Mystery: Big Alarm Clock Ghroth Path

Chapter 242 The Slacking-Off Female Demigod (Bonus Chapter, 8K)

When the sound rang out, Roger immediately felt a strange change occurring within him.

As the "shepherd," he was originally able to clearly feel the connection between himself and the five souls he controlled: Adeline, Jason Beria, Ludwig Sergei, Mitrom Gadirs, and Godric Heisenberg, and had absolute dominion over them.

But at this moment, Roger felt as if his connection with their souls had been severed, and the five souls that had been silent within him were now showing signs of taking over, trying to control, devour, retaliate against, and kill Roger!

Even the five extraordinary characteristics within Roger's body, which had been "free-ranged," became restless at this moment. They surged wildly, seemingly giving Roger a prelude to losing control!
This made Roger feel extremely dangerous. At this moment, he realized that his "herding" ability had been taken away!
In the dark corridor, a very young-looking blonde woman appeared, floating in mid-air with her feet off the ground, exuding a magnificent aura.

The woman was extremely beautiful, with a very calm expression. She looked down at Roger with an air of superiority, just like a judge scrutinizing a criminal.

"'Law Master'?"

Through these details, Roger immediately formed a guess in his mind.

This woman is very likely a "Law Master" of the "Arbitrator" pathway sequence 4!
Once an "arbitrator" reaches this level, their power undergoes a comprehensive qualitative change. They can not only banish and imprison certain targets, but also execute them, and even strip them of their extraordinary abilities, rendering them temporarily unable to use those abilities.

On the other hand, the "arbitrator" can formulate some broader rules according to their own will.

Broadness means that the boundaries of some concepts can be blurred, thereby expanding the scope of attack as much as possible. This greatly limits some extraordinary abilities that can be used to utilize symbolic imagery, and blocks them almost without any blind spots.

For example, the "attack of fire and ice" that Roger had previously used but was forbidden by the guard captain who was a "judge" could be transformed by the "law mage" into "drastic temperature changes are prohibited here".

This not only blocks attacks from both high and low temperatures, but also eliminates some extraordinary abilities that can only be used by rapidly changing the temperature, such as the "Master of Tricks'" fog, the body's violent metabolism, and can even render some machines and extraordinary items directly ineffective.

In terms of Sequence 4 level abilities, the "Law Mage" can be considered to be at the level of a conceptual god, because a single "law" can be used for many purposes and has extremely strong combat effectiveness.

Seeing the woman approaching, Roger, who had already been restrained, no longer hesitated.

He simply closed his eyes and activated the "Old Box".

In an instant, the carpet on the ground transformed into toy-like blocks of color, and Roger had vanished without a trace.

He used the "Box of the Past" to devour himself!

This series of actions allowed Roger to successfully break free of the "imprisonment." The next moment, the "Old Box" that had fallen to the ground seemed to have swallowed something extremely disgusting, and it opened again, directly "spitting" Roger out.

After this series of actions, Roger regained his freedom and immediately extended his "parasite glove" to "steal" from the "law mage"!
Immediately after he did this, Roger re-established his connection with the five shepherded souls, and they, who had been restless, became docile again.

Roger stole the other party's "Deprivation" ability!
The "Law Master" immediately realized what was happening, and spoke again in her clear, melodious, yet authoritative voice:
"Theft is prohibited here!"

This "law" directly abolished the "stealing" ability of the "parasite glove," but fortunately, Roger had already reset his "herding" skill through "stealing."

Roger was caught off guard and fell victim to the attack because he didn't know who was attacking him.

But through the previous round of combat, Roger has figured out his opponent's strengths and weaknesses, so he is now operating more cautiously.

He released a large amount of flesh and blood, which rapidly coalesced in the air, transforming into viscous curtains of flesh and blood that flew toward the "Law Master".

This flesh and blood not only blocked the "Law Master's" view and prevented him from using "Deprivation" again, but also laid a trap for him.

The "Law Master" once again used "Imprisonment," creating an invisible wall.

The wall immediately confined Roger's released flesh and blood veil to an extremely small space, rendering it unable to move.

However, the next moment, a scene that made this "law master" feel her scalp tingle appeared before her eyes.

The imprisoned flesh and blood writhed and deformed rapidly, and then several mouths materialized on them.

These mouths have lips and teeth, and the dark, gaping interiors lead to who-knows-where.

Soon, the first mouth began to sing.

The song contained a power that made the "Law Master" feel drowsy, and she immediately issued another decree:
Singing is prohibited here!

The singing stopped abruptly, but before she could even catch her breath, Roger activated the "Little Duck's" ability to control inanimate objects, shattering a nearby table that looked quite valuable into countless deadly spikes that surged toward the "Law Master".

The "Law Master" was startled, seemingly not expecting Roger to possess another extraordinary ability at the demigod level.

With a solemn expression, she activated "Imprisonment" once again. However, after this interruption, the lump of flesh with a mouth that she had previously "imprisoned" suddenly spat out three "celestial" talismans.

Because of the attack of the "lifeless torrent", these three "celestial" talismans are currently within the "law master's" blind spot.

The next second, those mouths opened again, and in unison uttered a single character in the difficult ancient Hermetic language:
"Celestial bodies!"

The talismans with rust-colored eyes suddenly turned bright red, and the next moment, an extremely terrifying sonic boom echoed around the "Law Master"!

Because the sound waves traveled at extremely high speeds, the "Law Master" had no time to issue a decree and was instantly struck by the power of the triple "celestial" spells.

It's important to know that this is an upgraded version of the "Celestial" talisman, and its power is enough to have a significant impact on demigods.

Not to mention that Roger released three cards at once; you can imagine how powerful that was!

Roger had deliberately let his flesh and blood sing in order to induce the other party to issue a "no singing" order to shut up those mouths from singing.

This was a natural choice, because Roger carried what appeared to be level 0 and level 1 sealed artifacts, and this demigod would definitely do everything he could to prevent Roger from using the connection of his abilities to influence or even kill him.

After the bans on "imprisonment" and "singing prohibition" were issued, the "Law Master" would surely believe that the lump of flesh and blood had all, or at least most, of its extraordinary abilities restricted. Therefore, when another "lifeless torrent" composed of "Level 1" sealed artifacts attacked, she would be relatively less vigilant towards the lump of flesh and blood.

As for directly prohibiting speaking, that's unlikely, because that would hinder the power of the various laws and decrees established by the "Law Master".

As the three "Celestial" talismans exploded with a deafening roar, Drake, standing behind Roger, promptly issued a "Prohibition Order":
"Sound waves are prohibited!"

As he raised his right hand, an invisible soundproof barrier appeared around Roger and the demigod, blocking the sound waves formed by the three "celestial" talismans.

Even so, the sound waves that originated directly from Roger's prayer to the "Gheros Source" still had some residual power that passed through the barrier Drake had created, which immediately made Emily Davenport and Ben Ferguson, who were behind Roger, feel nauseous and dizzy.

Fortunately, they not only had great luck, but also a high level of potion digestion, which prevented them from immediately losing control and turning into monsters.

As for the "Law Master," he was located in the corridor, which was ideal for sound waves to reverberate.

This has always been Roger's usual fighting style, which is to use a confined space to enhance the power of "mental pressure" and inflict a lot of damage on the opponent in a very short time!
After the intertwining of sound waves finally dissipated after a dozen seconds, Drake removed the barrier that had been blocking the transmission of the sound waves.

The entire corridor was in a mess. The expensive paintings on the walls and the chandeliers above were all broken. Even the wallpaper was cracked and no longer looked as precious as before.

The "Law Master" who had been floating in the air finally landed on the ground. She knelt on one knee, her face growing paler, her hair disheveled, and a small amount of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth.

Even so, she was not defeated; she seemed to have only suffered some damage.

Roger squinted and looked closely, only to find that the mass of flesh and blood that had previously been imprisoned on the ground and had spat out the "celestial body" talisman had actually disappeared!

"Is it 'exile'?"

Roger then came to his senses and realized that the "Law Mage" must have subconsciously used his "Exile" ability the instant he was hit by the "Celestial" sound waves, exiling that mass of flesh and blood to some unknown space!

In this way, although she still could not avoid being hit by the first sonic boom, she avoided being attacked by subsequent booms, which would cause the sonic waves to resonate and directly detonate her internal organs, causing irreparable damage.

Under Drake's "sound wave suppression" barrier, Roger was unable to immediately perceive this change, only subconsciously sensing that something was amiss.

It must be said that this demigod's combat awareness and instincts are far superior to those of Zartwin and Ince Zangwell!
Just then, the "law master" suddenly spoke in a normal tone:
"This is indeed interesting. You appear to be a 'shepherd,' but it seems you possess other extraordinary abilities."

"This is the first time I've ever seen anything like this... Just who are you?"

Upon hearing the question from the "Law Master," Roger shook his head and did not answer.

When facing an Extraordinary being of the "Judgment" pathway, one should speak as little as possible, because although the two Extraordinary pathways that branched out from the "Shadow of Order" symbolize different things, they both have the ability to see through and exploit the weaknesses of their opponents.

Seeing Roger's reaction, the woman suddenly realized what he meant and chuckled.

"Don't worry... Let me introduce myself. My name is Luna, but I'm sorry I can't tell you my surname."

“I can sense that you still have several cards to play, and continuing this struggle will not benefit either of us.”

"So I won't stop you anymore, but I need to remind you that I'm not the only demigod in this building."

After hearing Luna's words, Roger, who had been on guard, paused for a moment, and after weighing his words for a few seconds, he spoke:
"Why? Judging from your appearance, you should be an extraordinary individual in the military, right? Shouldn't obeying orders be your duty?"

“I was only called in to help while I was on vacation; Bayam’s army is not qualified to mobilize me.”

Luna smiled, then stood up:

“I think you’re here to see Roy King. Go through this corridor behind me, and once you reach the atrium, go down to the first floor, cross the courtyard, and keep walking until you reach the building where he’s being held.”

"His other demigod is also of Sequence 4 strength and is in the 'lawyer' pathway."

"Okay, let's go."

After saying this, Luna disappeared without a trace, as if she had never been there, leaving only the traces of battle in the surrounding environment.

Roger was a little confused. He looked around and realized that Emily and Ferguson were both completely bewildered.

"What happened? Why did she leave without saying a word?"

"What one..."

When faced with Emily's suspicious question, Roger had just subconsciously asked a question back when he suddenly stopped talking.

Emily's question reveals a possibility: neither she nor Ferguson heard what Luna had just said to them!

"It should be the ability of the 'Law Master'..."

Roger realized that the Sequence 4 demigod named Luna must have deliberately blocked his conversation with her in order to exclude him from it.

As for why she deliberately fought him and then let him go, while also proactively revealing the pathway and sequence level of the demigod guarding Roy King, that's beyond Roger's current understanding.

"Don't worry about that for now. I roughly know where Roy King is being held. Just follow me."

Roger hesitated for a moment, then took the lead and continued forward with Emily and Ferguson.

There were few guards along the way. A group of guards rushed towards the museum to provide support, but Roger, Emily, and Ferguson dodged them in time. The three then headed straight for the central courtyard and descended the spiral staircase to the garden. On the way, they passed the office of the Governor's Secretary General, which made Roger stop in his tracks.

"what happened?"

Ben Ferguson asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Wait five minutes, I'm going in to get something."

Roger gave a brief reply, and after stroking the door of the Secretary-General's office for a moment, the latch automatically popped open.

He then quickly slipped inside and, after some searching, found a well-hidden alloy safe.

The safe's construction is extremely complex, seemingly crafted by an extraordinary individual through the "General Knowledge" pathway; it would be difficult to open using ordinary methods.

However, such a safe was completely useless to Roger. With the "little duck" at his disposal, as long as an item didn't possess any living characteristics, it was entirely under his control.

In less than five seconds, Roger used the "little duck's" special ability to turn the lock disc to the correct position, and then he took out a jewelry box from it and opened it.

Inside lay a priceless necklace of colored gemstones, its style bearing characteristics of the Quaternary and Fifth Ages, suggesting it had been stolen from the tomb of a nobleman.

And this is exactly what Roger was supposed to get from Governor Bayam’s mansion in the agreement between Roger and Zorn!

Roger quickly put the jewelry box away and then put the safe back in its original position.

Of course, he didn't even forget to use the "little duck" to damage part of the safe's internal mechanisms, making it impossible to open normally even with the correct password.

This means that when the Governor's Secretary General returns, he will not be able to confirm the safe's theft in a short time, but will instead spend more time opening it.

Leaving aside whether he can find any useful clues, even if he eventually suspects Roger, Roger will probably have already left Bayam, the "City of Generosity," aboard the "Star Lord."

Roger glanced at his pocket watch; it was 11:37. The fight and theft had taken nearly 40 minutes, but thankfully he wasn't too far from where Roy King was being held.

He locked the secretary-general's office door again, then slowly walked out, beckoned to Emily and Ben Ferguson who had once again hidden themselves, and then the three of them approached the courtyard.

As they approached the gate to the courtyard, they heard some voices talking.

Listening closely, Roger deduced that it was a conversation between guards, roughly about how hard their day's work was, how unreasonable some official was, and how they could finally rest and take a vacation soon.

"Sorry, guys, I'm afraid you won't be getting any sleep..."

Roger thought to himself, then beckoned to Emily and Ferguson. The two understood, and then, using Emily's "wire door," they passed through the wall and quickly used the shadows to knock out the four outermost guards, rendering them unconscious.

After dealing with them, Roger also came into the courtyard. He crouched down and looked at the dozen or so extraordinary individuals guarding the two-story building where Roy King was being held.

These extraordinary guards all appeared to be on high alert, seemingly the elite of the entire governor's mansion, with their strength generally at or above Sequence 7, and even the lowest among them being at least Sequence 8.

Such combat power is undoubtedly very strong. Considering the direction they are facing and their numbers, it would be difficult for Roger to take them down quickly using the abilities of the "Hermits".

However, if Roger chooses to fight them head-on, it will inevitably waste a lot of time, not to mention that he will have to face the "Fallen Earl" later. Once it goes past midnight, he will have to face new reinforcements.

Just as Roger was about to use his "singing" ability to control the situation and end the battle quickly, a strange change occurred in the courtyard.

Suddenly, the shadow beneath the two-story building where Roy King was imprisoned seemed to come alive, rapidly spreading, deforming, and transforming into a cage that trapped the unsuspecting guards inside.

At the same time, a red glow mixed with dense darkness descended from the sky, quickly knocking down a large number of extraordinary beings. It then skillfully dodged the counterattacks of the remaining people by "teleporting," and then put them into a baby-like sleep by spraying some strange, translucent liquid.

A moment later, Angel Wintermere's figure appeared quickly. He glanced at the Extraordinary beings lying sprawled on the ground and gave a somewhat arrogant sneer.

"Have those people outside been dealt with?"

Roger glanced at him and asked.

"It's solved, but it took a lot of work."

Wintermere sighed, then looked at the two-story stone building beside him:
“I interrogated two of them, and they both said that Roy King was here.”

"This is consistent with the information we received."

Roger nodded, and added:
"But I must tell you that there is a demigod inside."

"Demigod? By what means, and what sequence number?"

Upon hearing Roger's words, Wintermere's expression turned serious, and he asked a question.

"Sequence 4 of the 'Lawyer' pathway, 'The Fallen Earl'."

Roger answered.

"A lawyer... is such a troublesome path."

Wintermilton paused, then sighed. This "Crimson Scholar" clearly knew something about the capabilities of those in high positions through the "lawyer" pathway, which was why he could make such a remark.

“It’s alright. I’ll take care of that extraordinary individual later. You can find a chance to rescue Roy King.”

Roger quickly gave his instructions, and then turned into a pool of black water again, entering the underground drain.

……

About two minutes later, Roger, who had turned into a pool of black water, quickly emerged from a crack in the ground and then reshaped his body.

"It should be right here."

Roger looked around at the wide corridor lit by gaslights and took a deep breath.

In his intuition, Roy King was being held behind a door ahead, and he could see him once he got there and managed to get inside.

However, Roger had only taken two steps when he felt an extremely strong sense of being locked onto by something.

As if by reflex, he used the "parasitic glove" to gain some distance and quickly appeared behind him.

At the same time, the space where he had been standing suddenly began to distort rapidly.

The space rapidly separated and reassembled, returning to normal in a moment, as if nothing had happened.

But Roger was sweating profusely. He realized that if he hadn't dodged in time, he would probably have been torn apart by that distorted space!

Immediately afterward, that sense of danger resurfaced in Roger's mind, and he once again used the "Parasite Gloves" to dodge.

However, Roger's dodge landing point seemed to have gone awry, deviating greatly from his expectations.

There, a distorted space awaited Roger—a trap that seemed to have been prepared in advance!
Seeing this, Roger decisively turned into a mass of flesh and blood fragments and exploded. The distorted space carried these exploded pieces of flesh and blood, and after a complex movement, it returned to its original position once again.

However, for some reason, Roger's reorganization became extremely slow, as if the rules in this regard had been distorted.

This disgusting rule change ultimately forced him to forcibly transfer himself into the "Old Box" in order to complete the reorganization.

A moment later, Roger was spat out of the "Old Box" and reappeared, but his cloak had been torn to shreds and his face was exposed.

Although he has changed his appearance, considering that the "Shepherd" can only use one extraordinary ability at a time, this disguise is only temporary!

This made Roger feel very frustrated. The other party didn't even show his face, but used the ability of "Fallen Earl" to create a distorted space, along with the extraordinary power of "Chaos Mentor", to test Roger again and again!
"The power of the 'Black Emperor' pathway is truly disgusting..."

Although Luna held back to some extent when she attacked earlier, Roger doesn't know why she did it or what she was planning, nor does he have the extra energy to think about it.

But one thing is undeniable: compared to the relatively straightforward style of the "Judges," who can set various rules and issue judgments, the extraordinary abilities of the "Black Emperor" approach are much more bizarre and unpredictable.

It can be said that, as long as it is within the limits of his extraordinary abilities, the imagination of an extraordinary person using the "Black Emperor" pathway can directly determine how creatively he can utilize his extraordinary abilities.

From this perspective, the "Black Emperor" approach is very suitable for meticulous and cunning individuals, and the extraordinary being Roger is currently facing should be such an existence!
However, he could not allow the other party to continue hiding in the shadows.

Since the other party refused to show himself, Roger forced him to do so!

He immediately used "Little Duck," and as his eyeballs rapidly vitrified, Roger pointed with his eyes to a nearby pillar supporting the building structure!
In an instant, the pillar began to crumble and disintegrate, and the entire building began to tremble, as if a minor earthquake had occurred.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Roger began to cause another pillar to collapse. The successive collapse of these two pillars made the structure of the building teeter on the brink of collapse. In Roger's view, if no one took effective action, the building would definitely collapse completely within a minute at most!

His purpose in doing this was to use Roy King's life as leverage to force him to save the building.

In this way, the other party will temporarily relax their attack on you.

After all, Roy King knew the whereabouts of the "0" level sealed artifact, the "Dice of Probability." For the Rune military, this sealed artifact was of great significance and could not be lost.

As expected, when Roger began to destroy the building, the dense, rule-distorting attacks that had been targeting him all stopped, and the collapsing pillars slowed down, as if some kind of twisting force had appeared inside, altering the normal physical rules and the internal structure of the pillars.

Roger, who was using the "Little Duck" ability to control inanimate objects, was also prompted by the other party's actions to activate "Secret Insight" and "Leak" in succession!
Normally, the power of a "leaker" should have a limited effect on extraordinary beings at the demigod level. However, Roger cleverly used the phonograph as a medium to spread his musical rules throughout the Northern Continent early on, gaining hundreds of thousands of anchor points of varying degrees!

This allowed Roger's "leak" to successfully interfere with the Sequence 4 Beyonders, revealing what they were trying to hide!
Sure enough, after Roger used "Leak," a figure dressed in a black suit appeared not far from Roger.

The man's face was sharply defined, with short, jet-black hair standing upright. Beneath thick, sword-like eyebrows were a pair of deep, inky blue-black eyes. His high-bridged nose resembled a steep mountain ridge, contrasting beautifully with the wildly growing beard on his chin.

His long, rectangular face with its strong, defined lines exuded an imposing aura, and his incredibly broad shoulders stretched the fabric of his shirt to reveal clear muscle lines, giving him the unique charisma of a tough, masculine man.

For some reason, Roger felt that this person looked familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before.

But at that moment, he didn't have time to think about all that. Instead, he destroyed the third pillar, causing a further collapse!

His thinking was very clear: against an extraordinary individual like the "Fallen Earl" who was good at positional warfare, one should never charge head-on unless there was absolute certainty, but rather attack where the enemy must defend!
Seeing this, the "Fallen Earl's" eyes turned cold, and he immediately pulled out a metal pocket watch from his clothes.

On the dial of that pocket watch, one half is neatly arranged with various symbols, arranged in chronological order, while the other half is chaotic and interspersed, even encroaching on the opposite area. The two seem to be connected as one in the unseen mechanical core behind the scenes, with a more complex and dizzying structure.

The moment the pocket watch appeared, the "Fallen Earl," just like Luna before him, issued a "prohibition" in an awkward tone:
"Damaging public property is prohibited here!"

For a moment, Roger's destruction of the building seemed to be interfered with by some mysterious force, and the collapse of the three pillars was drastically delayed.

Through the other party's actions, Roger finally learned the identity of the man in black.

Major General and Deputy Chief of MI9, the "Fallen Earl" Chunus Colger!
(End of this chapter)