Another Artifact Wielder

"What exactly is the Witch?" Metro asked in a hushed tone.

"She's the original creator of the world. She got sealed away, but as you can see, she's slowly getting free. That's why we can finally stretch our limbs for a bit."

"Right, what is a Demonic Purveyor? You also haven't said anything about that." Metro wanted to make use of the identity the demon had assigned to him to find out more information.

"Demonic Purveyors are beings marked with the powers of the Abyss. Your potential should be not bad, considering how you summoned Lord Foraging while ignorant of such a basic term." The demon criticised Metro subtly, but his eyes were filled with greed.

The demon licked his lips while explaining further. "Since you are just a novice, I should then explain to you some terms you may have heard about. Have you heard of the classical story of angels vs demons? Well, this is precisely what is happening. Angels are descending to protect humans from the corruption of demons like me."

"Wait! Does that mean that they will try to hunt me down?" Metro remembered what Lucas had said to him. Both the so-called Light Church and Black Heaven would be hunting him down.

"Of course they will. That's why you have to work with me. Share all the information you have with me. I need to get a better understanding of this situation." Metro nodded, and made up a story inside his head.

"Somebody offered me an high amount of money to sacrifice people to summon a demon, so I went along with it. Who would have thought that after sacrificing those people, the demon would escape!"

"Heh, as expected of a person tainted by the Abyss, you are so ruthless. I like it!" The demon nodded in approval of Metro's actions.

"Oh right, have any angels awakened around this area recently? Those people are difficult to deal with." The demon suddenly raised a question for Metro. Metro was taken aback. It was still in the middle of nodding its head, so he had not expected it. Demons were more eccentric than he had thought.

"Oh, I think an angel came by and killed somebody just now. I don't know anything about angel awakenings though." Executioner Lucas seemed to be on the side of the Light Church, as he specifically targeted the corrupted Brian rather than him.

The next moment, the demon slammed the floor below it with its feet, causing cracks to form on the concrete. An unseen aura of fear wrapped around Metro, trying to suffocate him.

"Hehehe... did you think that you can lie so easily?" The demon raised the gun upwards and fired off a few shots while cackling loudly. The loud shots woke Metro up, who had been scared by the intense killing aura coming from the demon. For the first time in this scenario, his willpower had actually failed him!

"It was a little too obvious with the Demon Worms of Lord Foraging in your hand, don't you think? You are dumb, dumb to the point that even a mad dog is smarter than you!" The human body had already fully transformed into an inhuman physique in less than a second. All the clothes were ripped off.

It had grown all the way to the top of the ceiling, and was taunting Metro while its long blue tongue drooped to the ground. The skin had been stretched taught, while blue veins pulsed underneath. The hands had turned into rakes, which was black tipped at the ends.

This was a different scale from Corrupted Brian or the other creature that was still prowling the basement. Its gaze was one of a predator overlooking its prey!

"Cough! Cough!" Metro's legs quavered, as he coughed out some blood. He had remembered that this was a so-called "novice" mission. Why was it so hard?

He looked at the watch in his hand, trying to distract from the scene in front of him. Surprisingly, the time had jumped to a few hours before 12. It was way longer than the time he had obtained from the mass sacrifice.

Summoning the status screen once more, he found out that the deaths of the military squad was also caused by him. That confirmed that any actions undertaken by this body actually counted as a kill. For some reason, the military squad members also provided more time.

Metro managed to calm himself down through looking at the status screen. Looking back at the demon, it looked to be extremely grim. It stared back at Metro, suddenly asking, "What did you do just now?"

"Huh?" Metro was truly confused. He only summoned the status screen. Was the demon able to detect the status screen?

"What's this screen in front of me? Why did it record my name and your name? TELL ME!" When one was faced with the unknown, it activated their fight-or-flight response. Even though the screen did not record his true name, it was part of it, but the problem was that he had not told its true name to anyone before. Metro was something new to the demon, so they instantly associated him to the screen.

[Warning! You (Hawkes) are attacking another Artifact Wielder (Metro) in a non-pvp scenario. Your stats will be reduced by 90% if you continue to be on the offensive.]

"Wait, so you also got dragged in here?" Metro's eyes lit up. Perhaps this was an opportunity that he had to escape this dangerous situation.

"So you indeed know what's going on! Now, tell me everything!" Hawkes leaped near Metro, trying to frighten him with its killing intent. It was the most effective method it could think of, as the human appeared to be weak and fragile. It did not care about the weird screen that had appeared.

As it came closer to Metro, the thoughts in its head started to slow significantly, while its body started to revert back to a human form. Recognising the threat from the screen was legitimate, it withdrew its killing intent. It arrived near Metro as a naked middle aged man.

Oh? The demon's power was reduced as it tried to kill me? Metro did not expect such a turn of events. He had thought that this scenarios encouraged people like him to fight with each other. Apparently, that was not the case.

Metro pretended not to see anything, and asked, "Do you see those status screens too?" Hawkes, aware that Metro was different from a normal human, nodded his head. If he tried to attack with most of its power drained, he would die along with the vessel, as a gun was held by Metro.

"I need you to tell me about every piece of supernatural knowledge you know about this world. Then, I will give you the information about the screens that keep appearing." Metro had a sinister grin on him. The demon gulped unwillingly, creeped out by the expression on Metro's face.