"I'm not a demigod of the Prisoner Path, that's a fallacy," he whispered softly, his transformation into a state of resentment complete. He raised his secretive state, maintaining the protection granted to him by the secretive badge.
In an instant, Lin Ruo infiltrated and rushed toward Harras, who was in the midst of cutting a steak.
Harras suddenly felt a chilling cloud permeating his body, occupying every inch, even his mouth, and his limbs were no longer his own.
This is bad! Possessed by a vengeful spirit!
Though his thoughts remained unaffected, Harras, well-versed in relevant materials, responded immediately.
However, it was of no use. Possession by resentment was inherently a potent control technique. If Lin Ruo were only a Sequence 5, Harras might have a chance to resist. But now, Lin Ruo wasn't a Sequence 5 Wraith; he was a Sequence 4 Puppet using a demi-god body to forcefully possess a Sequence 6. The result was clear.
All of this transpired within a second.
Externally, it appeared that Harras had only hesitated momentarily before continuing to slice the steak on his plate as if nothing had occurred.
Meanwhile, subtle changes were unfolding on the long table.
Capim, mildly endowed, looked stunned as his newly acquired life, gifted by Lin Ruo, went unnoticed. The tablecloth binding him remained inert. His hand, gripping the knife, jerked suddenly, stabbing into his own neck.
"What—"
His scream echoed through the restaurant. Capim instinctively tried to remove the knife from his neck, yet it seemed to possess a life of its own, plunging deeper. He couldn't even howl; his vocal cords and trachea had been severed in a matter of seconds.
This wasn't an isolated incident. In fact, at that moment of abnormality, all inanimate objects within the restaurant transformed into menacing entities. Lin Ruo had imbued these items with life and a murderous intent.
Capim undoubtedly suffered the worst fate in the restaurant. As an ordinary person, he lacked any defense against these Beyonder circumstances and was swiftly stripped of life. Beyond Capim, the most unfortunate among the Beyonders was Harras.
Of those assigned to protect Capim, Harras was the strongest. Paradoxically, he was the first target for Lin Ruo. Possessed by the resentful soul, he was defenseless against the malevolent aura emanating from the surrounding objects, and he was grievously injured in an instant.
Yet, the other two Beyonders didn't fare much better. Tableware assailed them, food sought to choke them, chairs exploded unexpectedly, and they were caught off guard.
The might of a demigod was overwhelming for Beyonders of lower and middling sequences, particularly given the planning and ambush from a demigod against those of lower and middling sequences. No one could withstand such circumstances.
And Lin Ruo had only been outside the secretive state for ten seconds.
A mere ten seconds, yet the entire restaurant was awash in blood, whether among the Beyonders or regular patrons. Some sustained injuries, while others lost their lives like Capim, if not worse.
But the Beyonders assigned to protect Capim hadn't responded. Though caught off guard, Lin Ruo remained entirely unscathed.
Among them, Harras, the highest in sequence, currently under Lin Ruo's control, clearly desired death the most. As Lin Ruo commanded the lifeless forms in the dining room to assail, focusing his energy on them, Harras's iron-black metal gloves suddenly emitted a compelling energy.
Though this didn't change Harras's fate of being gravely wounded by an inanimate entity while under forced control, it momentarily severed Lin Ruo's control. Seizing this opening, Harras, speaking swiftly, stated solemnly:
"Spirits and phantoms, be banished from this place!"
But this had no impact on Lin Ruo. Not due to a lack of Beyonder power, but because Lin Ruo had foreseen the potential countermeasure. The instant Harras's action unsettled him, Lin Ruo abandoned his possession of the Wraith Soul state and almost simultaneously uttered:
"I am not a demigod of the Sailor Pathway, that's a fallacy."
In an instant, Lin Ruo transitioned from puppet to Cataclysmic Interrer, appearing beside the dying Harras.
His abrupt appearance was naturally shocking. Despite his broken legs, Harras clung to consciousness, enduring pain as he retrieved his gun. He instinctively raised his weapon toward Lin Ruo, only to be met by Lin Ruo's smile.
Then, in the next heartbeat, silvery-white lightning engulfed the entire restaurant. Everyone present had their legs deliberately injured by Lin Ruo's earlier assault. Now facing a storm-domain ranged attack from a demigod, none could evade effectively; all were swallowed by the argent lightning.
At this point, only thirteen seconds had elapsed since Lin Ruo's appearance!
His supernatural power remained untapped, yet Lin Ruo wouldn't wait for the lightning's end. In fact, after launching the assault, he'd relinquished his demigod state. Activating the secret badge, he awaited the lightning's conclusion in the secretive state.
This approach effectively shielded him from the backlash and guaranteed that after this bout of lightning, any survivors could be finished off promptly.
As the room's lightning finally faded, nobody in the space—aside from Lin Ruo—still drew breath.
This outcome wasn't unexpected. As the most potent attacker among the twenty-two pathways, a Cataclysmic Interrer's lightning could immobilize a typical demigod, let alone this assembly previously weakened by Lin Ruo. Beyonders and ordinary folk alike were casualties.
Observing the scene, Lin Ruo, in his secretive state, couldn't help but curl the edges of his mouth. Emerging from the state, he scavenged valuables from several bodies while awaiting the appearance of these people's Beyonder characteristics .
It didn't require much time, though it was regrettable that due to the lightning's ferocity, aside from Harras's iron-black metal gloves, most items were devoid of Beyonder characteristics. They were magical items, enchanted but not innately Beyonder. Regrettably, little survived the lightning's assault.
Thankfully, the Beyonder characteristics of these three provided ample compensation for these losses. Lin Ruo harvested these characteristics, surveying the wreckage and laughing involuntarily.
"Could this be counted as a resounding success in the hunt?"