Hmm—
The ritual circle on the floor ignited. A shockwave rolled out from it, carrying a suffocating pressure that settled over everyone in the room.
Old Neil's body began to convulse violently. He collapsed, both hands pressed against the floor. From his eyes, his mouth, his nose, from every pore across his skin — vivid red blood welled up and seeped into the floorboards, then gathered into a flow and poured toward Melissa's body.
The blood-coloured light pulsed outward like a wave of heat, washing over everyone present. It triggered a lurching dizziness, along with an overwhelming impulse to kneel down and submit.
Klein bit hard on the tip of his tongue, yanked out his revolver, and fired all six chambers in rapid succession — bang bang bang bang bang bang — every shot blocked cleanly by the invisible barrier.
But the deafening gunfire shocked everyone back to their senses. They launched attacks of their own by every means available. Not one of them left a single mark on the barrier.
Leonard's face suddenly went pale. He said in a sharp, low voice: "Captain — this is a descent ritual. The evil god called the Hidden Sage is attempting to use Melissa as a vessel — to descend."
"!!!"
Dunn's heart lurched. "Everyone fall back and get the Sealed Artifacts — move!"
He had come expecting to subdue one potentially unhinged Old Neil, and had brought only the "Calm Locks of Hair," a Grade 3 Sealed Artifact. It was nowhere near sufficient for a divine descent.
Leonard's voice cracked: "What about you, Captain?"
"Someone has to stay and buy you time," Dunn said evenly.
"Then I'm staying too!"
"Leonard. That is an order."
"..."
Klein's mind was churning with anxious confusion. I activated that scroll — so why hasn't that high-Sequence lady arrived yet? Is she just too busy to notice?
If that's the case, then Melissa—
With a heavy heart, Klein and Leonard were pulled back to the ground floor. The rest of the Nighthawk team grasped the situation at a glance and immediately scattered, running.
"Don't just stand there, Klein."
Leonard was at the door, looking back.
"I want to stay," Klein said firmly. "Go — and get back fast."
Leonard didn't hesitate. He gave one sharp nod. "I will get back. As fast as I can."
"I know!"
Klein drew a slow breath, reloaded the revolver, and walked back toward the basement door.
At that very moment, all the world around him seemed to take on the colour of blood. A figure stepped out of the air itself — it was Vincent, having borrowed Stephen's Teleportation Ring to get here in a hurry.
Vincent had, from the bottom of his heart, wanted nothing to do with Tingen and this mess. But the help-scroll had been sent out by Bernadette, and she had more than enough reason to make this trip.
So he had sent the Invisible Servant to borrow Stephen's Teleportation Ring, and then rushed to Tingen — and the moment he landed, both of them felt a terrible, oppressive presence in the air.
He'd arrived right at an actual divine descent?
Wait — the timeline doesn't match, does it?
Bernadette supplied the answer: "That's the Hidden Sage's presence!"
The Hidden Sage?
Could this be Old Neil's loss-of-control scene? But I remember that being resolved fairly easily...
Klein rushed over, urgent and desperate: "Ma'am — please, save my sister. The Hidden Sage is using her as a vessel to descend!"
"???"
This was Vincent and Klein's first real meeting, and Klein's very first words left him completely lost. What's going on? Hidden Sage descending? And why is Melissa caught up in this?
But why does Klein look so familiar?
A few seconds later, it came back to him: "Oh damn — isn't this the police officer who gave me that coin during my very first exchange with Bernadette?"
Right. No wonder he looked so anguished back then — it was Klein, of course. That explains everything. Which means the people who later came chasing after me were all from the Tingen Nighthawks, weren't they?
And if I remember correctly, I also took him hostage...
So after all that, I had multiple run-ins with Klein from my very first crossing — and now this. There's no way this is a coincidence. There's some invisible hand at work here.
Is it that black wolf who always lurks in the shadows? Or is it that Russian priest?
Vincent's mood darkened. He gave a composed nod: "I understand."
And in his mind: What do we do?
Bernadette said: "Go down and have a look."
"You haven't forgotten that we're just a Sequence 8 pushover right now?"
"I'm not in the habit of gambling with my own life. Trust me."
The basement. The ritual circle was bleeding its terrible presence outward in pulsing waves, like a gale pressing against everything in the room, threatening to claw through skin and into flesh.
Dunn was pale, still trying to break the barrier. He looked up at the sound of footsteps. "Klein, you're — who is she?"
"Captain, she's the one from last time — the one who—"
A quick reminder from Klein was all Dunn needed. His memory supplied the rest, even if his impression of the event was complicated. He shot Klein a look, then turned to Vincent and said levelly: "Ma'am — do you have a way to deal with this?"
"Don't be in a rush."
At the centre of the ritual, Old Neil lay sprawled and half-conscious. The blood still seeping from his body gathered into a current and flowed into Melissa. She lay there, eyes open and vacant, trembling faintly.
Klein was burning with desperation. He kept his gaze locked on Vincent, mouth opening and closing, unable to find words. Dunn's expression was grave, watching to see what method this apparent high-Sequence Beyonder would use to disrupt the descent.
Vincent stepped forward, raised his right hand, balled it into a fist — and drove it in.
Crash.
His fist passed clean through the invisible barrier without resistance. And from where it struck, cracks spread outward in all directions, shattering the whole thing.
"That's it?!"
Vincent inwardly boggled: How did it fall apart so easily?
Bernadette's voice was dry. "Have you forgotten again? This body is a genuine Sequence 3. Even if the Hidden Sage had completed the descent, its initial manifestation would be at most Sequence 4 strength — let alone a mere ritual barrier."
"But it isn't over yet."
Barely had the words left her lips when four pitiless, lashless eyes materialised before him out of the empty air.
Those four eyes were full of fury and malice. The moment they registered Vincent's presence, streams of viscous, blood-coloured liquid covered in short black bristles came jetting from within them, lashing toward him like tentacles.
He twisted aside instantly, then stamped the floor hard — the boards buckled and flew apart, and the ritual circle drawn in blood on the floor shattered along with them.
"What next?"
"This descent ritual is actually quite rudimentary — no mass sacrifice of lives, no mid- to high-Sequence Beyonders maintaining it. It's merely drawing a small amount of the Hidden Sage's power through the circle. Destroy both of them and the ritual collapses entirely."
"Are you serious?" Vincent said incredulously.
"That was a joke." She gave a quiet laugh.
"In truth, the ritual has already been rendered unsustainable at this point. But the power the Hidden Sage has already manifested will persist for some time. The real question is: what do you think it'll do with what's left?"
To be continued…
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