Inside Saint Chant Church's underground forbidden library, the massive Demonic Wolf let out a furious roar due to the despicable and shameless sneak attack. Its four eyes on the two enormous wolf heads simultaneously fixated on one direction, looking towards the suddenly appearing black-clothed attacker. The other three Placenta members within the forbidden library also looked towards the target in astonishment.
"This is... who? When did he appear?"
"Why didn't we smell his aura at all before?"
Brand and the others looked at the mysterious figure standing in the ruins, wearing a dirty old trench coat, their eyes filled with shock. As Werewolves, they possessed extremely powerful and sensitive noses; no creature's scent should have been able to hide from them.
However, that mysterious person was able to successfully launch a sneak attack on Duval and snatch the "true crimson mother" that he had already obtained. One must know that Duval, as a Fearful Demonic Wolf, had a much stronger sense of smell than ordinary Werewolves, reaching a level of Extraordinary ability that defied logic. Even so, he was successfully ambushed.
In the perception of the several Werewolves present, it wasn't that the mysterious person had no scent, but rather that the scent suddenly appeared the moment the sneak attack was launched. Before the attack, his presence was not felt at all.
"Die! Little thief!"
Having his prize stolen and suffering an arterial cut from the sneak attack, this encounter made Duval extremely furious for a moment. At this point, he didn't care about the mysterious person's identity or what method the opponent used to successfully ambush him. The right head of the Demonic Wolf roared and stepped forward, swinging its sharp claws to strike fiercely at the small figure below. The wolf claw was incredibly fast, as if it could flatten the person in front of him into a pulp in the next second.
Facing Duval's swift offensive, the mysterious person standing in the ruins seemed to have no fear whatsoever. With extreme calmness, he retreated backward and leaped into the air, precisely dodging the wolf claw's crushing blow. He watched as the ruins where he had just stood were suddenly shattered amidst a roar. After the mysterious person landed, seeing his attack miss, Duval immediately followed up with a sweeping claw strike, aimed at the mysterious person's side. The mysterious person saw this and performed a forward roll, lowering his body to evade this wide-ranging blow.
Duval's claw strike directly smashed and knocked down countless shelves in the forbidden library. However, when he saw that the mysterious person was still unharmed, his anger intensified. He lifted a paw and thought of stomping down, wanting to stomp him to death like a mouse. But the moment his paw truly descended, the mysterious person again dodged it with a precise side roll.
Duval's immense force stomping the ground caused the entire underground library to tremble violently, shaking Brand and the others nearby, making them temporarily unstable. However, the mysterious person, after rolling, was able to maintain balance amidst this vibration. Not only did he stand up steadily on the floor that had shattered and flipped due to the immense force, but he also raised the saw-like cleaver in his hand and slashed fiercely at the wolf's foot that was close by, cutting a large gash in the heel area, gushing out a large amount of blood.
Due to the severed Achilles tendon, Duval couldn't help but kneel on one knee with a howl, his claws supporting him in front of the mysterious person. Seeing this, the mysterious person immediately leaped up without hesitation, and with another slash, severed a large number of tendons and muscles supporting the massive body, instantly causing its hand to lose strength. The entire gigantic body instinctively collapsed further forward, and the two enormous wolf heads smashed down towards the mysterious person. After dodging the fatal bite, the mysterious person drew a slender rapier from his waist and thrust it directly towards the eye of the giant wolf's right head, piercing directly through its pupil.
"Roar!!!"
One eye burst with blood light, and the humiliating pain caused the terrifying Demonic Wolf to let out a furious roar. He frantically mobilized his Spirituality, and after rapidly recovering the several wounds on his body, he seemed to lose his mind and attacked everything around him wildly. He didn't look to see where the mysterious person was, but instead indiscriminately destroyed everything around him. For a time, stone pillars were smashed, bookshelves were knocked down, deep claw marks were pulled across the walls, and the violent vibrations caused the surrounding space to constantly shake, making the underground forbidden library, whose structural strength was comparable to a military fortress and could withstand heavy artillery bombardment, appear on the verge of collapse for a while. Brand and the others nearby watched with fear and trepidation, hastily dodging to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
"Calm down! This won't kill him!"
At this moment, the left wolf head of the Demonic Wolf spoke sternly, seemingly due to his suppression, the overall agitated Demonic Wolf slowly calmed down, ending its aimless frantic offensive. Its two heads began to look around everywhere, trying to find the mysterious person's whereabouts in this pile of ruins.
"Where did that guy... hide!"
Duval's two wolf heads looked around, but found no trace of the mysterious person. In the entire underground forbidden library, except for the area where he was located illuminated by sunlight falling from the ceiling, most of the other areas were in dim darkness. Duval wanted to use his proud sense of smell to find the opponent, but he found that the mysterious person's scent had disappeared again, and no matter how he sniffed, he couldn't detect it, just like before the opponent appeared.
"What's going on... I can't smell... I can't smell... Where did he go?!"
"Normally, scent removal can't be this fast, what special method did he use?"
Sniffing hard with his nose, Duval tried his best to find the mysterious person's trace in the surroundings, but he had no success at all. He used his eyes to carefully scan every corner in the darkness, and used his ears to listen to every movement, but still got no result.
Suddenly, from a dark corner within the forbidden library, another black blur flashed out, attacking Duval's blind spot with lightning speed, instantly leaving a huge gash on his back, spraying out a large amount of blood. Duval, who was successfully ambushed again, roared and turned to pounce towards the direction of the scent that suddenly appeared, but again pounced into a patch of shadow, and began attacking wildly. After smashing several more large pits in the ground and collapsing a large section of the ceiling, he found himself returning empty-handed again, the sound and scent disappearing into the darkness once more.
Just like this, the mysterious person's figure continuously darted out from the dark corners at high speed, causing damage to Duval, and then quickly darted into another patch of darkness and disappeared. No matter how Duval chased, he could never completely grasp the mysterious person's whereabouts. After the opponent disappeared into the darkness, Duval could no longer detect any trace of him. Duval could only accumulate anger while making ineffective counterattacks amidst the opponent's continuous sneak attacks.
At this moment, Dorothy was still sitting calmly in a carriage near the Church District, quietly watching this drama unfold in the underground forbidden library. Looking at the monstrous Demonic Wolf being toyed with, she couldn't help but smile and comment.
"The performance is much better than expected... As expected of a legend from a major city? Much stronger than those from small places like Glamorgan..."
Slightly pressing down on the small hat she was wearing, Dorothy whispered like this. That's right, the mysterious person currently grappling with Duval, the Scarlet Demonic Wolf, in the underground library was none other than the Anecdotal (Anecdote Body) created by Dorothy, and the source of this Anecdote's true form was the Tivian urban legend, the Nightmare.
The Tivian Night Killer - Nightmare, this can be said to be the most famous urban legend in Tivian in recent years. Since the year before last, numerous interconnected serial murders have frequently occurred in Tivian's aristocratic district. These bloody cases were extremely brutal and were all committed by the same culprit. In the widespread dissemination by newspapers, media, and the public, this culprit was gradually given the title of Nightmare.
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Among the many citizens of Tivian, the legend of the Nightmare is highly circulated, filled with a great deal of legendary color, almost to the point where it can stop children from crying at night. Of course, although the legendary color of the Nightmare is strong, Dorothy also knows the truth about the Nightmare. It is an Extraordinary killer created by the Eight Point Nest through unknown means. The purpose of assassinating those nobles seems related to the Eight-Pointed Nest's plan to infiltrate Prit, just like how the Eight-Pointed Nest used the Nightmare to assassinate Duke Barret. However, the truth of this matter does not prevent Dorothy from using the widely circulated rumors of the Nightmare to create an Anecdote Body.
In fact, Dorothy's plan to use the widely circulated rumors of the Nightmare in Tivian to create an Anecdote Body started very early. She began related attempts as soon as she returned to Tivian, but during this process, she discovered a problem.
That is, the legend of the Nightmare is too widely spread in Tivian, and too many people know about it, resulting in slightly different stories circulating in different areas. The image is also very vague and uncertain. The differentiation and ambiguity of these rumors made it somewhat difficult for Dorothy to condense the image and power of the Nightmare. So, for a period after she returned, she continuously used Corpse Puppets to go to various bars and casinos to talk about the rumors of the Nightmare, using the affinity aura of the Path of Confusion to discuss specific settings and images of the Nightmare with thousands of citizens.
Due to time constraints, although the image setting Dorothy created for the Nightmare is far from mainstream in all of Tivian, it is much clearer than other rumors. It is enough for Dorothy to use it as the main structure to condense the power of the Nightmare rumors throughout Tivian and create an Anecdote Body. During this process, Dorothy also added some new things to her Nightmare Anecdote Body, a small amount of knowledge from other worlds.
This knowledge was one of the unexpected gains Dorothy acquired when she exchanged a large amount of medical knowledge in the Crown University library. Because the medical system in this world is somewhat advanced beyond its time, Dorothy was able to exchange her profound medical knowledge for some interesting things, such as a rough outline of a technique called "Blood Therapy" and anatomical diagrams of strange beast-like monsters.
The key is the purpose of this anatomical diagram. It doesn't seem to be entirely for medical use, but rather for guiding how to hunt similar creatures. It included a small amount of hunting skills specifically for these beast-like monsters. What Dorothy did was integrate these not-so-numerous skills from "Yharnam" into the Nightmare Anecdote Body she created, and equipped it with related weapons, giving it a small amount of "Hunter" attributes in addition to being a "Killer".
Because the rumors of the Nightmare are spread in Tivian, a metropolis with millions of people, and Dorothy summoned the Nightmare Anecdote Body within Tivian, the strength of this Anecdote Body is very high. He possesses agility and speed comparable to a Tier 4 "Shadow", equivalent to a Scarlet primarily focused on "Shadow". He has superb combat experience and considerable hunting skills. The blade he uses can also carry "Shadow" enchantments of corresponding strength, cutting through bone and flesh like slicing vegetables. Furthermore, he has a special ability: vanishing from sight and concealment.
The source of this ability comes from the general impression the public in Tivian has of the Nightmare: appearing and disappearing unpredictably, possessing extremely high anti-reconnaissance methods, and being able to perfectly erase the traces of his crimes, making it impossible for anyone to find any clues at the crime scene. No matter how much the police try, they cannot catch him, making him the shame of the entire Tivian police force.
When in a concealed state, the Nightmare leaves no traces. To find him, only powerful "Lamp" abilities are effective. Means other than "Lamp" cannot detect him, even for Extraordinary of the Crimson Tier. Dorothy is also unsure about the situation above Scarlet.
This ability comes from the perfect evidence erasure of the real Nightmare, but Dorothy understands that the reason why no traces of the real Nightmare can be found is likely not because his method of committing crimes is so clever, but rather because the Eight-Pointed Nest has been using its strong infiltration ability against Prit to clean up after him. The newspapers don't know the truth, which is why they rave about how high the Nightmare's evidence erasure ability is. However, this doesn't matter to Dorothy. Whether the Nightmare's evidence erasure ability is real or not, as long as enough people praise it, Dorothy can make it real.
To some extent, the Anecdote Nightmare that Dorothy has now created might be much stronger than the Eight-Pointed Nest's original Nightmare...
Relying on his superb speed and the ability to vanish from sight and conceal, Dorothy controlled the Anecdote Nightmare to continuously shuttle at high speed through the underground library, inflicting damage on the massive Fearful Demonic Wolf again and again. Duval, constantly being scratched by the Anecdote Nightmare, kept missing his attacks. Being toyed with repeatedly caused his temper to flare up.
In another instant, the black extreme shadow darted out from the shadow at the top of another bookshelf, leaping directly onto the Fearful Demonic Wolf. The black-clad figure, holding a saw cleaver, stood on the back of the Fearful Demonic Wolf's neck and slashed several more times, causing blood to spurt out again. The Fearful Demonic Wolf's right paw lifted almost without hesitation and slammed forcefully towards the location of the Anecdote Nightmare, wanting to swat him dead like a fly.
"Die! Fly!"
But the Anecdote Nightmare, with extremely agile movements, leaped down before the Fearful Demonic Wolf's paw could strike. After landing on the ground, he quickly retreated a few steps into the darkness where there was no direct sunlight and disappeared. The Fearful Demonic Wolf's right paw slammed heavily onto its own flesh. The powerful force shattered a large area of flesh, and the Fearful Demonic Wolf's right neck was directly smashed to pieces by this blow, causing his right wolf head to detach and fall off. Fortunately, it was caught by the left wolf paw before hitting the ground, and then pressed back on. The severed interface also quickly healed. The damage the Fearful Demonic Wolf inflicted upon himself with that blow far exceeded the total damage the Anecdote Nightmare had caused him before.
"Calm down... Don't let him play you!"
After reattaching his right head, the Fearful Demonic Wolf's left head roared, and as the newly reattached right head began to slightly quiet down, the massive Fearful Demonic Wolf seemed to calm down again. Duval recovered from his uncontrollable rage and frenzy and began to seriously consider how to deal with this troublesome enemy for the first time.
While thinking, Duval's eyes scanned the surroundings and finally settled on one direction. There, covered in dust and dirt, was Sand, crawling out from a pile of rubble.
Upon seeing Sand, Duval's eyes lit up. He then drove his massive body and reached out a claw towards him, directly grabbing Sand in his grasp and bringing him before his eyes. He protected him with his other arm to prevent being suddenly attacked and cut by the Anecdote Nightmare. The originally bewildered Sand couldn't help but speak in a panic upon seeing this sudden change.
"Captain... Captain, what are you doing?! Elder?"
"Doing what... I need you to make a small contribution to the unity of our three religions..." Staring at Sand in his hand, Duval's left head slowly said. Hearing his words, Sand seemed to suddenly realize something and immediately began to struggle desperately, shouting as he struggled.
"Contribution... Could it be... No! I am the Plague Lord's servant! I am not one of your Wolf Blood Society! You cannot do this to me! If you do this, you will..."
"Don't worry, I will also send a Chalk to apologize to you later..."
Saying this, Duval's wolf mouth opened, and he swallowed Sand whole in one gulp, then began to chew mercilessly. Within moments, Sand's painful screams disappeared.
And as Duval's throat wriggled, the eyes of his left head began to gradually change, turning from their original red to a vibrant green. When his massive mouth, full of blood, opened, he murmured.
"Devour... Mutate..."