Chapter 204: Awakening

Calvin rushed towards the deformed man to battle.

"What is that disgusting presence?!" The deformed man cried out in a panic as he rapidly retreated backward. But he changed his course when he realized that he was getting closer to Stephanie and the Mortician.

What a joke...

Stephanie was a Peak High-Tier monster while the Mortician was already a Low-Purveyor tiered monster, he couldn't possibly face both of them in a 1vs2 battle.

It was because he knew he would lose.

He would definitely lose.

He could still handle Stephanie, but if the Mortician and Calvin intervened in the battle, it would be a huge mess.

"All shall obey!" Calvin yelled out and the golden robes wrapped around his body shone in a golden light. The deformed man felt his skin crawl, the presence of the All-Encompassing Light felt too disgusting for him—who was a disciple of Pestilence and Famine.

He wanted nothing more than to run away from Calvin at this moment, but he knew that it was impossible.

"Bastard... Get him!"

The deformed man finally stopped running after he was a few dozens of meters away from the battle happening at the village center. He flicked his wrist and sent the clouds of pests flying towards Calvin in an effort to overwhelm him with the locusts, wasps, and mosquitos.

"Hmmph." Calvin coldly snorted. His golden quill transformed into a net that he immediately hurled towards the clouds of pests.

"Stupid. Do you really think that my pets can be stopped by just a net? You're dreaming!"

The deformed man sneered in disdain.

"Are you saying that because of how small your pets, are? Well, you're bound to be disappointed. The holes in the net that I cast is so small that it could probably trap dust particles in it." Calvin coldly chuckled.

As the net soared through the air, the pests stared at it in disdain. They didn't even try to dodge the net as they just continued to flap their wings as it descended onto them.

But little did these critters knew that they had just made a fatal mistake.

In an instant—before their tiny minds could even comprehend the meaning of regret—the net had already covered the entire swarm and Calvin was quick to follow up with a single command.

"Clench!" He called out and the net transformed into a cube.

It squeezed everything that it had captured into a burst of tainted blood that scattered on the ground.

"I'll kill you!" The deformed man was enraged. Seeing Calvin kill one of the swarms that he carefully tended to, he couldn't see anything other than red in his vision.

He rushed up to Calvin, taking advantage of the fact that Calvin had thrown his Aspect away.

The deformed man leaped into the air as his claws emerged from his knuckles.

"Die!" He roared in fury.

Calvin stared calmly at the incoming attack.

"The Rozenstruik Empire's Hand-to-hand Combat Arts, Third Style..."

"Waterfall."

Taking a deep breath with his diaphragm, Calvin manipulated the mana circulating throughout his body to a single point in both of his palms as he took a step to the side and avoided the claws.

Then, without any warning.

He held the deformed man's wrist and twisted it before his other palm struck the deformed man's solar plexus—sending him flying into the air.

"AAAHHH!" The deformed man cried in pain as a mouthful of blood came out of his throat.

The attack that he had just sustained didn't even look that strong, but behind that simple strike was a force similar to that of a waterfall. Yes, a waterfall. It was because despite looking so calm upstream, it was a raging tide downstream.

This was what the deformed man felt when he received Calvin's attack.

"What have you done to me?!" The deformed man growled in anger upon seeing that his skin had erupted into a bloody mess.

Calvin revealed a smile, but he was obviously starting to get exhausted.

The Rozenstruik Empire's Hand-To-Hand Combat Arts sure was usable and powerful enough, but it had its own drawbacks.

One of them was the fact that it exhausted the user's entire body.

Right now, Calvin was barely able to contain the trembling of his knees as he stood there and toughed out the pain that kept on echoing throughout his entire body.

"Stop yapping. If you want to die, then come forward. But if you're a coward, then stay back and let me purge that monster of yours..."

"Didn't you nurture that bad boy for so long? It would be a shame if I destroyed it, right? The disciple of Pestilence and Famine, and probably the leader of the Yellow River Gang?" Calvin casually revealed the deformed man's identity.

"What are you talking about?" The deformed man denied.

It would be bad if his identity came to light to the church.

It was because the church was a wasp's nest. If one poked at it and provoked its anger, then one must expect to be burned to ashes. The church was just this powerful, and the deformed man couldn't afford to reveal his identity to anyone.

"Don't you even dare to lie in front of me... If you're really that serious about hiding your identity, then why do those women have tattoos of the Yellow River Gang's insignia? Or could it be that you're saying that you're being framed-up by your enemies? Then, that would definitely be a huge joke." Calvin provoked.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." The deformed man remained tight-lipped.

Calvin lightly chuckled, "Is that so? Well, it doesn't really matter. You see, the Quads had always been a parasite in Ashmelion. I know they're the ones running the underground slave trade and I also know that they are running those lending companies which is just a disguise of how hideous they are from behind."

"It doesn't really matter if you're not connected to them," Calvin stared at the deformed man, "I would still frame them up and tell the Captain that everything was the fault of the Yellow River Gang."

"Of course, they would believe me. After all, I'm on their side. When that happens, the Yellow River Gang would still be annihilated by a punitive force from the church."

"The process is different, but the results are the same."

"Isn't that nice?" Calvin raised an eyebrow and stared mockingly at the deformed man.

"It's not!" The deformed man roared, "There's no way that you can make that report when you're dead!"

Spreading his arms wide, the deformed man sent a command, "Gather!"

The thousands of pests that formed into dozens of dark clouds converged into one, creating the image of a gigantic whale.

Calvin felt his scalp go numb.

The sight of this towering beast being made completely out of insects made him feel uneasy.

"Aspect Transformation."

"Spring..." Calvin hurled the golden quill in his hands onto the ground and it transformed into a spring that he stepped his foot on and leaped into the air from at the very last moment. The Mana contained within the spring propelled him high up in the air.

"Stupid!" The deformed man boisterously laughed when he saw Calvin up in the skies.

'Has he gone mad?'

'Why did he limit his own mobility by jumping into the air?'

The deformed man raised his arm and the whale made out of locusts, wasps, and mosquitos recovered from its dive as it flew towards Calvin at a slow, yet measured speed.

Judging from how fast Calvin was falling onto the ground, he would definitely end up in the belly of this monster and if that happened, he would definitely die without leaving any remains.

Furthermore, the deformed man had deduced that the Mortician and Stephanie must be connected to each other, one way or another. If Calvin died, the Mortician would most likely disappear.

Although he wasn't so sure what would happen to Stephanie once Calvin died. It was still worth it to silence Calvin in the end. After all, his original plan was to leave no witnesses once the Sinister Heart had fused into its vessel.

Speaking of the Sinister Heart, the deformed man glanced at the vessel and he noticed that even though the heart had been successfully fused into its body.

The degree of rejection was greater than what the deformed man had expected.

Resolving this rejection needed enough time or his attention, so he must end this battle with Calvin as soon as possible in order to clean up the battlefield and focus his attention on waking up the Sinister Heart in its vessel.

He only had roughly an hour and forty minutes left.

He couldn't possibly waste any more time.

The deformed man quickly made a decision and he took out his pistols to supplement his whale's attack against Calvin.

But the moment he turned around, a piece of crumpled paper with a rock inside of it struck his forehead.

"Aksi, gawas, release!" Calvin pointed at the piece of paper from mid-air.

"What?"

The deformed man absentmindedly uttered as the piece of paper shone in a dazzling, dizzying light that briefly took his consciousness away from his body.

"???" The deformed man could think, but he couldn't move. He could see, but he couldn't close his eyes. He suddenly found himself locked inside his own body as the swarm of pests that he had gathered—dispersed when it couldn't receive further instructions from him.

Of course, with the disappearance of the whale, Calvin safely landed on the ground.

A bitter smile was on Calvin's face as he uttered to himself.

"Fuck, that was the last of my Aksi!" Aksi was the Elder Tongue equivalent of the word, 'Manipulate' in Common Speech. It was the hardest runecrafted function that Calvin was able to carve in a piece of paper the size of a notebook's page.

This served as the limit of his abilities in Runecrafting but despite that.

Its effects must never be underestimated.

It was because Aksi had the ability to forcibly stun an enemy for a few seconds if it successfully made contact with the enemy's body before the moment of its activation.

Hitting an enemy with a piece of paper from a distance of a few meters was an impossible task without the help of weights. This was why Calvin added a rock inside the paper, the rock served as additional mass so that it wouldn't be interrupted so easily by air resistance.

Calvin immediately rushed over to the deformed man the moment he landed on the ground.

But he was too slow... just as he stood a few meters away from the deformed man, the latter had already awakened from his trance. He raised his arm and pointed both of his pistols at Calvin before pulling the trigger.

Peng! Peng! Peng!

Three bullets flew and Calvin was once again forced to use one of his trump cards.

"Borg!" A piece of paper turned into a brownish-translucent barrier that shattered the bullets into pieces at the moment of contact.

However, the deformed man knew that Calvin couldn't possibly use these tricks simultaneously.

He had to eventually run out of those pieces of paper, so he kept on shooting at Calvin.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The rain of bullets never stopped.

Calvin didn't dare to approach so casually as he hid behind one of the wooden walls near an abandoned house. He stood there with a pensive look on his face, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. Eventually, the deformed man had to reload.

The salvo of bullets stopped and Calvin finally came out of hiding.

"Hah... Gotcha!" The deformed man revealed an evil smirk when he saw Calvin coming out from behind the wooden wall. He had faked his reload, so he still had several bullets in his pistol as he aimed it at Calvin and swiftly pulled the trigger.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Aspect Trans—shit, I won't make it!" Sweat dripped down Calvin's forehead as he forcibly turned to the side. However, the deformed man was more cunning than he had expected. He sent three bullets flying at Calvin in two different directions.

One was aimed at Calvin's head, while the other was aimed at his heart.

Calvin managed to dodge these two, but what about the third bullet?

It was actually hiding behind the bullet aimed at Calvin's heart!

Calvin turned his entire body to the side, but he failed to dodge the third bullet that hid behind the second bullet.

The bullet grazed Calvin's shoulder, the third bullet's trajectory was also slightly tilted to the side!

It was as if the deformed man had predicted his next course of actions!

"Fuck!" Calvin inwardly cursed.

He took the impact and he used the momentum of the attack to propel himself backward.

"Why are you running?" The deformed man grinned.

He readjusted his aim, but his pistols jammed.

He had run out of bullets.

"Damn it! You cockroach! Come back here!" He quickly reloaded and went after Calvin. The latter had made a turn inside a narrow alleyway and the deformed man made a mistake of coming into such a narrow place.

"Dagger!" Calvin emerged from the darkness with a golden dagger in his hands.

Running towards the deformed man, he abandoned stealth as he raised his dagger into the air and made a gamble.

Which was faster?

The knife or the gun?

The answer was about to be revealed!

The deformed man saw Calvin coming out from the shadows and he immediately pointed his gun at him.

However, Calvin was just a meter away from him!

Calvin was so close that before he could even pull his trigger, Calvin had already slit his throat and kicked him flying into the wall.

"Gah!"

The deformed man spat a mouthful of blood as he held his neck and writhed on the ground in pain.

"Shit, you're still alive?"

Calvin wiped the sweat on his chin as he raised his dagger and sent a killing blow.

But before his dagger could even pierce through the deformed man's head, he abruptly froze.

It was because a creepy cackle rang in his ears.

"Hehe..."

If Calvin wasn't mistaken, this laughter came from the vessel of the Sinister Heart!

"Hahaha..." The deformed man laughed out loud, "It's too late... You bastards are too late. The Sinister Heart is already waking up in its brand-new vessel. Hahaha, it's too late... You will not be able to do anything about it anymore!" Black veins bulged on the deformed man's face.

Calvin was quick to react to these changes as he sent his dagger into the deformed man's face. But his expression fell when he noticed that the deformed man's entire body was ballooning up.

"He's trying to self-destruct? Fuck me!"

He immediately discovered what was going on as he ran out of the dark alleyway and leaped onto the ground.

At the very next moment, a loud explosion occurred.

The self-destruction of the deformed man flattened the entire western part of the Village of Tulog.

Fortunately, Calvin had dropped flat on the ground at the right moment so he wasn't really injured or anything.

When the dust settled, Calvin looked up into the air.

"Stephanie!"

He called for Stephanie in his heart, and the Aswang who had been engaged in a battle against the four women all this time trembled.

She looked up to the skies and immediately noticed the escaping soul of the deformed man.

Rage immediately filled her eyes.

She ran up to the Mortician and she used his shoulders as stepping stones, boosting her flying ability to catch up to the escaping soul of Sum Jing-Woo.

"AH!" Sum Jing-Woo cried out in horror as he quickly made a decision.

Sacrificing a quarter of his soul, he used it as fuel to rapidly escape from the Village of Tulog's airspace. But he was still too slow against Stephanie. Before he could even start to sacrifice his soul, Stephanie had already bit and consumed half of his soul.

When he escaped, only a fourth of his soul remained.

"C-C-CALVIN!!!"

Sum Jing-Woo's scream echoed throughout the entire village.

His howl was full of anger and hatred that could never be abated until the day he killed Calvin with his own hands.