Chapter 42 Iron Hook Demon
This abandoned chemical plant has cracked brick walls on both sides, but it looks relatively clean from the outside. There aren't many creepers or weeds growing, just a layer of grayish-yellow ash and mud.
Rather than a factory, this place looks more like an abandoned villa or warehouse.
The corridor was not wide, only enough for two or three people to walk side by side. Because there was no lighting at all, once you entered, even at noon outside, it was still pitch black.
As soon as Aiwas entered the room, he smelled a very strong smell of dust and a pungent smell like durian, which was very choking.
Lulu held the child in her arms, coughing softly as she walked inside cautiously.
Even though she knew there was no one here, she still walked cautiously.
She felt her heartbeat quicken—even though she hadn't left the Glass Island yet, she felt a sense of adventure she had never experienced before. Everything here was so new and exciting.
“We came here…”
Lulu whispered, "Is it to avoid the murderer? Since this is a chemical plant, should we get some chemical reagents for self-defense? What if he follows us?"
"He has to find the door first."
Aiwass spoke openly of the overly precise intelligence: "This chemical plant doesn't have a main entrance. The back door here is actually a dead end. The only access point is the back door of the warehouse. After it was abandoned, the main entrance was blocked by the newly built stone warehouse. As the warehouse expanded, it was eventually completely blocked."
"This chemical plant is two stories high, with even higher levels accessible by ladder. Each floor has numerous interconnected rooms, and there are three staircases leading up and down. If there's only one intruder, we have ample space to conduct guerrilla warfare..."
He was halfway through his speech when he suddenly heard a death knell.
So Aiwass immediately fell silent and turned back to make eye contact with the two men.
"The fourth one."
Sherlock said softly.
"There are three of us, plus the Bone Sculptor, so that makes four of us."
Aiwass narrowed his eyes and asked, "Who else do you think can survive?"
"Coco. I suspect she's dual-path."
Sherlock reminded softly, "Do you remember, Fox? Lady Erini mentioned that 'this time there are three advanced people who have multiple paths.'
"You, the Knight, and Lulu are obviously new here. The King and Cheese aren't very smart either. Besides me and the Bone Sculpture, there should be another person... either Basil or Coco."
"I don't have much impression of Ms. Roller."
Lulu leaned in and whispered, "I can't even remember her features."
"This is one manifestation of adaptability: gaining advantage by hiding oneself and blending into the environment. Don't underestimate her—if you think about it carefully, you'll realize that among the nine of us, only Basil has not revealed any information. We know nothing about her."
The newsboy warned, "If this is the New Moon Ritual, the one I'd be most wary of wouldn't be the bone sculpture, but her. Every transcendent who adapts to the Tao is a professional hunter and assassin. I won't rest easy until she's dead."
"What about Coco?"
Aiwass asked in return, "Why do you think Coco is a two-way street?"
"I'm not sure, but I'm more inclined to believe that the third person is Coco. If you want to give a reason..."
Sherlock said, "That's what she meant by 'I'm not a demonologist by trade'.
"She was the last of the two captured, even later than the King. The King is in Star Antimony, so Coco must not be in Avalon either.
"But in Xingtan, although the path of transcendence is legal, ordinary people cannot obtain extraordinary professions other than Demonologist."
"Just like in Avalon, are the only extraordinary professions in the Path of Authority the Law Mage, Arbitrator, and Sky Trooper?"
Lulu asked.
Sherlock corrected him, "To be precise, only Law Masters and Overseers. Not all Overseers can advance to Arbitrators. Even if they reach the required level, they are not allowed to advance without passing the Round Table's review. The necessary condition for the advancement of Arbitrators is to obtain the 'right of arbitration', which allows them to bypass the court system and conduct individual trials."
"Even if an Inspector enters the Inspectorate, they only have law enforcement powers at best. They cannot meet the requirements for advancement to an Arbitrator.
"And the Air Cavalry rank, from which Mr. Knight's Light Cavalry class advances, is a rank unique to the military system... Every Air Cavalry rank is the elite of the elite within the Avalon Army."
"Ah, I know that!"
Lulu's eyes lit up. "Only when the red griffin turns into a talking white griffin can we transform from light cavalry to air cavalry, right?"
"Yes. Only when their griffin companions reach adulthood, their dangerous reddish-brown fur fading to pure white, their stature rapidly increasing from 1.8 meters to over 2.5 meters, their violent tempers becoming calm, and their intelligence increasing to the point where they can speak simple human language... can the light cavalry be promoted to air cavalry. This requires them to constantly strengthen their companions through the power of authority. White griffins consume 30 pounds of fresh meat daily when not training, and double that during training and combat."
"The griffins obtained by ordinary inspectors, due to their different species, can only grow to a maximum of 1.5 meters in their lifetime and cannot learn human language. They only need about five pounds of fresh meat per day and have a lifespan of only thirty years. They are more like loyal pets that can carry people in flight than companions. The white-feathered griffins used by the military can live for hundreds of years - when their human companions die of old age, the griffins are still alive.
"In the Star Antimony Kingdom, the corresponding supernatural profession to the Inspector is the Demon, and the corresponding profession to the Law Master is the Demonologist. An ordinary person who enters the Royal Law University and becomes a supernatural being cannot become a Light Cavalryman upon graduation. Because pure Griffins are scarce, the loyalty of Light Cavalrymen must be guaranteed. Therefore, Light Cavalrymen are only selected from Knight families—just like our Mr. 'Knight,' who wears a helmet during the ceremony."
The Knight may not realize that he is actually the first person to open the box himself, even faster than Lulu.
Because in Avalon, people outside the Knight family are not allowed to privately possess armor. It is likely to be sentenced to death.
This means that his father or mother must have been a knight of the Round Table. That's why he got a knight's helmet and why he became a light cavalryman.
"...A noble from the Xingti Kingdom?"
Lulu murmured, "I heard that Xingti has a family of 'nobles' that are passed down from generation to generation. They have titles, their own lands, and estates. I've read about them in many plays and poems."
Avalon considered Star Antimony an enemy nation, but didn't dare to directly initiate war... Part of the reason was that they couldn't be sure whether the royal curse originated from the Star Antimony Kingdom. Furthermore, power in Avalon was more concentrated in the Round Table Hall than in the Queen... Such a vague excuse wasn't enough to convince the much weaker Avalon to proactively declare war on Star Antimony.
The Xingti Kingdom is now the most powerful country on this continent.
They were once the only empire on this continent, and even after being split into four countries, they remained powerful.
The Kingdom of Star Antimony, founded by Valentine I, who wrote the sacred text of the Path of Balance, "The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony", has now swallowed up two fragments of the former empire and restored 80% of the empire's territory.
Avalon could defeat Iris, but certainly not Star Antimony. Star Antimony's alchemical research, over fifty years ahead of Avalon's, had made its technology exceptionally advanced. They had just launched a war a few years earlier, annexing another neighboring nation that had previously split from the Empire... The massive, regenerating golems on the battlefield were terrifying.
Only when Avalon united with Iris and the Theocracy could a balance of power be maintained. However, if one of them were truly attacked by Star Antimony, the other allies would not necessarily join in the defense unless they demonstrated strong resistance.
But Princess Isabel had another question in her mind:
A noble from such a powerful country...why did he become a transcendent at this age?
Although she looked very young, as if only in her early twenties, Isabel's keen sense of beauty and her knowledge as a woman convinced her that Miss Coco... or rather, Mrs. Coco, was at least thirty years old.
She must have used some alchemical drugs that could preserve her youthful, girlish appearance to maintain it.
Is it too late to become a transcendent in my thirties?
So she immediately reacted and said with certainty: "Keke must be the one with the dual path!"
"Why are you so sure?"
Sherlock asked back.
"Because Miss Coco is not as young as she appears. She must be over thirty years old. She has used alchemical drugs to maintain her youth."
"...I see. That makes sense...the fifth survivor must be Coco."
Sherlock nodded slowly, his expression becoming more serious. "That might not be good."
Aiwass raised his eyebrows: "You mean, the enemy might be a demonologist?"
"Listen, you two. I remembered an incident."
Sherlock whispered, "Ten years ago, in 1888, four years after the present timeline, a serial murder occurred in Lloyd's Quarter. Every eight days, a pregnant woman was killed, her unborn baby brutally dissected and taken out, and her kidneys taken away. This was a clear sign of ritual killing.
"The Inspectorate called it the 'Jack the Ripper' incident. I was sixteen at the time and participated in the investigation of it."
The boy-like detective spoke slowly, "The murderer in this case is a young demonologist who inherited a hook demon from his mentor. It was a demon born over a hundred years ago from the image of 'surgical abortion.' Therefore, he attempted to strengthen this image, using this ritual to strengthen the demon he had acquired."
"We eventually captured him and executed him. But before he was executed, Jack confessed to us that he had another master.
"—He confessed that his master had remained on the Glass Island for a long time, apparently continuously serving a certain individual. Over the past few years, he had killed many people for the mastermind behind the plot. Recently, he had traveled abroad, reportedly destined for the Horus Empire or the Parthian Empire. 'To cross the desert, he needed to maintain his purity, so he transferred the demon to me.' Since then, his master has never returned.
"According to the time calculation, the demon scholar should be on Glass Island now. The Ironhook Demon itself is a low-level demon. It is not strong in frontal combat, but is particularly good at sneak attacks..."
At this point, Sherlock suddenly asked, "Were you cursed when you appeared?"
Aiwass and Lulu looked at each other and said, "We don't have it, but little Aiwass does. It's a curse that's not very powerful, but it's used for positioning."
"That's right!"
Sherlock confirmed: "There were also the same type when I showed up. I dispelled it myself with a spell. This may be the reason why we haven't been attacked yet... The curse location restrains the hiding ability of the adaptive path. The person who just died should be Basil. She persisted for a long time, but still couldn't escape.
"The Iron Hook Demon can use a curse to locate its target and directly leap across space. The Mirror Demon, which also meets the same requirements, needs a mirror as a medium. The Shadow Demon cannot appear at noon. Moreover, these two demons are both high-level demons..."
"Coco is only at the first energy level, right?" Aiwass asked.
"The Transcendent Path itself is well versed in demonic knowledge. The anti-demon rituals she performed should be able to dispel lower-level demons. It's also possible that she transferred her own curse to others."
"So, our enemy is the demonologist who controls the Hook Demon?" Lulu understood.
"Well, to be precise, it's the Iron Hook Demon he's remotely controlling. The only problem is, even though the Iron Hook Demon is only at the second energy level, it's incredibly fast and adept at sneak attacks... making it nearly impossible for a second energy level transcendent to defeat it. Unless one of us has a law mage who can instantly suppress it, we'll have a chance of killing it."
Sherlock frowned and muttered in dissatisfaction, "I wonder how much Bone Sculptor and Coco have increased the difficulty of this ritual—they've increased the difficulty, but they won't cooperate with us!
"The three of us definitely can't defeat the Iron Hook Demon, and even adding the Knight probably won't be enough. He's neither an Overseer nor a Lawmage, but a light cavalryman, with no suppressive power. Given the difficulty of this ritual, we'll need at least Coco or the Bone Sculpture to cooperate in order to have any hope of repelling the Iron Hook Demon."
"Now we can only hope you haven't left any other cursed items behind... A second-level demonologist can only curse one person once a day. I've already been cursed, and you and your wife are the only ones left. With luck, perhaps we can stall for the end... There are only two hours left."
Hearing this, Aiwass subconsciously touched his nose.
...Just say it honestly.
I'm not bragging.
If the enemy is a demon... then the difficulty of this ritual may have been increased accidentally by me.
An update of more than 7,000 words, please give me some monthly votes~
(End of this chapter)
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