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Somewhere in an underground space, the air was filled with a pungent smell of blood.
Leo Shaw stood beside a huge pool of blood and quietly looked at the young man who was hanging in the air in the middle of the pool, suspended by scarlet blood chains.
Sigh.
After a long while, he let out a breath and turned to look at Cliff beside him.
"How much more is left?"
Hearing this, Cliff—who was wearing a white coat—pushed up his glasses, looked at the tablet in his hand, and replied without raising his head. "Two more sacrifices are needed."
"Have you already reached an agreement with them?"
Leo Shaw nodded. "The group of demons on the sea agreed to disrupt the situation in the city. That's enough for us to complete one sacrifice."
"As for the final sacrifice..."
"By then, we won't need to hide anymore."
The middle-aged man had been preparing for this day for a very long time. Now it was finally time to reap the fruits of his labor.
However, if it weren't for the sudden death of Lannid and the tight control of the Association's lackeys, his plan would have been completed long ago.
Thinking of this, Leo Shaw couldn't help but feel a little angry.
At the side, Cliff glanced at the red-robed man beside him and couldn't help but curl his lips.
In the mind of this first-level researcher of the Demon Army, he didn't care whether the plan was successful or not—as long as he could collect relevant experimental data this time.
Although the minister wasn't optimistic about this project at all.
But anyway, so far their demon army had only lost one second-level researcher, which wasn't a big loss.
You have to know—the cost of other projects was much more exaggerated than this.
Fortunately, there was a sucker like Leo Shaw. Otherwise, this project would have been abandoned long ago.
As for those dead limb-replacement monsters...
They were just consumables.
Putting aside his inner thoughts, Cliff casually asked another question. "So when is the date you agreed on?"
Leo Shaw turned around, his face immersed in darkness, making it difficult to see his expression. "Today."
Cliff was startled, then said with a concerned tone. "Then you'd better be careful and don't get caught by the Association."
The first-level researcher of the demon army said this not out of friendship, but because he was worried that Leo Shaw—as the key material of the experiment—would lose himself. He'd have to clean up the mess if the experiment failed.
Hearing this, Leo Shaw didn't reply. He just disappeared on the spot.
As he left, the young man who was originally hanging in the air also opened his eyes.
The scarlet sea of blood beneath his feet also surged, with countless deformed corpses rising and falling in it.
Seeing the noise getting louder, Cliff beside the blood pool sighed. "Can't you just be quiet?"
"It was you who volunteered to assist your father before the experiment began."
Then he operated the instrument in his hand. The young man in the air slowly closed his eyes, and the blood pool returned to calm again.
If someone could observe the young man closely at this time, they would find that his face was no longer human, but rather resembled...
A dragon.
"...Wake up."
"...Wake up!"
A faint sound rang in the ears of the young Bronze-rank cardmaker. He opened his eyes with great effort, only to see flames rising into the sky and smoke covering everything.
Just as he was still trying to figure out what had happened, a huge force suddenly threw him out.
BOOM!
The raging flames engulfed the entire street. The screams and cries of ordinary people stimulated the eardrums of the young cardmaker.
He remembered.
Today, while he was on patrol as usual, he'd seemed to spot a member who was wanted by the Association.
So after sending a message to his superiors, he'd followed them stealthily.
He'd followed the other person closely along the way and managed to avoid being noticed.
But what the young cardmaker hadn't thought of was...
The people in the wanted poster were all Gold-rank monsters. How could a mere Bronze-rank person like him hide his tracks under the noses of such beings?
Finally, the target person walked into a dilapidated hotel in the sight of the young cardmaker.
Going to a hotel in broad daylight?
He'd secretly complained in his mind, wondering if demons also had that kind of need, and quietly waited outside the building for the Association's support.
Soon, support arrived.
The team that came was a team from a nearby Association branch led by a Silver-rank cardmaker.
But just as he was describing the situation, a sudden explosion caused the entire hotel to fly into the sky.
He'd also fainted temporarily due to the shockwave.
When he'd opened his eyes again, he'd seen this scene of hell on earth.
At this time, the Silver-rank cardmaker who'd come to support him stood beside him and said gloomily. "Can you still move?"
"Evacuate the surrounding people first if you can."
Two of his subordinates who he'd worked with day and night were seriously injured in the explosion just now, which made him very unhappy.
Two people had been hurt without even doing anything. No one would be happy about it.
Hearing this, the young man was a little dizzy, but he still agreed. "Yes!"
It was impossible for the Association to have no reaction to such a huge commotion. The nearby cardmaker teams quickly rushed to the scene.
Without further ado, they spontaneously began to evacuate the surrounding civilians.
Soon, the only ones left were cardmakers from the Association.
Several Silver-rank cardmakers gathered together and began to debate whether to go to the dilapidated hotel where the explosion had originated.
But their debate soon ended.
Because Russell was here.
"President."
When everyone saw Russell, they all bowed their heads.
Seeing this, Russell waved his hand to stop their actions and asked calmly. "What's going on?"
Not long after, after listening to the story of the Silver-rank cardmaker who'd arrived first, his face turned cold.
Things were weird.
Where are those bastards from the Unification Sect?
According to Russell's idea, if it was the Unification Sect's doing, then just before he'd arrived should have been their best opportunity to take action.
But the scene at the moment felt like a certain disaster-stricken Fuyuki City—just an accidental gas explosion.
And Russell's mental power hadn't detected anything wrong.
In order to find out the truth, Russell decided to let Aizen go to the dilapidated hotel to check the situation.
The slight friction sound produced by the brown-haired man's shoes and the tiny gravel on the ground kept reaching everyone's ears, stimulating their tense nerves.
Only...
Nothing happened until Aizen stepped into the burning and dilapidated hotel.
Seeing this scene, everyone felt relieved, thinking it was just a false alarm.
However, at this moment, Aizen suddenly stopped—and then used Flash Step to return to Russell.
"You're really vigilant. That's all we can do."
The sudden male voice made Russell's face tense. He immediately wanted to leave.
But it was too late.
At this moment, shadowy figures suddenly appeared around them and surrounded the cardmakers present.
Then a huge azure cube instantly covered Russell.
At the same time, Luther and others also rushed to the scene.
Seeing Russell covered by an unknown energy body, several people showed surprise and tension on their faces.
Just as they were about to break the cube, Russell suddenly found himself in a place he'd never been to before.
"It's a pity that you're the only one who got the message."
Russell looked in the direction of the voice and found that it was Dick and Menia—the two demons who'd followed Leo Shaw before.
In addition to these two demons, there was another thing that attracted Russell's attention: the space crack behind them.
A huge space crack stood behind the two demons, and shaking waves were emitted from time to time.
Secret realm.
By this time, Russell had roughly guessed where he'd been sent.
That was the secret realm the Association had been searching for but couldn't find before.
Seeing that Russell didn't say anything, Dick thought the young man not far away was frightened. "Tsk. I prepared for such a big explosion for so long, but it only attracted you?"
Hearing this, Menia beside him curled his lips. "If it were me, I would've just let Leo Shaw go on a killing spree. You insisted on having a big explosion and wasted so many materials to set it up."
Dick scratched his head with a guilty conscience and defended himself. "Don't say that. Didn't Leo Shaw say he's the strongest fighter in the Association? It's not a loss to think so."
From the conversation between the two, Russell also roughly figured out what the situation was.
It was nothing more than that the demons in this secret realm had planned a terrorist attack in the city to attract the Association's high-end combat power.
Then they'd use special means to separate these high-end combatants and defeat them one by one.
But it was a pity...
It was Russell they'd brought over.
Russell's face was gloomy. He asked faintly. "Do you think you've already defeated me?"
Dick laughed out loud as if he'd heard something funny.
What a joke! He'd used so many materials to help the Unification Sect's group hide their aura, and even handed over his most valuable teleportation device—all in order to securely take over the Association's Gold-rank combat power.
It was really laughable to see that the human not far away was still so arrogant.
If he really let the other party run away, Dick felt he wouldn't be able to face the Overlord.
Thinking of this, Dick grinned and replied jokingly. "So what?"
At this time, countless demons no longer hid their presence. They revealed their traces and stared straight at Russell with crazed eyes.
After scanning the surrounding demons, Russell said in an inexplicable tone. "You just sent me over alone."
Following his voice, Mikoto Misaka, Aizen, and Luffy instantly appeared on his left.
When they saw Luffy, Dick and Menia were both stunned, because this young man wearing a straw hat hadn't appeared in the information Leo Shaw had given them.
But the next moment, their expressions changed from confusion to bewilderment.
"I really don't know whether you're lucky or unlucky."
As Russell finished speaking, Kumoko, Frieren, and Zoro appeared on his right.
At this moment, all of Russell's Gold-rank cards appeared in a battle as the same faction for the first time.
Looking at the six cards with different expressions—some squatting, some standing—in the distance, Dick and Menia opened their mouths wide and were speechless for a moment.
They'd already recognized the three cards that had appeared later.
"...?"
What on earth had Leo Shaw sent over?!