On a forest path outside the southwestern suburbs of Tivian, far from Duke Barret's villa.
On the dark street, a black carriage was parked. Dorothy sat inside the dim carriage, using her Puppeteer ability to influence Barret's villa several kilometers away.
Under the influence of Dorothy's ability, her Corpse Puppets were quietly moving inside Barret's villa. Besides the male servant Corpse Puppet constantly searching for documents in the underground secret transmission room, Dorothy also monitored the movements of the Eight-Pointed Nest assassins inside the villa by constantly switching control between the Corpse Puppets.
Therefore, Kenk's previous conversation with the Spider-Man, and even his action of using a syringe on a subordinate, were all seen by Dorothy.
'Spiderfang Priest... a Chalk tier Vampire is so respectful to him. This old man is probably a Scarlet tier Extraordinary! He's a high-ranking member of the Eight Point Nest...'
Using the vision of a Corpse Puppet inside the villa, Dorothy watched the old man who had painfully transformed from the blood-injected George, thinking to herself. She hadn't expected that the importance of Barret's documents would attract a Scarlet tier to personally come.
'Listening to their previous conversation, this series of actions targeting Barret were all planned by this Spiderfang Priest. The at least four Chalk tiers involved in the operation should all be his subordinates, and the reason he couldn't come to Tivian himself seems to be his fear of the Shining Light Church Archbishop in the Church District.'
Dorothy thought this internally. Due to her relationship with Vanya, she had some understanding of the Shining Light Church Archbishop in the Church District.
'Francesco... the Archbishop dispatched from Holy Mountain to Tivian, responsible for all religious affairs in the entire Prit diocese. He is the highest representative of Holy Mountain in Prit. It seems now... he might be a Scarlet tier Extraordinary. Besides him, there should be a Scarlet tier Archbishop stationed in the major dioceses of other countries. The position of Archbishop of the Shining Light Church might be synonymous with the Scarlet tier.
'According to what those guys said earlier, that Archbishop far away in the Church District possesses an ability called 'Tier Sight'. Because of the existence of this ability, this Spiderfang Priest would be discovered as soon as he got close to Tivian, which is why he has been using Chalk tier subordinates to cause trouble.
'This so-called Tier Sight... seems to be a detection ability specifically specialized for high-tier Extraordinary. Although this ability seems to be the Scarlet tier ability of "Lamp", for some reason, even the Spiderfang Priest, who is a Scarlet tier "Shadow" Extraordinary, cannot contend with it. Logically... a 'Lamp' of the same tier should not have such strong suppressive power against a'Shadow' of the same tier.
'So... this Tier Sight is not necessarily the Archbishop's own ability. Maybe it's an Extraordinary item or something else, but this thing might only be usable or qualified to be held by a Scarlet tier Archbishop.'
Dorothy analyzed this. She had already seen the Shining Light Church's Extraordinary items that could further enhance their detection abilities at the Werewolf Smith's mansion. As the largest organization in this world, their abundance of Extraordinary resources was unmatched by other organizations.
'This Spiderfang Priest... seems to have directly invaded and taken over a Shadow Masked Man using blood. It's not his main body but a derivative, plus he said he used some items, so this derivative has somewhat evaded Tier Sight. It seems the Eight-Pointed Nest really values this batch of documents in Barret's hands. A Scarlet tier is even resorting to using his own Extraordinary resources to participate.
'Also, this method of using blood to invade others' bodies and create derivatives, the Blood Darkness Path, is somewhat similar to Deer Skull's Cursed Bone Clone. Both create clones or derivatives using a part of their own body as a medium, but this old man uses blood while Deer Skull uses bone. It feels like Deer Skull is at a bit of a disadvantage...'
'Although I don't know what method this old man will use to find the secret transmission room, in any case, I need to hurry up.'
Dorothy continued to think. While continuing to monitor the situation inside the mansion, trying to see how this new arrival would find the secret transmission room, she also controlled the male servant Corpse Puppet in the secret transmission room to speed up the process of searching through the documents.
At this moment, Dorothy's bird corpse puppet holding the Holy Emblem had successfully removed the iron grating at the entrance of the secret transmission room's ventilation shaft. Through the ventilation pipe, Dorothy's Corpse Puppet bird had made its way to the ground, reaching the ventilation outlet at a disguised location outside the villa.
However, at this outlet, Dorothy's crow Corpse Puppet encountered a second iron grating. Facing this situation, Dorothy was somewhat helpless for a moment. She could only let the bird corpse puppet, which had the Life Devour buff on it, continue to forcefully remove the grating with its claws. Fortunately, the efficiency was good, and it wouldn't take long to finish.
Although the other party had suddenly produced a Scarlet tier derivative to find the secret transmission room, Dorothy was still not very flustered. She only had a group of Corpse Puppets there, and her main body was a full eight kilometers away from the villa. At this distance, her own safety was not an issue. All she had there were Corpse Puppets. As long as the bird corpse puppet could break through the iron grating now and bring the Holy Emblem back, everything would be fine.
With this thought, Dorothy focused on three things at once: controlling the male servant Corpse Puppet to diligently search for documents, monitoring the movements of the Eight-Pointed Nest members inside the villa, and controlling the bird-shaped Corpse Puppet to try to break through the final iron grating.
Meanwhile, inside a room in the villa, the derivative that had just completed its transformation, known as the Spiderfang Priest, also began to act.
The moment the Shadow Masked Man named George was completely invaded, the consciousness of the Spiderfang Priest, located far away, successfully descended into the young man's body. The moment his body completed its transformation, the surrounding Eight-Pointed Nest assassins couldn't help but feel a powerful, innate sense of oppression and obedience. Including Kenk, all of them immediately knelt on the ground, bowing deeply to the thin, balding old man. No one dared to feel dissatisfied or fearful about George's fate.
Many of the Eight-Pointed Nest assassins present, although they didn't recognize who the old man in front of them was, they could feel the unparalleled powerful pressure emanating from him. Under this pressure, their hearts were filled only with a desire to obey. They understood that the advanced chapters of the Queen Bee Queue were at work.
All members of the Eight Point Nest had read the secret transmission Queen Bee Queue. Those affected by the Spirit Sight of this secret transmission would have different levels of respect depending on the chapter they had read. Those who had read higher chapters would have more suppressive power over those who had read lower chapters. The sense of respect this old man gave the assassins was even deeper than Kenk's, so they naturally understood the old man's status and knelt on the ground before he even spoke.
Inside the villa room, the Spiderfang Priest faced the kneeling figures without saying a word. He silently twisted his neck, adapting to his new body with a series of bone crackling sounds. Then, his expression unchanged, he stood still. After a moment, he looked around and then slowly walked to a window, gazing at the night view outside.
"Priest... you..."
Facing the old man's actions, Kenk, who was kneeling on the ground, was about to ask something. At that moment, the Spiderfang Priest, standing by the window, became blurred, then transformed into a swarm of bats and flew out the window.
Seeing this scene, Dorothy's heart skipped a beat, wondering if her bird-shaped Corpse Puppet dismantling the ventilation pipe outside the villa had been discovered due to making too much noise. However, after observing carefully, Dorothy found that the bats were not heading towards her bird-shaped Corpse Puppet, but instead flew directly above the villa, to a place invisible to her Corpse Puppets inside the villa. Seeing this, Dorothy immediately switched to the perspective of the Corpse Puppet outside the villa, but due to the darkness and the bats flying too scattered and high, she still couldn't see clearly.
Under the night sky, far above Barret's villa, the swarm of bats transformed from the Spiderfang Priest flew rapidly, and they flew faster and faster. During this dark flight, these bats began to change.
"Bang!"
Suddenly, these flying bats began to explode out of thin air. As their skin and flesh burst, they dispersed into gusts of blood mist. This crimson blood mist spread out in the darkness, and tiny blood droplets merged into the air.
Red mist, the crimson blood mist transformed from bats, spread wider and wider in the air. As the diffusion area expanded, its redness also became lighter and lighter. In just a moment, this blood mist had spread over the entire villa.
As the distance between the blood droplets forming the blood mist in the air continuously increased, the crimson color of the blood mist also became lighter and lighter, eventually becoming so faint that it was indistinguishable to ordinary vision.
After the blood mist spread to a state of being invisible, odorless, and tasteless, it slowly descended from above the villa, pouring back into the villa, instantly enveloping the entire villa within it.
Countless tiny blood droplets, undetectable to the naked eye, dispersed in the air, spreading to every part of the villa, even penetrating into every floorboard and wall crack. The entire villa was enveloped by this invisible blood mist, yet the people inside had no idea.
'This guy turned into a pile of bats and flew out... and there's been no movement since... What exactly is he trying to do?'
From the distant carriage, Dorothy, who was observing the scene inside the villa through the Corpse Puppet's perspective, thought this. And she wasn't the only one with this question; the other assassins inside the villa were also confused.
Although the Spiderfang Priest had turned into bats and flown away, these assassins were still kneeling in place. Many of them looked around with confused and fearful expressions, their faces full of terror.
Silence, a deathly silence, enveloped the entire villa, from top to bottom. This silence made Dorothy unsure of what to do for a moment, so she could only continue to monitor the situation inside the villa, waiting for things to change.
In this silence, far away outside the villa, at the ventilation outlet disguised under a pile of grass, Dorothy's bird corpse puppet finally removed the last iron grating. It flew up, holding the Holy Emblem in its beak, and soared into the dark night sky.
The successful escape of the bird corpse puppet made Dorothy breathe a sigh of relief. At least her main task was completed now. What she wanted next was to get a little more information about the Eight-Pointed Nest and Barret's documents. With this thought, she continued to monitor the situation inside the villa, wanting to see how the Scarlet tier Spiderfang Priest would find Barret's secret transmission room.
The silence inside Barret's villa continued for several more minutes. Although the bats had left long ago, the Eight-Pointed Nest assassins were still kneeling in place, not daring to move. The kneeling posture of these Eight-Pointed Nest assassins hadn't changed at all compared to when the Spiderfang Priest was there. Some of them even had more severe expressions of fear on their faces. Seeing this scene, Dorothy couldn't help but feel a hint of doubt.
'These guys... they're kneeling so consciously. The person has been gone for so long and they're still kneeling here... Generally, after a strict homeroom teacher leaves, the class would at least relax, even if they don't cause a ruckus. These guys are all so tense, it feels a bit strange...'
Using the perspective of a Corpse Puppet lying on its side, Dorothy looked at the kneeling Eight-Pointed Nest assassins and thought. As she pondered the reason behind this strangeness, the situation inside the villa suddenly changed.
Red mist, crimson blood mist slowly appeared out of thin air in the air, and then gradually became thicker. This blood mist became denser and denser, and quickly gathered towards a single point, eventually condensing into a human shape.
Under a certain will, the tiny blood droplets scattered around the villa began to rapidly gather towards a single point. These re-condensed blood droplets slowly converged into visible blood mist, and the blood mist gathered even more densely into a blood person. Finally, the blood person shed its crimson color, revealing the image of a hunched old man. The Spiderfang Priest reappeared before Dorothy and the assassins. Seeing this scene, Dorothy's heart couldn't help but be shocked.
'Blood mist! This guy... can he actually transform into blood mist!? Then what was he doing just now...'
After the Spiderfang Priest appeared, he silently turned around, looked at Kenk kneeling in front of him, and then slowly spoke.
"Barret's secret transmission room... I've found it... Also..."
The Spiderfang Priest said this. Just as Kenk's eyes lit up and he was about to say something, the Spiderfang Priest's gaze shifted, looking in another direction. In that direction, one of the bodies currently controlled by Dorothy, the Corpse Puppet used to monitor the scene, was lying there!
At this moment, Dorothy's gaze met the Spiderfang Priest's gaze, and Dorothy's brows couldn't help but furrow slightly.
"Also... the puppet that has been monitoring you... I've found it too..."
Hearing the Spiderfang Priest's words, Dorothy's heart skipped a beat. She immediately prepared to cut off the spiritual thread connection with that Corpse Puppet. However, at this point, she was surprised to find that the connection couldn't be broken.
Besides being unable to break the connection, Dorothy also found that she suddenly couldn't control any of the Corpse Puppets inside the villa! Now, controlling these Corpse Puppets felt like controlling disobedient Living Puppets that were desperately resisting.
These Corpse Puppets seemed to have gained self-awareness and come to life! Unbeknownst to her, the nature of her Corpse Puppets had quietly changed at some point.
Inside the villa, the Spiderfang Priest gently waved his hand. The skin of the "Corpse Puppet" he was staring at couldn't help but writhe madly. The flesh and blood under the skin seemed to be melting, and a massive amount of blood gushed out from its facial orifices. The entire skin rapidly withered and shriveled.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, the Corpse Puppet rapidly melted, turning into a pool of blood.
Then, this pool of blood quickly evaporated into blood mist, surging towards the Spiderfang Priest. New blood droplets, one by one, covered the surface of the Spiderfang Priest, merging under his skin, as if this was his own blood all along.
After absorbing Dorothy's Corpse Puppet, the Spiderfang Priest closed his eyes and pondered in place for a moment, feeling the pull of the spiritual threads connected to him.
When the Spiderfang Priest opened his eyes, he slowly turned around and looked in a certain direction, the direction where Dorothy's main body was located.
"Now... the puppeteer controlling these puppets... I've found him too..."
"Heh... are meat puppets fun? The self-righteous mastermind..."