Chapter 44 Then, Aiwass began to hunt

“—It’s a curse.”

Aiwass's expression darkened as he immediately determined the nature of the curse: "It's the Blood Curse."

This painful curse, inflicted using venomous scorpions, snakes, and living poisonous toads, and channeled through menstrual blood, causes the person to experience three times the pain of menstrual cramps, tormenting them for anywhere from half an hour to six hours, depending on their resistance to the curse.

Sherlock's expression suddenly became serious, and a deep blue light instantly bloomed in his pupils.

A cold, rational and mysterious light shone from the bottom of his pupils. He stretched out his left little finger and drew a rune in the air that looked like a crutch.

"Water is better than blood, just as the pure is better than the impure."

He recited to himself as he picked up the bottle of pure water from the table.

Sherlock turned it over directly, but the water did not fall to the ground, but filled the rune.

When it was full, it suddenly collapsed into a ball of water, then flew forward and smacked Lulu in the face.

As the water splashed, the clean water turned into foul-smelling blood when it splashed out of his face, dripping onto the ground.

Lulu's low, painful wails suddenly ceased, but she continued to vomit blood.

Aiwass reached out and felt around, only to find that the back of her neck and chest were unusually cold.

He frowned and said, "You didn't solve it completely, you only solved half of it."

Sherlock took a quick look and, judging by Lulu's symptoms, said, "This curse is a bit complicated. It looks like her esophagus and stomach are being corroded by the curse, and the medium shouldn't just be menstrual blood. This is a compound curse, so you should handle it...professionals should handle professional matters."

"Well, I'll do it."

"Do you have enough mana?"

"At least it's enough to cure her."

Aiwass replied.

He helped Lulu up and made her sit half-way with her face down to prevent her from choking on the dirty blood she coughed up.

Then Aiwass stretched out his left hand, and his five fingers dug into the thick and dense platinum hair of "his wife". He grasped her somewhat cold neck with the base of his palm, and pressed the tip of his left middle finger against the back of her head.

His expression was heavy and solemn, and a light as bright as the setting sun ignited in his azure eyes.

When he resonates with the Tao, he emits a deep red and golden glow, symbolizing the excess of fire element in the Tao of Dedication.

——This was the most obvious therapeutic effect of Aiwass’s “Lighting Technique”.

Pitch-black smoke hissed continuously from the back of Lulu's head, even dulling her platinum hair. Her body convulsed violently, shaking at an extremely high frequency. Yet, she gritted her teeth and remained silent, fearing she might wake little Aiwass... However, she could still suppress a muffled groan.

"We have a visitor, and he's not very friendly."

Sherlock said dimly, "Leave it to me, you continue the treatment."

He reached out and threw the sulfuric acid on the table directly, letting it fall on the wall.

But at the moment the bottle shattered, he stretched out his right hand, clenched it into a fist, and suddenly punched the bottle of sulfuric acid through the air.

The transparent, oily concentrated sulfuric acid didn't splash out. Instead, it was filled with a dark green gas, causing it to bulge slightly... like a fist, or a beating heart. It was more viscous than sulfuric acid, yet its volume had increased significantly.

The next moment, Sherlock opened his right hand into a claw and vaguely grabbed the corner not far from where the bottle of sulfuric acid fell.

There was an unnatural shadow there, gradually becoming clearer and redder.

Long-distance teleportation requires time to manifest. After Lulu was cursed, Sherlock kept observing his surroundings.

The Fox had chosen a good spot. In this enclosed factory, the brightness should be uniform.

Whenever a place suddenly becomes dark or bright, it is a sign that the Iron Hook Demon is teleporting in!

The ball of oily green viscous liquid floating in the air also formed sharp claws at the same time and grabbed towards that position!

Like a baby crying, or an old cat calling, a shrill and unusual sound emanated... a high-pitched sound that could penetrate the eardrum, making one feel as if something was buzzing in the ear.

But even so, the sleeping little Aiwass was not awakened. He just struggled in pain as if he had a nightmare.

"I hate rude kids."

Sherlock murmured darkly, "Especially the loud ones..."

His spells cause very effective damage and control -

Only as tall as his calves, his entire body was red, with two legs and four arms... The little devil, who had a head that looked like a bald fat man and a ferocious baby, was grabbed tightly by the sulfuric acid claws as soon as he appeared!

There was a hissing sound of burning, and it was unable to break free for a moment.

The sulfuric acid claws made of liquid seemed to have a solid body inside, holding it firmly in place and burning it continuously!

——The situation seems to be going well, but Sherlock does not feel any joy at all.

Because he could clearly feel that when he was guiding and maintaining the spell, the water and earth attribute magic power in his body was burning rapidly.

He had used a bit of water-attribute mana when he cleansed the curse on himself, and only the last two points of water-attribute mana remained.

Even if he used his own Dao characteristics to forcibly use his most abundant earth attribute mana to replace water attribute mana to activate the bottle of concentrated sulfuric acid, construct the "Water Demon Hand", and bear half of the subsequent maintenance mana consumption, this spell still required at least half of the water attribute mana to maintain.

Two points of water attribute mana plus two points of earth attribute mana are only enough to maintain this spell for forty seconds.

It is more than enough for flesh and blood humans.

A single activated sulfuric acid claw, capable of reaching speeds of up to twenty meters per second, was enough to easily dispatch a squad of ordinary men. A water demon's hand, constructed from pure water, could temporarily melt and penetrate armor; and a water demon's hand, constructed from earth-attributed mana, could easily crush trees and shred leather armor.

But even so, it's highly unlikely that the Iron Hook Demon will be killed. The only hope is to injure or scare it off.

As long as the "fox" can dispel the compound curse on "Lulu" as soon as possible, it will be considered a victory!

Because if there's no cursed person nearby, the Ironhook Demon can't teleport, so its threat... at least not that great.

……etc?

Sherlock's expression suddenly changed as he realized something.

curse?

Although he didn't know much about this, he knew a principle.

That is, the difficulty of repeatedly cursing a person will increase. Cursing will also increase the cursed person's resistance to curses, and a medium used once cannot be used again.

That is to say, within the limited time of four hours, the enemy may only be able to curse each of them once.

If that's the case, Coco might not have built an anti-demon array... but instead, like me, directly dispelled the curse on herself, rendering the positioning ineffective!

Among the Alexanders, the first one to be cursed was not the "fox".

——But it’s “Little Aiwass”!

Now that he and Lulu have both been cursed... then the fox will be next!

Thinking of this, Sherlock's heart sank.

Oops.

This is the disadvantage of the path of devotion.

He could easily remove curses from others, but he couldn't use Illumination, the secret art of burning oneself to illuminate others, on himself.

By the way, priests can use "Fire Sacrifice"!

...But there are no candles here!

"fox!"

Amid the Hook Demon's shrill screams, Sherlock suddenly asked loudly, "Can you use 'Sacrificial Fire' on burning wood or chemical reagents?"

"...You think too highly of me, don't you?"

Aiwass was helpless and responded loudly, "Besides, the healing power of Fire Sacrifice is far less powerful than that of Illumination. Even if I could use it, I, at the first level, can't dispel a second-level curse!"

...That's true.

Sherlock wasn't that familiar with the Path of Devotion. But he just remembered... That Aiwass Moriarty was also a priest, yet he was confined to a wheelchair. Perhaps the source of the damage was too high-level for the sacrificial fire to dispel.

Because the Priest's "Fire Worship" is essentially about "recovery," not "healing" or "regeneration." This means that the higher the level of the source of damage, the more difficult it is to heal. True "regeneration," the ability to restore health solely through the body's own healing power, occurs in the Path of Adaptation and the Path of Balance.

But when Sherlock heard the fox say this, he knew that this clever and cunning young man had also realized the problem.

"So what are you going to do?"

Sherlock asked.

"What else can I do?"

Aiwass replied briskly, "Aren't we all sure to win?"

As he spoke, he had successfully dispelled the curse from Lulu.

When he said this, Sherlock knew what Aiwass was going to do.

The Iron Hook Demon's screams stopped abruptly.

It's clearly not dead—it's still in good health. It must have been recalled by its owner.

Aiwass breathed a sigh of relief.

"Don't look over here, Mr. Sherlock."

He warned her, unbuttoned Lulu's coat, and told her to lie on her side. He reached under her skirt and touched her chest directly with his left hand. Using his remaining light-attribute mana, he activated the "Illumination" spell.

"You are."

Sherlock didn't look back, but retorted, "Don't touch her—Miss Lulu is still a young girl."

He added in his mind: And she is a princess.

"Of course I do."

Aiwass responded angrily, "Who do you take me for? A beast who attacks children?"

He subconsciously treated Lulu as a child.

As a courtesy, Aiwass touched the side and back of her heart instead of the front.

The blazing, bright mana flowed through her limbs and bones as her heart pumped vigorously, rapidly regenerating the corroded mucous membranes in her throat and stomach. Lulu's minor injuries healed easily, requiring only a small amount of Aiwass's mana.

After Aiwass pulled his hand away, Lulu stood up and the first thing she did was to tidy up her clothes.

"...Thank you, Mr. Fox."

Lulu blushed slightly, but she still thanked Aiwass earnestly: "You didn't have to save me..."

"You mean, kill you?"

Sherlock was the first to react.

"I refuse."

Aiwass said lazily, "If it was Basil here, maybe she would do that. But I won't."

After he said that, he walked back the way he came.

"--Mr. Fox?"

Lulu was startled and subconsciously wondered if she had said or done something wrong again.

Aiwass stopped, turned around and said leisurely:

"The devil can't find you anymore. But he can still find me... The ceremony will be over in an hour. So as long as I don't stay with little Aiwass, we've already won.

"Since victory requires a dedicated sacrifice, it can only be me. You all stay here and don't move."

Aiwass said, looking at Sherlock, and asked casually: "Oh, right. Do you have a dagger? I plan to take at least some personal belongings, otherwise I will be a little nervous."

"...Do you want a paper cutter?"

Sherlock pulled out a knife.

It was a paper cutter that newsboys carried with them, and it had no power at all.

But suicide is enough.

Sherlock thought the fox wanted the knife so he could use it to commit suicide after he had lured the demon out - that way at least he would be spared the pain of being disemboweled.

"Alright."

Aiwass took it and said, "It's better than nothing."

"Do you want me to help you? I can make your death more painless."

"I'd better die outside, otherwise Lulu will be scared."

Aiwass said briskly.

Of course, he didn't want this knife to commit suicide.

As long as he can cut himself and use the "pastoral method" conveniently, it's fine... otherwise he might have to bite.

——Yes, pastoral law.

The skill "Shepherding (Flesh)" belongs to the Path of Devotion. Perhaps it was because he had read the Shepherd Tantra and mastered the Shepherding Method that the ritual assigned them the demon "Iron Hook Demon" as their enemy... and therefore believed they had the potential to kill this powerful enemy and find the murderer.

This is because the difficulty of this mission, in addition to the bone sculpture and Sherlock, also takes into account the pastoral care methods possessed by Aiwass and the demonic knowledge he possesses!

As long as he successfully completes the pastoral method, he will be able to control this low-level demon.

Even the Shadow Fiend couldn't resist Aiwass's blood... The Hook Fiend was much weaker than the Shadow Fiend.

Moreover, the Iron Hook Demon's intelligence is like that of a three-year-old child, which makes him considered the most mentally retarded even among the lower-level demons.

This hook demon had not been specially trained in intelligence. His master obviously did not have this technique, or he did not think that there was anyone in Avalon who was familiar with the characteristics of the hook demon.

After being caught by Sherlock, it could only scream and squeak, and did not know how to use teleportation to break free from the restraints - it could do so with training and special strengthening.

Jack the Ripper underwent this type of enhancement, making him much more difficult to deal with.

According to the original and ideal development, the Hook Demon should appear in front of "Little Aiwass" and then be controlled by Aiwass.

After Sherlock used his wisdom to gather everyone together, he should form a nine-person team with clear responsibilities and follow the clues of the Hook Demon to find the door.

That's really easy difficulty.

But just as the bone carving refused to cooperate with them...

The ritual also failed to determine that Aiwass "did not want to reveal his possession of pastoral law" - especially not to Sherlock.

Because of this, the difficulty has been increased so much for no reason.

After all, the Fox identity had to remain clear and honest. This was a superficial identity Aiwass had deliberately created to be exposed.

That's why he deliberately maintained his image in front of the two of them.

What he wanted was to use the identity of a fox to hide his other identity that transcended the Tao!

Aiwass was right.

For Sherlock and Lulu, the ceremony was over—they had won.

Ensuring Little Aiwass's survival and ensuring he played to the end, these two necessary tasks were essentially accomplished.

But for Aiwass, who is pursuing higher scores and exploring the truth...his adventure has just begun.

Aiwass turned his back to the translucent door, hiding his murderous intent, smiled, nodded slightly and waved.

He said his last goodbyes to Sherlock, who had a complicated expression, and Lulu, who was somewhat sad and reluctant, and delivered what they thought were his "last words" before his heroic death:

"Keep an eye on 'our child,' Lulu. Sing him another lullaby. He doesn't seem to be sleeping well. He seems disturbed.

"And, Mr. Sherlock. I'll come find you if I have time...if I have time."

They will definitely be impressed by me.

——And now, I will start hunting.

Aiwass muttered to himself.

Today’s update is 8,000 words, and I wrote until 7:30 in the morning...!

If there are any typos, leave a message and I will correct them when I get up! The dungeon will end tomorrow!

The number of readers has reached 7,000! I am still asking for votes and reading~

(End of this chapter)