"I am…"
Baleam sat on the grass, dazed and confused.
Having been dead for so long, his thoughts were sluggish and unclear.
At that moment, Cael calmly grabbed the gun barrel fused to his arm.
Crack.
A sharp mechanical snap echoed.
"Ugh!!"
Baleam cried out as sweat formed on his forehead. The pain forced him back into human form, his wrist hanging limp.
Cael smiled casually.
"Yo, Baleam. Long time no see. Miss me?"
Baleam glared at him.
"You… you are…!"
"Ahem." Cael cleared his throat. "I am your undertaker."
He bent down and picked up a few shriveled blood bags.
"Look at this. I even brought you back to life. Touching, right?"
Baleam's expression twisted as he stared at Cael and Fami.
Fragments of memory returned.
He had died in a gun attack.
Now his body felt wrong. Weak. Hollow.
Too many things were gone.
If he had never known strength, maybe he could have accepted this weakness.
But now, it was unbearable.
Veins bulged on his forehead as he roared,
"Suka blyat! What did you do to me?! Where is the Fire Devil?! Where is my Bomb Devil?!"
Smack!
The slap landed hard, knocking loose several of his teeth.
Cael wiped the blood on Fami's clothes without a second thought.
"You still barking?" he said. "What do you mean your Bomb Devil? You still think you own her? Still plotting against my wife?"
Baleam spat out blood and glared stubbornly.
"Your wife? The Bomb Devil was supposed to be mine!"
Cael let out a cold laugh.
"Yeah, you really are hopeless."
He raised his hand out of habit.
"Fear Extraction."
Nothing happened.
He paused, then chuckled.
"Right. That doesn't work here."
His expression suddenly shifted.
Then he punched.
A brutal strike enhanced with Fissure Shock slammed into Baleam's mouth.
Blood burst out. His eyes rolled back. His skull cracked, and his brain turned to pulp from the impact.
Baleam died on the spot.
Cael gained 250 attribute points. At the same time, Dark Water absorbed the Flamethrower Man's transformation ability.
Boom.
Flames erupted from Baleam's corpse.
He revived again as Flamethrower Man.
Cael did not even flinch.
After a series of controlled moves, he forced him back into human form once more.
Thinking back, Cael used to farm points by repeatedly killing Katana Man.
Now, that was unnecessary.
With the Fire Devil and its spawned Fire Kin, he already had thousands of attribute points stored up.
Mechanically, he was a monster.
Stat-wise, he was getting there too.
Aside from his wife, Yoru, very few devils could overpower him now.
Cael grabbed Baleam's chin and forced him to look up.
"Hey, Baleam. You're KGB, right? I heard you're good at torture."
He smiled faintly.
"Care to share some tips?"
Baleam stared back like a cornered beast.
He understood.
His life was already in Cael's hands.
No, worse.
He had always been the one inflicting pain.
To be on the receiving end like this was unacceptable.
Living like this was worse than death.
Then suddenly, he smiled.
"Oh my… torture methods? I wouldn't know anything about that."
His voice turned mocking.
"But there is something you should hear, Chainsaw Man Cael."
Cael raised an eyebrow.
"Go on."
Baleam chuckled.
"Your wife, Reze… she's very obedient to you now, right?"
He licked his lips.
"But back when we worked together, she wasn't like that at all."
Cael frowned.
Baleam noticed immediately.
There it is.
A weakness.
As an agent, exploiting weakness was second nature.
And Cael had just exposed his.
So Baleam pushed further.
"Cael… what I'm saying is… the taste of Reze…"
He grinned.
"It's pretty damn good. Don't you think?"
Cael's face darkened.
Baleam let out a satisfied hum.
Heh.
Breaking already?
Go on. Kill me.
Cael exhaled slowly.
"I'll admit it. You've pissed me off."
Baleam grinned wider.
"Want to hear how she sounded? I left a recording in Siberia."
"Tch."
Fami clicked her tongue and gently held Cael's arm.
"Don't listen to him. He's lying. He just wants you to kill him."
Cael clenched his fists.
"I know. But hearing this trash talk about my wife…"
His voice dropped.
"…makes it really hard not to rip him apart."
"Hey, woman!" Baleam shouted, laughing. "Who do you think you are? Everything I said is true. That recorder is in Siberia's…"
"Irkutsk," Fami cut in calmly.
Baleam froze for a split second.
Fami tilted her head, expression blank as she reached into her pocket.
"You're wondering how I knew?"
She pulled something out.
"Simple. I can read minds."
Baleam's brows furrowed.
"Mind reading?"
Fami nodded.
In her hand was an exaggerated wooden carving, shaped like four muscular devils.
She ignored Baleam and turned to Cael with a sweet smile.
"Lior, I know what scares him."
Her eyes gleamed.
"So I came up with something fun."
Cael rubbed his chin, eyeing the carving.
"Let me guess. That thing?"
Fami's cheeks flushed slightly. She leaned in.
"I can make him beg for death. In return…"
She pouted.
"…I want a kiss."
Cael did not hesitate.
"Mwah."
Fami smiled, clearly satisfied.
Her mood visibly lifted.
Then she dropped the carving.
Clack.
Suddenly, loud music blasted through the space.
Boom.
White smoke exploded outward.
As it cleared, four large humanoid devils appeared, each striking ridiculous poses.
Cael's mouth twitched.
"What the hell is this?"
Fami smiled mysteriously.
"They're the Gay Devils."
"No, no!" One of them, wearing a black bandana, waved his hands seriously. "That name is terrible!"
A mustached brute grinned.
"Yeah! We've got proper names!"
Another devil with yellow hair pulled out a small comb and styled his hair.
Then the buzz-cut devil stepped forward, striking a stance.
"We are…"
He shouted loudly.