The clown was frantically looking around the room to see where the voice was coming from.
Pulch!
"Ah!"
While he was looking around, an arrow soared through the broken window and penetrated his right shoulder.
"Hehehehe, who...is...that?" a terrifying fear began to sprout in his heart, making his body shiver without his control.
Minister Gerty and Arria already lost consciousness and Dagger could barely stand straight.
"Another Clown trying to use my name to kill" the voice appeared again before the door exploded into countless pieces of splinters.
Through the smoke of dust, Dagger saw not one but two figures walking out. Even in the dim lighting in the room, their red eyes shone like rubies.
When the dust settled, Dagger vaguely saw that although the two figures looked the same, he could tell one of them is a woman as her armor was curvier to fit a woman.
"He's dead, pathetic little worm" She may be a woman but her voice sounded nothing like a woman, it sounded animalistic and terrifying.
On the ground, Minister Gerty laid there unmoving, his face was as pale as white paper and blood was seeping through his nostrils, eyes, and mouth.
"Hmm, although this human is weaker than this one, she's still alive," Gaya said, walking at Arria.
"My gut tells me that we should keep this one alive," Michael nodded. Since the girl was just at level 1 of the Body refining stage, she should have been dead with the amount of fear toxin she inhaled yet she was alive, which surprised Michael.
He quickly retrieved a small syringe containing the antidote for the fear toxin and threw it to Gaya. While she was injecting Arria, Michael's gaze turned back to the clown in front of him. On a normal day, this clown would have given Michael and Gaya a tough fight except when the spider exploded, he inhaled the mix of Fear toxin and Gaya's poison that Michael created back at the Abyssal. Every single spider contained this mix of toxins, he did not think it would be of such use so soon.
After he inhaled the toxins, Michael sent pure fear toxin into the room, resulting in Gerty's death. Considering the clown was at Core Strengthening level 3, Michael and Gaya did not take any chances as she shot him with an arrow dipped in her poison. Dagger was already affected by the toxin that came out of the spider and the Fear toxin, therefore, he could not react in time to reflect the arrow as he would have in his peak form.
Now the weakened Dagger could barely be considered as a Core Formation warrior.
"Death Range" Even with all this, Michael still activated the Death Range.
The very next moment, the darkroom became darker.
"I have a few questions, answer me and I'll let you live," Michael said, lifting the clown by his neck.
"Wh-"
Creak!
Michael snapped the clown's right hand like a twig when he was about to ask Michael a question.
"I ask, you answer, not the other way around" Dagger tried to fight through the pain while sensing Lucifer's cultivation level but he was unable to.
"Why did you kidnap Gerty?"
After realizing he couldn't use a spell under his clutch, Dagger decided to spin him a story to buy enough time. He hoped either the holy guards or guardians would come here to rescue Gerty somehow. But again, he was the one who picked this place and surrounded it with runes in the first place to avoid anyone coming after Gerty.
"I..received...a contract...to kill Gerty, hehehe"
"Why is he laughing?" Gaya asked, reaching out at his clown mask to unmask him.
"You're an elf"
When she removed the mask, the one who stared at Michael was a pointy ear elf. He had patches of red hair, blue eyes, and a burn wound that left a mark stretching from the top of the left cheek, running towards his right nostril and ending on his chin leaves a bad memory of his unfortunate past.
Despite the fact, he belonged to the most beautiful race in this world, there was something wicked about him. The burn wound, the way he laughs made Michael wary of him and Gaya smelled a faint stench coming from his body.
"Hehehehe, yes"
"Someone cursed this elf" Michael could not notice but the Nagas were blessed with a heightened sense of smell, therefore, Gaya instantly recognized the reason for the faint stench was a curse.
"I don't care about that, who gave you the contract?" Michael asked the elf. He couldn't care less of who cursed the elf or why because the clown was about to steal his kill and use his name Lucifer to hide his tracks and that punched Dagger the ticket straight to hell.
"I...don't...know," Michael noticed the medallion hanging on his chest. He pulled the medallion in the other hand,
"You're a Grim Reaper," Gaya said. Michael did not forget that it was a group of Grim Reapers who ambushed the dwarf who was building Michael's restaurant.
"Then why didn't you kill Gerty in his room, why did you teleport him here?"
"It's...it's..." seeing how the elf mumbled, Michael realized that he lied about getting a contract to kill Gerty.
Creak!
"AHHH! Hehehe" Michael broke the elf's other hand and weirdly, he screamed and laughed at the same time.
"By lying, you're just playing with your own life," Michael said while Gaya grabbed one of the daggers lying on the ground.
"Let's just kill him and ask his student" she raised the dagger aiming at his throat when he screamed.
"Quinn! Hehehehe" Both Gaya and Michael were surprised to hear the name Quinn again. He was the one who has been killing the nobles and helping the fake Lucifer.
"System, scan Gerty's body and teleport everyone to Abyssal!"
[The host had only 2000 badass points remaining. Scanning the body and Teleportation to the abyssal would cost the host 3000 points. Would you like a loan of 10,000 badass points?]
"Fuck, do it" Michael screamed at the system. A glimmer of light wrapped around Gerty's body, scanning him for a rune or anything that would give the location of Abyssal to the mysterious person.
[Scan completed]
[The system found the rune of tracking in Gerty's body]
[2000 badass points will be required to remove the rune]
"Yes, remove it and teleport us now!" the familiar light of teleportation wrapped around everyone before disappearing from the room.
************************************
Gaya saw the throne made of skull and bones and realized she was teleported back to Abyssal by Michael. She knew something must have happened for him to use teleportation without warning her but she did not question him in front of the elf.
"What did Quinn want with Gerty?"
Teleportation was an extremely powerful spell wielded by a few handfuls of people in the world. Even in the elven land, a mage with the ability to teleport was extremely rare and powerful. The way he instantly teleported them made Dagger realize that Lucifer might just be the real devil everyone was claiming him to be.
He did not dare to lie again as his life was more important than Quinn's.
"He called in a favor...he wanted me to kidnap and bring him to the cabin. That's...that's all I know...I swear, please let me and my student go" By looking in the elf's eyes, Gaya could tell he told the truth about the favor but when he asked specifically asked him and the girl to let go, her interest in the girl peaked because an evil person like him mostly wouldn't think about anyone else other than himself.
"I have one last question, tell me the truth and I will let you both go"
Dagger's body loosened up a bit as a breath of sigh escaped his mouth.
"Who is that girl and how did she get past the arrays back at Gerty's mansion?"
Michael noticed a hint of reluctance in the elf's eyes before he opened his mouth to answer.
"She..she has..the ability to..." his voice trailed off looking at Arria who was lying on the ground unconscious. She was supposed to be his trump card and the way to rise in power but now, he had no choice but to reveal her secret.
"Ability to do what?"
"Hide the Arch energy radiation coming from her body"
Behind the masks, Michael and Gaya raised their brows in surprise and shock. He used the junk metal to build spiders just for this exact reason, he thought a living being, especially a cultivator couldn't hide their Arch energy radiation no matter what. It was supposed to be impossible, even he could only hide the cultivation level from the eyes of others for a short amount of time but his presence could still be detected by arrays and cultivators.
If what the elf said was true about the girl, she is the perfect assassin for this world until Michael upgrades the system to hide his presence.
"Dark Queen" Michael turned his gaze at her without losing his grip around the elf's neck.
The elf had no time to react before Gaya stabbed the dagger right between his eyes, ending the elf's life in a blink of an eye.