Crack!
Klein saw Isengard Stanton's back cave in and felt a phantom pain in his own spine.
With a thud, Isengard, who was already leaning forward, collapsed to the ground, as if knocked out cold by the pain.
Caslana, who had thrown that punch, stood rooted to the spot, panting with a dazed look, her forehead drenched in cold sweat. She did not pursue the attack.
It was as if she had just awakened from a long nightmare filled with intense emotions. All her strength had been completely consumed in that previous outburst.
Hoo... hoo... Caslana's body swayed, threatening to collapse.
Klein narrowed his eyes and rushed over in two large strides to Isengard Stanton's side.
He crouched down and tried to help him up.
Isengard, lying prone on the floor, shouted in pain:
"Run! Don't worry about me!"
Obviously, he didn't believe their three-man team, with one seriously injured and another spent, could hold off the "Desire Apostle." So he told Klein to escape immediately and rendezvous with the official Beyonders, or all three of them would die here.
At the same time, Isengard struggled to raise his right hand, trying to use some Beyonder ability outside to make the official Beyonders in the distance notice something was wrong inside.
As for the miniature "telegraph machine" with the speaker, it had long since flown to the wall when Isengard fell.
Klein hesitated. Just as he was about to make a decision, he saw a viscous black "liquid" flow down from the ceiling and rapidly coalesce in the air into a dark, pitch-black figure.
The figure seemed completely wrapped in a black curtain, with only a pair of cold blue eyes exposed.
The moment he saw him, Klein felt as if he could perceive the strongest emotions and desires of living beings:
Fear, anger, greed, jealousy, hunger, lust, and so on, and so forth.
The "Desire Apostle" did not waste the hard-won advantageous situation. He entered the living room immediately.
At this moment, within the detective trio, Caslana was utterly drained by her emotional outburst, Isengard Stanton's spine was severely wounded, basically rendering him combat-ineffective. Only Klein was completely unharmed.
However, aside from his revolver and Beyonder bullets, all his mystical items were above the Gray Fog. And his opponent was a Sequence 5 "Desire Apostle," a powerhouse capable of raising Demon Dogs!
It was at this moment that the corner of Klein's mouth lifted slightly.
His right hand, pressed against the wound on Isengard's back, swept across it sharply. The obvious indentation eerily transferred to the side — onto a rib!
The most miraculous Beyonder ability of the "Magician":
"Damage Transfer"!
It allowed a wound to be transferred once on the same person, turning a severe injury into a light one, but it could not transfer the damage to other people or objects!
Klein had already come up with his plan the moment he saw Isengard Stanton get injured:
First, pretend to be helpless to lure the "Desire Apostle" out. Then, transfer the great detective's wound, leaving him with only a broken rib as a light injury. At that moment, Klein believed Isengard would simultaneously strike back at the "Desire Apostle" as a most instinctual deathbed struggle.
This way, even if the "Desire Apostle" realized something was wrong, he wouldn't have time to disengage. Once Klein completed the "healing" and joined forces with the great detective, they could tie the target down and delay him until the official Beyonders arrived!
Almost at the same time, a vibrant green light emerged on the surface of Isengard's ring, which had been pointing outward. His body was quickly enveloped in a faint radiance, and the wound healed rapidly.
The fracture in his rib instantly recovered.
The great detective's pain just now was real, but his helplessness was fake!
However, this overlapped with Klein's help.
The "Desire Apostle," who was about to make a move, saw this. His eyes shot wide open, and his figure abruptly halted.
Not being engaged, he immediately turned around and rushed towards the window.
In the process, his body quickly collapsed, turning into a viscous black liquid.
The liquid seeped into the ground, soaked into the walls, and vanished in an instant.
Klein's raised right hand barely had time to snap his fingers.
An air bullet exited through the open window and struck the outside, sending sparks flying, but the "Desire Apostle" had completely disappeared.
He ran so fast, without any hesitation at all... Are you even a demon...? This is going to be a huge headache... The corner of Klein's mouth twitched. He turned his head to look at Isengard Stanton, who had rolled over and stood up beside him.
The great detective happened to be looking back at him.
"You can heal?!"
"You can heal?!" they both asked simultaneously, voicing the same question.
After exchanging a glance, Isengard shook his head and smiled wryly.
"I never thought it was the trap I set that made him escape."
As he spoke, his ring shimmered with a faint light. He looked around, confirming that the "Desire Apostle" had gone far away.
Isengard then briefly explained:
"This afternoon, I didn't have the chance to simulate a healing ability of this sort. Later, I thought I could use it to set a trap, making the 'Desire Apostle' reveal himself because of my severe injury. That's why I deliberately bandaged the wound so exaggeratedly."