Under Audrey's stunned gaze, the Monster's flesh caught by Lu Ze dissolved rapidly, on the verge of turning into a puddle of sludge.
At that moment, the creature's swollen belly suddenly ballooned faster, and the wails grew louder.
"Watch out!"
Audrey couldn't help calling out.
Splat!
The instant her warning landed, the distended belly burst open from within. A crimson mass shot out and flew straight at Lu Ze's face!
Lu Ze regarded it calmly and raised his other hand.
Bang!
A sweeping punch struck the mass dead-on, the force sending it flying into the wall. It hit the floor, rolled a few times, and finally lay still, revealing its true form.
Audrey saw what it was and almost screamed.
It was a baby-sized lump of flesh with four limbs and, in its center, an adult man's face.
And that face looked faintly familiar to Lu Ze.
"Lanevus?"
he blurted, startled.
It was an ordinary man's face, the only distinctive feature the mocking smile at the corner of its mouth—the very expression that reminded Lu Ze of the con artist he'd once set up.
Waaah!
The face-fleshbaby wailed, flipped upright, and prepared to attack Lu Ze again. Before it could move, several blazing fireballs streaked in and wrapped it in flames.
Waaa—
It thrashed and shrieked inside the inferno, quickly charring to ashes.
Lu Ze watched the ashes until he was sure the thing was destroyed, then released the half-dissolved corpse. Its belly had burst from within, leaving a ghastly wound.
Audrey noticed the shape of that wound and felt a sudden jolt.
An outward-from-within tear… and the latest victim had been a streetwalker. Could this be the pattern behind the serial killings? These people were being killed from the inside!
Fors had once speculated there were two murderers. Was this the method of one of them?
No wonder the police never found anything.
And the Beyonder had mentioned a name—Lanevus. Was that the killer's real name? Audrey studied the black-haired, blue-eyed youth warily.
While her mind raced, Lu Ze was thinking too.
The fetus in the woman's belly was no divine offspring; he sensed only a faint aura of the True Creator.
If anything, the lump of flesh felt more like Lanevus's own progeny.
How had the Church of Darkness still not caught him?
Lu Ze remembered tampering with the ritual to trick Lanevus, letting a man's body bear the True Creator's divinity. In theory that divine essence had fused with his flesh; the rite had succeeded.
At that memory, Lu Ze's expression turned odd.
No way…
The man had actually gotten pregnant?
Counting the weeks, it had been roughly two or three months. At the growth rate of a dark god's spawn, Lanevus would be giving birth before long. Whether the thing would call him father or mother was an open question—either title felt weirdly appropriate.
A-hem.
Lu Ze coughed, forcing his wandering thoughts back on track. This dead prostitute must have been Lanevus's attempt at self-rescue: transfer the spawn into another woman and escape the ordeal of childbirth—after all, he lacked an exit.
Which meant Lanevus was somewhere here in Backlund.
"Good God, what happened!"
"Someone get help!"
Corridor voices grew louder; casualties were causing Chaos, and people would arrive soon.
Lu Ze came back to himself, feeling the tide in his mind recede. He'd stayed lucid a long time and his spirituality was running low.
Time to leave.
He rose and met Audrey's eyes.
Right—almost forgot the witness.
He walked over.
Audrey's heart jumped.
What does he want?
With those terrifying methods, is he from some dark cult… will he silence me?
Then the handsome, crazed Beyonder in the strange straitjacket spoke:
"Got any money on you?"
Huh?
Audrey froze.
"Don't play dumb. I just saved your life; payment's only fair." He held out an impatient hand. "You look like a noble lady—you must have something. Pay up, hurry."
The mighty image wobbled. Audrey pressed her lips, murmured, "My purse is with my maid… one moment."
She hurried to the unconscious Annie, retrieved her delicate bag, thought for a second, and simply handed the whole thing to Lu Ze.
The bag was the latest limited edition, worth about a thousand pounds, plus a few trinkets worth several hundred more.
Audrey didn't mind the money; she only hoped it would satisfy him.
Lu Ze took the bag, extracted the cash—two or three hundred pounds—and pocketed it.
Rich folk… typical Backlund nobles. Now I'm set for a while.
Content, he tossed the bag and its contents back. "Keep quiet about me if you don't want trouble."
Audrey nodded at once.
Whoosh!
With the money secured, Lu Ze slit his palm with a fingernail and flung a mist of blood across the room.
It was a subtle use of Flesh and Blood Magic to scramble divination and prevent tracking, so even if Audrey broke her word, no one could find him.
Done, he melted into shadow and vanished into the Darkness before anyone arrived.
Only then did Audrey exhale, certain she was safe.
Surveying the carnage, the bodies, the reek of blood, her terror ebbed and the delayed shock flooded in.
That Beyonder was terrifying… if he'd been in a worse mood, would he have erased me? she wondered, resolving to keep her promise and tell the officials nothing.
Meanwhile, on his way to pick up his sister, Lu Ze froze.
Hm?
My Shadow Ascetic potion… seems to have digested a little.