Caesar fiercely beat Hanass , who was under his feet, while thinking of a solution in his mind.
Simply harming Hanass ' physical body wouldn't work, because he would constantly revive; he had to approach it from a mystical perspective. However, the so-called demon-hunting bullets just now weren't effective enough; there had to be a more potent method.
Speaking of which, Hanass turning into this monstrous appearance should be due to abilities he gained from the True Creator. I happen to be a Secrets Suppliant, I wonder if there's any knowledge about this in the potion...
Caesar quickly searched through the mystical knowledge he had acquired while riding in the carriage, and he actually found it! In the section concerning rituals, he discovered a ritual that perfectly matched Hanass ' current state.
This ritual was called "Sanctuary's Descent."
Sanctuary's Descent, an evil ritual that could strengthen oneself. It required the caster to sacrifice the lives of two closest relatives to obtain the True Creator's blessing. If the ritual succeeded, the True Creator would bestow a corrupted aura into the caster's body, helping him to fuse the heads of his two closest relatives onto his body. These two heads would gain various unique effects such as "Defiled Speech," "Amplified Chanting," and "Physical Enhancement," greatly boosting the caster's abilities.
Using closest relatives as sacrifices? What a crazy ritual. Caesar thought, even among the many Dark rituals of the Secrets Suppliant, this was an extremely extreme one.
But this ritual had already succeeded, how could it be terminated?
Caesar pondered for a moment, and then a bold idea suddenly struck him.
The reason these two heads could remain fused was because of the wisp of corrupted aura left by the True Creator in Hanass body. Since that was the case, as long as that wisp of aura was extracted, Hanass would naturally be finished!
Thinking of this, he stopped his attack, reached his hand to his ear, dabbed some of the blood flowing from his ear, and used this blood as pigment to draw a pattern on his right palm.
It was a wildly blooming blood rose, and at the center of its layered petals was an inverted cross. The pattern was simple, yet it gave off a sense of prosperity, corruption, and evil—this was precisely the True Creator's holy emblem.
Caesar finished drawing this twisted symbol with obvious disgust, then spread his palm, aiming it at Hanass . He wanted to use himself as a vessel to extract the True Creator's aura. Based on everything that had happened before, he guessed that the aura would probably prefer his own body.
Moreover, his body was protected by that illusory tide, so the corrupted aura wouldn't be able to take effect!
"You blasphemer!"
Hanass cursed.
Caesar completely ignored him, instead murmuring in a language he himself had never mastered:
"Praise the Lord's rebirth, for corruption is all salvation."
After speaking, he acted decisively, pressing his blood-stained palm onto Hanass ' forehead.
"Ah ah ah ah ah!"
As soon as their skin touched, Hanass let out a piercing wail, his body instantly turning crimson, like a cooked shrimp arching its back and struggling desperately. Both faces also cried out in unison. He twitched a few times, then stopped moving, his body becoming like a candle heated up, melting into a puddle of goo.
Caesar was also not feeling well; an evil and defiled aura surged into his body through his palm, rushing straight to his head. Intense pain radiated from everywhere it passed, as if countless tiny mouths were gnawing at his flesh and blood. He watched helplessly as the skin on the back of his hand burst open with a "pop," revealing the bright red muscle and pale yellow fat beneath. The crack opened up his arm, and faintly, the flesh seemed to begin to squirm and deform...
Fortunately, at this moment, the corrupted aura collided with the illusory tide in his mind. The tide enveloped the aura, and while digesting it, the tide itself also dissipated. In just a few short seconds, they canceled each other out and turned into nothingness.
As the True Creator's aura dissipated, the exposed flesh on Caesar's arm stopped squirming and deforming, instead slowly healing and rejoining.
My guess was indeed correct.
Caesar only felt a wave of weakness, so he simply sat down on the ground, breathing softly. That illusory tide could indeed block the True Creator's erosion just like when he eat the Beyonder Characteristics and almost went mad.
He didn't know what it represented, but he instinctively felt it must be something very important.
It might be my transmigrator's benefit, like a fixed SAN value or something...
Caesar thought with self-mockery.
The hall was a mess. He sat miserably, a few meters away from the corpse, Klein, still heavily injured, not yet risen, looked at him with some surprise. Their eyes met, and there was a bit of awkwardness between them.
Should I say something...
Fortunately, the hurried sound of a carriage from outside broke the awkwardness. Several messy footsteps quickly sounded before the carriage even stopped, until the owners of the footsteps pushed open the door and burst in. Caesar looked back; they were precisely Dunn Smith and his party who had just left.
"This... this is..."
Leonard looked at the tragic scene in the hall and Hanass ' horrifying corpse in shock, speechless for a moment.
Caesar, however, gave a bitter smile, and facing Dunn's deep and surprised gaze, he said with a hint of helplessness and complaint:
"Mr. Dunn... why are you only just arriving?"
— — — —
"So, you solved the strengthened Hanass using the knowledge of a Secrets Suppliant?"
Stepping on the corroded floor, Dunn slowly asked.
Shattered high-end tea sets, overturned solid wood tables and chairs, partitions with large holes burned through them... The originally well-decorated Blackthorn Security Company hall had become dilapidated. It looked as if it had been ransacked by a group of hooligans and bandits. The injured Klein and the unconscious Royale Reideen had both been sent to the back for treatment, leaving only Hanass ' supine corpse—or should it be called liquid?—on the floor.
"Uh, it was mainly thanks to the two Nighthawks."
Caesar smiled, for some reason, when Dunn's deep eyes stared at him, he always felt a little uncomfortable, "I just found an opportunity to ambush him, and coincidentally knew the solution to the ritual..."
He recounted the events in detail. Dunn listened calmly, occasionally interjecting with questions about combat details. After Caesar finished speaking, he picked up the cane Caesar had used to beat Hanass from the ground and walked to the puddle of flesh that was Hanass .
Hanass had completely melted, leaving only his heavily corroded black robe spread out in the flesh. In this flat expanse of flesh, two head-sized protrusions were visible beneath the black robe, appearing very abrupt.
Dunn gripped the cane, stirring it into the flesh, and carefully used the end of the cane to lift a corner of the black robe, looking inside.
When he saw what the two protrusions inside were, his eyes flickered, and he seemed to let out an almost inaudible sigh.
"Leonard."
He called out.
"What is it, Captain?"
Leonard was holding a broom, casually sweeping the broken porcelain pieces on the floor. Hearing Dunn's call, he looked up.
"Go to the police station and find Police Inspector Toler. Tell him we have a third crime scene and need him to come handle it."
"Yes."
Leonard said. After he put down the broom and put on his coat, he couldn't help but laugh again, "I can just imagine Police Inspector Toler's face when he hears the news... Heh heh, three murder scenes in one night, he'll go crazy."
Hearing him say that, Caesar also recalled the police officers with bitter faces cleaning up the scenes.
Wait a minute, three scenes? He paused, then quickly reacted, "Mr. Dunn, did you go to Hanass ' house but didn't find him, only discovering a blood sacrifice scene?"
"That's right."
Dunn looked down at Hanass ' flesh and said, "It's truly strange. Why would Hanass wake up in the middle of the night, then blood sacrifice his family, and precisely find the Blackthorn Security Company here? I really don't understand."
What should have been a simple arrest nearly led to very dangerous consequences. They coincidentally missed the target, causing the headquarters to be vulnerable. If it weren't for Caesar's unexpected contribution, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
It was almost like a... coincidence filled with malice.