In the early morning, the sky was faintly lit, and the corners of the alley were mostly still and dark.
With the help of Danitz's cloak, Klein merged into the shadows, swiftly moving through them. He felt his surroundings were grayish-black and transparent, reality seemed distant and blurred, and all sounds came as if from the depths of the starry sky, hollow and distant.
After putting as much distance as possible from Fragrant Tree Avenue, he identified his location and "grew" out of the shadows, emerging in an uninhabited alley filled with broken bricks and rubble.
Klein flicked his wrists, throwing the "Steel" Maiviti, wrapped in the peacock-blue "flying carpet", in front of him, trying to complete the "herding" before the other's spirit began to dissipate!
He abandoned the "flying carpet", stepped forward, stretched out his left hand, slightly parted his fingers, and aimed from above at the body that was still warm.
"
Two eyes split open on its palm, with bright red pupils as if stained with blood.
Ooh!
A chilling wind suddenly blew into the alley, swirling over "Steel" Maiviti's corpse, twisting into a nearly transparent human silhouette, with indistinct thick lips and spring-like curly hair.
The expression on Maiviti's spirit was extremely painful, struggling desperately against the attraction of "Creeping Hunger", while bits of grayish-white and dark green light, like a flowing river of stars, swiftly flew out of the flesh and merged into the transparent figure.
"No!"
Maiviti let out a silent scream, unable to beg for mercy, and could only despairingly burrow into the human-skin glove, fixing himself onto an empty finger, radiating extraordinary characteristics and establishing a connection with his surroundings.
This connection determined which abilities could be used when herding the soul of "Steel" Maiviti—one, maybe two, but no more than three. The specifics were completely random and beyond Klein's control before being fixed.
"Creeping Hunger" quickly grew pale and finally returned to its previous disguised form: an ordinary black glove.
Klein closed his eyes and sensed for a few seconds, then let out a breath of relief and a sigh.
This time, his luck was not bad, but neither was it very good.
He had successfully obtained three extraordinary abilities from "Steel" Maiviti, but among them was not his most desired: a body as strong as steel and tenacious vitality that were immune to gunfire, fire, and bombs of a certain yield.
The first was the strength of a "Living Corpse", allowing him to make ferocious attacks, compensating for his previous deficiency in agile combat style; the second was the mastery of "ice", though not able to condense ice spears or create blizzards like the Witch pathway, it could freeze the surrounding ground and lower the air temperature, effectively hindering the opponent's movements, and even freeze an enemy upon physical contact, stiffening their flesh, perfectly complementing his combat abilities; the third was "control of the Living Corpse", heh, from now on I won't have to worry about not having enough people to form a card party... Klein thought for a moment, then bent down to inspect "Steel" Maiviti's belongings.
He quickly found 26 pounds, 11 shillings, and 8 pence in cash, as well as a pile of seemingly normal but actually strange items, such as a candle, a clamp, a spiked whip, etc.
Considering that "Steel" Maiviti was most likely a member of the
"Werewolves have super healing powers, Living Corpses have steel-like bodies, so indeed there's no need to carry healing potions or items... Consistent with Danitz's judgment, Maiviti has no mystical items... That's right, mystical items are few and far between, many have obvious flaws and negative effects, not everyone wants or can have them. The combination of 'Wraith', 'Living Corpse', and 'Werewolf' before only had two mystical items, the 'Crimson Moon Crown' and the 'Bio-Toxin Bottle'..." Klein nodded, took out a folded piece of paper from his pocket.
He unfolded the slightly yellowed paper and placed it on "Steel" Maiviti's body, covering his face.
This was a bounty notice, with Maiviti's portrait and reward amount printed on it:
"6000 pounds!"
Klein straightened up, took a step back, stepped on the peacock-blue "flying carpet", and pulled out a paper figurine.
Slap!
He swung his arm, flicked his wrist, and threw the paper figurine, which turned into sparks that scattered down.
Then, he turned into shadow and disappeared along with his items from this alley.
After two or three minutes, Cordova Royer arrived hastily with some Punisher squad members, just in time to see a gust of wind lift the bounty notice, revealing "Steel" Maiviti's face with dissolved flesh and staring eyes.
With a rustle, the bounty notice fell to the side, still face up.
...
Having lost track of the target, Cordova and the others carried "Steel"'s corpse and silently returned to the area where the battle had taken place.
He glanced at the squad members checking the scene, then as a deacon, Cordova composed himself and asked in a low voice:
"Followers of the Sun?"
This was the most important question for him and for the entire parish.
The Punisher squad member responsible for finding clues and uncovering the truth through supernatural means was not an extraordinary of the Storm pathway, but a Sequence 7 "Keeper of Knowledge", that is, a "Detective", of the Reader pathway. He didn't answer immediately, came over, crouched down, and examined Maiviti's body.
After a while, he looked up and said:
"Not a follower of the Sun. The power used was from a mystical item."
"Reason?" Cordova frowned and asked.
That Punisher squad member said:
"Here, there is a sense of evil from the depths of the flesh. One of the corpses was devoured like this, leaving only its characteristics and items. If it were a follower of the Sun, even if relying on an item, they would not do such a thing. To them, things from the domain of the '
Cordova thought for a few seconds, accepted this judgment, and then asked: