Within the already ruined underground library in Tivian's Saint Chant Church District, Duval, caught off guard by a sudden action, swallowed his companion. This action not only surprised Brand and others but also Dorothy and Vanya, who were monitoring the battlefield.
"Du...Elder Duval..."
"This guy..."
Completely ignoring the thoughts of others, Duval slowly lowered his blood-stained hands after swallowing Sand. At this moment, the eyes of his left head had completely turned a faint green, and a strange smile appeared at the corner of his wolf's mouth. Clearly, the recent consumption had brought some peculiar changes to his body.
Without a moment's pause, the Fearful Demonic Wolf, having finished its meal, opened its left wolf head. After taking a deep breath, it exhaled forcefully, spitting out a dense, dark green mist from its hideous maw. This mist quickly dispersed in all directions upon contact with the air.
"That's..."
"Run!"
Seeing the dark green mist spat out by Duval, Brand and the others' faces changed, and they immediately began to dodge desperately, climbing out of the underground restricted library along the pillars to escape. They knew what that mist was – a miasma full of pathogens!
Consumption Mutation, this is the ability possessed by the Fearful Demonic Wolf. It can mutate and gain corresponding abilities by consuming any Extraordinary related to the "Cup"... Extraordinary creatures... or even Extraordinary items. For Extraordinaries, as long as they are main "Cup" or auxiliary "Cup" Extraordinaries, they can be used as food for mutation.
Sand was a Chalk Tier Extraordinary of the Plague Path, also mainly associated with the "Cup" like Duval. After consuming him, Duval could mutate and gain the abilities of Plague Miasma and Pathogen Claws. As long as Sand was not completely digested, Duval could continue to use these abilities. The more frequently they were used, the faster Sand would be digested. A Fearful Demonic Wolf can digest a maximum of two different Extraordinary entities simultaneously.
This constantly spreading fatal miasma was Duval's countermeasure against that troublesome assassin. The assassin's speed was very fast, and Duval indeed couldn't keep up, but he could fill the entire underground library with the miasma. Even if the opponent's speed was faster, there would be nowhere to escape!
And the facts were indeed as Duval judged. Dorothy's Nightmare Anecdotal Body was created with the participation of the "Cup" to shape its material form. To some extent, it could indeed be considered a "life," and therefore could be affected by this miasma.
"This is a bit troublesome... To think he has such an ability..."
Sitting in the distant carriage, Dorothy murmured. Currently, Duval's miasma was spreading rapidly within the underground restricted library, and it wouldn't take long to completely fill the entire library space. The Nightmare Anecdotal Body, while in a hidden state, wasn't completely gone and couldn't be unaffected.
Facing the raging and spreading miasma, Dorothy now had to control the Nightmare Anecdotal Body to act immediately. Before the miasma affected him, he had to quickly dart out from the shadows at the fastest speed, darting under the shattered ceiling, and rapidly climb up by rapidly bouncing back and forth between the walls and pillars, urgently escaping upwards, planning to leave the underground restricted library.
However, when the Anecdotal Body Nightmare left the shadows, his hidden state was inevitably Release. Duval's extremely sensitive sense of smell instantly captured the enemy's aura. When he closed his miasma-spewing mouth and looked at the direction where the sudden aura appeared, what he saw was the Anecdotal Body Nightmare continuously jumping upwards between the stone pillars, about to leave the underground.
"You won't get away!!"
With a roar, the huge Fearful Demonic Wolf directly raised its sharp claws and swept horizontally at high speed, suddenly hitting the stone pillar that the Anecdotal Body Nightmare was using to jump and climb, directly breaking two pillars with a crash. For a moment, the Anecdotal Body Nightmare, who was about to jump out of the underground library, immediately lost its foothold, and the entire body instantly lost balance and fell downwards. Duval, seeing this, directly bit at him.
For the Anecdotal Body Nightmare, the situation at this moment could be said to be extremely critical. Without the ability to fly, having lost his foothold, even with agile speed and skill, he couldn't display them and could only watch as the Werewolf's large mouth attacked him.
And at this critical moment, Dorothy controlled the Anecdotal Body Nightmare to directly take out the "True Crimson Mother" he had just snatched and throw it aside with all his might to attract Duval's attention. And sure enough, Duval changed his target upon smelling the "True Crimson Mother," biting in another direction, and directly swallowed the scattered book in mid-air. The Anecdotal Body Nightmare also took advantage of Duval's delay to quickly adjust his posture in the air, quickly changing the pillar used for climbing by stepping on a broken stone pillar. After two quick leaps, he finally successfully jumped out of the underground restricted library and went to the outside world.
On the other side, after successfully swallowing the "True Crimson Mother," Duval also cast his gaze towards the opening above, and then jumped up without hesitation, leaping out of the miasma-filled underground restricted library and returning to the square in front of the archive building.
Having returned to the sunlight, Duval immediately smelled the troublesome assassin again, but he did not choose to pursue. Instead, he looked in another direction, the direction from which he had jumped. Now that he had successfully regained the "True Crimson Mother," there was no need to continue the pointless pursuit. He just needed to retreat immediately.
"We... uh..."
"Boom!!"
And just as Duval was about to give the order to retreat to his two subordinates not far away, another change occurred. Duval suddenly felt a huge fist strike his back fiercely, and a powerful downward impact force pressed his entire body to the ground.
Amidst a roar, Duval's entire body was embedded in the ground. A large pit suddenly exploded around the ground where he was, and cracks spread out densely, as if struck by an invisible heavy punch. And what this invisible strike brought was not only the large pit, but also a strong turbulent airflow that spread throughout the entire square.
"This is..."
The Fearful Demonic Wolf struggled to pull its wolf head out of the ground and looked towards the sky. What he saw there was the clouds stirred by the howling wind in the sky, and below those clouds amidst the strong winds, a golden-haired man standing in the air. He was wearing a Prit general's military uniform, holding a Stone sword, and his handsome face held a cold gaze that looked down at the Fearful Demonic Wolf in the pit below.
That was the Director of the Tivian Hidden Security Bureau, Harold, a member of the Despenser Royal Family!
'Rift Sky Soldier! Prit's Royal Scarlet! How did they get here so quickly! Shouldn't they have been led away!?'
Seeing the figure in the sky, Duval's heart was filled with shock. According to their original plan, the Prit Scarlet, after being led away, shouldn't have arrived at Saint Chant Church so quickly!
For a moment, surprise and confusion filled Duval's heart. Due to the characteristics of the Scarlet Tier Wind Art User, Duval could not smell their scent, so he had no idea that Harold had arrived. And Harold in the sky would not pay attention to Duval's thoughts. A high-pressure air cannon condensed in the hand he was already pointing, and he shot it at Duval again.
Harold's air cannon was colorless and invisible, and its speed exceeded that of sound. Therefore, Duval only realized that the opponent had started attacking again when he noticed a slight distortion in the air. Duval quickly crawled out of the pit and dodged, but he was still touched by the edge of the air cannon, and his entire body was directly thrown away by the powerful force, falling heavily to the ground. Seeing this, Harold immediately pursued. He brandished the sword in his hand and swung it in the air, releasing a wind blade from the tip of the sword.
Harold's Wind Blade, once released, shot towards Duval at a speed faster than an air cannon, rapidly expanding during its flight. Duval, who had just managed to get up from the ground, was unable to dodge in time and had his right arm severed by the Wind Blade. After cutting off his arm and hitting the ground, the long Wind Blade carved a deep fissure two to three dozen meters long directly into the ground.
With one arm severed, the Demonic Wolf couldn't help but let out a tragic howl. However, the situation at the scene didn't allow him to pick up his arm and reattach it, as Harold's successive Wind Blade attacks had already arrived. He could only start dodging with all his might.
Thus, Duval continuously dodged Harold's Wind Blades by running on the ground with all his strength. The Wind Blades that missed Harold left deep and slender marks on the earth, as if Harold were constantly wielding a giant invisible whip, lashing the ground and creating countless traces.
"Finally, he's here, the Scarlet of the Kingdom... Now this wolf has finally met his match..."
Sitting inside the carriage, Dorothy murmured this as she watched the scene in the Church. The reason she had the Anecdote Entity Nightmare steal the "True Crimson Mother" was to delay Duval and prevent them from succeeding and leaving immediately. And the reason she eventually abandoned the "True Crimson Mother" as bait was because the person she was waiting for had arrived.
Ever since Duval's surprise attack on the Church District, Vanya had sent a distress signal to the An Yin Bureau, asking the Scarlet left there to come as quickly as possible. The time the Anecdote Entity Nightmare spent maneuvering with Duval was enough for Harold to reach the scene.
In the Church District, Harold continued to launch attacks on Duval. His large Wind Blades were extremely fast, and even with Duval dodging with all his might, he couldn't perfectly avoid all of them. His massive body was constantly being cut by the flying Wind Blades, losing chunks of flesh. Each Wind Blade carved deep marks, and the corners of countless buildings were neatly sliced off after being hit. Even when Duval hid behind houses for cover, the houses were quickly destroyed.
Facing Harold's continuous attacks, Duval could only constantly regenerate while continuously dodging, basically unable to counterattack. This was because Harold was flying high enough that Duval's normal attacks couldn't threaten him. Duval's claws couldn't reach that far, and even if he spewed miasma, it would be easily blown away.
Of course, Duval wasn't just sitting there waiting to die. He was waiting for an opportunity, waiting for the moment when his severed claw would completely regenerate.
This opportunity quickly arrived. When the sharp claws, still without any fur, had completely grown out from the cross-section of the wound on his body, Duval, who was still dodging the Wind Blades, directly hid behind a building in the Church District. Then, using the building as cover, he retched and spat out a large iron can, about half a meter in diameter, from his right head. Duval opened the can, revealing a pile of raw meat. Duval then swallowed the meat from the iron can without hesitation.
Just after Duval finished eating the canned meat, the building that had served as his cover was nearly half destroyed by an air cannon blast. Duval's figure was once again exposed to Harold's view, and Harold immediately launched another attack without hesitation.
Facing Harold's offensive, after several dodges, Duval finally began to counterattack. After dodging a Wind Blade, he jumped onto the rooftops of the Church District buildings, then continuously leaped across these rooftops. Finally, after finding a good angle, he burst forth with all four limbs, causing the Demonic Wolf's massive body to leap and jump up, shooting towards Harold, who was several hundred meters high in the sky, like a sharp arrow.
However, Harold was well-prepared for this situation. His body transformed into a gust of wind, easily dodging Duval's attack. Then, when Duval began to fall in mid-air, Harold seized the opportunity, directly swung the sword in his hand, and vertically unleashed a Wind Blade towards Duval. Facing this Wind Blade, Duval, unable to gain purchase in the air, had nowhere to dodge and could only watch as it sliced towards his body.
Harold's Wind Blade directly sliced the Demonic Wolf's body vertically into two halves. Duval's left and right halves of his body disintegrated in the air, each connected to a head and scattering a large amount of blood as they fell. The incredibly heavy body fell onto the ground of the ruins, kicking up a large cloud of dust with a roar.
"In this case, even if he's alive, he's basically temporarily incapacitated..."
Watching the dust below, Harold murmured leisurely. Just as he was about to conjure a strong wind to blow away all the dust, a black sharp arrow shot out from within it, heading straight for Harold.
"He recovered that quickly..."
Facing this new sharp arrow, Harold once again transformed into a gust of wind and dodged urgently, successfully avoiding the beast's attack aimed at him once more. He then raised the sword in his hand again, preparing to take advantage of this opportunity to deliver another blow to the beast, slicing it into more pieces.
However, when Harold finally clearly saw the appearance of the black sharp arrow, he couldn't help but widen his eyes. Although the sharp arrow attacking him was indeed a Werewolf, it was not the ten-meter-tall two-headed Demonic Wolf, but a five to six-meter-tall Demonic Wolf with a single wolf head and intact limbs, with a smaller body!
Just as Harold's attention was completely drawn to the smaller Demonic Wolf, from the blind spot outside his line of sight, another black sharp arrow shot out from the dust on the ground that hadn't yet dissipated, immediately shooting behind Harold. When the speed of that sharp arrow slowed down, what was revealed was another single-headed Demonic Wolf about five to six meters tall, who was silently staring at Harold's back.
The Demonic Wolf in front of Harold was Duval, and the Demonic Wolf behind him was also Duval... The reason for this strange phenomenon was the reserve meat that Duval had secretly eaten from the iron can earlier. It was the meat of a Chalk Vampire. After eating this meat, Duval mutated a new ability, splitting...
This ability was a mutation of the Vampire's bat transformation ability to split and merge. After Harold sliced Duval into two, Duval directly split himself into two, using the dust as cover for one to feign an attack while the other ambushed. Harold didn't react to Duval's new ability and has now been successfully ambushed from behind by Duval's half-body.
Without hesitation, the successfully flanking Demonic Wolf half-body swung its sharp claws towards Harold's back. At the critical moment, Harold finally detected the Demonic Wolf half-body's ambush through the abnormal disturbance of the airflow behind him. He immediately abandoned the Wind Blade attack targeting the other Demonic Wolf half-body in front of him, and his entire body transformed into a gentle breeze to quickly blow away.
The ambushing Demonic Wolf half-body seemed to have anticipated Harold's action and immediately stopped its attack, opened its large mouth, and spewed out a large mouthful of green miasma. The airflow formed by Harold's wind element transformation inadvertently swept away a lot of the miasma he spewed out, and these miasmas and the airflow forming Harold were stirred together for a moment.
Finally, the wind carrying the miasma quickly recondensed in the distance, reforming into Harold's body. However, after reappearing, Harold looked livid, his entire face extremely unpleasant.
...
While Duval and Harold were constantly entangled in the Church District, turning the entire area into a mess, on top of the main Church of St. Yong Cathedral, Vanya was standing on the tip of a spire, looking at the raging battlefield not far away. Seeing her once familiar home severely damaged, she couldn't help but feel a hint of sadness.
"Lord... the evil of gluttony... is destroying the sacred domain. All this violence must be ended... Please grant me the power to judge sin..."
Hearing the terrifying wolf howls in the whistling wind from afar, the Sister in white prayed and said this. Hearing her words, Dorothy in the carriage couldn't help but start thinking.
'It's time to end this...'