Eldritch Horror Theatre

However, as a self-proclaimed member of the Order faction, Ballard ultimately did not let his temper get the better of him.

His gaze swept over Fu Qian and Akasha. With a cold snort, he led the way out the door and paused to look up.

Fu Qian and Akasha followed closely. The conflict inside the restaurant had clearly caused a stir; the moment the three of them emerged, they became the center of attention.

Following Ballard's gaze, they saw a massive advertisement playing across the glass curtain wall of the building across the street.

A streak of ghostly blue drew closer within the projection, looking as if it were about to tear through the screen and charge into reality.

And it really did.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, a vehicle crashed right out of that smooth glass wall.

Four-wheeled and open-topped, it had a sharp, aggressive design. Its surface closely resembled Ballard's armor, covered in mirrors of various sizes—an incredibly striking sight.

However, for all its sleek aesthetics, the most eye-catching thing about this car was that it was being pulled by a heavily armored warhorse.

So it just doesn't use gas, then?

No matter how flashy the design, it still has to run on biological energy, huh?

But there was a problem with that. Fu Qian looked at the neon lights filling the streets.

Isn't there electricity here? An electric vehicle would have worked too!

By the time his internal critique finished, the most badass carriage in history had already rocketed to a halt in front of the restaurant. The rear doors even opened silently on their own.

"After you, Mister Andil."

Ballard was clearly quite satisfied with this flashy entrance. With a short grunt, he gestured for Fu Qian to proceed.

"Much obliged!"

Fu Qian nodded. At the same time, he pulled a banknote from his pocket and handed it over with complete naturalness.

...

Never mind Ballard—even Akasha was dumbfounded.

After a full five seconds of silence, Ballard glanced at the arm Akasha was tightly hugging, then finally stepped forward and reached for the bill in Fu Qian's hand.

Now isn't the time to stoop to this guy's level.

Yet, just as he consoled himself with that thought, the empty sensation in his hand made Ballard freeze.

At the same moment, Akasha cried out in alarm. The target she had been clutching with both her arms and bone wings had vanished into thin air.

A fierce sense of imminent danger washed over Ballard. Countless mirrors on his armor flashed, converging into an illusory matrix over his body.

This was one of his proudest abilities. Even without a physical form, each layer of the matrix possessed a defensive strength only slightly inferior to his armor.

Furthermore, if it shattered, every edge and corner would transform into an indestructible, razor-sharp blade.

In the very next moment, however, amid a crisp shatter, this supposedly absolute defense was pierced through like rotting wood by a sharp claw.

Of course, the claw did not escape entirely unscathed. As it passed through the myriad broken edges, its surface was instantly slashed with dozens of cuts.

Even so, it continued without hesitation, punching straight through the faceplate and seizing the head beneath.

Crack!

Before Ballard could utter a single word, his head was crushed into a bloody paste.

"You..."

Facing that figure who seemed to have stepped right out of the void—who was now looking back at her with a smiling face—an extreme sense of danger erupted in Akasha's mind.

She lashed out with all her claws, not seeking to kill, only to stall. She instinctively retreated, but an almost imperceptible line of blood materialized out of thin air.

Acted upon by some inconceivable force, her body flew forward instead of retreating, yanked right back to where she started.

Steeling her resolve, the crimson hair wrapping Akasha's body instantly wove into a net, sweeping forward to ensnare Fu Qian's claw.

Yet in the next instant, Fu Qian simply withdrew his claw. His figure flickered once more, evading a streak of blue light.

The Greedheart Warhorse, charging at an unbelievable speed, tore straight through the afterimage he left behind.

Fu Qian's expression cooled. He cast a somewhat reluctant look at Akasha.

"It seems things are a bit inconvenient today."

While his words still drifted in the air, his figure vanished once again.

At the same time, a bloodstained banknote fluttered down from midair.

...

Clatter!

In the next moment, Ballard—whose head had been crushed and who should have been lying dead on the ground—grabbed the warhorse's neck and slowly pushed himself back to his feet.

Inside his mangled faceplate, there was no longer any shape of a human head, only a hollow cavity of red and white.

After "looking" at Akasha in this horrifying state, Ballard buried his face deep into the horse's back.

A sound like glass grinding against glass rang out. The warhorse immediately let out a piercing neigh.

Drawn by some mysterious force, the shimmering mirrored scales on the horse's back rapidly gathered toward where Ballard's face should be.

Witnessing this, Akasha hesitated for a brief moment before deciding to stand guard beside him.

Scarcely ten seconds later, Ballard lifted his head.

At a glance, the faceplate that had just been a gaping cavity now housed a new head.

Only, compared to before, this new head looked more like a crystalline structure of countless mirrored facets than a body of flesh and blood.

"That guy is far more dangerous than we imagined."

The crystalline entity spoke.

As the voice rang out, the sharp lines of the face rapidly softened. In the blink of an eye, Ballard's original features could be seen once again.

"He most likely came here targeting us."

"What do you mean?"

Akasha, not yet fully recovered from her shock, felt her eyes flicker at these words.

"The reason he went into that restaurant wasn't for Catherine. It was because he noticed me lurking nearby."

"First, he stepped in to resolve the trouble. Then, he deliberately acted in a way that drew suspicion, even going so far as to admit he was an outsider and agreeing to submit to our control. All of it was leading up to a sudden, violent ambush at the exact moment our guard was completely down."

"It's a good thing there were two of us, and a good thing he chose me as his primary target. Had it been anyone else, surviving that would have been virtually impossible."

...

For a moment, Akasha found herself entirely at a loss for words.

She had seen the entire situation clearly. That incomprehensible ambush and sheer lethality—if she had been the target, she absolutely wouldn't have been able to dodge it either.

The crux of the matter was that she couldn't bizarrely resurrect from that level of fatal trauma the way Ballard just had.

"He truly is a terrifying opponent. No demigod has ever given me a feeling like that before."

A moment later, she let out a long sigh.

"You're right. If we had attacked him together from the start, setting aside whether we could actually keep him here, I most likely would have been the one to die."

"I must thank you as well."

As he spoke, Ballard's injuries completely healed.

"Regardless of what he claimed, he was never going to agree to go to the Base. If you hadn't shown up just now, he would have forced an attack no matter how vigilant I was. If that happened, I probably would have had to die twice."

"But why would he do all this? I can't imagine a single reason."

Akasha shook her head, finding it incredibly hard to comprehend.

"Neither can I. But with a monster like that trespassing in our territory, it's best we warn everyone to stay alert—"

Ballard suddenly fell silent mid-sentence, as if he were listening closely to something.

A moment later, he slowly raised his head to look at Akasha, a very strange expression on his face.

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