---o---
Caelus's shout was incredibly loud. Even Cocolia, who was several rooms away from the main door and had just changed into a clean set of clothes to handle her official duties, heard it loud and clear.
Cocolia frowned and looked toward her office door, from which a series of hurried footsteps was approaching. She covertly materialized an ice spear in her left hand, which was hidden beneath her desk, ready to strike down the intruder at a moment's notice.
Just as Cocolia was poised to attack, the door to her office suddenly shattered with a loud bang. Before her astonished eyes, it shrank into two miniature doors that fell to the floor. Standing outside was Caelus, holding a pickaxe. Behind him was a mountain of flesh composed of Silvermane Guards. Clearly, this was all his handiwork.
Seeing Cocolia sitting there, Caelus grinned, revealing a set of pearly white teeth. In the dim light of the room, however, the smile and those white teeth looked particularly menacing.
"Found you."
The moment the words left Caelus's mouth, Cocolia raised her hand and hurled the ice spear she had prepared. The spear cut through the air, trailing a faint azure light, and with unerring accuracy, it struck Caelus directly in the head. The tip of the spear pierced straight through his skull, emerging from the back.
Caelus's body slowly collapsed to the ground, all motion ceasing.
Cocolia blinked, a little surprised. He died just like that?
Gepard's report had said that Caelus could throw a rock hard enough to create a sonic boom and that the Fragmentum creatures were no match for him at all. How had he fallen so easily at her hands?
Still, no matter how powerful he is, with his head pierced by my ice spear, there's no way he could have survived, right?
Cocolia simply assumed that her opponent had been overconfident in his own strength and had carelessly let his guard down. Thinking of this, she couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle. She rose from behind her desk and slowly walked over to Caelus. She placed her high-heeled shoe on his calf and ground it down with force, but the man on the floor remained motionless, his eyes tightly shut.
It seemed he was really dead.
"Hmph... so this is all a Nameless amounts to. And here I was, thinking you'd be difficult to deal with. To think that the one I was most worried about would die so simply, really..."
Before Cocolia could finish her sentence, Caelus suddenly shot up. With her right foot still on his calf, Cocolia lost her balance and stumbled. By the time she steadied herself, Caelus's left hand had already closed around her throat, slamming her directly to the ground.
Caelus smoothly positioned himself on top of her torso, his left hand beginning to apply pressure.
The feeling of compression on her neck instantly made Cocolia feel dizzy and see stars—a sign of cerebral hypoxia. If this continued, she would pass out from lack of oxygen in moments. Her body's instincts forced her to open her mouth, gasping for air. But this was the very opportunity Caelus had been waiting for. He immediately took out the bucket of milk, pressed it directly against her lips, and began to pour the entire bucket into her mouth.
"Drink! Drink it all for me! Take a big gulp!"
"Mmph! Gmmph mmph...!"
Cocolia's eyes went wide, muffled sounds escaping from her mouth. Her hands clawed desperately at Caelus's clothes, trying to use pain to force him to let go. Her legs, clad in black silk, thrashed behind him, kicking so violently that one of her high heels was sent flying to the side.
---o---
After struggling for a while, Cocolia's eyes rolled back. She had fainted from the extreme lack of oxygen. Her limbs went limp on the floor, and the milk she hadn't swallowed trickled from the corner of her mouth.
Caelus glanced at Cocolia's status bar. The original Bewitchment V had vanished, thanks to the milk. Because the milk had taken effect while Cocolia was unconscious, her status bar now showed Fainted III, which would last for thirty minutes.
Caelus let out a long sigh of relief and stood up.
As expected, his plan was the most effective. Why waste so much brainpower when he could just brute-force it?
He had all these stats, so why bother outsmarting his opponents? Wasn't that a betrayal of his own build?
Afterward, Caelus placed a block to the side, planning to wait for Cocolia to wake up to see if she had recovered.
However, just as he sat down, another set of footsteps echoed from outside the broken office. Bronya, her clothes in slight disarray, rushed in with a group of Silvermane Guards. It was clear she had just woken up and hadn't even had time to properly sort out her attire before rushing over with reinforcements.
Bronya charged in at the front. The moment she entered, she witnessed a scene that would be seared into her memory forever: her mother was unconscious on the ground, an unknown white liquid dribbling from her mouth. Her clothes were a mess, even one of her high heels was missing, and her stocking-clad feet were bare.
And the culprit, Caelus, was sitting to the side with an ice spear sticking out of his head, munching on a piece of bread. When he heard the commotion, he turned to look, his eyes meeting Bronya's.
"Lady Bronya, make way!"
Behind Bronya, the Silvermane Guards couldn't see what was happening because she was blocking their view. But it was obvious that Lady Bronya's sudden halt meant something had happened inside. They were eager to rush in and provide support to the Supreme Guardian.
Bronya came back to her senses and quickly turned around. "Don't move!"
The Silvermane Guards' expressions tensed. Something had definitely happened inside!
But they still obeyed Bronya's command and stood their ground behind her, though their hands tightened on their weapons, ready for a fight.
Bronya took out her personal pistol, aimed it at Caelus in the room, and glared at him, her teeth clenched.
"You beast! What did you do to my mother?!"
Caelus, munching on his bread, was replenishing the health he had lost from Cocolia's sneak attack. He glanced at the unconscious Cocolia on the floor.
This scene, this posture, this composition... it certainly sparked the imagination. But he was a decent person. Instead of taking advantage of Cocolia, he was more interested in seeing what rare materials he could get if he just killed her outright.
If it weren't for the sake of the Trailblaze, he would have done it already.
"I know you've got the wrong idea, but don't get the wrong idea yet."
After finishing his bread, Caelus clapped his hands and stood up from the block. Bronya tensed, keeping her gun aimed at him.
Caelus casually took out his phone from his pocket, switched it to camera mode, and snapped a picture of the disheveled Cocolia.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out. A wisp of smoke curled from the muzzle of Bronya's pistol. It was obvious she had been the one to fire, and the target was just as obvious.
But what horrified Bronya was that Caelus had raised his right hand to his right temple in a grabbing motion. He slowly turned his head, a smile spreading across his face.
"Don't make your Steve laugh."
With that, Caelus, who had been acting all cool, simply held the grabbing motion at his right temple, then took out another piece of bread and took a bite.
Damn it! Who attacks during a cutscene?!