Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 491: Duel in the Basement

"Doctor, this..."

"A self-protection mechanism, we have entered a secret area of his inner heart that he refuses to expose, so he forbids us from leaving. Well, this isn’t very surprising."

The doctor made the judgement with considerable familiarity.

Fiery flames licked at the faces and arms of the two men, who temporarily did not continue to venture deeper but stood at the doorway assessing the interior of the accounting office.

It was still a fire scene here: the room was quite large, with collapsed filing cabinets and archives cabinets pressing against each other. All the cabinet doors were open, and the burning paper documents were scattered all over the floor, desks, and file cabinets, as if someone had plundered the place before the fire.

"Over there."

The doctor pointed to the imposing desk at the very back of the accounting office.

Both ignored the black filaments in the air, walked around those file cabinets, and found a man curled up next to a safe. Banknotes were scattered around him, but oddly, the banknotes were not ablaze.

The man showed no reaction to the footsteps behind him. The doctor raised his eyebrows, gesturing for Shard to speak, so Shard cleared his throat:

"Luther Kinwis?"

As soon as the words fell, the curled up trembling figure finally moved. He turned his head, and Shard saw a man’s face crying in pain. Since there were no burn marks, the face could even be considered somewhat handsome, leaving Shard uncertain whether they had found the right target.

"It’s him."

"It’s him," said the doctor, then slightly furrowed his brows because the crying man actually lay on the ground, slowly crawling towards them as if he wanted to cling to Shard’s legs. His speed was not fast, so Shard stepped back and avoided him.

He had a very bad feeling.

Kinwis lay on those Gold Pound notes, tears streaming down his face, he looked up, his body trembling, and asked him:

"Sir, would you forgive me?"

The voice did not come from his mouth but seemed to come from all around, as if the room itself was speaking.

Shard immediately looked at the doctor, Dr. Schneider shook his head, his mouth miming the words:

"He’s asking you a question."

The doctor’s lip movement suggested this, but since Shard did not understand lip-reading, he could not rule out the possibility that Dr. Schneider was asking if he still wanted supper tonight.

"I... am under no obligation to forgive you on behalf of someone else."

Although knowing that saying "forgive" might prevent the Dream Master from losing control, Shard did not want to do something against his conscience. Especially since he did not believe that the man could overpower the two of them.

The doctor laughed, giving Shard a gesture to continue.

"You, not forgive?"

The lying figure asked tremblingly, his swollen eyes looking at Shard in surprise.

The surrounding flames momentarily stilled, but then quickly returned to normal.

The wind began to blow within the enclosed fire scene. The strange wind did not sway the rekindled flames but swept the black filaments in the air fast towards the man’s body on the banknotes, turning the normal skin and clothes black. Simultaneously, from the floor beneath the banknotes, a thick black liquid rapidly surged out.

Almost instantaneously, the black liquid beneath the laying Luther Kinwis’s body formed a circular black mire, with liquid rising around him like a whirlpool continuously rising.

But the crying man did not sink into the mire; instead, the pus-like substance clung to his body, gathering towards his right side.

"Detective, something seems wrong here,"

Dr. Schneider said, frowning behind Shard.

In Shard’s hands now appeared a Moonlight Greatsword:

"Doctor, would it have been better if I had lied just now?"

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But Dr. Schneider’s reply was completely drowned out by the voices coming from all around the fire.

The resentful voice conveyed malice that was downright more nauseating than the black pus now seeping from the floor:

"You actually refuse to forgive me!"

The blackened Kinwis propped his hands on the floor, suddenly lifting his head amidst the fire.

In front of Shard, his left half was merely blackened, while his right half was completely enveloped by the black pus. And as the pus covered his eye, a crimson light spot emerged from where his right eye once was.

It wasn’t just the external pus gathering on his body; from within Luther Kinwis’s own body, there also appeared to be a nauseating black fluid surging forth.

As he slowly rose to his feet, the black pus covering the right half of his body grew rapidly like a small tree. By the time Shard had drawn his sword, the swollen right half of the body burst open in an instant, the surging pus reaching the ceiling at its highest point.

The black enormous hand, like a bizarre tumor housed on a normal body or a giant tree growing out of a human body, directed its normal left eye, filled with hatred, and the crimson light of its right eye simultaneously towards Shard:

"You! You really won’t forgive me!"

"Moonlight Slash!"

The black enormous hand, carrying a violent rush of air, smacked towards the floor of the accounting office, completely blocking the silver moonlight.

In the incredible vibration, the fiery ground floor completely collapsed. Shard and Dr. Schneider, struggling to keep their balance, fell along with the demon power-infected Dream Master from the third floor, crashing through the vanished second-floor and the fragile ground floor, landing heavily in a basement encircled by flames along with splinters, stones, furniture, and trash.

Even though Shard was prepared, the fall was not light. Fortunately, thanks to the blessing of Arcane Technique applied by Dr. Schneider, he managed to dig himself out from under the wood and stones and stand up from the sea of flames.

The black hand smacked the ground, spraying stones and trash all around. Amidst roaring howls and the Earth’s tremors, Kinwis also rose to his feet.

Above their heads, the hole extending down from the third floor clearly displayed every floor’s cross-section, and around them, aside from the unburned area under their feet, flames completely surrounded the two as they faced each other.

"Hmm... where did the doctor go?"

"Roar~"

Like a completely irrational beast, Kinwis charged at Shard. The black hand was raised high, but the imbalance between the left and right sides of the body made the action somewhat slow.

Shard did not attempt to compete in strength but rolled to his left side, perfectly avoiding the attack just before the giant hand smashed down.

Supporting himself with his left hand, he agilely jumped up, slashing his Moonlight Greatsword across the swollen black right side of Kinwis’s body as he tried to lift his right hand again.

Black pus immediately spilled out, but when Shard withdrew his Moonlight Greatsword, he could see no wound left by the attack.

"Why is there no wound?"

As if the giant tree-like hand had lifted again, this time it swept along the ground. A wave of heat struck, and to avoid jumping too high and being vulnerable in the air, Shard chose to retreat.

Fortunately, the basement was spacious. Shard avoided the attack once more. The sweeping black hand continued to damage wood and stone debris in the fiery scene, causing the bright red flames to intensify even more.

"He is the Master of Dreams, and will not die by your hand no matter what!"

Finally, the doctor’s voice came from above. During a break in the fighting, Shard looked up to see the doctor standing at the broken edge of the first-floor flooring. He was fortunate not to have fallen directly into the basement like Shard and Kinwis.

"Shard, can you delay and trap him for three minutes? Don’t let him leave the basement. Give me three minutes to prepare the ritual!"

What the doctor meant was, if Shard couldn’t handle it, he would join the battle, but that would waste even more time.

"No problem, after all, it’s just a normal person... But what exactly is this black pus?"

Shard asked knowingly, actually trying to probe the doctor.

"Negative emotions, very dense negative emotions, but they seem not to be contagious, so just be careful," the doctor replied and quickly left from the position above them.

"It seems the doctor didn’t realize what this is."

Holding his sword, Shard observed Kinwis, whose body was undoubtedly covered in the power of the "Human Pus Demon." However, compared to what he had seen on Ivan Daknis, this power was pitifully weak.

Considering the demon in Daknis, which had the ability to strengthen itself by absorbing negative emotions, it was quite possible that Daknis had already arrived in Tobesk, and after encountering Luther Kinwis and seeing his resentment and twisted nature, he had left his power in him.

"Human Pus should also be considered a kind of bodily fluid similar to blood. If I were to drop this into my eye..."

Shard was frightened by his own bold idea, but in any case, defeating the enemy in front of him was the priority. The opponent could be likened to an extremely weakened, out-of-control version of Ivan Daknis, which made this battle experience particularly useful.

"But why would the doctor have just happened to encounter... Oh!"

Despite sweeping past without hitting Shard, Kinwis, shockingly raising his right hand, leapt high from the fiery depths, his body almost reaching the ground above the first floor. His giant black limb smashed down towards the contemplative Shard, its momentum formidable.

Once again, Shard rolled forward, turning with the moonlight blade in his left hand as he felt the flames behind him and the ground shake tremendously, then he continued to retreat.

The Moonlight Slash left a wound on Kinwis, but the wound nearly healed immediately. As Kinwis tried to stand again, Shard quickly unleashed three more Moonlight Slashes.

Although Shard couldn’t kill the Master of Dreams in a dream, this damage could somewhat weaken Kinwis.

"Roar~"

His sanity appeared even weaker, and no trace of intelligent life could be seen in the normal left eye anymore. Kinwis swung his gigantified right hand and turned his body, while Shard, holding his sword, prepared to face him. He actually hoped the confrontation would last a while longer as the three minutes would swiftly pass by.