Chapter 104: “Feeding”

Chapter 104: “Feeding”

At that moment, the shadows seemed to gain substance. Cold and damp, they bound Klein inside them all at once, turning him into a mosquito trapped in amber.

Klein’s figure was then flattened and squeezed smaller, degenerating into a soft sheet of paper that rapidly rotted into mud.

Paper Figurine Substitute!

Having sensed the danger ahead of time, he had used Paper Figurine Substitute in time!

His figure in black clerical robes appeared at the other end of the dining table, his mouth opening as he was about to produce a bang.

At that moment, Klein’s mind suddenly went hazy, and he felt that everything around him had become blurred and indistinct.

He instantly understood that he had been forcefully pulled into a dream!

And through this, he confirmed one point: his ability to remain lucid and rational inside abnormal dreams had already solidified into one of his own traits. He no longer needed to rely on the gray fog!

After a brief struggle, Klein immediately woke. He saw the shadows inside the room surging toward him like a tide.

Bang!

He opened his mouth and created an air bullet with extremely strong penetrative force and destructive power.

The bullet struck that patch of shadow, directly blasting out a large blank area.

The shadows around the blank spot were like flowing water. They immediately poured backward and filled it, restoring everything to its original state. Klein seized this chance to roll to the side while causing the glove on his left palm to turn pale and take on an eerie green hue.

With a slap, the place where he had originally been was hit by a lump of flesh and blood that had flown out of the shadow, covering it with a dark-red carpet grown with strange mold.

Vaguely, Klein felt as if he had been weakened. He had no time to think deeply and immediately made a layer of ice, wreathed in cold air, spread outward from beneath his feet.

White frost gathered over it and rapidly froze the shadow. Beneath the translucent crystals, blackness twisted and squirmed like oil possessing its own life.

Living Corpse’s Ice Freeze!

Klein rolled again, changing position. At the same time, his glove protruded with one black particle after another, deep and dark.

Immediately afterward, he straightened, faced the shadow beneath the ice layer, and spat out a Demonic word filled with filthy meaning:

“Slow!”

All at once, Klein saw the flowing, squirming speed of the shadow slow down, appearing extremely clumsy. However, his own thoughts also became sluggish, causing him to fail to follow up with another attack in time.

His Filthy Word had been Distorted. It had clearly targeted that patch of shadow, yet had been Distorted to affect the entire living room, thereby influencing himself.

In the span of a single breath, Klein broke free from the slowed state. Without thinking, he lunged to the dining table, picked up a plate holding half a steak, and fiercely threw it toward the shadow.

During this process, although the glove on his left palm still remained deep black, it had gained an evil and noble sensation.

Bribe!

He was using the steak to “bribe” his enemy, weakening the target’s attack, defense, and control abilities!

Just then, the shadow suddenly withdrew to the corner, letting the plate smash into the ice layer that was beginning to melt, shattering into many pieces.

Then the shadow surged upward, evolving into a pitch-black figure wearing a hooded robe.

In the figure’s hand, there was already a transparent, blurry book, accompanied by a distant, ethereal chant:

“I came, I saw, I recorded.”

No sooner had the chant sounded than the book flipped rapidly, creating a blazing white flame spear in front of him.

Mr. A? Has he gone completely mad? In an environment like this, he actually dares to use flame-type Beyonder abilities?

Klein’s heart tightened. His thoughts raced. He hurriedly strode toward the other party while dragging his left hand behind him.

Creeping Hunger rapidly took on a deep, dark color filled with corruption, then condensed into an exaggerated greatsword formed from crimson magma and pale-blue flames.

Thud!

Klein stomped heavily. His waist and back twisted, driving his shoulder forward as he fiercely thrust out his left arm.

The muscles of his arm swelled high, and from below to above, he swung out that Sword of Magma!

Pfft! This gorgeous-looking greatsword struck the flaming spear, and dots of blazing white, pale blue, and vermilion light scattered in all directions at the same time, igniting the chairs and curtains.

The noisy whispers on the street outside had already vanished. The indistinct figures had all turned toward this side, becoming silent to the extreme.

After splitting apart the flaming spear, Klein followed the momentum and bent his knee, kneeling on one leg while snapping his fingers with his right hand.

Snap!

All the flames inside the room were extinguished.

Klein did not move again. He always felt that countless gazes were trying to pierce through the curtains and search for abnormalities.

The hooded man formed from shadows likewise made no movement. He, who had seemed so mad earlier, also appeared to sense some indescribable terror slowly approaching.

Inside the dark house that had only a little crimson moonlight, Klein and the other party, one kneeling on one knee and the other leaning against the wall, seemed to have turned into two stone statues.

In that unbearably extreme silence, time passed abnormally slowly. Klein had only silently counted ten seconds, yet he felt as if an hour had already gone by.

Finally, beast-like low growls sounded once more, wave after wave, intermittent and broken. The indistinct figures outside the window also resumed walking, moving back and forth along the street.

Almost at the same time, Klein completed the initial control of the target’s Spirit Body Threads. The hooded man’s movement, as he tried to lunge forward, instantly became sluggish!

Without hesitation, Klein half-crouched, circled around, and prepared to take advantage of the target’s high-latency state to interrupt the following counterattacks, slowly transforming him into a puppet.

At that moment, however, his nose suddenly itched. He uncontrollably opened his mouth.

Achoo!

Klein sneezed heavily, losing his hold over the Spirit Body Threads. At the same time, his throat began to ache, and mucus gradually formed in his nose.

He had caught a cold!

In the middle of an intense battle, he had caught a cold!

After suspecting the other party was Mr. A, Klein had actually already been guarding against the Demoness’s diseases. He had previously fought Mr. A and had suffered greatly under this ability. But in a battle where there had been no time to think, he had miscalculated one thing: his physique had already deteriorated significantly under the contamination of the real Demoness Panatiya’s plague. It could not last until the marionette transformation was complete. It could not even endure until initial control deepened enough for him to have a chance to launch a fatal Air Bullet attack!

Achoo!

Sneezing again, Klein rolled to shift position. At the same time, he made Creeping Hunger switch to its Baron of Corruption state, preparing to try using Distortion on himself to see if he could reduce the cold’s effects.

Of course, thanks to his earlier “Bribe,” his illness was not yet severe. It would affect his control over Spirit Body Threads, but would not make him unable to fight.

As he rolled, Klein saw from the corner of his eye that the enemy had left the shadow state. The hood slid backward, revealing a beautiful, almost feminine face. It was indeed Mr. A.

This Oracle of the Aurora Order had actually survived in such a terrible environment until now!

However, his eyes were already blood-red. The way he looked at Klein was as if he were looking at a lavish feast. That heartfelt, instinctive hunger was not hidden in the slightest.

At that moment, Klein’s emotions did not sink in the least, because he still had enough strength to fight.

What he was most worried about was not Mr. A, but the fact that the increasingly intense battle between them would create flames they could not afford to care for, drawing in the dangerous beings outside. At that point, both of them would have difficulty escaping death!

Hunger… Strong hunger has already made Mr. A lose his reason completely. He no longer cares about the figures coming and going in the street… If I can ease his hunger slightly, he should stop attacking and patiently wait for the red moon to be hidden by the mist again… Give him some “food”?

As thoughts flashed like lightning, Klein nearly cut off a piece of his own flesh to throw to the other party.

Fortunately, he remembered one thing in time.

He had food on him!

Those were the dried mushrooms Frank Lee had created. It was said they had been crossbred with beef and a little Rose Bishop flesh and blood, and as long as there were fish and water, they could continuously reproduce.

Because this was already a new species on a minute level and no longer had any substantive relationship to Rose Bishops, Klein had kept them together with Sleeping Flower and other commonly used herbal powders. He had never taken them out, nor had he worried that they might trigger a change from the sealing core behind Chanis Gate.

Achoo. With another sneeze and another roll, Klein had already taken out one dried mushroom and thrown it at Mr. A.

Perhaps the beef flavor attracted the other party, or perhaps an induction appeared between Rose Bishops. Mr. A instantly stopped attempting to flip the illusory book, caught the mushroom, stuffed it into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed.

The hunger in his eyes gradually faded a little, but the way he looked at Klein still did not change.

With two swooshes, Klein threw the remaining dried mushrooms over as well. Mr. A caught each of them and, without hesitation, ate them all.

At last, his gaze softened somewhat. He looked at the indistinct figures moving back and forth outside the window, then retreated step by step into the corner, merging into the shadows.

Whew…

Klein soundlessly breathed out and retreated to the opposite wall corner.

Mr. A actually is not dead yet… I have to admit that in this kind of environment, the Rose Bishop’s abilities truly provide enormous help. Just the flesh and blood stored in advance, along with eating himself, can sustain him for a very long time… Of course, the fact that Mr. A has not been killed by Miss Despair Panatiya is enough to show his strength. However, the demigod-level Beyonder abilities he recorded have definitely already been used up…

As Klein thought, he considered his words, wanting to coax some information from Mr. A.

“Have you found any clues for leaving?”

The other side remained silent. Mr. A did not respond at all.

Has he gone so mad that he cannot communicate?

Klein pondered for two seconds, then said a name:

“Leomaster.”

That was the name of the split-personality Black Saint of the Aurora Order.

After a brief silence, Mr. A’s somewhat hoarse voice finally sounded:

“Was he sent in too?”

As expected, only matters of the Aurora Order can get a response…

Klein answered frankly, “No. He is trapped inside the God War Ruins.”

Without waiting for Mr. A to speak, he continued on his own.

“Why have you not entered that church?”

Mr. A said hoarsely and indistinctly, “It is dangerous there. Very dangerous…

“Outside as well. Equally dangerous. All danger comes from there. All the vanished people will reappear beneath the red moon…”

Before his voice had fully fallen, the faint crimson moonlight penetrating the curtains suddenly turned extremely dim.