Chapter 72: Assassination!
Meanwhile, the Aces team members arrived at the area where the winged man's statue was located and saw a gruesome scene around it. Tens of dismembered corpses lay in front of the statue, and their eyes were dug out from the sockets. The blood scent was so dense that it made Charles frown a little.
'Hmm, the blood scent is not thick and looks like they were all killed recently.' Charles thought to himself and soon glanced at the clothes on their bodies.
Upon seeing their torn dresses, Charles confirmed that some belong to the Explorers Association, which had a special crow symbol embroidered on it. In contrast, others' clothes looked more like normal ones.
'Why do their faces showing smiling expressions instead of fear and anxiety?' He was surprised inside. In his past experience, even a trained person will break down during the last moment of his death and would never show a smiling face. So, when he saw such a scene, Charles felt that something was wrong with this situation.
'Mind control? Hmm, Daniel must have the ability to probe others' thoughts and alter them somehow. Thankfully, even if he tried to probe my mind, he will only hear some strange words. The next one is the upgraded version of the 'Touch of Idiocy' spell. Their strange smiles must be because of this reason. I need to kill him before he could suspect anything; otherwise, I will be in deep sh*t.'
Turning his head a little, he also saw a total of 25 red-skinned humans danced around the statue in a circle, and each one seemed to be holding different types of organs in their hands. Some held eyes, some held hearts, and there were even a few headless red-skinned humans who held their own brains in their hands!
But what made Charles stare at them in confusion was the dance that they were performing. All of them stepped uniformly and seemed to be dancing around the statue while singing verses in an ancient language.
'This looks more like a folk dance from the Earth.'
At that moment, Charles's eyes darted towards the ground and soon saw weird letters were inscribed all over the place.
'Is this a magic ritual circle? I do read a lot about them in books, but I have never seen them upfront. Why did the enemy lead us here?' His jade eyes scanned the weird ritual circle for ten seconds and soon landed on the winged man's statue.
The statue appeared to be made of some precious stone, and it gave off the feeling of creativity.
Charles also saw an azure gem on the forehead area. Unlike before, he felt a sense of greed appeared in his heart. If it was before, he might have affected by this strange power. Thankfully, it was just another feeling for him.
'Greed?'
Charles frowned a little and then turned his gaze towards the winged man's eyes.
His eyes and the winged man statue's emerald eyes met!
At that moment, the winged man statue's two emerald eyes blinked twice!
'What the f*ck-?' Before he could even shift away from the statue's gaze, something strange force began to invade his mind!
It was so fast that he couldn't even notice it!
Suddenly, a severe headache assaulted him, causing his face to contort a little. Tears flew out from his jade eyes as he took a step back and soon shifted his gaze away from the weird statue.
'Kill! Kill! Kill!'
A strange melody of slogans echoed in his mind, causing him to nod subconsciously.
In seconds, John's previous memories surfaced in his mind one by one and started to corrupt his mind!
Charles felt that it was necessary to kill and plunder the weak!
He recalled the moment when he first murdered a bunch of tribal peoples. It was the first mission that the Ghost organization leader forced him to do it.
On that day, he tasted the first blood!
Then, the demon within him woke up and ultimately turned him into a maniac.
He started killing for joy!
The feeling of taking one's life gave him immense pleasure and joy.
He became a fully-fledged assassin. No, he turned into something else!
He turned into a psychopath who would kill just to see the fear in others' eyes!
'Damn it, what the hell is happening? Just staring at a statue caused my past memories to occupy my mind completely. Is it the power of Chaos Wanderer's statue?' An ominous thought appeared in his mind.
Although his 'Inner-World' was affected by his own dark thoughts, he still controlled himself.
'These memories are not strange ones. I did not regret killing those innocents, nor do I felt happiness for my past actions. Their sacrifices were necessary at that time. If I didn't kill them, I would have died for not even meeting the Leader's requirement. Although I became addicted to the killing, I already walked out of the path of darkness.' His breathing grew heavier as he organized his thoughts and soon calmed down.
In the meantime, the Holem's Crown already woke up from the earlier shock and said in a solemn voice.
'The guy in the statue looks more like a devil from the First Hell.'
'First Hell?' Charles raised his eyebrows and asked.
'Yes, among the Seven Hells, Winged Men only live in the First Hell due to harsh, chaotic atmosphere and always a thorn to all the devils. These devils are known for keeping the grudges for a lifetime, so be careful.'
'Hehe, I do keep grudges, though.' He smirked inwardly.
'Should I cast my 'Incinerate' spell and stop the ritual now? Hmm? I feel someone's gaze from behind, and that person seems to be monitoring our movements.' He pondered for a second and soon chose to stay silent.
At that moment, he recalled Eve's strange prophetic words.
'Red Hair… She said something about a monster. No, it is neither monster nor a human. There is only one human who has Red-Hair, and that one is Daniel. Could it be that he is a vampire or something? But there is no memory of vampires in the real Charles's memory, right? But I can't rule out the possibility. It looks like I need to assassinate him swiftly; otherwise, things will get out of my hand.'
Although he could stop this ritual now, he felt that it was necessary to kill Daniel first.
Simultaneously, his eyes darted towards the front of the winged man's statue, and soon he saw an obese man was sitting in a cross-legged position.
Unlike the read-skinned humans, he looked more like an average human and seemed to be in the middle of doing some ritual thing. He had long black hair, and he wore a white lined black-robe.
Whenever the red-skinned humans stop their movements, he would also stop his incantation, pour some oil into the fire that was burning in front of him, and continued to sing.
Even though he was showing his back against him, Charles instantly identified this guy.
'Willy Pickton… A famous artist from the south and also claimed himself as the Arbiter of Storm Church.'
After that, Charles's gaze swept past him, and soon his eyes landed on the winged man's statue's right's side.
There, he saw another human figure standing with closed eyes. That human figure was a muscular man, around 50-years-old, and had blonde hair, an oval face, and pale skin. He wore a neat black surcoat, black pants, and leather shoes.
'Luke Clark.' Charles muttered inwardly and patiently observed their every movement.
'Someone is coming towards us from the right side.' After some time, he perceived someone's presence through the strange invisible wisdom power and moved his gaze towards the place.
At that moment, Charles also placed his hand into the pants pocket, stealthily took out the Ember Pistol from the space ring through his thoughts, and let it stay there. Although his pants pocket suddenly turned abnormally large, his slightly long black overcoat completely hid the pistol from other's eyes.
After confirming that he had successfully taken out the 'Ember Pistol', he moved his hand away from the pants pocket and started controlling the pistol with his [Magician's Hand] skill.
He stood with a solemn look, moved his fingers from time to time, and finally adjusted the muffle to point at an angle of 130°.
At that moment, a long messy red-haired man in his late fifties walked out from the nearby skyscraper and soon arrived in front of them. He had almond silver eyes, a lean body, and looked around 174 cm high. He wore a tight black suit, a silver dagger in his hand, and his face appeared very pale.
He first raised his hands as he stopped two meters away from the trio and clapped his hands twice.
During the first clap, Emilia and Andrew heard no sound at all.
But during the second clap, they suddenly felt some invisible power hit their ears and made them cover their ears subconsciously.
An instant later, the deafness feeling in their minds suddenly disappeared!
Before they could wake up from the shock, they saw that the Red-haired man arrived in front of Charles and sighed.
"You guys sure love how to cause troubles." A cold voice came out from Daniel's mouth.
Emilia finally woke up from the half-hypnosis state and soon took a step back in vigilance. Her grey robe fluttered in the wind as she instantly took out a pocket watch from the void pouch and held it in her palm.
A chuckle leaked out of Daniel's mouth as he moved his silver dagger and skillfully gave a shallow wound mark on her cheek.
"Do you think I won't kill you because of your family background?" He purposefully paused for a moment and soon revealed his white teeth before he swung his dagger towards her left chest,
"This is for killing my son." His cold voice echoed as the silver dagger tore through the air and directly moved towards her heart.
As his dagger was about to pierce through her chest, Daniel suddenly felt an intense pain in his heart. Simultaneously, a burning sensation also appeared in his mind!
Although it was just a slight burning feeling, he still got affected by it and halted his hand for a moment.
Before Daniel could think about the cause of these two abnormalities, he heard a bang sound from the front.
No, it directly came from Charles's right thigh region!
If he had a skill like [Sixth Sense] or [Prevision], he would have dodged the bullet. Sadly, he had none of that. What's more ironic was that he appeared right in front of Charles and gave him a big opportunity.
In a second, Daniel saw a crimson bullet tore through Charles's pants pocket, then the surcoat and soon appeared in front of his right eye!
"Sh*t!" He cursed loudly and then tried his best to dodge the bullet. But the crimson bullet pierced through his right eye in a blink and soon entered deep into his head! Even at that moment, Daniel took a step forward, raised his hand, and moved it towards Charles's chest region.
Charles grinned as he unsheathed his Ghost Dagger from his waist and pushed it towards Daniel's neck area.
Simultaneously, he raised his other hand and moved towards his face.
He knew that a Rank-3 Mystic wouldn't die that easily, so he became firm on giving him more fatal blows and even prepared for an anomaly in advance.
With a swish sound, his sharp dagger tore through the air and was about to stab him, but suddenly Charles's stopped his hand!
At that moment, Daniel's raised hand had already touched Charles's chest!
In a second, a foolish smile appeared on Charles's face!
It was the upgraded version of [Touch of Idiocy] skill!
But before Daniel could rejoice, Charles's other hand touched the corner of his lips and moved it towards the other corner!
In that instant, Charles's foolish smile turned into a normal one!
Before Daniel could wake up from the shock, Charles stabbed the dagger into his neck area. No, Charles moved his Ghost Dagger directly at his right side carotid artery and pushed it deep into his neck.
Blood spattered in every direction as Daniel staggered backward while gripping his neck and soon moved towards the ritual circle in a half-conscious state. His face was filled with despair and panic as he gasped for air and kept his gaze locked on Charles.
Upon seeing the sudden change outside the ritual circle, Luke Clark and Willy Pickton opened their eyes wide and hurriedly moved towards their direction.
Earlier, they didn't even consider them as a threat due to the group being entirely controlled by Daniel Baker. But as they saw the current scene, both became utterly shocked inside.
"Daniel can't die now; save him quickly." Willy Pickton said in a hoarse voice and then uttered a strange short incantation.
A second later, the Winged Statue's eyes let out a dim eerie red light and pulled Daniel towards the ritual circle through an invisible force.
Upon noticing this strangeness, the corners of Charles's lips turned up as he raised his hand, pointed his forefinger at Daniel's head, and smiled.
An instant later, a ray of crimson fire came out from his fingertip and directly landed on the bloodied right eye socket!
Daniel's head burst open with a bang, and soon the headless body fell on the ritual circle, painting the stone-like floor in red color.
[Target Eliminated! 3,430 Exp Rewarded!]
Nodding, Charles then turned his head towards the winged man statue, looked directly at the mouth area, placed his middle finger on his left side forehead area, and moved it smoothly towards the right side.
"F*ck you." He said with a grin.
