Chapter 45: Departure |
Who was that?!!
Marco’s figure flashed. The instant the voice rang out, a dart tempered with deadly poison and anti-magic runes had already shot out soundlessly, stabbing straight toward the shadow where the voice had come from!
The others also became alert in their own ways, either hiding in the dark or directly drawing their weapons and aiming them toward the source of the voice.
The dart turned into a streak of light and passed silently through Isos in the corner shadows, then sank into the sturdy wall behind him, built from special stone, and disappeared.
Marco’s pupils contracted sharply, and cold air surged up from the bottom of his heart. A weapon with anti-magic properties being ignored like that—this kind of bizarre creature had already gone beyond the limits of what he could handle.
The attacks that followed came right on the heels of the dart—various poisoned darts, blow arrows, and webs came one after another, and some even tried to cast Shadow Binding and Mental Shock.
Isos ignored them all, allowing the attacks either to pass through his body or be directly absorbed, leaving large patches of charred marks and corroded holes on the wall.
His attention was entirely on that mottled-fur bearman. The other party clearly had not heard his words and was still continuing forward.
All of the other party’s spirit and will were in a final struggle against the magical contract and the deadly poison.
In the next moment, Isos’s figure flashed, ghost-like, to appear in front of Mino, and his pitch-black arm directly sank into the bearman’s broad chest.
Surging and pure dark energy instantly shattered the mental shackles of the magical contract, tightly locked onto his life force, and at the same time began to devour the lethal toxins inside him in reverse.
Everything happened in the span of a spark.
When Isos withdrew his hand, Mino collapsed to the ground with a boom as though all the bones had been removed from his body, and began greedily gasping for air. His eyes were full of confusion and bewilderment. He had no idea what had happened.
For these assassins and thieves, the contract and poison that were so troublesome were no different from nothing in front of Isos. This was not a difference in strength, but a restraint at the level of essence.
A magical contract was equivalent to adding a lock into their consciousness, or rather, a segment of code. For ordinary living beings, it was very difficult for them to precisely control or interfere with their own consciousness.
But for a Shadow Demon, all emotions and consciousness were transparent. This kind of low-level magical contract could basically be broken with a casual hand.
Isos ‘turned his head’ to look outside the warehouse. The bear warriors were still advancing steadily, without rashly approaching.
“There isn’t much time. I’ll only say this once.”
Isos shifted his ‘gaze’ back onto the mottled-fur bearman, and his hollow voice rang out again. This time, no one made another rash move. They only stared fixedly at this bizarre creature.
“In view of the help you ‘gave’ me, I can give you and them one chance to survive.”
It was not that Isos had suddenly grown compassion, or developed some saintly soft heart or anything. He simply did not have such a thing!
At least, not now!
He had been born in darkness, and what he sensed most were extreme negative emotions like hatred, fear, madness, greed, and the like.
As for positive emotions such as happiness, warmth, and hope, they were like drops of water falling into ink, instantly swallowed up completely by the darkness.
Until he met this bearman. This unfamiliar warmth, belonging to ‘people,’ was like a star shining in the night sky. Even if there was only one, it had truly ‘lit up’ his world!
Its importance to him was second only to Boss Kyle, who had dragged him out from chaos and madness.
Because of that, he was willing to help him once!
“May I ask... what help did Mino ‘give’ you?” Marco forcefully suppressed the palpitations in his chest and asked quickly.
He truly could not understand how Mino could possibly have helped a bizarre existence like this. He did not want these companions of his to escape the tiger’s den only to enter the wolf’s mouth. Rather than that, they might as well find release sooner.
“Emotion. A pure emotion.”
Isos’s answer was brief and concise, but it left everyone even more confused.
Only Marco seemed thoughtful.
For an existence beyond common sense like this, naturally it could not be understood with common sense. It seemed Mino’s emotional state just now had drawn this being’s attention.
“What kind of chance is it?”
Marco did not think too much about it. He also knew how urgent the situation was.
“I can solve the problems on your bodies and send you out of here.”
The warehouse fell into silence. Everyone was waiting for what came next—for some harsh condition or terrifying price.
However, Isos had no follow-up.
“...N-no... requirements?”
Feeling the vibrations drawing closer and closer, Marco could only brace himself and ask.
“What requirements?”
“Uh... like swearing loyalty to you, or paying some kind of compensation?”
“What would I want you to do? As for compensation, this bear has already paid it.”
Isos could not understand these people’s way of thinking, and these people could not understand Isos’s way of thinking either.
“Then I’ll trouble you!”
Marco did not waste words either. He directly activated the warehouse’s protective formation and self-destruction formation. He wanted to buy enough time, and also erase every trace related to whether they lived or died, and where they had gone!
“Stand properly. Don’t move around!”
Dozens of black tentacles shot out from Isos’s body toward the crowd, precisely piercing into every single person present!
Everyone forcibly endured the instinctive urge to counterattack or dodge, standing stiffly in place as they watched that pitch-black energy flow into their bodies.
They did not know why they believed a monster’s words either. Perhaps this was the last straw in despair—other than grabbing it, they had no other choice.
It was still only a single short breath before the tentacles detached from their bodies.
Only the tentacle on Marco’s body did not leave.
The backup measures the Shadow Guild had left inside this modified human were far more complicated than those of the others.
After another two breaths, Isos withdrew the final tentacle.
“I can’t completely solve the problem with your body,” Isos said truthfully.
He discovered that, in a certain sense, the toxins inside the other party’s body were also one part of what was keeping him alive. Once removed, he would basically die immediately.
“That’s enough.”
Yet Marco felt an unprecedented sense of ease.
He knew his own condition. As long as he could regain the ability to move freely, he was satisfied.
As for how much longer he could live, it no longer mattered at all.
“But my companion should be able to solve it.”
Isos’s words made Marco’s eyes widen round. A bizarre thing like this actually had companions?!
And one of them could even solve the problems in the body of a modified human like him?
Could the other party’s companion be some kind of forbidden mage?
Or an alchemy master?
Only beings obsessed with all kinds of dangerous experiments and inhuman magic would have a way to deal with a modified human like him!
Surely it was not going to be another inhuman existence too?!
“There isn’t much time. Leave first.”
Isos said no more. Darkness surged out like a rising tide, instantly swallowing all the thieves and assassins inside the warehouse.
In the next moment, their figures vanished completely from where they stood together with Isos, leaving behind only the protective formation and self-destruction formation that were still operating on their own.