Chernobog Mayor's Office.
The mayor's subordinates had noticed that their boss seemed to have changed quite a bit recently.
In the past.
Their mayor was a lecher of the highest order; if he went a week without finding a young lady to 'explore the mysteries of life' with, he'd feel out of sorts, and nothing would taste right. Many officials under him, in an effort to curry favor, would even make a point of scouting nightclubs, bars, universities, and even talent agencies every month to find beautiful young women to introduce to their mayor.
If they managed to please the mayor, they might even get a promotion out of it.
But ever since a month ago.
Marquis Boris had changed significantly.
The man who was once a slave to his lust had now gone a full month without touching a woman.
Marquis Boris showed no interest in the 'beauties' his subordinates sent over, and even gave the man who sent them a harsh scolding.
Marquis Boris's sudden change was as quick and inexplicable as flipping a page in a book.
Even...
His subordinate officials would occasionally speculate.
Why had their Marquis Mayor changed so drastically?
Some guessed.
Perhaps Marquis Boris had grown tired of women, like eating gourmet food every day—even the most delicious meal becomes tiresome if you have it constantly.
Others speculated that Marquis Boris was tired of women and had developed a taste for men.
Hiss...
Some of the younger, more handsome male officials felt their scalps tingle and instinctively covered their rears.
And some speculated...
That the Marquis was no longer capable.
Having overexerted himself in the past, his energy was depleted, and he could no longer perform.
However, a remark from a high-ranking official debunked all these theories. When he was sending over a group of female students, he overheard the Marquis say as he was leaving.
"Not as good as her..."
Everyone began to guess.
Perhaps Marquis Boris had found true love!
"Mr. Mayor!!"
Marquis Boris's secretary came running, handing him an intelligence report as he pushed open the door.
"As per your instructions, we have placed all incoming foreigners and unfamiliar faces under surveillance during this period. Among them... five groups are highly suspicious..."
"The first group... they are living in a long-abandoned villa north of the city center. According to our investigation, there are eight of them. They disembarked from a Landship traveling from Columbia to Ursus a week ago."
"However, although there are ticket purchase records for this group on that Landship, the records feel very suspicious. Later, their first stop after arriving in Chernobog was a Raythean Industries flagship store."
"What's strange is that many people in the surrounding area have no impression of the people in this villa. And... these people rarely appear on street surveillance cameras, which is very suspicious... After all, ordinary people would never deliberately avoid cameras. It's as if they are intentionally hiding themselves."
"The second group...."
A faint smile played on Marquis Boris's lips as he listened to his subordinate's report. His appearance was ordinary, yet his smile carried an inexplicable, sinister charm. A flash of scarlet, sharp and piercing like a serpent's eye, flickered in his gaze. The slightly handsome secretary felt a chill run down his spine.
No way...
Surely the mayor doesn't have *that* kind of hobby.
He subconsciously clenched his buttocks and continued to report the results of his investigation.
"Should we continue the investigation, Mr. Mayor?"
"No need. I will send my own people to follow up."
Marquis Boris shook his head. Before leaving, the secretary asked tentatively.
"Mr. Mayor, I heard that Director Rick sent you a pair of sisters a few days ago, but you didn't seem interested?"
"Hmph..."
Marquis Boris snorted.
He didn't answer, simply dismissing the secretary.
*Although their looks are decent, their bodies are frail, and they have no talent for Originium Arts. They're just ordinary people. How could such women be worthy of becoming my vessel?*
At this thought.
Marquis Boris fondly recalled the young girl of mixed Draco and Lung blood. Her physical body was powerful, and her talent for Originium Arts was absurd. With a body like that, even a pure-blooded Wendigo would be nothing to him. Compared to that girl, the women his subordinates sent were simply too weak.
"Thinking of this."
A thick wave of hatred rose in Marquis Boris's chest again.
"Lucas Reeve, is it!! You just wait!"
If it weren't for the meddling of that idiot peer, I wouldn't have been forced to use this greasy man's body! Talulah's body will be mine sooner or later!!
——————
"We're heading out, Misha, sweetie~"
After a week of living together, Misha and Alina's relationship had progressed by leaps and bounds. Alina's gentleness made Misha, who had long lost her parents, feel the warmth of a family once more. She had even begun to think of Alina as her older sister in her heart.
"Goodbye, Sister Alina, Sister FrostNova. I'll have dinner ready at home for you when you get back~"
Misha waved to them. After they left, she reluctantly returned to the room from the front door, locked the villa's gate, and went back to her room to play by herself.
"Sigh~ Misha is such a good kid. I've always wanted a younger sister."
Alina said happily as they walked.
Even FrostNova nodded in agreement.
At first, Lucas still thought Misha would have trouble adjusting, but he didn't expect her to fit in so quickly.
They had investigated for a whole week.
Only then did they vaguely learn that [Azazel] seemed to be located in a certain hospital, and there were only two hospitals in the entire civilian district.
The hospital in Chernobog's civilian district wasn't large, and its equipment was somewhat outdated. At least, when Lucas walked in, it had the feel of a hospital from the 80s of his previous life—the strong smell of disinfectant, and the paint on the hallway walls was even peeling off in places.
There weren't many people inside, nor were there many nurses and doctors. There was only one nurse sitting at the registration counter by the entrance, with no one queuing in front.
According to Lucas's investigation.
This hospital had been around for a long time, existing since Chernobog was first established. However, due to its outdated and old equipment, most of the highly skilled doctors had been poached by the new hospital next door. Thus, this private hospital had gradually fallen into disuse. Apart from some elderly people, almost no one came here; they would all go to the new hospital closer to the center of the civilian district for treatment.
Lucas didn't go to the registration window.
Instead, he led FrostNova towards the long-abandoned and somewhat overgrown inpatient department behind the outpatient clinic.
Although it was called the inpatient department, it wasn't actually that large, with only four floors in total. The white paint on the walls, lacking maintenance, had mostly peeled off after so many years of wind and rain, exposing the concrete walls underneath. From the outside, many windows were broken, giving it the immediate feel of a haunted hospital.
Just then.
Three figures suddenly walked out of the inpatient department.
They were also taken aback when they saw Lucas and FrostNova.
Two Sarkaz and one Kuranta.
These three...
Lucas carefully sized them up. It wasn't that he was deliberately staring, but two of them were incredibly strong.
One of them, a Sarkaz girl with long, snow-white hair and a beautiful face, but with a flat, icy expression, held a longsword. The 'qi' within her body was immensely powerful. At least, from Lucas's perspective, this girl's spiritual level was ridiculously high.
At the very least...
In terms of pure strength, she was definitely stronger than an Emperor's Blade.
To be honest.
This was the first time Lucas had truly encountered someone, besides Patriot, who was stronger than an Emperor's Blade in a one-on-one fight. He was somewhat surprised and couldn't help but be cautious. The second Sarkaz girl was breathtakingly beautiful, with long, fluffy golden hair like an angel's, and on either side of her head were the horns that represented her Sarkaz identity.
A fusion of angel and demon...
As expected.
Besides the Sankta of Laterano, true angels could appear in any race.
The girl wore a long, snow-white dress, but her physical strength was lacking. Her talent for Originium Arts, however, was absurdly strong. And under the vision of the Transparent World, it seemed her leg muscles had severely atrophied for some reason. Although she could walk with difficulty, she couldn't move quickly and had to rely on the staff in her hand for support.
When she saw Lucas and FrostNova, she subconsciously avoided direct eye contact, hiding behind the other Sarkaz girl.
As for the third Kuranta girl, her strength was much weaker, but this weakness was only relative.
Her individual strength was not on par with an Emperor's Blade.
But she surpassed Franka and was far above the level of an ordinary elite operator.
Franka was once again reduced to a unit of power measurement.
Lucas had truly discovered it.
Ever since leaving Columbia.
The once-elite operator Franka couldn't seem to win a single fight she encountered.
Both parties were somewhat surprised.
However...
After a brief exchange of glances and scrutiny, neither spoke. They even pretended not to see each other, simply brushing past and leaving.
"Looks like we found the right place."
Lucas said slowly.
"One of them should be Infected..."
"So strong..."
FrostNova frowned. "That person holding the sword... she's so sharp. Even though she hasn't made a move, I can already feel her coiled power..."
Lucas looked at FrostNova and sighed.
One could only say that Ursus truly lived up to its reputation as one of the world's great powers. It was full of hidden masters. You could run into an operator of immense strength just about anywhere.
After Lucas and FrostNova stepped into the inpatient department.
One of the Kuranta girls asked with a frown.
"Shining... those two just now... were they also Infected?"
The angel-like lady who had been hiding behind Shining slowly nodded.
"Although they are Infected, I couldn't feel their pain. Their strength and confidence have even suppressed their instinctive fear of Oripathy. They are completely different from the Infected we usually rescue... who are filled with panic, complaints about fate, fear of death, and terror of Oripathy..."
Shining nodded. "That... white-haired Cautus girl is very, very strong... And that Elafia girl is very strange. There seems to be something inside her body that doesn't belong to her... I never thought I'd meet people like this on a rare trip to Ursus...."
As Lucas and FrostNova walked into the seemingly long-abandoned inpatient department, although it looked dilapidated, the floor was clean with little dust, which told Lucas that someone definitely lived here. Just as he was preparing to go deeper.
A tall and burly figure blocked their path.
"What is it... you two..."
Blocking their way was a seemingly very old 'elderly man', but Lucas didn't quite dare to use the term 'elderly man' to describe him. He was incredibly burly, standing over one meter ninety, much taller than the average person. His broad shoulders were like a city wall, capable of sheltering those behind him from wind and rain.
He had a head of snow-white hair and a neatly trimmed, salt-and-pepper beard.
Although he looked old, his skin and general upkeep suggested he was at most in his early forties. His features were handsome and deep, giving off the vibe of a cool older man. On the sides of his head, golden-edged bird feathers seemed somewhat out of place with his snow-white hair.
This was the first time Lucas had encountered someone whose race he couldn't name...
He looked a bit like a bird-type like Silence, but not quite. Bird races were typically small in stature, and even the males were usually slender. Those who joined the military often worked in reconnaissance. But the middle-aged man before him was too burly; his physical build seemed to have surpassed the normal limits for a bird race.
"Can I help you?"
The man's voice was very deep and magnetic, with the scent of a mature man. The strong scent of male pheromones would probably make any other young girl blush and become flustered.
After all.
A handsome older man's appeal to young girls was far greater than that of their peers.
The middle-aged man could clearly sense that the two before him were both Infected, which was why he had taken the initiative to come out.
Lucas sized up the middle-aged man.
He had only one evaluation in his mind: very strong!
Immensely powerful...
Under the Transparent World, this middle-aged man's muscles were trained to the absolute limit of what a normal person could achieve. The impression he gave was not that of a newly forged, sharp-edged sword, but of an old blade that had been through countless battles and cut through who knows how many things...
Based on his apparent strength alone.
He might not be as strong as Patriot, but he wouldn't be far off. He was definitely stronger than a single Emperor's Blade, and might even be comparable to two. It seemed Ursus was truly full of hidden masters... He had only been to a few places and had already met so many top-tier experts who surpassed the peak of humanity.
"Excuse me..."
Lucas asked slowly, "Is this [Azazel]?"
"What about it?"
The middle-aged man neither nodded nor denied it... In this situation, silence was another form of confirmation.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm an Infected from the Reunion Movement. I've come here hoping to establish some form of cooperation with [Azazel]...."
Lucas got straight to the point.