You Dare Threaten Me?

"Are you joking? I would think that having just wrapped things up outside and returned to your home base, what you should do most is relax, then formally build up your power. For instance, getting a firm grip on the Yorktown Whip of Order, drawing clear jurisdictional boundaries with your immediate superior, Regional Chief Sus, and then..." *Clack!* Karen pushed open the window. A cool outdoor breeze drifted in, ruffling his hair. "...and then, while steadily developing, actively seek out or manufacture incidents to involve yourself in—just like what happened with the Church of the Crypt—to reap profits for yourself. As for stirring up trouble, please believe me, I'm a professional. I can create corresponding incidents tailored to your needs to accelerate your growth." Karen unslung the Sword of Diamans from his back. Turning to face Daishan, he said very calmly, "I didn't invite you to plan out my life." "Heheheh..." Daishan covered her mouth with a chuckle. "You're not going to tell me that you made zero preparations, brought nothing but a little bone dragon here, all just to verify my identity and try to kill me?" A smile appeared on Karen's face as well, and he countered, "Why not?" "No, I don't believe you would do something so reckless and irrational. Just like your fighting style, you don't like doing things this way. Before doing anything, you habitually plan it out, and then—" *Buzz!* The Sword of Diamans thrust forward. Daishan extended both hands and caught the blade between her palms. Her hands were very beautiful. Karen's other hand shot forward, gripping her throat and pinning her down onto the desk. Daishan's plump thighs hooked directly around Karen's waist, coiling tightly. The posture was certainly suggestive, and Daishan was wearing a skirt today, but the strength in her legs was enough to easily snap an ordinary person's waist in two. However, the Sea God's Armor surfaced across Karen's body, rippling with layer upon layer of waves to block that terrifying force—a force far worse than heavy pincers. As for Daishan's neck, though Karen had his hand around it, the necklace around her throat formed a protective barrier, constantly nullifying the power in his grip. A bizarre stalemate fell between the two. "How did you see through my identity? Was it because I once asked you some questions about liberalism back at the funeral parlor?" Karen's gaze dropped to Daishan's hands. Hands that held paintbrushes year after year showed certain distinctive traits, however subtle. His prospective father-in-law, Mr. Bede, was a veteran painter, and Eunice, influenced by her father, also painted. Karen was familiar with those characteristics. That day at the Wien Restaurant, in the visions traced from the skeleton, what he had mainly seen was a pair of a woman's hands. This woman could paint. At the same time, she was intimately familiar with his personal life, giving off the sense of someone who had observed him from the periphery at close range. The scope had narrowed in an instant: the home tutor who liked teaching Dora and Doreen how to draw. Kangna, who had been on the sofa all along, stood up and walked to the study door. She opened it and saw Karen and Daishan locked in that position. Seeming not at all surprised, she stepped inside and shut the door behind her. "I suggest you be more sensible," Daishan said. "The present you is not the you of ten or twenty years from now." "Not thirty years anymore?" "I took the initiative to move it up a bit, but it's certainly not now." "All right, then." The moment Karen's words fell, he drove more force into the greatsword, pushing the tip toward Daishan's brow. An orange-yellow luster swirled in Daishan's eyes. A peculiar flame instantly radiated from her body, igniting herself and enveloping Karen along with her. *Hiss...* At first, the flame caused no substantial harm to Karen, but soon he noticed the spiritual power within him being rapidly siphoned away and flowing into Daishan's body. A smile played on Daishan's lips, as if warning Karen that it was time to back off. Yet Karen allowed his spiritual power to be drained without easing up in the slightest. The blade pressed down, inching ever closer to the center of Daishan's forehead. Gritting her teeth, Daishan's body dissolved into mist in an instant, breaking free from Karen's grasp. But just as she vaporized, Karen slashed horizontally with his sword, dense Fire of Order cloaking the blade. *Slash—* Blood erupted from within the mist, which then drifted out through the window. The puzzle cube inside Karen's sleeve ceased turning, and a barrier sprang up beside the window, directly obstructing the mist. Entering the study ahead of time and standing by the window had actually been Karen setting up his trap in advance. Daishan's furious curse immediately sounded from the mist: "You were so certain I wouldn't harm them and would escape out this way!" In the next moment, the mist tore through the barrier. Yet that brief delay was enough for Karen to transform into black mist as well and give chase. Two clouds of mist of differing colors collided outside the window, plummeting rapidly and smashing a manhole cover below into fine dust in an instant. *Hum!* Inside the sewer conduit, the two clouds of mist separated, each condensing back into physical form. Karen still held the greatsword, his eyes cold. On Daishan's right arm and chest were deep sword wounds, and the Fire of Order clinging to them continued to inflict damage. "You really want to kill me?" Even now, Daishan still could not accept this reality. She believed Karen was merely setting the stage for negotiations. Karen wasted no words. He let go of the greatsword, leaving it suspended in midair, and pressed his palms together. The phantom figure of Ancestor Allen manifested behind him. In an instant, a layer of ice spread out swiftly, sealing the area. Immediately after, from farther away—behind Daishan—an Order Cage appeared and began expanding and contracting toward her. Daishan lowered her stance and raised her palm. Her palm split open at once, revealing the face of a middle-aged woman. The face was not hideous; rather, it appeared gentle, still carrying an air of elegance even on such an unnatural medium. She spoke: "You cannot trap me, nor can you kill me. The current you is still no match for me." Karen gave no reply, continuing to manipulate his spell. The middle-aged woman opened her mouth, spitting out a hidden blade. The moment Daishan drew the blade, a peculiar sheen seemed to coat her entire body. Taking just a single step forward, she appeared right in front of Karen, thrusting the hidden blade straight toward his chest. Just then, a little girl's face appeared above Karen's shoulder—it was Kangna. The moment before the hidden blade pierced Karen's body, she opened her mouth and bit down on his shoulder. *Crack...* *Boom!* The hidden blade failed to penetrate Karen's chest, halted dead by a layer of white bone. Simultaneously, white bones protruded from the surrounding sewer walls, turning the conduit into a bone barrier. "Fusion?" Daishan's eyes widened; she had not known of this. The power of the Order Cage swept over, boxing her in completely. Karen raised his right hand and clenched his fist! The Order Cage contracted rapidly, attempting to crush Daishan to pieces. A mark appeared at the center of Daishan's forehead. A faint black radiance emanated from her body, astonishingly similar to the aura of Order. The violently compressing Order Cage was deconstructed in the blink of an eye, dispersing into exceptionally pure wisps of Order aura. Karen pursed his lips and murmured, "Church of Principles..." Just now, she had actually deconstructed his spell, fundamentally neutralizing his lethal technique. "Surprised?" Daishan smiled. "Though you don't seem surprised at all." Karen didn't respond. Instead, he spread his arms. Daishan said, "If we keep fighting, it will definitely attract outside attention. Especially given the scale of our current exchange, it is bound to draw out the Guardian of this region. Do you want me to expose my identity? Do you want me to expose your secrets as well?" "You can keep threatening me." Karen shook his head. "But I won't care." Withdrawing his outstretched arms, Karen pulled himself into a tight embrace. *Buzz—!* With this motion, the white bones along the walls began to retract, like the massive ribs of a dragon constricting inward. It was a bear hug crush, backed by the physical resilience of a little bone dragon. Compared to this, the previous Order Cage seemed downright gentle. Everything seemed to fall silent. Karen looked over. Where Daishan had stood was now completely sealed by interlocking bones. Soon, however, cracks appeared on the bones—first a hairline fracture, then an entire network. Karen felt the sensation of pain Kangna transmitted to him. *Clatter...* Large fragments of bone broke away. Daishan still stood there, except that the skin over her entire body had cracked open completely, leaving behind a form resembling flowing gelatinous mass. It looked soft, but it had to be exceedingly tough, or else it would have been crushed to splatters in the constriction earlier. Only the face retained its original appearance. Daishan opened her clenched fist toward Karen. Under the fist's protection, the middle-aged woman's face was completely unharmed. The woman spoke: "When I worked at the funeral parlor, I wasn't using this puppet. That was my true body." Karen nodded. "I know." If she had moved around his backyard in this body, even if Alfred failed to notice, he still had a dog at home. "I originally intended to meet you with my true body, but upon reflection, I didn't dare. Because my true body is truly very frail... In my plan, twenty years from now, I would come to see you in my true body, kneel before you, and kiss the toe of your boots. "To offer you all my loyalty in the most candid manner. "Yet you are far too impatient. "I'll ask you one last time: do you really have no intention of negotiating?" Karen didn't answer. Raising his sword once more, clad in Dragon God Armor, he charged forward at Daishan again. The two clashed fiercely in the narrow sewer pipe. Daishan repeatedly solidified her body to withstand Karen's onslaught, but Karen was confident she could not hold out forever. *Squelch!* Finally, as Karen thrust his sword through her chest, her body instantly liquefied, seeping directly into the gaps of Karen's Dragon God Armor in an attempt to assassinate him. She had found a way to bypass the formidable defense of the Dragon God Armor. She was truly fighting with her head. In this regard, she was very much like Karen. Karen said, "This might hurt a bit." Undead aura began to spill madly from the Dragon God Armor, just like Molindi's heart back in the underground cave. And what Karen was about to do was precisely what Neo had done back then. A ball of Fire of Light appeared in his palm and swept across his entire body in an instant, igniting it. *Boom!* Two opposing powers violently clashed. Though the scale of the explosion was not as exaggerated as when Neo ignited Molindi, Karen and Kangna had instinctively compressed the blast radius, making its destructive power per unit area utterly horrifying. After the explosion subsided, the white bones detached from Karen's body. Kangna's form condensed behind him, and the little girl slid down, unconscious. Karen knelt on one knee, sword in hand, his body scorched black. Sniffing closely, one could even detect a scent resembling roasted meat. *Drip... drip... drip...* Puddles of silver sludge peeled away from Karen's body, pooling into a small depression before him. It seemed to try to reform into human shape, but multiple attempts failed once it reached the thighs. In the end, she gave up, coalescing only a face and a pair of shoulders. Karen still watched her calmly. And this time, she finally didn't ask whether Karen was crazy, because she was certain that the man before her—whom she looked upon favorably, even revered—was truly insane! She said, "You did this on purpose. The moment you returned here, you made no arrangements at all and came straight for me because you knew that only then would I step out to meet you, only then would I want to talk to you, and only then would you have a chance to truly fight me. "You intentionally altered your usual style of doing things just to leave me at a loss for how to respond!" Karen neither confirmed nor denied it. Yet the woman was right. He didn't know how many eyes she had in Yorktown, but judging by her network of influence within the Church of the Crypt, Karen didn't believe she was clean in Yorktown. To put it bluntly, there might even be her people—or one of her own identities—inside his Whip of Order headquarters! After all, she was an old monster who had crossed paths with mysterious organizations; her lifespan was likely longer than he imagined. Against someone who loved hiding in the shadows, the most effective approach was to break from his past patterns and "communicate" with her in the most reckless manner possible. This had been inspired by Daina's suicide during that Selection Assembly. "The power of Light..." Confusion filled the woman's eyes. "Just how many secrets do you have?" Karen lifted his sword. With a wet squelch, the greatsword impaled the woman's face, and the Fire of Order flared, searing the visage. Her face began to twist, and then a powerful surge of soul power erupted from it, attempting to invade Karen's body. Karen mounted no defense, yet that soul power suddenly halted and retreated back into the face that was twisting and bubbling under the fire. "I don't dare enter your soul. I don't dare use a soul attack on you." Karen still said nothing, continuing to burn it. "I possess far stronger puppets. I command the Church of Principles' most advanced puppet forging techniques, and I even have ancient methods that have been lost even to the Church of Principles itself. If I wished, I could return tomorrow, defeating you in an even mightier form, or even... torturing you to death! "When that time comes, don't you dare hide in your headquarters building and cower inside." Karen spoke: "Actually, you've always had opportunities to kill me." "Yes! I only admire you; I never intended to kill you!" "Is that so?" Karen's gaze hardened slightly. "You never intended to... or you didn't dare?" "Are you trying to tell me something?" "You should know in your heart, but I don't mind telling you directly: your premonition was correct. If you kill me, you will certainly die as well." "Are you threatening me?" "It's a statement, not a threat." "Fine then! I don't have to strike at you personally, but once this puppet is completely ruined, I will spread your secrets. Is that what you want to see?" "I don't mind. Go ahead and spread them. You've been to Allen Manor, so you ought to understand: once my secrets are exposed, heheh, will I be purged by the Church of Order? Or will my life instantly become even better?" "You..." "At times, striving can be addictive, but it can also be exhausting. I don't want my secrets made public, and I keep my secrets, but if force majeure arises, I might actually breathe a sigh of relief. "At the very least, I wouldn't have to stay holed up in Yorktown playing political games. Living with the treatment of a Holy Child right off the bat sounds quite nice, doesn't it?" Daishan: "..." "You should be able to tell that these are my true thoughts. Moreover, the current me is powerless against your true body. I don't have sufficient strength or sufficient power to threaten you in any meaningful sense. "But if you truly want to give me that chance, I will pay any price—making whatever compromises to the Holy See and the Temple—to have the Church of Order put out a wanted notice for you at the highest possible specification! "I will tell the High Priest that someone has been watching him in secret since long ago, and even arranged personnel around him. "Heheheh... "You should understand our High Priest's temperament better than I do. "So, "are you willing to endure the true gaze of the Church of Order?" "Do you think I'm truly afraid of death? Having lived this long, life and death have long ceased to..." "Yet you have something you care about, something countlessly more important than your own life." A smile appeared on Karen's face. "Before returning, I witnessed with my own eyes the Church of Order destroying the faith of the Rebel Dragon God. I know you have many identities, but I am certain of one thing: you are a true believer of the Church of the Crypt. "Perhaps "ending your life is far less exhilarating than using the might of Order to wipe out the Church of the Crypt's heritage, wouldn't you say?" "You dare..." Karen drew back the greatsword, pulling that burning face close to his own: "Listen to me. I don't like living under prying eyes. This is my final warning to you: "If I ever sense your gaze lingering around me again, I will turn into a rabid dog just like today, stopping at nothing to make you pay the price!" The woman replied, "I... promise." Amidst the Fire of Order, after saying those words, the face on the greatsword shattered completely with a pop. Karen withdrew the greatsword, hoisted the unconscious Kangna over his shoulder, and floated upward, leaving the sewer. The street surface above had collapsed entirely. On the perimeter, several Whip of Order squads had rushed over upon hearing the commotion. Seeing Karen, they immediately saluted him: "Greetings, Minister!" "Greetings, Minister!" Karen surveyed the surroundings and said, "Disperse, everyone. It's fine now. A remnant of Light just attempted to assassinate me and has already been slain."