As the evil spirit burst back out,
Ian's body wobbled and collapsed to the floor. He was pitch-black all over, clearly poisoned badly, with dark purple lines spread across his skin like a spiderweb.
He was even foaming at the mouth.
Being directly possessed and eroded by an evil spirit really did do serious damage to a human body.
An ordinary person probably would not have survived.
"Quick, Constantine!" The moment Charles saw the spirit appear, he immediately shouted a warning and rushed toward Ian. He had been trying to catch the boy before he hit the ground.
However,
people around Constantine were always unreliable in one way or another. Charles ended up catching nothing at all. He did not even catch the gust Ian stirred up when he fell.
"..."
Charles stood there awkwardly with both hands raised, holding onto empty air.
And at that moment,
"Don't tell me how to do my job!"
Constantine, who had still been somewhat stunned, recovered quickly.
Even though he did not understand why the evil spirit was acting so strangely, he immediately raised the container he had just prepared.
It was a thermos.
Its surface looked a little warped, but during those brief moments earlier, Constantine had already carved a hexagram and inscriptions onto it. The evil spirit let out a deafening shriek, but an invisible force had already begun dragging it toward what looked like an ordinary container.
"This is where you belong, demon!"
Constantine kept chanting the sealing spell, finally capturing the fleeing evil spirit inside the container. The black smoke compressed again and again until all of it was forced into the thermos.
"Charles! Your cup did a great job!"
Constantine immediately slammed the transparent lid shut and twisted it tight, sealing the stainless steel thermos completely.
The hexagram glowed with a blood-red light. Strangely enough, the thermos did not shake violently. It was as though the evil spirit inside no longer had the strength to resist.
"It's over."
Though still puzzled, Constantine finally let out a breath of relief.
"Looks like it was another close call without disaster," Charles said, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"A close call without disaster? Hahahaha, we're not done yet! That damned crazy boy, his body has already completely decayed! There's no way he can still survive!"
"Constantine, you're going to carry this sin too!"
The evil spirit's voice could still be heard from inside the thermos. Still, no matter how venomous it sounded, there was also unmistakable relief in its tone, as though it had barely escaped with its life.
"I'll be waiting in Hell! For you! And for him!"
Of course,
mixed into that was fury aimed at Ian. Honestly, if Constantine's exorcism had not helped pull it free, the evil spirit felt it really might have become the first demon in history to be eaten by a lunatic human.
Even now, the thought still frightened it.
"What crazy boy?" Constantine glanced at the boy lying on the ground, blackened from head to toe and unable to move. His brows furrowed, and worry filled his heart. He knew Ian's condition really was bad.
"You have to save this innocent person. Otherwise, I swear I'll drag you down with me."
Constantine immediately began threatening the evil spirit in the bottle, trying to force it to save the boy's life.
However,
the evil spirit did not care.
"Demon! If you don't save him, I'll make you wish you were dead! Believe me! You'll never make it back to Hell!"
It was not that Constantine cared that much about a stranger.
He cared about his own soul.
"Heh."
The evil spirit only sneered.
And just when Constantine was at his wit's end, unable to think of anything else to do,
"Uh..."
Charles poked him in the arm.
"This is not the time, Charles!"
Constantine turned on him in annoyance, only to find Charles standing there blank-faced, pointing off to the side.
Before Constantine could turn his head, a small hand shot out in front of him and snatched away the thermos.
"That's impossible!"
The evil spirit's face pressed up against the transparent lid at the top of the thermos.
Its twisted expression became even uglier from shock, though it also looked faint and weak. Its soul had clearly been damaged badly. Ian had chewed through most of it already.
"How... how are you still alive?"
The evil spirit screamed in disbelief.
And it was not just the spirit. Constantine was stunned too. The boy who had just been black from head to toe was now standing there as if nothing had happened.
Not only was he no longer dying, he looked lively again, his skin healthy and flushed, with enough strength to snatch the thermos away and start taunting what was inside.
"It's been three whole minutes, and you only managed to half-kill me. Not even half a percent of my life a second. Little evil spirit, you're a joke."
Ian's tone was thick with mockery.
"You were supposed to die! You should have... No! What the hell are you?!"
The demon's scream shook the thermos. It no longer wanted to think of Ian as human at all.
What kind of human could be so bizarre that even a demon found him unsettling?
"Pah, pah, pah! You're the thing that's weird. Your whole family is weird."
Ian was deeply offended by the nun spirit's slander and immediately began defending himself.
"This is the beauty of stats!"
"Stats!"
"Do you even understand what it means when my stats are higher than yours?"
While ranting nonstop, Ian hugged the thermos in both hands and started shaking it violently in every direction.
He held grudges.
So of course he was going to get his revenge.
Superman's son
never carried a grudge overnight.
"I already forced myself past the mental discomfort and started eating you, even at the cost of scarring my poor young soul, and I'd only gotten through about two-thirds of you before you ran off?"
"Go on, run! Why aren't you running now?"
Ian's hands were moving so fast they blurred.
He was torturing the evil spirit physically.
And it seemed to be working pretty well.
"..."
"..."
Constantine and Charles looked at each other, each seeing the other's complicated expression.
They finally seemed to understand why the evil spirit had called Ian a damned crazy boy.
"What is going on here?"
Constantine swallowed hard.
He thought he understood now.
Maybe the spirit had not been driven out by his exorcism at all.
"I have no idea... I already told you this kid was scarier than a ghost. Looks like I was right."
Charles could not help remembering everything that had happened back in the taxi.
Even now, it still frightened him.
"You're telling me the person you brought here is someone you know nothing about?"
Constantine looked suspiciously at his companion, only for Charles to respond with a helpless shrug.
"I just randomly picked up a passenger on the road."
Charles was telling the truth, but to Constantine, that truth sounded about as likely as winning the lottery.
He gave Charles a look that said you have got to be kidding me, then turned to Ian, who was still acting like a human blender. His eyes shifted, and he immediately put on a stern face as he addressed the boy.
"Kid, give me that evil spirit. It's not a toy. Quite the opposite, actually. It's dangerous, and only a professional like me can handle it properly."
Constantine wanted his trophy back.
However,
"Hm?"
Ian's eyes sharpened, and his expression became guarded. In his opinion, this thing was his trophy.
"Something that came out of my body obviously belongs to me!"
"That's a very clear matter of property ownership. Trying to cheat me out of my assets? No chance! America's great shining sun once said that the private property of American citizens is sacred and inviolable!"
As Ian self-righteously denounced him, he also glanced at his personal panel. After all, devouring most of an evil spirit had given him quite a lot.
[Spirit: 4.2]
This was an attribute that was normally hard for a Berserker to raise, which only made Ian even more determined to endure a little discomfort and finish the job.
He just needed to find a better "cooking" method for the rest of the spirit.
As for the negative effect of [Soul Corrosion]?
At most, it would affect his mind and thinking a little.
Ian was not even planning to cleanse that negative status immediately after going home.
What was poison to others could easily be candy to him.
A curse?
No.
This was a shortcut to a higher class path.
Who knew? If he piled up enough negative states in the future, he might even skip the whole annoying process of hurting himself and healing himself every day.
What was wisdom?
This was what true genius looked like.
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][[email protected]/euridome]
[+500 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Thank You For Your Support!]