Inside the secret room, Buck and Clifford were rummaging for important items when suddenly, the closed door of the secret room boomed again. Buck and Clifford looked towards the entrance in astonishment, seeing the door slowly opening with the sound of the mechanism.
'Who opened the door?!'
This was the shared thought of Buck and Clifford at this moment. They both looked towards the opened door and saw a male figure standing at the end of the corridor outside the study, wearing a trench coat and hat, holding a gun.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The moment the secret room door opened, Edrick, who was standing in the corridor, pulled the trigger and fired continuously at the two people inside the secret room. He kept firing as he walked forward until he reached the entrance of the study.
Bullets rained into the secret room. Buck, who was in relatively good physical condition, dodged all the bullets, while Clifford, covered in injuries, was hit again, wailing and falling to the ground, unable to get up.
'Damn it! Have they caught up already? How did he know the code to open the door?'
Biting his teeth, Buck thought to himself. However, his hands didn't stop moving. After Edrick ran out of bullets, he pulled a dagger from the wall of the secret room and, taking advantage of the empty clip, threw it out. Edrick, standing at the study entrance, dodged the dagger but exposed a large opening.
'Opportunity!'
Seizing the opening, Buck charged into the study with his sword, rushing to Edrick's front at extreme speed and piercing his chest with a single strike. The expression on Edrick's face froze, and then he fell to the ground, lifeless.
"Hoo..."
Seeing the enemy killed, Buck let out a sigh of relief, but his guard remained high. Just then, a crisp sound reached his ears.
"Crack..."
Buck immediately turned his head to look in the direction of the sound. It was none other than the collection room next to his study!
The door of the collection room facing him was wide open, filled with rows of glass cabinets and porcelain vases. There were no electric lights, so it was pitch black, with only sporadic reflections appearing in the darkness.
The sound just now came from here, so Buck was certain there was someone inside. Before he could make his next move, another sound came from within.
And this time, the sound was a wild tremor...
"—Fus—"
A huge sound exploded in his ears, shattering the bottles and glass in the room. Then, a fierce impact, transformed by the sound waves, surged out of the collection room's door, engulfing Buck, who was standing at the study entrance. Buck was blown away, slamming heavily against the wall. The shockwave that swept through the study shattered all the windows, overturned the furniture, and sent all the scrolls flying into the air. Suddenly, the entire room was filled with scattered pages slowly descending like snowflakes.
"Ah ah ah ah!!!"
After the impact, a painful scream came from the wall of the study. At this moment, Buck was leaning there, his entire body pierced with sharp, broken glass and porcelain shards. All sorts of fragments were densely embedded in his body, and blood was flowing out everywhere, turning him completely into a blood person, screaming in pain.
'Bingo, success~'
Squatting in the corner of the dark collection room, Dorothy thought to herself as she witnessed Buck's miserable state. The strategy of using this collection room in conjunction with the Dragon Shout was something she had thought of from the beginning.
Dorothy's Dragon Shout, Unloading Force, had the biggest drawback of not having strong direct damage. If it wasn't used directly in its qualitative third stage, it was merely an area knockdown that could blow people several meters away before they fell. Ordinary people would be knocked senseless, but for Thirsters, the effect wouldn't be very obvious; they would just get up and brush themselves off.
However, if some "ingredients" were added to the impact, the effect would be different. Dorothy hid in the collection room and used the Dragon Shout, turning the shattered glass and porcelain shards into arrows, like a giant shotgun spraying someone all over.
'After being hit like this, even a Thirster should lose their ability to move...'
Seeing Buck lying against the wall, wailing in pain, Dorothy thought this.
'Now it's time to finish him off...'
Just as Dorothy was preparing to control Edrick to get up again, the situation on the scene suddenly changed. From outside the window, a dark shadow flashed in, landing on the ground and slowly standing up. It was a young man with golden hair and a gentle face. He was standing in the study, silently looking around.
'Damn, who is this again?'
Seeing the young man's sudden appearance, Dorothy was startled. She stopped the idea of waking up Edrick and continued to hide in the corner of the collection room, observing the situation in the study through the Corpse Puppet's vision.
"Bill, Bill!? How are you here?" Seeing the young man who suddenly appeared in the study, the originally desperate and painful Buck couldn't help but exclaim in surprise. The young man named Bill silently glanced at Buck and then said,
"I heard gunshots over here, so I asked the Mentor for instructions. The Mentor told me to bring you back."
"Mentor? The Mentor sent you to save me!? That's great! But you have to be careful! Over there! There's an enemy over there! Not the An Yin Bureau, a very strong enemy! You have to be ah ah..."
Buck pointed at the dark collection room as he spoke, eventually unable to speak due to the pain. Bill also looked towards the darkness in the collection room following Buck's direction.
'This is bad... Do I have to fight a Thirster in perfect condition again? I don't have enough Corpse Puppets and Spirituality...'
Seeing Bill's gaze, Dorothy felt a little nervous for a moment. Just as she was preparing to continue fighting, Bill slowly spoke to Buck again.
"My mission is just to take you to the Mentor."
As he spoke, Bill pulled out a few pieces of glass from Buck's body and hoisted him onto his shoulder. Then his gaze swept over Clifford, who was lying on the ground unable to move. He was reaching out and shouting towards them.
"Bill... and me! And me..."
Looking at Clifford, Bill paused slightly. Then he picked up Buck's staff-sword from the side and slowly came to Clifford's front.
"Sorry, Clifford, it'll be too slow with two people."
Saying that, Bill directly plunged the sword into Clifford's body. Then, his expression solidified, and the ruby at the tip of the staff-sword emitted a crimson Light.
"Ah ah! You... What are you doing, Bill!! Ah ah ah..."
Clifford, who was pierced through the body, let out an extremely painful scream. Then, with a distorted expression, Clifford began to visibly shrivel up, instantly transforming from a normal person into a skin-and-bones skeleton covered in skin, and then from skin-and-bones into a mummy.
Finally, Clifford's voice gradually disappeared. The horror on his mummified face became even more terrifying. Bill pulled the staff-sword out of the already dead Clifford. The ruby at the tip of the staff-sword, which was originally dull, was now crystal clear and surrounded by red glow.
'This is... Was the "Cup" also drawn out? Did they have an internal conflict?'
Seeing this scene, Dorothy thought in astonishment. Facing Bill's actions, Buck on his shoulder also spoke in surprise.
"Bill... you..."
"Nothing, it's just easier to take him back this way..." Facing Buck's surprise, Bill looked at the crystal-clear ruby at the tip of the staff and said.
Then, Bill, carrying Buck and holding the staff-sword, leaped out of the window.
After a while, the Corpse Puppet Edrick slowly stood up. After checking outside the window and the surroundings, Dorothy slowly walked out of the shadows in the collection room, facing the mess before her.
And on a piece of Clifford's clothing that was pressed down on the ground, where he had turned into a dried corpse, a very faint glimmer of Light inadvertently flickered.
This faint Light vaguely displayed the mark of the "Lamp".
...
On the other side, on a quiet bank of the Iron Mud River, several spacious double-horse carriages were parked. Among the carriages, members of the Hunter Squad, wearing uniforms, were gathered. In their midst was Eilina, who had removed her mask.
At this moment, Eilina was holding a compass with a constantly spinning needle. Eilina focused intently on the compass needle, causing its rotation to slow down more and more, finally settling in one direction.
Eilina looked in the direction pointed, which was the north bank of the middle and upper reaches of the Iron Mud River, the Silver Riverbank.