The Ogre was also staring at Patty.
Its human eyes rolled slightly, and its nostrils flared as it greedily sniffed the air.
From this piece of food, it detected a scent that fascinated it.
It was the scent of some high-ranking demon, an aroma that held a lethal attraction for it.
It could sense that as long as it devoured the prey before it, ate her heart and drank her blood, it would surely achieve some unprecedented evolution!
But what confused it was...
Why did this prey feel no fear?
The Ogre fed on it; fear was the best seasoning for food.
When other prey saw it, their entire bodies would emit that sweet aroma, but this one had none at all.
Seeing she wasn't afraid, the Ogre shifted its gaze toward Scott, who had fallen to the ground in front of her.
Based on thousands of years of hunting experience, as long as it destroyed one piece of food in front of another, fear would radiate outward like fermented wine.
"Hiss..."
The leathery wings on its back suddenly unfurled as it soared into the sky, diving straight toward Scott under the moonlight.
"No! Don't eat me! I have money!"
Seeing the monster had targeted him, the fear deep within Scott's soul caused him to lose his mind completely.
The survival instinct flooded his body with adrenaline. He scrambled up from the ground on all fours, and instead of fleeing elsewhere, he ran toward the person closest to him: Patty.
"Bitch! Get in its way!"
Scott's expression turned hideous, revealing his ugly true colors.
To buy himself even a single second to escape, a wicked impulse took hold; he thrust his hands out, shoving Patty with all his might.
He attempted to push the girl he had been unsuccessfully pursuing for so long toward the monster to serve as his human shield.
But,
Patty was not some frail young lady.
Thanks to the reaction speed and physical conditioning she had honed over a long period spent by Dante's side, she was already on guard.
The moment Scott moved, she shoved Minxie aside and performed a roll. Not only did she dodge Scott's treacherous hands, but she also completed the motions of drawing and firing her weapon mid-roll.
"Bang!!"
The gunshot exploded in their ears.
A spray of blood erupted from the Ogre's shoulder.
The impact caused it to lose its balance in mid-air, and it crashed heavily onto the grass.
Minxie stood up, trembling, watching the scene in disbelief.
Patty was kneeling on one knee, a delicate mini pistol gripped in her hand, white smoke still curling from the barrel.
This was a handgun she had purchased herself.
Her experiences with demons since childhood had left her with a lasting shadow, leading her to specially commission a pocket pistol for self-defense.
It was just that the people at the Agency had always protected her so well afterward. Although she always felt she would never need the thing in her life, she had kept it on her person at all times; she hadn't expected it to actually come in handy today.
Seeing the monster lying motionless on the ground, Patty delivered a few more finishing blows from a distance.
Click.
The sound of an empty chamber rang out. Patty swapped in a spare magazine and stepped forward.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Shifting to a two-handed grip, she pulled the trigger with an expressionless face, firing repeatedly at the corpse's head until the entire magazine was empty once more, until the monster's head was blasted into a completely unrecognizable mess of pulp.
Sephirot's usual flippant remarks flashed through her mind...
In this world, the only good monster is a dead one. No matter what, always remember to deliver a finishing blow.
Click.
The familiar sound of the empty chamber echoed again.
Patty lowered the muzzle and took a deep breath.
"A gun... she was actually carrying a gun?"
Scott, who had been in the middle of running away, halted his steps. He stared at the monster on the ground, now a pile of mangled meat, and froze for a moment.
Once he confirmed it was safe, the ecstasy of surviving a disaster instantly overwhelmed all his fear.
Immediately after, he remembered the moment he had pushed Patty aside. A wave of intense guilt and embarrassment made his face flush crimson.
But he quickly adjusted his mindset.
As long as he got the gun, the power would be in his hands. Then, everyone would have to listen to him!
Scott rushed back to the scene. To mask his cowardice, he first kicked the monster's corpse several times, cursing under his breath.
"You damn beast! Trying to scare me? Go to hell!"
After putting on his little show, he turned around, straightened his clothes, and walked quickly toward Patty.
"My God! Patty! You're amazing! I had no idea you were holding out on us like this."
As he spoke, he reached out, attempting to take the handgun from Patty's hand. "Look... things were so chaotic just now. I was trying to lure it away; I must have lost my footing and bumped into you."
"Luckily, it's safe now. A dangerous thing like this could easily hurt you; it's better to let a man handle it."
Scott's eyes burned with greed as he looked at the handgun in Patty's hand, as if it were a scepter that could rule over everything.
"Give it to me, Patty. I'm with the Hunting Club, I'll protect you guys..."
Patty gave him a cold look, her expression filled with disgust. "Get lost."
Scott's hand froze in mid-air. He looked sheepish and eventually pulled it back.
"Don't just stand there! Get out of here!"
Not far away, Kevin snapped back to his senses and shouted.
The group woke from their shock and ran toward the RV one after another.
The RV started up again.
Shortly after they departed, the monster's fleshy wings twitched slightly. It wobbled as it stood up, its hands subconsciously reaching for its head, only to find nothing there.
Several wet, slippery arthropod-like limbs extended from the neck. They clawed at the air, sensing the scent of blood in the wind, and moved toward a tree behind the camp.
There, a corpse lay waiting, along with a head....
—--
Meanwhile, on a stretch of highway over ten kilometers away from Patty's camp.
A sports car cut its engine and came to a halt before an intersection.
Sephirot pushed the car door open and looked toward the burnt, pitch-black abandoned church ahead. The scent of roasted meat drifted through the air.
"It should be around here."
Sephirot whispered to himself.
The highway branched off on either side of the church; the left path led toward the mountain forests, while the other stretched out into an endless wilderness.
He turned his head toward Alessa in the passenger seat. "Can you scout the road on the right? We'll be more efficient if we split up."
Alessa shook her head, a hint of self-reproach surfacing on her small face hidden in the shadows. "The magnetic field here is very chaotic. I can't stray too far from you."
She paused, then continued to explain, "My source of darkness is currently residing within your body. If I were to forcibly withdraw all my power and leave, the out-of-control energy might drag this entire area into Silent Hill."
"If I only send out a single strand of dark power, it will dissipate before long."
Sephirot raised an eyebrow. There was enough trouble as it was; he didn't want any more accidents happening out of thin air.
"Fine." He nodded, no longer dwelling on it, and got back into the car. "Then we'll go this way."
The sports car's engine roared to life once more. Sephirot floored the accelerator, speeding off toward the road on the left.
—--
"Stat..."
"Headquarters, this is Unit 17. Routine patrol complete."
"0-3-2, we're at Opay Restaurant. Care for a coffee?"
Intermittent police communications drifted from the car radio.
Inside a dim room, Jack Taggart sat at a table with a grim expression, gripping an old-style walkie-talkie tightly in his hand.
The orange glow of the walkie-talkie flickered with the sound, illuminating his hate-filled face like that of a vengeful spirit.
Since losing his younger son, Billy, he had spent days sitting withered before the radio.
He monitored every frequency, waiting only for that thing to appear again.
After listening for a while and confirming no information had been missed, he turned the knob again, switching channels.
The yellow light flickered on once more.
"Stat..."
"...Kevin... can anyone hear me? ...Encountered a monster..."
"Location East Route 9, situation critical, can anyone..."
Jack bolted upright, grabbing the walkie-talkie. "226, are you still there?"
After a burst of static, a young male voice came through, sounding on the verge of tears:
"Of course I'm fucking still here! Who are you?! Help me!!"
Jack asked calmly, "OK, listen kid, say what you just said again. Slowly."
Kevin: "We're trapped on East Route 9, in an RV."
"There's a monster, it killed Brad! Even though we knocked it down, who knows if it'll get back up?"
Jack: "Which section of East Route 9? Give me a landmark."
"Stat..."
The voice on the other end suddenly vanished.
Jack's heart leaped into his throat. "Hello?! Kid! Can you hear me?"
(Translated by yourtl.app)
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Power stones plsss