Chapter 318: Chapter 318

Reinforcements from the Orthodox Church were steadily arriving. The longer this dragged on, the more of their enforcer squads would show up. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs Novᴇl_Fire(.)net

Jenkins stood by the glass window on the second floor of the small building, patiently observing the scene outside. Suddenly, a thin beam of light shot up from the ground ahead, and in an instant, all sound ceased.

It was like a laser beam slicing through the darkness of night, but it was four in the afternoon. As an eerie calm settled over everything, he ducked behind the curtain, puzzled, wondering what on earth had just happened. The surrounding area had fallen unnervingly silent.

All at once, a cluster of light specks appeared in his vision, closing in at an incredible speed. Before Jenkins could even react, there was a crash of shattering glass as a man burst straight through the second-floor window, landing with a surprisingly graceful roll on the floor.

Jenkins raised his gun and fired. He rolled to the right before the shell casing even hit the floor, just as a rift tore open in the space where he had just been standing. A black, pus-covered arm reached out from the tear, only to retract reluctantly as the spatial fissure sealed shut a few seconds later.

A silvery ribbon of light materialized around Jenkins. He jabbed his fingers forward repeatedly, sending shards of light flying out. The intruder didn't dare to face them head-on. He tossed his hat toward Jenkins, raising a cloud of dust that obscured his vision, then yanked a metal filing cabinet over with his right hand and ducked behind it.

"Level 6, with at least twenty eye-shaped artifacts all over his body. Where in the world did this lunatic come from?"

Jenkins cursed inwardly. The man with graying hair had clearly transplanted demonic eyes all over his body.

A hand cautiously peeked out from behind the cabinet. Jenkins immediately raised his pistol and squeezed the trigger.

After the loud crack of the gunshot, the bullet missed its mark. The hand hadn't been struck; instead, the palm had opened.

An eye—long, slender, and distinctly inhuman—had appeared in the center of the palm. Because he had been aiming right at it, Jenkins's gaze locked with the eerie eye instantly.

A powerful suction emanated from the eye, pulling at him. A wave of dizziness washed over him, and he felt his soul being gently tugged from his body. Jenkins violently wrenched his gaze away and fired again.

Without bothering to check the result, he ducked back behind the mahogany desk and hastily reloaded with a spare magazine.

With a sharp click, the metal magazine locked into place. At that exact moment, the man launched himself from behind his cover.

Jenkins frantically squeezed the trigger, but none of his shots found their mark. He suspected it wasn't his aim that was poor, but that his opponent possessed some kind of special ability.

He swung his cane violently with his left hand, intercepting the man's dagger. The force of the impact bent the man's wrist at an unnatural angle, but now they were dangerously close.

The man thrust out his now-empty left hand, another eye opening in its palm.

Jenkins quickly averted his eyes and activated [Blasphemous Creation]. Green vines erupted from the void. The man, who shouldn't have been able to see them, nimbly dodged aside. Ignoring Jenkins, he ripped open his misbuttoned overcoat, revealing that he was completely naked underneath.

Dozens of eyes blinked open at once. For a split second, the vines froze in mid-air before lunging at the man with frenzied speed. Jenkins seized the opportunity, projecting a carefully selected sliver of maddening knowledge toward the wielder of the demonic eyes.

The man finally discarded the rest of his upper-body clothing. Demonic eyes opened from the strangest of places—the inside of his forearms, his wrists, his chest, his navel. Varying in size and blinking at different speeds, they unleashed their power in every direction simultaneously.

His body flickered, becoming almost translucent, then abruptly teleported two meters backward. This put him beyond the vines' reach, and they could only retract helplessly.

A dazzling, orange-red beam of energy shot out from the largest red eye, which was situated right in the center of the man's chest. Jenkins dove for cover. He caught the acrid stench of burning as everything the beam touched began to melt.

Thankfully, the building's owner had shut off the main gas valve on the first floor for safety before leaving; otherwise, the consequences could have been far more devastating.

When Jenkins peeked out from his cover again, the man was gone. Only snowflakes were left, swirling into the room through the shattered window, the fabric curtains dancing in the cold wind.

He murmured, touching the metal block in his pocket with a sense of relief.

Captain Bincy and his men were unconscious in an alley not far from the building. By the time Jenkins and the backup team reached them, a thin layer of snow had already blanketed their bodies.

Fortunately, they were all Enchanters, far more resilient than ordinary people. Once revived, none of them appeared to have sustained any permanent injuries.

Others, however, had not been so lucky. According to Captain Bincy, their foe—the man with the multitude of demonic eyes—had been cornered in the alley by at least four nine-man squads when the fight began.

It should have been a guaranteed victory, but no one had anticipated the man suddenly tearing off his shirt. In an instant, those terrifying and grotesque demonic eyes had activated all at once. Some of the men were hit by the effects of more than five eyes simultaneously.

Captain Bincy and his men had been relatively fortunate. Positioned on the roof of a low building beside the alley, they had been about to launch an ambush from above and were only caught by the effect of a single demonic eye—one called a Freeze Eye. The less fortunate were already dead.

Jenkins helped treat several of the critically wounded at the scene. Once the next wave of reinforcements arrived, he departed with the members of his own church.

"How are you feeling now?"

Seated inside the carriage, they finally found refuge from the swirling blizzard outside. Jenkins still felt a chill, but the flame of a candle provided a steady source of warmth.

The other men in the carriage were bundled in black overcoats, the biting cold still not having released its grip on them.

"I'm all right. Nothing a cup of hot chocolate won't fix once we're back."

Captain Bincy forced a weak smile, holding his palms out toward the brazier in the middle of the cramped carriage. Using it in such a confined space was risky, but the continuous loss of body heat was a greater danger.

"I never should have brought you here today," he said. "Oh, Goddess, if anything had happened to you, how could I have ever faced them back at the church?"

He sniffled sharply, continuing before Jenkins could get a word in.

"I can't ever take you out on a mission again. An incident ... once is more than enough. Legacy Sage preserve us, to think you actually came face-to-face with that man."