LOM: Lord of Mysticism

Haa! Haa! Haa!

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The loud panting and the intense knocking alternated first before they resounded together as though they were hearing some evil murmur.

Taking advantage of the moment, the suited clown pulled out a long piece of paper from his pocket.

Pa! He threw it with his right hand as the slip of paper ignited into a black, fiery whip. Then he lashed it towards the side of his ankle and escaped the invisible shackles while doing a backflip.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Dunn, Aiur, and Lorotta shot, but their bullets only ended up hitting the wooden crates.

The suited clown did not stay any longer as he pressed down on his wound with his right hand while escaping in a direction opposite the warehouse.

He was so fast that in the blink of an eye, all that was left was a hint of his back.

Before he vanished, his right hand, which pressed down on his abdomen, moved towards his left arm, and the wound on his stomach had already vanished, looking completely fine.

The location on his left arm which he touched with his right hand became badly injured, and a silver bullet appeared in the torn flesh.

Dunn and the rest didn't chase after him because the sound from the innermost warehouse was so loud that it was making them nervous.

Boom! The door of the innermost warehouse broke and flew in all directions.

Then, something wrapped in a torn cloth flew out and landed not far from Klein.

When Klein cast his gaze over, he realized that it was an arm. Its bloody flesh had been chewed on, and its white bones were cracked in an irregular fashion as they jutted out.

One item after another flew out. First it was a spray of blood, followed by a dilated eye and an ear that had been ripped out. Finally, half a beating heart and intestines filled with yellowish-brown objects came out.

Klein felt disgust seeing this but calmed himself and ejected the empty shells from his revolver and reloaded with new demon hunting bullets.

Haa! Haa! Haa! The loud panting sped up as grayish-white colors filled the opened door.

Klein watched as the whiteness slowly revealed a complete outline.

It was a humanoid creature more than two meters tall. Its limb joints were all unnaturally twisted, and white bones poked out from under its skin as the entire grayish-white surface was filled with gullies, like a brain without its shell.

The monster had grayish-white, rotting, sticky liquid flowing all over it. Its head looked relatively normal, with deep wrinkles and pale skin.

As it opened and closed its mouth, Klein could see a porcelain false tooth and bone and flesh that had been minced.

Was... Ray Bieber still even f**king human? Klein drew a silent gasp.

Dunn, Aiur Harson, and Borgia arrived in front of the warehouse.

Bang! Leonard's demon hunting bullet hit Ray Bieber's forehead and tore right through it, leaving behind a deep hole.

Grayish-white liquid flowed out and dripped onto the ground. The liquid wriggled and turned into fat cream-colored maggots.

But the monster appeared completely unaffected. It was neither fast nor slow when it pounced at Borgia, who was closest to it.

"Loss of control of Beyonder powers..." Dunn shouted. "Lorotta, it looks like a dead soul, so quickly look for its weakness!"

"Alright." Lorotta did not speak further as she raised her hands to press down on her eyes.

Her pupils turned gray and then colorless, as though she had entered the world of spirits and a kingdom of dead souls. She looked down at the enemy from a higher vantage point as she searched for a "node."

Klein saw that a normal gunshot was ineffective, so he did not bother wasting more of his bullets. He lifted his hand to tap at his glabella to activate his Spirit Vision, planning on assisting the Gravedigger Lorotta.

From his vision, Monster Bieber only had one kind of spiritual glow left. It was purely grayish-white, a whiteness filled with craziness.

Apart from that, Klein saw nothing else.

At that moment, Aiur Harson and Leonard Mitchell sang simultaneously.

"Oh, the threat of horror, the hope of crimson cries!

One thing at least is certain—that this Life flies;

One thing is certain, and the rest are Lies;

The Flower that once bloomed forever dies."

The power that allowed one to enter a peaceful slum emanated. The twisted grayish-white monster gradually slowed down as though it could not fight against the charm of the poem.

Then it opened its mouth and let out a shrill cry that ordinary people were deaf to.

"Aagh!"

Klein felt a sharp pain in his head as he exited his Spirit Vision state.

He felt a liquid flowing out of his nose and wiped it with his hand to discover the back of his hand was covered in blood.

Aiur and Leonard fell back to the ground at the same time. They had blood stains lining the corners of their lips, noses, and eyes.

Borgia, Dunn, and Lorotta each took a few steps back; the color of their faces looked drained.

That monster only screamed once, but it appeared to exceed what the six Beyonders could withstand. They instantly turned weak.

It closed in on Borgia and swung its twisted joint. Its actual target appeared to be the black chest that contained Sealed Artifact 2-049.

Borgia and Dunn shot twice each, but they didn't cause any damage to Monster Bieber.

Pa! A blow sent Borgia flying out as his revolver fell to the ground.

He tried to stand up a few times but failed to do so.

The corner of Monster Bieber's mouth had stringy liquid oozing out as it leaped towards the black chest.

At that crucial moment, Aiur Harson shot a bullet at the box, knocking it some distance away and preventing Monster Bieber from grabbing it. Its momentum brought it forward by more than ten meters.

The black chest cracked, and as the thumping within turned more intense.

"Found it!" Lorotta finally spoke. "I need you to control it for at least three seconds."

"Alright." Dunn didn't delay any further; he tapped his glabella and closed his eyes.

He seemed to fall asleep as shapeless waves slowly rippled out one after another.

In that instant, Monster Bieber paused, the craziness in its eyes quickly receded, and its thin, transparent eyelids began to close as well.

Dunn's body started quivering, and something popped up under his clothing and wriggled as though he hid slippery, scaleless snakes within.

Lorotta rushed over and, with a roll, arrived under Monster Bieber, supporting herself with one hand while raising a clenched fist towards Monster Bieber's crotch.

Poof! She ignored the corrosive pain but supported herself against the ground and directed more strength higher as her fist drilled deeper in.

Rip! Lorotta pulled out her arm as she dragged out an intestine filled with brownish-yellow blood stains.

In the intestine there was an ancient notebook.

"Ahg!" Monster Bieber let out a bloodcurdling scream, and his body suddenly lit up as though it were melting.

"Get down!" Just as Aiur Harson's hurried shout ended, Klein saw Monster Bieber suddenly swell up.

Boom! Amid a loud explosion, the distant Klein was tossed into the air by the shockwave and landed heavily.

He struggled to stand against a swirling headache and saw Monster Bieber turn into a pile of rotting flesh. Then he saw Dunn and Lorotta, who were a dozen meters away, looking like they had been knocked out.

Aiur Harson, Borgia, and Leonard Mitchell were on the ground too. Some groaning in pain, some struggling to stand up but failing.

Klein was just about to relax when he saw a familiar object about two or three meters away from him.

The black chest had stopped rolling, and its cracked surface was facing the sky.

A skinny brown arm extended out.

Klein's heart tensed up as he immediately leaped in the opposite direction in a bid to escape 2-049's effective range.

The blast from before had thrown the black chest right next to him. At that moment, Klein's head suddenly buzzed as his thoughts turned sluggish.