize what was happening.
They tried to struggle, but Zorn crushed them instantly.
The Wandering Souls were absorbed and rapidly converted into the Spiritual Essence Zorn required.
A single Wandering Soul provided more Spiritual Essence than ten mutated grey rats, and it was purer and more... delectable.
Different Sequences harvest different types of Essence through their respective Transformed Objects.
The Arsonist, by burning people to death, incinerating houses and merchant ships, or even starting a Forest fire, can obtain Flame Essence.
The Evil Spirit Wizard, however, kills humans—and in the process of slaughter that causes terror and calamity, through the painful, twisted struggles of death and the final harvesting of Wandering Souls—obtains Spiritual Essence.
'Not a bad flavor.'
As Zorn rose to his feet, the downpour had all but extinguished the burning oil.
At that moment, the Twin-Ringed Serpent seemed to have picked up the prey's trail.
It slithered quickly out of the alley.
Zorn quickly followed.
Nearing the tavern's back door, the Twin-Ringed Serpent didn't enter, but continued straight on.
'He's not using the tavern for cover, but running straight for his safe house?'
Zorn raised an eyebrow, a cruel smile touching his lips.
'Usually, the safe houses of these gang bosses contain a great deal of wealth. If he's running back to his safe house, I can just take care of everything in one fell swoop.'