Prit, Tivian.
At night, in a warehouse on the outskirts of Tivian's South District, dust from the explosion filled the air. People inside couldn't see clearly, only blurry shadows of everything around them.
A Tiff was currently enveloped in this fog-like dust. His gaze swept over the blurry shadows within the dust, his eyes filled with vigilance. He remembered the dying words of "Zhen Ha Di" and was wary of another impostor among his remaining subordinates. He knew this was the best time for a sneak attack.
'Come on... you despicable shapeshifters, let me see who else you've disguised yourselves as...'
Staring at the three blurry shadows in the fog, A Tiff thought to himself. At this moment, he had his three subordinates firmly in his sights. If any of them made the slightest unusual movement, he would react immediately. A Tiff would not be easily ambushed successfully.
Within the dust, A Tiff waited slowly, on guard. Just as the dust began to gradually dissipate, one of the three shadows he was staring at suddenly moved, pouncing towards him.
'Here it comes!'
Seeing this, A Tiff's heart tensed. He then threw out a bone fragment he had prepared. From the bone fragment, countless translucent Ghosts surged out, rushing towards the shadow attacking him within the dust and attaching themselves to him.
Under the combined attachment of over ten Ghosts, the shadow attacking A Tiff immediately froze in place. A Tiff seized this opportunity to rush forward, grabbed the hand of the attacker who was held still by the Ghosts, and then used the ability of the Extraordinary soul he was relying on.
Instantly, a layer of white frost appeared where A Tiff held him, then spread rapidly over his entire body. In a short while, the attacker's entire body was covered in frost, completely unable to move again.
After subduing the attacker, A Tiff breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he had finally dealt with the remaining impostor. But just as he was about to get a closer look at the appearance of the person he had subdued, something unexpected happened again.
On A Tiff's sides, the remaining two figures simultaneously erupted from their positions, attacking A Tiff from both sides. A Tiff, who had just relaxed, was clearly unprepared for this sudden surprise attack. He had not expected that even though he had subdued the remaining impostor, his subordinates would still attack him!
Could it be that all four of his subordinates had been replaced!?
In his astonishment, A Tiff desperately dodged the attacks. However, due to his lack of preparation, he was still hit. One figure, wielding a curved knife, struck his left shoulder, while another figure clawed at his abdomen. If A Tiff hadn't reacted quickly enough, these two blows would have hit his vital points directly.
Although A Tiff relied on the soul of an Elementalist, he did not gain the Elementalist's powerful "Stone" defense. This was because his use of the soul-reliance ability was incomplete; he could only actively use one ability of the relied-upon Extraordinary at a time. Relying on an Extraordinary's soul did not mean he fully possessed all of that Extraordinary's abilities.
Although A Tiff relied on the soul of an "Ice" Elementalist, he could only use ice power and could not generate a Stone armor on his skin. Therefore, he did not block these two sneak attacks. But fortunately, the path of reliance is primarily "Silence" with "Cup" as a secondary Spirituality. With "Cup" as the auxiliary spirituality, he possessed strong vitality. These two sneak attacks were not enough to take his life.
Suffering two heavy blows, A Tiff coughed up a mouthful of blood. He then manipulated the dozens of Ghosts attached to the frost-covered person, making them switch targets and attach themselves to the two figures who had attacked him. Instantly, these two figures paused, and A Tiff took this opportunity to see their faces clearly.
They were the faces of his subordinates, with whom he had spent many years and faced various dangers together. At this moment, their eyes revealed an anger A Tiff had never seen before, a deeply abnormal, twisted anger.
Seeing the twisted rage of his subordinates, under normal circumstances, A Tiff would have felt suspicious. But this time was different. After seeing that the attackers were indeed his own subordinates, the anger in his own heart couldn't help but burn fiercely. The desire to kill the enemy and the desire to protect himself grew wildly in his heart.
This desire had actually been spreading in his heart from the beginning, but it had been suppressed by a calm mindset. However, especially after being injured, A Tiff's state of mind was greatly disturbed. After his inner turmoil and loss of composure, pure desire became the dominant force in his body.
"Die, impostors!"
Shouting loudly, A Tiff reached out and grabbed the claw embedded in his abdomen. Then, pale frost began to spread over the attacking arm, quickly covering the entire arm, while also freezing and stopping the bleeding from his wound.
Continuing to roar, A Tiff used the power of a second-order "Cup" to directly tear off the frozen, stiff arm. The treasure thief whose arm was torn off cried out in pain, clutching his wound and falling to the side. A Tiff, meanwhile, raised the torn-off frozen arm high and smashed it like a war hammer towards the other treasure thief nearby who was holding a curved knife. As the ice hand war hammer shattered, the curved knife treasure thief also cried out with a bloody head.
Seizing this opportunity, A Tiff directly choked the curved knife treasure thief's neck, squeezing it with force until it burst, splattering blood. As the curved knife treasure thief fell to the ground, he snatched the curved knife from his hand and swung it back, beheading the other one-armed treasure thief who was getting up beside him.
Finally, as blood gushed out, A Tiff personally killed his three subordinates, and he himself suffered two not-so-small wounds. But fortunately, these "injuries" were bearable for the vitality of a second-order "Cup".
"Hoo... hoo... hoo... What have I..."
Holding the bloody curved knife, A Tiff, with bloodshot, wide eyes, stood among the broken corpses. His expression showed immense confusion, as if he couldn't believe what he had done. Just then, a series of loud noises interrupted his daze.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Loud and intense gunshots echoed through the warehouse. Several bullets shot towards A Tiff. A Tiff immediately sensed the danger after being hit by the first shot in the back. He then gritted his teeth and struggled to dodge, finally avoiding the remaining bullets after being hit by the second shot in his side.
Hit by two bullets, A Tiff, gritting his teeth, instantly used his ability to freeze the wounds and stop the bleeding. He then raised his head and looked in the direction of the gunshots. At the entrance of the warehouse, he saw a familiar figure. "Zhen Ha Di," who should have died, was standing at the entrance, looking at him coldly. In his hand, he held an empty revolver pointed at him, with a faint wisp of white smoke rising from the barrel.
"It's actually... you!!"
Seeing the "resurrected" "Zhen Ha Di" at the entrance, A Tiff's eyes widened even further. At this moment, his heart couldn't help but pound violently. He finally understood that he had probably fallen into a huge conspiracy from the beginning, and the "impostors" he had killed before were probably...
"Go to hell!"
Thinking of that terrifying outcome, A Tiff was immediately enraged, filled with great hatred. He attacked Grego, manipulating all the dozens of Ghosts residing in his two subordinates, controlling them to rush towards Grego together, wanting to possess him.
However, at this moment, A Tiff felt a surge of mental confusion. His desire to attack Grego suddenly decreased significantly, which made his control over the Ghosts less resolute and very unstable. As a result, half of the Ghosts drifted away in various directions and did not float towards Grego, while Grego could completely handle the remaining few Ghosts.
Facing the attacking Ghosts, Grego took out a Sigil (talisman) and two coins, then directly slammed them onto the ground. After the talisman burned, an invisible wave spread from Grego's body. When this wave affected the attacking Ghosts, they couldn't help but scream and scatter, none daring to approach Grego.
This was an exorcism talisman, a commonly used talisman for dealing with large groups of Ghosts. It could widely expel Ghosts that were not inherently strong or had weak control. It was one of the most common talismans used by official Extraordinary organizations in various countries to handle spiritual incidents. It is said that relying on this talisman can resolve eighty percent of haunting phenomena.
The Ghosts A Tiff used to possess and control people were not strong individually. Their purpose was achieved mainly by relying on their large numbers to simultaneously attach and instantly control the enemy. Controlling a large number of Ghosts at once also meant weakened control over each individual Ghost. Coupled with his unstable attack desire, which further reduced his control, these Ghosts were easily expelled by a single talisman and couldn't even be found again.
After using the talisman and stored items issued by the bureau to expel the attacking miscellaneous Ghosts, Grego stared at A Tiff in the distance again. He then threw away the empty pistol, took out another fully loaded pistol from his clothes, and prepared to shoot again. However, A Tiff did not give him the chance to do so.
After feeling his mind being inexplicably affected again, A Tiff did not expect that group of Ghosts to control Grego. While releasing the Ghosts to control people, he quickly switched tactics. He withdrew the male warrior soul of the Frost Silence path Extraordinary he was relying on, took out another bone fragment, summoned another female Ghost in the form of a Sister, and had her rely on him. Then, a faint halo appeared in his eyes.
A Tiff relied on the soul of a "Light" Extraordinary and then used his very small, extremely precious "Light" Spirituality to activate the ability within the soul. This ability was called "Focus" and allowed a "Light" Extraordinary's attention to be incredibly concentrated on one point. After activating Focus, his attention became extremely concentrated, and the power that had been interfering with his mind was significantly resisted and reduced at this moment.
A Tiff used the "Light" ability to reluctantly (barely) counter the mental influence, and the other effect brought by this Focus was also what he needed.
Towards Grego's direction, A Tiff raised his uninjured right hand. Immediately from his sleeve, several hidden arrows shot out, flying accurately towards Grego. These were small tomb-guarding mechanisms A Tiff had dismantled from an ancient tomb. He had modified and reassembled them to carry as hidden weapons. The arrows were coated with a potent poison that could kill an ordinary person within ten seconds with just one hit. Under the effect of Focus, A Tiff shot these arrows with great accuracy.
"Be careful... hidden arrows..."
Just as A Tiff raised his hand, a familiar voice sounded in Grego's mind. After hearing the Detective's warning, Grego immediately abandoned drawing his gun and dodged sideways. Under the speed of a second-order "Shadow," Grego dodged the hidden arrows as they flew, and the arrows struck the door behind Grego with a crisp metallic sound.
"He's relying on a 'Light' soul. Don't shoot at each other. Draw your knife and rush into close combat. If he shoots or snipes at you, block with your knife."
"But... his hidden arrows are very fast, very small, and hard to see clearly. Can I block them?"
"Don't worry, you absolutely can. Just block when I tell you to."
The Detective's words echoed in Grego's mind again. Grego hesitated for a moment after hearing them but then complied. He gave up drawing his gun and instead drew his knife. After drawing a short knife from his waist, he rushed towards A Tiff with all his might, like a swift shadow shooting towards A Tiff. A Tiff, witnessing this scene, did not panic.
The warehouse entrance was nearly seventy to eighty meters away from A Tiff's location. Although the speed of "Shadow" was fast, it would still take a few seconds to cover such a long distance. Within these few seconds, A Tiff had enough time to shoot several more hidden arrows. Dodging left and right while sprinting at high speed was easy to reveal weaknesses.
"A foolish move!"
With the help of Focus, A Tiff aimed his hand at the charging Grego and began to fire hidden arrows continuously. Small, poisonous arrows flew from A Tiff's sleeve, shooting directly towards the straight-charging Grego. Facing the hidden arrows thinner than bullets, Grego desperately swung his knife to block.
But... due to the high difficulty of blocking, this block failed. Grego's small knife grazed the edge of the hidden arrow, and the arrow flew past the small knife, stabbing directly towards Grego's eye.
Just then, a barely perceptible electric arc flashed on the small knife Grego was holding. Then, the hidden arrow that was flying past Grego's small knife, as if attracted by some strange force, actually changed direction in the air. After a strange bend in mid-air, it suddenly moved towards the metal blade of the small knife.
With a crisp clang, the metal arrowhead of the hidden arrow was attracted to the metal blade. The strong magnetic force on the knife Grego held attracted all the surrounding metal objects. With Dorothy's cooperation, Grego thus completed a magnetic block!
Next, the charging Grego continuously swung the blade in his hand, blocking all the incoming hidden arrows with a series of clangs. Not a single arrow was missed. Finally, when he reached A Tiff, he saw the shock filling A Tiff's eyes.
"How... is this possible..."
Swish!
Accompanied by a flash of white light, Grego swung the blade in his hand and cut across A Tiff's throat. Severely injured, A Tiff had no strength left to resist. Just like that, he swayed and fell where he stood from the fatal blow.
In his final moments before falling, he thought that he still couldn't believe that someone could block all of his hidden arrows with skill.
'Is there... such a powerful martial artist in this world...'
In his final vision of Grego, A Tiff sighed like this, then fell to the ground, completely losing his life.