Eldritch Horror Theatre

”What went wrong now?”

Akasha was far from slow-witted. Seeing Ballard’s expression, she instantly realized something else had happened.

”I just received a message from the Prophet. Qiong and the Lord have both lost contact.”

Ballard didn’t keep her in suspense, delivering the news bluntly.

”Two demigods... what happened?”

Even though she had prepared herself, Akasha was clearly taken aback.

”If this were earlier, I would have assumed the two of them had gone into hiding to plot something sinister.”

Ballard narrowed his eyes slightly.

”But given our run-in with that guy just now, I am suddenly inclined to believe they’re already dead.”

”Do you remember what Andiel said? ’You’ll find out soon enough. You won’t even need to rely on divination. Of course, until then, feel free to waste your time on me...’””Of course. You mean to say—”

Akasha seemed to grasp his meaning.

”Yes, there is more than one monster.”

Ballard concluded.

”Aside from Andiel, another group of outsiders has entered the city. And by the looks of it, this other group has the ability to assassinate two demigods simultaneously.”

”How could this happen? What exactly is their goal?”

Akasha could not hide her shock.

That guy’s terrifying destructive power had already left a deep impression on her, and now he was saying an even more vicious group of outsiders was active.

”I don’t know. Considering we have no idea how long it will take those two to undergo Rebirth, unless we catch the killers, we probably won’t find out.”

”But looking on the bright side, that insidious bastard actually did us a favor. Otherwise, we probably would have lost a lot more people before we noticed the anomaly.”

Unwilling to waste any more time, Ballard mounted his horse as he spoke.

”If you want to head to the Base, get in.”

”...Alright.”

Looking at the open door, Akasha hesitated for a moment before finally accepting.

Rebirth. Now that was an interesting term.

As the legendary Covetous Heart Chariot transformed into a dazzling streak of light and sped away, Fu Qian’s figure slowly materialized from the street corner.

That was right. After ”killing” Ballard just now, he hadn’t fled as one might expect, but had concealed himself off to the side.

Naturally, the reckless act of continuously using Blood Crusade for stealth had caused a massive drain on him.

Fortunately, the price had been worth it.

His strike this time was always meant to help the Natives of Unseen Hill realize the gravity of the situation. Murder was never the goal; otherwise, he would have followed up directly with a Visceral Attack.

Even with Ballard possessing miraculous self-healing abilities, Fu Qian highly doubted he could have withstood a few hits of that.

The main reason he hadn’t spoken directly was to pursue maximum efficiency.

As everyone knew, important figures were paranoid by default and only ever trusted their own conclusions.

Therefore, when dealing with such people, body language was often far more effective than speaking plainly.

And sure enough, after taking a trip to death’s door, the paranoid demigod clearly had not disappointed him. He had rapidly drawn a ”logical” deduction and believed it firmly.

He believed that from now on, alongside the outsiders, the Natives would be accelerating their pace as well.

...

Even beyond that, he had harvested some interesting information.

First of all, Ike and his group seemed to have reaped quite a harvest, having already quietly taken out two demigods.

Combined with the fact that they had previously targeted him while letting the clown go, there was good reason to suspect the Hunting Squad was exclusively selecting targets possessing divinity for this operation.

Furthermore, Ballard had mentioned ”Rebirth.”

From the sound of it, would those two dead demigods return at some later point?

For a moment, Fu Qian found himself far more curious about the form of life’s existence in this place.

The only disappointment was that Ballard had seemed completely indifferent to his deliberate mention of the flames.

This Native seemed to know nothing about it and was completely insensitive to it.

Surely it couldn’t refer to the sparks of passion colliding between the Hunting Squad and their prey?

That would be far too abstract!

Amidst his sighs, Fu Qian recalled a certain direction and melted into the crowd.

After dropping Ballard earlier, he had decisively used a Thread of Attachment on Akasha.

On one hand, it was to create a tense atmosphere; on the other, it was to leave a clue for tracking.

To control the situation, in addition to the Hunting Squad, the reactions of the prey were equally worthy of his attention.

And facts proved that a Thread of Attachment could only be maintained one at a time.

Once the connection with Akasha was established, the previous thread had snapped accordingly.

Fortunately, he had memorized its final location.

...

He had to admit, odd as it was, the level of comfort was still pretty good.

This time, Fu Qian did not continue walking; instead, he boarded a carriage, sighing silently a moment later.

Along the way, he could feel the intensity of the entire city ramping up at a visible pace.

There was good reason to believe this had a lot to do with his accelerating actions.

Although he didn’t have much of a concept of the Base Ballard had mentioned, if the transcendents here truly had a loose alliance, news of a lethal threat from outsiders was bound to spread quickly.

And once that spread to the ears of the other demigods, it was impossible for it not to trigger a strong reaction.

Just as mentioned before, every demigod was a massive cog.

Any anomaly in their movements would surely soon transmit to the entire city.

Take the one right in front of him, for example.

...

At that moment, Fu Qian was leaning back in the corner of a six-seat carriage, and sitting directly opposite him was a gentleman with multicolored hair and a white-painted face.

Indeed, it was the very same clown who had cleaved his carriage in half with a GG Card not long ago.

While selecting his transport earlier, Fu Qian had discovered this somewhat familiar aura and decisively chosen this carriage.

Of course, he wasn’t doing anything as boring as seeking revenge; he was just curious.

At this moment, the clown clearly lacked the drive he’d had when they first met.

Not only had he boarded a carriage—his most hated mode of transport—but his eyes were even a bit dim, looking somewhat as though his life had lost its meaning.

Wasn’t this shift a bit too fast?

Even if he had previously slipped up and failed to smash him to death too, he shouldn’t be this despondent, right?

Weren’t villains supposed to be bending a hundred times without breaking, and full of drive?

For a moment, Fu Qian’s mind was filled with question marks.

Setting aside the fact that this guy hadn’t even reached the demigod realm yet, he himself didn’t look like the type to fear death anyway.

What could be the direct cause?

This guy’s actions undoubtedly marked him as a vile character, simply sitting at the opposite extreme from Ballard.

Even after wreaking havoc with absolute abandon, he had still actively jumped out to express himself.

And his Rank was close to Catherine’s...

As his thoughts raced, Fu Qian seemed to grasp something—

After running amok, he should have been destroyed or captured by a figure like Ballard, but instead he had gotten off scot-free, resulting in him feeling lost and losing his sense of self?