After finishing lunch, Charlot Meburg happily clocked off work.

  The streets of Strasb, freshly soaked by raierribly muddy. After all, this wash, and even the imperial pace didn’t have pletely paved roads, let alohe streets! Such ditions were far from ideal for a date, especially since Miss Annie Bretagne was a noblewoman who couldn’t stand the dirt underfoot.

  Charlot po ght home and tiudying his diary.

  The excitement of buying his carriage had long since faded. On his way back to 58 Elysée Avenue, he no longer admired the sery but instead shut his eyes for a brief nap.

  Suddenly, the Blood Vortex at Charlot’s brow throbbed violently, and Eye of Insight activated automatically. He “saw” a familiar, corpulent figure just a few dozen steps away. The figure was squeezed into an oversized, slightly tattered military uniform, face torted in rage. Left arm raised horizontally to support the right, where a Thundercp Gun oised, aimed precisely at Charlot.

  “Damn it!”

  “Magru Trell? How did he get out?”

  The former warden of Kilmainham Prison was supposed to be locked up, not moonlighting as an assassin here.

  Charlot didn’t have time to think further. He flung the carriage door open, hooked onto its edge, and, like a cat, flipped skillfully onto the carriage roof.

  From within his Battlefield e, he drew out the Anti-Space Le Rifle, discarding the e while using his foot to stabilize it, ensuring he didn’t fall off. Dropping to one knee, he adopted a perfect shooting stance, loaded an Anti-magic Armor-pierg Round, and—thanks to the Swiftstep Teique he’d newly mastered yesterday—pleted the entire process in just a sed. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger!

  Though Magru Trell had set the ambush, Charlot, with the warning of Eye of Insight and his Swiftstep Teique, fired first, his speed tripled beyond the average.

  He didn’t bother with his Magnum Mauler or Alchemical Pistol. After all, the former warden was a seventh-rank Knight, having reached the threshold of mid-level Transdents. Ordinary bullets would struggle to break through his battle energy defenses.

  The Anti-magic Armor-pierg Round streaked forward like divine fire, smming into Magru Trell. Charlot, though better suited for close bat, proved reliable enough with a gun, blowing half of Magru Trell’s torso apart with a single shot.

  From the waist down, Magru Trell’s body was shredded by the bullet. Yet, he writhed briefly on the ground before struggling back to his feet. His face showed no trace of pain—only a hideous grin. He bellowed, “You destroyed my family! You’ll die with me in hell!”

  Charlot couldn’t help but retort, “I didn’t plunder your estate!”

  True, he’d taken some money, but he hadn’t forced Magru Trell to cough up his “ill-gotten gains.”

  In fact, he still didn’t know who had orchestrated it all. Kilmainham Prison was full of Prison Army troops, any of whom could have been involved iortion…

  Charlot muttered under his breath, “Why isn’t this guy dead yet? Half his body’s gone!”

  “Don’t tell me he summoned an Evil God too?”

  The mere thought of Evil Gods sent a chill down Charlot’s spine. After all, he still had two Evil God-reted “buffs” hanging ominously over his head.

  He was about to deliver another shot to finish the former warden.

  A man still alive with half his body missing was simply too horrifying. While the life essence of a seventh-rank Transdent Knight was incredibly tempting, Charlot wasn’t foolish enough to use his Vampire ons for this battle. Ranged bat was the safer option.

  Sensing danger, Magru Trell’s body suddeed with tless flesh tendrils. The tendrils tched onto the ground, propelling him forward with a leap, closing the distawee terrifying speed.

  Charlot tried aiming at him three times but couldn’t lo. Admitti, he hooked the Battlefield e with his foot, stowed the Anti-Space Le Rifle baside, and hurled the Vampiric Axe.

  Guided by Bloodfme Aura, the Vampiric Axe traced bizarre ar the air, intercepting Magru Trell three times. However, each strike was repelled by some strange force emanating from Trell.

  Magru Trell’s flesh tendrils quickly transformed i slender legs, turning him into a grotesque half-human, half-spider monster. His speed multiplied, far exceeding that of an ordinary human.

  Worried that their fight might injure Mrs. Yanmills or i bystanders, Charlot leaped onto the rooftop of a nearby building.

  Magru Trell pursued him relentlessly, even runniically up the walls.

  The two exged blows as they chased each other across rooftops. Mrs. Yanmills, far from panicked, calmly touched the military pistol hidden at her chest but ultimately abahe idea of joining the fight. Sighing softly, she murmured, “I’m sorry, Mr. Meburg. I have a child.”

  Charlot’s mastery of the Swiftstep Teique was still shallow, and Magru Trell quickly closed the gap. The former warden raised his Thundercp Gun and fired eight secutive shots.

  The Thundercp Gun, though rger than the Magnum Mauler, had a much smaller magazio preserve its firepower—holding o rounds.

  Charlot returned fire with his Magnum Mauler, but the standard bullets barely scratched Magru Trell, boung off his bizarre defenses.

  The Alchemical Pistol, while more refined, boasted slightly better range, speed, and accuracy, but its firepower was simirly insuffit. Charlot dismissed it ht, holstering the Magnum Mauler and preparing to fight with Blood Rose.

  Magru Trell, haviied his Thundercp Gurieved a box of bullets from his coat. Grinning ferociously, he began reloading.

  Charlot muttered irritably, “I’m a non-bat civil servant—why am I forced into a street brawl?”

  Though the City Patrol Guards weren’t frontliroops, they were still part of the Empire’s military structure, serving as specialists in urban warfare and expendable on fodder. Charlot, as their chief civil overseer, didn’t teically belong to the bat ranks.

  Magru Trell unloaded eighteen more rounds before Charlot betedly realized, “This bastard has a Spatial Magazine!”

  “Otherwise, how could he carry so many bullets?”

  Initially, Charlot had hoped to whittle down Magru Trell’s strength through gueril tactics. Being a graduate of Sheffield Uy, he’d already deduced the source of Trell’s bat power: Cursed Armament.

  This roduct of cssical alchemy rooted in the Kabbah magical system. If Protagoras hilosopher among philosophers, Kabbah was the philosopher of philosophers, the founder of aire field of study.

  A follower of the Lamp Bearer, Kabbah had delved deep into the Dead Sea Part to establish a magical system bearing his name and to pioneer cssical alchemy—a masterpiece that culminated in Cursed Armament, the highest expression of self-alchemy.