Christoph pulled out a golden stopwatch from his breast pocket.
After Catherine's advancement was complete, she had no use for the 'Winner' stopwatch, so Jace persuaded her and took the watch for himself.
His marionette Christoph flicked the watch open; only about 4 minutes of luck was accumulated.
A few days ago it was about 8 minutes, but Jace used up half of it while searching for the 'Devil' he was hunting.
After performing many astrological divinations and calculations through his marionette and his own divining abilities, Jace found out a particular range of days that the Devil might strike upon and kill his next victim.
The official Beyonders from the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun as well as the Church of Knowledge and Wisdom were all searching for this particular Devil as well, and so was Jace.
For the past three days, Jace—through his marionette—was turning on the 'Winner' stopwatch and teleporting to random and shady parts of Trier all over in the dark night, hoping that his intuition would stirr and he would run into the Devil.
The 'Winner' stopwatch increased Jace's luck to an astronomical degree and gave him the supernatural factor of a winner, making him win and succeed in whatever he was trying to accomplish.
And currently, he was trying to find the Devil, but he was unable to, likely because the Devil hadn't struck yet.
'Hopefully it will be different today...' he thought, as his marionette Christoph clicked the top right button and turned on the stopwatch.
Without wasting a moment, Christoph's figure faded, and it materialized far away from the first place, on another building.
Christoph looked around through the dark silhouettes of buildings and the lights of the street.
'Nothing,' Jace thought, and teleported away to another place.
Again, nothing...
Christoph materialized on top of another building for the third time and looked around...
Jace, who was hidden in the reflection of a metal card with his eyes closed as he had fully possessed his marionette, suddenly widened his eyes.
'There it is!' The thing he was waiting for finally happened! He felt his intuition stirr, meaning the subject of his search was nearby.
Through Christoph, he looked in a different direction from the top of the building; he looked in a particular direction that felt right and teleported toward that direction!
While blinking across different buildings a few times, Jace appeared on a particular three-story building; as he scanned the dark area down below, the figure of a person caught his eye.
It was a young girl with a confused expression falling to the ground; he could see the blood gushing out of her abdomen through a deep slash, the color of red spreading across her dress.
His eyes moved instinctively to the opening of an alley about 15 meters to the right of the girl; he saw a dark shadow moving fast away from the area.
Jace immediately figured out the whole situation. The girl fit the description and had physical similarities with the previous victims, but the killer wouldn't just run away after stabbing his victims; he would adjust the position of their bodies in a particular manner.
In this case, the Devil likely felt his 'Malice Perception' act when Jace teleported to this area and felt his intuition stirred.
So in a hurry, the Devil, after slashing the girl's abdomen, decided to run away.
Unfortunately, this was his bad day, as Jace could teleport behind the killer at any moment—but there was the girl.
From what he could see from above, the gash on her abdomen seemed about 5 to 7 inches long, and it was likely pretty deep as well, seeing just how much blood was flowing out; she was on her knees now.
Considering her small figure, within a matter of seconds, her body would be drained of blood and her heart would stop.
Jace jumped off the building down toward the girl; while still in the air, he pulled out the 'Scarlet Lunar Corona' in his left hand and raised his right hand down at the girl.
Jace had no power that could heal others, but that did not mean he didn't have any other ways.
By now, Jace had recorded three Sequence 4 demigod-level powers from Catherine through his marionette Christoph; they were 'Magnify', 'Magnify', and 'Bestowment'. The other power was 'Torrential Downpour', a power his marionette had recorded back when he was alive.
"Bestowment!"
The space around his hand rippled as he used the 'Bestowment' power. This power could be used to bestow the effects or side-effects of an artifact or anything else onto another person.
Right now, Jace 'bestowed' the regenerative power granted to the user by the Scarlet Lunar Corona to the girl.
After that was done, his figure suddenly disappeared right in the air.
As the girl fell to the ground, her wound closed up within moments, leaving only clean skin and a blood-stained dress.
Since she had still lost some blood and experienced shock, her eyes closed as she fainted...
Jace, on the other hand, teleported to the other side of the alley, onto the street. He hid beside the wall of the alley as he waited for the killer to run out.
Meanwhile, a condensed fireball formed in his hand; this was a recorded power of a Hunter. Other than that, Jace also infused the fireball with the recorded power 'Cull' of a Reaper.
Swoop!
The next instant, the killer ran out onto the street from the alley.
From what Jace could see, this was indeed a Sequence 6 Devil, but that was irrelevant.
He slung his hand and threw the bright, condensed fireball at the Devil, who was now in the middle of the street.
Sensing the immediate threat, the Devil—who was hooded in a black robe—turned back only to see a bright fireball shooting toward him.
He felt through his premonition that this fireball was extremely lethal and powerful enough to kill him.
But it was now too late to dodge the fireball, so he did the only thing he could do to maximize his chances of survival: turn into his true form!
Within an instant, his body gigantified and doubled in size; his robe tore away and revealed his dark skin and his head, which had now sprouted two curved horns.
'Ohh...' Jace recognized this as the 'Devil transformation'. This form could enhance all physical attributes of a Devil, making them extremely powerful and durable.
As Jace looked at the fireball that was just about to hit the Devil, an idea popped into his mind.
Jace smiled inwardly. 'Might as well...' he thought, as he raised his hand toward the fireball.
"Magnify!"